kittybrod Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 (edited) I have that sitting on my computer right now :D That was actually one of the first things I downloaded :wink: I just haven't gotten to it (I briefly read through it when I first got it) because I am not really anywhere near that, especially since I found out I could convert the non-asymmetrical horses made for the regular meshes to asymmetrical ones that will use Slofs (and some of Swift Steeds modified ones) meshes. When I am finished there may be more horses than NPCs and I also have this urge to do much the same with Unicorns, which look like they use textures from OB horses (and I have some GORGEOUS slof's Oblivion horse textures, much prettier than most of the SK ones I found, I wish I could convert THOSE to use as regular horse textures.) So far I am resisting that urge. But it is difficult. very Difficult. Edited January 7, 2016 by kittybrod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElioraArin Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 I agree, Slofs skin textures are amazing, I really wanted to include the mare & stallion models in my mod - but since I want it to be compatible with Convenient Horses & I don't want to go to the effort of converting them for the armors (I have been putting in too much time on it as it is!) I decided to use the model that Mitchalek (thankfully) provides. It sounds like your game will be a horse lovers dream with your mod! I can't include too many textures in my mine as I want to upload it for others to use, & I am having a VERY hard time deciding which ones not to use. I have wasted so much time planning how I'm going to work it all in, then I get into the CK to execute what I've decided on & keep running into obstacles that force me to rethink things - the concept behind my mod has changed repeatedly. Not to mention I'm having to learn EVERYTHING as I go ... I really hope it is all worth it in the end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittybrod Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Yeah, I would LOVE to be able to share my mod, if it ever gets finished and is like I want, but unfortunately too many authors to get permission from, some of whom I am not sure are even involved in modding anymore. Yeah, I had originally started out by getting Dawn's Posh ranch (or whatever) and was planning on making those use unique textures based upon Slof's (ie make sure that there weren't duplicate horses) then I discovered Swifts Steeds, which uses mostly Slof's textures, but has a lot of them reused, so I was going to make those unique and if I didn't have enough texture to go around, I was going to create some with white feet or blazes to round out. Then I discovered how to make the textures asymmetrical which means I can have about 4 or 5 times as many horse textures. (I can have horses with a right front foot, or left foot, or left front and right back....) So I think I will just try my hand at perhaps taking some of the house mods I have marked out that seemed like they would have a 'natural' corral (not stable as those usually can only hold 2 or 3 horses) where I can put my horses and have them not able to get out, or anything get in except a dragon, and perhaps add a merchant to them to sell a selection of horses. That way the horses will return to the houses, if I can't figure out how to make them stay where I Put them, but wander in a small radius (which I would love to see, I hate how when you go there, most of the horses just stand in one spot and not wander a little way to perhaps eat some grass/hay, or paw at the ground etc...) One of the things you can do with your horse textures is get creative with tails and bodies. IE, my main horse in game is a black horse with a white mane and tail. I briefly had a white one with a black mane and tail (but it wasn't as striking to me). That is the main problem with the Asem horses, Slof only did 10 horses, and two of them use a black tail, the palomino has a whitish tail but with a light brown base for them, there is a bay paint that uses a white tail,but it has a partially black mane, and some black on the tail. There aren't a lot of 'different' tails to work with. I remember when I was going through the mane and tails for the regular horse mesh, there was a fair amount of variety. You might be able to work something like that out. A white horse with a brown mane. Slof has some 'Zebra' Manes and tails you might be able to use on different horses. It all depends on how you want it to go. Mine probably won't be able to use armors. I have been waffling on CH (I want it, but I don't want SKSE) and so I can go without the armors. How exactly do they need to be converted for the armors? Most of slofs stuff is meant to be simple replacers. The Asem packs need an esp because of how the textures are, but the others simply go over. For the Mares I dont' think they are actually any different from the Stallions except they obviously don't have something. Their size and everything else should be the same. You might not even have to worry about making a different race for them as you can set the horses up to use whatever mesh you want. I haven't looked at CH, so sorry if I am missing something. I am pretty sure that something needs to be done to make a horse mod compatible with CH, but not exactly sure what. Do the models need to have the armor put on them? IE in like Nifskope or Blender? