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Hey everyone! With permission and support from ErdnussSpass, I updated Lore-friendly Silver Swords to version 2.0.
The update features quite a number of changes, such as fixing the issue from 1.0 where some silver swords would also have silver handles.
Some of these changes required manually editing the 3D models (meshes) of the swords - something 1.0 did not do.
The good news is that the fixes and adjustments were successful. The bad news is that, in some cases, this came with a certain drawback.
As you may notice while using Lore-friendly Silver Swords 2.0, some swords will not show the appearance of Runes and Oils on the blade.
This was done on purpose to mitigate an issue encountered during the development of 2.0.
Here, I will go into a bit more detail about this issue.
1. First things first
I've compiled a list of all swords with disabled appearances of Runes and Oils here.
Note that this table accounts for Main and Optional Files collectively.
As you can see from the table, Steel Swords are most commonly affected.
This was the main reason why I chose to upload modded steel swords as a separate, optional file.
For now, Complementary Steel Swords is for those of you who prefer to have visually matching hilts on Steel & Silver Swords rather than Rune and Oil appearance on all Steel Swords.
Please note that this is a strictly cosmetical adjustment.
Runes and Oils applied to any affected sword still deploy their buffs as intended, even though their visual effects on the blade itself may not show.
2. So what exactly was this "issue"?
In short, this:
Yes, that's supposed to be Elementa Oil. And yes, Runes on that blade looked just as bad.
Depending on the sword, provided it was even affected by this issue in the first place, these visual results varied greatly. Visual effects of Oils and Runes would be displayed chunky, chaotically smeared out, or barely visible except for tiny geometrical shapes here and there.
I've done a lot of testing, consulted other modders, tried different workflows and possible solutions... so far, nothing came close to fixing this.
Rather than delay the otherwise completed update for who-knows-how-many months (or even indefinitely) because of this issue, I chose to disable the appearance of Runes and Oils specifically on the swords affected by it.
3. The causes, more technically
If you know your way around 3D editing, you may already have guessed what likely causes the issue.
As I said, in an (as of yet unsuccessful) effort to fix this issue, I've been experimenting around with the workflow of modding W3 sword meshes, and here's what I know:
I can say with some certainty that the issue arises somewhere between importing and exporting an fbx sword mesh, using Blender. Some part of this process seems to break the UV map ("SecondUV") a sword mesh uses for displaying Rune and Oil visuals. Two things should be noted here:
First: It's safe to say that any other part of the modding workflow can be ruled out as a possible cause for this issue.
If the workflow simply skips editing, as in...
--> uncook to w2mesh > export to fbx > [skip editing in Blender] > import unedited fbx back to w2mesh > cook mod <--
... then the issue does not arise.
Second (and this is the part that I can't wrap my head around): The issue just does not apply to all edited swords equally, even though they have all been edited in the exact same way across the board, with no exception.
If you happen to have some experience (or even expertise) in the field and you have a clue as to what precisely may be causing this issue and/or how to approach fixing it, feel free to message me about it. I haven't given up hope yet, and I'll be grateful to anyone who can offer some good input.
For the time being...
... ErdnussSpass and I sincerely hope that you like the 2.0 update otherwise, and I'll be sticking around for your feedback.
Cheers!
- TheFreddman
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