Best Morrowind Texture Pack?

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

There was actually a decent face mod which retained original faces (probably somewhat improved in quality) and added new ones for less significant npcs (and pc). What was especially refreshing is that new faces avoided supermodel/manga shit and varied from quite ugly to pretty good-looking.
Sadly I don't remember the name of the mod, but I think Ghan-buri-Ghan was one of the responsibles for it.

Right here, chum.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... ail&id=335

 

[Clockwork Knight]

all of the "improved faces" mods are shit too, unless you want to play with Manga-looking dolls. the only decent one is the oldest one made, I think it's called something like "Vvardenfell visages vol. 1". there's a thread on the TES forums by a guy called Afroking comparing screenshots of all of them, but I will have the decency not to link it here.

I remember World of Feces Faces being good too, keeping the general appearance of the characters instead of changing them completely (i.e., Fargoth still looks fugly). I play with vanilla models, though. Good looking models + stiff, robotic animations = fucking nightmare.

 

[Tel Velothi]

I always thought that vanilla textures was always the best. I hated this colorfulshit textures pack that completely lacked of atmosphere.
But trust me on this - Connary's Texture Pack are as good as vanilla in terms of atmosphere. Too bad he deleted it from internets but thank God - I've made personal copy.

Here's some pics of that:

Seyda Neen:
Caldera at night
Basement of shack I've made some time ago (just look at this incredible level of detail on these textures):

If someone wants it - zip file of all Connary's Textures weights 200mb, so I can upload it and you can try it out.

 

[hakuroshi]

Right here, chum.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... ail&id=335

Yes, World of Faces, thanks.

 

[villain of the story]

But trust me on this - Connary's Texture Pack are as good as vanilla in terms of atmosphere. Too bad he deleted it from internets but thank God - I've made personal copy.

LOLWUT? Why? Modder drama?

If someone wants it - zip file of all Connary's Textures weights 200mb, so I can upload it and you can try it out.

I'd appreciate that.

edit: oh wait, those textures in the screenshot look nothing like the vanilla. Not the style or the atmosphere of the vanilla game. He turned houses made of irregularly sized and placed stones into one made with regularly placed stone bricks. Apart from the visual feel, it makes a world of difference when you think about the practical implications in the game world. So fuck that shit. If this is what you call as good as vanilla, then perhaps it's for the best that he tried to wipe his own work.

 

[coldcrow]

I liked this: http://www.stevemv.com/other/enhancemen ... index.html

Texture changes are quite lowkey and you dont have to install the better bodies etc.

 

[Ruprekt]

The worst retexture I found had bullet holes in the walls.

 

[villain of the story]

The thing MW needs retexturing the most is the metallic surfaces. I found the lack of shaders and the shitty style they tried to reflect metals terribly annoying all the way back at the release. That kind of thing had already ceased to be an artistic problem a couple years earlier.

 

[Ruprekt]

YMMV of course but I think the MGE shaders are rather beautiful even if you keep the view distance low.

Ya ya bloom codex rage etc but this is quite nice imo: the sun rising over the Vivec Temple

 

[sgc_meltdown]

An in-combat shot or indoor shot would be more convincing. Scenes with light blotting out 80% of detail or godray wankfests are not incline.

 

[Ruprekt]

One of the issues with morrowind is the draw distance and hence a large part of what you see outdoors is a plain gray fog.

My "case" (wasn't aware I was supposed to be making one) is that the MGE shaders ameliorate this by adding a horizon 'glow' which, while not realistic, is atmosphetic... hence I think the screenshot I posted is representative.

re: "in-combat" I don't think shaders are going to do anything for you there. Character models animate badly and are doll-like by todays standards, the aesthetic appeal of morrowind has always been the environments.
re: indoor the SSAO shader works well (but is demanding).

More impressive is the XE release of MGE which adds real time environment shadows (i.e. buildings, trees etc leave shadows based on the position of the sun). I haven't tried that though.

- The water in that screenshot is generated with the vertex shader and varies in height but that's not something you can really discern from a still image.

 

[DraQ]

YMMV of course but I think the MGE shaders are rather beautiful even if you keep the view distance low.

Ya ya bloom codex rage etc but this is quite nice imo: the sun rising over the Vivec Temple

Ok, I admittedly don't see sunrises very often, but they tend to not make everything look like it was hit by a fucking Tzar Bomba. If the sun is shining from behind the cantons, then how the fuck are they glowing like that? Are they incandescent because they are being fucking vaporized inside a nuclear fireball?

I'd blame the Baar Dau (Ministry of Truth) finally falling and vaporizing the fuck out of everything in giant hypervelocity impact event, but it still hangs there so what the fuck?

Truly, of the .

 

[Hoaxmetal]

I have seen the light.

 

[Ruprekt]

Yep it's totally unrealistic. It's pretty though and at least gives you some sense of a sunrise rather than looking at a grey outline on a grey background. Not being Cleve I've never looked into the face of a nuclear inferno and had it look into me, so I can't comment on the tzar bomba analogy.

And come on... ziggurats burning with golden light is awesome.

 

[DraQ]

Yep it's totally unrealistic. It's pretty though and at least gives you some sense of a sunrise rather than looking at a grey outline on a grey background. Not being Cleve I've never looked into the face of a nuclear inferno and had it look into me, so I can't comment on the tzar bomba analogy.

And come on... ziggurats burning with golden light is awesome.

Except Vivec isn't quite a mysterious city of gold (it isn't even a city of Light! Magic!) and you cannot fly solar powered Dwemer metal bird in Morrowind.

My contribution to this thread:

Morning view from Fort Darius with MGE + distant land + carefully tweaked distance fog + no texture replacers nor additional shaders beyond MGE enhanced water.

