[I'm always short on inspiration when it comes to naming my things, so please just ignore the silly title ]








The fact that some random Fereldan NPCs look better dressed than poor Anora annoys me quite a bit, so I decided to retexture the dress BioWare forced her into. The goal was, of course, to make it look a little more like something I could see her wearing, because I'm pretty sure the Anora from DA:O wouldn't be caught dead in a burlap dress. I initially wanted to somewhat blend the austere feel I get from her tarot card with something vaguely inspired by her DA:O dress (hence the blend of patterns, the fabric that's supposed to look like silk, the golden accents and the boots no one's even going to see), but I had to make some colour changes due to the lighting in Redcliffe Castle.

I doubt many people will be interested in this, but I figured I'd share it anyway, just in case anyone else thinks a little more thought should have been put into Anora's Inquisition appearance.

On a more technical note, I've blown the diffuse, spec and normal maps up to 4K and scaled the (now empty) tint map down to 8 x 8. I haven't noticed any major performance hit myself, but this is something to be expected as most files are bigger in size. Also, the DXT1 compression completely ruined my spec map, so I went for DXT5 instead. I really recommend making a hard save before confronting Alexius; I haven't experienced any crashes with my mod installed, but you're better safe than sorry.


Please note that this mod is not perfect by any means: 

• As you can see on my screenshots, due to the lighting in that particular scene, the dress looks much better when viewed from the back 
  
   (which is really unfortunate, but I've done everything I could to make it not look like a black blob and I'm just really sick of tweaking it over and over again).
• The golden stitching on the velvet overdress (or whatever it's called) looks a bit wonky in a couple of areas. The only way to fix this would be to edit the mesh or its UV map, and I haven't been able to import the edited .obj file back into the Mod Maker.
• The shoes were quite hard to paint on; I tried my best but the shoelaces may look a little funky depending on the angle. You don't really get to see her feet, though, so that shouldn't be noticeable during normal gameplay. 
• Since I can't make the dress unique to her, this mod is only meant to be enabled during the In Hushed Whispers quest (which is available if you decide to get help from the mages). The dress shares its texture maps with a few other models and since I've only edited the parts used by Anora's dress, some NPCs’ outfits will look mismatched if you keep it enabled during the whole game (plus, you'll see other women wearing the same dress as her, which would kind of defeat the purpose of the mod). 
• Please note that the last 4 screenshots don't show the final version; this is because I haven't been able to capture the exact same lighting when testing the final version. The differences are hardly noticeable anyway.
  

Requirements and recommended mods

• If you're like me and can't stand Clownora's blush, I strongly recommend pairing this mod with Dmitrias' makeover mod (not pictured).
• BioWare's choice of hair for Anora doesn't make any sense either, so I also strongly recommend pairing this mod with Eleonora0's bun replacer (pictured) or Dmitrias' hair swap, if you prefer Calpernia's braided buns. Everything I've tried to give her back her actual hairstyle (i.e. Calpernia's hair) resulted either in a badly messed up mesh or a hairless Anora, so I'm really glad that these mods exist. 
  

Installation

For all the above mentioned reasons, I recommend that you only install it/enable it once you're ready to start In Hushed Whispers. 

• Open the .zip file (duh), drop the .daimod file into your mod directory and install with the DAI Mod Manager. More detailed instructions can be found here.
• Once you're done with the quest, disable the mod (or simply delete it from your mod directory) and merge again with the DAI Mod Manager.
  

Compatibility notes and known issues

• Incompatible with mods that edit the Ferelden noble dress textures.
• Like I said before, some NPCs' dresses won't look right if you keep it enabled during the whole game.
• Update (26/10/2020): installing the .daimod with Frosty causes the texture to glitch out (at least for me). I'm planning to convert it though.
  

Tools used, credits and thanks

• Made with GIMP, G'MIC, ShaderMap, Blender and the DAI Mod Maker
• Original texture assets by textures.com, sharetextures.com, sketchuptextureclub.com, poliigon.com, gametextures.com and Mellowmesher via TurboSquid (and possibly blendersauce.com and chocofur.com - I honestly can't remember) 
• Original flower pattern by nadezhda_grapes via Freepik
• Brushes by Obsidian Dawn
• Thanks to Ottemis for these helpful tips on how to get DA:I normal maps right.
  

Other mods shown on my crappy screenshots

• Origins Anora Hair by Eleonora0 (strongly recommended)
• Hair Retexture by fontofnothing
• De-shine series for stock PC textures by Ascendia
• Avira's Curly Bun by Lavellan Love (you can't really see it though)
• Casual jammies retexture by Jisandra