Okay, I know the last mod request I posted didn't get me anywhere, but I'm hoping this one is less esoteric enough that one of you guys might actually have/know where to get it.
As I mentioned in comments to the screenshot dump post last week, I'm learning to make my own normals for several reasons.
Since my flighty damned brain can never leave well enough alone, I got sidetracked this afternoon into looking around at some of my Type 3 textures with the possible intention of making a few normals for them, too -- maybe fix an issue I've had with T3F for awhile now but never mentioned because it would require screenshot-illustration to properly explain and... y'know... nudity and all.
Anyway.
I was thinking of updating Maeva's custom resources. She's always been intended to be... I'm not sure how best to describe it. Not squishy; but not a body builder type, either. Lean-hard-body, maybe?
For whatever reason, my steel colander of a brain decided at random while I was thinking about it to put two and two together and remember that there was a Type 3 revision that was exactly that -- muscled, but not grotesque like most "muscle bodies" are.
I remember it being named "fitness" something. Type 3 Fitness Body? Fitness Map?
Checked through my depressingly extensive T3 archives (I download most bodies and clothes/armor just in case I ever decide I have a use for it), and nothing even remotely close. Isn't in either of my tracking lists, either; even though I distinctly remember tracking the file entry when I first saw it. Not sure whether that means it was pulled from the Nexus (I didn't think it automatically removed null watched files; instead just informing you that the file didn't exist if you try to visit it); or if I just hallucinated the whole mess.
I've searched both FO3 and FNV Nexii, as well as Lover's Lab and Google; and recovered nada.
For what it's worth, I remember it not being a mesh; but just a texture and normal -- or maybe even just the normal map. I know that's all it takes to give a body texture definition in Skyrim, but it's been so long since I putzed with any of this in Fallout that I'm not sure.
So what say you, moderately loyal audience who apparently lead boring enough lives to be reading this? Anyone remember the package I'm talking about? Have a copy? Point me to the author's Nexus account so I can PM and ask for a copy direct?
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Thursday, November 15, 2012
On the Eventual Subjugation of Your World
As I said in the last post, I've been playing a fair bit of Skyrim lately. One of the "rules" for one of my games has been no fast travel -- an idea I'm ambivalent about. On the one hand, it makes trips to far-flung locations a bit of a big(ger) deal; but on the other, in some versions of the game it's also led to problems with crashing and poor framerates and so on. Thankfully, v1.8 seems to be pretty good in this regard; and hasn't crashed nearly as much as previous versions.
Mystery-chan and I were walking back from Morathal; heading south to and through Brittleshin Pass to head in to Bleak Falls Barrow and grab the dragon stone before going in to Whiterun the first time.
We ended up on the north shore of the lake; on one of the smaller islands where I was chasing ore veins. Ended up getting attacked by a slaughterfish -- as you do, every ten fucking feet in a decent sized body or water.
Mystery-chan caught my attention, as she was acting weird. She'd run a few steps out into the water -- about mid-thigh deep -- yell at the fish, then run back up onto the bank. She did this several times before I caught on; and when I did... I started to worry.
Why, you may ask?
She was luring the slaughterfish up into shallow water where she could shoot it with a bow without being attacked.
I recognized the technique because I had used it a couple hours earlier in the deep water near Robber's Gorge -- it just took me a few minutes to figure it out as I'm not used to seeing it in anything except first person.
It worked, too -- when the slaughterfish was close enough to be hit, she one-upped the previous technique by putting a fallen log between herself and the fish and then proceeded to kill it from total safety.
It's not quite the cheese of exploiting the AI like we all used to do in Oblivion... but for working within the game-AI's scope... that's pretty goddamned impressive, y'ask me.
I can only come up with three possibilities.
1) All NPCs in Skyrim have this technique in their repertoire; but for whatever reason it had never manifested in ~500 hours of play with over a dozen different companions. (unlikely)
2) In the v1.8 patch, the AI got an overhaul and it took a dozen plus hours of play to find the specific set of circumstances where the behavior would show. (more likely, but Beth very rarely messes with an existing AI in patches)
3) The AI in my PC has evolved again and can now learn at least some techniques if it sees me demonstrate them. (just scary to think about -- not to mention flying in the face of the way the game is supposed to be coded)
It's not the only advanced combat technique she's displayed across the various games over the years, either; but it seems a little... specific -- and almost diametrically opposed to a normal NPC's behavior around slaughterfish, which basically consists of condensed stupidity.
