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IMPROVED SKULLS, BONES, AND IRONWORK
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Version: 1.1
Author: hlvr
Date: 17 December, 2010

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DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE:
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SHORT INFO:
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This mod retextures the skulls, bones, and ironwork of Oblivion.
The reason I did this is because I just couldn't stand the vanilla skulls, bones, and ironwork, and I couldn't find any mod that did this.

If you wonder what I mean with ironwork, the images will explain better.
It's, more specifically, one texture file that is used by several iron items, such as grates, cauldrons, and gates.

Version 1.1:
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Since version 1.1, a new texture is also added (celldoor.dds) located in textures\Architecture\castleinterior\narrowhalls.
The texture is included in the "original download-packs", so if you downloaded them before, just download the v 1.1 packs and overwrite everything old as well.
This texture overwrites either the vanilla texture or the texture from Qarl's Texture Pack III. You shouldn't be worried about overwriting
the QTP3 texture, since it was, to be honest, not very good at all.
I'm sure you will like this texture a lot better. I think even prisoners deserve some nice textures ;)
It has a lot higher detail, and as a bonus I added some "scratch marks", to give a sense of... prison, wanting to get out.
You can imagine angry Khajiits being there... scratching the bars, haha :)


The celldoor.dds texture specifically changes, quite obviously, the prison cell doors/bars in the game.
These can be found in every prison in the major cities, except for the Imperial City... they use another set of prison cell bars,
already retextured by the ironwork.dds.

It should be noted that this new texture added in v 1.1 is completely independent from the other textures.
They have nothing do to with each other, in contrast with how both the ironwork and skull texture affected the object "skullcauldron" as you can see in the images.


LONG/MORE INFO:
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At first, I didn't plan to retexture any ironwork. However, once I had finished retextured one of the skull textures to being hi-res,
I noticed that it was used by a very low-res iron cauldron. To elaborate, it was an iron cauldron mesh that, affected by an ironwork texture,
containing skulls, affected by a skull texture.
Without this ironwork retexture, there would have been a very ugly difference of hi- and low-res textures.
It should be noted that this ironwork was actually already textured by Qarl, and included in his Qarl's Texture Pack III.
However, as you'll see in the images, it was, oddly, not very hi-res as Qarl's textures usually are.

This is my third retexture so far, and I've learned quite a bit on the way.
It took some time doing, and it isn't perfect, but I gave my best shot. I like it, and I hope you will too :)
Endorsements are appreciated if you like it ;D

While I wanted to make more than just a retexture of this mod, quite similiar to the mod "Better Skulls" in Morrowind,
I feared it would cause conflicts, and Oblivion has enough conflicts already.

If you are interested in knowing, the skull texture and the bone texture is from the same texture file.


COOL BONUS TEXTURE/FUN FACT:
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By coincidence, the ironwork texture also happen to retexture the irongrates high up in the "bar-windows" in the Imperial dungeons.
You can see a very meaningless explanation of this in one of the images ;)
Also, as a matter of fact, most (if not all) of the iron gates and grates are actually in the Imperial dungeons (the tutorial dungeon).
So, now you have a very good reason to start over in Oblivion (or simply travel to the Imperial dungeons... lol)
to see my new iron gate and grate retexture! :D


IMPORTANT DETAIL INFO:
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If you think the textures on the pictures look a bit undetailed, it should the underlined that I use an OBGE shader called "NormalFilterAA".
This shader causes an anti-aliasing effect, since AA doesn't work with OBGE. However, as a result of this AA-effect,
all normal maps are also reduced in detail... quite a bit as a matter of fact.
The screenshots you see under images were taken with this shader. Therefore, the true detail of my textures is better than on the images here
on Nexus. If you don't use this OBGE shader, the textures will look sharper and more detailed. They will also reflect lighting better.
In short, it will look better in your game than in mine.

