Talu Swamp Development

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Deeza and I agreed to have a bit of a play beyond the beta regions. I have begun by landscaping approximately a quarter of the Talu Swamp region. This is an area about midway through the region and contains the settlements of Blackrose and Longmont. Blackrose is being conceptualised by Deeza right now. Once I upload this esp and have it merged then Deeza can use this area to create the new (small) city.

What you see here is a large swamp zone that could easily get someone lost as it's quite large and very monotonous. Fortunately, there are occasional vantage points that should help with navigation. The dry areas are the only places where you will be able to pick up useful flora as the swamps themselves are pretty much there to be avoided. Finally, the weather FX will not be as you see them here. There's not likely to be a great deal of sun around...which should help to reduce the glare on the water (in combination with the swampwater).

True to morcroft's word, the tropical trees that cover the dryland areas do indeed look much better in-game as the branches are pretty cool.

@ Deeza - Where Blackrose is located in the cell window, take a little look further North and you will find a strip of land. I thought this might be an ideal place to use a wooden walkway into the swamps that will form the entrance to the city. There could be a small jetty on the North side of that thin strip of land for anyone approaching via the river.

In order to begin work on Blackrose, clear out some of the trees and bamboo but try to avoid clearing out too much. It should be just enough so that the swamps meet up with the city walls. Inside, it should be okay to create a child worldspace. This should make modding easier as you will not be encumbered by the swamp features obscuring your view as you zoom out in the CS.

[Koniption]

Nice screenies, IG.

Does your graphics card do graphical glitches when running other programs, besides Oblivion?

KP

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, it does. I checked that. It's just that with Oblivion it's at its most signficant because the visuals are particularly strong. I don't really play games any more but I did try Half-Life 2 a short while back and the glitch is evident there too. It's just less evident and doesn't really get in the way of the games enjoyment.

[morcroft]

Looking excellent, Ibsen! It's really gratifying seeing those speedtrees put into the game by someone who knows what he's doing! I have to guess at the final effect when modelling.

Did the different seed values work as expected? I can't really tell from the screenies whether there are differently shaped versions of each tree or not.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, they worked fine. They're not exceptionally different but, to the avid gamer, they should be quite impressed by the variation. I think I managed to achieve a decent amount of variation in there anyway. The main thing from my own point of view is that you can really see the hanging moss when you glance upwards. It makes a world of difference. :yes:

[morcroft]

Yes - with these twisty trees most seed values wind up pretty unusable anyway so you have to select for fairly similar tree shapes. Still, I'm glad it's working out so well. :goodjob:

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Did you notice my comment on the tropical trees? They proved very useful as 'dryland trees' and I really liked the branch structure.... :yes:

[Deeza]

Those screens look absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to start building Blackrose in the middle of all that...

[morcroft]

@Ibsen - Yes I did notice: those are intended as more "jungley" trees so hopefully they can be useful in various places.

If I'm reading the state of play correctly the Naga-Cradle Jungle is generated but yet to be landscaped. I'd like to see these trees used to supplement the region gen rather than the bmjungletrees. I've mentioned before I'm not too keen on the bmjungletrees and I kind of had these in mind as a replacement.

[Deeza]

Bear in mind that there's also the possibility of using them in the Arnesia region in order to make it a variant from the standard jungle presets we used for Naga-Cradle.