syscrusher

Here's my response. I will note for the record that I intend to *make* some of these (not sure which, yet) as soon as I can reliably export from Blender into Skyrim format without vast gyrations. (IOW, I'm not trying to dump work onto others, but rather to contribute to the "to do" list.) I agree with those who have said "more lights", and would add that both "Fake" and "Off" versions are needed. Invisible Activator objects in various shapes (flat disk, convex "lens" shape, rectangular) with editor markers. I know how to make the Activators but have never had any success using NifSkope to add editor markers. More variety of invisible collision objects, again with editor markers. Booksets that can be used as containers (some have been created, but more variety is always good). Desk/office clutter (static!) Alchemy lab clutter (again, static) Door stones, like the ones in Oblivion Some flat stone platforms in various textures and shapes, for use with outdoor craft areas, shrines, etc. Retainer walls with and without embedded staircases, as a tileset, with attached flat "land" on the uphill side (these exist in vanilla as "terrace" pieces, but limited in variety) Standalone water statics like the ones Washington (?) did for Oblivion. Maybe these exist in vanilla, but I haven't found them yet. Wall decorations that are not pelts or flattened basket weaves (booooooorrrrrrring!)

I am trying to use some custom-created creatures from a modders' resource (specifically, BT More Enemies) in my quest mod. I was able to import them, and they animate just fine, process their AIs, enter combat, and so on. The problem is that when they are killed, they sink through the floor of the dungeon, or through the landscape mesh if outdoors! I looked at the BSX flags in the NIF, and compared the collision mesh to that of other creatures from the same resource that *don't* have the problem, and I can't see any differences. Has anyone seen behavior like this before, and if so, what should I be looking at other than just the BSX flags? Thanks! (Edit: Sorry, I realized I forgot to prefix the subject.)

That's where I stashed that giant log and mushroom object that were in the way of my building. Rather than delete them, I sank them below ground so they are not reachable and don't show on the map. Interestingly, I found that Bethesda had done some of this in Oblivion, apparently because they needed to get rid of objects right before release. Thanks also for the detailed response about the LOD issue. I have two systems here; it will be interesting to test my mod on another machine.

Another question...As I did Lesson 3 I noticed that the trees were really in my way, so I thought to disable their rendering in the CK temporarily. First I was just going to disable leaves, but the CK checkbox for that appears totally inoperative for me. I *was* able to disable trees altogether, but that made selecting other objects very difficult. It was almost as if the selection-detect of the trees was still seeing them, even though they were invisible to the user. I would click my static objects, but no selection occurred. Turning the trees back on, then moving around them, fixed the problem. Have you seen this before, and is there a workaround other than "always enable tree rendering"?

In lesson 3 you mention (and I encountered in game) the bug where exterior meshes are sometimes invisible. Some people are posting online that one solution to this is to enable the forced LOD option for the house exterior, but I've seen others say that's a bad idea in the long term because of performance issues. What are your comments on this option? Good idea? Good short-term idea if removed after the bug fix? Or bad idea all around?