Skyrim Realswords Project!

January 20th, 2012

Well Realswords Nord Has Been released! You guys can nab it here. Gonna keep updating this thread as I add more things.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12506

I spoke with Waalx recently and he gave me permission to port Realswords from WAC to Skyrim! I was thinking to do the port and share it on the Nexus,
with credit to him for everything along with a link to Waalx's donation box to help him while he's travelling. I ideally would like to make some kind of lore
for the swords in their relation to Skyrim, since its been a long time since the time Waalx appeared in Cyrodiil .

There's no real Construction Kit yet though, so I will probably do a simple implementation to start and increase from there.

I'm hopefully planning to port...pretty much all of the Realswords models, starting with the Nord and then Imperial to help with the war in the story. I was
going to give most of the weapons to each side...with some sort of lore based explanation...but I haven't come up with anything yet.

I had some ideas like... Me (as a character) would have been one of Waalx's trusted workers from his workshop who he left with all of his
work schematics while he went on a trip to other foreign lands. That me (from the past) would be the ancestor of the current me, who discovered
these work schematics from the past that my ancestor left behind. My father who was also a blacksmith like his forefathers would have carried down
the skill of smithing down to me, but I wouldn't relaly take much interest in it until after those schematics were passed down to me. The current me would
have gained a fascination in the schematics, books and lore left behind by Waalx and started to reforge the swords. However due to turmoil in Cyrodiil,
I took the schematics off into Skyrim to start a new life...something like that maybe? But I'm still an apprentice smith and I'm learning as I go, so everything
is not going to be perfect. (I"m actually learning Blender for the first time! So I'm learning a lot as I do this port!)

I know I'm terrible with stories, and honestly, I want(ed) Waalx to come up with something, since its his creation after all, I only changed the location. If he comes up with something
else that he wants for the lore of the mod, I'll use his instead! That way if Waalx decides to return to modding he can just take up where this leaves
off. Waalx is an Eternal Aylied Elf after all He might come into Skyrim!

Anyway, that's enough talk from me. Here are some preliminary shots of the sword port so far. (Picture of the Warp is missing). Some positioning are still not
accurate, and will take some more work. I also need to make some new specular maps, test various cube maps, redo the blood shader texture positioning for each sword,
add the rest of the texture variations, flip some scabbards, and add some new fasteners for the scabbards so they don't just float there...but this is a general idea of
where things are going.

Please note I'm using a version of ENB Series I was testing, but was too lazy to remove even though I dont like it. Hence the brightnessI'll remove it for my next photos though.

Also even though the scabbards are not visible in some of the photos they are ALL there and working and look great!

Final Word: The Atmorian set is probably the closest vision of a "finished" set, they have the proper cube maps, environment map(at least I think so?),
and original normal map from Waalx.

Atmorian
Atmorian Worn
Atmorian Old
Beserker
Beserker Worn
Broad Poignard
Broadedge Steel
Broadedge
Cawood
Cawood Worn
Cawood II
Cawood II Worn
Gotland
Gotland Worn
Gotland 2H
Gramr
Gramr Worn
Nord Bearded War Axe Fine
Nord Bearded War Axe
Nord Bearded War Axe Old
Nord Bearded Battle Axe (2H)
Nord War Axe
Nord War Axe Worn
Nord War Axe Old
Norland
Norland Worn
Norland No ENB Shot

Let me know what you guys think!

Fessels · January 20th, 2012

I already liked the swords when Waalx made them for Oblivion, and i hate to admit it but they already look like they are going to fit even better into Skyrim then Oblivion. Good work shingouki.

January 20th, 2012

Fessels wrote:I already liked the swords when Waalx made them for Oblivion, and i hate to admit it but they already look like they are going to fit even better into Skyrim then Oblivion. Good work shingouki.

Thanks! The main thing though is I want to do something cool with them, similar to what Waalx was doing!

Resupply for the war? Old ones given to Draugr and have them be rejuvenated by my own ingame persona for a fee?
Have them given to various blacksmiths in the game?

