DESCRIPTION

In Skyrim so much years passed and there was not enough reality friendly katana & lore friendly & texture friendly ... That is this fact that  motivated me to learn how to mod Skyrim ! So ! I decided to take a good & famous potential meshe (the one in immersive weapons mod), and retexture it to make a close to a fair realistic katana. Immersive weapons katanas got really good shape even if the meshes are a little too simple (sad but... it will do). Why this one you ask me ? explanation : 

PRO

- blade curvature, tip, proportions, are almost perfect. It's slightly a thick blade, but it's one of the best i've seen so far in skyrim mods
- tsukamaki's base is real fine
- saya got really good largeness, following the blade curvature even if perfectible
- Tsuba is a bit dull but in the right proportions & too many video games / modders mess that up
- There are all features a traditionnal katana can have (except menukis but fuck it ! not every katana has them)
- The Silver texture blade base is the best one, that's the one i started with to create my mod.

CONS

- handle overall meshe is a bit large and seriously lacking of polygons 
- Saya a bit too thick and too round, the section of a saya should be a little more rectangular
- Tsuba's meshe is a bit dull but it's ok ... i don't like the fancy one that much !
- back of the blade is not flat (it was actually for the old japanese swords, but that's not what we are looking for here)
- The silver scabbard are EXTREMLY UGLY with a dull dragon pattern & dots, don't know what the original modder was thinking...

So it took me much time but that's what i've done so far : 

- Corrected: Tsukmaki (silk/leather on handle) tones, définition and details. Silkish texture render kinda bad, leatherish was more appropriate.
- Corrected: Same (the rayskin below the tsukamaki) completly redone. 2 kind of color, black and bone white. fuck I spent 2 hours on this !
- Corrected: Fushigane (ring just below the guard) received a funny geometric texture.That's often a part on a katana where you can let the blacksmith express himself, that, the Menukis and the tsuba ofc. I didn't take care of adding Menuki (ornements belows the silk) because sometimes it's not needed, the first purpose of Menuki was to tighten more the tsuka & cover the Mekugi(s).
- Corrected: Tamahagane blade was given has a very slight blue-greenish tone, that's how real traditionnal tamahagane blades looked like in feudal times (modern ones are colder & more beautiful though with new steel smithing & polishing technics, but the purpose was lore-friendly...you know !).
- Corrected: Habaki are usually golden brass color & it has to be IMO !!! I owned once a (real) katana with a silver pure habaki, I never liked it xD. I added a celtic discreet engraving on it aswell. It's still sober & perfectly popular i think.
- Corrected: Tsuba was wayyyyy to dark ! reminded me some touristic plastic katana you can found in every country.
- Replaced: Tsuba full retexture. Seriously the previous tsuba make this katana belong to a peasant or something ? Tsuba's were a visible display of wealth. At least creating a slightly better one was rule one to me.
- Corrected: Previous Seppa's Normal map texture (very small flat ring between tsuba & Fushigane) which was f**ckin tamed ! seriously wtf happened here ?! I cringed hard :'(
- Corrected: Saya (Scabbard) got darkened a little more, alpha map got redone to add a more glossy effect.
- Corrected: Junction between Tsukamaki knot & Kashira remade (was not obvious).
- Enhanced: Hamon (temper steel line) got a big rework, starting to be more visible, more realistic and more anarchic. This Hamon shape setup is called a Gunome style, it's in my opinion the most beautiful hamons in the world among japanese swords. The philosophy of Gunome Hamon is the beauty of the chaos with a touch of order, in correlation with japanese "insou" standards, aswell "perfection of the imperfection" "regularity in chaos". I worked on the light reflections aswell, i find it almost perfect ! hope you will enjoy that in game : D
- Corrected: brass Mekugi (rivets on handle) with a better contrast / definition, equilizing same color with the habaki.
- Corrected: Kashira (pommel) got a smoother texture and a little discreet engraving. Steel color equalized to match saya and other features
- Corrected: Kissaki (tip of blade) look more sharp
- Enhanced: Koiguchi (metal part of scabbard in contact with guard) was doubled for a cool look
- Enhanced: Kojiri (scabbard tip) gained a brand new shape & a full metal texture at bottom side (Why the hell was it black?)
- Corrected: Ha (Sharp edge of the blade) done more incisive & scarry. added a slight cyan tone in shades. Now looks like more sharpened than my ex's tongue !
- Enhanced: Sageo (scabbard cord) got textured as a tsukasageo, then darkened, slightly brownish to get along with more armors. That took me a while too ! but it looks gorgeous now !
- Added: Tsukamaki better colors : Black, brown, Navyblue, Royal blue, red, white, goldish. Black, grey or white same is choosen to fit the best to the tsuka's colors. You can notice tsuka's colors are never too saturated in this mod of mine, the main purpose of that choice is to provide you lore-friendly colors that will match maximum of your armors, it's more realistic, and too much saturation is childish anyway ! 
- Corrected: Every Normal maps, including scabbards ones
- Corrected: Alphas to make metal parts more shiny & reflective. The blade slightly the opposite (it was too glossy).

that was my longest work time for a mod. I was so Passionate on this... that's why the tittle.

