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About this mod
Hi-Res (2048x2048) DX3 road textures - diffuse maps and normal maps with transparencies that make use of Oblivion Reloaded terrain and Detailed Terrain shaders.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
When you roam Cyrodiil there's a group of textures that you see practically all the time - roads.
There have been a few attempts at making these textures look better, but personally I wasn't very happy with either of them. Some of them were simply rescaled vanilla textures, others didn't look realistic enough. None of them blended nicely with terrain textures. Therefore I set off remaking all roads from scratch and decided to make use of fantastic shaders made by ChainsawXIV - Detailed Terrain which allows for transparency in diffuse maps, which makes them naturally blend with surrounding types of ground.
Bevilex in her modding guide suggests you can skip DT shaders because OR will take care of terrain shading. Well, after some experimentation it seems these two do two different things, and roads with transparencies will look best WITH BOTH - Oblivion Reloaded shaders, and DT. If you don't use DT shaders you could just as well have simple (and lightweight) DX1 textures that overlap by placing semitransparent layers on top of one another. DT make use of designed transparencies coded in texture's alpha channel (present in DX3 and absent from DX1).
Please, forgive my low resolution images - my old laptop can't run modded Oblivion in higher quality. Any better images from you are more than welcome.
All textures are rather large - 2048x2048 pixels (both diffuse and normal maps) which offer good details without being terribly heavy on the system. (Really - if I can use them on my 512 integrated GPU, 2.3 MHz CPU, and 4GB RAM laptop, then about anyone can run them easily.) DX3 compression format is intentional! Don't compress them to DX1 - you may get an ugly mess!
I tried to make them look as natural and believable as possible. There's no bumpiness fiesta (hey, they didn't make those roads to break their legs), but I hand-crafted normal maps paying special attention to their accuracy - so that bumps are where bumps are due, and hollows where there are holes, etc. (rather than bumpy where diffuse map is brighter, and depressions wherever it's darker) My other priorities were that they are perfectly seamless, proportional in scale to the rest of the world, and non-tiling. Please, let me know if I've failed anywhere.
I've tested them with ENB and OR and on my computer they look good in all weather conditions. (Although you may be of different opinion - let me know.)
IMPORTANT
You'll need Detailed Terrain to make the best of Imperial Roads. Download these shaders as omod from the mod's page - shaders+sample textures based on QTP3. For those who prefer other methods of installation I included two packages in optional downloads in 7zip format - one is complete Detailed Terrain mod (shaders+textures) repacked for such mod managers as Wrye Bash or for manual installation; the other one includes only ChainsawXIV's shaders without textures in case if you use other texture packs - which, alas, likely don't use texture transparency feature.
(ChainsawXIV hasn't been seen since 2009, and he never put any restrictions on his shaders, so I guess it's okay to repack them in a format other than omod and post here with all due credit. However, I'm giving ChainsawXIV access to modify Imperial Roads, so if he ever comes back and is not okay with this mod, he can edit it, as he wills.)
For extra oomph you are encouraged to enable also OR's Terrain shaders.
As far as I know OR detailed terrain shaders deal with different things (OR with LOD terrain, DT with merging two overlapping textures), and both can be used at the same time. (Unless someone double checks and points out they're incompatible. I use both at the same time with no problems.)
Installation
------------------------------------------
1. (optional but highly recommended) Download and install Detailed Terrain shaders (and sample textures if you wish so). You can download it either from DT itself (omod), or from optional downloads below (shaders+textures or just shaders). If you use my optional downloads make sure that all 9 shaders end up in your Oblivion/Data/Shaders folder. ------------
2. Download and install Imperial Roads textures plus update with Bruma cobblestone. They should end up in Oblivion/Data/Textures/landscape folder.
3. If you've never used any texture replacers for vanilla roads you may want to run Archive Invalitation (BSA Redirection). (It's a utility of OBMM - or whatever it's called these days.)
4. Enjoy. :)
I highly recommend trying my terrain textures alongside these roads. They're made to look best with each other.
A list of modified textures:
--------------------------------------------
roadstone01.dds
roadstone01_n.dds
roadstonesmall01.dds
roadstonesmall01_n.dds
These are main roads in Cyrodiil. From research I learned that majority of roads in ancient Rome were made of gravel with a layer of large slabs on top of them in most important parts. Therefore roadstonesmall01 became the gravel foundation, and roadstone01 are the slabs. I reckon the effect is really good.
cobblestone01
cobblestone01_n
cobblestone02
cobblestone02_n
cobblestone03
cobblestone03_n
cobblestone04
cobblestone04_n
These are the "better quality" (or rather better maintained) roads mostly in and around IC. Gravel is cleaner, slabs are more even and tighter. They're made of the type of stone they could possibly recover from Ayleid structures around Cyrodiil. The cleanest are cobblestone01 on the road from Talos Plaza to Weye. The other ones are stained with dirt, moss, lichen, etc. with cobblestone04 and cobblestone03 being in the the worst state with missing slabs, moss and dirt all over. They can be found near Leyawiin on the path to Greyland and in various tiny spots around IC.
brumacobblestone01.dds
brumacobblestone01_n.dds
In future I may make a non-transparent version for those of you who won't use any extra shaders. Please, let me know if there's demand for those old-fashioned textures at all. This is near future. Further down the line I'd love to adapt Skyrim's Immersive Roads by 32cm to Oblivion, or to make something similar.
I'm also looking forward to any criticism. Let me know if you feel there's anything wrong with these textures - like are they too dark, or too bright? Or do you feel they could be further improved in any way?
All these textures were made by myself from scratch (like, by combining single stones, etc.). I used my own photos and images widely available on the net, especially on texturelib.com. Big thank you to the admins of that great site.
