Vince

My experience is a good set of SSDs is a lot better that mechanical drives now, but I expect them to be dramatically better in the future. My Mach V has two Crucial M550 512GB SSDs. I've gotten used to it (aka spoiled) so when I go to another computer to do almost anything, I initially think something is wrong, before I realize it's just slower. As fast as a good SSD is today, they still need to be compatible with the serial ATA (SATA) spec or similar that were initially designed for mechanical drives. I believe as SSDs become more popular and their prices continue to fall, there will be one or more dedicated protocols for SSD's, with mechanical drives used only for longer term storage. Falcon Northwest choose the drives, I didn't. Based on my experience, I'd never go back and I found a SSD review that shows the M550 512GB on top (see below). Since I have four systems connected to a KVM switch, I did an experiment. I timed how long it takes to load up Inkscape with my custom default settings. For my old XP system, it took about 50 seconds. For my Win 7 government laptop it took 17 seconds. For my Samsung Series 9, Win 7 laptop, with a 256GB Samsung SSD, it took about 7 seconds. For the new Mach V it took about 3 seconds. So both systems with SSDs were more than twice as fast as the relatively new government system with a mechanical drive. EDIT: It seems that I'm behind the times. The PCIe NVM Express dedicated SSD protocol is already here! Damn, my "new" system is only 9 months old and it's already out of date. So it goes. Note in the comparison below that there are a half dozen SSDs within 20% or so of the top Crucial. Like I said, I can't imaging going back to mechanical disks, except for long term storage, kind of what we used to use tape for.

I would definitely recommend that you switch to 2.72 as it is a major step up from 2.49. That being said, you may want to wait until you have some free time. There's a lot that's different in 2.7x that you will need to learn. For example, the new versions support N-gons, which significanly changes how you model. Also, applying materials and textures with cycles render is very different than the standard Blender. Cycles produces significantly better renders, but may not be what you want to use if you plan to export to .nif files. I've been doing a good bit with 2.71 and cycles render, but haven't been exporting to .nifs. Hopefully, someone else may be able to shed some light on that. Good luck.

Installing Morrowind on a Windows 7 system from CDs the "right" way. After several hours of searching the internet for issues installing Morrowind, I decided to start over. Although many programs work best when installed in the default directory, Program Files folders are protected in Windows 7, which causes several issues. Remember that Morrowind was released before Vista or Win 7. I found that installing in an unprotected folder made things much simpler. So install in a non-protected folder, such as C:\Games\Morrowind. If you do that, just install Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon in that order. Then install the Bloodmoon official patch (Bloodmoon_v1.6.1820.exe). When you launch Morrowind, at the screen where you can load a saved game, check that "1.6.1820" shows in the lower left corner and you're good to go. Extracting MGE into the Morrowind folder does not require administrative rights since it's not in a Program Files folder. So, after most of a day trying to get things working from the default directory, I did it all in about 20 minutes, installing to a non-protected folder. Have fun.

Success! <<< ALTHOUGH THE STEPS BELOW WORK. INSTALLING SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN C:\PROGRAM FILES (X86)\... MAKES THINGS MUCH EASIER. SEE THE NEXT POST. >>> Since two steps (installing Bloodmoon and installing MGE) are not straightforward, I owe it to my fellow gamers to document the solution. Installing Morrowind, Tribunal, Bloodmoon, and MGE on a Windows 7 System. This assumes that you have separate CDs for Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. This also assumes you installed to the default directory, which is C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind. In the steps below, "...\Morrowind" = C:\Program Files (x86)\Bethesda Softworks\Morrowind. 1> Install Morrowind in the default directory. This should be straightforward. 2> Install Tribunal. This too should be straightforward. 3> Install Bloodmoon, but do not run it yet. 4> From the Bloodmoon CD, copy all the files from Data Files\Meshes to ...Morrowind\Data Files\Meshes. This directory was empty before this step. 5> From the Bloodmoon CD, copy all the files from Data Files\Textures to ...Morrowind\Data Files\Textures. This directory had one .tga file before this step. Now you can activate Tribunal.esm and Bloodmoon.esm and the game should run without errors. 6> If you try to install MGE by right clicking on it, then clicking 7-Zip to extract it to the ...\Morrowind folder you will get a bunch of errors. This is because C:\Program Files (x86) is protected. Instead, locate 7zFM.exe (default location is C:\Program Files\7-Zip). Right click on it, then click on run as administrator. Now find your downloaded MGE file (mine was MGE 3_8_0 Manual-5535.7z) and extract it to the ...\Morrowind folder. You should now find MGEgui.exe in the ...\Morrowind folder. 7> For documentation, run MGEgui.exe and click on the [Help] button. That will take you to the Sourceforge Morrowind Graphics Extender page at the Summary tab. Click on the Files tab. Click on Documentation Snapshots. Click on Offline Documentation Snaps(hot for 3.8.0). Download that. Open the downloaded .zip file and click on morrgraphext. Scroll down the list of files to Documentation.html, click on that and you're good to go. I hope some will find this helpful.

HeyYou, I don't understand exactly how to do what you suggest. Also, I discovered to run MGE XE, "You must have Morrowind GOTY or Bloodmoon fully patched." I tried with just Tribunal and just got a long list of errors. So I can't use MGE until I figure how to install Bloodmoon on Win 7. This is very disappointing.

HeyYou, thanks for your reply. No, I didn't get any error messages during installation. Also, I added to my OP that, unfortunately, installing again didn't help. Since I don't care that much for Bloodmoon, I'm just going to go ahead and run Morrowind with Tribunal and add the mods (starting with MGE and the Morrowind Code Patch).

