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Steel Weapons Remodel

Submitted by Billyro on
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ingame.jpg 518.91 KB

Sorry if this has already been done, but I couldn't be bothered to look through 9 pages to see if someone already undertook the steel weapons. 

Anyway, the story went like this: I was playing Morroblivion, when I chanced upon a steel claymore. I was delighted to have this weapon, but noticed upon equipping it that the mesh was from Morrowind. The texture was nice though, so I decided to recreate the mesh and to try and replicate that look. 

This is what I came up with. (See image below)

So, what I want to know is this: is anyone else undertaking the steel weapons for Morroblivion? Because if not, I'd gladly give them a shot. 

This weapon took me a few hours to make, so I could probably complete the rest of the meshes pretty quickly (depending on stuff). 

So yeah, what are your thoughts? 

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You did that in a few hours? That's very impressive. I love how it looks and how close it is to the original. The blade could use a bit more detail though I think. I believe qwertyasdfgh has already made a few improvements to several weapon meshes but I don't know if he's planning to do more.

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I made a replacement for steel club long ago + longsword and mace use models from modder's resources, but other steel weapons don't have replacements, so if you want to do them that would be amazing.

I agree with what Brainslasher said, your model looks pretty good, but maybe blade texture could be improved to look sharper on the edges and more 'metallic'.

Do you use a single texture for the whole mesh?

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Yep, I can make the blade look sharper. Maybe I'll put some small scratches along the side as if the blade was sharpened with a whetstone.

Would you like me to change the apply mode to APPLY_HIGHLIGHT so it has a reflective sheen like the glass weapons? I'd personally avoid that because the weapons appear to glow in the dark, which would seem strange for basic steel weaponry. Otherwise, I could just increase the opacity of the normal maps for a little bit of extra shine. (BTW my game is particularly dark because of my ENB - it may appear differently without it)

I have used 3 textures in this mesh: the hilt, the grip, and the blade. They're not super high-res, but they're certainly larger than the vanilla Oblivion textures. Also, I don't think I could re-use any of these textures in other weapons due to the fake shadowing.

Anyway, if that's all good, I'll start working on them ASAP! And, just a heads-up, I've never tried making an axe before, so the result might be... interesting. :P 

 

EDIT: Alright, here's a quick look at the edited blade. Does it look better/sharper? 

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I'll check back tomorrow. 

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I don't like the APPLY_HILIGHT effect, it doesn't look realistic to me - better to control specularity through normal map's alpha channel.

The reason I asked about the texture is because I'd like you to put your new textures into "textures\morroblivion\weapons\steel" directory, just to have a coherent folder structure.

Looking forward to see more of your work :)

EDIT: Yep, new blade looks a lot better

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Alright, I've placed the claymore textures in "textures\morroblivion\weapons\steel\claymore" and I'll follow that trend. :) 

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Finished the steel shortsword.

I haven't seen it in-game because I can't find one, haha. Is there a testing hall for Morroblivion? It would be much easier to test these things if I could get my hands on them fast. 

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That looks absolutely incredible, great work! I like how you kept the original style yet made it fit together with the Claymore well. Maybe the blade could be a little more metallic and shiny but that could just be Nifskope not displaying it correctly.

You can use the CS to find the FormIDs of the weapons and then use the console to give yourself that weapon using "player.additem xxxxxx" Alternatively there is a Morroblivion testing hall with crates for all weapons etc. Just use this command: coc mwToddTest

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Aha! Thanks, that mwToddTest cell will be very useful. 

The sword will be more reflective in-game. I'll test it out later. :) 

 

EDIT: Ok, I've seen it in-game. It looks alright, but I think it needs to be thicker (even though the one in Morrowind was this thin). Also, the reflection needs improvement, but I'll focus on that once all the weapons are done so I can make them consistent. 

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That shortsword is looking pretty damn good [External image]

BTW, do you plan on making scabbards for one-handed swords? Morrowind didn't have any because weapons were never displayed on a character.

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I'm not sure. I could possibly whip up an all-purpose scabbard, but maybe I'll wait until they're all done first. 

 

EDIT: Increased the thickness of the sword, and now it looks better. 

