[WIPz] Transbot9's All Tamriel Heightmap

[Transbot9]

Some of you may have seen my previous upload, and I've been working on it off and on since.

 

Purpose

My All Tamriel Heightmap is an extremely long-term project to create a modder's map version of Tamriel. Since it doesn't import any data from any game, the map can be used across multiple TES games or even imported into other game engines.

 

The reason I started this map was because of complications we ended up having over at Beyond Skyrim (I'm the Morrowind project manager over there, although I'm taking a vacation from it at the moment). Morcroft did an excellent job creating his heightmap, but unfortunately we had discovered technological issues (The engine starts having issues with cells outside of a +/- 64 area) that delayed production. Those problems have been worked around, so Beyond Skyrim is back on track.

 

Another issue is that a lot of people want to use Morcroft's map outside of Beyond Skyrim (particularly in Minecraft, for some reason). Morcroft's heightmap contains data pulled directly from Skyrim, which means it can only be used for mods with Skyrim. Oh, and there's the whole issue of people-not-asking-for-permission issue.

 

And the third issue is that even though Morcroft's heightmap was created as the most thouroughly researched fan-made map ever, Elder Scrolls Online has come out since then. TESO's maps have played havok with all that hard work, and Beyond Skyrim is too far along to be able to adjust for it. It already took a good two years to get everything squared away, so Beyond Skyrim couldn't afford wait for Zenimax to release TESO's maps.

 

(TL:DR version: Morcroft's Tamriel Heightmap is exclusive to Beyond Skyrim and can't be 'ported to later games)

 

My goals with this map are as follows:

• Use what we at Beyond Skyrim have learned about Creation Engine issues to create a map that takes those problems into account, in case future games do not have a fix for it.
• Create a heightmap that can be used by anyone for any project, either with Skyrim or another game engine
• Incorporate the changes from post-Skyrim games into the heightmap (even though TESO's map-lore is a bit rough)
• A personal goal to learn how to create really awesome heightmaps.

The Next Release

I haven't come to a decision of when to release the next version of the alpha. The current iteration I have on my system has been refined quite a lot since I've uploaded the first Alpha, so a lot of changes have been applied. I do want to get some feedback before then, though.

 

Design Notes

• My Tamriel Heightmap is an interpritation from multiple source materials. I've attempted to keep it as lore accurate as possible, but there are some conflicts between games and I've had to add quite a bit of artistic interpretation.
• Sources
  • Official Maps from Bethesda
  • Official Maps from Zenimax Online (overall, about 70% accurate to previous Bethesda games, but some spots are off by quite a lot)
  • Morcroft's All Tamriel Heightmap (good for filling in a few holes, and he really did do an excellent job of researching for it.
  • Direct Heightmaps pulled from TES3, TES4, TES5, and their respective expansions.
  • Bits and bobs from other major mod projects as a homage
• Artisic Interpretations:
  • Cyrodiil is proportionatly shrunk slightly. Mostly, this is because of the +/- 64 limit. Even then, the Nibenay Basin south of Cheydinhal and east of the the Niben would still need to be shunted onto a separate heightmap.
  • High Rock, Valenwood, and Elsweyr are enlarged slightly.
  • Wider overland borders are intentionally created to give extra room for modders. Both Bethesda and Zenimax have a tendency, when they run out of room, to have locations that extend beyond the borders of a province and should technically be in the neighboring province by their own maps.
    • It's a good thing I did this, because the additions made to the Jerals by TESO north of Cheydinhal have already eaten up a good chunk of the Skyrim/Cyrodiil buffer.
  • To work around the +/- 64 bug, worldspaces would have to be cut up a bit differently than on a per-province basis. I already mention Cyrodiil. Morrowind would have to be split between the Inner Sea worldspace with Shadowfen from Black Marsh sharing a worldspace with Deshaan & Tear. The Illiac Bay worldspace pretty much includes the area from Daggerfall & the Daggerfall Covenent's playable regions from TESO. Elsweyr, Valenwood, and Summerset, and the other two-thirds of Black Marsh would have their own.
  • One aspect that I've really been trying to work in is to have the terrain as different as I can between the regions, so that each mountain range within would have a unique-as-possible feel.

The Provinces

 

Blackmarsh

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/b/2/blackmarsh_1_by_transbot9-d7h47bz.jpg

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/e/9/blackmarsh_2_by_transbot9-d7h47c6.jpg

 

The nice thing about the program that I am using is that I can use the landscape generators in a brush format. Most of Black Marsh is just blocked in with some heavily eroded hills and mountain landscapes framing a whole lot of swampy islands. Shadowfen is interpreted from TESO maps as a raised swampy basin that pours into the Deshaan watershed below.

