This project was in my mind since I saw sooo many complaining about Barad-Dur (of the Third Age), stating how underwhelming is its representation in The Lord of the Rings Online, someone even saying that Isengard seemed taller. Verily, the size is not what's wrong with the Dark Tower(s). The Dor Amarth area in Gorgoroth bases all its charm and atmosphere around the menacing tower (or ruins of it) at its eastern end, tower that was supposed to watch over the player wherever he was in the barren landscape. Sadly, even if the area is actually designed so, the limitations built into the client make the Dark Tower spawn only when the player is so near to it (in relation to the Tower'size) that it is impossible to appreciate this almost unique area design, for LOTRO.
I made a "not official" solution for this draw distance tech-issue. If interested, I invite you to take a look at my Patreon at www.patreon.com/MiniExpBounder
I was on the player council and visited Turbine HQ back when Minis Tirith was being concepted/planned - and they were very aware that the measurements they were using were very different than what was described in the books. They felt the book described something underwhelming, and also something that would go against player expectations given how it was presented in the ROTK film adaptation.
@@sezneg3991 MT is a nightmare to quest in....how did they imagine/explai9n it would be fun? I rage logged at least 100 times trying due to frustration.
Really appreciate that. Sometimes riding thru the game you forget how much work has been put into it over the years. Remember visiting some of these places with old friends. Those who have left the game, I wish they’re doing well.
Wow great! Now people can stop complaining about how Minas Morgul appeared to be smaller than Minas Tirith! Also how does Carn-Dum stack against these other tall buildings? personally just curious and I wanna see the comparizon size wise.
That was a fascinating video, thank you for taking the time to make that! With so much of the world having been created over the years, the game could even offer a tourist mode similar to the Discovery modes in the last couple of Assassin's Creed games. The extent to which the devs have now fleshed out their version of Middle Earth is really quite impressive.
Great job, amazing video ! On the technical side, I can't even imagine the work it must have been if you had to fix all the captured 3d scenes and if you had to correct all the textures. (I'm guessing you had to do it since capture tools usually require reapplying all textures and you said so in an anwser to another comment). Now for a lotro-related comment : I used to hate Minas Tirith. Lags, crashes, loading times all around... It was a place I avoided at all cost. Now with the 64 client, I went back to finish all the exploring deeds in town (all statues, inns, guest-houses...) and now I'm very sad it's not used more. The work put into crafting a believable, living city is amazing ! There are inns and taverns for all the tastes, I took a real joy to visit them all (with some surprises hidden !). Thank you for your hard work. If you wanted to do a 2nd video on this topic, I would suggest doing Annuminas, so we can see what it would look like if not flooded :)
Thanks! The whole project ended having more than 5,5 Million vertex, so my PC was constantly on the verge of crash. Anyway nothing that wasn't worth fight against. Minas Tirith is one of my favourite places, and I think the way it is done makes it one of the most detailed, realistic and beautiful cities in the gaming history. I am thinking about a second round, but I'm still pondering what could make into the new list...guess we could have Annuminas along with the Endless Stair and maybe the Caradhras as special guest, who knows. About this video, I am still waiting for someone to point out a peculiar thing about the Cuthstan.
@@holthrain3985 The model of the hand is 1:1 the hand Saruman used at the entrance of his Vale, but since he smoothed it it is a bit smaller... I took the White Hand, cleaned it from the chains and branches and reapplied the Cuthstan main texture.
@@MiniExpBounder Can you explain some of how you got the models and textures out of the game files? I'm a 3d artist and long time lotro player and would love to tinker with them, too.
Thanks for this Video, done very well! Finaly Lotro gets some more attention again. Such a great game and hopefully we'll see lots of additional content in the future.
I'm so happy to see there Minas Morgul looks like Minas Tirith - with many tiers, just like in the book. Tolkien wrote, that these two fortresses are like tweens. Very bad that in the films and mostly in the games they look differently
I would be really curious about the opinions of a Tolkien lover that did not know about LOTRO...if such person exists of course. With a video like this even a not-gamer can experience the LOTRO concepts.
