Gamer’s Hell has uploaded Qarl’s Texture Map III for an improved visual appearance within the game. The mod adds new textures and maps that aim to make Oblivion “more photorealistic, while at the same time still very close to the original feel of Bethesda’s intentions.”
Download the mod here…
Upon hearing that folks were having a few issues with the latest version of the CS (v. 1.2.404), we’ve uploaded the original one back onto the site here. This version of the CS will allow for creating mods that can be run on unpatched versions of Oblivion or to create lip synch files for voiced dialogue.
When I spoke with Todd, he suggested that modders looking to do lip synch work should use version 1.0 because the middleware we use for generating lipsync data is not compatible with the new features we added to version 1.2, despite us trying to make it work.
Coverage from our Fallout 3 media event continues to roll out this month. A day or two ago I noticed that the guys over at Eurogamer posted their interview with lead producer, Gavin Carter, and lead designer, Emil Pagliarulo, about working on the development of Fallout 3. Within the interview, the guys sound off on inspirations for creating Fallout 3, past experiences in working on games, and the moral issues that arise in playing Fallout 3.
Here’s a sample of the interview…
Eurogamer: With a background developing the Elder Scrolls games, but taking on an Interplay title, which legacy do you think Fallout 3 follows?
Emil Pagliarulo: Me personally, I really feel like we’re making a game in the legacy of the Fallout games. It’s so different than working with the Elder Scrolls stuff. It’s first-person, and that’s it. Actually it’s interesting for me – it harkens back for me to some of the most enjoyable first-person games I’ve ever played, the Terminator games Bethesda made. Fallout 3 is Bethesda’s triumphant return to gunplay games, after swords and sorcery for so long. For me it’s about bringing back /that/ legacy.
Gavin Carter: I feel like when people see it’s first-person they’re going to say, “Oh, there’s Oblivion. It’s Oblivion with guns.” But honestly there’s not a single thing we didn’t look at and think, how are we going to do this for Fallout? We stripped out our entire character system. It’s all Fallout now, with specials and experience, it’s not skill based. The whole questing system is Fallout. There are different paths to all the quests, you can lock yourself out of quests. It’s not like Oblivion where you can say, “I’ve just started in the Fighter’s Guild, but I’m the Grey Fox.” There’s nothing in the game that we haven’t looked at as its own thing.
Actually, this is quite interesting. Yesterday on The Elder Scrolls Source, a new mod by Tyler Cobb went up that makes being vampire in Oblivion more “in line with traditional vampire lore while maintaining all the original features that came with Oblivion.”
To download and read more about the the mod, click here.
Over on Planet Elder Scrolls, which has tons of cool mods, I came across one this morning that I found particularly interesting. Looks like your hero will now have the ability to use the Force Push technique that the Star Wars prequels decided to overuse.
Only bad news is that Liam Neeson didn’t agree to add some Qui Gonn dialogue for the game. Anyhow, check out the mod here.
UK magazine Edge just announced that they put together their “Top 100 Games of All-Time List.” Looks like Oblivion cracked the Top 20 (coming in at number 19). I did a personal tally of the games, and of the games listed, I’ve played 74 of the games and owned 58 of them. I guess I now know some more games I should have played at this point.
Outside of Oblivion, I’m probably most excited that Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved made the list. For nearly two years now, this has been my favorite game to play when I’m bored.
To view the rest of the list, check it out on Next Generation.
I thought this was pretty cool. Over on a personal blog titled stevienova.com one fans shows how a hike through an Oregon forest resembled trekking through the Tamriel in Oblivion. I have to admit, there’s definitely a similarity .
This had me thinking, does anyone else have photos with a striking resemblance to something from one of our games (or other games for that matter). Send ‘em in, and we’ll post the best ones. I look forward to seeing if there’s any gates to Oblivion out there in the midwest.
As TES fans know, you’re probably not going to find a home for your Oblivion character searching through Craig’s List. What you may not know is that the modding community has created a helpful real estate resource called Oblivion’s Real Estate. The site is described as, “A site dedicated entirely to houses that Modders have contributed for the game Oblivion. All the houses that re listed here have been categorized to enable visitors to find the house just right for them without the time consuming effort of downloading and trying each one…”
Sounds cool to me, though I’ll admit my Dark Elf is a bit of a squatter.
House hunters, begin your search here…
The folks at Digital Urban have a pretty cool two-part tutorial on how to create models in 3D Max and import them into Oblivion (officially, “Importing SketchUp/3D Max into the Oblivion Engine for Architectual Visualisation,” which sounds much more important and academic-ish).
Part two of the tutorial is now up (Part one can be found here) and shows how they went about converting a model of the Quad at University College London and viewing it in game. Never been to University College, but it looks pretty darn good to me. They provide info on all the tools they used and where you can find trial versions of things like SketchUp and 3DMax so you can give it a try yourself.
Great info for anyone thinking of tinkering with 3D models for Oblivion, and perhaps some tips for the experienced modders out there. Also, check out the related video here…
Jon over at Gamebanshee shared with us the spell and equipment databases they have have hosted on their site. These databases cover all 5,922 items within Oblivion, Shivering Isles, and all DLC, as well as all 430 spells.
What’s most impressive to me is how comprehensive the search filters are. For searching spells alone, there are eight separate filters to use, as well as the ability to filter the search down to any of the 89 different spell effects. As a relative newbie to the game (thankfully I just got my 360 back), the simplicity of both of these search engines is definitely something I can see using. The filters even let you know what can be found in Oblivion, Shivering Isles, and all the other add ons and plug-ins.
Nicely done!