[Animated static NIF works in NIFskope, crashes CS]

Folks, thanks so very much for all of this! Specific responses below:

@Windmill Tilter: Good catch! I didn't notice the child count was wrong. I know how to fix that, now that I'm aware of the error.

@Tamira: Thanks, I'll download and test that ASAP. I may not get to mod tonight, because a friend is coming over to have me teach him how to install Linux on his laptop.

@Hanaisse: What a great tutorial! I have used NIFskope extensively to modify NIFs, starting with retextures (where everyone starts, I think) and recently to copy nodes from one to another for simple animations. It had never occurred to me to try actually *building* the animation directly in NIFskope, from scratch. I will definitely give this a try. Perhaps in trying to find a Blender solution, I was overlooking a tool that can do just as well, albeit less user-friendly about it.

Again, thanks to all for the informative replies and troubleshooting!

[Animated static NIF works in NIFskope, crashes CS]

Side question: Is there a tutorial somewhere about using Blender to create or modify animated statics, or activators? That is, I want to learn to animate things that are *not* creatures or NPCs. I've found lots of tutorials for importing/editing/exporting skeletons, but I can't find a single thing for how to make animated doors, moving platforms, traps, etc. This business of cutting and pasting branches in NIFskope is really painful. I've successfully used the technique to make several animated doors using existing animated NIFs as a base, but that's far from the ideal approach.

[Animated static NIF works in NIFskope, crashes CS]

Thanks, all. Point granted that this is a messy NIF. I didn't create it; I'm just trying to modify one particular branch of it (the shaft).

If this can't be made to work, I have a workaround in my mod that avoids use of this geometry at all, so don't spend a huge amount of time on it.

[Advanced installation techniques]

Good evening, all!

When we built our gaming system here, we installed Windows 7 32-bit because of reports that Oblivion didn't work in 64-bit systems. I have now debunked that, and actually have it and the CS running perfectly fine in Win7 64-bit for my modding environment (VMware on a high-end laptop). The latest info I have is that what doesn't work is adding on the DLC from a separately-purchased pack. That's not an issue for us as we bought the GOTY edition.

Skyrim, of course, wants lots of RAM for the texture upgrade pack from Bethesda. In fact, we discovered the hard way that the system crashes rapidly and repeatably if you try to use the HD texture pack on a 32-bit system.

So I plan in the next few days to rebuild the system, from scratch. I have a new hard drive so that I can install fresh without jeopardizing the old system as a fallback point. I'm looking for recommendations on two specific issues with regard to installing Skyrim and Oblivion:

1. My wife and I share this machine. We have separate Steam accounts. Is it possible to install Steam within the local user account, rather than globally, so that you don't have logout/login when switching from player to player, and so we can have two physically separate Skyrim copies (we have TWO fully licensed Skyrim copies, so legality is not a problem). Right now, we are sharing her Steam account for the sake of convenience. This works "okay" because neither of us cares a whit about the online achievement tracking and social networking stuff, but it would be better if we could localize the installations. This would also be better for the "Gaming Guest" account we use when friends come over and want to try the game.

2. Steam Workshop versus Nexus Mod Manager: What are people's opinions? We're leaning toward NMM for a couple of reasons: (A) it's Open Source, and we both work in the Open Source software industry, so there's a political motive; (B) general dislike of Steam's pushy marketing and poor diagnostic tools; © better UI for mod browsing on the Nexus sites, in our opinion, because Steam is very hard to read from across the room on a large-screen TV. However, I'm not 100% certain this is the right decision, just *leaning* that way. Are there compelling reasons to stay with Steam Workshop? Or, better yet, can Steam Workshop and Nexus Mod Manager play nice with one another?

I'm specifically asking #2 here rather than on the Nexus forums because I want unbiased opinions, and TESA doesn't have a dog in that fight.

Thanks for any suggestions and comments.

[Animated static NIF works in NIFskope, crashes CS]

I needed a version of Korana's mill wheel mechanism that has a longer shaft, and created what I need using a combination of Blender and NIFskope. The file I ended up with looks perfect in NIFskope, but trying to render it in the Construction Set causes a crash-to-desktop (CTD) of the CS.

If someone who has more NIF expertise than I do could please download this and help me troubleshoot, I would be much obliged. I didn't want to post the file here on TESA, because I was afraid people would mistakenly download this buggy version for actual use. So it's on my personal web site, in the following folder: http://www.4th.com/tes/ (this is a directory, but the file in question is the only one at the moment).

