Sir Dave's Showcase

[RelinQ]

Sorry about the delay,

Okay well I think you have potential , and I know this is going to be annoying to hear but I still think your paths need some work.

The things is that most players's are obviously going to walk along paths, (which is normal, because people like been told where to go.) Because of this, Paths's are usually the most seen part of a exterior from player perspective, which is why I emphasis alot on detail.

Roads: ...but it's actually very tricky to do correctly.

This is true even for experienced modders.

One possible little method for paths:
What I would suggest is lowering a spot in your path down a small depth, then using a 1 size radius and flattening along part of those paths. after that use say a size 2 radius and carefully smooth down the edges of the path first, then smooth along the middle of the path.
(Think of the path like a bowl , smooth all the way up & down)

Saying this though, I often go back a few times when making paths.
----------------------------------------------------

All aside, if you can show me some smooth, 'bowl-like' paths and shade them correctly, I'd be happy to give you a recommendation.

I think you can do it, It's just practise.

[Sir Dave]

Allright, I'll get working on those roads.
t'is true that I find them pretty difficult to make.

I will check out the roads in morrowind and maps 1 and 2 to see how to do it correctly =)

Thanks for your quick feedback!

[Scamp]

Hey Sir Dave,

I thought I'd post some comments here as well.

First of all, your roads don't look that bad. To be perfectly honest, they are really fine the way they are.

Other than that, what I really noticed was that you have to watch out for bleeders. I say much flora bleeding into surrounding statics like rocks and stuff. Also, make sure your leaves don't bleed into the terrain, it looks unnatural.

Another fact is that you have to watch out when placing objects on terrain or other uneven surfaces. I saw this in one of your indoril strongholds.

Well, I say this is a really good showcase. Sorry about the roads thingy, definitely leave them as they are.
Perhaps you should have a look over all of your objects again to make sure bleeding is avoided. If you do that, I will recommend you.

[RelinQ]

Hey Sir Dave,
First of all, your roads don't look that bad. To be perfectly honest, they are really fine the way they are.

If they were perfect Scamp, Haplo and myself wouldn't have commented on them. (no offence intended to you Sir Dave)

[Sir Dave]

I don't mind.

I have no problems with working on both the roads and the statics, for I recon both of them are important to exteriors.

I also consider this showcase to be an important learning process,

So I will work on both then.

[Sir Dave]

Allright, WIP time.

- I made the roads more bowl-shaped.
- Discovered and fixed some texture seems.
- fixed many plants bleeding into rocks and trees.
- tuned the shading on roads a bit more.
- added a little more detail around roads.

[Thrignar Fraxix]

RelinQ, he fixed the roads to a satisfactory extent. In the future please do not contradict other modders when you are less knowledgeable on a subject. (meaning never contradict other modders)

[Sir Dave]

so, how's the review going?

any new issues?

[Scamp]

Here we go, Sir: These are my last points.

1. Jagged terrain: Watch out for this, you have some pretty rough terrain in spots, and especially along the roads. Go over your terrain with the smooth-vertices again.

2. Bleeders: While I didn't find many floaters in your file, there still are quite a lot bleeders. Especially corkbulbs are often angled too much.

3. Unflat surfaces: Although this doesn't occur that many times in exteriors, you still have to watch out for this. When placing rocks or flora, it is required that you bleed them into the ground. When having unflat surfaces in towns or villages, you have to watch out that you rotate objects like urns, crates etc. to match the terrain (I saw some misplaced urns in one of your indoril holdings)
Also, I recommend to sink buildings like houses a bit into the ground, especially when having uneven terrain (half-floating building in one of these holdings)


Summing up, this is still is a very good showcase, especially considering the fact it is quite huge.
Please take your time fixing these things. Exteriors need extra patience and attention. Be very thorough looking over your objects.
Good luck!

[Sir Dave]

WIP-time.

- fixed many bleeding objects.
- smoothed rough vertices, especially along the roads.
- fixed a half-floating building.
- fixed some floating objects in the village.


I sure hope I found all the bleeders, since my showcase has quite a dense vegetation. If you guys find any more, please give me some details about their whereabouts.

Also something strange. When I started up the editor today and opened my showcase, A sharp edged ridge had appeared in the middle of one of my cells. Of course I removed it straight away, but do you know how this may have happened?

[Scamp]

Alright. I will have a look at this soon. I'm sure it is a lot better, thanks for your patience. Even if you still have some bleeders, I think I will give you the recommendation though because I understand that this showcase indeed has a very dense vegetation, which looks and is good.

Your problem sounds pretty much like a problem other modders and I have had several times in claims. That said, it is well known to most of our exterior modders. These 'ridges' are called 'land tears' in modders language, and they happen to appear from while to while. It has been well disputed what causes them, and I think it appears when you edit too much landscape in one section without saving for a longer time (I hope you understand what I'm saying). There is, unfortunately, no way to avoid this. I can only recommend to save and especially backup quite often so that you can later work on a backup file if the problem has appeared.
However, it might be that your land tear was quite small and easy to remove, however I've had really really huge walls of terrain raised 1000 points and giant holes and such in my claims. It is probably less work to redo everything you have done than to remove those big ones.

[Scamp]

Alright, Sir Dave.
First off, let me say once again that this is a very good exterior showcase. It is lovely detailed and well varied.
Like I promised, you'll get your recommendation. When you do claims for TR though, please really have a look at every object when placing it, and make sure they have a certain space between them.
Another tip I can give you is to usually sink houses and walls etc a bit into the terrain because you have some slight floaters.

Modder has a Scamp recommendation for exteriors,
however it might be the case that Haplo has his own additional points to criticize or wants you to go over your objects once again or whatever, so I can't guarantee that you'll be promoted right away.
Your showcase was good enough for me, these small flaws don't get in the way of your promotion IMO, but can rather be sorted out in your hopefully following modding career.
Good luck!

[Haplo]

You have a penchant for making beautiful landscapes, but can use a but of improvement on the technical side. Make sure when using meshes for customized ideas (like a platform for a ramp) that they aren't floating or caspering or anything of that nature. Also, we try not to size the ndib and FZ trees up more than 1.1. They're already HUGE at 1.0, so having a 1.4 or higher sized tree of that set causes a LOT of lag (and a little texture stretching) due to the number of faces.

Remember to avoid green/yellow vertex shading, even underwater. Smooth your vertex shading out, it's bumpy in a lot of places, especially along the road. It should look natural, like shadows, instead of placed randomly. And don't forget to put a door in every doorjamb. One important thing I noticed is that you didn't use many rocks in a lot of the cells. In open areas where you have a lot of empty space and a bunch of tiny plants/flora, don't be afraid to throw some rocks or clusters of rocks around. Rocks look great and take up a lot of space.

I'd especially like to see you do a claim for Uld Vraech once we get to that region.

Member Promoted for exterior modding. Congratulations and welcome to the team.

[Scamp]

Congratz man, welcome to the team.
It's been a long way, eh?

[Sir Dave]

Fantastic!! thanks to all you guys who've taken the time to look at my showcase.

and yes, It's taken a while to get everything done. but that makes success even more sweet.

[The Greatness]

Awesome. Well done, and welcome!

[Kiteflyer61]

Congrats Sir Dave!

Welcome to the team.

[Jonaman8]

Congrats. Welcome!

[VulcaN]

Congratulations Sir Dave!