Archived: General Questions

[DarkRider]

CK Basics: General Questions

As you make your way through the creation kit classes you may have some questions about what's being presented that need answering. Post your questions here and the CK Basics Scholar will answer as soon as possible to get you back on track.

Have questions not related to the CK Basics course? Scholar offline? Post a thread in the Study Hall for some peer to peer support!

[donnato]

Ok well..I got a fair ways into basics 1 and then I saw my houser didn`t match everyone else`s. On the 2nd floor there`s evidently supposed to be a partition between the stairs and the quarters area..I`ve rebuilt this space 4 times now using the listed house parts and ...no partition...(see pic)......

[DarkRider]

It's from the homework: Add a FarmIntLHLoftTop01 divider to the upper floor

You can find it under WorldObjects>Static

[donnato]

...thanks Rider. I tend to take things step by step and so hadn`t gotten to that yet...much...

[Ginnyfizz]

I know this sounds silly, but I have never, ever taken pictures in the CK before. How do I do this in order to post my proof and get the credits?

I use Fraps for in game screens.

[DarkRider]

Yes FRAPs can take CK shots too but only of the render window. If you want to take shots of the other windows you'll need to tap PrintScreen then open an editor like Paint or GIMP and use ctrl+v to paste the captured image into it. Then save

[gahnzz]

I notice that the flames in my fireplace are a color I never noticed in-game when I test out my mod. Screenshot below...

Is this because of where I placed the light? err?

And here is shot of the fireplace in the CK.

Did I just never notice the color of the logs in the game or am I doing something wrong with lighting?

Thanks!

[Zerengil]

Darkrider, or you could use Gyazo, which lets you define what part of your screen to capture, then uploads the picture and opens webpage with it.

[DarkRider]

Did I just never notice the color of the logs in the game or am I doing something wrong with lighting?

This seems to be related to Bethsoft's Hi Res Texture pack DLC, are you using that pack?

Darkrider, or you could use Gyazo, which lets you define what part of your screen to capture, then uploads the picture and opens webpage with it.

Yes that's correct there are dozens of screencap programs any of them can be used.

[gahnzz]

This seems to be related to Bethsoft's Hi Res Texture pack DLC, are you using that pack?

Yes, indeed I am. That must be it so I'll just leave that alone for now... The room is basically finished - I'll post completed project pics in the Exercise #1 topic.

Thanks!

[Tamira]

I noticed your reply in the Basics Lesson No 1:

Students are not permitted to release their classwork on public hosting sites as the lessons are based off my [WIPz] Half-Moon Village mod, and student releases will cause many conflicts.

I did not know this. To make sure: You plan a mod on the same location where we build our tutorial house? So it would make not much sense for me to put further effort into decorating the exterior as I must delete it some day to be able to play your mod?

[DarkRider]

Yes, I have to build a mod in order to take screenshots for the class for you all to follow, all the way through the final exam. As a result I have a full mod that I add NPCs to and release. I did this with the CS Basics class too, releasing Bogwater Downs village. I'm just adding some NPCs and additional clutter to Half-Moon Village and it will be released. You can certainly make any changes you want to your class mod and keep it for personal use, but yes, it will conflict with my release version.

[Tamira]

Thank you for this information. It would be helpful to add it to the starting lesson, too.

Luckily I am in the habit to save my esps every now and then (with different names for each one of course) when I am working on something. So I have an esp before I started to work on the exterior and can use the complete interior from Lessons 1 and 2 and the challenge. I simply will put the exterior house somewhere else.

[DarkRider]

After you complete the course, you can certainly reuse your interior cells for your own mods. In the introduction to the course it says:

Once the course is completed and points are tallied everyone, beginner and advanced students alike, are welcome to add or change whatever they like in their creation to make it custom.

You have to do Lesson #3 as outlined in the class to get the points though, same cell. If you finish the course and want to create a new exterior, delete the old and link the doors, that's fine. The reason students can't release their classwork is because just in this class there are nearly 30 students. Imagine the conflicts of 30+ near identical mods released in the same cell. So, I release my version as an example for students to compare with their homework and students make their release mods out of the Final Exams, instead of the classwork.