Thanks for any assistance.

[LOD updating in existing worldspace]

Thanks, I'll do that, or perhaps do it on my own system and offer the LOD files only for my cells as an optional download.

[LOD updating in existing worldspace]

I need to generate updated LOD data for my mod, which modifies a group of landscape cells in a contiguous region. I found the LOD tutorials on CS wiki (http://cs.elderscrolls.com/index.php/Landscape_LOD), but that seems to assume that you have created a new worldspace (which I have not) and want to generate or update LOD for the entire world.

My mod is in the Tamriel worldspace. What's the correct method for generating LOD only for the cells I've modified? Do I have to do the whole worldspace and then delete all the unwanted data? If so, that seems like something that could run for days. Ideally, what I'd like is a way to "generate LOD for the current cell."

Thanks for any advice.

[[WIPz] Medieval Cyrodiil]

AjaxSt.... Contact me by PM if you want me to do a database dump of the specific items I'm using. My mod is large enough that I actually built myself a database to track various aspects of it, and the credits list is one of those items.

Remember the lesson of Bernard of Chartres, from the 12th century CE: We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants. Don't reinvent wheels if you don't have to.

[[WIPz] Medieval Cyrodiil]

Here's where help comes in. I can't model. I've tried, and I do not have the patience for it. I'm looking for people that can help me out with this, as I don't want to just use placeholders indefinately...especially if they're placeholders I don't have yet.

I'm hip-deep in my own mod right now, but as an historical reenactor I applaud any effort to offer historically-based mods.

I have some inkle loom models, using vanilla Bethesda wood textures and fabric textures of my own making, that I am releasing as a general resource. They are based on a period design, and I have personally built several of them for my wife and for friends IRL, so I know the design actually *works*. My models are planned to go into the next release of the TESA Clutterers' Guild resource, but I'd certainly be willing to share them standalone if they would help.

You should also take a look at the medieval resources by Stroti, Meo, Assassin_456, Lunar Reaper, Momo (and Momo77), Wikinger9048, and washington. These are authors whose work I'm using in my own mod, which attempts to make one fairly-authentic village. Some of these are on TESA, others on Nexus.

Since you don't model yourself, you might also find Gildur's "Sitting Everywhere" resource to be helpful. This is an invisible furniture marker that you can place atop crates, logs, rocks, barrels, or whatever, allowing you to have your NPCs (and the player, if they wish) use any suitable static object as a chair or bed. So, for example, you could have a lower-class setting in which characters sleep in a barn loft on a pile of straw.

Hope this helps! You've set an ambitious goal, but if you can pull it off you will have a very interesting mod that approaches the boundary of total-conversion.

Syscrusher

[CollisionBox moves on disable/enable cycle]

Confirmed! I retested this last night with a fresh character that didn't have the persistent object in the gamesave, and the behavior is correct with the modified NIF.

So, @Windmill Tilter: and thanks!

[CollisionBox moves on disable/enable cycle]

I've definitely never run across anything like that before.

Can't see anything too unusual in the NIF either. I did notice that the Node containing the collision is dropped on the Z axis and then the collision's RigidBody is pulled up to compensate. No reason that should cause a problem but it would be interesting to 0 them both out and see if you're still having the issue.

WT

I am at work and could only spare a minute for a quick test, but preliminary results are very promising. I zeroed out the translation on the node and the rigid body, saving the new NIF to my own directory rather than replacing the vanilla NIF, then updated my mod to use a new object based on this NIF.

A quick test shows correct behavior now -- the collision mesh appears to stay exactly where it was placed in the CS. This object is persistent in my mod, so I need to generate a new test character who hasn't "seen" it before, to be very sure, but so far it looks as if this may be a fix.

[CollisionBox moves on disable/enable cycle]

I've definitely never run across anything like that before.

Can't see anything too unusual in the NIF either. I did notice that the Node containing the collision is dropped on the Z axis and then the collision's RigidBody is pulled up to compensate. No reason that should cause a problem but it would be interesting to 0 them both out and see if you're still having the issue.

WT

That certainly sounds as if it might be related. I'll give it a test run and post the result.

BTW, sorry for the delayed reply. For some reason I missed the email notification on this thread.

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Okay, I am almost there but not quite. I quickly learned that I can't repack customized NIF files into the original BSA Meshes file. However, I did learn that I could simply move my customized files into a directory path that the CS tool would recognize. Here is my problem. I am receiving a persistent error message when I try to save my NIF file. The error indicates a link block error.

