Whittling on a news item [now posted]

[Razorwing]

I'd like to publish a new news item, which would cover substantial news that has occured in our team since the last round of news items - i.e. since the last week of February and onward. Below is what I have so far.

Our website is kindof a community site since we don't have a webmaster, so if you'd like to pitch a subject for inclusion in this news item (or a separate news item) I would appreciate if you wrote the text you want included. But don't let that stop you from pitching suggestions anyway, because I might write about them if I feel I grasp the subject matter enough to do so. Also of course pitch suggestions for stuff I should change in case I misunderstood something that I write about.

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[big]W[/big]ork on our teaser mod is progressing at a steady pace. sandor has organized playtest and fixes the bugs that are reported in by ZDawg, Cambridge Spy, ed_conn, simonp92, InsanitySorrow and trebor197676. After the last bugs and kinks have been ironed out we're ready to release it. [strike]Our biggest concern in the latter stages of development has been FPS, since the Forgotten Garden is heavily detailed. We've streamlined it as much as we can and although the FPS may go down in certain places for players of medium-end video cards it's still playable.[/strike]

[big]S[/big]eniosh has been busy expanding his Glassmine quest in several ways, one of which is to connect it to our Great House Redoran questline. In our upcoming release of "Silgrad Tower v3.0" you'll be bequested by House Redoran to investigate some troubles in the glassmine, and it will soon become apparant that what may at first have seemed like a routine job will in fact be a long journey to the bowls of the massive, sprawling glassmine - ending in a showdown with an enemy equally mysterious as deadly...
[indent][/indent]The Glassmine is, as the name suggests, the one and only mine with rich deposits of glass crystals. It's even more original in that you can actually mine the ore with a pickaxe. It's spread out over seven large cells, and just exploring every nook and cranny of it will keep you busy for hours. Below are CS screenshots of the glassmine. I've increased the lighting to make them clearer.

[big]I[/big]n texture news n00biepl0x, who's made many many contributions to our mod in the past, created new textures for our Dunmer shop banners. Together with other shop banner textures created in the past, his work means we no longer have to rely on modified TES3 textures for our banners. At the same time his banner textures give a drastic, positive visual improvement to our mod. Below are a couple of examples of the banner textures he made recently:

[big]W[/big]e were joined by another texture artist recently, by the name of landmine.lieutenant. Among the creations made were a new mottled pot texture and a new texture for the often-used Redoran rug. Below are examples of ll's work.

[big]R[/big]azorwing's current focus is making models for Soluthis' new harbor. I'm basing my work on a design by Kuukulgur, though my interpretation of his design is rather loose since it has such broad detail. The job includes a fair amount of animation, and I'm fortunate to have the help and advice of nick_op, Koniption and SaidenStorm as I try to get into the field of morph animations. Among the ships moored at the city's docks will be Koniption's Dres Scuttler ship, joined by my little skiff and potentially a wholly new ship design as well. You can read more about my development, and see oodles of screenshots and videos, in my dev thread. Below are a few wip screenshots.

[sandor]

Originally posted by Razorwing
I'd like to publish a new news item, which would cover substantial news that has occured in our team since the last round of news items - i.e. since the last week of February and onward. Below is what I have so far.

Great.



Regarding the teaser.

The past two days I systematically dismantled (using the Gecko) the exterior garden, removing thousands of objects.

After removing an object category like small rocks, large rocks, flora etc. I tested the FPS. The problems remained so I am quite sure it's not related to the overall level of detailing.

This was also suggested by Ed --> my research continues.

[Razorwing]

Originally posted by sandor

Originally posted by Razorwing
I'd like to publish a new news item, which would cover substantial news that has occured in our team since the last round of news items - i.e. since the last week of February and onward. Below is what I have so far.

Great.



Regarding the teaser.

The past two days I systematically dismantled (using the Gecko) the exterior garden, removing thousands of objects.

After removing an object category like small rocks, large rocks, flora etc. I tested the FPS. The problems remained so I am quite sure it's not related to the overall level of detailing.

This was also suggested by Ed --> my research continues.

Okidoki, I struck the part about the FPS problems. I had gotten that impression from a post which said something to the effect of that the teaser works on a high and stable FPS level for players with high-end graphics cards, although I might not have gotten the full picture from reading that comment.

[Koniption]

The current newsbits you've got already sound good to me.

( And I was mentioned by name, too! Whee! :] )

Koniption

[Razorwing]

It would be tantamount to a crime not to highlight your contributions, Koniption



Okidoki then everything about the news item seems good to go. I'll publish it shortly.