1001 idiotic questions

[myrmaad]

Diary of a whacky wouldbe modder question number 1. (please delete me but don't beat me if this is wrong!)

How do I make a persistent map marker for a portable pitchable abode? (like a tent?)

It's based on Treleth's Pitchable tents to some degree, but the problem is the player can pitch the tent anywhere.

The game does not save the position of the marker, so if the Tent is set up and you save then exit the game, next time you can not Fast Travel to the Tent.

I consulted the wiki on Creating Map Fast Travel Points

http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Creating_fast_travel_points

Then I read Insanity Sorrow's Map Marker tutorial, but it still doesn't address the portable problem.

Phraggah 02:23, 9 February 2009 (EST):I'm willing to bet that most of us have, at one point or another, wanted to or created a small settlement, outpost, or general building out in the middle of nowhere in a pretty location. But how do we make it official by making a fast travel point to that location with all of its features? By "all of its features" I mean:

-Discovering (either when you find it while exploring or appearing on your map by default)

-Fast Travel (Being able to click on the icon to teleport the player to the location)

-While showing the name (Having the icon show the name of the location)

I've searched the CS with a wide variety of terminology - but I've found nothing so far. Even if it already exists in a tutorial it would be helpful to at least make it easier to find.

This is relatively easy to do all you have to do is make a an object called a map marker, (worldobjects, Static) place it where you want to be able to portal to, then you should see a ring around it that is the discovery distance, double click it and go to its options (marker Data) there you can set a name what time and if it is visable on the mini map and travelable to. No scripting needed the travel system is self supporting you just need to make points.

[InsanitySorrow]

My tutorial was never meant to cover portable tents

One idea I have is to place your map marker in the world and disable it, then when the tent is used move the marker to the tents position and enable it. This would require a small script

[myrmaad]

My tutorial was never meant to cover portable tents

That's ok, I really didn't expect it to, I've searched many mod forums and none addressed it and they're all high quality places. But I never asked before because basically I just feel pretty intimidated, anyway.

One idea I have is to place your map marker in the world and disable it, then when the tent is used move the marker to the tents position and enable it. This would require a small script

That sounds like the answer I'm looking for, Here's my next stupid question:

Could that be done with vanilla oblivion or do you think it would require OBSE?

[greenwarden]

Hmm, I think this is definitely an IS question. I'll be very interested in the answer myself.

[grond]

I'll be guessing that moveto and enable are all you'll need in the script, so it could be vanilla. It's been so long since I even opened the script editor....

[myrmaad]

Thanks so much!

The emoticon for "Sigh of relief" goes here. Progress, now that's what I like!

***

I'm happy to share this thread with anyone else who dares to add to it, while I work up to my next question.

[InsanitySorrow]

Yes it can be done without OBSE

All the functions you need are indeed already available in the CS, so far I see you needing:

MoveTo or MoveToMarker

Enable

Disable

Simple

[myrmaad]

Yes it can be done without OBSE

All the functions you need are indeed already available in the CS, so far I see you needing:

MoveTo or MoveToMarker

Enable

Disable

Simple

That's easy for you to say!

I may need a bit of hand-holding through that part. I'm just happy I can forge along. Thank you so much!

[InsanitySorrow]

That's easy for you to say!

I may need a bit of hand-holding through that part. I'm just happy I can forge along. Thank you so much!

I never said it was easy becuase I know how to do it, I really mean its easy and you should not have any issues , if you do you know where to get help

A simple example (Not a full script)

Begin OnDrop ; Dropped the tent


MyTentMarkerRef.MoveTo MyTent

MyTentMarkerRef.Enable


End[/code]

[myrmaad]

I'm not very comfortable with scripting yet, so I will have to peck at this, but it helps and I will keep you posted on my progress.

For today, I have 2 questions. By the way, if the answer is posted somewhere, here or "out there" please feel free to simply link to the answer. I'm thinking surely I'm not the only wouldbe modder with questions and it would be helpful to have the resolution at hand. I hope that's ok. If it works out here, I surely would make an effort to support the site. I'm not working, I'm a fulltime student and my living is fully subsidized my generous, supportive, and loving husband. But I invested in TesNexus and ORE when I could afford it.

Ok for today's questions:

1. How difficult is it to completely redo an existing mesh's UV Map in Blender, and is there another or a better way, that doesn't involve 3DSMax or a lot of money? Any link to the answer or a relevant discussion is of course welcome.

2. For book collectors, I thought it would be good to have a spreadsheet of all the books in morrowind, I have a list of them, so that's not the problem. The real question is whether it would be feasible to make a mod that tracks your collection of books, and I would be interested in an existing mod that might do this, and also would like to be able to do it in both Morrowind and Oblivion. I have the Morrowind Public Library mod, and I also like to add lots of mod books. So it would be interesting to incorporate non-vanilla books into the mod, that part would not have to be "automatic" though, probably best if it weren't. Just the ability to add to the collection.