 

[Ruprekt]

That's the alternative. I just don't like having the draw distance up beyond 2 cells.

What are your settings for the fog? Maybe I'll try that if you'll permit.

 

[FatCat]

My screens.This is on 3 cells.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I like this one.

The rest, well, the trees look a little too earthlike for my taste.

The clouds in the night sky shot look rather flat.

 

[DraQ]

That's the alternative. I just don't like having the draw distance up beyond 2 cells.

What are your settings for the fog? Maybe I'll try that if you'll permit.

0 to 3 on the land, -2 to 1 under water, 0 to 0.9 in interiors.

Draw distance set to 15 cells, but you can get away with low detail distant land mesh and not statics too far beyond visibility range (very large statics up to 6 cells away).

Those aren't the exact settings I used for the screen, since it's pretty old and I reinstalled and had to retweak MGE, but should be close enough.

Feel free to tweak them yourself and post any improvements you may make.

Also, do note that it still renders distant land you can't see as anything but foggy silhouette on the horizon, so it will nom your resources.

I may tweak it later on to include godrays or something, but that's just because I'm gay for pretty lighting.

 

[corvus]

DraQ's screenshot is very similar to how I setup my Morrowind. I can't understand why anyone would want to extend the fog distance to anything beyond 6 cells or more, it reminds me that Morrowind was pretty much like Oblivion and Fallout in theme park design but the only thing holding back that feeling was the oppressive fog.

Anyway, has anyone tried Redesigned Vivec? It pretty much conflicts with any mod that changes the city, but it does wonders for making it a real city of canals and not a tedious copy-pasted series of ziggarats.

 

[FatCat]

Sunrise on tweaked MGE.

 

[DraQ]

DraQ's screenshot is very similar to how I setup my Morrowind. I can't understand why anyone would want to extend the fog distance to anything beyond 6 cells or more, it reminds me that Morrowind was pretty much like Oblivion and Fallout in theme park design but the only thing holding back that feeling was the oppressive fog.

Don't forget about convoluted terrain that made walking distances much larger than distances in the straight line.

Anyway, has anyone tried Redesigned Vivec? It pretty much conflicts with any mod that changes the city, but it does wonders for making it a real city of canals and not a tedious copy-pasted series of ziggarats.

This mod looks pretty cool, but it robs the city of its hallmark tiered bridges and makes it look terribly flat. Now, put those exact same mini towns on top of the original ziggurats and some buildings around on different tiers, maybe add some mini-city platforms around original, towering cantons and I'm sold.

 

[corvus]

At least Morrowind was better put together than Oblivious, being a frontier territory and fantasy form of the Wild West basically. undead hordes and necromancers in ruins 50 feet away from a major "city" in the continent's most densely populated and cosmopolitan province? thisisdumb

This mod looks pretty cool, but it robs the city of its hallmark tiered bridges and makes it look terribly flat. Now, put those exact same mini towns on top of the original ziggurats and some buildings around on different tiers, maybe add some mini-city platforms around original, towering cantons and I'm sold.

Yeah it kind've is, but I think it works well because the arena canton is largely unchanged along with the Ministry of Truth and palace, so these all act as distinctive landmarks and gives the city a greater sense of scale. It's like the architectural form of LARPing since it's all in your head, but I just couldn't stand those fucking indistinguishable pyramids anymore.

Also, there was another mod that did pretty much what you suggested with just "opening" the tops of the cantons, making them more like Molag Mar. Can't remember the name though.

EDIT: Here it is: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... il&id=7688

(The new color scheme of the site is almost as offensive as the Bethsoft forums)

 

[villain of the story]

I thought the vanilla cantons were cool. They felt oppressive and authoritative, sort of dehumanising and counter-individualistic, as if to remind the Dark Elves of who they are and where they belonged as well as giving a certain impression of being unconquerable due to the design, like a message to outsiders: this is our domain, if you're coming in, we'll see about whether you're going back out. And yet, they were almost totally deserted, which made them feel like residual landmarks of fading symbols of power in the midst of a culture evolving and moving along with new influences. That's what I thought of when I first played the game anyway. Of course, that latter (deserted feel) might be due to the technical limitations, what with the entire game having so few NPCs around.

I think the bigger design issue with the vanilla cantons is the interior design. Just so utterly shit and uninspiring. That mod DraQ linked to looks somehwat nice, though. I'd expect a more exotic solution for the ceilings, something organic perhaps that could show or obstruct skyview. This looks somewhat cheap.

 

[DraQ]

Also, there was another mod that did pretty much what you suggested with just "opening" the tops of the cantons, making them more like Molag Mar. Can't remember the name though.

EDIT: Here it is: http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/V ... il&id=7688

I tried it, but reverted for some reason, even though it was generally nice. It also puts inordinate strain on your rig.

I thought the vanilla cantons were cool. They felt oppressive and authoritative, sort of dehumanising and counter-individualistic, as if to remind the Dark Elves of who they are and where they belonged

You seem to have nailed what I like in the original and feel severe lack of in modded versions.

My main beef with original Vivec weren't giant monolithic cantons, but the fact that their scale was pretty much wasted without some reference for them to dwarf.

Compare the upper piece of concept art with in-game Vivec:

http://imperial-library.info/sites/default/files/gallery_files/mw_TAoM_p20.jpg

Notice the fragment of giant monolithic Canton in upper left - they were meant to be like that, but without smaller platforms crowded with ordinary buildings, with plazas and such stuff the sense of scale is no longer there.

(Also it reminds me of supposed entire districts built on bridges in the Imperial City, and the miserable failure it was in oblivious - at least Vivec remained majestic and huge. )

That mod DraQ linked to

Wait, what?