This is so great, not only because of the height comparison, but also because most of these structures we only see from below, and here they are in all their glory. I'd love to see more. How about Dol Amorth, Annuminas, Erebor, Skarhald, Carn Dum.. maybe the Tower of Cirith Ungol? Barad Gularan? The Lost Temple? Ost Dunhoth?
Insane that even after it collapsed, barad dur is still the tallest structure in the game. Makes you think, just how big was third age barad dur before sauron died?
I appreciate your sacrifice of having to dig through the files to find the models/export them to blender. Side note, I love how the wall around Minas Tirith is correctly black as it is in the books
Cool video! Can I ask how you created all these 3D models and compared them? Is it a special program? I think that technology could make my videos more interesting!
@@LoreOfTheRingsYT I had to work hard to remove all the unrelated stuff+landscape and I had to manually correct every single texture. This is why it took me some weeks to finish this project.
Lore of Middle-Earth you should really play it if you’re a Tolkien fan. Just the experience of walking in middle earth as the devs created it is priceless.. it’s the most faithful Lotr game out there right now
They definitely went overboard with the size of Dol Guldur, but it's great when you first see it looming in the distance. I would have liked to see where Bar Nirnaeth fit in here, that place is huge.
How did you pull the data from the client to put this all together? I wonder....there are seemingly unreachable areas in the game that might using your process show routes into them? For example how to get into the unnamed ruins across from Galtrev in Pren Gwydh at 78.5S, 18.5W or, more interestingly when one is in Enedwaith at 74S, 20.3W looking West there's a pathway leading up into trees. An invisible wall blocks access to an area with structures you can barely make out!
I guess it answers the age old question. The Chicken came first and built all this stuff with the sacrifice of its noble kin into the bellies of the builders.
Wow good job! Is it possible to everyone to get the buildings out of the game? Maybe just using the same Engine and loading the files? Or how did you did that? Would be interesting to know. You don't need to answer here. You can write me on my social media sites as PN. 🙂
Yes, the point of view is everything when watching the structures in-game. Many could be surprised too about seeing Orthanc being so small, while in-game the surroundings make the Tower stand out much more.
@@MiniExpBounder of course they all are very good otherwise they would not work on it but Thomas is my favorite since its mostly his stuff that manages to makes my mood change depending on the music....some of the others do at times but mostly him
It's the intro of "Party in the Shire" by Chance Thomas. If you are also interested in the other tracks, they are all written inside the info-box and the subtitles!
To be fair these are modeled after the books in which there wasn’t a giant eye of effing flames at the top. Sauron was just chilling surveying Mordor at the very top. Slightly different.
As far as I know "Normal" Numenoreans at their worst time height at least 2 meters, and Elendil was supposed to height 2 meters 40 cm or something like that.
Because the first Barad-dur was destroyed after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance. In game, there is a version for the Second Age and a version for the Third Age.
You are right on the canon, yet the Elendil model inside the game is only that high in one of his appearances, and featuring it was a way to report the incorrectness. For the dwarf, since I was measuring the models, I decided to include also the armour in that particular dwarf measurements, as part of the model.
@@MiniExpBounder ah my bad. I had not read title of video. So let’s hope in future those characters height will be fixed on Lotro :) Thx again for nice video
No worries, and thanks for your kindness! Should have some spare time, I suggest you watch the remaked version of this Comparison, where Elendil has got its proper height (since there are two different versions inside the game).
Cirith Ungol is in the Volume II, the other fortresses of Mordor are in the Volume III, in the same playlist of this video. Check those videos for those structures!
He was, but for this video I measured the model that appears in the game. It was a bit of criticism against the developers, to put that very model in the ranking.
I do not know if they would fit in an height comparison, but they may fit a showcase comprising Moria, Erebor, Gundabad, Thorin's Hall and the Iron Hills.
