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TB's Aribeth Redux
An alteration of Beamdog's Aribeth HD. Texture and mesh edits. Overriding hak file, both for default Aribeth and her darker version. Testing module included. Disclaimer: This is a complete hack job, because I have no idea what I'm doing. Normal and specular maps mystify me as much as they delight me.
Requires Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition.
There is a tutorial on how to edit Aribeth (or other NWN models) based on this project available over here.
Update April 20, 2018:
Updated normal maps a little, added dark version. Stopped distributing leather couter version because keeping it up would mean I'd have to juggle four different Aribeths (leathercouterversion-normal, leathercouterversion-dark, metalcouterversion-normal, metalcouterversion-dark) and the effort seems disproportionate to the benefit as long as the only difference is the couters.
Also added scripts "letsbearibeth" and "letsnotbearibeth", which store the caller's current creature appearance and set it to Aribeth (normal, not dark), and restore the stored creature appearance, respectively. To use ingame, the console command (while in DebugMode) is "dm_runscript letsbearibeth" (or "dm_runscript letsnotbearibeth"). Please note that this difference won't show up within the testing module, since the testing module sets the player's appearance to default Aribeth when they enter anyway (so their creature appearance *is* Aribeth already by the time you'd be calling letsbearibeth).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 aribethredux.rar (474) | 30.96 MB |
| aribeth_testing_module.rar (235) | 15.07 KB |
Just
it! Thanks.
Aribeth is pretty again.
TR
You have some seams on your normal / sepc mapping in that second screenshot.
May want to try blending more. Hum Hum.
Great job.
Oh snap. Can you grab a (digital equivalent of a) pen and circle them? I think I see the one on the hip armor.
Seam-a-hunting-mode activated!
ARMED WITH THE BLENDING BRUSH, I SHALL... blend... textures? 'kay. That sounds like a plan.
Speaking as someone who has fought with medieval weapons in metal armour, I can speak authoritatively that metal couters are far superior to lether couters. And while there is some evidence of leather couters existing in period, there were without a doubt oil-hardened. A soft couter provides practically no protection at all. Given how much metal Aribeth is wearing, it makes no sense whatsoever that her elbows are protected by leather rather then by steel, even if the leather were hardened.
As such, armourers figured out a very long time ago how to shape the couter so that it protects the elbow throughout the full extension and contraction of the arm. In other words, they don't need to bend. In the age of plate, armourers created slots on the attachments thereby allowing the couter to float to some degree. In the age of maille (or earlier) the flexible maille would allow the couter to move with the elbow.
Please post the metal version. Metal is good. Very good.
--Sponsored by Don Quixote's Committee to Avoid Stupidity in Fantasy Armour
Heh. Two words, friend Grymlorde - the bewbs. Does Don Quixote's CtASiFA not take issue with Aribeth's chest all exposed? xp
^^ Metal couter version coming up. Thank you for the term! I'll be googling that.
Out of virtual armorcrafting curiosity - are spaulders like hers credibly possible? They look like they ought to fall off. The only way I can explain these to myself is if there were straps going around the arm, and around the shoulders, tying off in the armpit, which sounds really uncomfortable and probably not very robust.
The metal-on-skin thing she's got going on on the torso has to chafe terribly, too. But then, we are talking about a lady who wears a skirt to battle, now. And a setting that has magic. Huh. Do you suppose there's such a thing as spells for making armor parts stay on the body? Knowing people, casual and frequent use of magic for cosmetic effects would absolutely be a thing if we had it for real. ::headscratch:: But what if it got dispelled? Then you'd suddenly be armorless. Or at least have lost your spaulders, in this case, I guess.
We should make a version with pants. And probably the skin covered up and replaced with something more solid.
Well, Aribeth's spaulders are so big as to almost be pauldrons. Back in my day, I used leather straps to hold my spaulders in place and it was uncomfortable. As it turns it, I was doing it wrong! Spaulders work best when they are loosely laced into the maille or the gambeson (if not wearing maille). Both spaulders and pauldrons are shaped to rest on the shoulder and the pauldrons, being larger tend to stay on easier. However, all this lacing (couters and spaulders or pauldrons, etc.) requires help. And your typical adventurer does not have a train of servants like a knight or even a successful man-at-arms does. So they would have to make do with a great deal of discomfort and weird strapping of their armour since they have to do it themselves.
