Fenrir

As 2016 comes to a close, I decide to make one more sword. Because that's the rules.

It's not in the game yet, but I will do that tomorrow. I need sleep now! 

Where have I been?

So you may have noticed that I've been relatively inactive for the past few weeks. Indeed, the only mod I've uploaded was a small weapon pack that was actually just a compilation of some sporadic creations over the past month or so. Not much in the way of new models, I'm afraid.

The reason is basically this: Christmas. Christmas is an evil time of year because it means I have to work 200% more often, and I have to worry about getting presents for the humans in my family. And probably the dog. But I dunno about the dog because he's been destroying stuff outside, so maybe he only gets coal.

Not to mention that I've made a HEAP of mods over the years. All in all, I've probably made more than 200 individual weapons. Do you know how draining that is on the enthusiasm? Sometimes I open 3DS Max and then immediately close it again because I just... can't be arsed. It sucks, but that's what happens when you burn yourself out doing something you wholeheartedly enjoy too much.

Essentially, I'm taking a bit of a break from modelling so I can rekindle my enjoyment for modding, and so I can get some other stuff sorted out. It won't be permanent, because let's be honest - I'm never going to be able to stop modding games. But yes, some time off and perhaps the occasional weapon if I ever get the urge? We'll see.

Just a little update. Have some good-as holidays and remember to always feast on delicious food. Nutrients are good for the health.

Table for Weapons

Since I can never find a good place to put my weapons in-game (usually I just dump them on a random table or a rock) I decided to make a new table that I can use instead.

Probably won't upload as an individual mod, but rather include it with other ones.

Druu's Dagger

We couldn't think of a name so it's just Druu's Dagger for now.

No download yet.

Flamberge

It's pretty much done, however I still need to do some CK stuff to it. The screenshot is in Skyrim Special Edition (though it works in normal Skyrim too).

No download yet.

Pommel Arrow

A silly mod I made with which you can end opponents rightly.

Download here

Traveller's Shield

My first shield... ever, I think? Quite happy with how it turned out, and the tri count is very low (Nifskope reports 496 tris - half that of an ebony shield). Textures are 4K, but I'll provide 2K downloads as well.

Still need to get it into the game, but that shouldn't take long.

Can be downloaded here.

Update for Cataract

No, not the eye disease. I named the sword Cataract because of waterfalls.

Download here

Crescent Staff

Made for JayCrane's upcoming follower mod. It's based on a staff from Elder Scrolls Online.

No download yet.

Duellist Update

I have updated my previous mod the Duellist with some nice new textures and a remade normal map (did a bake this time - much better).

Download at the original mod page

Billyro's Misc Mods

I now have a dedicated mod page to all my miscellaneous mods. There you'll find stuff that I've previous not released for whatever reason, as well as other small mods that don't really need their own mod pages.

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/79830/

My Mods and Skyrim: Special Edition

Good news, everyone!

I have just tested a few of my weapon mods and it seems that they work perfectly in the Special Edition without any need for patching. Therefore, you may freely install any of my weapons in Skyrim SE and use them without worry. Go nuts!

Will I be uploading my new mods in the Skyrim SE Nexus? I can't say, yet. I may stick with the normal Skyrim until SKSE and ENB are working with the Special Edition, which means my mods will still be uploaded on the original Skyrim Nexus for the time being. However, the method in which I create mods will stay the same, so technically my weapons should still work on both games, regardless of which Nexus I upload to. I'll wait and see.

Clarion - Crystal Sword

Made for Mlee3141's upcoming mod with Aurlyn in Enderal. The sword will be made out of the crystals that you can find in Enderal (I never got that far so I dunno where, but I saw a screenshot so yeah).

Clarion can be downloaded here

Pyro's Cleaver

Made for PyroToaster. Textures are subject to change depending on how rusty it needs to be...

I may or may not release it - that's something I will have to discuss with Pyro first.

Galebrand

This one didn't turn out like the concept art I made... but eh, still decent.

Skyrim download here. Might also port to Fallout 4 and replace Shem Drowne's Sword.

Update to Fallout 4 version of Regent

In case you weren't aware, I updated the Regent last week with some reworked normal maps. Here's a look at it:

Mod page

Marauder - A Mace

I don't make too many maces. Not sure why, as they're cool looking weapons. This one was a real bastard to unwrap, though - took about an hour just for that.

Skyrim Download
Fallout 4 Download

Tutorial to make my weapons less shiny

I receive a lot of comments on my mods about how shiny my weapons are. Especially in comparison to the vanilla weapons, mine are very clean and shiny, and some people don't like the disparity. That's completely understandable. I, myself, like consistency in my games. So, I thought I should write up a quick and easy tutorial for people to alter my weapons to be less shiny.

First off, you'll need Nifskope (preferably Nifskope 2.0) and to install the mod you wish to edit (the textures have to be present in your Skyrim directory or else they won't show in Nifskope).