3. I have always thought it would be great if my character could role play being a writer by sitting down at a desk and having an interface similar to the enchanting screen, to create a physical book. I've played with Kyoma's journal mod, and it is helpful, I'm just wondering if it could go further, by actually binding the book and publishing it, ingame.

These last two are just kind of stupid ideas, but I'd love some thoughts on whether it would be feasible, I think that with the script extenders nearly anything is possible. And that was 3!

[Critterman]

I'm not very comfortable with scripting yet, so I will have to peck at this, but it helps and I will keep you posted on my progress.

For today, I have 2 questions. By the way, if the answer is posted somewhere, here or "out there" please feel free to simply link to the answer. I'm thinking surely I'm not the only wouldbe modder with questions and it would be helpful to have the resolution at hand. I hope that's ok. If it works out here, I surely would make an effort to support the site. I'm not working, I'm a fulltime student and my living is fully subsidized my generous, supportive, and loving husband. But I invested in TesNexus and ORE when I could afford it.

Ok for today's questions:

1. How difficult is it to completely redo an existing mesh's UV Map in Blender, and is there another or a better way, that doesn't involve 3DSMax or a lot of money? Any link to the answer or a relevant discussion is of course welcome.

2. For book collectors, I thought it would be good to have a spreadsheet of all the books in morrowind, I have a list of them, so that's not the problem. The real question is whether it would be feasible to make a mod that tracks your collection of books, and I would be interested in an existing mod that might do this, and also would like to be able to do it in both Morrowind and Oblivion. I have the Morrowind Public Library mod, and I also like to add lots of mod books. So it would be interesting to incorporate non-vanilla books into the mod, that part would not have to be "automatic" though, probably best if it weren't. Just the ability to add to the collection.

3. I have always thought it would be great if my character could role play being a writer by sitting down at a desk and having an interface similar to the enchanting screen, to create a physical book. I've played with Kyoma's journal mod, and it is helpful, I'm just wondering if it could go further, by actually binding the book and publishing it, ingame.

These last two are just kind of stupid ideas, but I'd love some thoughts on whether it would be feasible, I think that with the script extenders nearly anything is possible. And that was 3!

1. not sure, not my area of expertise

2. You can track the books the player has with OBSE, and even print the names and such out into a text file with pluggy.

3. Last time I checked Kyoma was trying to do this with new OBSE functions that were coming out. Not sure if the right functions have come out for him to put what you write into a book yet

[myrmaad]

1. not sure, not my area of expertise

That's ok, I'm certain this is addressed somewhere, I just need to find it.

3. Last time I checked Kyoma was trying to do this with new OBSE functions that were coming out. Not sure if the right functions have come out for him to put what you write into a book yet

Thanks! I shouldn't be surprised. Kyoma is one of those modders that seems to read my mind, I love that!

2. You can track the books the player has with OBSE, and even print the names and such out into a text file with pluggy.

Wait, that's a mod? or? I have OBSE and pluggy, always try to keep them up to date.

[InsanitySorrow]

Wait, that's a mod? or? I have OBSE and pluggy, always try to keep them up to date.

Nope

What Critterman was saying is that you can use the scripting functions available with OBSE and pluggy to write script that will keep track of the books, even print them out to a text file.

[Critterman]

Wait, that's a mod? or? I have OBSE and pluggy, always try to keep them up to date.

Yeah, what IS said, sorry thought you were looking for a way to do it not a mod I'm not aware of any book collector mods, but there might be something out there

[WindmillTilter]

1. How difficult is it to completely redo an existing mesh's UV Map in Blender, and is there another or a better way, that doesn't involve 3DSMax or a lot of money? Any link to the answer or a relevant discussion is of course welcome.

Should be pretty simple depending on what you want to do. Check out Vince's lessons in the Modelling class. That will give you all the basics you need for setting up blender an using the UV Map interface and exporter. You can skip making the object (unless you're interested modelling rocks :-) ) and just pick up at the UV mapping stage. Are you sure you need to remap it, you're not just retexturing are you?

WT

[myrmaad]

Should be pretty simple depending on what you want to do. Check out Vince's lessons in the Modelling class. That will give you all the basics you need for setting up blender an using the UV Map interface and exporter. You can skip making the object (unless you're interested modelling rocks :-) ) and just pick up at the UV mapping stage. Are you sure you need to remap it, you're not just retexturing are you?

WT

Thanks! I've managed to make a couple of things.

[Exanimis]

Even though all the tutorials say that UV mapping is hard, I found it to be extremely simple. But why would you want to redo a UV map?

[grond]

I'm not very comfortable with scripting yet, so I will have to peck at this, but it helps and I will keep you posted on my progress.

For today, I have 2 questions. By the way, if the answer is posted somewhere, here or "out there" please feel free to simply link to the answer. I'm thinking surely I'm not the only wouldbe modder with questions and it would be helpful to have the resolution at hand. I hope that's ok. If it works out here, I surely would make an effort to support the site. I'm not working, I'm a fulltime student and my living is fully subsidized my generous, supportive, and loving husband. But I invested in TesNexus and ORE when I could afford it.

