The Complete Ominous Horizons Compendium!

~OMINOUS HORIZONS~
Isn't it nice? Tijil already had a logo made!

(Admin Note: Post by Kyrbi0; kudos to him for getting permission and getting hold of the files.)

This is it. As much information about Ominous Horizons as I could dig up, available for public download.

At first I had my qualms, but I have permission from project-head Tijil himself.

Besides, he's back on periodically, so you can ask him yourself.


~~~Ingame Screenshots~~~



~~~Introduction~~~

For the uninitiated, Ominous Horizons was a big total conversion/mod that set to work a few years back. They were planning at least 4 custom races (Tauren, Troll, Nerubian, and Satyr (Goblins were gone)), and a full multi-race campaign, to rival Blizzard's own. Most ambitious of all, they planned on using custom everything; pretty much nothing would be used from Blizzard (to my understanding). Not even geomerges were allowed; solely scratch stuff.
However, this could be seen as their downfall. In their mad rush for perfection, interest was lost in what was ultimately a "hobby", and as the leaders perceived the team slacking off, the team felt likewise, leading to widespread decay. The eventual collapse of a "formal" team was then quick, with a slow dwindling timespan where several concept people would continue to post.

Still!, the work they made was amazingly complex and vast. The great creative minds working on this project made it one to be recognized. The amount of work already put into it, as well as the sheer volume of creative brainchildren in the "idea threads" puts it far and away above many of it's class.
In all, the Tauren race was perhaps ~90% completed, model- and trigger-wise. Trolls had a custom race, but no custom models. Everything else was a pipe dream; words on paper.

I am providing for download several OH-related things:
1. The "official download link", where I got the last Test Map (code-name "Epsilon") and the custom .mpq. (All you do is replace your original war3xlocal.mpq with the custom one; remember to keep a backup!)
2. The "mostly complete" Samods + Wc3C Forums Archives. Yes, I spent almost a month at my school, painstakingly copy-pasting the essentials from every topic in every subforum of the OH forum on Samods onto a series of Word documents. <_< >_> <_<. Don't look at me like that!
3. The only (2) custom Sound Set files that seem to exist; for the Ardent and the Carnal Wanderer.
4. The 3ds Max files (all I was given). Basically for anyone who has the corresponding program, who might benefit.
5. The (2) test maps (Delta and Epsilon, Epsilon being the latest).
6. The unfinished "Nerubian UI" test map.
7. The pretty-awexome "OH Cinematic" map.
8-14. The MPQ, broken up into folders (easier to get to?). Sorry for the many zips; it wouldn't fit otherwise. :/


~~~Downloads~~~

1. This is the only link to the test map/mpq; should work.

(admin) Edit : ominoushorizons.zip

2. Forum Archives - Mostly Complete.zip
3. Sound Set Files.zip
4. 3ds Max Files.zip
5. OH Test Maps.zip
6. nerub map (sorry, failed to upload...)
7. cinema map (urg, see above)
8. MPQ - Abilities.zip
9. MPQ - Buildings.zip
10. MPQ - ReplaceableTextures.zip
11. MPQ - Textures.zip
12. MPQ - Units (Creeps+Neutral).zip
13. mpq (nooo!!!)
14. mpq (failed to upload as well!)

~~~

Whew! That took forever!
Anyway, I'm glad to be giving this to the community. I hope you guys can really enjoy this! :D


Update (9-Sep-2008):

Concept art: Zip 1 - Zip 2 - Zip 3 - Zip 4

If their project was so amazing, why doesn't some one revive it ?

Because it was too big for its britches, so to speak. They wanted a COMPLETE transformation; custom everything (as Kyrbi0 said). For 4 races, that's insane and near unheard of, especially if it was to be done well. Nobody would want to pick that up and be responsible for finishing, especially if they weren't on the original team.

Well, if you guys find a leader, I will be happy to help.
Wc3 is known for great quality resources, this would blow up everything else.
I am making two new races, it is not that hard, I have some experience =)
Both are already finished, I took something like 2-3 years to create them and the rest of my map alone, i know for fact it is possible =D

Well sure. Races alone are not impossible. But depending on fully custom stuff is near so.

Besides, perhaps it is best to let sleeping dogs lie, in this case. But I appreciate your enthusiasm.

--EDIT--

Oh, and sorry about not attaching the Tauren bits from the MPQ; for whatever reason, it wouldn't let me do it, not even on a second post! Meh, they're basically all in the other one...

Lol, my races are fully customized in spells, tech tree, upgrades, items and abilities. The only thing not 100% custom are the models, because I am creating the races to be as warcraft campaign as possible, based on their story and so on.

wc3 camp has great modelers, if some one finds a team of them, this has a chance of moving forward.

Anyway, I like great ideas, besides it reminds me of my own project =)
Anyway, it is unlikely that some one ever decides to finish this... petty =(

These were the only ones I could get working. It's a dinosaur, "FissureFire," and "Lavabomb." You can keep the screenshot. The test maps contained a big model called "Tempest"... I want to see it! :(

(Assuming you're looking through the MPQ files), Make sure you have everything in the correct paths. I.E., if you have a model (Wizard.mdx) with several required skins (Wizard.blp, MagicBall.blp, Staff.blp) in different, certain paths (like Textures\MagicBall.blp, Textures\Staff.blp), make sure to import them and rename them as such.

~Import Manager~
war3mapimported\Wizard.mdx
Wizard.blp
Textures\MagicBall.blp
Textures\Staff.blp

Like that. Use Magos War3ModelEditor to check for proper paths, if you need help. They're not all organized correctly in the MPQ, unfortunately.

~~~

And again, my apologies, guys; for whatever reason, I can't upload the OH Cinematic, the Nerubian UI, or the most important part, the Tauren models themselves! Argh...

You're going to need in-game screenshots of every model or texture (wrapped) included in the pack. Otherwise, sounds cool.

Wait, wha?? Are you serious!?

Criminy, that will take absolutely forever... I was gonna put up a bunch of concept art up on the first post, to garner interest, but this will take all my time...

Ok, then.

Also you need to actually get the important stuff uploaded. What is the reason as to why the uploads fail?

I don't know. I even tried on a second post, but it failed there (so it's not to do with a size limit, it seems).

However, all the important stuff is actually on the custom .mpq, which can be downloaded from the #1 link I provided (that, and the test map). The other MPQ folders are just there to make it easier to import and use in your own maps; i.e., you don't have to rip them out of the custom .mpq.

It's unfortunate, but not life-ending.

~~~


Hey-what? You are also working on custom races?? What are you doing? I'm interested because, obviously, I work on custom races. :P

--EDIT--


Do you mean, if it doesn't appear normally ingame (like Textures\Fireparticle.blp, etc), I should post a picture of, like from Magos? Or just all the textures that wrap around the units included in the pack?

I am completing the High Elf race and the Chaos Orc Race, into two distinguished complete races, like Blizzard would have done if they had the time.
The races have everything I mentioned up. Now I am just polishing them and finishing the map systems and items, which is very complicated to do alone.
After that I will need to perfect the terrain, as it isn't that good so far...

If it's in the MPQ, then leave it. It's probably failing to upload because it is too big. Should this be approved, the MPQ will be directly uploaded onto the server (I think).

Put all the models in a map, run the map and take screenshots of them. Those screenshots are enough to probe that the models work properly... And wait until the iron hand of any art moderator comes here :P