Progress notes for Silgrad City.

[HeIsTheDarkness]

Useful links:
TES3 ST map and locations
There you can download old map.

I've made a grid - to divide city into exterior cells (24x30 cells) - attachment1

I've also created a version of map with cell coordinates (useful for navigating) - attachment2

maps are 1500x1200, and grid is 1 pixel wide, so make sure you have resolution 1600x1200+ or zoom in viewer

STATUS: flat landmass generated, setting walls in progress

[HeIsTheDarkness]

update: at last I've installed morrowind+trib+bm and ST
took me some time to get to Silgrad City (with tcl and tgm) - as i'm 1st lvl running spd in TES3 is REALLLY SLOW compared to TES4

I've examined the city - it's gorgeous compared to beth ones good work
During this I've made about 85 screenies which will assist us in planning layout.

Right now I'm going to completely remake landmass - change height from avg 5000 to avg 4200 - otherwise it will be hard to make ponds - land is too high (as water level is 4096)

In TES3 version there's only one pond, i'll add 2-3 more - due to houses scaling up in TES4 area of the city is larger

Wall layout resembles layout of walls in TES3, though it's far from being exact copy. We are going to keep lots of buildings from TES3 version in TES4, it'll allow to add some old quests much easier. But of course we will add lots more.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by HeIsTheDarkness
Right now I'm going to completely remake landmass - change height from avg 5000 to avg 4200 - otherwise it will be hard to make ponds - land is too high (as water level is 4096)

Did you know you can change the water height for individual cells? I have a quick info article on it on the faq board, the 'mountain lake' effect. I guess you've already reshaped your landmass, but if you find yourself in a similar situation later on it might be worth tooling with. I use it a lot when I don't want too long slopes around a little lake.

Oh, and if you happen to find a modeller for Silgrad City I'd be happy to send him or her the source max scenes for the exterior tile set. It has, among other things, a full wall system. I'd get to them eventually otherwise, but unfortunately I have to prioritize other things for at least two weeks. Let me know what you guys think.

[HeIsTheDarkness]

Hmm, few years ago I spent some time playing with 3D Max.

I can find and install latest version.

Is there any tutorial what to do with this scenes to make nifs?

It will not be a final version of nifs, as i'm no modeller and no artist, it'd probably be models without collision and with placeholder textures...but we need to start with anything..

Meanwhile I'm searching on russian forums...trouble is there's almost no modellers in russian TES community - 'Alessia Secrets' modders had to study 3d modelling by themselves..

[HeIsTheDarkness]

Progress:
1.RW sent me max scenes of Hlaalu models, so I'm going to add them to plugin (some are added, but they have no collision, only Tower Set has collision). It will take 2-3 days.
2. After 2.5 hours of experimenting I've understood how to make Oblivion display more cells. It will make easier editing in CS (can make it load all the city at once), examining it in-game. Also can make LOD work normally in big cities.
3. Enabling CS to load all cells now give ability to make overview map of the city (most of the buildings will be too small, but roads and water can be seen easily).

So, our plan is:
1. Import Hlaalu models with collision.
2. Make map, divide into districts, plan layout of parks,alleys, house blocks, large houses
3. Plan each district - type (rich people, administrative, poor, etc), what buildings it should contain, what buildings do we need, major NPC, etc
4. Work on exterior cells, creating buildings, alleys, parks,... If we find interior modeller by this time, then we'll be able to publish some claims.

[HeIsTheDarkness]

A few screenies to see how is it going.
First - overview of border between Upper Chambers - Eastside. Almost all the buildings will be shops (the farest big building is the most expensive inn in Silgrad City - and perhaps in all mod, the 3rd floor of it is one big luxury room. Roof can be accessed too. The 2nd building with 2 platforms is outpost, part of city guard infrastructure. Platforms are for guards to have better view)
2nd screenshot is the roof of the inn - if PC rents 3rd floor luxury room, he can enter the roof - there will be some furniture, tables, chairs, etc
3rd screenshot - entrance of the inn

This screenies are just to show what freedom Hlaalu tileset gives. No buildings will be the same, even in the Eastside where there will be LOTS of small buildings for workers and low-class people.

[HeIsTheDarkness]

another example - Bank of Silgrad
Includes main building and heavily guarded depositary.

Depositary can be accessed only through main building (or by means of levitation..though surprise will await those who try levitating near it)

on the top of main building is the tower - director's office

[sandor]

The city walls and the walls to separate the districts are in place including the guardtowers.

HeIsTheDarkness also fixed and expanded the Hlaalu exterior tileset, which Oom created for TES3.

We started with the (exterior) construction of the city meaning the Upper Chambers (for the rich and wealthy) District.

I attached a few screenshots of the Goldar Valen Estate in the Upper Chambers district (the garden is WIP).
The main building is exact one cell and has a face count of approx. 140000.

[TheImperialDragon]

I don't suppose we could get a canal to run through here?

[FLESH]

That looks pretty good. My only gripe was that it was too level. But closer inspection proved that it had bumps and hillocks :goodjob: