Wonderful mod, though I think it could use OBSE plugin so that the bluejays don't keep chirping at night too, they never relax XD!, but the mode itself is good, I think it should be being updated and improved!. Its sad to see so much nature and forests in the default game and not a single bird in all Cyrodiil!.
Just a heads up, the hummingbirds aggression is set to 100 for some reason. As a result the game thinks there is an enemy nearby making it so you cant wait or fast travel when one is in vicinity. To fix this you either need to use the console command setav aggression 0 on the hummingbirds or edit the aggression value in TES4 Edit to 0.
Please forbear with me and kindly explain to me, can any of you please give some short summary of all the birds' whereabouts? I have downloaded this very interesting mod but due to my busy work life i haven't installed it yet. One factor that drove me to download and (want to) install this mod is my love for nature, even if just in the form of immersion through game. Then i found this little gem : )
Along with this particular mod, i also have downloaded and plan to install several nature and infrastructure beautification mods, but not the big ones like Better Cities, Oblivion Reloaded, Unique Landscape and the likes. I deem the smaller fragmentary ones like one that adds plants and flower to Anvil, one that adds Ayleid artifacts to Chorrol etc are safer and still pretty much add to the natural immersion. So my question is, will such mods, as long as that don't move buildings texture from their original places like Better Cities, nor they tweak or even totally replace anything vanilla, simply adding some vines, bushes, and the like... will they conflict with this mod, namely the "Bird in Oblivion"? Making the birds invisible because they got covered by foliage for example?
I appreciate anybody's patience and kind attention to explain this matter to me. Thank you very much.
In theory no, but I use it with ImpeREAL IC and didn't spot any bird that would be out of place. Not sure about OCR, I used it for a while and don't remember anything odd but it was a while ago...
Beautiful Mod, I love birds and their songs!!, However I noticed that after installing better Cities, the bluejays are Floating in the air, instead of placed on the walls, is there any patch or something I can do to fix this??.
It doesn't matter anymore!, I Uninstalled BC!!, It was too encumbered and a Frame-Rate Killer Hahaha..., but Perhaps somebody could find a reply to this post useful anyway.
thelawful, I recently downloaded the latest version 2.2 and there is some improvement. BUT, why not forget the shield idea and just have placeable owls, ravens, etc, for sale that hoot, call, and squawk? They don't sit straight on the shield arm AND unlike other objects aren't "placeable" anyway. It appears there's an issue with your .nif files that include a collision/havoc setting. When you try to remove/drop the bird/shield from inventory, it cannot be moved or manipulated in any way to set it down like any other playable piece of clothing, armor, shield, etc. It just hangs up in midair forcing you to grab it back into inventory. I for one would like to be able to place sitting owls, falcons, and ravens that hoot/call around the towns and country where I want them, on my doorstep, a wall, fence, etc., in addition to those you've already got hanging about...simple, easy, no fuss no muss. I think something like that would be a big improvement over the shield hooha, but you're going to have to fix the havoc issue. The collision of these are supposed to be rendered playable, not static, and that's what their .nif file is acting like. I hope this helps this mod's improvement because it's a great idea and I love having these creatures in-game, especially the owls whose hooting at night is very atmospheric.
Fixing shield Collision mesh. Looking into possibility of 'Player Placement of Static Objects' and whatever coding involved - if they are simply items will roll/drop per game physics.
I will try to fix the shield Collision mesh. I'm not sure on how to do custom placement of objects due to 2 issues... 1. static are designed to stay in editor location. 2. other items respond to physics and almost never stay where we drop or grab/release them.
Too many vultures especially flying/circling over IC Waterfront..why? Tried to look at mod in TESIV CS and it indicated more reading errors than I've ever seen in a mod. Was this not cleaned? All the various versions available for download so close together tells me not enough initial thought/planning went into this mod before/during production and release. A lot of features of this mod (like the so-called) owl & falcon shields and "placeable" birds simply either don't work well or not at all and/or make no sense. This CAN be excellent IF YOU...slow down, think if through THOROUGHLY, plan it out COMPLETELY and only THEN release it...
