Palace of the Kings mesh insanity

[Sclerocephalus]

This is by far the worst mesh I have been working on so far.

 

I've run into a problem now with the wall meshes: the main wall mesh is duplicated in place, but it seems that they wanted them to display both: the two meshes have different vertex colours and one of them has an alpha property which makes it blend with the other. Though, both meshes have gaps (not always in the same places) and numerous issues with stretched and misaligned UV. In addition, their vertex colours still don't match the colour of a third wall section which forms part of yet another mesh (and the textures don't align either).

 

I have prepared a few screenshots:

 

(1) Mesh 1:

This is less complete than mesh 2, as there are several wall sections entirely missing, e.g. below the roofs. In (A), note the gaps and the mismatch of colours with the wall on the lower left (that's a different mesh). In (B), note the UV issues, especially around the windows. Also note the error on the corner of the roof (not the only one, by the way):

 

(A) http://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/gallery/image/1514-palace-of-the-kings-wall-mesh-1-a/

(B) http://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/gallery/image/1515-palace-of-the-kings-wall-mesh-1-b/

 

(2) Mesh2:

This is the overlay with the alpha property. In (A), note another gap and that the colour still doesn't match that of the wall on the lower left. In (B) note the same issues as with mesh 1:

 

(A) http://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/gallery/image/1516-palace-of-the-kings-wall-mesh-2-a/

(B) http://www.afkmods.com/index.php?/gallery/image/1517-palace-of-the-kings-wall-mesh-2-b/

 

Since I don't really fancy correcting two horribly defect meshes, I propose to delete mesh 1, remove the alpha property from mesh 2 and adjust the vertex colours so that they finally match. Any objections ?

[Lorelai]

Hello, Sclerocephalus!

 

First I would like to make a request. If working on a mesh (or any bug), please leave a comment in its tracker entry so that we know someone is working on it. That way, we avoid having 2 or more people working on the same mesh as it's counter-productive. 

 

Secondly, those meshes that you found (the duplicate in-place ones - the overlay) - those need to remain there.

 

And I cannot stress this enough. They have a purpose, they apply their texture to look like a decal. Hence why you will see that some of the polys are removed, the mesh has an Alpha property (texture has Alpha channel).

The vertex alpha is also there to further control this effect and where/how much the texture is applied, and make it blend in better with the other mesh.

Removing them could also potentially make the snow shader look awful when applied to the second, remaining mesh.

 

If both of them need UVW/geometry fixes, then that is what we must do. This is not the first time you will see this - some meshes will even have 3 overlays. 

[Sclerocephalus]

First I would like to make a request. If working on a mesh (or any bug), please leave a comment in its tracker entry so that we know someone is working on it. That way, we avoid having 2 or more people working on the same mesh as it's counter-productive. 

 

I'm usually leaving a note on the tracker when I start working on a mesh. In the case of the Windhelm meshes, I even left a desperate cry for help a while ago, but to no avail. Maybe it was the disappointing outcome that made me forget to leave a note here, but I didn't forget it deliberately.

 

 

Secondly, those meshes that you found (the duplicate in-place ones - the overlay) - those need to remain there.

If both of them need UVW/geometry fixes, then that is what we must do. This is not the first time you will see this - some meshes will even have 3 overlays.

 

I have been seeing this before, but then the overlays had different textures. This particular case was new to me, because the textures are the same and also have the same UV errors in the same places, so what is actually blended here are only the vertex colours and I was hoping therefore that there would be an easier solution to obtain the same result.

 

So I will follow your advice and fix them both, although this will probably keep me busy until Christmas (not only because of the wall meshes, of course).

 

 

And I cannot stress this enough.

 

No need to worry. I'm always asking before I start doing something that doesn't appear entirely obvious to me.

 

To make this clear: Any mesh parts I did delete previously (e.g. Hjerim) were either structures that were completely encased by the visible structures (e.g. there is no need to render thousands of vertices on the invisible underside of a roof) or duplicated vertices within a single mesh (e.g. two Hjerim meshes had their full set of vertices duplicated in place), and even then, I have always been checking the edits in-game before proceeding.