I have the original CDs for Morrowind, Tribunal, and Bloodmoon. Although I have successfully installed all three on several computers before, I'm having trouble installing Bloodmoon on my newest computer. Everything is fine after installing Morrowind and Tribunal, but after installing Bloodmoon, I get an error at startup "Unable to Load snowflake:Meshes\BM_snow_01.nif". This sounds like a problem with a BSA. Any help or ideas would be appreciated. The system is running Windows 7 Pro, with a i7-4790K (Devil's Canyon) 4.0 GHz processor with 8 GB RAM and an NVIDIA GTX 780 GPU. Although I don't care that much for Bloodmoon, I'd rather sort this out before installing MGE and the Morrowind Code Patch. If I can resolve the problem with Bloodmoon, what happens if I install if after installing MGE and the Code Patch? I've gone through a clean restore with no Morrowind and verified in the registry that Bethesda and Morrowind were not there. I installed again, first Morrowind, then Tribunal, then Bloodmoon. As before, I could run Morrowind with Tribunal, but as soon as I added Bloodmoon, I got the error described above. Unchecking Bloodmoon,esm did not fix the problem. In other words, once I installed Bloodmoon, I could no longer run Morrowind, with or without Tribunal or Bloodmoon. I did try applying the 1.6 patch to Bloodmoon to no effect.

Thanks to all of you I have a better picture of how it works. Cheers

I finally have a computer where I can devote one drive to STEAM. Not surprisingly, the first game I want to buy is Skyrim. I want to play Skyrim with as little online as possible. If I need to initially have it authenticated by STEAM and STEAM has to do their update thing, that's OK. Being constantly online while playing is not OK. As I understand it, I can buy the DVD or do a direct download from STEAM. Are there any other options? Also, do these options change how much I need to be online?

It might have something to do with the target demographic being 14 year old boys.

Hanaisse, thanks, that's useful information. I also noticed that there is a small blurring at the transition from opaque to transparent if there is a selected opaque object behind.

If you are still using Blender 2.49 please follow the steps below and let me know what you see. 1) In Top view, add a plane mesh and scale it to 0.1 in Y. 2) In the UV Editor load the image below. 3) Switch to Edit mode and UV map the plane using Project from View (Bounds). 4) Set the Draw Type to Textured and verify that you see the texture. 5) At the very bottom of the View Properties menu, check Solid Tex. 6) Switch the Draw Type to Solid and verify that you still see the texture. 7) Switch to Edit mode and find the Texture Face panel. Click Alpha. Note: this panel is only visible when you are in Edit mode with a mesh that has been mapped . It is often tabbed with Multires. 8) Verify that you see the texture with a transparent background with Draw Type set to either Textured or Solid. Thanks

grond, thanks. That is very helpful.

If you are using the new Blender (2.50 or later) would you please try the following: 1) In Top View add a plane mesh and scale it 0.10 in Y (so the width to height ratio is 10:1). Do not apply a material. 2) In the UV editor load the image below and map it to the plane using Project from View (Bounds). Since the width to height ratio of the image is also 10:1, it should fit exactly. 3) Set the Viewport Shading to Texture and let me know what you see. Do you see the image with a transparent background? 4) Set the Viewport Shading to Solid and in the 3D view properties sidebar, in Shading control under Multitexture check Textured Solid. Do you see the same thing? If you try this, please let me know what version you are using and thank you very much. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are still using Blender 2.49 please follow the steps below and let me know what you see. 1) In Top view, add a plane mesh and scale it to 0.1 in Y. 2) In the UV Editor load the image above. 3) Switch to Edit mode and UV map the plane using Project from View (Bounds). 4) Set the Draw Type to Textured and verify that you see the texture. 5) At the very bottom of the View Properties menu, check Solid Tex. 6) Switch the Draw Type to Solid and verify that you still see the texture. 7) Switch to Edit mode and find the Texture Face panel. Click Alpha. Note: this panel is only visible when you are in Edit mode with a mesh that has been UV mapped . It is often tabbed with Multires. 8) Verify that you see the texture with a transparent background with Draw Type set to either Textured or Solid. Thanks.

I can't help you with the export. Unfortunately, our resident 3ds expert, Meo, hasn't been around since last Christmas. If you check his profile, there is a link to his site. You might be able to contact him that way. Relative to Blender, it does support animation, both key frame and shape keys (morph targets). Good luck.

Here's a tip for working with alphas in Paint.Net. This program provides the ability to paint directly in RGBA, something you won't find in PhotoShop or the GIMP (see image below). Paint.Net also allows you to adjust the transparency of any layer. Free plugins, such as BoltBait's plugin pack: http://forums.getpai...cember-12-2011/ provide new capabilities, including the ability to adjust the alpha value of a selection and alpha masking, where the gray level values of one image are used to define the alpha values of another image. Download and install BoltBait's plugin pack (linked above http://tesalliance.org/forums/uploads/emoticons/default_up.gif' alt=':up:'>) and the NormalMapPlus plugin http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/17010-normalmapplus-v10/. Make a gray level map (essentially a bump map) of the contours of your surface and convert it to a normal map by clicking Effects>Stylize>NormalMapPlus. Create a gray level map of what you want for alpha values, copy the gray level map to the clipboard, switch to your normal map, then click Effects>Objects>Paste Alpha and you're done!

I went back and played Morrowind again recently. I was amazed in many ways, although I had played it through several times many years ago. I think I understand the reason for the difference from the more recent TES games, and it's consistent with what WillieSea and several others have said. Bethesda is a commercial venture whose purpose is to make money by providing entertaining games. The largest demographic is 14 year old boys. Games that require deep thought , a long attention span, and do not require lightning reflexes will be less appealing to that demographic; thus will be less commercially successful. It's an unfortunate fact that those of us who appreciate the pace and complex main quest of Morrowind are in the minority. We are lucky to have it, especially now that many mods provide more up to date graphics.