I want ideas! xD

January 20th, 2012

They do look very good as if they were meant to be in the game form the start

One idea perhaps for a few of the higher level swords could be as a reward from either the Jarl's for helping their people or possibly more suitably a reward from whichever side of the war you're on as it progresses. I support Ulfric for many reasons and he always hands out a reward weapon. I think they must just be from leveled lists though because I got a Daedric blade from him at the end of the Solitude battle last night. I thought that was strange considering his stance on re-unifying Skyrim for the Nords. I don't know about the Imperials as I haven't done the quests on that side of the war.

There could be a story behind that to support Waalx lore. Definitely the older blades could be given to Draugr and maybe there could be a hidden forge somewhere much like the Lunar Forge, but when the old blades are brought there they would be refurbished as you suggested. You could also create a new Skill Book (or normal book) with a story relating to the forge and the history you've already written about regarding the family history.

The CK is due in the next couple of weeks along with the 1.4 patch according to Bethesda's blog yesterday. The CK is going to be tied to Steamworks though as we already knew. Will be interesting.

Perhaps on the weekend I'll create that Skyrim forum section I was talking about in another topic if it looks like being worth it. Then if it's OK with you I'll move this thread there. One reason I haven't done it is in case I screw something up even though I backup beforehand.

anohosikara · January 20th, 2012

Great news!!!!!

January 21st, 2012

Maigrets wrote:They do look very good as if they were meant to be in the game form the start

One idea perhaps for a few of the higher level swords could be as a reward from either the Jarl's for helping their people or possibly more suitably a reward from whichever side of the war you're on as it progresses. I support Ulfric for many reasons and he always hands out a reward weapon. I think they must just be from leveled lists though because I got a Daedric blade from him at the end of the Solitude battle last night. I thought that was strange considering his stance on re-unifying Skyrim for the Nords. I don't know about the Imperials as I haven't done the quests on that side of the war.

There could be a story behind that to support Waalx lore. Definitely the older blades could be given to Draugr and maybe there could be a hidden forge somewhere much like the Lunar Forge, but when the old blades are brought there they would be refurbished as you suggested. You could also create a new Skill Book (or normal book) with a story relating to the forge and the history you've already written about regarding the family history.

The CK is due in the next couple of weeks along with the 1.4 patch according to Bethesda's blog yesterday. The CK is going to be tied to Steamworks though as we already knew. Will be interesting.

Perhaps on the weekend I'll create that Skyrim forum section I was talking about in another topic if it looks like being worth it. Then if it's OK with you I'll move this thread there. One reason I haven't done it is in case I screw something up even though I backup beforehand.

Those are really good ideas! I really dont feel comfortable just putting the Naegling, or any of the other legendary blades in a Merchant somewhere...doesn't feel right. Your idea of quest rewards is really good though. That way it can tie in the vanilla game, and mix it with the lore of Realswords. Great!

Also the hidden forge idea is reaaaaaally good. I did think the Lunar Forge was cool how it had the ability to give a special ability based on the time that the weapon was forged. I wish they developed that further... it was a really good concept. Since the functionality is there though we can develop it with this in mind!

But I still have to take things a step at a time. I'll update this space more as I develop the mod. There's still a lot of work to do

As for moving the thread, I definitely wouldn't mind. It works out better if the thread has somewhere specific to go, so people can keep an eye on it.

-----------------------------------

As a side note: I also uploaded the pictures on Bethsoft Forums, and a lot of the members suggested I increase the scale a bit to lower the clipping.
But for one I dont think the clipping is bad at all, I've tweaked positioning a lot to get it to look okay, but more importantly than that I'm worried it wont
look the right size (in proportion to the body) that Waalx intended. Also when I increase the scale above 1.1, some swords start to look like Broadswords...instead of
longswords. The clipping gets fixed slightly though. So I wanted to ask, should I keep the scale as it is, increase it, or make two versions of the mod?

I personally want to keep it as it is, but the 1.1 scale doesn't look bad, but its a lot of work, since I have to also reposition the blades to make use of the new
grip length. But I'd prefer to hear from you guys and Waalx on it before I make any drastic changes.

Final Word: I forgot to add the Two Handed Bearded Axes to the photos, I'll add them shortly.

