evertaile

As far as I'm aware it's an offset coordinate texture, similar to bump mapping. There are a few open source engines that use parallax mapping in favour of other methods. Although the in game models for these are usually circa. 2001 the environs are very rich and nicely polished without clunky frame rates. There's CopperCube and CopperCube 2 - I believe, and IreLicht engine

I always understood parallax mapping to be less resource intensive than Bump and Normal combos, in fact I thought it was lighter weight than using just normal and shadow maps...am I mistaken? Quarls texture packs are parallax, right?

New NPCs will almost never have sound and will talk silently, unless the modder has also voiced them. Is the sound disappearing from existing NPCs, ie. original game content NPC? If so, I dont quite know how to fix that as I personally have not experienced anything like it. Sorry. When you have installed Ren's beuty pack the people of the game talk normally? In my case also only the mod that use Ren's hair or other race modification remove the game sound. Only the body modification don't creates problems:( But i don't understand how a mod that add a new type of hair (like soya hair) remove my game sound!!! If anyone have an idea contact me please. Anyway thanks everybody for the support. Are you saying that with Ren's beauty pack installed, or any other cosmetic mod, you have no sound at all? No music? Effects? Creatures? Voices? Nothing at all? That is weird. I can honestly say that I have never come across that problem. I have downloaded a mod once or twice that cause individual NPCs to become silent or an individual entire race, mainly because they changed the Race Voice to something custom or changed the base race of that NPC which broke the relative dialogue conditions. These are classic examples of a type of 'dirty ' mod. It's odd that such popular mods are causing you difficulties. Is there anything else in your mod list that could conflict? Why not post your load order so others might be able to tell you that.

It's good but this mod have the same problem of all other mod which i tried to replace or add new hair to the game: the original sound of the game and the voices in the dialogues disappear!!! I have another post talk about this problem which i don't know to resolve (http://www.thenexusf...appeared-sound/), please, if you can, look this post. Thanks. The best thing for you to do is download Ren's Beauty pack or the Corean pack and use the assets within them to modify the NPCs as you would like to see them. This way you decide what they look like, instead of accepting someone else's vision. It's not that hard to do either. Just open up one of those mods in the CS and in the objects window where all the actors are listed open and edit them 1 by 1. Just don't change their races or you may break a few quests and dialogues.

New NPCs will almost never have sound and will talk silently, unless the modder has also voiced them. Is the sound disappearing from existing NPCs, ie. original game content NPC? If so, I dont quite know how to fix that as I personally have not experienced anything like it.

If you have downloaded a mod that adds new hairstyles to the game -- you can use it to mod NPCs in the CS also. So yes. But if you don't want to do it yourself then ColourWheels has made a few mods that overhaul NPCs.

What about a machine with the sole purpose of looking good. Its mission is to be art, ergo it is - or not? Concept cars are machines that will never see the production line and never be functional outside of maybe one example, the prototype function to off the designers' creativity and production skill and ability. That is purpose built machine art in my view. Link for machine art (purpose built artwork machinery): http://artmachines.org/ Also, people do love pretty things. WE grow attachments to things that are shiny or have curvy patterns or contrasting colors etc. - in order to make someone want something, it HAS to look the part, it has to look good -- and people are creative, we just are. Anything manmade will always have a spin on it - mass production is what depletes that, but hints will always remain.

There are other places that Bethesda sells those through, yes, console market places on Playstation Network and Xbox Live. Or as offline compilation disks. As I said, they have the option to contact them on the checkout page in case of problems such as this one. I don't think you're the only person ever to have a card declined, so they probably have systems in place. If you're willing to pay, what's the problem in asking? Also the KOTN compilation collection appears to be more or less complete if you wanted ALL DLC content in one purchase. However, if you're having troubles checking out with Bethesda, you may experience the same with D2D. Also, be very careful...sometimes even failed payments will be deducted from your account and held as pending for as much as 28 days.

It would be illegal for anyone to supply these add-ons other than Bethesda, basic copyright infringement and content theft (ie. Piracy) Try a different card, or contact customer support for alternate options and/or advice, the link for support is on the checkout page. Also, 2k have a really good customer support service available via telephone, again numbers are available on the site and your user manual for the game.