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Next up: steel dagger. I'm thinking about re-scaling the shortsword to a dagger's dimensions, since the Morrowind design of the steel dagger is atrocious (IMO). The only problem with that is that the icon will no longer match (should be easily fixable). 

Of course, I'll change the textures so that it doesn't look like a bland copy of the shortsword, but the shape will stay pretty much the same. 

 

EDIT: Ok, how is this? 

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I honestly kind of liked the steel dagger, it looked a bit more special than other ordinary weapons. But perhaps having a unified looking steel weapon set might be a good thing.

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Looks a bit too long for a dagger if you ask me.

I'm also undecided on replacing the original - I see your point about making steel weapons more unified, but I kinda like Morrowind's steel dagger as well. Maybe we can use both - your model for regular daggers and original for some unique variants?

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Sounds good to me. I reckon the more models in the game, the better. :) 

I made the blade as long as the original's, but due to the crossguard size being comparatively smaller, it looks a bit off. I'll shorten it so it looks better, but the weapon reach stat might be a bit off (probably won't matter that much). 

 

Anyway, here's the steel dai-katana. I need to move it down the y-axis a little bit so it's held better in first-person, but I'm quite happy with it. 

With that done, I can easily create the katana, tanto, and wakizashi. 

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Wow, you work fast :)

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Looking really good, but shouldn't the Dai-Katana be a little more curved? Or does it just look like that in the screenshot? Also the blades just seem a little bit too thick and wide.

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The dai-katana has more curve than the vanilla one, so that seems strange. Maybe it's because I didn't get a screenshot with the entire blade in view at once, but the curve is definitely there. 

The blades can be scaled in nifskope individually so if they're too thick, it should be easily fixable. I'm not really familiar with Japanese weaponry so the proportions are probably a bit off...

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If you want to match the wideness you could just load the old and the new model together and compare them. Either, way they look pretty damn awesome and a lot better than the models we have right now, I really like them. When are you planning to release them?

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I used the original as a reference while making it, but altered the shape to fit Oblivion's proportions better (Morrowind weapons are really thin). I may make some variations to upload so people can see them in-game and decide which they like more, but I'll focus on getting everything done first. 

I will release them once all the steel weapons are done: only 6 more to do. :) 

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Maybe it's just my old eyes playing tricks on me, you're doing a wonderful job :)

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D'oh! I remade the steel sabre before realising that it isn't actually in the game! Oh well, I'll keep the files in there just in case it gets re-added. 

Right, that completes the swords. Now I've got to do the battle axe, war axe, halberd, spear and war hammer. :) 

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Spear done. May need to edit the shaft colours... 

EDIT: Halberd also done. 

EDIT 2: War axe as well. It's just an adaption of the halberd because I'm lazy, but I'll mix up the textures and stuff later. 

EDIT 3: Made the spike on the war axe thinner so it didn't look so weird. 

EDIT 4: Battle axe done. Don't worry, the textures will be edited later. 

EDIT 5: And finally, the war hammer. 

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I don't mean to be the ugly duckling but the steel textures look a bit out of place, they kinda look closer to plastic a bit. Other than that the models are well done [External image]

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Yes, maybe the blades could be a tiny bit less black and a bit more reflective, however I know Oblivon has a few limitations on reflectiveness. If you look at pictures of steel swords online, most of them are very shiny. However the original Morrowind models were also a bit darker so I think it's very fitting to keep them similar to that. But most of all I'm missing the little details the Morrowind weapons had. Especially the axes, they are somewhat ornamented and you can actually see how they were crafted and they look a little used. The models themselves are perfect though.

Also, the steel saber is in the game, its ID is 0steelSsaber.

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Aye, I'm going to go back and edit all the textures now that I've finished them all. I've been meaning to edit the metal, but first I wanted all of them done so I could easily go back and apply the same alterations. Now that they are, I'll get started on that. :) 

I didn't find a steel sabre in mwtoddtest, so I just assumed. I'll have to go and track one down then. ;) 

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The steel sabre's FormID is 01F8E950 though I recommend you use the CS anyway, it makes it somewhat easier to quickly see how the weapons align with the hands and how they're used in animations. Also I just realised unless you stick really close to the original textures we might have to remake all the icons ;)

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The CS takes so long to load up though (or is that only Skyrim's CK?)...