January 21st, 2012

As a side note: I also uploaded the pictures on Bethsoft Forums, and a lot of the members suggested I increase the scale a bit to lower the clipping.
But for one I dont think the clipping is bad at all, I've tweaked positioning a lot to get it to look okay, but more importantly than that I'm worried it wont look the right size (in proportion to the body) that Waalx intended. Also when I increase the scale above 1.1, some swords start to look like Broadswords...instead of longswords. The clipping gets fixed slightly though. So I wanted to ask, should I keep the scale as it is, increase it, or make two versions of the mod?

I personally want to keep it as it is, but the 1.1 scale doesn't look bad, but its a lot of work, since I have to also reposition the blades to make use of the new grip length. But I'd prefer to hear from you guys and Waalx on it before I make any drastic changes.

Making two versions sounds like a lot of unnecessary work to me, but then I'm not the one doing it. It also comes down to personal satisfaction, so if you are totally happy with the look and clipping is minimal, I would keep it original as Alex intended and not increase the size. I know absolutely nothing about modeling though, so I'm probably not qualified to make suggestions as to what is better...or not.

I do know that looks aren't everything as long as the item functions as it should, within limits of course. What I mean by that is as long as clipping is not grossly obvious, looks aren't quite as important, at least to me. For one thing I only play in 1st person except when the game forces me into 3rd, or if I want to take a screenshot, so it's how they look and function in 1st person view that would be more important to me. BUT, that's just me.

If you increase the size so they end up looking like completely different swords I think it probably defeats the whole purpose. For example if I wanted to use a longsword I wouldn't want it to look like a broadsword, or a dagger to look more like a short sword. A little clipping is neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned as long as it's stats are balanced and it works as intended.

In the end I would say do what YOU want and don't be dictated to by others if it goes against what you envision your mod to be. Otherwise you will end up feeling dissatisfied and frustrated. Been there, done that. Constructive suggestions are fine, and in many cases welcome, particularly if it helps overcome any problems (if any), but it doesn't mean you have to follow up on them unless it fits with what you want to do.

Fessels · January 21st, 2012

Maigrets wrote:
In the end I would say do what YOU want and don't be dictated to by others if it goes against what you envision your mod to be. Otherwise you will end up feeling dissatisfied and frustrated. Been there, done that. Constructive suggestions are fine, and in many cases welcome, particularly if it helps overcome any problems (if any), but it doesn't mean you have to follow up on them unless it fits with what you want to do.

Agreed.

January 22nd, 2012

Nice work here. The size of the swords have always been a subject of disagreement for many peoples. SOme think I made them too small, others 'knows' that I tried to do them to scale. Even then it can happen that the size are not right anyway, particularly in the earliest RealSwords mods.

If the hands clips through the models, by all mean do change it if it mean it will look ugly in first-person. The Nords blades where made to fits the Oblivion characters hands. IT,s possible that the Skyrim models scales are bigger, or not, but anyway try to prevent the clipping if you can while preserving the scale of the blades as logic goes...

edit: ANd Naegling isn't a Legendary Blade, although it could pass for one I guess. Make it rare, but available. It's my favorite Nord blade after all...

January 22nd, 2012

@Maigrets: Ah I found it! I feel like it's a bit hard to find though. Thanks for all of your hard work, Maigrets!

@Waalx: I'll definitely abide by your wishes, my friend. Just wanted to be sure that I didn't mess with your artistic vision. I'll
adjust them as necessary

.

P.S. Would anyone like to test a pre-release to test clipping/bugs? Let me know!

January 22nd, 2012

Yes, I wasn't able to set up the subforums the way I wanted to so they're listed like the rest of the forum, which does make it a bit awkward. I had a bit of trouble with it as the docs aren't very clear for aging newbies. I'll see if I can change it in the next couple of days so things are more easily found.

I imagine most interested people will be looking to the Bethsoft forums first anyway so I wouldn't worry too much.

I'll be happy to test the blades if you like. Always on the lookout for new swords more than anything else. I'm a collector...in games at least.

January 24th, 2012

Lol so I updated to the "more optimized" beta patch and I lost all control of my character. Sadface.

I'll need you to test it soon then, since I cant really mod until I fix this problem.

I'm trying a full reinstall right now to see if it fixes it.

January 24th, 2012

That's why I haven't downloaded the patch...Beta. This time I'm waiting to see that other users experience before I touch it. I have very few issues with the game and too much time invested in my character, so I'm happy to wait until it's finalized. I have my saves backed up, but I can't be bothered with having my game potentially messed up.

