An alternative view on Morrowind....

This was posted by R-Zero on the Morrowind Discord. Brought a little tear to my eye when I heard it.

All good fun!

My Submission

G'day. As I wont be near a computer during the merry month of May it means I will miss the annual May Modathon Month.

As I couldn't possibly bring myself to do that I spent the weekend making a downloadable tutorial that I will be uploading to Nexus tomorrow.

It will eventually be put up on here in the modelling section along with the download and some more video shorts to accompany it.

Mad May Madathon!

Three days to go before the great Mad May Modathon! Also three days to go before Morrowinds 16th birthday (and my youngest's 20th!). Yes folks. Morrowind has been going for 16 years on Tuesday 1st May and we are still modding it, playing it, improving it and talking about it. Downloading mods for it, buying it on Steam, auctioning box sets on e-Bay and some strange people (8.5 million of them) are playing the online version.

I've been involved in several great and long lasting communities before, such as Age of Empires and the Sims but, Morrowind is the most dedicated of all. If you look back at the mods of old you will find authors that are still releasing new things. Fame has been dished out over the years to many for mods that hit the downloads like number one records in the charts.

Unlike the music scene, the Morrowind hall of famers are a modest bunch and will spend more time thanking others for their inspiration, support and assistance than they will bloating their heads.

 I must also take this opportunity to remember two greats that are no longer with us. Grumpy, noted mostly for his companion scripts sadly left us 13 years ago and of course Qarl (Steve 2013), famed for his myriad of textures, bouncing boobs and of his best work to date. The Underground. 

Both of you will be sadly missed.

Well that went downhill like a dung beetles breakfast so I'll pick up the mood.

Morrowind May Modathon!

As it draws near all the moders are getting ready on Discord, happily chatting together about their projects and being equally secretive while tantalising at the same time.

If you don't know what MMM is then I suggest you go Here and find out.

If you do know and are planning on joining in then join the Discord Here

This year there will be achievements to win as well as prizes!! Check these out (courtesy of Melchior Dahrk)

Imagine one of those proudly stamped at the top of your next release?

I wasn't going to enter this MMM due to the fact I wont actually have a computer for the entire month of May! But.... I will be making a modelling tutorial for my entry that if nothing else will stoke the fires burning in those out there that want to mod but have no idea where to start.

That's it. Signing off for today. 

Happy modding all!

Tutorial Update

Added several more sections to my modelling tutorials;

Point to Point modelling

Shake and Bake

Getting the size right

If you would like to see a particular thing covered then feel free to PM me with it on my Discord (RubberMan) or leave a comment down below.

Prynhawn da! (good afternoon in Welsh). Today isn't a day for the Welsh but today does involve a dragon. The dragon of St. George.

I've just run the St. George's cross up the flag pole for England and whilst I sit here typing, good ol' Kate Middleton is heaving away on her back attempting to pop out another Princess/ Princelet on England's national day.

 For my American friends I suppose I should let you know that when you're not dying rivers green, dancing around New York and Boston while swilling down copious amounts of shitty Guinness that the other three countries on the isle all have their own days to.

Sadly that lump of rock off the coast (Ireland) picked the same damn month as Wales for their national day and it is completely over shadowed because half the American population think they're Irish... You're not for fucks sake. My ancestors are Vikings but I don't profess to be one.

To make up for it all though, Wales got the worlds coolest flag and England got the coolest story. Shame that the only St Andrew anyone knows is a fucking golf course.

Of course Wales has something else. We have the only language where you can pick out seven letters from a scrabble bag, throw them in the air and when they land it's a word!

Morrowind Mad May Moddathon

I have it on good authority that this years moddathon will continue as always and will start on Morrowinds 16th birthday (1st May).

No video for the event has been posted by DarkElfGuy as yet but you can keep up with his reviews/ previews and everything Morrowind here on his youtube channel.You can also find him in the links to the right.

Unfortunately nothing will be released for it at my end due to a family wedding in Portugal. This also upsets my plans to release the Caldera Experiment that very month unless I fly back to finish it (not sure the wife will let me do that somehow).

I will soldier on this week of course and perhaps even finish all the exterior models which still need a fair bit of work. Shading is out on some of them and others I just don't like the shape of. Not to mention after placing them in the Construction Set I find myself needing things like steps and railings etc.

There is also the matter of an external forge for the Blacksmith. Maybe, maybe not.

New section added for modelling

I've been asked by numerous people about how I make my models, all of which expect me to jump up and shout Blender at the top of my voice and all seem equally surprised when I say I don't use it.

There are several reasons I don't use it but the main one is my terrible eye sight and the mess it calls a user interface. I just can't wrap my head around all the tiny little icons it throws at you for all the things you are never going to need apart from extreme circumstance.

Saying that, I am a big fan of Maya which has a much greater habit of supplying you with things that are rarely used but I'm used to it. Old dog, new trick, not happening. 

The reason for this post isn't for me to spout off about modelling it is to let you know that I've added a tutorial page or two to this blog aimed at people that have always wanted to learn but have been scared shitless by words like vertices and polygons. 

As I say. I like Maya, but.... If you are just interested in getting started then coughing up the £3,000 to acquire the software package isn't a great idea.

In this case I'm going to use the simplest and most straight forward software I know. Wings 3D.

Don't be fooled by the fact everyone is screaming Blender at you from the roof tops. That Wings isn't a powerful modelling tool. It very much is.

