ACCEPTED RUSTIC SOULGEMS (by Gamwich and Saerileth)

[Octopuss]

Discussion thread:

RUSTIC SOULGEMS by Gamwich and Saerileth

Wiki Link

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RUSTIC SOULGEMS features hi-res textures and modified meshes. The soulgems now have transparency and a subtle animated color-shifting effect. Each soulgem has it's own diffuse texture, rather than sharing textures as in the default version. Normal maps are still shared to keep the file size down. The soulgem holder has been retextured as well. 2K and 1K versions are available.

 

 

I want to use this SO MUCH, but I'm afraid I am too used to the colour variety between empty and filled and sorting that Soul Gems Differ offers. That's probably not very likely to happen here though, because Gamwitch stated "I'm not an ESP maker... just a texture guy. I leave those things for others."

Edited June 10, 2017 by TechAngel85

[kylhwch]

There's a sticky post in the comments at Nexus that Gamwich is working on an esp version with some other people in the thread. It's short, so I'll just c&p it.

 

 

 

NOTE: I'm currently exploring options for creating a empty/filled version that will require an esp. When I come up with a solution I'm happy with. I'll add it as a second version.

I know there are plenty of people who don't want an extra esp in their load order, so I will keep both versions of the mod. Choice is good.

[TechAngel85]

Nice! When that version comes out, we'll have to do some compares.

[Octopuss]

HA!!!!!

 

 

 

UPDATE VERSION 2.0: The latest version takes all the improvements of version 1.1, but expands the mod to have separate effects for empty soulgems and filled soulgems. this requires an esp, so for people who don't want an extra esp in their game, I'm leaving the 1.1 version as well.

The empty soulgems have the original color-changing animation, but filled soulgems will now have a pulsing glow animation as well. They look almost like beating hearts entrapped in the soulgems. This effect is something that is very hard to show in a screenshot, so thankfully Supertin was kind enough to make a video to illustrate the effect. Go to the front description page to view the video.

It took a lot of work to come up with a empty/filled version that looked good in game, so I hope people are pleased with the result. Much thanks to Saerileth and Nazenn for all their helped, and Supertin for making the video.

Cheers,
Gamwich

[Nazenn]

Was curious on if any further comparisons or tests of this for STEP were done as it was quite a while ago?

[TechAngel85]

None were done. The mods come along a bit since we knew about it. Could do a compare for the next round if there are interested parties.

[Shadriss]

If I'd thought about it, I'd have done some for you on this already - it's been in my LO in place of the other soul gem mod for some time. I prefer it's simplicity over the (far too many) choices of the current selection, and with it being Gamwich, I'm always inclined to use his over others. *shrug* I'm too early in my current playthrough to have any yet, but I'll try to get a few shots if I can remember to when I get there.

[Nazenn]

I personally must say I prefer it over the other, while it may be technically less vanilla, but I personally feel that it makes the gems more distinct then Soul Gems Differ does and also has more cohesive textures then the other offers (the space textures in soul gems differ I personally feel look out of place), but whether or not its fit for STEP would probably require a more direct comparison.

[Nebulous112]

I would be interested in seeing some compares, if anyone is testing this mod on a current playthrough.

 

I've added a bunch of mods in testing to my lineup for this go around, but I'm not sure if I'll add this one yet. I don't want to stray too far from the safe shores of STEP baseline, lol.

[p4ck3tl055]

Kind of on a side note.  I like the look of soul gems created with Rustic Soulgems - they're glorious in fact (the pulsing is a stroke of genius) - but I prefer the sorting of Soul Gems Differ.  

 

Anyway I can achieve a blending of the two?  Look of Rustic, sorting of Differ.

[TechAngel85]

This mod comes with a version for sorting so you don't need to combine the two.

Marked for Testing.

[Nazenn]

If its okay, here's some screenshots I took comparing vanilla HD DLC > STEP > Rustic Soulgems (the last picture is now a gif to show off the special effects. Ignore the choppiness of it, thats just how I put the gif together, its very smooth in game)

 

 

(Edit: Just noticed apparently I forgot to save after positioning the fragments, so sorry they are slightly out of place for the non vanilla pictures)

 

And the gif from the main page showing them better:

 

My personal opinion on the matter is that I like the better cohesiveness that Rustic Soulgems has over Soul Gems Differ. I think they look more natural together as a group and in Soul Gems Differ, I personally find the space texture on the Grand Soul Gem really obvious and really quite off putting. The soul gem fragments also look very plastically with Soul gems Differ, as does the black soul gem in Soul Gems Differ, while in Rustic Soulgems they look a lot more like an actual broken part of one of the above gems, although I prefer the red glow on that compared to Rustic Soulgems, but that is also rather subjective because I like the idea of them being evil.

I personally would pick Rustic Soulgems over the existing STEP mod.

Edited December 31, 2015 by Nazenn

[lilrosaleen]

Thank you very much Nazenn for the useful comparison images. I am so fond of Gamwich's work!

My vote goes to Rustic Soulgems.

(Even though I am also slightly nostalgic for the red glow on the black soulgems

from Soul Gems Differ)

[Nebulous112]

Wow, from the compares, Rustic Soulgems looks way nicer. They're not even in the same league! Thanks a lot, Nazenn.

 

With Rustic Soulgems having the same sorting features, etc. as Soul Gems Differ, this looks like a no-brainer.

 

Maybe I will have to add this one to my current playthrough after all. And here I thought I was done for this round... Lol. ;-)

Edited December 29, 2015 by Nebulous112

[DoubleYou]

From the pics, I prefer Soul Gems Differ. I like how there is a color difference between filled and unfilled soul gems.