Which armors deserve a retexture?

[crazytexan]

Is there any armor that should be retextured? If so, which one and why?

[Perraine]

Well, I've yet to see a really good quality HD version of the Nightingale Armor. There are a couple, but none of them are really all that great, certainly nothing in comparison to the scratch made ones done for several other armours such as aMidianBorn's for instance.

 

There is also virtually no really good quality "light" or "white" textures for any of the armors or outfits. Pretty much any of us can simply increase the Brightness/Contrast/Curves/Levels of a black/dark grey texture using PS and call it "white, but lets face it ... it ain't, and it looks like regurgitated dogs breakfast to boot. I think any actual "true" scratch made white or light textures would be very welcome. Proper shiny Nord Plate for instance or a true light "Ivory" version of the Ebony Armor (could then replace that hideous creation that Bugthesda call "Ancient Snow Elf" armor) Also any "clean" variants of armos or outfits would also be popular.

 

Apparently all the texture artists at Bugthesda have a "dirt fetish" because every armor and outfit they created for FO for instance is dirty and or scratched/ripped. Even items that have supposed been in hermetically sealed vaults and stasis chambers come out with ... you guessed it, dirt and scratches. And Skyrim is no different.

 

Let's face it, even just swimming across a river is going to remove some of that dirt from clothing, and how do you explain that brand spanking new armor, that you've just created at the forge, using just smelted ingots and just tanned leather, has ... you guess it ... dirt and or rust and or scratches and or rips on it, the instant you equip it?

 

Just some thoughts/suggestions anyhow.

[BlackRoseOfThorns]

Well, I've yet to see a really good quality HD version of the Nightingale Armor. There are a couple, but none of them are really all that great, certainly nothing in comparison to the scratch made ones done for several other armours such as aMidianBorn's for instance.

 

http://static-8.nexusmods.com/15/mods/110/images/6187-1-1406923058.jpg

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6187/?

[Perraine]

 

Well, I've yet to see a really good quality HD version of the Nightingale Armor. There are a couple, but none of them are really all that great, certainly nothing in comparison to the scratch made ones done for several other armours such as aMidianBorn's for instance.

<snip>

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/6187/?

 

As I said, there are some retextures, but they are all just either overly done normal maps, or bad colour/contrast edits. None that actually put good quality high def NEW textures on the armour. As I said, have a look at the TERA armours. Most of the textures used are only 1k (1024 x 1024) yet the level of detail is astounding and most of the normal maps were generated using probably something like Mudbox on a Stupidly high poly mesh first, then the mesh is "optimized" down to a reasonable level. The high quality normal map, and highly detailed texture make up for the low poly mesh and you cannot tell the difference in game. (unless you run some stupid high graphics mod and zoom in to millimeters away from a seam or something.)

 

Also as mentioned, aMidianBorn's work is another good example of truly astounding NEW textures, even if resized to 1k (1024 x 1024) for low end machines, the quality of the artwork is self evident. All of the ones for the Nightingale Armor so far have been quite low quality contrast/saturation edits or as I said overly bumped normal maps really.

 

Another good example is this mod http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36817/? They are truly gorgeous retextures with beautiful details, that look three dimensional even if only using vanilla normal maps and vanilla meshes. Again even if resized down to 1k, they still look fantastic. That's the quality of retexture that I would like to see done for the Nightingale Armour and any others that haven't already been done, and as I also suggested "White" variants of several armours would be extremely popular I think as well.