I asked at the Bethsoft forums and got the same answer, so I guess the process isn't that different between them. I still haven't tried it yet, so I may still pester you with more questions. Busy busy busy.

Canals look good, btw.

Thanks. I will do a few more textures tonight. I need to make some houses that can sit in the water.

Saw your screenshots in the Bethsoft forum today; looking good!

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still working away at my modeling skills and hopefully will be able to start contributing soon. I've been working on a roundhouse mesh (I know, not what you're looking for right now, but whatever) but I've had to learn a few more things (like UV mapping to get the thatching to look right on a cone-shape...trickier than I thought it would be). It's not that I don't want to bang up some supercool statics, but I'm still just learning how to do this stuff, so be patient. I've also been studying pre-modern building materials (like wattle-and-daub and mud brick) so I can get the textures right. But that's a whole other kettle of fish. My plan is to make about three different roundhouses (small, medium, and communal) and some matching accessories (like animal shelters and fences) so that I can make some honest to goodness proto-Celtic settlements.

I've also been surfing around looking for references for the lower class Greek-style housing and had a question: the references to classical Greek houses sound quite a bit different from the photo references I've been able to find that are similar to the pic you posted: they are centered around one or two courtyards (sometimes there is a separate one for the women) with a couple of rooms opening on to them, sort of like a mini-keep. Are you looking for something like this, or something more like a square house with a curved roof like in the pic?

Phew lots of bits there.

The roundhouses are certainly not wasted effort, I was going to head off into doing some of those so thats perfect! I can do other stuff and anyway the more I do the more my signature sort of sits in the style. We need variety.

On the greek side of things, we could make use of both. Each city would have some distinctive architecture, not so silly as Oblivion with some right old daftness going on, Rome one day, Adams family ten miles away!

Either style sounds good, I like the idea of the courtyard design.

Ok, another question for you:

How are you doing your *_far.nifs? Are you using GenerateFar.exe, doing them by hand, or just renaming your files? Plus, any tips you can give about generating them?

Ah, not too difficult a question there. I produce the regular model, add havok and export to nifskope. In nifskope I fix the havok vertices (theres almost always an odd vertex sticking out somewhere.) then resave.

I then remove the havok, pick the detailed bits of the model that would not be seen from a distance and remove them leaving a basic shell and basic textures. then rename it.

For complex multi textured models I take a shiot of the front, sides, back and top then compile them into one texture map, the make a basic shape and put them onto it as the far model.

Thanks for the detailed workflow. I hadn't really thought it through yet and that was excellent advice: saved me having to figure it out myself.

I am going to play around with GenerateFar a bit more, too, though. It may be adequate for the simpler models and takes only a couple of seconds to use. So far, it's worked fairly well on a couple of vanilla rocks, it just messes up the textures a little bit sometimes; but so far that's been fairly easy to fix. I'll let you know how it works on some of the more complex models. It could be a great time-saver.

I have never used Generate Far, I have been tempted but didnt really know how to go about it. Let me know how you get on.

I am going now to try to create some lower class models for the town we are going to populate. Hopefully I should have them done within a few days.