[Kirsty Collins]

So you'll be re-recording the entire sound gallery of Oblivion, while also adding your own? That seems like quite a huge project to be honest =/

I don't think this is what they're going for. Rereading it a couple times, I think they're simply planning to record new rumors/grunts/etc for all of the NPCs added by their High Rock mod. This is so that a NPC that you meet doesn't talk to you in an original recorded voice when you ask him about a quest, and then talk in a vanilla recorded voice when you ask him about the latest rumors. Remember how, in vanilla, the beggars spoke in different voices? They're trying to avoid that sort of thing.

[Batricia Alele]

Glad to see that this project is progressing well.
Love those pics Mr Siika!

[louise tagg]

Wow, really impressive work! Seeing projects like this makes me want to learn how to use the Construction Set and dedicate a few weeks to learning how to model. That would just play hell with my university grades :facepalm:

Are you working with Onra to make this mod compatible with the Tamriel Heightmaps?

I'm more than happy to give tutorials to begginers for the CS and for modeling, over MSN Messanger

And this isn't based on Onra's heightmaps, it's in it's own worldspace (there's also various conflicts that occur by having worldspace mods in the same worldspace as eachother, aka adding them into the Tamriel worldspace).

Before clicking the link:

"Oh, ANOTHER "NEW LAND COME AND SEE OMG!"-mod... yay -.-

Clicking:

"Hmm, this looks sort of decent. Several years in development... well, that can't hurt"

Pictures:
"WOW"

This certainly looks promising. Out of interest, how are you planning the development/release? Will you follow the "Release when done" approach, or release it in various betas with more and more added to the game?

Also, I read the interview, and this worried me slightly:

So you'll be re-recording the entire sound gallery of Oblivion, while also adding your own? That seems like quite a huge project to be honest =/

I don't think this is what they're going for. Rereading it a couple times, I think they're simply planning to record new rumors/grunts/etc for all of the NPCs added by their High Rock mod. This is so that a NPC that you meet doesn't talk to you in an original recorded voice when you ask him about a quest, and then talk in a vanilla recorded voice when you ask him about the latest rumors. Remember how, in vanilla, the beggars spoke in different voices? They're trying to avoid that sort of thing.

We hope to release a Beta at some point, but for the most part we go by "it's done when it's done", so we don't have a strict timeframe for releases.

And Fiore1300 is right, we aren't re-recording all the dialogue in Oblivion, only re-recording the minimum of what you need for a 'new' race (grunts, Disposition game responses, etc), which isn't more work than we can handle, and means you don't got switching between vanilla voices and High Rock's, similar to the affect with beggars.

[Bethany Short]

And this isn't based on Onra's heightmaps, it's in it's own worldspace (there's also various conflicts that occur by having worldspace mods in the same worldspace as eachother, aka adding them into the Tamriel worldspace).

Oh right, so travel by boat, not by foot.

I wasn't aware that having other provinces in the same worldspace caused problems. Elsweyr seemed to be incorporated well enough into the Tamriel worldspace, but then again, Elsweyr is right next Cyrodiil.

[Undisclosed Desires]

First screenshots of the Daggerfall temple of Kynareth:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple01.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple02.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple03.jpg

[helliehexx]

First screenshots of the Daggerfall temple of Kynareth:
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple01.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple02.jpg
http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr_siika/Highrock/daggerfallTemple03.jpg

Mr Siika, you are insane. I hope you port all your models to ESV when it comes out.

[Janeth Valenzuela Castelo]

That looks pretty incredible!

[Jade]

Mr Siika, you are insane. I hope you port all your models to ESV when it comes out.

I hope he actually moves onto it and is still as active there as he's been for Ob! Dayum.

[An Lor]

We'll see about that. Depends on how long it takes them to release it. I am not sure if I can still spend hours on mesh-making when I'm over thirty

[Yung Prince]

We'll see about that. Depends on how long it takes them to release it. I am not sure if I can still spend hours on mesh-making when I'm over thirty

I sure hope you've just turned 18.

[jason worrell]

Temple looks magnificent! Where do you find all those textures like that stone for temple and roofs and house walls?

I especially like that the houses are multi-storey. That's how I have imagined Henrik Ibsen's doll's house.

[Laura Mclean]

I sure hope you've just turned 18.

When I turned 18, computer games looked like http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/46/GTAIII_PS2_Beta_Drive-by.jpg

Temple looks magnificent! Where do you find all those textures like that stone for temple and roofs and house walls?

Thanks! All textures used on the temple are vanilla textures from the cathedral mesh(es). I found that it is much easier to use
vanilla textures if possible. This way, new meshes 'blend' better with the rest of the game.

[carla]

Thanks! All textures used on the temple are vanilla textures from the cathedral mesh(es). I found that it is much easier to use
vanilla textures if possible. This way, new meshes 'blend' better with the rest of the game.

