In case you didn't see this yet, Dragomir has posted the concept art for the Ebony Weapons, which I will repost here:
This thread is for us to discuss the designs and for me and Ravanna to post WIP pictures. I've already finished the low polies of the throwing weapons, so I'm allowed to claim. :P
Anyway, while I get the low polies done and sent to Rav for sculpting, feel free to discuss the designs here.
DON"T UPKARMA THIS POST. Go to Drago's Doodles and upkarma the original pic.
Hope to have more soon.
Maybe this is strange question, but must not they have wooden parts?
Ebony is costly and hardly to work i presume.
feel free to increase poly count for your versions.
I was pondering the gold/ebony mix using cubemaps.
It has to use seperate nodes with its own texture set. (same uvs, but refers to different cubemap)
So 2 choices: the gold is somehow modeled in, or, we use mask overlays.
Best check with eloth/aleh/grump as to this technique working.
I'll be back tomorrow evening ish.
In Morrowind they were all ebony, which was why they were veeerrrryyyyy expensive. I like it like that. Ebony is probably too heavy for wood to be much use as handles, shafts, etc...
I'm making the low poly models at twice the poly count of Skyrim's Daedric, so they should look pretty good in-game. I'm also sending you the 3ds files, so you can toss on edgeloops where you see fit without disrupting the UVW mapping.
For the gold, I think modelling it in is out of the question. It would shoot the poly counts through the roof, at least for the swords. I'm afraid that an overlay (similar to the blood FX overlays) will be our best option. Since the weapons are static it won't cause inner-penetration. The downside- two diffuse maps for every weapon that uses gold. The gold has to have it's own to store the transparency alphas, so we're talking DXT3 minimum. All the other diffuse maps don't need an alpha, so we should be good for file sizes. DXT1's are tiny.
I have a feeling that dart will not fly, the flights on the end need to be a different material, canvas or something. :D good job though, lookin good.
Yeah, since the darts aren't supposed to be used for a long time, maybe have the tip ebony, the rest something else? Something lighter and less expensive, maybe?
First, this should probably be discussed in the thread with the concept ;P
Secondly, darts in order to penetrate well need mass. That's why Romans have put led weights on their war darts:
Sheet metal flights still would stabilize the flight. What I don't know if Ashking did, is if he made two, or three flights :P Three are required to make the flight properly stable.
I'm not trying to steal your glory, sugar. I just didn't want to crap up your concept thread with my WIP posts.
I did put three flights on that dart and I agree with your points about weight and simple appearance.
I should have some dagger progress to post tonight, and you and I need to talk about your imperial ebony armor when we get a chance to chat.
I didn't mean stealing glory, I'd just prefer the discussions about concepts to be held in the concept thread, preferably right after I post it so that I can adjust the concept/answer uncertainties before the modelling happens :P That is, because I don't want people to crap up the modelling threads with design discussions, as it happens really often on our forums and often leads to tears, annoyment and exhaustion of modellers who aren't even responsible for the designs and the flaws to be found in them.
Don't worry Buddy! These weapons are a joint effort between me and Rav, so if anyone gets too harsh with critiques, I'll just say it's his fault.
We have some tech to work out on these weapons, so if anyone with nif skills knows anything about using alphas to apply a discriminate cube map, please chime in. We are going to try a little test on our own to see if we can work it out, so I made a very low poly Hlaalu Dagger.
As I said, I'm keeping this as low poly as possible at the moment, just in case we have to create an overlay for the gold, in addition to the overlays already needed for the blood fx and lighting.
i'll get on this tonight
Go get em tiger. I'll get to work on the arrows and quiver after work.
Team Rashking for the win!
I suggest you replace the image in the opening post with the current, updated version of the concept ;)
Yeap, the latest one is much better.
Where is the ebony scimitar? The prized weapon of the high ordinators?
Can you give us some lore justification?
Lukkar, the high ordinators have them in game http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Ebony_Scimitar.
I have another lore question. Is the picture or the dragon flying toward the sun related to some kind of story? or is it purely aestethics? The dragon looks like the Imperial dragon, so maybe it represents Talos ascending to the Aether?
Oh.. now I see image. I think it need only some face lifting and this is all.
We will absolutely be making the scimitar..... as soon as we finish the core game, release it, fix all the bugs and start on the tribunal expansion. At that time we will also make Hopesfire and Trueflame.
The only ebony weapon that I've asked for (for core game) in addition to the above pictured is Auriel's bow. Which is supposed to be made of ebony. Of course that depends on whether or not the lore peoples want to keep it as such.
Any news about cubemaps?
I don't really like the idea of high Ordinators using scimitars, it seems like more of a Redguard thing. Not a big fan of their design either, but oh well. As Ashking said, their swords (likely single edged and curved, just a bit different) will be done when Tribunal is worked on.
As for the quiver - it's not a dragon, it's a Cliff Racer. They're quite similar in their silhouettes unfortunately, maybe I should add an inscription in daedric runes saying "SKREEEE".
We haven't gotten any good news to report on the cubemaps yet, but I got Batmanna in the mix, and he's a nif wizard. When we are ready for the first experiment he's going to be our mad scientist.
I didn't mind Amalexia's guards using scimtars per say, but we can definitely stray from the conventional form. Also, if we are going to have the little blade hook, we should have more than one. The original just looks like it's a broken mesh.