True, but it's not just about who is developing, what is being developed is also a huge factor. Take a look at the COD games for example and you can draw many comparitive pros and cons between sequals and spinoffs - and not just gameplay, but visual aspects too; whether Treyarc or Infinity Ward, you know what I mean. Larger development houses have their number as a plus, but big releases and highly anticipated games come at a price, less time, more pressure - but equally more investment. Smaller developers tend to have a more intimate workflow and method and outsource many assets to freelancers, also many engine owners will have generic modifiable content/assets - how many times do you think you've heard the 'ping' or seen the same run animation, more times than I think we know. Epic's Unreal Engine is a perfect example of this, even the free Indie version (UDK) has several basic models and you can download fully textured extras and several fully interactive environments to base a simple creation in. Also, BioWare has a very clean reputation, one of only few developers able to say that they (in terms of sales) have never released a clanger. This is in my view because of their subsidiary development model, where smaller development groups can use BioWare to gain funding and use their assets, ultimately the smaller developer publishes their game under BioWare's name, but it gets a foot in the door and showcases what they can do and may even get some more immediate funding for future projects. And I don't think BioWare are the only ones to do this. Money doesn't always equal god development either (Fable 3, anyone?!?)...I suppose it's a collation of factors that ultimately determines the end result - money, skill, commercial appeal. Thanks but I'm a chick :biggrin: I like the original (was it 1986?) Mario compared to the later ones. Idk graphics can make the game pretty but to play a game sorely on graphics seems really shallow to me. Oops! Forum Gender Ambiguity (FGA) strikes again...I agree with the standpoint that gameplay should go before imagery, as I think is clear enough by now. Sometimes I long for the days of the cartoon-like sprite and the simple 4-8 frame animations. Is realism really all it's cracked up to be when we consider what the drive to it has done to the gaming industry? Just look at my profile and you'll see I have Wonderboy in Monsterworld (the original franchise - not Wii) as my favourite game. I'll not say any more about it, go look it up...great stuff. Back to realism -- do we need it? GTA4, carwash! Need I say more? Where is it gong? Back in the days of the MegaDrive, Toe-Jam and Earl was considered good graphics, Sonic 3 was a visual marvel... While I advocate that graphics don't matter, I have to say that in a certain respect they do...just like everybody says that looks don't matter in social or romantic sense. We're drawn to pretty things and turned away by uglier, that's the way it is, it's human vice. Having said that, if games had never entered the foray of realism and 3D, then we would still consider those sprite-like games of the late 80s and early to early mid 90s as great looking graphics - does that mean that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?

Time is a major issue, especially when most funding for a game's development comes not from the developer but independent investors and the publisher, who expect a return profit within a strict timescale. Moreover, larger teams are required to cover all those bases -- more people = more paid employees. Modders have not only more time, but more time to spend on individual concepts and points - also we that mod a game do so free of charge, the only cost being that large amount of our own time. Owning a game engine is a good start for a standardised level of graphics, but developing one from scratch is costly and lengthy - hence the need for many developers to use a decent middleware, but that takes with it the expense of not only liscencing it, but also paying for it to be tweaked to specific genre, or having several in-house employees capable of working the engine code - an unnecessary pre-development cost. Storyboarding can be done in-house too, but for a decent and engrossing plot, some may want to hire professional writers, ie. Clive barker (terrible games) - again, extra out sourced cost. So, to surmise a few reasons why we can't have a good spread - time and money...and time is money in most cases, ergo, money and more money.

@brokenergy ::APLAUSE:: take a bow sir, bravo! Well said.

open up your start menu and try to search for the file Then goto the file location, if different from data. It could be UAC, but if you didnt get an error message I don't think it is. You can also try uninstalling the GECK, and reinstalling it to ensure that it's relative paths are correct

Ditto - my upgrades come in once a while - standard upgrades though for general computer usage like more storage or extra RAM, when I can afford it perhaps a graphics upgrade. Should I switch out my mo/bo then it's usually no overhaul and I carry my majority of components over. example: my old C drive from 8 years ago is now a D drive for backing up data. My machine is a tidy one, but despite everyone around me thinking I spend hundreds on it -- I spend more time than money. I have 2 kids they need and require more upgrades at much more expense!! I've said before about how I see gaming - it's about can I play it and not how it will look. Some games are unplayable with certain features enabled or disabled. I played Oblivion for 12 months on a 6200 (!) - it was playable and had certain issues, but upgrading to a 8800 was a smart move and it did improve my enjoyment of the game, mainly because my frame rate no longer dropped to 3 whenever more than 1 NPC moved. And yes, I did slide the settings up and enjoy the game with all settings maxed. But it didn't change the game, it just gave me bragging rights.

@evilneko Couldn't agree more. In many ways it's an age-old debate that will recur and repeat until the end of time... Moreover though, I think the question that begins such debate lies with the market of a game. Although many BioWare and Bethesda games share a common market that market is actually a cross-over area of 2 distinct divisions within it. Take Oblivion and Neverwinter Nights 2 for example. Despite being somewhat older, Oblivion is visually more impressive - however, in terms of actual role play, the campaign driven progression and character aspect of NWN2 and it's wonderfully diverse levelling, skill tables, stats etc and how they translate into the game do make a more complete role play experience in a more classical RPG sense. There's the division, the traditionalist's market and the more loose commercial RPG market where emphasis doesn't need to press on character but the player, as with Oblvion's take on player freedom and weaker plotlines (although in this case immersion must be met with a greater stake). I can't say with any great certainty, but based on word of mouth, I think it's safe to say that Oblivion was more widely received than NWN2 - mainly in my view because of it's looser gameplay and superior visuals. Having said that, the original Witcher blows both games out of the water in terms of visual STYLE, and gameplay that equates deep role playing. It's interesting that 2 franchises by BioWare and Bethesda should come under fire again. back in the mid nineties Descent To Undermountain (a game virtualy unplayable by today's standards) and the 2 early TES games also often drew comparisons - again, DTU was the more complete RPG with more emphasis on the progression into the gameworld and with deeper RPG elements, but TES games looked a heck of a lot better and were what launched Bethesda out of tacky and fairly shoddy sports Sims into the company that they are today. It's a shame there was no Witcher back then to complete the cycle. DAO is leaps and bounds up the ladder from NWN2 with RPG elements that are lesser but a true evolution of that style and will carry on into DA2 as if the first entry of the franchise was a stepping stone, probably still the traditionalists' choice - and Skyrim will again look better and have a looser commercial appeal, thus be more widely accepted. The Witcher 2 will smoke 'em both because of how it marries both aspects but still only have niché appeal like it's predessecor. A few years will pass and we'll be here again.