Magic armour is of course a whole different kettle of fish. Going back to the very first edition of D&D (1974), magic armour is lighter and conforms to the shape of the wearer. Is this because all magic armor is made of mithril and/or adamantium? Or is there something in the enchantment? Who knows? After all, magic can explain everything! But yeah, that is a cop-out. Using to magic to justify all kinds of silly armour is... well... silly. *Sigh*
Oh and the metal on skin? It not so much to metal contact as it is the edges of the contact. I learned the hard way that good padded gambeson is the best way to prevent "armour bites." Aside from the concussions, the great injuries I ever received were from the edges of improperly padded and strapped armour being pounded into my flesh.
Just search on "xxxxxx pattern" and you'll find a plethora of good and pattern armour patterns. Unfortunately using period names doesn't work. For example, "couter pattern" turns up counter pattern whereas "elbow cop pattern" turns up the correct patterns. Elbow Cop is the SCA term for couter (no idea why). At any rate, I recommend starting with The Armour Archive if you're looking for patterns. One caveat, while the AA has a bias towards historical armour, it was founded by and is heavily dominated by members of the Society for Creative Anachronisms (SCA) which have rules concerning legal and illegal hits, armour requirements, etc. As such, some of the information on the AA may reflect their perspective. Not that most people will ever notice the difference. For hardcore historical information, check out the Arms and Armour Forum. Another good site is MyArmoury, a site intended for collectors but also has lay & student researchers and reenactors. Those three sites will provide you with probably 80-90% of all the information you will ever need.
And if you stuck, just give me a shout and I'll try and point you in the right direction, but I must warn you that I am just a lifelong student cum amateur cum hobbyist rather than a learned professor.
One clarification: Armour patterns are for cutting and shaping pieces of sheet metal, not 3d modeling per se. I do think they're worth taking a look at to help visualize what a 3d model should look like, particularly the shaping instructions.
These links're great. In between the pattern pieces, the review pages, the links to all kinds of stores and tutorials, and the discussions... yep, that's plenty of learning material for 3d-modeling armour that could actually be functional. Thank you!
I'll take you up on that and come ask you to criticize a NWN armour design or two, someday. With normal and spec maps, there could even be "glowing"(or, at least, 'intensely light-reflecting')-looking runes etched into it. :'-D Project for the next time armourcrafting fits into a CCC theme, I think.
This reskin is gorgeous, but if we are talking about realistic armour design - maybe do away with that chainmail bikini cleavage first ? That would be a dream of decades come true...
TheBarbarian,
Just gave this a DL and a spin - beautiful work. I can't tell you how long I've waited to have Aribeth worship at my feet! (jk!) In all seriousness, running her through the emotes was pretty lit! Thank you, friend, you have made my stinky day very much less stinky! And a last question - will you put this up on the Steam Workshop? Inquiring minds and all that ...
Of course, thank you for contributing to the community!
Yep! Doing some more cleanup first, and then I'll have to figure out how to get anything onto the Workshop in the first place. Mercifully, I think Proleric and HunterRayder wrote guides for it already. Assuming that no unforeseen disasters happen in the meantime, she should be up on Steam in time for the EE release.
Good work, Barbie ;-)
Mmm..ok per me non è male ma ... la gonna ha un effetto troppo strano preferisco la versione originale di BD per il resto e ok ... solo forse gli occhi ... ho un aspetto troppo piccolo e forse il colore e per rivederlo non mi sembra che Aribeth abbia gli occhi verdi ... Raga guarda l'ArtWork ecc ... e sorride troppo malizioso.
Hey! :D Would you like to learn how to modify 3d models? I can take pictures and write up a little Aribeth-editing tutorial if you like. You'll need Blender, and Symmetric's Neverblender plugin. You could make your own version, eyes however big you'd like them to be. And whatever color you'd like them to be, too, for that matter. Although, that doesn't take a 3d modeling program, just one for editing images, like Paint.NET or GIMP.
I'd love to see a tutorial like that! Please, please, please! With sugar on top!
'kay! :D I've got to finish up the CCC stuff for this month and figure out how to fix the wonked up normalmap here without breaking the neck seam first, so it'll probably take a week or two. I'll send you a PM when the tutorial's done.
Make it public. Post it on here. The more tutorials the better.
TR
Thank you very much, friend TheBarbarian! I'm always looking to expand my NwN horizons, and modelling is a pretty daunting task to jump into. Always happy to have the help of people who know what the heck they're doing!
In case anyone wondered if armoured skirts were ever worn into battle. Yes. Yes, they were. And they were called kastenbrust. And they were worn by German men.
And I really like the metal couters added to Aribeth. The etching is a very nice touch. I've always thought that magic armour would be highly ornate if not baroque or arabesque. Or festooned with runes.
@Hunter_Rayder93 (translated via google) -
Mmm..ok for me is not bad but ... the skirt has an effect too strange I prefer the original version of BD for the rest and ok ... just maybe the eyes ... I look too small and maybe the color and to see him again it does not seem to me that Aribeth has green eyes ... Raga looks at the ArtWork etc ... and smiles too mischievously.