Bug report: Some of the sound effects are in folder SOUNDS while Oblivion uses folder SOUND, without an S on the end. Wrye Bash refuses to install folder soundS.
I checked out the mod and it's fine for me. I wonder though are the birds in scale? I saw one in Chorrol that appeared to me a bit too large, it was on the main square, on the rooftop of Smithy.
Also, birds flying in IC Waterfront appeared to be flying a bit too low, but that might be a matter of taste, I don't know.
One more thing: I found some Identical to Master records that should be removed automatically using TES4Edit. Please do clean a mod automatically after editing it, it would ensure more compatibility with other mods. You may use TES4Edit for that. It's here: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/11536/?
If you wish to know how to clean mods, it's very simple:
Launch TES4Edit.exe Right-click in the first window and choose "unselect all" Check the one and only one plugin to clean Once it is loaded right-click on the plugin and choose "apply filter for cleaning." Once this is done, right-click on the plugin and choose "remove identical to master records" Then right-click on the plugin and choose "undelete and disable references" Click the X button to close. TES4Edit automatically creates backups of edited plugins which can be found in the Data/Tes4Edit Backups folder.
If you wish to know more about mod cleaning: http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/461-tes4edit-brief-introduction/ and even longer: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/TES4Edit_Cleaning_Guide
They fly to a certain ground level cant do anything about that hardcoded into the game i believe. made the cardinals bigger cause they were way too dang small to see. and ill see if i can clean it out and reupload
If the big bird is an owl I made it's base scale proportional to it's average full grown height for the species - relative to game of course.
I'm not sure on the flying height but I suspect it is to do with the animation files. If I could help Thelawful edit those I'd be happy to but I have had almost no success with kf.
What I meant is Cardinal indeed, it appear to be guite large, although I haven't seen an owl yet, so if you say it's proportional I guess it's OK. Never seen a Cardinal in real life, since I live in Europe, so I'll take your word for it
Think of it as an opportunity to discover the undiscovered Think of all those moments in game when you find something new, something that you didn't notice before because it was hidden or... tiny
Anyway if you don't like the idea, consider releasing the original, or smaller mesh as an optional file or something. Just my two cents.
idk they were just so tiny you could not see them at all in hidden places like ontop of statues so i had to increase there size by a tiny bit or else they were undiscoverable, Ill make an optional with the default cardinals though.
The BlueJay is massive, it needs to be smaller because look at the size:
http://imgur.com/qWSXF1r
Could you scale them to actual size? but place them in spots were they should be visible in not so high spots, i also noticed there are 4 birds in one of the statues in Imperial City Market District and another two in the other statue, maybe you could move them on different spots on the statues? like one on the hand, another in the sword, another in the head and maybe another on top of Rindirs Staff Merchant Sign? because of how it is the four birdies are shirping and kinda spamming the same spot with their audio.
http://imgur.com/SV3A7BP
http://imgur.com/AIC7989
You could also place the other two birds in several spots of the other statue. I also think you should add some sound files to the hummingbirds, if you don`t know how to do it i can do it for you, i have done it in Skyrim before, don`t know if it`s the same process but if not should not be so hard anyway.
Let me know if you need help in anyway, i really love your mod and i want it to improve much more.
[Edit]
Ohhh i see what happen with the new small file version, you down scaled the Cardinals and now they look Extremely tiny, but they were the Right size, what it needed to be scaled down was the Bluejay Bird only.
[Edit]
I tried to give the HummingBirds some sounds, but it seems it is not working since i put the humming sound where footsteps would activate the sound, but since the hummingbirds don´t really have feet and Hover, it did not do the trick... i´ll have to think about something else.