I agree. I haven't recognised them. There are interesting textures inside though. I saw some MW screenshots that were supposed to be paintings probably, but haven't seen them in game ever.
And few days ago I tried to to make http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll54/pero_lozhach/Learning%20Blender/Clipboard02aaa.jpg and planned to use Leyawiin wall texture. Quite a few variations to choose from!

[Katharine Newton]

bu bu bump. Great stuff here.

[Brιonα Renae]

Woo! Someone's finally doing High Rock! <3

Hey, is there any chance it will ever work with Tamriel Heightmaps? There are several provinces being created for the unified form of TH, and if High Rock were adapted to it, then we'd have almost the entirety of Tamriel united!


That Elsweyr mod has a patch that allows it to work with TH, but I haven't looked at how it works...

[Ian White]

Woo! Someone's finally doing High Rock! <3

Hey, is there any chance it will ever work with Tamriel Heightmaps? There are several provinces being created for the unified form of TH, and if High Rock were adapted to it, then we'd have almost the entirety of Tamriel united!


That Elsweyr mod has a patch that allows it to work with TH, but I haven't looked at how it works...

High Rock is in it's own worldspace -and sadly Onra's Tamriel Heightmaps aren't lore friendly, they've all been scaled up and distorted (not to mention the engine isn't designed for such large worldspaces, High Rock would would almost certainly encounter problems if put in the Tamriel worldspace, most likely with LOD distortions).

[Jamie Moysey]

High Rock is in it's own worldspace -and sadly Onra's Tamriel Heightmaps aren't lore friendly, they've all been scaled up and distorted (not to mention the engine isn't designed for such large worldspaces, High Rock would would almost certainly encounter problems if put in the Tamriel worldspace, most likely with LOD distortions).

Hm, mine doesn't seem to be giving me any trouble. 'course, I haven't actually been to the landmass yet...
If I weren't so un-dedicated to things, I'd try my own hand at this province-modding. Perhaps more in preparation for TES:V. That'd be useful; getting the jump on things. But enough off-topic rambling (which is almost the entirety of who I am).

I'll definitely like to see what High Rock looks like, single-worldspace or not. Bretons are my favorite TES race, and it's the only place outside of Cyrodill where I'd actually feel fairly at-home.

[Kristina Campbell]

High Rock is in it's own worldspace -and sadly Onra's Tamriel Heightmaps aren't lore friendly, they've all been scaled up and distorted (not to mention the engine isn't designed for such large worldspaces, High Rock would would almost certainly encounter problems if put in the Tamriel worldspace, most likely with LOD distortions).

That's interesting. Could you explain what you mean with lore friendly regarding the heightmap? Are you modeling High Rock based on the Bethesda's official map then? (like this one http://fessicsfavorites.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/empire-of-tamriel.jpg ). Isn't it too small to be really epic and "lore friendly" in the true mean of the world?

I'm asking for this because I find that:

- the Daggerfall game is huge, it gives the player a sense of epic proportions.
- to model High Rock on Bethesda maps kills the epic sense I was referring previously.

I found the two mutually exclusive but I may be wrong. What are you conclusions from working on it?

Thank You

[Janette Segura]

High Rock is in it's own worldspace -and sadly Onra's Tamriel Heightmaps aren't lore friendly, they've all been scaled up and distorted (not to mention the engine isn't designed for such large worldspaces, High Rock would would almost certainly encounter problems if put in the Tamriel worldspace, most likely with LOD distortions).

That's a slightly inaccurate comment. Onra's heightmaps are lore friendly, as they follow as closely as is reasonably possible the shape of the provinces as shown on maps of Tamriel. However due to the terribly small scale of Cyrodiil found in TES4, keeping to that scale for each of the other provinces would have made them far too small, so Onra chose to rescale them (which of course forced some slight distortion when compared to maps of Tamriel) but they are basically the same shape. So they ARE lore friendly, they're just not lore-accurate.

And yes, there is a limit of worldspace size beyond which the game engine starts to get a bit jittery. I believe however that Onra's heightmaps don't reach these limits (I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure of this). Don't forget that the vanilla Tamriel worldspace is wider than it is tall, and most of the provinces being added by Onra extend north/south rather than east/west. Since Cyrodill extends further east/west than it does north/south, this allows for greater expansion north/south before reaching the limits.

[Lory Da Costa]

That's interesting. Could you explain what you mean with lore friendly regarding the heightmap? Are you modeling High Rock based on the Bethesda's official map then? (like this one http://fessicsfavorites.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/empire-of-tamriel.jpg ). Isn't it too small to be really epic and "lore friendly" in the true mean of the world?

I'm asking for this because I find that:

- the Daggerfall game is huge, it gives the player a sense of epic proportions.
- to model High Rock on Bethesda maps kills the epic sense I was referring previously.