Righto, let's get started:

1. Open Nifskope, then open the .nif file you want to edit. In this case, I will be editing my Leaf Dagger (after installation, it can be found in "data\meshes\billyro\leafdagger" - all my weapons will be located inside the billyro folder).

2. Now, click on the weapon and it will go wireframe. In the Block List (the thing on the left-hand side), expand the NiTriShape and the BSLightingShaderProperty inside of it.

3.By clicking on the BSShaderTextureSet (which, on mine, is denoted as "...") we can see the textures of the weapon down the bottom of the screen in the Block Details section. Here, we want to change the cubemap from my own one (provided by Humus) to a vanilla one (most weapons use shinybright_e.dds, so that's what we'll change it to).

4. Double click on the value with the cubemap, then change it to "textures\cubemaps\shinybright_e.dds", and you'll see it change immediately to the darker version below.

5. You're done! You can also tweak some other values inside the Block Details of the BSLightingShaderProperty itself, but you shouldn't need to with my weapons.

I hope this tutorial was somewhat useful, and perhaps it'll help you with unifying your Skyrim weapons. :)

Leaf Dagger

Today I made a dagger with a leaf-blade.

You may notice how the metal looks a bit different than my previous weapons... well, the reason for that is this is my first ever successfully baked model! What this means is that the normal maps were generated from a high-poly version of the dagger, making the edges in particular really nice.

You can download it here!

Chieftain Cuirass for Morrowind

I've been playing Morrowind again (probably my favourite game, though nostalgia probably contributes to that) and wanted to make a decent cuirass for my character that didn't look weird (unfortunately, most high-tier armour in Morrowind, Tribunal or Bloodmoon look crazy) so here we are.

It's just the bear armour from Bloodmoon with a fancy cuirass on top. Since Morrowind doesn't support normal mapping on its own (I am aware of MGE XE and OpenMW - I use the latter) it won't look like this in-game, but hey... it's a render.

I am aware of the shiny fur - I cannot figure out how to apply a material mask to Knald, so yeah. It's easily fixable outside of it.

The armour will be obtainable by completing the Thirsk series of quests and becoming chieftain. You'll receive it alongside the sword Clanbringer, as it was in vanilla Bloodmoon.

No download yet - still gotta get some permissions sorted out and stuff.

Albion Viceroy

I came, I saw, I opened 3DS Max and did stuff.

I'm quite happy with the scabbard in particular, as normally I don't put quite so much effort into them.

There's no download as of yet.



EDIT: Been messing around with the textures and the normal maps; thinking I've got something pretty decent for now. Will try to push for a release sooner or later.

The cubemap (fake reflections) that you see in this second render I will include in the release, as well as a few optional cubemaps with different blur amounts. The sharper one is good for renders, though not quite as nice in-game in my opinion. There's also an alternate cubemap I will include, which is one of the first cubemaps I started to use (way back at Wraith) but tweaked a tad - should look fairly natural without being too bland. Hopefully... 

EDIT 2: It has now been released. You can grab it here! 

Legerity - Morgynn Ashcroft's Sword

I'm making a sword for an upcoming companion/quest mod by Darkrogue21.

"Morgynn is Marcelon Ashcroft's younger sister, the baby of the family of 4. As well as taking her etiquette lessons and studying music, she also dabbled in swordplay and fencing, being taught by the family house-guard in secret as her parents thought it, 'wasn't becoming of a noble lady'."

"Morgynn isn't as innocent as she plays out to be, holding a steeled confidence when she fights, but still has a childish naivete about her, even after being turned into a vampire. Whilst her brother is cynical and jaded of the world, she is open minded and enjoys living life, experiencing everything it has to offer. She's also a typical girly girl and likes flowers and jewellery."

With that in mind, I set out and made this thingo.

It's not done quite yet, and I'm still experimenting with the textures somewhat, but it's getting there...



EDIT: And it's done.

You can download it here

Celerity ENB

A preset I've been working on for a while. It's rather simplistic in nature, which is why I gave it the name "Celerity ENB" - it should be very performance friendly. Although, the name is quite a mouthful so I may change it if I can think of any other names.

Performance-wise, I usually only drop about 5-10 frames with ENB on. In heavily forested areas, it compounds a little bit so the drop is more noticeable, but otherwise the impact is negligible.

If you want to see some comparison .gifs, they are on the Nexus page (the link is at the bottom of this post).

Download it here.

Skyrim's Shadow Problem

Many of you have probably realised that the shadows in Skyrim are pretty bad. This is why:

The quality of the shadows is (for some reason) tied to the FOV in the game - anything above a FOV of 65 renders the shadows at half resolution! It appears to be an engine or game-related bug, and I don't have the knowledge required to fix it. But hopefully someone out there does...

Some Random Witcher 3 Screenshots

I take lots of screenshots in all the games I play, but I don't really post them. Here are a few screenshots from The Witcher 3.

And the sword in the first image... so pretty!

'Tis a pretty game.