 

Cyrodiil

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/e/8/cyrodiil_1_by_transbot9-d7h47ab.jpg

http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/b/3/cyrodiil_2_by_transbot9-d7h47ah.jpg

 

Like I wrote earlier, the Nibenay Basin has been walled off with a few small ridges for separating that area into it's own heightmap. Morcroft implimented it on his map because of the +/-64 bug, although it looks like TESO implimeted it to set it up for Cyrodiil as the PVP arena (as far as I can tell - I got into a late beta, but never got to Cyrodiil and I don't have a subscription to TESO). I really wanted Colovia (the western half) to feel like a proper highland, with hills and ravines that properly drain towards rivers and the sea. I really worked over County Leyawiin to turn it into a proper river delta, with the Niben as a river wide and deep enough to be a proper shipping channel. TES4's Leyawiin cutting off the Imperial City from the sea when there are proper sea-going vessels docked at the Imperial City was something that bugged me about the game.

 

Elsweyr

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/124/3/c/elsweyr_1_by_transbot9-d7h47b1.jpg

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/d/d/elsweyr_2_by_transbot9-d7h47av.jpg

 

Okay, I admit it...I got caught up creating this awesome grand canyon thing with the Xylo River that I didn't reference it properly, so it is only vaguely close to Reaper's March from TESO. Oh, well, I'll fix it later. Elsweyr's mountains are low and intentionally designed to really show off terraced layers of rock.

 

Hammerfell

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/2/d/hammerfell_2_by_transbot9-d7h479y.jpg

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/124/6/c/hammerfell_2_by_transbot9-d7h47a5.jpg

 

Whoof...Hammerfell. I was really aiming for a Dakota Badlands look for the bulk of it. The sections mapped out by TESO are, by comparison, an unreasonable facimily, but it's one that I've called "close enough" on. The province is a bit wide, so the West Reach is designed to be cut off into it's own worldspace.

 

High Rock

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/124/2/d/high_rock_1_by_transbot9-d7h479u.jpg

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/124/7/d/high_rock_2_by_transbot9-d7h479p.jpg

 

For good or ill, it's decently close to TESO. I added quite a bit of fjords to the north, though, because fjords. Plenty of space to work with.

 

Morrowind

(Sorry, gotta switch to links because of the image-limit-per-post)

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/0/f/morrowind_1_by_transbot9-d7h47ca.jpg

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/6/3/morrowind_2_by_transbot9-d7h47cj.jpg

 

TES3 was my first Elder Scrolls game, so I have a soft spot for it. Vvardenfel and Solstheim should be decently close to proportion with Dragonborn, although that makes them a bit smaller than in TES3. The Inner Sea is intentionally widened (it was always a bit narrow on the maps).

 

Stone Falls is decently close to TESO (It's where I spent most of my time when I was running around in the Beta), with a few changes because Zenimax forgot to leave space to connect to Velothis. The Rift Pass does connect directly to Stone Falls, though, as well as the pass to Cheydinhall. Just north of Rift Pass I added some landscaping in as a homage to the old TES3 Silgrad Tower mod. The eastern peninsula is one big homage to Tamriel Rebuild, because those guys are awesome (especially since they gave us permission at Beyond Skyrim to use their lore).

 

Deshaan is not close to TESO, though, because TESO's Deshaan is a mess. Oh, I understand why they did what they did, cramming much of the urbanization towards the West, but what works for TESO doesn't necessarally work for this map, so it is an intentional (but friendly to non-TESO lore) deviation.

 

Skyrim

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/124/a/3/skyrim_1_by_transbot9-d7h47cv.jpg

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/9/a/skyrim_2_by_transbot9-d7h47cz.jpg

 

Skyrim needs a lot of work, but since Skyrim is the current game, it hasn't been a priority. Eventual plans will have the new zones for Dawnguard directly built into the heightmap, though.

 

Summerset

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/b/5/summerset_1_by_transbot9-d7h47bu.jpg

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/a/8/summerset_2_by_transbot9-d7h47bo.jpg

 

Most of the information comes from TESO, and that only covers one island. I'm sure I'll have to make changes as new information comes to light.

 

Valenwood

http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/2/8/valenwood_1_by_transbot9-d7h47bd.jpg

http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/124/c/4/valenwood_2_by_transbot9-d7h47bf.jpg

 

Needs work, espcially Gratwood. Because of the general weirdness of TESO's rivers, I decided to have Gratwood drain south and feed into the Xylo, which then loops back north into Elsweyr.

 

Feedback

This is the best time for me to get feedback from the modding community. Stuff I'm considering adding to the map are the remnents of Yokunda (mostly some small islands west of Hammerfell), the island chain that loops towards Akavir (but not Akavir itself - if I ever do that, it'll get it's own map), and a few more island chains here and there.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Transbot9

[Angrypheonix]

Wow, they look great.These will be used for beyond skyrim?

[fmsuopetrt0]

keep up the great jobhttp://weber.ninecomputer.com/9.jpg

[KiwiHawkNZ]

Kia ora

 

This is really beautiful work man, kudos

 

I'm thinking I'm years to late, did this die? or is the download on the Nexus it, the maps on Nexus do not seem to be as accurate as these screen shots sadly