Murkwood Concept art

[Rickious]

Would love a screen shot of several of these on a tree at night!

I will try and get something done ASAP, maybe I will model some of the other shrooms and plants I thought of.

[Koniption]

Nice to see you around here, Rickious! :bananarock:

@ Senten: did you make the gloshrooms glow via a texture glowmap, or by literally adding a light to it, like those light objects found in CS? I think doing both the texture glowmap and also adding a light to the shroom is the best idea.

Do you know how to make the gloshrooms partially transparent, like Rickious' description of them was?

I can help you with these tasks if you want me to, if you wanted to do them.

Either way, good job on those shrooms! They look really good!

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hey, it's Rickious! Fantastic to see back! :bananarock:

Great job on the shrooms, Senten. I love 'em. Transparent would indeed be cool though. I'm wondering if the texture on the stalks can be a little different from those on the caps. A darker, browner colour would make the stalks a little more convincing, I think. Perhaps a blend of those two colours.....I would probably go with Koniption's suggestions on how to light them.....anyway, these are absolutely ESSENTIAL models and I'm sure we'll be using them a lot!

[Rickious]

CHEERS EVERYONE!

Can I also suggest, if this is going to be semi-transparent, have a solid core inside like a vein tapering towards the tip through the stem and up into the hood.

[Senten]

Originally posted by Koniption
Nice to see you around here, Rickious! :bananarock:

@ Senten: did you make the gloshrooms glow via a texture glowmap, or by literally adding a light to it, like those light objects found in CS? I think doing both the texture glowmap and also adding a light to the shroom is the best idea.

Do you know how to make the gloshrooms partially transparent, like Rickious' description of them was?

I can help you with these tasks if you want me to, if you wanted to do them.

Either way, good job on those shrooms! They look really good!

Koniption

Hi Koniption.
Yeah,i can use your help,i don't know how to create glow map and how to make transparent.I will send the nif in pm. :goodjob:

`Senten

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Having spoken to Rickious again, it seems that getting hold of the models originally conceived here: Murkwood Concept art and developed right through (check the pics on the different pages) to around about here: Murkwood Concept art and beyond, may not prove to be too much of a problem.

The only thing that Rickious queries is the difficulty in exporting the models from Rhino3D. What we may need help with though is in making sure that the models have texturing and collision.

@ Koniption - I really don't want to heap more work on your shoulders, KP but do you think this is do-able?

According to many who have interpreted Helstrom as being within a large tree then this is potentially our capital city right here. However, it wasn't my own first choice but the other option is that we form a major city as opposed to two small settlements. For example, Mulum and Okeen-Ra are both in central Murkwood and close to each other. What if Mulum was a part of this construction and Okeen-Ra another part? We could split this by having different settlements within each tree-ring or we could split it by having one settlement ground-based and the other further up.

Rickious has asked me for ideas and suggestions so there's the first one. It would be good to use a thin outer ring as a small slum-housing area using LR's and/or Senten's huts but then to have an inner ring which looks similar to what he has suggested. Some small houses might appear on the outsides of the massive tree stump by passing through doors and we could probably use re-textured watertop huts for this.

Inside the tree stump, it would be wonderful to have the same designs as Rickious has suggested with a hollowed-out central trunk, inside of which winds a spiralling staircase. A watery docklands at the bottom provides a 'play area' for Paatru and Argonian alike whilst the pod-like houses and net-like bridges form most of the houses in the inner city. The watery docklands can also prove excellent storage for Argonian eggs.

I figure that, rather than having trees grown together, we could just have a stump as getting so many leaves and trees so close together without seriously affecting the FPS might be a real problem.

One solution is to make it so that a tight ring of cypress trees are placed just inside the ring on the outside or to have a mist effect that obscures the canopy. Once inside the main trunk, I could place the place inside an interior cell with a sky texture consisting of massed leaves which might look a little like a canopy.

Otherwise, we're stuck with a stump.