I don't know where you are getting the green eyes thing from. They are exactly the same colour as the original Bioware ones, grey with a slight tinge of yellow. As to their size, I beg to differ. They are now a more natural size and again equivelant to the original Bioware eyes. Never mind the artwork, it's the models that count in game.
TR
She is really starting to look like the Elder Scrolls high elf girl
- Mark
Oh wow, she looks amazing. Definitely like the darker hair colour, too. I think I'll be using this version when I play. Thank you!
would love to see her outfit as a pc clothing option... *fingers crossed*
Hmmm, how to install it exactly?
I put the hak file in the hak folder and yet Aribeth looks the same as before. Does it require Aribeth HD? Because I tried to put the hak with both original Aribeth and Beamdog Aribeth installed and I did not get the looks this mod gives her.
gneh. You're right. I've neglected to include installation instructions. Right, here goes:
Think of haks like packages on a shelf while they're sitting in the hak folder - their contents bundled up, sitting where they're supposed to be looked for when needed, but as long as nobody actually comes looking for the package, they don't do anything and their contents might as well not exist (save for taking up space). They're just there, available to be accessed by modules if a module is told to load a hak by that name. Doing that happens in the toolset, under Edit -> Module Properties -> Custom Content.
But that only loads that hak for that particular module, and it'd be cumbersome to have to attach it over and over again one module at a time. To get around that, there's the patch hak method:
- Put the hak into the NWN\patch\ folder.
- Find and open nwnpatch.ini (should be in your main installation directory).
- Append a line for the new patch hak. My nwnpatch.ini currently looks like this:
I do not have a patch file in either the NWN doucuments folder nor main folder but I guess it is just fine to create one then? Btw I'm using Beamdog version of the game instead of the Steam or GGOg version.
Also, no need have to Beamdog's Aribeth installed for this to work?
Finally, does one definitely have to start a new game to see if the hak worked? There is a fair enough deal of conversation before the Player can meet Aribeth. I made a save shortly before entering the room where she is to see if it works...
I've checked the Aribeth mod from the optional mods and the Aribeth controlled by the player looked just like in the image for her in this page. Quite pretty^^
We're up to a pretty silly amount of different installations now, aren't we. I've got five different NWNs installed at the moment.
https://neverwintervault.org/forums/neverwinter-nights-1/enhanced-edition/patch-hak-enhanced-edition
^- Check here. I haven't tried patch hak installs on the Beamdog Client NWN yet, but it seems to have been figured out already. :D
- No need to install the Beamdog Aribeth. They use the same exact files, so they'd just override eachother. Whichever was installed last would show up, and you'd never see the other.
- You don't have to start a new playthrough of the main campaign or any module, no, just to restart NWN. The patch files get loaded when the game itself starts.
<3 :-) I've got a minor fix for the face normals and a dark/evil version coming up in a couple of days, so watch out for that.
Quite weird...I tried the install instructions from the link and when I changed nwn.ini to userpatch.ini the game created a new folder named "Neverwinter Nights.0" in the documents which is a mirror version of the original "Neverwinter Nights" from documents but with all of its folders(hak, modules, etc) being empty. It did no longer read from the original Neverwinter Nights folder but the new one. I installed the hak in the new hak folder too but it did not work either.
Did anyone successfully test this mod on the Beamdog version of NWN? Maybe I will have to purchase the Steam version.
Beamdog Aribeth works just fine though...
Looking forward to your evil Aribeth. I just hope there is a way I can run it.
No plans to make a version which is as simple in its use as the Beamdog Aribeth?
That's pretty normal. You need to rename nwnpatch.ini, not nwn.ini. The latter is a vital game file without which the game can't run, so if it's absent or corrupted, the launcher'll try to recreate a working version of the game files without destroying the modified ones.
But if you don't have a pre-EE installation of the game, you don't have a nwnpatch.ini to copy over to the Beamdog version in the first place. Here's what you do:
- Clone nwn.ini, so you have a copy of it in addition to the original
- Rename the copy of nwn.ini to userpatch.ini
- Open your shiny new userpatch.ini, and replace it's contents with this:
Nice, it worked!
In order for it to fully work though I had to add in the nwn.ini the line: PATCH=C:\Users\USER_NAME\Documents\Neverwinter Nights\hak
Really pretty this Aribeth. Looking forward to the dark/evil version of Ari!!!
Darkribeth is aliiiiiiiiiive! <3
Successfully resisted urge to give her a goatee. Part of me deeply regrets that decision.