Anyway, send me a link to the files when they're ready and I'll test them as soon as I get them. Let me know what you're looking for besides clipping or whatever. I assume you have people from the Official forums testing as well then?

January 24th, 2012

Maigrets wrote:That's why I haven't downloaded the patch...Beta. This time I'm waiting to see that other users experience before I touch it. I have very few issues with the game and too much time invested in my character, so I'm happy to wait until it's finalized. I have my saves backed up, but I can't be bothered with having my game potentially messed up.

Anyway, send me a link to the files when they're ready and I'll test them as soon as I get them. Let me know what you're looking for besides clipping or whatever. I assume you have people from the Official forums testing as well then?

Nah just you awesome people here at the workshop. Also I fixed it, it wa sa weird Wrye Bash/SKSE error with the new patch. Running Wrye bash on 1.3.1 made it work, then updating SKSE for the new patch, fixed it like magic. The beta patch definitely adds some hefty FPS.

January 25th, 2012

Good, I'm glad it wasn't something drastic and was basically a quick fix. In the end.

Yes, I read that SKSE was updated and SkyUI, but I'm still going to wait for the official release and stay with 1.3.1. I doubt the patch will make a lot of difference with fps for me since I don't have any lag anywhere running on Ultra and it runs fast as it is, so I wouldn't notice much change ...un;less it went down as some people are saying.

I've only had one quest glitch and that was the Thieves Guild where it didn't update when I became leader. I fixed that with good old console. I was also lucky with the well known Esburn problem as he updated properly. It definitely seems to be the luck of the draw for some players and who gets the bugs and who doesn't. Even though it looks like tons of people have problems it's only the ones who do who post, and usually and the rest of us just get on with it. And keep our fingers and toes crossed.

Not to say there aren't problems though. The biggest issues I've had were random total freezes but that went away, mostly, after the 1.3.1 patch.

The CK is supposed to be released via Steam today or tomorrow according to some people on the Nexus, but I can't find that info on Beth's blog so I don't know how true that is. Not that I looked very hard. Apparently you have to download it via Steam and it won't be a stand alone download like the Oblivion CS, so I'll wait for that also until the patch is definite.

It's all going to be very interesting to see what happens with this new system.

I finally set up Wrye Bash for Skyrim myself a couple of days ago so I could easily have profiles and a Bashed Patch later when I start using a few more mods. I'm only using a few at the moment besides a ton of texture replacers so I don't really need one yet. When I think of the 200 plus mods I had for OB I can only imagine how my Skyrim game will end up.

Sorry for the OT.

February 2nd, 2012

Are you not going to post your here anymore? I see on the Beth forums you have made considerable progress with your mod.

February 3rd, 2012

Hm? I was thinking to post up the beta on here just now. What's a good way to put this mod for a beta without putting it on the nexus?

I just need some testing with for the blade hilts, to see if they are okay visually in first person. 3rd person isnt tweaked, but I did notice that the 3rd person player skeleton uses the same positioning for the blades as the first person. So changing the 3rd person blade positioning only fixes it for NPCs...its weird.

But yeah, anyway, how can I put this up for download?

February 4th, 2012

You could use a site like Mediafire or one of the other file hosts for a beta and post the link wherever you need it seen.

Unfortunately until my game is stable again after the last patch I can't do any testing sorry. Among other things I have to reinstall and do some troubleshooting and that's when I'm in the mood to do it as it's broken at the moment and I'm not happy....along with many others post patch.

February 4th, 2012

Maigrets wrote:You could use a site like Mediafire or one of the other file hosts for a beta and post the link wherever you need it seen.

Unfortunately until my game is stable again after the last patch I can't do any testing sorry. Among other things I have to reinstall and do some troubleshooting and that's when I'm in the mood to do it as it's broken at the moment and I'm not happy....along with many others post patch.

February 4th, 2012

Well after a lot of troubleshooting I think I've resurrected my game from the CTD disease and it's being nice atm. Riften is off limits though. No idea what the issue is or the cause, but it's with both my characters.

Anyway, back on topic...the blood looks fine to me. There's a heck of a lot of it on the ground and bodies and realistically because of that one would expect to see more on the weapons, but there's probably such a thing as overkill. (pun intended.)