I appreciate your thoughts and help on this, If anyone wants to change something about the mod they are free to do so and send it to me, Comment asking me to credit them and I will do so.
made the bluejays smaller and took out the cardinal sounds, I think cardinals do kind of come together in packs of 3 to 4, There normally that annoying chirpy sound you occasionally hear. They do like to gather in stony places like wells and statues.
the reason why they like statues and wells and flock to them is because of the local townspeople that lay seeds down for them to eat. It just makes sense to me that a couple at a time would be near statues and wells, You also have to realize that oblivion doesnt give you much to work with in the ways of migration, Flying creatures cant really land stuff like that. tell me if i made the bluejays small enough, If not ill tweak them some more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jay hand size visual of a bluejay http://u.jimdo.com/www21/o/s50cc56ac6333757d/img/ia08ab5142c3af321/1340501372/std/image.jpg
no offense what so ever to drahe, But I did not alter the size of the bluejays from his resource until now.
Ah, got it. Well I find them not yet small enough. I would say - try to make them twice smaller than now. If you want your character to get to them near enough to make a comparison with them and your character, then you may use console command TCL, it will toggle collisions and make you able to fly.
ill make them smaller then they are now there still a little bigger than cardinals though. I forgot to save the changes that is why, Uploading the smaller bluejays.
One more thing about plugin cleaning - short version: please remove changes to NPC Rindir and then you may want to clean a plugin automatically again in TES4Edit.
Long version: I found the unecessary edit made probably by Construction Set itself automatically - NPC by the name of Rindir (the only changed thing is Calc Min). You may safely remove this edit to Rindir in TES4Edit. If you don't already, you may consider using Construction Set Extender which usually don't make such edits. Also you may want to clean a plugin in Tes4Edit after every change, CS make many Identical To Master changes unnecessarly, thats's why you want to clean a plugin, would ensure more compatibility with other mods. CSE(xtender) make far less such edits by itself (only when you edited something and then removed it).
EDIT: if you don't want to mess with it by yourself I can upload clean version for you, but you already did it excellent once so I doubt it's necessary.
116 comments
Please forbear with me and kindly explain to me, can any of you please give some short summary of all the birds' whereabouts? I have downloaded this very interesting mod but due to my busy work life i haven't installed it yet. One factor that drove me to download and (want to) install this mod is my love for nature, even if just in the form of immersion through game. Then i found this little gem : )
Along with this particular mod, i also have downloaded and plan to install several nature and infrastructure beautification mods, but not the big ones like Better Cities, Oblivion Reloaded, Unique Landscape and the likes. I deem the smaller fragmentary ones like one that adds plants and flower to Anvil, one that adds Ayleid artifacts to Chorrol etc are safer and still pretty much add to the natural immersion. So my question is, will such mods, as long as that don't move buildings texture from their original places like Better Cities, nor they tweak or even totally replace anything vanilla, simply adding some vines, bushes, and the like... will they conflict with this mod, namely the "Bird in Oblivion"? Making the birds invisible because they got covered by foliage for example?
I appreciate anybody's patience and kind attention to explain this matter to me. Thank you very much.
I recently downloaded the latest version 2.2 and there is some improvement. BUT, why not forget the shield idea and just have placeable owls, ravens, etc, for sale that hoot, call, and squawk? They don't sit straight on the shield arm AND unlike other objects aren't "placeable" anyway. It appears there's an issue with your .nif files that include a collision/havoc setting. When you try to remove/drop the bird/shield from inventory, it cannot be moved or manipulated in any way to set it down like any other playable piece of clothing, armor, shield, etc. It just hangs up in midair forcing you to grab it back into inventory. I for one would like to be able to place sitting owls, falcons, and ravens that hoot/call around the towns and country where I want them, on my doorstep, a wall, fence, etc., in addition to those you've already got hanging about...simple, easy, no fuss no muss. I think something like that would be a big improvement over the shield hooha, but you're going to have to fix the havoc issue. The collision of these are supposed to be rendered playable, not static, and that's what their .nif file is acting like. I hope this helps this mod's improvement because it's a great idea and I love having these creatures in-game, especially the owls whose hooting at night is very atmospheric.
Looking into possibility of 'Player Placement of Static Objects' and whatever coding involved - if they are simply items will roll/drop per game physics.
I'm not sure on how to do custom placement of objects due to 2 issues...
1. static are designed to stay in editor location.
2. other items respond to physics and almost never stay where we drop or grab/release them.
I checked out the mod and it's fine for me. I wonder though are the birds in scale? I saw one in Chorrol that appeared to me a bit too large, it was on the main square, on the rooftop of Smithy.