Since my size comparison is based around the appearances in the Lord of the Rings Online, in the rankings there are several structures that do not appear in the movies. In general, the movies cover just a fraction of the places and characters that appear in the book, while the MMO covers almost all of the book appearances with many other structures that are outside the canon but still very lore-accurate, like the fortresses in Mordor.
![The Lord of the Rings [violin cover] Concerning Hobbits, Aniron, Rohan, Misty Mountains Seda BAYKARA](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TgAWG-1fSgg/mqdefault.jpg)
This project was in my mind since I saw sooo many complaining about Barad-Dur (of the Third Age), stating how underwhelming is its representation in The Lord of the Rings Online, someone even saying that Isengard seemed taller. Verily, the size is not what's wrong with the Dark Tower(s).
The Dor Amarth area in Gorgoroth bases all its charm and atmosphere around the menacing tower (or ruins of it) at its eastern end, tower that was supposed to watch over the player wherever he was in the barren landscape. Sadly, even if the area is actually designed so, the limitations built into the client make the Dark Tower spawn only when the player is so near to it (in relation to the Tower'size) that it is impossible to appreciate this almost unique area design, for LOTRO.
I made a "not official" solution for this draw distance tech-issue. If interested, I invite you to take a look at my Patreon at www.patreon.com/MiniExpBounder
I was on the player council and visited Turbine HQ back when Minis Tirith was being concepted/planned - and they were very aware that the measurements they were using were very different than what was described in the books. They felt the book described something underwhelming, and also something that would go against player expectations given how it was presented in the ROTK film adaptation.
@@sezneg3991 MT is a nightmare to quest in....how did they imagine/explai9n it would be fun? I rage logged at least 100 times trying due to frustration.
2:48 So passes Denethor, son of Ecthelion.
He actually survived the fall. They are going to make a movie about it
what about the fact that he was on fire did he survive the fire
@@89Tymah wow, thats some darth maul stuff
@@89Tymah somehow Denethor returned.
Really appreciate that. Sometimes riding thru the game you forget how much work has been put into it over the years. Remember visiting some of these places with old friends. Those who have left the game, I wish they’re doing well.
great video, thanks!
6:54 Is that the Battle at the Big Bridge I hear? So you too are a man of culture.
LOTRO players are usually men of culture, as you teach me. Thanks!
@@MiniExpBounder or Women!
Wow great! Now people can stop complaining about how Minas Morgul appeared to be smaller than Minas Tirith! Also how does Carn-Dum stack against these other tall buildings? personally just curious and I wanna see the comparizon size wise.
Beautiful.. didn’t expect Barad-Dur to be that big in-game.. 😯
That was a fascinating video, thank you for taking the time to make that! With so much of the world having been created over the years, the game could even offer a tourist mode similar to the Discovery modes in the last couple of Assassin's Creed games. The extent to which the devs have now fleshed out their version of Middle Earth is really quite impressive.
Great job, amazing video !
On the technical side, I can't even imagine the work it must have been if you had to fix all the captured 3d scenes and if you had to correct all the textures. (I'm guessing you had to do it since capture tools usually require reapplying all textures and you said so in an anwser to another comment).
Now for a lotro-related comment : I used to hate Minas Tirith. Lags, crashes, loading times all around... It was a place I avoided at all cost. Now with the 64 client, I went back to finish all the exploring deeds in town (all statues, inns, guest-houses...) and now I'm very sad it's not used more. The work put into crafting a believable, living city is amazing ! There are inns and taverns for all the tastes, I took a real joy to visit them all (with some surprises hidden !).
Thank you for your hard work.
If you wanted to do a 2nd video on this topic, I would suggest doing Annuminas, so we can see what it would look like if not flooded :)
Thanks! The whole project ended having more than 5,5 Million vertex, so my PC was constantly on the verge of crash. Anyway nothing that wasn't worth fight against.
Minas Tirith is one of my favourite places, and I think the way it is done makes it one of the most detailed, realistic and beautiful cities in the gaming history.
I am thinking about a second round, but I'm still pondering what could make into the new list...guess we could have Annuminas along with the Endless Stair and maybe the Caradhras as special guest, who knows.