How's that for you, Rickious? Bear in mind that the tree model would have to be pretty damn big but not be so big that it caused us serious problems with cluttering the interiors. One thing I like about LR's huts is that they're super-small and easily managed. In fact, they could do with being a bit bigger but they're an interior modeller's dream...

[Koniption]

Here is a list of "Import" formats that Max supports (for Rickious's reference):
http://wiki.cgsociety.org/index.php/3ds_...le_Formats

(I can also import ".nif" format.)

I can texture and collision the models on my end, as I'll probably have to do that anyway. Rickious, if Rhino allow it, try to make your model(s) as low poly as possible right before export (but while still keeping a good enough shape). If you aren't able to do this, then I'll try to optimize the models on my end.

As for your description on how the two cities would be laid out...can you draw a picture for what you mean for each scenario?? I'm trying to picture your different setups in my head, and I think I understand the one about housing on the trunk interior floor with other housing up and on the sides of the inner trunk tower. But your other descriptions I'm not sure how to envision.

I like the idea of a watery interior.

I can try to implement a "fog" or minorly animated "cloud" system to hide upper parts of the tree. We might also be able to get away with using plain-leaved speedtree Oblivion shrubs to place on branches and branch ends, so that they act like tree leaves. What I'd do, is make a roughly complete tree, with branches, but no modelled leaves. If I need to, I can delete the branched parts and go solely with the fog/cloud effects.

For the interior's ceiling "sky and leaf" texture you mentioned, IG, see if you can also texture in branches within the leaf texure. If nothing else, just use the leaf texture.

This will be a lot of work, IG, so be prepared to wait. And....aren't I supposed to be on modding break?????! :eek: :lmao:

Koniption

[Rickious]

Hi all, good job this forum has email notifications for messages, keeps me in the loop when required.

Exporting in req rormats from Rhino3D is not a problem. Loy-poly-ising isnt too bad wither, I model exclusively in NURBS but NURB-to-poly conversion is esy enough so I will see what I can doo.

Can I suggest several flat planes as the interior sky? 2-4 singular or tiles flat surfaces of alpha channel leaves and branches, with a sunlight or dark top layer. This would have very very little effect on frame rate, but with the right textures and high up enough, would look great.

I still personally stand by my original idea of a circle of trees planted centuaries ago, over the years grown into one inpenitrable, solid wood wall., then an inner tree. The inner tree wouldnt have to be in the plan, the homes could simply be doors on the walls of the inside with walkways and bridges linking them together. This would mean a smaller diamerer on the interior cell. And height wise. Think similar to the higher bridges in the Oblivion realm. Maybe have the ground level, then the treetop level. These could be some distance apart, far enough to hide NPCs from view when looking up from the bottom or down from the top. Then the upper area would only have to be 2-3 'real' levels with various linking bridges, walkways, staircases, then the long gap up to the canopy and down to the floor.

I can do some vey basic models as concept art and see what you think?

[Koniption]

Hi Rickious !,

Your multiple flat planes idea for the interior ceiling leaves sounds good. We should be able to stick with that.

I like the idea of this tree city being made from many fused trees - explains why the single "tree" is so big in the first place, imo.

I'd say keep the inner tree tower for now - can be used for other things and fills up some otherwise empty space. If decorated or modded with other stuff right, the inner tree tower will be something nice to look at in the center of it all, at the very least. I would make with a pointed-like cap on the top of the inner tree tower (like what a cypress tree "knee" looks like). I don't think the inner tree tower would have leaves, since it's hidden below other leaves that could potentially be blocking sunlight (the mupltiple leafy planes), so just make it look the shape of a bare cypress tree knee). If it somehow gets in the way in the end, I can delete it and fix the mesh appropriately.

Yeah! Do some concepts for us! I think they'll help us visualize what you're thinking.

Koniption

[Ibsen's Ghost]

I certainly have no problem with you sticking with that idea. Sounds good, Rickious. Good luck...looking forward to seeing what you come up with... :yes: