Detailing the forest

At the moment we are still generating the conifer forest, but have also started to put in some hand placed details in the parts that are finished. I have been testing to make streams and small ponds, cliffs and clearing away some of the forest to get nice views.

We have also been working on some more plants, both re-textured grass models and novel flower models. I have for example made Iris and Crocus.

 

Ztree made really nice new models that I'm very excited about, new daffodils, tulips and crocus :)

First look at the Jotunn moor

Let me present the first look at the Jotunn moor. As with the conifer forest that I have shown before this is all done with the region generator.
The moor lays just north of Seyland and the Hoddminir forest on the open high plain, and it goes all the way to the northern most river valley. We have been aiming for a slightly barren look, where only bushes and shrubs can live. The dominating plants are juniper bushes, heather and sloe, and of course there are lots of rocks. The moor will be mostly wilderness, with some isolated farmsteads in the south.

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Re-texturing in the Creation kit

I have previously made a small guide on how to change the texture of an object using NifSkope. I just recently found out over at the Dark creations forum that you can also use the Creation kit it self to do this. The advantage of using the Creation kit is that you will not make a new nif file. But on the other hand you can't as easily share with others the re-textured object as a resource. Another disadvantage using the Creation kit is that you can't (as far as I know) adjust the UV-map of the model to fit the texture better. I often adjust the UV-map, for example by scaling and rotation so the texture will fit nicely on different models, without having to make several different textures.

Lets take an example:

I want the cliffs in the game to match the textures we are using in the conifer forest we are making. I used NifSkope to set the matching rock textures as I have to scale the UV-Map so the rock texture would be the same size as the ground texture. 

First of if you don't already have this, you need to have a texture set for the texture you wish to use. You can find these under Miscellaneous and Texture set.

Many of the cliffs also have dirt textures on flatter surfaces, and these I want to change to the moss ground texture I have around the cliff.

Double click on the cliff in the object window to edit it. Make sure to give it a new name, otherwise you will change all the cliffs of this type in the game. Press the Edit new to the Model path.

In the Alternative textures window, for this model there is two entries. The lowers one is the one I like to change. Click on it and a new Select form window will come up. Here you can scroll down to the alternative texture set you like to use. In my case this will be the same as the moss texture surrounding the cliff.

Press OK in all windows open, you now will have a new entry in the object window for the alternatively textured cliff. I removed the old cliff and placed the new one in the same place.

 Easy right :)

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Sneak peak at the first forest house

In the conifer forest we would like to have wooden log houses, like those found in Riften. But I would like to change the texture to match the "Falu red" theme I have been using for the Whiterun houses. I still have to find a good actual wall to take the photo for the texture. In the mean time I have been testing my textures on another set out house models. We got permission from TLD to use some of there house models, and my new textures works nicely on these too.

I also wanted to make new decorations. The first attempt resulted in traditional painted Kurbits on window shutters.

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First look at the river region

I just got Noir's latest region generated river area and it looks so nice I had to share a small preview :)

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Some new ferns

This week I have been working on some new ferns and other green plants. They are part of the summer plants package I'm working on, using grass models. We will be using them in the different forests as under growth.


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New trees and bushes

At the moment I'm working on new textures for trees and bushes. I thought I show some of the progress I have so far. I have many more species I would like to do, like spruce, apple, oak, maple, ash, aspen, birch and so on :)

Most of these uses models Ztree made, but there are also some vanilla re-textures models.

I made rowan trees and bushes, both with and without flowers. I'll probably make a variant with the pretty red berry's too later on. All of these are re-textures of Ztrees trees and bushes.

Ztree made some really nice new Juniper bushes for the mod. He made two texture variants (shown on bush 01 and 02) and I made one extra (shown on bush 03 and 04).

I promised before to show of Ztrees new Scottish pines too :)

One of my favorite spring bush is the sloe or blackthorn, and I really wanted it in the mod. Making these really made me long for spring :)
These are both ztrees and vanilla modes.

Today I also made some raspberry bushes. It would be nice to be able to actually pick raspberries from them too. I see If I can figure out how to do that with Nifscope.

I have some more, but I will show them of later :)
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