About this video, I am still waiting for someone to point out a peculiar thing about the Cuthstan.
@@MiniExpBounder About the Cuthstan ? Is it Cirion's tiny hand ? Seriously, look it up, it looks so small ahahah
@@holthrain3985 The model of the hand is 1:1 the hand Saruman used at the entrance of his Vale, but since he smoothed it it is a bit smaller... I took the White Hand, cleaned it from the chains and branches and reapplied the Cuthstan main texture.
@@MiniExpBounder Can you explain some of how you got the models and textures out of the game files? I'm a 3d artist and long time lotro player and would love to tinker with them, too.
It's impressive, some of this geometry they're able to get out of this 12 year old engine.
That high kings crossing is taller than the argonath impressed me. You should have includes the ruined city of annuminas🤔still a great vid
Yeeeah.
Awesome ! How did you find the 3D models ?
Thanks for this Video, done very well! Finaly Lotro gets some more attention again. Such a great game and hopefully we'll see lots of additional content in the future.
The probability that Minas Tirith is 420.69 metres high by mistake is 0.
I'm so happy to see there Minas Morgul looks like Minas Tirith - with many tiers, just like in the book. Tolkien wrote, that these two fortresses are like tweens.
Very bad that in the films and mostly in the games they look differently
Minas morgul is kinda the same in the movies too. It's just the lighting.
Love the ending!
I thank you so much for these videos!!! In my opinion the epic art-work in this game hasn't and isn't been appreciated enough!!!
I have this same opinion, so there I am, with my Projects.
@@MiniExpBounder So thank you once more and good luck for all your projects!
Thanks for this, really makes you appreciate things more. Was a little surprised at Dol Guldur and Minas Morgul being higher than Minas Tirith.
7:15 when the feels kick in
This is a wonderful video, thanks for making it! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Fascinating to see these structures in this way.
I would be really curious about the opinions of a Tolkien lover that did not know about LOTRO...if such person exists of course. With a video like this even a not-gamer can experience the LOTRO concepts.
Thanks man this was great! Really cool vid! Keep it up!
Is MT seriously 420,69m? xD
All the way up to the last flag.
nice
nice
nice
nice
Yes the most important thing in life...
A chicken.
This game has an awesome interpretation of minas tirith i love the way the top courtyard was done.
This is so great, not only because of the height comparison, but also because most of these structures we only see from below, and here they are in all their glory.
I'd love to see more. How about Dol Amorth, Annuminas, Erebor, Skarhald, Carn Dum.. maybe the Tower of Cirith Ungol? Barad Gularan? The Lost Temple? Ost Dunhoth?
[SPOILER] I am working on the next episode right now.
@@MiniExpBounder that's good to hear! Btw nice job with the music
@@Erealenda 💪
Love the music for each area best music in a game ever made in my opinion!!! Love it!
That was outstanding! Great work!
Lovely, how did you navigate through MT without crashing?
Insane that even after it collapsed, barad dur is still the tallest structure in the game.
Makes you think, just how big was third age barad dur before sauron died?
5:15
Beware, the Dark Lord of Mordor has many spies, even the Chicken!
Beware the Chicken spies!
x'D couldn't help myself
Awesome!
It's 3 am
I needed this
Thanks for this great video!
I love this video. LOTR has great castles and landscapes
The city's look so epic! I wish there would be a remake with better graphics and a better fight system
I really enjoyed that!!!
Wow! Very nice video! Would you mind answering what program you used for that?
I worked with the Adobe Creative Suite!
@@MiniExpBounder nice! Very nice editting with the video too, you could do some great cinematic videos on LOTRO!
Awesome work MEB ! :)
Quuuilnce.
please show the kingdom of erebor?
I appreciate your sacrifice of having to dig through the files to find the models/export them to blender.
Side note, I love how the wall around Minas Tirith is correctly black as it is in the books
You gotta be kidding, they built this Barad Dur yet all you can explore in it is just one linear dungeon. Great vid anyways!