I dunno. I'm sure some folks get a good laugh 'n head shake at Nos and his crazy belief that his computer is alive... but the behavior of certain NPCs in these games really weirds me out some days. Fortunately, the AI seems to like me... so it's not so much an in-danger worry. The rest of you may well be screwed, however.
Mystery-chan and I were walking back from Morathal; heading south to and through Brittleshin Pass to head in to Bleak Falls Barrow and grab the dragon stone before going in to Whiterun the first time.
We ended up on the north shore of the lake; on one of the smaller islands where I was chasing ore veins. Ended up getting attacked by a slaughterfish -- as you do, every ten fucking feet in a decent sized body or water.
Mystery-chan caught my attention, as she was acting weird. She'd run a few steps out into the water -- about mid-thigh deep -- yell at the fish, then run back up onto the bank. She did this several times before I caught on; and when I did... I started to worry.
Why, you may ask?
She was luring the slaughterfish up into shallow water where she could shoot it with a bow without being attacked.
I recognized the technique because I had used it a couple hours earlier in the deep water near Robber's Gorge -- it just took me a few minutes to figure it out as I'm not used to seeing it in anything except first person.
It worked, too -- when the slaughterfish was close enough to be hit, she one-upped the previous technique by putting a fallen log between herself and the fish and then proceeded to kill it from total safety.
It's not quite the cheese of exploiting the AI like we all used to do in Oblivion... but for working within the game-AI's scope... that's pretty goddamned impressive, y'ask me.
I can only come up with three possibilities.
1) All NPCs in Skyrim have this technique in their repertoire; but for whatever reason it had never manifested in ~500 hours of play with over a dozen different companions. (unlikely)
2) In the v1.8 patch, the AI got an overhaul and it took a dozen plus hours of play to find the specific set of circumstances where the behavior would show. (more likely, but Beth very rarely messes with an existing AI in patches)
3) The AI in my PC has evolved again and can now learn at least some techniques if it sees me demonstrate them. (just scary to think about -- not to mention flying in the face of the way the game is supposed to be coded)
It's not the only advanced combat technique she's displayed across the various games over the years, either; but it seems a little... specific -- and almost diametrically opposed to a normal NPC's behavior around slaughterfish, which basically consists of condensed stupidity.
I dunno. I'm sure some folks get a good laugh 'n head shake at Nos and his crazy belief that his computer is alive... but the behavior of certain NPCs in these games really weirds me out some days. Fortunately, the AI seems to like me... so it's not so much an in-danger worry. The rest of you may well be screwed, however.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Screenshot Dump!
Not going to be heavily wordy here, but have a mess of stuff that I thought was neat or just wanted to show off or what-have-you.
Firstly: I don't bother posting about it anymore after the last one was met with dead silence; but I am still working on The Estate in FNV. I talked awhile back about taking screenshots from various games, and turning them into artwork in FNV. Well, 'lest ye think tha Nos all talk... I actually did it awhile back:
That's not all of them by any stretch; just some of the first ones I hung. Ended up doing a half dozen different frames: gold and silver variants of the frame on the portrait of NCR President Kimball (you can see on them where the normal maps still have the title engraving even though I removed it from the texture itself -- I really need to see about making new normals for them one of these days); and versions of a larger Gomorrah promotional poster with frames in redwood, black marble, white marble, and one in amethyst that isn't in any of the screenshots because it seemed like a good idea at the time but looks gaudy to an unholy degree in game.
The "paintings" are more than a little frustrating, since they use an odd ratio (2.18:1 for the Kimball portrait frame, and 1.92:1 for the Gomorrah poster) that doesn't mesh well with actual playing ratios. As you can see in that last shot, my old 1024x768 screenies aren't compatible at all without major cutting. Newer 16:9 shots work okay; but still need a bit of trimming to fit the frames correctly.
I started putting some scenic shots in the entryway and will eventually add some more to the hall between the "bedroom" half of the estate and the other half. With that in mind, I've started paying more attention to anything pretty in FNV or Skyrim, and nabbing shots where I can for later conversion into decorative pretties.