Ignore it. I got that error also, but it doesn't seem to have any effect.

I should also mention that if you decide to twiddle the emissivity settings of your NIF later, you do not need to do anything in the CS to make the change effective. The game loads the NIFs dynamically each time it is started. The ESP file you create in the CS just has a pointer to the NIF in its external file; it doesn't get embedded.

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

I experimented with the emissivity settings last night and found that for my mod's lighting conditions, a value of 1.000 was too high and made the water look radioactive. I settled on 0.750, which might still be too much in dim lighting, but works well in my fairly well-lit area. I am not in any way intending that as a suggestion for others, just documenting my own experience. As they say, your mileage may vary.

I should also note that some of the objects in that series have multiple NIF strip nodes in the file, and you need to change the emissivity for each of those, not just for the water node.

Syscrusher

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Thanks so much for your post! I have BSA commander so what is the process? Do you first export all of the files to a custom directory, modify the files desired, and then do you wrap everything back up under the original BSA file?

Oh, no! Don't ever modify the original BSA file!

What I recommend is to make your own directory under the Data\Meshes folder, such as Data\Meshes\kwits. Then put a COPY of the NIFs into that directory -- do not modify the original NIF in its original location (if you already did it, that's okay -- the BSA still has the master version -- just *move* your modified version to your own mesh directory, rather than copying it).

Once your own copy, in your own directory, is modified, make a *new* static object that you then use in your mod:

• 
  
  
• In the objects window of the Construction Set, find the original landscape waterfall you want to clone. Double-click on it in the object browser, but DO NOT change anything yet.
  
• Erase the EditorID of the object from its popup window. Then click the button to assign a NIF file, disregarding the one that's there now.
  
• Navigate to your custom NIF and select it. The CS will create an unique EditorID for you based on the directory path of the new NIF file, which is one of the reasons why you should put your personal NIFs in your personal folder.
  
• When you submit the object edit dialog box, the CS will ask "Create a new form?" Answer YES to that, because that is exactly what you want to do. CAUTION: If you say no, you will modify the master object in the game, which you should not try unless you really know what you're doing.
  

Repeat the above for any of the other landscape waterfalls you want to change.

Now, you have new static waterfall objects that use your modified NIFs. All you have to do is use the CS in the usual way to paste them into the render window in your mod.

Hope this helps!

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Waterfalls, in an interior, can be seen if your cell ambient light is set high enough. If you have a dark interior, then the vanilla waterfalls are almost invisible.

Thanks, Tamira and WillieSea. Your comments explain my situation. The cell where I used the waterfall meshes is interior, but well lit by lanterns. Just to be safe, though, I'll probably clone and edit the NIFs and use my custom versions in my mod. I won't overwrite the originals but rather will copy them to my own folder to edit.

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Good Day,

Thank you sincerely to everyone that has posted to this most frustrating topic. I have learned in my short time of TESIV modelling that contrast and detail are the two most important concepts in building a gaming environment. Using a beautiful waterfall sequence is no exception. I have Nifscope installed but I am having difficulties in locating the NIF file for LandscapeWaterfall01. Where is the file located under the Oblivion\Data directory?

Regards,

KWITS

By default, it *isn't*. It will be in the Oblivion Meshes BSA (archive) file, which is also in your data directory. You need a program like BSA Commander to extract the BSA file into a working directory on your hard drive. I do NOT recommend extracting the BSA directly into your game "Data" folder. Extract the meshes and the textures to the same (non-game) directory -- I have one called OblvionExportData. Then set up your tool options to treat that directory as an alternate root location for texture search.

[A list of programs conducive to the aspiring artist.]

Todd Howard commented publicly recently (and I do not remember the venue, unfortunately) that Bethesda uses ZBrush for their high-poly sculpting work. Not an editorial comment, just added data.

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Interesting. I just checked my mod, and I'm using Landscape\Waterfall01.NIF and Landscape\WaterHoriz01.NIF in an interior cell with no problems. The two NIFs are unmodified, although for one of them I created a custom object using the NIF because I needed to change non-visual behavior.

@Tamira: Could you please elaborate and/or post a link about the known issue? The waterfalls are working fine for me, but after reading your post I am concerned that perhaps they won't work right for other people when I release the beta.

I wonder if the issue is at all related to the cell-level settings of the particular cell. Mine is noteworthy in that it is a building interior, and there is no cell-level water present, just the waterfall and one of Washington's water-static objects.

Good thread, folks...interesting topic.

