Skyrim

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Gamwich and Saerileth

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Gamwich

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About this mod

Hi-res textures and modified meshes for the soulgems. Transparency has been added, as well as a subtle color shifting effect. Each soulgem now has it's own diffuse texture. Included is a retexture of the soulgem holder. 2K and 1K versions available.

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RUSTIC SOULGEMS features hi-res textures and modified meshes. The soulgems now have transparency and a subtle animated color-shifting effect. Each soulgem has it's own diffuse texture, rather than sharing textures as in the default version. Normal maps are still shared to keep the file size down. The soulgem holder has been retextured as well. 2K and 1K versions are available.



This mod has been in a semi-completed state for some time, but I wasn't happy with the nature of the default soulgems. A hi-res texture wasn't enough to fix the appearance in my view. I always felt that soulgems were a unique and special item in the game, but they looked anything but. The soulgems were dull, opaque, and too similar in appearance. I wanted to make the soulgems worthy of the name. Gems are transparent (at least to some degree), and anything that can contain a soul must have unusual properties, and that should be evident by it's appearance.

With the kind assistance of Saerileth, I was able to realize the vision I had of a crystalline appearance that was befitting of the name soulgem. The refracting method that Madcat221 originally discovered was brought to the soulgem meshes. Saerileth also discovered a hidden "gem" in the original mesh that unlocked a color-shifting animation. Now, the soulgems gradually transition through 3 color stages. The soulgems finally look unique and special, not like dull opaque rocks.


UPDATE VERSION 2.0: The latest version takes all the improvements of version 1.1, but expands the mod to have separate effects for empty and filled soulgems. This requires an esp, so for people who don't want an extra esp in their game, I'm leaving the 1.1 version as an optional download.

The empty soulgems have the original color-changing animation, but filled soulgems will now have a pulsing glow animation as well. They look almost like beating hearts trapped in the soulgems. As in real life where smaller animals have faster heartbeats than larger animals, so is the glowing animation with the soulgems. They pulse at different rates, with the grand soulgems having the slowest pulse. It took a lot of time and effort to work out these animations, so I hope people enjoy this new version of RUSTIC SOULGEMS.

This new effect is something that is very hard to show in a screenshot, so thankfully Supertin was kind enough to make a video to illustrate the effect. I'll let the video speak for itself:






I could go on and bore everyone to tears, but I think I'll keep it short and let the pictures do the talking. One note on the color-shifting animation... it's subtle in vanilla lighting, but depending on your ENB, you might get a stronger effect. I should also note that transparency displays differently in inventory view than in game. The inventory view will look a fair amount more transparent. That just the nature of how Skyrim's lighting works.

I hope people enjoy the latest addition to my Rustic series of retextures for Skyrim (with a greatly appreciated assist from Saerileth). Special thanks to Nazenn for making the esp files for the empty/filled 2.0 version.

Cheers,
Gamwich