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Mod: Natural Environments 1.1

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An attempt to enhance the original appearance of Oblivion's weather and water components.

Expand Full Description & Credits

File Instructions:: *********************************************************
* The Elder Scrolls IV *
* OBLIVION *
* *
* Natural Environments Mod *
* *
*********************************************************

version: 1.1 (express release)

Release Date: 09.04.2006

Filenames: Natural_Weather_by_Max_Tael.esp
Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp
TexturesSky*.* (27 files)

Contact: Max Tael
m_tael@yahoo.com

Description:
Natural Environments is an attempt to enhance the original appearance of Oblivion's weather and water components. The mod also removes several minor annoyances found in the original product, such as opaque water surfaces, muddy underwater vision, visibly pixelated cloud textures, and nonsensical meteoric conditions. Most of the changes are cosmetic and should not affect the game’s performance noticeably.

1.1
- Corrected the yellow tinting issue. Slightly edited lighting settings for the sunsets and the sunrises.
- Removed the tiled galaxies from the night sky.
- Altered the previously changed night settings and textures, making the sky and the clouds appear adequately darker, and the stars crisper; all without affecting the terrain lighting in any way.
- Replaced the default nebula with a more photographic texture.

v1.0
- Added dramatic lighting to the atmospheric phenomena.
- Fixed the pixelated skies issue.
- Retouched or completely redrew most of the sky-related textures in order to improve overall picture quality.
- Considerately rebalanced global illumination. For example, sunless and clouded weather conditions, such as nights and thunderstorms, now receive more natural ambient lighting.
- Completely altered the water simulator settings, bringing clearness, more realistic reflection, surface transparency, and better underwater illumination in the hours of darkness. (Please see the conflicts note below)
- multiple corrective changes

Installation Instructions:
Drop the .esp files and the Textures folder into your OblivionData directory (Press 'yes' to rewrite the previous versions if any). Be sure to select both .esp files in OblivionLauncher before starting the game. You don't need to start a new game, of course.

Uninstallation Instructions:
Simply delete all the files whenever you feel like it. Your game files and saved games are completely separated from this mod's influence. Upon removal of the mod, the game will revert to its original textures and settings.

Possible Conflicts:
This mod is incompatible with Chris' Better Water mod. I am grateful to Chris for his wonderful mod, but I felt that it went overboard a little bit. For example, it made nocturnal underwater lighting much brighter than lighting of the areas above the water level, thus taking away some of the game's realism. Since my weather settings use even wider range of light values than Bethesda's, I had no choice but to try to blend in the best of the two 'waters' in order to get more natural water lighting. The result is in Natural_Water_by_Max_Tael.esp. If anyone decides to revert to Better Water, just select it in the OblivionLauncher and unselect mine. Don't use both at once - it will probably crash the program.

Other conflict possibilities include all mods that modify the default WorldWeather and MiscellaneousWaterType settings. Mods that add additional weather types and world climates should run absolutely fine.

Notes and Comments:
These files can be used in any future projects and developments. Be advised that some of the replacement textures I used were based on Oblivion's original artwork. Copyright law is not one of my strengths, but I believe Bethesda is the owner of all rights to their redistribution outside of the Oblivion project space. Also, if you're planning on update this whole mod, or a part of it, please contact me through m_tael@yahoo.com to avoid any possible redundancy from the both sides.

To anticipate possible inquiries, the name is included into the file names for authentication purposes only. It has nothing to do with my egomaniacal nature, but thank you for asking.

Again, if anyone has anything substantial to say about this mod or any of my future Oblivion-related developments, please mail me at m_tael@yahoo.com. I really hope that some of you will enjoy the thing that consumed my whole weekend.

Disclaimer:
Use at your own risk. I can't, any way whatsoever, be responsible for your use of this data. It is being given to you gratuitously and thus there is no agreement or understanding between you and me regarding your use or modification of this mod.

File Name: natural_environments_1.1.zip		Author: Admin
File Size: 9.26 MB		Files Added: 9,423
Downloads: 4,375 (1 last week)		Author Downloads: 16,203,211 (67,051 last week)
Posted: 17.04.2006		Supporters: n/a