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElioraArin Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 My latest plan is to use the black & white tail on all the vanilla purchasable horses regardless of their body colour as it gives them a look similar to Norwegian Fjords - these horses are going to be Skyrim "natives" (ETAC purchasable horses will also use these textures if the player has it installed). I was then going to add in free horses with more "standard" colours (white, black, chestnut, bay etc). I absolutely LOVE all the dapple grey textures & they fit in so well with Skyrim's landscape I am now thinking I will also make them a form of native & add in a few custom hostlers to sell them ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElioraArin Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Oh, & the reason the horse model needs to be converted for use with Convenient Horses armors is that a custom horse will revert back to the vanilla tail colour when the armor is applied, I think the clipping of the mane is also really bad. Mitchalek does provide a working model which I am successfully using, as well as instructions for converting your own - but doing that is more involved than I want to get, I don't think people will care that much about having mares & stallions to make it worth the hassle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittybrod Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 I am just the opposite :) While I don't mind the 'dapple' textures, I really wish that slof had done some more non-dapple (her white is a dapple, her light palomino, red roan, all have the dapple pattern) colors, such as a pure, smooth white, and things like that. I can live without them, and I have found other packs with those colors in them, it just seems as if Slof's are more vivid in color than the others (like Zira, She has a couple that I like, but most of hers have a grayish or dirty over tone to them, same with many of the other retextures I have found, they all look dirty to me, while Slof's look bright and clean. While it might look slightly more realistic to have them dirty in game, it also makes it hard to have horses look a lot different, and hasn't anyone heard of grooming? I am a Khajiit. Grooming is what I do :D Not only to me, but to my horses ;)) Okay, give me a hint: What is ETAC? I just can't seem to work it out. It Sounds interesting. I may download it, when it is finished, to get some of the horses into the game :D then I can concentrate on others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittybrod Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Thanks for letting me know, I wasn't sure what was involved in converting the horses. Yeah, truthfully, the majority of my horses would be stallions anyways. Just not worth it to worry about which horse I want to make a mare, which a stallion, and since there really aren't a whole lot of difference in size or shape of the horse model itself, it isn't really like it is a HUGE noticeable difference. If the mares were slightly smaller or 'fine boned' looking and thus giving a visible difference in game, I might be more worried about it. Swift does have some foal models that look cute, and I might place some around in my mod that will just stick around where I place them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElioraArin Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 :D Sorry, Expanded Towns & Cities - I could never play the game without it again, it is brilliant! I agree that Slof over did the dapples, I only like the greys & the white - I hate it on the others, I especially feel it ruined the copper which I would have used otherwise. Having said that I am eternally grateful for Slofs resources, overall they are completely amazing!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ElioraArin Posted January 7, 2016 Author Share Posted January 7, 2016 Yes, I want to use Ziras for some free "common" natives, the 2 brown ones look really good with the white & black mane & tail - but it brings the horse count too high. I'm still trying to decide what to do, maybe make the randomly generated horses use them ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittybrod Posted January 7, 2016 Share Posted January 7, 2016 Ah, might have to check that out. I am *Trying* to not get a whole lot of esps to load my game up with because unfortunately I am having trouble understanding the mod managers (I briefly tried out NMM but then found out that you have to download the mods with it. I downloaded a TON of mods without it, and I don't really want to redownload them again) and things like that. So I am only trying to get ones that are 'essential' to me. Yeah, I do like some of the dapple greys. The white is nice in game (you can barely see the dapple) but I wanted the white for things like making paints/piebalds. I am using the dapple white texture to convert other colors into that, but haven't looked at one in game to see how it looks. I also wish SOMEONE had made a true golden palomino with a cream colored mane. Slof's is nice, but her two that Ihave seen are too dark (the copper palomino) or way to light, and there aren't any good cream manes. Most of them are too dirty looking or too brownish. I usually just use as pure of a white mane and tail as I can, but I don't have a light golden shiny palomino to use it with... And like you, that said, I love her resources, and it isn't so much I don't want the textures I do have (except one, I ran into one asem texture I can do without), but I just want MORE. A silver grey (not grullo, but a true silvery looking one), a true blue roan (as far a sI can remember, she didn't really do a true blue roan, but rather had one with the lighter back and I think one other) A black with blue highlights instead of one that turns brown. More Appaloosas, (as I can't make an appaloosa texture to save my life, so that is the one type of horse I am restricted to slofs and a couple of zira's textures for), a Medicine hat (I am going to attempt one, but not sure I will be able to do it) Just MORE :D (I am the type of person that for MOrrowind, when I did retextures to give to the community, I would usually do about 7 different colors, in as many patterns as I could, so I would end up with like 100 different napkins or 50 different beds) I LOVE her work. I have since I first saw them in Morrowind for Pegas Horse Ranch. They are gorgeous. If they weren't I wouldn't be spending all this time trying to modify them to get as many different horses into my game as possible. I would just get a mod like Swift Stables or Dawnstar's Posh Ponies, and play from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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