I found the two mutually exclusive but I may be wrong. What are you conclusions from working on it?

Thank You

This is a very weird way of thinking. Daggerfall was huge because they made the gameworld very big, not the area it covered (which *is* a very small part of Tamriel, you can even see that when you choose your race in DF). They only thing they *did* change in regards of lore is the shape - but I can't see how the "epicness" of Daggerfall has anything to do with High Rock's shape. :huh:

The High Rock team could very well decide to go with Bethesda's new lore maps of High Rock, but still make it unreasonably huge - these aren't mutually exclusive. Especially since they're doing it in a new worldspace, they don't have to restrict themselves to Cyrodiil's measurements. However, they're not making a Daggerfall remake - they build High Rock, a province which was in part featured in Daggerfall. That is something completely different.

[Jake Easom]

That's a slightly inaccurate comment. Onra's heightmaps are lore friendly, as they follow as closely as is reasonably possible the shape of the provinces as shown on maps of Tamriel. However due to the terribly small scale of Cyrodiil found in TES4, keeping to that scale for each of the other provinces would have made them far too small, so Onra chose to rescale them (which of course forced some slight distortion when compared to maps of Tamriel) but they are basically the same shape. So they ARE lore friendly, they're just not lore-accurate.

And yes, there is a limit of worldspace size beyond which the game engine starts to get a bit jittery. I believe however that Onra's heightmaps don't reach these limits (I could be mistaken, but I'm fairly sure of this). Don't forget that the vanilla Tamriel worldspace is wider than it is tall, and most of the provinces being added by Onra extend north/south rather than east/west. Since Cyrodill extends further east/west than it does north/south, this allows for greater expansion north/south before reaching the limits.

Well said, I was trying to introduce and discuss that when I mentioned Daggerfall scale but I wasn't able to explain myself clearly and was misunderstood...

[luis dejesus]

This is a very weird way of thinking. Daggerfall was huge because they made the gameworld very big, not the area it covered (which *is* a very small part of Tamriel, you can even see that when you choose your race in DF). They only thing they *did* change in regards of lore is the shape - but I can't see how the "epicness" of Daggerfall has anything to do with High Rock's shape. :huh:

The High Rock team could very well decide to go with Bethesda's new lore maps of High Rock, but still make it unreasonably huge - these aren't mutually exclusive. Especially since they're doing it in a new worldspace, they don't have to restrict themselves to Cyrodiil's measurements. However, they're not making a Daggerfall remake - they build High Rock, a province which was in part featured in Daggerfall. That is something completely different.

I see, but I was not discussing a Daggerfall reconstruction (where did you get it, anyway?) but considering gameplay issues as well as lore. Given that lots of players found the epic scale of Daggerfall way better that the small-ish scale of Cyrodiil, it seems resonable to take that into account and not bash Onra's work (that, by the way, takes lore into account pretty well).

That's why I was asking for info about the proportions used for High Rock, I'm curious to learn what was choosen as a "lore-friendly" scale for the province.

[Terry]

I see, but I was not discussing a Daggerfall reconstruction (where did you get it, anyway?) but considering gameplay issues as well as lore. Given that lots of players found the epic scale of Daggerfall way better that the small-ish scale of Cyrodiil, it seems resonable to take that into account and not bash Onra's work (that, by the way, takes lore into account pretty well).

That's why I was asking for info about the proportions used for High Rock, I'm curious to learn what was choosen as a "lore-friendly" scale for the province.

It's 1:1 with Cyrodiil, as High Rock is being made with the philosophy 'the way Bethesda would have made it' (keeping to Lore, keeping to the same game mechanics, not using OBSE or other Third-Paty programs, same scale, and so on), but please no more discussions regarding Onra's heightmap, or the scale of the mod, because it's not something that's going to be changing (the discussion regarding it has long since passed).

Cheers,
The Old Ye Bard

[Danielle Brown]

It's 1:1 with Cyrodiil, as High Rock is being made with the philosophy 'the way Bethesda would have made it' (keeping to Lore, keeping to the same game mechanics, not using OBSE or other Third-Paty programs, same scale, and so on), but please no more discussions regarding Onra's heightmap, or the scale of the mod, because it's not something that's going to be changing (the discussion regarding it has long since passed).

Thank you for the clarifications, good luck for this project then .

[Sam Parker]

I see, but I was not discussing a Daggerfall reconstruction (where did you get it, anyway?)

I was talking about the scale and shape of High Rock, not about anything else. "This is not a DF remake" meant that nobody ever said that they were going to recreate Daggerfall's epic scale, which is what you were asking.
I guess that in your original post, you didn't mean "based on the official maps", because that doesn't make any sense - what you were trying to say was that using a smaller scale than that of DF kills the epic feeling. The maps have nothing to do with that.