Also, birds flying in IC Waterfront appeared to be flying a bit too low, but that might be a matter of taste, I don't know.
One more thing: I found some Identical to Master records that should be removed automatically using TES4Edit. Please do clean a mod automatically after editing it, it would ensure more compatibility with other mods. You may use TES4Edit for that. It's here: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/11536/?
If you wish to know how to clean mods, it's very simple:
Launch TES4Edit.exe
Right-click in the first window and choose "unselect all"
Check the one and only one plugin to clean
Once it is loaded right-click on the plugin and choose "apply filter for cleaning."
Once this is done, right-click on the plugin and choose "remove identical to master records"
Then right-click on the plugin and choose "undelete and disable references"
Click the X button to close.
TES4Edit automatically creates backups of edited plugins which can be found in the Data/Tes4Edit Backups folder.
If you wish to know more about mod cleaning: http://www.darkcreations.org/forums/topic/461-tes4edit-brief-introduction/
and even longer: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/TES4Edit_Cleaning_Guide
I'm not sure on the flying height but I suspect it is to do with the animation files.
If I could help Thelawful edit those I'd be happy to but I have had almost no success with kf.
Anyway if you don't like the idea, consider releasing the original, or smaller mesh as an optional file or something. Just my two cents.
http://imgur.com/qWSXF1r
Could you scale them to actual size? but place them in spots were they should be visible in not so high spots, i also noticed there are 4 birds in one of the statues in Imperial City Market District and another two in the other statue, maybe you could move them on different spots on the statues? like one on the hand, another in the sword, another in the head and maybe another on top of Rindirs Staff Merchant Sign? because of how it is the four birdies are shirping and kinda spamming the same spot with their audio.
http://imgur.com/SV3A7BP
http://imgur.com/AIC7989
You could also place the other two birds in several spots of the other statue.
I also think you should add some sound files to the hummingbirds, if you don`t know how to do it i can do it for you, i have done it in Skyrim before, don`t know if it`s the same process but if not should not be so hard anyway.
Let me know if you need help in anyway, i really love your mod and i want it to improve much more.
[Edit]
Ohhh i see what happen with the new small file version, you down scaled the Cardinals and now they look Extremely tiny, but they were the Right size, what it needed to be scaled down was the Bluejay Bird only.
[Edit]
I tried to give the HummingBirds some sounds, but it seems it is not working since i put the humming sound where footsteps would activate the sound, but since the hummingbirds don´t really have feet and Hover, it did not do the trick... i´ll have to think about something else.
I wonder what is the best place to see a cardinal in game?
Also, are there any changes in the plugin (esp file) itself, or is it just the mesh change in the new version?
the reason why they like statues and wells and flock to them is because of the local townspeople that lay seeds down for them to eat.
It just makes sense to me that a couple at a time would be near statues and wells, You also have to realize that oblivion doesnt give you much to work with in the ways of migration, Flying creatures cant really land stuff like that. tell me if i made the bluejays small enough, If not ill tweak them some more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_jay
hand size visual of a bluejay http://u.jimdo.com/www21/o/s50cc56ac6333757d/img/ia08ab5142c3af321/1340501372/std/image.jpg
no offense what so ever to drahe, But I did not alter the size of the bluejays from his resource until now.
One more thing about plugin cleaning - short version: please remove changes to NPC Rindir and then you may want to clean a plugin automatically again in TES4Edit.
Long version:
I found the unecessary edit made probably by Construction Set itself automatically - NPC by the name of Rindir (the only changed thing is Calc Min). You may safely remove this edit to Rindir in TES4Edit. If you don't already, you may consider using Construction Set Extender which usually don't make such edits. Also you may want to clean a plugin in Tes4Edit after every change, CS make many Identical To Master changes unnecessarly, thats's why you want to clean a plugin, would ensure more compatibility with other mods. CSE(xtender) make far less such edits by itself (only when you edited something and then removed it).
EDIT: if you don't want to mess with it by yourself I can upload clean version for you, but you already did it excellent once so I doubt it's necessary.