Oblivion:Nirnroot Cataloging Project
Nirnroot Photos
Update: The requirements are the following:
fw 38eee— This forces the weather to be clear.set gamehour to 11— Makes the weather as bright as it will get.set timescale to 11— Slows time down. Optionally, the previous command may be entered just before a photo is taken.
All that remains is to flag any individual problematic photos in the future.
Below are the proposed requirements from initial brainstorming:
Photos from the original Pocket Handbook lacked any standards, but generally followed the idea of showing one photo of the plant from a distance (the view you would see if following the route), and one photo up close. The photos are riddled with inconsistencies in lighting, angle, distance, etc. and need to be updated to more clearly communicate where each plant is visually.
The standards are currently being developed, with the following criteria being used as a rough outline:
- Photos must not contain subtitle text of any kind.
- Photos must not contain additional NPCs or creatures.
- Photos must have the Grass Distance setting at the lowest (slider to the left) since the player will have the same setting enabled for Nirnroot visibility.
- Photos must have the HUD visible, including the compass, which must not have the blue/red/green map markers visible.
- Photos must be in first-person perspective, with the player's fists/weapon lowered. The player should not be visible in any way.
- Photos must be taken during the day time without any weather conditions, including Oblivion weather. The Swamp is an exception since it forces a darker lighting.
- Ideally, notable landmarks should be visible in the photo is applicable.
- The far away and up close image system seems to work well. Perhaps the far away images can be based on the lowest render distance at which the plant appears?
- The compass and custom blue map markers could potentially be used to illustrate where the plant is located in a far away shot.
- Indoors, use the tlb command (toggleLiteBright) to brighten the area before taking a screenshot, as indoors are very dark.
Ideas to test
- Aerial photos to get a view of the surroundings?
- direction of aerial photos - from previous nirnroot to this one, or always facing north?
- Photo from direction of previous nirnroot? or angle for best background landmark? (eg, show imperial city in distance)
- Does nirnroot need to be in the center of the frame? or only centered horizontally? or none at all?
- how far away is far photo? as soon as visual range?
- Can we get a consistent distance for the close photos?
Nirnroot Text Descriptions
Corn Tips
Photos often cannot fully describe the route the player must take to locate a plant. Descriptions (called "Corn Tips") in the original Handbook were often too vague, or not present at all. Ideally, each Nirnroot will have a text description that fully illustrates how the player can most easily find the plant.
The standards are currently being developed, with the following criteria being used as a rough outline:
- If a Nirnroot is most efficiently obtained by first fast traveling to a location, the description should start with instructing the player to do so.
Corn Jokes
Nirnroots that do not have a Corn Tip were previously filled in with a placeholder joke. To avoid confusion, these placeholders will be visually separate from the actual helpful information in future revisions. Ideally, every plant will have a Corn Joke of some kind that can be read for the sake of entertaining the audience during the Nirnroute.