Ok for today's questions:

1. How difficult is it to completely redo an existing mesh's UV Map in Blender, and is there another or a better way, that doesn't involve 3DSMax or a lot of money? Any link to the answer or a relevant discussion is of course welcome.

2. For book collectors, I thought it would be good to have a spreadsheet of all the books in morrowind, I have a list of them, so that's not the problem. The real question is whether it would be feasible to make a mod that tracks your collection of books, and I would be interested in an existing mod that might do this, and also would like to be able to do it in both Morrowind and Oblivion. I have the Morrowind Public Library mod, and I also like to add lots of mod books. So it would be interesting to incorporate non-vanilla books into the mod, that part would not have to be "automatic" though, probably best if it weren't. Just the ability to add to the collection.

3. I have always thought it would be great if my character could role play being a writer by sitting down at a desk and having an interface similar to the enchanting screen, to create a physical book. I've played with Kyoma's journal mod, and it is helpful, I'm just wondering if it could go further, by actually binding the book and publishing it, ingame.

These last two are just kind of stupid ideas, but I'd love some thoughts on whether it would be feasible, I think that with the script extenders nearly anything is possible. And that was 3!

Don't know if this will help, but I'm pasting this book mod here before I forget to, from the shoutbox, courtesy of TLM:

http://www.tesnexus....ile.php?id=3714

[The_Laughing_Man]

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25782

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20051

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=20643

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26414

[myrmaad]

Even though all the tutorials say that UV mapping is hard, I found it to be extremely simple. But why would you want to redo a UV map?

I'll send you a PM.

[Exanimis]

Oops, it must be one of my UV's. Let me know what one and how you would like it done and I'll fix it. I've learned a few new tricks.

[myrmaad]

Oops, it must be one of my UV's. Let me know what one and how you would like it done and I'll fix it. I've learned a few new tricks.

No, No, it's not one of yours!!

But you certainly can help me I think.

[myrmaad]

Ok, I did get Chingari to help me with this, he's probably just going to fix it for me!

What happened was I tried to edit a mashup remix in blender this morning but it wouldn't let me import:

blender error "object has no attribute 'children'"

I looked and looked to try to eliminate the bad scene root data but I never succeeded in deleting though I think I could see the bad one.

It was making me crazy! *bashes head* so I turned to Chingari, as he rides a white horse to the rescue, regularly.

But it would be great if I could learn how to fix it myself, so I'm posting it here. Thanks for checking it out.

[SickleYield]

Is this a clothing/armor item, or a non-rigged item?

If it is unrigged, find a "clean" clutter object in NifSkope to use as a base. I suggest the paintbrush from the clutter folder because it has no collision (IIRC). Delete the nitristrips (and any collision you find). Copy all the nitristrips from the mashup into the empty file. If your mashup has collisions, copy the collisions over and use the spells-- entry to fix up the block order. Save. This should fix your scene root problem.

If it is rigged, you will need to do the same with an armor/clothing piece that has a proven "clean" skelly and uses all the same bones - I suggest the Dark Brotherhood or Arena default armor (although it is a PITA deleting all the pieces).

Otherwise it may be necessary for me to take a look at the Blender file and see what's causing the scene root problem - usually it's a hard-to-see bone piece hovering around.

[myrmaad]

Is this a clothing/armor item, or a non-rigged item?

If it is unrigged, find a "clean" clutter object in NifSkope to use as a base. I suggest the paintbrush from the clutter folder because it has no collision (IIRC). Delete the nitristrips (and any collision you find). Copy all the nitristrips from the mashup into the empty file. If your mashup has collisions, copy the collisions over and use the spells-- entry to fix up the block order. Save. This should fix your scene root problem.

If it is rigged, you will need to do the same with an armor/clothing piece that has a proven "clean" skelly and uses all the same bones - I suggest the Dark Brotherhood or Arena default armor (although it is a PITA deleting all the pieces).

Otherwise it may be necessary for me to take a look at the Blender file and see what's causing the scene root problem - usually it's a hard-to-see bone piece hovering around.

Thanks Sickle,

Chingari fixed the outfit for me, and gave me a screenshot, the pants in the outfit weren't rigged to the skeleton.

But I'm glad you replied, because I've been trying to make a "window seat" by cutting down the Kvatch bed in blender. Needless to say I've made a mess of it, so this paintbrush trick is good to know and could come in handy. All i wanted to do was convert the mattress into a cushion but keep part of the flowing bedspread. I'm good at making a mess!

Ok, also this is what Chingari told me, "If you open the original in nifskope and open up the skin instance you will see that the skeleton root points no where when it should point to the Scene Root usually the ) ninode..screen shot to show you."

But actually he didn't say what he did to fix it. So thank you again!