I want to share the song The Nightwatchman by the Irish band The Duckworth Lewis Method, who write music inspired by cricket. You can’t say that about the song itself - it has a romantic night mood. By the way, nightwatchman is the name of one of the cricketers, but I can’t say exactly what he does in the game. To do this, you need to understand cricket at least a little.
The Nightwatchman
Lightning flashes in Morrowind have always made an indelible impression with their sharpness, brightness, and ruthlessness to the eardrums. I have long wanted to capture the moment of a flash, which is what happened in this shot. Of course, there is no visible lightning in the sky, but it flashes brightly for a moment, illuminating everything around. The role of the “reverse lightning” here was performed by a brightly lit tree in the background.
I’ve heard rumors that this skeleton hanging by its legs in the ice cave from Bloodmoon is a reference to Star Wars.
Morrowind Screenshots news. The “Last News” and “Last Redrawing” blocks have been added to the home page. The display of news still clearly needs work. The site now also takes into account posts from the Extras section in the authors’ statistics. The problem with uploading new screenshots to the site, which I wrote about earlier, is partially solved, although periodic problems with updating it still remain. In the meantime, the first post of the “Wallpaper” type has been published on the channel, and this is a screenshot made by the new author of the project.
I remembered an unusual case of discovering a musical band. Some time ago I read a book on 3D-modeling. The book was accompanied by examples of finished models for individual lessons. One of the examples was a speaker model, which started playing a song when the animation was launched, and the speaker itself vibrated to the beat of the music. I liked the song right away, and I got a collection with the band’s discography, where there were a lot of great tracks. This is how I got acquainted with Dire Straits.
a songFor several days now, I’ve been struggling with a bug that prevents new screenshots from being uploaded to the Morrowind Screenshots website from the project storage automatically when they are published. But it looks like the solution has already been found — I just need to implement it. Sometimes it’s a pity that technical issues take time that could be spent on taking new screenshots.
Jeremy Soule has made a huge contribution to how The Elder Scrolls series is felt in the mass consciousness. He literally breathed his soul into these games with his music. Unfortunately, Jeremy disappeared from the radar several years ago due to vague accusations against him. There is still hope that he will triumphantly return with the new part of The Elder Scrolls, although everything suggests that this will not happen. But we remember him and hope that we will still hear his new works.
A significant part of the work on creating the Extras section for the Morrowind Screenshots website has already been done. Some of the old project news has already been added to this section, as well as all the redrawings of screenshots by artists that were previously in the main section. In the future, it will also include mentions of the project from other sites, funny remakes of screenshots from subscribers, polls with results, etc. Some posts from Extras will get into the project feed, but at a different time of the day, and will not replace the main posts. A separate important category will be the collections of screenshots that were not included in the main section due to violations, or not interesting enough individually. More authors will have the opportunity to publish their work.
Usually I try to capture the scene without making any changes to it, that is, the way any player would see it (except for an unusual angle, of course). But if there is not enough light in the scene, sometimes you can improve the situation by giving the character a torch or a lamp, thus highlighting the foreground. The light source itself is not visible in the frame. But here is a rare case when the added light source is visible right in the frame, and it becomes part of the composition.
I have an idea to remake old Morrowind screenshots published by Bethesda itself during the promotion of the game. At least those of them that are not too different from the final version.
Music in games has always been of great importance to me, as well as movie soundtracks. Here are some basic properties of good game music:
I ran yesterday’s shot (the second) from Morrowind Screenshots through AI. A bit of uninvited horror. The guys in the last photo look the most menacing.
In recent weeks, I have been exploring Tamriel Rebuilt in order to better understand what I am dealing with and where I can shoot. The impression from many cities is about the same: these are all the same familiar models and textures, sometimes modified or arranged in some new, interesting form. There is a strange feeling that the original game lacks content, because you can make even more interesting towns, and you will still feel like you are in Morrowind. But completely new models and textures often tear you out of this state — they are selected worse. Now it’s interesting to explore which new models still managed to capture the right spirit and how.
To capture this phone wallpaper, I had to put the monitor on its side and run Morrowind in portrait mode. This gave an interesting new perspective on the game, expanding the view in an unusual direction. I will definitely do more shots in this format.
If you need to design a shelf, or plan a repair in an apartment, use SketchUp. I have never seen such speed, simplicity and accuracy of modeling anywhere, and I have something to compare with. There is a small entry threshold in the form of an unusual approach to modeling and several basic tools that you need to learn how to use, but then the program reveals itself in full. This knowledge would save me a lot of time, I wish I had it earlier.
When I need to ponder something, I often listen to the atmospheric soundtrack from The Talos Principle, composed by Damjan Mravunac. This music was created to accompany the solving of puzzles with a philosophical undertone, and it fits perfectly. It mentally immerses you in the ruins of ancient civilizations, where there is no concept of time. You have an eternity to think about something. The game itself is also wonderful. There is a sequel, and the recent remaster of first game.
soundtrack from The Talos Principle
From similar screenshots taken at the same time, in the same place, I always choose one. But sometimes there are shots from the same place and from a similar perspective, separated by years. This happens almost unconsciously, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. It’s even interesting to re-capture the same place with the accumulated shooting experience. It’s like a remaster.
I made a timelapse of changes on my website. You wouldn’t see three engines rewritten from scratch, a large list of projects and works of varying degrees of completion, a section for screenshots, which later became a separate website. But it wasn’t right, and the cobbler was without boots. At some point, I just threw everything away and made a minimal website from scratch, choosing that boot as an icon. Since then, the site has been slowly developing, and I like this process. Although so far it’s more about form than content.
I wondered what I would do with the Morrowind Screenshots project if the same remaster for Morrowind came out tomorrow, as it did yesterday for Oblivion. If the project was worthy of attention, I would just start taking screenshots there too, marking them as “remastered”. I could also make interesting comparisons of the old and new graphics. But I’m pretty sure there won’t be a remaster like that. Morrowind is too different from modern games. Rather, a remake.
