Oblivion
Skyrim-Inspired Mountains

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ZekAonar

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Special Thanks to PompNuma for the "Cliffs Caves and Caverns" resource

Using extra large rock models to supplement the mountains to be seen in Hyperia. Also, this was a screenshot taken from within the CS, which is why the lighting/lack of fog etc may seem a bit unnatural -- so bear with me and use your imagination for those details at the moment. You guys know very well that I am capable of producing that content however, and I WILL get around to it.. just need to import all of my landscapes into the new heightmap first.

PompNuma's resource allows me to create mountains to an increased degree of realism. In vanilla Oblivion, mountains were produced by stretching the terrain upwards. Not only did this have a side effect of stretching the associated terrain texture, but it also made them appear soft and plush. Initially, I tried to counter the plushiness of Oblivion's mountains by creating heightmaps which produced more 'jagged' results. In the beginning, I was a total amateur at realizing that concept, so the world ended up looking very.. Minecraftian. Over time, the blocky terraces disappeared and I learned how to create more ideal heightmaps using improved techniques, but no amount of talent could ever solve the issues faced in mountain design (which is why they disappeared from the mod altogether for a time -- big perfectionist here). Anyway, PompNuma's resource inspired me to bring this land feature back into RoA. The rock models included were specifically designed to be extra large and to protrude in certain places in order to take the player's eyes away from Oblivion's "plushy" terrain in elevated areas. This was actually a real technique used by Bethesda whenever they developed Skyrim (and PompNuma noted this as well).

It took me a little over two days to get this one in (CS crashed A LOT during procedural generation -- I had set accidentally set a rock model called JMRock1 to spawn at an insanely high rate -- which is a really easy mistake to make since the data is so sensitive.. Anytime one is engaged in performing math, you are always literally one keystroke away from breaking everything, lol), but it's in now.

I intend to have the mountains act as natural borders in this version, wrapping around the north and west sides of the realm, a technique I picked up while developing Prototype C (and something that was received rather well, likened to a style of world design favored in Gothic). Although they may not exactly be "MERP Mountains", these mountains are certainly a little more believable than the ones you guys saw from me earlier this year. Anyway, these should be just tall and jagged enough to serve their purpose. I can only build them so high because my PC only has so much RAM to allocate for the procedural generation process. Past a certain point, glitches become commonplace -- like terraces.. and worse. This is what I learned during my time with Incarna, and over the past year of development in general.

Hope you're just as excited as I am to be trying so many new things in this build. I have a really good feeling about it. Under this new design philosophy, which encourages a stronger focus on more diverse and creative assets, I don't think development should be nearly as much of a 'grind' as it was before.

2 comments

  1. Dennywood
    Dennywood
    • member
    • 162 kudos
    Yeah, I'm with Mac, it's always good to keep some secrets. That's why I don't read completely your descriptions.
    I will be glad to try your new textures in my game.
  2. maczopikczo
    maczopikczo
    • member
    • 206 kudos
    Looks very good. Now it needs some scarce but interesting flora - shrubs, grasses - and maybe a hidden, unmarked, and difficult-to-access treasure with a little backstory for wanderers?