I'm not only going to teach you how to model in Wings but I'm going to teach you how to get that model from Wings to the construction set. This will involve Blender to some degree but only because it has the best nif exporter there is. 

Hopefully I can cover everything you will need to know but if I miss anything out then be sure to let me know. Be sure to click that Follow button up there to so you know when I've added another part!

"Modelling in Wings and other things"

Caldera update.

After weeks of trying to find the perfect place for the governor of Caldera I finally found something I liked.

The Caldera Experiment by RubberMan on Sketchfab

Hopefully this is the answer to all my missed nights sleep and home to the devious lying fucker that presides over Caldera.

Not happy with the dragon motif on the plaques above the windows and will be changing those for sure. I do, on the other hand, like the texture for the stonework.

If any one was ever interested in how I do these models and wants to have a go themselves then I shall be adding a "Getting shit started" tutorial page on this blog at some point in the near future.

For now I have to sort out all the little cock ups and odd shading and the exterior should be all but done.

Burt is (he assures me), getting on with the new interiors but he's being very cagey about it and even I haven't seen any of them yet :o

Once the exteriors are done I will be moving on to medieval style furniture to add more variation to the set and give the place a whole new makeover.

Any suggestions for furniture is always welcome and as always I need photo's or good concept art to work from. I like to see a picture then hit up the model, I don't like spending hours thinking about it or making shit up in my head. Basically. It has to be something I can see.

Join my Discord (Dwemer Rebirth Project) while you are clicking follow If you want to send me something.

Caldera Update

Well sort of. More of a "Caldera excuse" really. Burt has started a new job and has some other things going on and my back and balls have been awful. 

We have still managed to discuss a good few future prospects regarding the project and even added some further models to the set and Burt has started on the interior set.

Added this week; 

Chimney stacks, exterior forge, grinder, tanning rack, three new windows, a new door and a porch.

Also tweaked a few models and UV's to make them look and work better.

I did manage to make a new model for the mages guild which I was quite pleased with.

The Caldera Experiment by RubberMan on Sketchfab

Needless to say it has been tweaked severely since this Sketchfab upload as I wasn't happy with some of the texture alignment and the split between the brickwork and the daub.

As another plus, Bethamez Reborn made it into the Mod of the Month for February which surprised me greatly as there was a lot going on in February and not a lot going on from me. I failed to release anything in March which is very unlike me and I haven't downloaded any of the mods in the vote for it.

If you have, then go and drop your vote off here; Voting Poll


The video is worth a watch if nothing else for DEG's amusing dig at TheDrunkenMudcrab.

I think it's coming close to that time where I attempt to make another shit video. This time I will be out of the ruins and in the open air in Caldera but I think a bit more clutter is needed first and perhaps an NPC or two walking around would be good.

Burt and I do intend to have some sort of "Windows glow" thing going on in the town but as yet we can't decide (we have a total of four broken eyes between us) on what looks best and we did spend an entire evening fucking about with textures and glow maps and even pulsing and animated nifs to no avail.


Back willing (and right ball), I am hoping to make a start on the governors manor but as yet I still have no idea how it should look and google images are not helping me at all in this area. We have both looked and both drawn a blank but I'm sure one of us will spot the perfect home for the intrepid governor before long.

Thanks all for reading this blog (I can see how many do from the stats). You can also follow this blog if you so desire by simply clicking the follow button at the top of the page.

My neglected youtube channel and also my DRP discord server are also linked above.

Have fun!

The Curse of the Potato People

What are potato people?

Simple. These are the droves of mod loving individuals that complain to authors that things don't work right, things go slow, things crash their computers.

We're not talking about the good guys that let you know when you've made a horrible mistake or overlooked some clipping but the guys that expect everything to work on their Windows 98 PC.

I mod Morrowind. I mod it for me, my PC set up and my enjoyment. I don't charge people for it and I offer it out to people that may also want to use it.

When I write a mod/ make a model/ write a script or add shading to things I don't do it for the potato people. I do it so it will work and run perfectly on MY machine.

Next time you want to tell someone you are getting five FPS in Balmora or some other cell then please, before you complain about it, check your potato!

You can not run full MGXE with extra shaders for this and that, a couple of sky improvement mods, hi-res texture mods and seven-hundred and fifty three other mods and improved meshes if you have a potato!

Most modders know that Morrowinds engine isn't particularly good and will strive to make sure that they do the best they can to release something that is optimised and tweaked to run smoothly. All you have to do as an end user is to make sure you're not trying to run things on a piece of shit.

If your computer is 10 years old and running Vista and you complain about your FPS then I would strongly suggest you either A. Go and buy a fucking new one or B. Play Solitaire.

It is 2018! This game we love is 16 years old next month and you should have no problems running it.

Before you start crying about not being able to afford a new one then check out your lifestyle first. If you truly can't afford to replace your potato then lower the bar.

Morrowind is about its game play not its fantastic graphics and mind bending physics. It's a world all of its own and even a few tweaks that any computer should be able to handle will improve the games looks considerably.

Grabbing some better looking NPC's with bodies that don't look like jigsaw puzzles is a great start. Running Flash's optimisation patch for better FPS and a whole host of other fixes and tweaks that are supplied freely by game loving modders like myself.

I could make a huge list of mods and fixes but that takes away the fun of endlessly searching for them yourself and I certainly wouldn't want to deprive you of that.

Good luck and have fun, but for fucks sake, stop whining if you have a potato.