How i wish Middle Earth was a thing.. the most beautiful fictional world ever imo
How nice it would be to be a Hobbit living in the Shire
@@caesarvalorvmsheevpalpatin8755 yeah haha
I thought Elendil was like two and a half meters tall?
Edit: okay so these are the in-game values thanks for the video ^^
Cool video! Can I ask how you created all these 3D models and compared them? Is it a special program? I think that technology could make my videos more interesting!
The 3D models were taken directly in-game.
@@MiniExpBounder I have never played Lotro, but I grew very curious now. Can you access those cities in 3D without any disturbance in the background?
@@LoreOfTheRingsYT I had to work hard to remove all the unrelated stuff+landscape and I had to manually correct every single texture. This is why it took me some weeks to finish this project.
Lore of Middle-Earth you should really play it if you’re a Tolkien fan. Just the experience of walking in middle earth as the devs created it is priceless.. it’s the most faithful Lotr game out there right now
@@MiniExpBounder I see. Well done!
They definitely went overboard with the size of Dol Guldur, but it's great when you first see it looming in the distance. I would have liked to see where Bar Nirnaeth fit in here, that place is huge.
Minas Tirith is litterally 420 69
Wait are these assets from LotR Online or are those modeled after the description of places in the books?
How did you pull the data from the client to put this all together? I wonder....there are seemingly unreachable areas in the game that might using your process show routes into them? For example how to get into the unnamed ruins across from Galtrev in Pren Gwydh at 78.5S, 18.5W or, more interestingly when one is in Enedwaith at 74S, 20.3W looking West there's a pathway leading up into trees. An invisible wall blocks access to an area with structures you can barely make out!
🔥👁🔥
3:58 Minas Morgûl - the Home of Nazgûl
Mordor the Home of Sauron
5:08 Mount Doom
5:29-6:17 Barad-dûr
Didn’t realized dolgul dor was bigger than minas tiring always thought it was second to baradur
I guess it answers the age old question. The Chicken came first and built all this stuff with the sacrifice of its noble kin into the bellies of the builders.
No doubt, the Chicken was indeed the first of the Ainur.
How did you get these assets?
Wow good job! Is it possible to everyone to get the buildings out of the game? Maybe just using the same Engine and loading the files? Or how did you did that? Would be interesting to know. You don't need to answer here. You can write me on my social media sites as PN. 🙂
good video
Awesome! The last expansion I played was Dol Amroth, just haven't had the will to playthrough the rest.
That chicken looks epic 🐔
My Home is bigger
I'm kidding,beautiful work...
Barad Dur doesn’t seem that tall in game. Really surprised that Minas Tirith is as far down this list as it is!
Yes, the point of view is everything when watching the structures in-game. Many could be surprised too about seeing Orthanc being so small, while in-game the surroundings make the Tower stand out much more.
Thank you from Merloch (Evernight)
the first thing i noticed about this is FOR ONCE the video didnt claim that Chance Thomas is the ONLY lotro composer ^^
My top favourite OSTs from LotRO are not those made by Chance Thomas. DiGregorio and Champagne did and are still doing an outstanding job.
@@MiniExpBounder of course they all are very good otherwise they would not work on it but Thomas is my favorite since its mostly his stuff that manages to makes my mood change depending on the music....some of the others do at times but mostly him
Elendil "the tall" is only 16 cm taller than a dwarf?
Elendil "The Tall (for a dwarf)"
To be fair, skorgrim has a really pointy hat.
Do you think it would be possible to make this concept a lot bigger and create a 3D map of the whole world?
Good to see more Lore friendly designs and not just chucking out the ones from the films
3:11 nice
Wow! Just for reference, Burj Khalifa is 828 m!
What is the name of that flute tune in the start?
It's the intro of "Party in the Shire" by Chance Thomas.
If you are also interested in the other tracks, they are all written inside the info-box and the subtitles!
I really like how they got right that third age Barad-Dur is not all that impressive compared to the original one.
What song is playing during the Cuthstan and Hornburg section? Kinda reminds me of Will and Elizabeth's theme from Pirates
That soundtrack is the outstanding Theme for Rohan by Chance Thomas.