[CounterPoint's Model Gallery]

It's all great work, but those castle pieces are *wonderful*. I absolutely love the flying buttress.

[Vou's Projects]

Yeah I went for a flange style mace. I'll probably make a second one, this time in blender with more spikes and really made for combat.

Your mace looks pretty good to me.

I happen to be a Middle Ages living history participant, and would like to offer a suggestion as you begin your weapon and armor modding career: Understand the difference between fantasy weapons and real ones. There is a place and time for both, and of course a video game is not meant to be a history lesson. But warriors throughout history tested and discarded millions of ideas that got their brothers-in-arms killed, and the weapons we see in museums are the product of thousands of years of field-testing "the hard way."

I cringe every time I see a weapon mod that has a sword with a blade so huge that only an ogre could wield it. I have a couple of authentic-weight replicated swords, and I can tell you from personal experience that swinging even a 4 pound (2 kg) weapon for more than a few minutes is *serious* work. Yes, there were heavy war hammers and axes, and of course in the game you have a world where magic is real and that giant sword could be wielded by an ogre because, well, there *are* ogres! The historical weapons, though, can help you distinguish between something that's "beyond historical, but plausible with a little bit of fantasy and magic added," and something that is so wildly implausible as to be ridiculous.

Your mace is on the good side of that line, as far as I'm concerned. :-)

Don't ever let anyone convince you that a weapon has to be fancy to be worth creating. Real weapons -- not the ceremonial swords carried by kings -- are durable and lethal, not (necessarily) pretty. A simply-designed dagger can have its own kind of sinister beauty. Your mace has that sort of look, to my eye, and I like it.

Take a look online, if you haven't already, and get inspired by the widely-diverse ways people have found for killing one another in the centuries before gunpowder. You might also find the Osprey books on historical weaponry and armor to be a good source of ideas.

[Vou's Projects]

...my very first mesh that I ever really made and manipulated. I'm proud that I remembered how to cut stuff out with boolean and using extrude and other little tools. It has 3 doors, for the heck of it. Eventually I'll try to get my claws into texturing the big thing is trying to get into drawing/painting.

A big old to you!

I'm teaching myself Blender, mostly for modding but also because it turns out I can use it in my paying job on an occasional basis. The decision to learn Blender was not a slam-dunk for me, even though I have many years of CAD experience that helps a lot with the concepts. But I've never once regretted spending the time. I am beyond "beginner" now but still not anywhere close to "expert." I'd call myself "proficient" with non-animated work and "very very novice" with animation.

The thing about learning Blender or 3DS for modding is that you unlock a whole new realm of possibilities. It's not just "I can do more than before", but rather "I can do something entirely new." I was working on my town mod yesterday, for example, and was wishing that one of the Chorrol middle-class house interiors had an interior wall where it didn't, and had a door frame moved a bit. So...two hours later, I had a customized mesh that meets my needs exactly.

So, I guess what I mean to say, is I'm really happy for you taking this step that a lot of modders either don't have time to do, or are afraid to try. :-) Mesh modeling is just plain *fun*. Now, please remind me I said that the next time you hear me cussing at a troublesome UV texture map.

[CollisionBox moves on disable/enable cycle]

I have a customized trap in my mod that relies on an invisible static CollisionBox object (from the vanilla meshes) that is disabled and enabled by a script to control the behavior of the trap.

The problem is that the collision box renders in a slightly different location after it is disabled and reenabled for the first time, even though its numeric coordinates are not changed. I verified the numeric coordinates with GetPos calls and a diagnostic console printout. The offset is in the +Z direction, and is about 35~40 game units and fairly predictable. It also only happens on the first disable/enable cycle; that is, it does not accumulate additional offset each time the script cycles.

I have worked around the problem by having my script disable and then immediately enable the CollisionBox when the cell is initialized, and then I compensate the +Z offset by placing the CollisionBox slightly low in the CS. This has solved my immediate issue, but I am wondering (1) if anyone else has seen the problem, (2) if I can rely on this behavior being present on other people's systems, and (3) what might be causing the game engine to render a collision mesh at a location different from its official coordinate position.

Any ideas?

[Subspace doesn't prevent detection]

Update: I'm testing with the faction idea, and it seems to be working much better than the subspaces.

[Problem with activating Landscape Waterfalls]

Can you specify which objects you placed to make waterfalls? The ones I use don't have intrinsic sound effects; rather, you place a sound effect object near the waterfall to produce the ambient loop sound. You may be doing something different from what I am doing.