WHO AM I (PLEASE READ)

I am a 31y old skyrim player, also archer & kenjutsu practicer for 10+ years, & finally my job is : comic artist (yup you read that well ! still not popular but still...). I don't know much about creating assets in video games, but i had fun lately to give it a try. Please be indulgent with my "mods" if they can be called so haha. i am a beginner but i also own a perfectionist soul, i spent lot of hours working on this so it could reach some kind of perfect to my eyes ! Try these and if you got any problem (out of matter of taste) please inform me. 

I am a texturer only ! i don't know much about meshes, compiling & stuff, so in general YOU WILL NEED OTHER(S) MODS TO MAKE MINE(S) WORKS (listed just below this). Therefore, if you get these requirment, there should be no problem i like my mods simple and only texture-colors-alpha-normalmaps replacements !

If there is any issues with manager auto-install, then try the manual steps (chill ! it's fast & easy!)

MANDATORY MODS

- Immersive weapons (A must-have wonderful mod for every skyrim lover that add new weapons & enhance the look of some pre-existing-ones) (here)

INSTALLATION TIPS

- The default color is set on royal blue, i advise you to appreciate it before choosing another, it's my favourite, it's still lore-friendly and i think it's beautiful & charismatic :)

- BTW lucky you & lucky me ! The katana, wakizashi, tanto & nodachi are all sharing the same texture file ! if you change it with my mod, these 4 will all be modified in one shot ! (the same color you choose will be the same for the whole set). Still there is some weird texture disposal on tanto's one... this mistake also exists on original mod so ... not guilty sir !

- If you want more powerful stats on your weapons, don't forget to install TES5edit and edit immersiveweapons.esp it's easy ! nothing scarry here.

- Since the meshes are the same for iron & steel katanas,nodachis,etc. You can replace them for my mods too ! For exemple red for the ironset, navyblue for the steelset, and royalblue for the silverset. But you will have to copy and change the names of the files inside my mod : 
replace silvernodachi in my file's names by "ironnodachi"  or "steelnodachi". Exemple to have ironset as red : 

Take my silvernodachi.dds (red), change the name of this file with ironnodachi.dds and place it in the folder
Take my silvernodachi_m.dds, change the name of this file with ironnodachi_m.dds and place it in the foler
Take my silvernodachi_n.dds, change the name of this file with ironnodachi_n.dds and place it in the folder
and that's it !

MANUAL INSTALLATION (ONLY)

- Create the following folders : Skyrim\Data\textures\74_w\nodachis if they exist already, you might have Weapons of the third era installed. I advise you to uninstall it because immersive weapons include already Wof3rdEra mod.
- Choose your tsukamaki color (silk on the handle). Extract the file silvernodachi.dds  in the nodachis folder
- Extract the 4 others files (silvernodachi_n.dds, silvernodachi_m.dds, sheath_m.dds, sheath_silver.dds) and put them in that folder aswell 
- Overwrite anything if you got weaponof3rdera mod
- You're done already ! go ! Start your game and try it ! to change the tsukamaki's colors depending of your mood, you just have to replace the silvernodachi.dds file. 


STRONGLY RECOMMENDED MODS

- Alternatequivers for immersive weapons (That guy thought that immersive weapon exclusive arrow's quivers had weird look and … he was damn perfectly right) (here)

- REAL Bows (seriously guys these bows rocks some asses ! go for it) (Here)

- Amidianborn book of silence (Our dear Amidianborn that worked on plenty vanilla items, weapons, and armor, the best retextures available IMO, be sure to replace everything with its stuffs, coz nothing beat that) (here)

- Privateselective Quivers 2.4 (THAT mod that allows you finally to choose one quiver look and make some of your vanilla arrows stick to it no matter the kind they are !) (here)

- Ultra realistic bow shoot sounds (Finally...you will have a bow shoot that doesn't sound like from teenager movies...) (here)

VERSION UPDATES

1.0 : mod birth on 18/10/2016 (yes ofc dd/mm/yy). should be NMM & Manager ready.

MY OTHER MODS (3)

- Traditionnal Yumi bow - A retexture for Realbows mod (here)
- Smooth neutral and armor friendly orcish quiver (here)
- Watakushi Arrows - A retexture for Nord hero arrows (here)


Last words: if you like this mod & like my way of see things then you should definitly check the others i worked on ! Don't forget to endorse em all !