While in Zion National Park in my latest FNV game, there were a few spots that reminded me of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado, and prompted me to take some shots (that haven't been converted to paintings yet):
Skyrim, of course, has little going for it but the scenery; so I've been paying an extra-close eye to it while playing lately. So. Worth. It:
I want to note: I'm not actually a huge fan of Talos; but that last screenshot was just too nice to pass up.
I should also note: the Skyrim shots should look a bit nicer than the old ones; though I'm not sure how noticeable it is. I didn't upgrade my hardware -- but I did mess with some video settings in Nvidia's software and manage to get 2x AA and a couple other features going without a blatant loss of my already sparse FPS. Loading times are a bit longer, but it plays just as well -- actually smoother in a few spots, proving once again that Bethsoft cannot set up their games to scale to lower settings for shit. I've applied most of the same tricks to my FNV; but haven't gotten any new shots from there since the improvements -- nor even played it enough to know how well it's going to work in the earlier iteration of the engine.
Been messing with a new Skyrim game, too. Nos is alive and well and cruising through Nordlund at level 53 now. Felt like playing a different type of game, so I made myself a Dunmer:
While she's certainly not Nexus Imageshare "quality" (he says, desperately trying to maintain a straight face), I like her. Doesn't have the plastic look; but still a looker. The two women she's flanked by are Lydia and Farun (from my 'Lesser Companions pack').
The basic premise of the game is similar to my "hardcore hardcore" games in FNV: that is, no items, supplies, armor, or weapons except what you can find, buy, loot, or steal. No mod-added houses, either. Can upgrade found items, but no using a forge to make new ones -- with the exception of a couple items that aren't set up to be sold, like the bandoleers and backpacks. I was too lazy to redo their mods to add them to the leveled lists for purchase, what can I say?
From back in the Mojave, the girls got dolled up and we made an evening out on the town while I was fleecing the casinos at the blackjack tables for ammo money early-game:
They certainly do clean up nice, don't they? Though if I had thought about it, I'd have done Dead Money first; and brought back that singer's dress for at least one of them (I forget how many dresses are in the DLC). Oh well, I'm sure to break something updating scripts; and there's always next game...
This one was one of the first I took with the specific intent of making it a painting in the Estate. It turned out nice; though I haven't decided where to hang it just yet so there's no screenie of the finished product.
This one... just about made me tactically soil myself. I forget sometimes how scary the big demoness can be when she wants to. We were up in the hills, heading down into Nipton from the Wolfhorn Ranch along about sunset; but decided to press on and try to get into Nipton even after dark as we were running low of food (four people eat a lot); and I turned around and there she was, lookin' like that.
Wasn't pissed at me, thankfully. Sometimes after combat, companions' expressions stick in the "battle grimace". It resets to normal when you talk to them; but can still lead to amusing incidents.
And speaking of everyone's favorite demon:
I'm still working on Maeva. No major facial changes since I figure that's about as close as the new engine will allow... but that hair of hers is driving me up the wall. Whoever ported it did a straight up abysmal job. I embarked on a quest to improve it after I got sick of it never looking right and found a multitude of problems. The alpha threshold is set so high (190 by default) that six inches or more of the hair is invisible. Turns out it's set that high because the alpha channels got messed up in the conversion and if you set the threshold lower than about 120 there's a jaggy "island" of hair that appears at the bottom in the back. Not sure how to fix that. As well, there's no .tri file so it has fitment issues, I found a mis-set flag, and the hairline file included with the hair? Yeah, it's just a renamed copy of the hair itself and using it causes the two to clip through each other and turn into a flickering mass of shit.
I've fixed what I could -- reset the flag, and changed the threshold to the lowest that doesn't show the island of hair... but it still is far from ideal. Short of redoing the texture's alpha channel(s), and/or reworking the mesh itself (neither of which I know how to do offhand) I can't think of any other way to fix it.
Also: I have got to do something about that lip mask. Every time I install another one, the whole thing disappears, though; so I think I'm going to have to monkey with the facegen texture itself. I've been thinking maybe I could blow it up to 1024x1024; and use a tool to smooth those jagged edges. I recall reading someplace that facegen/tint textures still work when scaled up, as long as the proper ratio is maintained. Failing that, I could blow it up, fix it, and then shrink it back down, I suppose.