I did intend on linking to the course's finished work when I'm done and have released it, both at the start and the end of the class for student's reference, I just don't have that link yet.

[Tamira]

No, I never intended to release my experimental first try . Maybe you misunderstood me because of my poor English.

I only wanted to avoid to put too much effort in making my homework exterior more beautiful. So I'll better create a new one later on, for my personal use only.

[OldGrizz]

In the Introduction, near the beginning, it shows how to load "skyrim.esm". Although the "update.esm" has since been released, unless I hear otherwise, I will load only the "skyrim.esm" module so that I'll be using the same data used to develop the lessons. An minor update to the Intro to advise new students not to load "update.esm" might be appropriate.

BTW, many thanks for investing the effort in producing a detailed tutorial like this. Reading through the first few lessons, I have retained my initial enthusiasm but expect it to be tempered by harsh reality as I work through the homework.

Old Grizz

[DarkRider]

That's correct you only load the Skyrim.esm. Welcome to class

[Tamira]

The requirements for the final exam include "Bookcases x2 ".

With the search function I only could find the WinterholdBookCase01, is this the required one?

Or are we supposed to add these shelves that you can activate to fill in the books of your inventory? (I hope not.... )

[Arion]

I have a question relating to the Final Exam and pretty sure others are probably wondering this as well.

If you are doing the release version what do we do about where your house sometimes shows up and some times it doesn't? Until Beth fixes this we're all pretty much at the mercy of hoping that the people that download our mod understands in advance. I'm experimenting with a release and everything was working fine until I actually put an interior with a linked door and suddenly my house isn't showing up about 100% of the time. Jumping through a suspended door isn't helping, walking all the way from Whiterun doesn't help. Only way I've managed to make it appear consistantly is by setting the Full LOD flag and fast travel away from the house (or walking a considerable distance and fast traveling back. Then the house shows up.

Is a disclaimer enough?

PS... I did the exterior first with the house and all the outbuildings with landscaping etc. and never had a problem going in game to look at the area. That was walking or fast traveling to the nearest location I had which wasn't that far away. It only started disappearing the minute I added the linked door to the interior.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Arion

[DarkRider]

For now, all you can do is post a disclaimer on the file page and in the readme, maybe we should use the same disclaimer like:

In development the main structures added by this plugin have occasionally disappeared due to a documented bug in the CK/Skyrim. Hopefully this bug will be patched in the near future, but until then, if you experience this bug, entering/exiting any local interior should restore the structure.

The Full LOD flag is not a good solution as it can cause degraded game performance

[_echo]

The requirements for the final exam include "Bookcases x2 ".

With the search function I only could find the WinterholdBookCase01, is this the required one?

Or are we supposed to add these shelves that you can activate to fill in the books of your inventory? (I hope not.... )

99.9% he means shelves. Book cases are listed under shelves as static furniture.

[DarkRider]

Correct, they ARE bookcases, but Bethsoft called them Shelves.

[Tamira]

Next question. Since yesterday I have about a dozen warnings like this one when I load my CK Tutorial esp:

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/-dvzfXMLOPg55dpr3m2iEqSBub2xUY5NHQotCQASvnc?feat=directlink

the other warnings are about pine trees, shrubs and the like.

Does not make any sense to me ....

[DarkRider]

That's one I haven't seen before. The CK is really buggy yet and spits out tons of errors. As long as the mod seems to be functioning okay, I wouldn't worry about it for now. Down the line when we have better tools like TES5Edit you'll be able to hunt these sort of errors down more effectively, but I get them in vanilla areas, just running the Skyrim.esm, I think the game is just a bit messier than we might expect.

[gahnzz]

Quick NavMesh question as I'm dealing with exterior navmeshes for assignment 4. If a NavMesh extends below or above the given ground level does that interfere with the NPC's ability to navigate? Do they walk through a hill or above the ground if the mesh isn't at ground level all the way through the level?

Thanks!