READ ME FILE - NEW AMULETS

New Amulets by Xiamara

1. Description/Use
2. Installation
3. Extras and Tips
4. Known bugs/issues/other info
5. Credits and Usage
6. Contact's Etc...

1. Description/Use

This mod adds amulets in new styles for sale at the Red Diamond Jewlery Store in the Imperial City. I created several new amulet meshes plus multiple re-textures of each (In total, there are 30 amulets for sale).

These amulets rest in the same position as the original Bethesda Amulets. Therefore, they should be compatible with most of the custom body mods. Both Male and Female characters can wear them.

2. Installation

To install the plugin, unzip the files and place "XiaNewAmulets.esp" into C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data folder. Copy the textures into the same subfolders of C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\textures\, the meshes into the same subfolders of C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\meshes\. Run the Oblivion Launcher program. Select Data Files. Click the checkbox next to "XiaNewAmulets.esp" to select it. Run Oblivion.

3. Extras and Tips

Included in the "Extras" folder, you will find a mesh called "XiaPlaneAmuletResource.nif"
This is an amulet with a flat, square, alpha enabled pendant. Texture artists can make their own amulet styles with this mesh by applying textures with alpha channels to the square pendant. A 512x512 texture will work best. The mesh was set to be 1-bit alpha already, so that alpha'd hair and clothes should not cause the pendant to go invisible. However, if you still experience this kind of problem, saving your .dds file as 1-bit alpha (DXT1) will do the trick. If you want to see a sample of an amulet that uses this mesh, look at the "Celtic Birds" style in this mod.

When re-texturing amulets, make sure you have your normal map created before you test it in game. Otherwise your game may crash.

You can replace the picture in the "Portrait Amulets" with your own. Just replace "XiaPortrait1.dds" and "XiaPortrait2.dds" with your own 512x512 character picture. A generic normal map is alredy made for these portraits.

The oval rubies in the "Oblivion O" amulets can appear extremely pink with some graphics cards due to the shine applied to the mesh (they are already somewhat pink, but the shine can make it look several shades lighter). If you don't like the pink look of the gem, I included an alternate normal map in the "extras" folder. All you need to do is copy "XiaRubyOval1_n.dds" from the extras folder, then paste and over-write the original file of the same name in the textures/XiaAmulets1 folder. That will take away the shine and make the rubies look darker.

4. Known bugs/issues/ other info

As mentioned, these amulets rest in the same position as the original Bethesda Amulets. Any clipping issues that the original amulets had, these will have too (there was already some clipping with Bethesda's amulets and some of the vanilla oblivion clothes).

While crouching or using custom animation mods, the beaded amulets will have some stretching of the front beads.

The gems have the same shine applied as on exterior windows. Therefore, they will be shinier during the day and more opaque during the night.

Some original Bethesda robes and the SI dresses hide amulets by default (this is the way Bethesda made it in the game, not to do with this mod.)

5. Credits and Usage

New amulet meshes and jewelry box mesh- Xiamara

Pearl, Oblivion cave and original gold textures - Bethesda

NPC portraits - Bethesda

Other textures - Xiamara

Beta Testers: Thanks Iceflake, Zhu, Zimnel, Floydian and Leomorg!

Special thanks to:

Throttlekitty for his "keep details" dds profiles.

AlienSlof for information about 1-bit alpha meshes.

Vagrant for his Quick and Dirty 3dsmax rigging tutorial.

Usage - Please feel free to use these amulets and jewelry box in your own mod and go ahead and retexture them if you'd like. Please give me credit for the original meshes as listed above.

6. Contacts, etc...

We can be contacted by PM on the official Elderscrolls Forums: http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/

Thanks to Bethesda for creating such a great game and to the Morrowind and Oblivion modding community for inspiration and support.