Lastly, these are just some more of my favorite subject:
I still really like how that Ebony Mail retexture turned out. Looks even better with a few more graphical niceties turned on. I also kind of wish they had rigged those cloaks to something other than the ankle bones; 'cuz man does it look weird when they sit while wearing one...
Anyway, that's all I've got this time. Or at least all I can remember taking that I'm willing to share publicly.
Enjoy... or y'know, don't. Whatever.
Firstly: I don't bother posting about it anymore after the last one was met with dead silence; but I am still working on The Estate in FNV. I talked awhile back about taking screenshots from various games, and turning them into artwork in FNV. Well, 'lest ye think tha Nos all talk... I actually did it awhile back:
That's not all of them by any stretch; just some of the first ones I hung. Ended up doing a half dozen different frames: gold and silver variants of the frame on the portrait of NCR President Kimball (you can see on them where the normal maps still have the title engraving even though I removed it from the texture itself -- I really need to see about making new normals for them one of these days); and versions of a larger Gomorrah promotional poster with frames in redwood, black marble, white marble, and one in amethyst that isn't in any of the screenshots because it seemed like a good idea at the time but looks gaudy to an unholy degree in game.
The "paintings" are more than a little frustrating, since they use an odd ratio (2.18:1 for the Kimball portrait frame, and 1.92:1 for the Gomorrah poster) that doesn't mesh well with actual playing ratios. As you can see in that last shot, my old 1024x768 screenies aren't compatible at all without major cutting. Newer 16:9 shots work okay; but still need a bit of trimming to fit the frames correctly.
I started putting some scenic shots in the entryway and will eventually add some more to the hall between the "bedroom" half of the estate and the other half. With that in mind, I've started paying more attention to anything pretty in FNV or Skyrim, and nabbing shots where I can for later conversion into decorative pretties.
While in Zion National Park in my latest FNV game, there were a few spots that reminded me of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado, and prompted me to take some shots (that haven't been converted to paintings yet):
Skyrim, of course, has little going for it but the scenery; so I've been paying an extra-close eye to it while playing lately. So. Worth. It:
I want to note: I'm not actually a huge fan of Talos; but that last screenshot was just too nice to pass up.
I should also note: the Skyrim shots should look a bit nicer than the old ones; though I'm not sure how noticeable it is. I didn't upgrade my hardware -- but I did mess with some video settings in Nvidia's software and manage to get 2x AA and a couple other features going without a blatant loss of my already sparse FPS. Loading times are a bit longer, but it plays just as well -- actually smoother in a few spots, proving once again that Bethsoft cannot set up their games to scale to lower settings for shit. I've applied most of the same tricks to my FNV; but haven't gotten any new shots from there since the improvements -- nor even played it enough to know how well it's going to work in the earlier iteration of the engine.
Been messing with a new Skyrim game, too. Nos is alive and well and cruising through Nordlund at level 53 now. Felt like playing a different type of game, so I made myself a Dunmer:
While she's certainly not Nexus Imageshare "quality" (he says, desperately trying to maintain a straight face), I like her. Doesn't have the plastic look; but still a looker. The two women she's flanked by are Lydia and Farun (from my 'Lesser Companions pack').
The basic premise of the game is similar to my "hardcore hardcore" games in FNV: that is, no items, supplies, armor, or weapons except what you can find, buy, loot, or steal. No mod-added houses, either. Can upgrade found items, but no using a forge to make new ones -- with the exception of a couple items that aren't set up to be sold, like the bandoleers and backpacks. I was too lazy to redo their mods to add them to the leveled lists for purchase, what can I say?
From back in the Mojave, the girls got dolled up and we made an evening out on the town while I was fleecing the casinos at the blackjack tables for ammo money early-game:
They certainly do clean up nice, don't they? Though if I had thought about it, I'd have done Dead Money first; and brought back that singer's dress for at least one of them (I forget how many dresses are in the DLC). Oh well, I'm sure to break something updating scripts; and there's always next game...