I'm using Oblivion's weapons as a reference for alignment at the moment, and I can test the animations in-game. I did actually notice that the steel halberd has a low range though, so it might have to be tweaked (right now it has the range of a long sword or something). 

I can do the icons, it'll only take about 20 minutes. :) 

 

EDIT: Alright! I've thoroughly redone the steel battle axe textures. Tell me what you think! :) 

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It takes me around 30 seconds to start the CS and load up the Morrowind_ob.esm. The new textures look good. I like them. Remember that it's a two handed weapon so it's long enough.

Just saw the ingame pic, the scaling is different from the original, maybe you could make it a little smaller so that the weapons that are lying in shelves etc fit with their current positioning.

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It's actually smaller than the original. :) 

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My eyes really must be getting worse and worse ;) Keep up the good work. :)

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I think I'm ready for a release! :D 

Let me know what you guys think about them from within your own games. I will continue trying to improve these with your feedback. :) 

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morroblivion_steel_weapons_redone.7z 34.94 MB
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I take back any criticism I had before, these are beautiful. Only the halberd and maul could use a bit more detail. These are definitely a great addition to the game. Thank you very much for doing this :)

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Wow! These all look great! Thank you very much for sharing!

Best regards,

Jessica

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No worries. :) 

I'll add some more decoration to the halberd and war hammer, and maybe tweak some others, but then I think it'll be done. Oh, and the icons (I'll do that later too). 

 

EDIT: Okay! I have finished the halberd and war hammer decorations, and whipped up some icons (it was hard to make them fit in with the existing ones but I think I did it well). I'm going to do one more run-through to see if everything is in working order, and then I think I might be ready to release for real! :D 

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Nice models overall (especially the blade type weapons), but I do have some remarks:

  • Warhammer texture is a little subpar compared to others, probably because you rushed the last weapons. If you look at the original it has some engravings on it (nordic?), which are lost in the remake.
  • Maybe halberd should have wooden handle, like the spear?
  • It's a little noticeable that war axe and halberd use the same shape - maybe you can change war axe shape some more?

Also, I've noticed that you haven't changed collision shapes on any of the weapons so some of them are a little off now.

Out of curiosity, what programs do you use for modeling\texturing?

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I am using 3ds Max 2012 for the modelling, Paint.NET for the texturing, and Nifskope for the .nif stuff. 

I haven't touched the collision shapes (they're probably using collision shapes from Oblivion's iron weaponry at the moment) as I don't know how to do those. 

The war hammer is a lot different than the above screenshot. Here, I'll upload a new screenshot. 

The halberd has a metal handle because the original did, but I can try wood. 

I think I did something else to the war axe a while ago to differentiate it, but ultimately it would be the spike on the back of the head that gives it away. Maybe I'll cull it? 

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Though it looks good it's still missing a bit of that nordic vibe the original had.

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Hmm, I suppose. I'm not really good at intricate designs though, which is the main reason I've avoided it. :/ 

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Alright, I think this will be my final update. 

The things I have changed since the previous upload are:

  • Changed warhammer texture (same as above screenshot - I am telling you: I cannot do designs! Haha)
  • Made warhammer head smaller
  • Changed halberd head texture
  • Tweaked waraxe head shape
  • Made battleaxe head smaller
  • Reduced brightness of sabre grip
  • Reduced brightness of shortsword grip
  • Added some more detail to the spear shaft
  • Tweaked spear head shape
  • Added icons

Feel free to make changes as you wish. If you want to edit any diffuse maps and you want me to remake the normal map to accommodate it, just let me know and I'll do it. ;) 

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morroblivion_steel_weapons_redone.7z 36.53 MB
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They look really nice, thanks :)

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Thanks, Billyro! These look great, much improved over the old Morrowind meshes and textures!

I can take a look at the collision meshes, if you would like. I've never done it before, but Qwertyasdfgh has a nice tutorial on it out there that I'd be willing to try using.

Best regards,

Jessica

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Go for it, Jessica! That would be much appreciated. :) 

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