You can do whatever you like with them. Don't use them to make money. They're free and should always stay free. Credit would be nice.
There have been a few attempts at making these textures look better, but personally I wasn't very happy with either of them. Some of them were simply rescaled vanilla textures, others didn't look realistic enough. None of them blended nicely with terrain textures. Therefore I set off remaking all roads from scratch and decided to make use of fantastic shaders made by ChainsawXIV - Detailed Terrain which allows for transparency in diffuse maps, which makes them naturally blend with surrounding types of ground.
Bevilex in her modding guide suggests you can skip DT shaders because OR will take care of terrain shading. Well, after some experimentation it seems these two do two different things, and roads with transparencies will look best WITH BOTH - Oblivion Reloaded shaders, and DT. If you don't use DT shaders you could just as well have simple (and lightweight) DX1 textures that overlap by placing semitransparent layers on top of one another. DT make use of designed transparencies coded in texture's alpha channel (present in DX3 and absent from DX1).
Please, forgive my low resolution images - my old laptop can't run modded Oblivion in higher quality. Any better images from you are more than welcome.
All textures are rather large - 2048x2048 pixels (both diffuse and normal maps) which offer good details without being terribly heavy on the system. (Really - if I can use them on my 512 integrated GPU, 2.3 MHz CPU, and 4GB RAM laptop, then about anyone can run them easily.) DX3 compression format is intentional! Don't compress them to DX1 - you may get an ugly mess!
I tried to make them look as natural and believable as possible. There's no bumpiness fiesta (hey, they didn't make those roads to break their legs), but I hand-crafted normal maps paying special attention to their accuracy - so that bumps are where bumps are due, and hollows where there are holes, etc. (rather than bumpy where diffuse map is brighter, and depressions wherever it's darker) My other priorities were that they are perfectly seamless, proportional in scale to the rest of the world, and non-tiling. Please, let me know if I've failed anywhere.
I've tested them with ENB and OR and on my computer they look good in all weather conditions. (Although you may be of different opinion - let me know.)
IMPORTANT
You'll need Detailed Terrain to make the best of Imperial Roads. Download these shaders as omod from the mod's page - shaders+sample textures based on QTP3. For those who prefer other methods of installation I included two packages in optional downloads in 7zip format - one is complete Detailed Terrain mod (shaders+textures) repacked for such mod managers as Wrye Bash or for manual installation; the other one includes only ChainsawXIV's shaders without textures in case if you use other texture packs - which, alas, likely don't use texture transparency feature.
(ChainsawXIV hasn't been seen since 2009, and he never put any restrictions on his shaders, so I guess it's okay to repack them in a format other than omod and post here with all due credit. However, I'm giving ChainsawXIV access to modify Imperial Roads, so if he ever comes back and is not okay with this mod, he can edit it, as he wills.)
For extra oomph you are encouraged to enable also OR's Terrain shaders.
As far as I know OR detailed terrain shaders deal with different things (OR with LOD terrain, DT with merging two overlapping textures), and both can be used at the same time. (Unless someone double checks and points out they're incompatible. I use both at the same time with no problems.)
Installation
------------------------------------------
1. (optional but highly recommended) Download and install Detailed Terrain shaders (and sample textures if you wish so). You can download it either from DT itself (omod), or from optional downloads below (shaders+textures or just shaders). If you use my optional downloads make sure that all 9 shaders end up in your Oblivion/Data/Shaders folder. ------------
2. Download and install Imperial Roads textures plus update with Bruma cobblestone. They should end up in Oblivion/Data/Textures/landscape folder.
3. If you've never used any texture replacers for vanilla roads you may want to run Archive Invalitation (BSA Redirection). (It's a utility of OBMM - or whatever it's called these days.)
4. Enjoy. :)
I highly recommend trying my terrain textures alongside these roads. They're made to look best with each other.
A list of modified textures:
--------------------------------------------
roadstone01.dds
roadstone01_n.dds
roadstonesmall01.dds
roadstonesmall01_n.dds
These are main roads in Cyrodiil. From research I learned that majority of roads in ancient Rome were made of gravel with a layer of large slabs on top of them in most important parts. Therefore roadstonesmall01 became the gravel foundation, and roadstone01 are the slabs. I reckon the effect is really good.
cobblestone01
cobblestone01_n
cobblestone02
cobblestone02_n
cobblestone03
cobblestone03_n
cobblestone04
cobblestone04_n
These are the "better quality" (or rather better maintained) roads mostly in and around IC. Gravel is cleaner, slabs are more even and tighter. They're made of the type of stone they could possibly recover from Ayleid structures around Cyrodiil. The cleanest are cobblestone01 on the road from Talos Plaza to Weye. The other ones are stained with dirt, moss, lichen, etc. with cobblestone04 and cobblestone03 being in the the worst state with missing slabs, moss and dirt all over. They can be found near Leyawiin on the path to Greyland and in various tiny spots around IC.
brumacobblestone01.dds
brumacobblestone01_n.dds
In future I may make a non-transparent version for those of you who won't use any extra shaders. Please, let me know if there's demand for those old-fashioned textures at all. This is near future. Further down the line I'd love to adapt Skyrim's Immersive Roads by 32cm to Oblivion, or to make something similar.
I'm also looking forward to any criticism. Let me know if you feel there's anything wrong with these textures - like are they too dark, or too bright? Or do you feel they could be further improved in any way?
All these textures were made by myself from scratch (like, by combining single stones, etc.). I used my own photos and images widely available on the net, especially on texturelib.com. Big thank you to the admins of that great site.
You can do whatever you like with them. Don't use them to make money. They're free and should always stay free. Credit would be nice.