Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

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PossAbilities
Posts: 3
Joined: 01 Jan 2013, 05:37

Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by PossAbilities »

It is a huge task, but not insurmountable, the biggest risk seems to be aping the existing art too closely. Still, I notice normal and gloss maps are in the wishlist, so why not diffuse maps too?

Higher poly models, more animation variety and greater texture detail would all be a significant value add for open MW over vanilla. I would even suggest that there are already many open licenced art assets, such as textures, models and sounds, which have been produced for games like godhead and flare, which could be brought in easily.

I've been modding bethesda games for 10+ years, am a UX designer by trade and am one of the admins over at opengameart.org. Personally I'd love to work on UI elements and icons for larger screen sizes, perhaps even adding alternate skins.

I realise the focus is on the engine at the moment, and I am not suggesting any resources be directed away from that effort. I am merely suggesting there could be a parralel project to replace the assets. Maybe there is already and I'm just missing it? (Edit: I lurked some more and found references to some kind of display suite project, but no real information on it)
Chris
Posts: 1625
Joined: 04 Sep 2011, 08:33

Re: Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by Chris »

Generally speaking, replacing the art assets (models, textures, animations, etc) is a project completely separate from OpenMW. Such things can be done now for vanilla Morrowind, and OpenMW will be able to use them like any other game asset.

The only OpenMW-specific assets would be for things not supported by the original engine, like real bump mapping, gloss mapping, new materials/shaders, or even cloth physics, etc. For those cases, it'd be best to match them up to the vanilla content, since that's what the original game has.
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hircine
Posts: 157
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 07:18

Re: Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by hircine »

PossAbilities wrote:It is a huge task, but not insurmountable, the biggest risk seems to be aping the existing art too closely. Still, I notice normal and gloss maps are in the wishlist, so why not diffuse maps too?

Higher poly models, more animation variety and greater texture detail would all be a significant value add for open MW over vanilla. I would even suggest that there are already many open licenced art assets, such as textures, models and sounds, which have been produced for games like godhead and flare, which could be brought in easily.

I've been modding bethesda games for 10+ years, am a UX designer by trade and am one of the admins over at opengameart.org. Personally I'd love to work on UI elements and icons for larger screen sizes, perhaps even adding alternate skins.

I realise the focus is on the engine at the moment, and I am not suggesting any resources be directed away from that effort. I am merely suggesting there could be a parralel project to replace the assets. Maybe there is already and I'm just missing it? (Edit: I lurked some more and found references to some kind of display suite project, but no real information on it)
We are looking for some assets for the example suite. the UI would be amongst those assets at some point :)
PossAbilities
Posts: 3
Joined: 01 Jan 2013, 05:37

Re: Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by PossAbilities »

I am happy to help with the example suite, how would I go about getting involved? Is there a task list or repo somewhere?

I ask about replacing all the assets because I have been involved in quite a few open source art sprints, for instance I submitted 400+ textures for UFO:AI to help them reach their goal of having all their art under one open source licence. If OpenMW had replacement assets it would be possible to create a single playable download, and get it included in distro repos, both of which would massively increase the potential audience.

Of course before any of that we'd have to get some legal guidance on just how closely we can copy the existing art without it being an infringement. Still, there are many open source games which are nearly exact replicas of the games they are imitating. As I understand it, as long as the original assets are not used in the creation of the new assets, you can get as close as you can manage.

If such a project were to take off, it may worthwhile reaching out to modders to contribute their work under an open licence. I imagine a fair proportion of the existing art assets have already been recreated in mods, so it may be possible to get most of the way there without any new work, as long as we can get enough modders on side.
blunted2night
Posts: 63
Joined: 28 Dec 2012, 08:29

Re: Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by blunted2night »

How would quest lines, NPC dialog, and book contents be treated?
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hircine
Posts: 157
Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 07:18

Re: Is there any scope for replacing art assets?

Post by hircine »

PossAbilities wrote:I am happy to help with the example suite, how would I go about getting involved? Is there a task list or repo somewhere?

I ask about replacing all the assets because I have been involved in quite a few open source art sprints, for instance I submitted 400+ textures for UFO:AI to help them reach their goal of having all their art under one open source licence. If OpenMW had replacement assets it would be possible to create a single playable download, and get it included in distro repos, both of which would massively increase the potential audience.

Of course before any of that we'd have to get some legal guidance on just how closely we can copy the existing art without it being an infringement. Still, there are many open source games which are nearly exact replicas of the games they are imitating. As I understand it, as long as the original assets are not used in the creation of the new assets, you can get as close as you can manage.

If such a project were to take off, it may worthwhile reaching out to modders to contribute their work under an open licence. I imagine a fair proportion of the existing art assets have already been recreated in mods, so it may be possible to get most of the way there without any new work, as long as we can get enough modders on side.
Greendogo is currently compiling a BSA that uses modders resources (with permissions) that we will use as a base.
the only current art asset we have that is up for grabs(as a claim) is a Coin (the idea is that we get something unique to our little demo/game).

Though I would imagine textures/models etc will be needed down the track for specific unique things.

I am working on getting a base landmass organized (although OCZ has repeated attempts at halting my work)
for claiming. I have yet to divide everything up, but really it can't go ahead until Greendogo has compiled everything. but stop on by the Example Suite subforum and see what is going on :)

EDIT:

REDMINE Task Tracking: http://bugs.openmw.org/projects/example ... acker_id=4
You will need to be signed up for this. :)

Only the two models are really claimable right now(Coin & Pickaxe). Everything else is just there as a placeholder.
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