Demo game data

[ElderTroll]

Glad to have you join the effort! Can you describe your background in modding?

Yes, that would be a great place to start. Would you be willing to do that? I don't actually have any modding experience, but I'll help out in any way I can.

[Greendogo]

Hey Worsas, I'm glad you're still around the community! What would you like to work with? I know you've done previous modeling and texturing work. I also know you've been promoted for interior work over at TR. As far as I'm concerned you can take any job you'd be interested in.

Probably the first thing we need to decide are the rough dimensions and shape of the island.

Anyone who wants to throw up a rough sketch of an island with approximate shape and features, as well as labels, go ahead. Please at least include where you think would be a good location for the village, the dungeon, and the crypt, as well as any other features you think would be fun.

Here's my take on the Island, you can zoom in to see more detail (right-click and open in a new window/tab and use ctrl+ to zoom):

There's the town up north, the crypt and graveyard are in the swamp to the west, the dungeon is in the forest through the mountain pass to the south and the central area is a shrine of some sort. The town has several regular docks and a lighthouse to the north-east corner of the bay. This version is drawn at a more detailed level than would be in our plugin, as we don't want to create something so large that we'd never finish it in time.

@ElderTroll, I'd rather just stick to making sure this project stays on track and gets finished and make sure it fulfills its purpose of exhibiting OpenMW's features. I would rather recruit interested people to do work they think they could excel at, and focus them towards completion and pass tasks on to new volunteers if people drop off the radar.

[worsas]

Hey Worsas, I'm glad you're still around the community! What would you like to work with? I know you've done previous modeling and texturing work. I also know you've been promoted for interior work over at TR. As far as I'm concerned you can take any job you'd be interested in.

Probably the first thing we need to decide are the rough dimensions and shape of the island.

Anyone who wants to throw up a rough sketch of an island with approximate shape and features, as well as labels, go ahead. Please at least include where you think would be a good location for the village, the dungeon, and the crypt, as well as any other features you think would be fun.

Here's my take on the Island, you can zoom in to see more detail (right-click and open in a new window/tab and use ctrl+ to zoom):

There's the town up north, the crypt and graveyard are in the swamp to the west, the dungeon is in the forest through the mountain pass to the south and the central area is a shrine of some sort. The town has several regular docks and a lighthouse to the north-east corner of the bay. This version is drawn at a more detailed level than would be in our plugin, as we don't want to create something so large that we'd never finish it in time.

@ElderTroll, I'd rather just stick to making sure this project stays on track and gets finished and make sure it fulfills its purpose of exhibiting OpenMW's features. I would rather recruit interested people to do work they think they could excel at, and focus them towards completion and pass tasks on to new volunteers if people drop off the radar.

I would like to ask a few things first and then add a number of suggestions:

What are your general requirements regarding poly-count of models and resolution of textures here? I personally would like to be able to use at least 512^2 textures for bigger structures, better 1024^2 to make stuff look eyecandy.

Here is an example of a rock I have modelled, which uses a rather big texture (1024*2048 I think):
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22362022/pics/rockexample.jpg

Does this cause problems?

Regarding that island-map I have the following concern: Assuming we go by a 8*8 cells island, you need at least 3*3 cells to create something like a minor mountain. Those limiting "mountain ranges" look to me like they were meant to be seperating hills with a number of peaky rocks stinging out at the peak?


I don't know but I think there should be waterways within the island and in place of those seperating hillranges I would create a single more sizable rocky region that seperates the forest and the swamp.


Edit: I just checked and it seems that Solstheim is about 10 * 12 cells. 8 * 8 would be pretty big, it seems. So how about 5*5 cells?

[Nomadic1]

Edit: I just checked and it seems that Solstheim is about 10 * 12 cells. 8 * 8 would be pretty big, it seems. So how about 5*5 cells?

When you factor in the amount of coastline and ocean on Greendogo's map, I imagine 5 x 5 would be too small for what he is describing. I guess that would give about 12 cells of usable land.

[sirherrbatka]

Here is an example of a rock I have modelled, which uses a rather big texture (1024*2048 I think)

This rock is very pretty.

So I suggest to forget about mountains.

[Greendogo]

The mountains were just for visualizing the island. We can have something different if you'd like.

Also, take liberties with the world dimensions. Whatever makes sense. Obviously a Solstheim sized area is way too big.

I like your rock, care to make more?

Edit: Also, apparently we get our own subforum, do we have ElderTroll to thank for this?

[ElderTroll]

ElderTroll, I'd rather just stick to making sure this project stays on track and gets finished and make sure it fulfills its purpose of exhibiting OpenMW's features. I would rather recruit interested people to do work they think they could excel at, and focus them towards completion and pass tasks on to new volunteers if people drop off the radar.

I agree and feel the same way. I think the setting is fine, but if we had some virtuoso modder or modding team that wanted it to be set in a desert or mountain village, then it'd be smart to say, "Sure, go nuts".

Also, apparently we get our own subforum, do we have ElderTroll to thank for this?

I just nudged Igro, because a single thread for the Example Suite would be madness. Plus, it's very valuable to the project and deserves recognition. But it's Igro you've got to thank for his website wizardry.

[worsas]

I like your rock, care to make more?

Aren't you going to use taddeus rocks anyway? I have no idea what the ground-textures will be on the island. To me it is important that my stuff actually matches the surroundings, making rocks now would be like guesswork, more or less.

Í might be contributing 1 or 2 creatures instead if that's ok.

[Greendogo]

Aren't you going to use taddeus rocks anyway? I have no idea what the ground-textures will be on the island. To me it is important that my stuff actually matches the surroundings, making rocks now would be like guesswork, more or less.

Í might be contributing 1 or 2 creatures instead if that's ok.

It sure is. I was only suggesting you make more models for us later, not rocks specifically and immediately

[Kirtai]

It's just so awesome that OpenMW will be coming with its own small game.

I have to wonder if it'll inspire people to start making many small, standalone games based on it (assuming suitable asset packs are available) similar to NWN modules. It could be the start of something big