UPDATE: I am no longer working on this mod -- however its still comprehensive enough to play and enjoy, so continue to use it!

I am looking for a modder/texture artist to complete/refine this mod. Please message me if you're interested.


DWARVEN METAL RUINS
http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5124

I was unhappy with the Witcher/LOTR style architecture for dwarven buildings so I decided to spend some time retexturing the interiors of dwemer ruins to give it that foreign feel I experienced in Morrowind.

TO INSTALL

Extract the file to your SteamApps/Common/Skyrim/Data

TO UNINSTALL

Simply delete the dwemerruins folder from your SteamApps/Common/Skyrim/Data/Textures/ Dungeons/ folder
(if you installed any other dwemer texture overhauls you may need to install them again)

ISSUES:

• Very few textures are still persistent

FUTURE PLANS:

• Add more diversity between ceilings, floors and walls
  
• Remove a lot of debris from cell interiors
  
• Resolving textures that are still stone

SCREENS

http://i40.tinypic.com/ezihc9.jpg | http://i43.tinypic.com/15d9vgx.jpg | http://i41.tinypic.com/23wntld.jpg |http://i40.tinypic.com/15xn3bm.jpg | http://i44.tinypic.com/2vdmou9.jpg | http://i43.tinypic.com/in5pw5.jpg |http://i39.tinypic.com/28tz3es.jpg | http://i39.tinypic.com/msj5a1.jpg |

http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5124

or

http://www.tesvskyrim.com/skyrim-content-4-full-metal-dwemer-interiors

Definitely an improvement on the too "classical" dwarven architecture of Skyrim.

Dwemer ruins in Morrowind used a fair amount of stone, IIRC. The textures look very good, but don't really scream "Dwemer" to me.

What I really want is the return of the "Dwemer armor is really just the casing from Steam Centurions" thing that was in Morrowind. At least one book (of, it must be admitted, dubious historical accuracy) claims that the Dwemer knew nothing of armoring themselves, preferring their centurions so much that they were actually surprised when what they thought was a centurion turned out to be someone wearing armor.

Granted, I did love the Dwemer Armor being Dwemer Centurions fallen apart idea of Morrowind. The book you are thinking of is one of Marobar Sul's tales, Chimarvamidium.

Keep in mind, this isn't Vvardenfell, City of the Hammer, ancient stronghold of the Dwemer. This is Skyrim, the Land of Men, where armor would probably be much more necessary.

I'm well aware that it's Marobar Sul's work, which is why I gave that parenthetical disclaimer. Sul's reliability is close to nil. But still. It certainly appeared to be true in Morrowind. At the very least, Dwemeri armor ought to be rarer.

As for personal protection, hiding behind centurions and using magic seemed to be the Dwemer's preference. They certainly had no shortage of hostiles in Resdayn (in the form of both Nords and Chimer), but yet actual armor was absent in Vvardenfell.


Really, actually, the biggest problem with Dwemer ruins in Skyrim is that there are so many of them. A few on the eastern border, near Morrowind, and then maybe Markarth itself as some sort of temporary stronghold of the Rourken clan as they followed Volundrung, should be just about it. Some Ayleid ruins in the south would be appropriate for replacing some of those, maybe.

But as it is, the Dwemer ruins in Skyrim seem to be almost as prevalent as in Vvardenfell, which makes no sense. Before Skyrim, Stros M'Kai was supposed to be just about the only Dwemer ruin outside of Vvardenfell. Ancient Atmoran/Nordic cities a la Sarkaath would have been more appropriate (though why both the Ayleid and Atmorans randomly decided to live underground like the Dwemer, despite the Dwemer being named after this unusual habit, is just as bad).


Hmm, maybe I'll work on a mod to eliminate enormous numbers of Dwemer ruins, replacing them with Nordic or Ayleid ruins as appropriate, and making more of them above ground. Bethesda seems to think there's some rule that dungeons have to be underground...

I would just like to voice my support for this idea.

Unfortunately, my modding talents do not really lie in that area, nor do I really have the time to do it.

I don't recall any stone..unless you are referring to the exteriors. Its really hard to tell whats stone and whats rusty, corroded plate with such low res textures.

In your honest opinion, do the vanilla textures say Dwemer more than mine, though?

Looks good.

please upload to another site. I'd love the try this mod but can't DL from thenexus.