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INSTALLATION:
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To install this, simply drag the files in the Data folder.
If asked to overwrite, accept. I've also included an OMOD, just for... the "organizing" people, like me. ;)

If upgrading from v 1.1, just do as above. All the textures from v 1.0 are included in the v 1.1 as well, to make it easier.

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Archive invalidation may be required to make these textures show up properly in-game.
If you are new to Oblivion and have no idea what this is or why this could be needed,
read: http://devnull.sweetdanger.net/archiveinvalidation.html
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CONFLICTS/OVERWRITES/ODDITIES:
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CONFLICTS/OVERWRITES:
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There is one conflict with this mod, quite obviously, namely Qarl's Texture Pack III.
As I mentioned before under the description and purpose topic, this mod overwrites two texture files made by Qarl.
The exact texture files are "idironwork01.dds" and "idironwork01_n.dds", located in Textures\Dungeons\Chargen.

This conflict is meant to happen, since Qarl's texture on this wasn't very good in my opinion.
To be honest, it was even worse than the vanilla texture.
I'm not sure what went wrong here when Qarl made it... but I'm sure it was something.
It should be noted that I use QTP3 Redimized. I don't know how the ironwork texture looks in QTP3 Full, but I doubt it would be different,
since QTP3 Redimized doesn't really change how the textures to this extent.

Since version 1.1, a new texture is also added (celldoor.dds) located in textures\Architecture\castleinterior\narrowhalls.
This texture overwrites either the vanilla texture or the texture from Qarl's Texture Pack III. You shouldn't be worried about overwriting
the QTP3 texture, since it was, to be honest, not very good at all. I'm sure you will like this texture a lot better.

ODDITIES:
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There is one oddity with the Oblivion Skulls. This hasn't been done by me, since it's caused by the meshes.
Basically, the skull meshes aren't really "round" or "smooth".
They're kind of pointy, which you can see in dark places with strong light (like in dungeons where there are fires).
You will then be able to see these, pointy edges of the mesh. This can't be solved by me, since I have absolutely zero knowledge about meshes.
Feel free to try and fix this, if you can and want to :)
And if you do, I would appreciate a message, so that I might, if you'd like, incorporate it in this mod.

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FUTURE TEXTURING BY ME:
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If I get many endorsements and nice comments from this mod, I might publish some more textures in the future.
Right now I have no plans, but if I (or you) suddenly notice a horrible-looking texture in Oblivion that hasn't been retextured before,
I will be there (if I have enough time of course), creating a new retexture :)

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CREDIT:
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I used the vanilla texture for the skeleton creatures as a base for the skull and bone textures in this mod.
Although a lot of changes and improvements were done after that by me. Still, credit goes to Bethesda Softworks for making the base...
and for the game ;)

For the skull texture in this mod, I imported two "cracks" from the left and right Connary's skull texture for Morrowind.
This texture was included in the Morrowind mod "Better Skulls" (http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8124),
which is an absolute must if you play Morrowind :)

Nothing else, apart from those two cracks, were imported by Connary's texture. Credit goes to Connary for those two cracks, who is an amazing
texturer for Morrowind. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to contact him and ask for permission. It seems as if Connary has (my speculations)
either quit texturing or chosen to disappear temporarly (perhaps because he's busy texturing).
In any case, I tried to contact him, but he didn't respond (he hasn't responded to any question in the "Connary" thread for months).
If Connary decides he doesn't want these two cracks to be used in this mod, I will remove them.

For the ironwork texture, credit goes to Eva Ekeblad for providing a "Rusty iron plate" texture on the Internet, which I used.
I'm still a little confused of where to find more free textures... google isn't a very good alternative it seems.

Credit also goes to Micah Iversion for using a part of this published "Free Rusty Metal Textures".

Finally, credit goes to www.3DStudio-max.com for the free texture "iron" I used for the prison cell bar in v 1.1.

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CHANGELOG:
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V 1.1: A new texture is added (celldoor.dds) located in textures\Architecture\castleinterior\narrowhalls.

V 1.0: Initial release. Three textures are included, changing the vanilla skulls, bones, and ironwork.