It's been a hot minute...

Ok, not sure if anyone actually reads this but if you do I'll try and explain why it's been 5 years since the last update!

Life gets in the way sometimes.  The original plan was to recreate the world of Albion in the Oblivion and Skyrim engines and that remains the goal, but the recent remaster of Oblivion* and Xenia's improved ability to play Fable 2 on PC (for some time now) has reignited my interest in the project.

I've been able to extract a lot the heightmaps from Fable 2 & 3 and worked out scaling formulas so that they are rendered more accurately in the Construction Set and Creation Kit.  The heightmaps for Fable: The Lost Chapters, by the way, are 4 times more detailed than Oblivion and Skyrim.  Aside looming:

So obviously Oblivion and Skyrim are free roam in a way that the Fable games are most definitely not, so the former cannot cope with a landscape as detailed as one where regions are more compact. There will be a small compromise in the way things look in The Albion Scrolls but hopefully this will not be too noticeable.

So I have just finished reworking all the heightmaps from Fable Anniversary and have incorporated those which I have extracted from 2 and 3 into a cohesive Albion.  To be clear, this will be Albion as it was at the time of the Hero of Oakvale.

Stay tuned for more very soon.

*Oblivion being remastered in the Unreal engine has not escaped my attention (in that it should be easier to convert assets across from Fable Anniversary)

Progress Report

So it's been awhile...

I have been working continuously, if slowly, on this honestly! I am still trying to focus exclusively on Oakvale then Bowerstone, only occasionally drifting off into the surrounding areas (Bowerlake and Greatwood I'm looking at you!)

I just wanted to remind myself why I set out to do this nearly 10 years ago - to merge the Albion of Fable 2 with that of Fable: TLC, effectively bringing the former to the PC.  Boy did I underestimate how long that it would take!

To that end, other than simply (!) recreating the worldspace, towns, villages, forests, etc,... if it takes me forever, I think that the following should be part of this project:

1. Cosmetic overhaul of the Oblivion UI - To make it as close as possible to the menus of Fable:TLC or Fable 2.
2. Gestures and NPC interaction - A big part of the Fable games, the source of much of their humour.
3. Character that morphs in relation to their actions - Decisions and morality played a big part in the games Lionhead made, and this should somehow be reflected here too.
4. Kickable chickens.  That is all. 

Anyway, Oakvale is so close to being finished so stay tuned.

Dream big or don't dream at all.

The Fabled Lion's Head

So it's been a while and progress has been slow on this, currently, one-person mission to bring the world of Albion together in the Oblivion engine.

But rest assured that I am nibbling at it bit by bit.

I'm currently almost finished restoring a lot of the models that were lost in a catastrophic attempt to convert what work I had done to Skyrim.  I shall not be making that mistake again!

Once this is done, I will have both Bowerstone and Oakvale nearly ready to share on the Oblivion Nexus.  I am also nearly finished with the Bower Lake landscaping.

Stay tuned ;)

A Stroll Around Oakvale

Now clearly from this video there are issues that need to be resolved; collision, shadows (or the nonexistance thereof) and the like, but I'm pretty happy with how Oakvale looks so far.

Some thoughts on the Landscape

No new content as yet but I've been thinking about how best to arrange the landscape of Albion.  Now in Fable (and it's other incarnations; TLC and Anniversary) each region is a distinctly separate entity, accessed by town gates and other portals.  However, with the exception of Anniversary, when the heightmaps are viewed, it is possible to tile together a complete Albion.

So my decision is this.  Do I adhere strictly to the heightmaps of the original Fable or do I take a little artistic license and embrace the possibilities of the larger Fable 2-era map.  Bearing in mind of course that I plan to include TLC-era takes on locations that feature in later Fables, such as Brightwall, the expanded Bowerstone and Oakfield.

I've already decided that I will take a modular approach to releasing areas, as I've almost completed Oakvale and Lookout Point/Bowerstone and it's taken me about 2 years to get that far!

What Is The Albion Scrolls?

What is The Albion Scrolls?

The Albion Scrolls is an attempt to recreate the world of Albion, from the Fable series of games, in the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Construction Set.  It is also an exercise in learning level design, texturing and 3D modelling.

The Construction Set is a fantastic modding tool that has so far enabled me to import a compiled heightmap file from the first Fable game, then import various models and textures from both that game and its remake; Fable Anniversary.

The ultimate aim is to create a fully free-roamable Albion from the time of the first Fable game, eventually with quests and also featuring areas from the subsequent Fable games, albeit 500-600 years before.

Currently, as of November 2014, I have made quite a bit of headway with Oakvale, Greatwood Lake, and the Lookout Point/Bowerstone South areas.

Video - Lookout Point in TESIV: Oblivion WIP