Thanks for making this Mike_and_ike, this is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Looking forward to future improvements!

Well, http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IihlvQBAqf0/TVLoRDAc0lI/AAAAAAAAAZI/a82lA-7vqdM/s1600/Morrowind+2011-02-09+13-23-52-22.jpg is an image that is what I remember (note that the red tint appears to be from lava around the corner). The pipes are corroded metal (far, far more corroded than yours), while the walls look like stone to me. Yeah, they're low-res, but that was the normal, standard wall that I remember seeing.

Well... yes. Your metal looks too smooth. Even if the wall I posted above is supposed to be corroded metal, it's so caked with rust that it appears to have a rough texture a la stone. Frankly, I think it is stone. Dwemer metal always struck me as very dull, matte, and rust-colored — even the armor in Morrowind had that. Yours looks too shiny.

I think theres a tolerable amount of rust on my textures. However, they probably can be further dramatized with the normal maps. I'll play around with the idea -- just remember, my vision for this idea was to make it metal -- not corroded to the point where it looks like stone again.

Oh, I'm totally OK with that! Certainly, if this how you want it, it's an excellent effort and the textures look great.

It's just that, to me, it should be either stone or metal-corroded-to-the-point-that-it-looks-like-stone.

Just to let you know, a lot of your normal maps don't fit the diffuse maps and most of the specular maps are off as well.

Personally I was never sure what was stone and what was metal on the Morrowind models. Hard to tell without a specular map, the textures were a bit weird as well so you couldn't find out by looking at the texture. But I agree with DragoonWraith - if it was metal it was definitely heavily corroded metal.

I always thought the Dwemer used two types of metal. The more expensive 'stainless' brass colored type, which was used for the centurions etc and the regular, corroding bronze colored metal, which was used for the pipes and architecture in general. Now in Skyrim there is only the brass type metal left, so guess I was wrong - or the Skyrim Dwemer were richer than the Morrowind Dwemer.

All of my specular maps should be off as I haven't reworked any, yet.

I'm a little confused on the normals not fitting the diffuse. Some may have placeholder normal maps..is that what you're referring to?

Some of the normal maps simply weren't made for the diffuse maps you have. Just like many of the specular maps - it's not about reworking them, they're simply completely different from the diffuse texture. It's like having the picture of a carrot in the diffuse texture, the picture of an apple in the normal map and the picture of a banana in the specular map. This will look very bad in game as you will see a weird effect where different textures shine through your texture like a watermark.

Ah yes, the place-holders.

Don't worry. It'll be addressed along with the specular maps in the next installment. I also understand that I have to totally redo them, thats what I meant by reworked.

On a side note, it seems Bethesda took advantage of that "watermarking" effect you mentioned when creating the swirl carvings for dungeons. They seem to be more reliant on the specular and normals than on the diffuse. I think thats pretty cool.

Can you upload this on another site so I can use it please?

http://www.tesvskyrim.com/skyrim-content-4-full-metal-dwemer-interiors

Tyvm

I released a newer version (0.6) which fixes all the specular maps (like Phitt mentioned earlier) as well as sharpened and fixed any normal maps.

I also posted some before and after screenshots on the Nexus.

The next version will be a small download, creating much more diverse and detailed ceilings and floors. Hopefully by then, the Creation Kit will be released and I can tackle some of the bigger problems.

I personally have always found it strange that ruined fort interiors always seem to be mainly underground. I mean, what kind of medieval-like fort goes something like 20 miles below the surface? My guess is that they just do that so they don't have to worry about confining it so much to the exterior of the structure while simultaneously ensuring that the dungeon remains a good size. I think there's better ways to make a good dungeon other than making it an underground labyrinth (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, of course), though.

Anyway, best of luck to the OP for fixing issues with the mod.

nice job on the retexture, but I think I like the originals better. To me it seems like in Skyrim the Dwemer essentially took over Snow Elf strongholds and just overhauled them, whereas in Morrowind they are meant to be purely dwemer creations in a land that was previously uninhabited. They look different because they are different.

I am 98% certain that it's simply a matter of the overworld being too small to accommodate 300+ above-ground "dungeon" complices.

I really do wish they had gone bigger and just spread everything out a lot more :/

Re: the actual mod: I plan on checking it out, because I thought all the stony-stoniness was a bit much and seemed like an attempt to turn the dwarves into somewhat generic fantasy dwarves.