This one was one of the first I took with the specific intent of making it a painting in the Estate. It turned out nice; though I haven't decided where to hang it just yet so there's no screenie of the finished product.
This one... just about made me tactically soil myself. I forget sometimes how scary the big demoness can be when she wants to. We were up in the hills, heading down into Nipton from the Wolfhorn Ranch along about sunset; but decided to press on and try to get into Nipton even after dark as we were running low of food (four people eat a lot); and I turned around and there she was, lookin' like that.
Wasn't pissed at me, thankfully. Sometimes after combat, companions' expressions stick in the "battle grimace". It resets to normal when you talk to them; but can still lead to amusing incidents.
And speaking of everyone's favorite demon:
I'm still working on Maeva. No major facial changes since I figure that's about as close as the new engine will allow... but that hair of hers is driving me up the wall. Whoever ported it did a straight up abysmal job. I embarked on a quest to improve it after I got sick of it never looking right and found a multitude of problems. The alpha threshold is set so high (190 by default) that six inches or more of the hair is invisible. Turns out it's set that high because the alpha channels got messed up in the conversion and if you set the threshold lower than about 120 there's a jaggy "island" of hair that appears at the bottom in the back. Not sure how to fix that. As well, there's no .tri file so it has fitment issues, I found a mis-set flag, and the hairline file included with the hair? Yeah, it's just a renamed copy of the hair itself and using it causes the two to clip through each other and turn into a flickering mass of shit.
I've fixed what I could -- reset the flag, and changed the threshold to the lowest that doesn't show the island of hair... but it still is far from ideal. Short of redoing the texture's alpha channel(s), and/or reworking the mesh itself (neither of which I know how to do offhand) I can't think of any other way to fix it.
Also: I have got to do something about that lip mask. Every time I install another one, the whole thing disappears, though; so I think I'm going to have to monkey with the facegen texture itself. I've been thinking maybe I could blow it up to 1024x1024; and use a tool to smooth those jagged edges. I recall reading someplace that facegen/tint textures still work when scaled up, as long as the proper ratio is maintained. Failing that, I could blow it up, fix it, and then shrink it back down, I suppose.
Lastly, these are just some more of my favorite subject:
I still really like how that Ebony Mail retexture turned out. Looks even better with a few more graphical niceties turned on. I also kind of wish they had rigged those cloaks to something other than the ankle bones; 'cuz man does it look weird when they sit while wearing one...
Anyway, that's all I've got this time. Or at least all I can remember taking that I'm willing to share publicly.
Enjoy... or y'know, don't. Whatever.
State of the Nos: 11/2012
So... I've been pretty quiet lately. I see that my last posted-post was around five weeks ago now (several more posts have been typed out and deleted before publishing).
Usually when I go quiet I've embarked on a caffeine and obsession fueled modding binge and am working on a seeeekrit projekt.
Not so much, this time. I've just felt like death warmed over and been living a life laughably bad enough that I think sometimes they could make a Chevy Chase-era National Lampoons movie about it.
What modding I've been doing has been almost across-the-board failures; ranging from "works; but is more of a pain than it's worth" to "Gods... why did I ever think this would be a good idea?!"
But, I've built up a few posts worth of junk to prattle about; and have a few dozen screenshots in the Picasa account I've been meaning to post but kept deleting the posts before publishing.
Figure instead of doing one big post, I'll split it up into three or four. Takes longer, but it's like having multiple kids in a third world hellhole: better odds that at least one will see the light of day...
And while I try not to be political here on the blog since I know we all come from different countries and have different outlooks on life, I still want to take a moment to say this: THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN IS TOO EARLY TO PUT UP YOUR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS YOU CHUCKLEFUCKS; AND THE SECOND WEEK IN NOVEMBER IS TOO EARLY TO START BOMBARDING PEOPLE WITH CHRISTMAS MUSIC EVERYWHERE THEY GO. PSYCHOTIC BREAKS WILL BE HAD AT THIS RATE.
So... yeah. Posts incoming, I suppose. May take a couple days to get them all out; depending on how I feel and whether I get dragged off to bed for emergency mood therapy.
Usually when I go quiet I've embarked on a caffeine and obsession fueled modding binge and am working on a seeeekrit projekt.