Elendil was 2.40m tall not 1.86m
Minas Morgul and Minas Tirith look very different from what they look like in the movies. Same goes for Orthanc and 3rd Age Barad-Dur.
To be fair these are modeled after the books in which there wasn’t a giant eye of effing flames at the top. Sauron was just chilling surveying Mordor at the very top. Slightly different.
Ok now Elendil 1m86? What were they playing at?
Elendil was much much taller than that
As far as I know "Normal" Numenoreans at their worst time height at least 2 meters, and Elendil was supposed to height 2 meters 40 cm or something like that.
@@vegito9019 I wast myself quite stunned by that misrepresentation.
What's that thing on Mount Doom that Chicken at the beginning of the video
Actually, it is the daughter of that primordial Chicken, because the parent had a job with being the first element in the ranking.
Why are there 2 different Barad Durs in the Game ?
Because the first Barad-dur was destroyed after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance. In game, there is a version for the Second Age and a version for the Third Age.
i am kinda yurious for utumno and angband now
Elendil was 2.41m or 7'11.
All the cam motion made me feel so sick i had to stop the vid and go "frame by frame"
Elendil the tall isn’t 1.86m. He is 2.13 or 2.41m.
And dwarves average height 1.35- 1.52m. Skorgrim cannot be a giant dwarf.
Yet I liked this video
You are right on the canon, yet the Elendil model inside the game is only that high in one of his appearances, and featuring it was a way to report the incorrectness. For the dwarf, since I was measuring the models, I decided to include also the armour in that particular dwarf measurements, as part of the model.
@@MiniExpBounder ah my bad. I had not read title of video.
So let’s hope in future those characters height will be fixed on Lotro :)
Thx again for nice video
No worries, and thanks for your kindness! Should have some spare time, I suggest you watch the remaked version of this Comparison, where Elendil has got its proper height (since there are two different versions inside the game).
@@MiniExpBounder oh I will :) take care
Where is black Gates, Cirith Ungol and other Mordor fortresses
Cirith Ungol is in the Volume II, the other fortresses of Mordor are in the Volume III, in the same playlist of this video. Check those videos for those structures!
Wait, isint Elendil suposed to be 2.41 meters tall?
I like the movie Baradur better but this one looks more like a book veesion
Elendil the Tall was over 7 ft tall...
But Elendil was like 2.5m isn't he? Though the video is cool
He was, but for this video I measured the model that appears in the game. It was a bit of criticism against the developers, to put that very model in the ranking.
Minas tirith 420.69 NICE
Did you get Elendil's height from the actor? In the books he is said to be over 2,4m/8ft iirc. Bigger than the Mountain in GoT.
why are their in-game measurements so scuffed
Gold!
Show the dwarf kingdoms
I do not know if they would fit in an height comparison, but they may fit a showcase comprising Moria, Erebor, Gundabad, Thorin's Hall and the Iron Hills.
#cordoftherings #lotro
I think some of these structures weren't in the movies?
Since my size comparison is based around the appearances in the Lord of the Rings Online, in the rankings there are several structures that do not appear in the movies.
In general, the movies cover just a fraction of the places and characters that appear in the book, while the MMO covers almost all of the book appearances with many other structures that are outside the canon but still very lore-accurate, like the fortresses in Mordor.
Im taller than Elendil the tall, man i'm cool
Sweet
Sweet sweet.
Love that Chicken ....!!!!
Dodo!
Size matters
A half meter tall chicken..
G R O N D
Grond makes an appearance in the Volume III, but it is not "measured".
Minas Tirith 420,69?🤨
Minas Tirith 420,69. nice
i think you got the decimals wrong. 1km is 1000m. I don't think Barad-dur is 121878m tall. THATS ALMOST 75 MILES TALL lol
You read wrong, it's 1218,78 m. So 1,2 km
I think the measurements should be in FEET not in METRES. Cuz 42k metres? Its gonna go through the atmosphere. Either way, good video!
🐔