Modding tutorials

[Laynton]

I am wondering if anyone knows of some in-depth tutorials on how to create your own mods from scratch. I have looked/read for weeks now and the only types of tutorials ive found are ones that teach you how to mod existing things or use existing things to create a mod. Im trying to find a tutorial that teaches how to make your own house,dungeon,castle, etc. from scratch and what programs are used to do this. I've found several list on this site that name several other programs outside CS but there are so many i dont know which to chose. Any info would be appreciated.

 

thanks

[WastelandAssassin]

well, this completely depends on what you are really trying to do

for instance, if you want to make a new Oblivion plane, using the game's resources, than all you need is the CS (because you are using existing meshes and textures)

if, however, you want to make something completely new, than you will have to make all the resources yourself

 

for making the resources, you will need a modeling program (Blender, 3D Max etc), a texturing program (Photoshop, GIMP etc) and NifSkope

 

this page has some tutorials that may be of use to you

 

good luck :)

[Laynton]

Im going to try my hand at making a dungeon from scratch (for now). obviously I want to take the easiest road possible since im still new at this. Im not opposed to to using textures,meshes, etc through the CS but what i dont want to do is use "CaveABC" as my new dungeon and just plop it somewhere in game. I want to learn how to make my own layout, walls, wall textures(which can be from the CS), weapons, items, ect. Ive read every page on the wiki and its helpful to an extent.

 

oh and thanks for the list of programs

[WastelandAssassin]

well, in that case, the only thing i really know is the list of programs

 

i know that the wiki is giving pretty much just the basics, but since i never went past the basics (somethings i never even tried) so i can't recommend any good tutorial

 

you could try asking some of the more advanced members here, they may know (i know LHammonds knows about many tutorials, maybe he'll be able to direct you to a good one of the matter)

 

also, give it some time, and maybe someone with more knowledge will come and help you more than i could :thumbsup:

[dunmermaiden]

I reccomend these tutorials CS Basics

 

It covers building from scratch

[Laynton]

Thanks for the links. when i have some time ill look them over.

[Lanceor]

You can also try the virtual classes at TES alliance:

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/forum/81-the-enclave/

[chaospearl]

Huh... I'm a little confused as to exactly what you're looking for. I assumed at first you wanted to create your own models and textures, rather than use what the game comes with, but then you said you'd be okay with using existing textures as long as you were able to design the layout and maps of your own dungeons, as opposed to just copying, say, Dzonot Cave and putting a copy of the dungeon somewhere else in the world.

 

I don't know of any tutorials that teach you to copy existing dungeons and paste them into other places. If you've been searching for weeks and haven't found any guides to making your own dungeon layout, I think perhaps you aren't actually reading through the tutorials you've come across. Even Bethesda's "my first dungeon" guide shows you how to use different pieces from the CS to create whatever layout you'd like.

 

My advice would be to thoroughly look through some of those tutorials, especially this one and this one, and read the whole thing before you get started actually opening up the CS. Don't dismiss the guide outright just because it tells you to use a specific piece or a certain wall. You don't have to use the exact layouts that are suggested; that's just there to make it easier for the guide to show you how it works. Once you understand the basic concept of taking a wall from here and a hallway from there and snapping them together, you can use that knowledge to crib together bits from pretty much anywhere and create your own totally unique dungeon using the pieces the game provides. Just because you're using pieces that already exist in the game doesn't mean your result will necessarily look the same as the other dungeons. You'll be putting the pieces together in a whole new way. Kinda like those people who take apart a Roomba and use the components to make a high-speed racing model.

[Laynton]

@chaospearl - Ya that probably was a bit confusing. Let me try to explain it differently.

 

1.) Lets say I have an idea for a dungeon that is also a maze and its design is in a circular shape. There is no design that is currently anywhere in the game that I could pull from to create this circular maze. SO I'm wanting to find out how I can make those circular shaped walls so i can create this maze. I also don't know if that requires other programs or not since I'm new to all this modding business.

 

2.) Then once I figure that out then this is where I am open to bringing in other pre-designed elements that I like to texture those walls that I created OR if I can't find a texture to suite my needs I would like to learn how to create textures. (this probably is a separate tutorial for an outside program)

 

3.) In regards to the two likes. I have read both of those tutorials from start to finish. Yes both of them are extremely helpful and I will be referring to them often as I learn how to mod BUT both of those tutorials dont not create anything from scratch they borrow multiple pre-designed elements and combine them together to create a unique dungeon that is "new" but not brand spanking new if you know what I mean lol

 

 

 

@Lanceor - Thanks for the link when I get off work I'll read through those.

[Genzel]

Oblivion's tilesets are fairly flexible and you could make a pretty maze-like cave. If you do want to learn to model and texture, you will need to know the CS anyway, so you should definitely start with the original vanilla tilesets.

When you have a grasp of the construction set and want to begin modelling, all of the modeling programs (for free) can be found here http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12248

A great free program to make textures for your models is GIMP, and you will need plugins for that.

 

I wonder highly recommend starting with just the construction set until you understand what you want and then you can focus on learning Blender :thumbsup:

Good luck!