Not so much, this time. I've just felt like death warmed over and been living a life laughably bad enough that I think sometimes they could make a Chevy Chase-era National Lampoons movie about it.
What modding I've been doing has been almost across-the-board failures; ranging from "works; but is more of a pain than it's worth" to "Gods... why did I ever think this would be a good idea?!"
But, I've built up a few posts worth of junk to prattle about; and have a few dozen screenshots in the Picasa account I've been meaning to post but kept deleting the posts before publishing.
Figure instead of doing one big post, I'll split it up into three or four. Takes longer, but it's like having multiple kids in a third world hellhole: better odds that at least one will see the light of day...
And while I try not to be political here on the blog since I know we all come from different countries and have different outlooks on life, I still want to take a moment to say this: THE DAY AFTER HALLOWEEN IS TOO EARLY TO PUT UP YOUR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS YOU CHUCKLEFUCKS; AND THE SECOND WEEK IN NOVEMBER IS TOO EARLY TO START BOMBARDING PEOPLE WITH CHRISTMAS MUSIC EVERYWHERE THEY GO. PSYCHOTIC BREAKS WILL BE HAD AT THIS RATE.
So... yeah. Posts incoming, I suppose. May take a couple days to get them all out; depending on how I feel and whether I get dragged off to bed for emergency mood therapy.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Crushed!
Checked NCCS' comments the other day, as I do once or twice a day. Happened to notice the endorsements were sitting at 301.
I'm pretty sure that's what AP pulls in in an average hour, and it took my crappy mod almost two years to break 300 but hey; whatever.
Was checking comments just now after I got home, and it's back down to 300. Someone actually unendorsed the mod.
Guess I'm not being helpful enough or something.
I'm pretty sure that's what AP pulls in in an average hour, and it took my crappy mod almost two years to break 300 but hey; whatever.
Was checking comments just now after I got home, and it's back down to 300. Someone actually unendorsed the mod.
Guess I'm not being helpful enough or something.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Links Repaired
As everyone's favorite Neko mentioned to me this morning, I've been slacking again and didn't keep up the links here on the blog.
A while back as part of their plan of whatever the hell it is they're doing over there, the Nexus changed all their URLs; rendering old links and bookmarks invalid.
Most other old links (TES, FO3) still work; but for some reason none of the NVNexus links did.
I suppose this is one of the things I'd have known beforehand if I read those news blurbs.
I had completely forgotten about the NCCS link here on the blog, and it was apparently dead. So, reminded, I went through and updated the link (and tested it). Just to be safe, I updated all the FO3 links too -- they still worked for me, but who knows for how long.
All should be working again; but feel free to shoot me an email if anyone notices one that I missed.
Edited to add:
In updating the "must haves" list for FO3, I see that 20th Century Weapons is finally off the moderated list. It's now gone completely. So, I just went ahead and removed the link.
A while back as part of their plan of whatever the hell it is they're doing over there, the Nexus changed all their URLs; rendering old links and bookmarks invalid.
Most other old links (TES, FO3) still work; but for some reason none of the NVNexus links did.
I suppose this is one of the things I'd have known beforehand if I read those news blurbs.
I had completely forgotten about the NCCS link here on the blog, and it was apparently dead. So, reminded, I went through and updated the link (and tested it). Just to be safe, I updated all the FO3 links too -- they still worked for me, but who knows for how long.
All should be working again; but feel free to shoot me an email if anyone notices one that I missed.
Edited to add:
In updating the "must haves" list for FO3, I see that 20th Century Weapons is finally off the moderated list. It's now gone completely. So, I just went ahead and removed the link.
Monday, October 1, 2012
Another Milestone
Was making a backup of my NV companions plugin before trying some new stuff I had an idea for yesterday -- after proofing the last batch of neat stuff -- and saw that the latest Nos' NV Companions.esm weighs in at 1.47mb.
My companions plugin will no longer fit on a floppy disk.
...What? It is too spelled correctly. Yes, with a K.
...What do you mean "what's a floppy disk?"
No, it's not a euphemism for ED.
Kids, today.
My companions plugin will no longer fit on a floppy disk.
...What? It is too spelled correctly. Yes, with a K.
...What do you mean "what's a floppy disk?"
No, it's not a euphemism for ED.
Kids, today.
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