87 replies to this topic

[Starphire]

Also Noteworthy: The book sometimes has a disturbing tendency to fall through the surface it's on. I've had to retrieve it from under the floor with the tcl console command a couple times. I don't know if that's fixable or not. Thankfully it doesn't happen very often.

Edit: hardly ever. Perhaps a result of bumping it with items or nudging it by walking over it? It is a little alarming to set it down and not be able to find it before you want to save your progress.

Another bummer is that I don't see the nice yellow Feng Shui for Dummies cover of the book that is shown in your youtube vid. It flickers and shows different pages as you move your cursor around (just doesn't display properly for me). I've spotted the Moriarty's Saloon sign and the mattress texture in miniature, among others.

A minor issue is the size constraint of the the x, y, z, movement & rotation axes. They're often lost inside larger objects which sometimes make it a guessing game if you're going to be moving or rotating the item on your next key press. An undo last move/rotation feature or a reset to the object's position when you first grabbed it would be useful.

Also, for nudge mode - while it's possible to get used to the different sound each makes as you switch, it's easy to lose track of which one is active. A text alert/msg that stays on your screen somewhere to notify you which nudge mode you're in while placing items would be helpful.

On another note: I've had the game go to Idle mode several times while browsing the size categories and it hasn't caused any immediate problems that I've noticed (just my personal exp). I've also found it easier to view the 2 largest categories in 3rd person mode. For first person using the away/toward keys in spawn mode (8 & 2) helps.

Fun Fun.

If I can get through every size category entirely and fav everything I want to, my next step will be to spawn a bunch of them and try to manipulate them in control mode. I'd had issues selecting or being able to move many of the objects I'd spawned earlier, when I was still using the book from within my inventory. Sadly, this hasn't been possible yet, due to my CTD issues browsing the size categories, especially very large, and extremely large.

Update: now that I've discovered what causes the game to crash there, I've been able to make it through the entire very large category right up that spot. See the next post for the details. I've also managed to make it through the extremely large without a problem this time.

Oh, and I STILL haven't come across the Hollowed-Out Rock container that's outside Megaton in my wasteland wanderings through your size categories. Me wants! Megaton Hollowed-Out Rock

[Starphire]

Oh buddy, I deserve a prize for this one! Where's my special fallout 3™ secret spy decoder ring?

I kept , trying to make my way through the very large category from one end to the other, forward & back. I discovered that the game is bugging out on me in the same place each way. I don't know if that's the same object I'm encountering either direction (probably, considering it's within the same grouping of objects [dead trees] and more than 300 objects into the category), or if it's two different objects and I'm missing out on a stretch of objects between those baddies.

I didn't make an exact count of the objects I could view in that category so I don't know for certain, but over 300+ objects from the beginning, and closer to the end of the category, I'll reach a object that if I try to browse beyond the game will bail on me, everytime.

If I go forward, and work my way past those 300 items, roughly, I'll encounter this dead tree <03023181> then this one <03023180>, and then a CTD.

If I go backward, maybe 30/40/50ish back (I didn't keep any kind of count), I'll come across this dead pine tree <00081A1B>, then another dead tree <0302317B>, after which fallout 3 writes a suicide note: "goodbye, cruel world," and then pulls the trigger.

There have been some other CTDs which clouded the issue, but at least I now know why I couldn't seem to get through the very large category without a crash. Please make whatever this is go away. Thank-you.

[Starphire]

Hmm, just ran into my first Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Error. I think someone else mentioned that earlier? I dropped the book as usual and when I pressed 'e' to activate it the game froze and the error msg reported that the game had tried to terminate in an unusual way (that's the gist of it, anyway). First time that I've ever seen that in fallout 3, that I can recall.

Still crashing in the fav list, in between functioning just fine. It will crash at a random object one load (seems to be different every time) and then sprint through the entire category the next. Wash, rinse, repeat. Go figure.

Just loaded a quick save where I'd left the book dropped, and when the game opened the book was gone, it wasn't in my inventory, and I couldn't find it w/ tcl either. I'd used the same quick save a few times earlier, and the book was there after loading. Then it came back in a load after that. Weird.

[laffindude]

Invisible objects in Spawn Mode:
First possibility is that the object is just offset too far up or down. Especially if you're in a confined space, the object may be hidden in the ceiling or floor. This is more likely to occur in the "Size" or "Favorites" categories because of the variety of items. Also larger objects should appear further away from you, so they could be hidden by a wall if you're too close.

The other possibility is something I discovered recently myself, which may be more of a problem. In certain areas, some fixed objects will be invisible while "floating" in Spawn mode. I haven't tracked down the details yet, but I think it's due to a combination of specific shader settings on the mesh and the lighting and/or ISM properties in the area, and because they're supposed to be "static" objects the engine doesn't update them in the scene while they're being dynamically moved around. I'm not sure what I can do about this yet, but if you can report any specific examples it might help me track down the exact issues. If there's an object that seems to be invisible, try moving to an area with different lighting (even within the same room) to see if it appears. Try it in a different interior, and also outdoors (I suspect this doesn't happen outdoors, or at least is less likely). I'm not looking for comprehensive lists on this behavior, but if I had details on a few different objects where this happens it would help.

Another reason is room bound. If you spawn object in 1 room and move it into another room (make sure they're in different room bounds), it'll usually be invisible after you release it. It'll be visible if you stand in the original room, but not when you move into the other room. If a large object's pivot is outside of current room bound when spawned, it will not be visible.

[Starphire]

<0007F8DO>, <00065A8B>, & <00057B33> have no collision meshes and you can't select them in item placement (and so scale them down ).

<00057B33> has collision but you still can't select it. When you try to highlight it you get the 'fizzle' sound that happens when you can't lock on.

I don't have the ids at this time, but from a quick test of a bunch of items spawned from my fav list: the balloons, the two cakes, the translucent egg ground clutter, the box TV, the desk calender, the round wall clock, dogmeat, the red & green liquid 'glo sticks', the rocket mobile Dashwood has in his room, and the Vault msg scroller (procreation is your civic duty!) are all without collision meshes and can't be selected/highlighted.

Thankfully the vast majority of objects I spawned did highlight properly in item placement. As did this one:
I'm sure it is honey, I'm sure it is...

[Starphire]

Another reason is room bound. If you spawn object in 1 room and move it into another room (make sure they're in different room bounds), it'll usually be invisible after you release it. It'll be visible if you stand in the original room, but not when you move into the other room. If a large object's pivot is outside of current room bound when spawned, it will not be visible.

Interesting. I haven't run into that problem yet, but then again I've just been spawning poo <-(lawl @ censorship) all over Megaton, in the little Megaton house, and in the wastes.

I haven't ran into a single invisible object since I stopped using the book from within my inventory. Whether that is significant or not I don't know.

[Starphire]

I've been having a blast once I got the CTD stage out of the way. Managed to spawn some of the objects I wanted in the Megaton house from my fav list, and I've been going to town manipulating them in control mode. Thankfully the mod seems a lot more stable placing/manipulating items and my game ran rock steady while I moved around at least 50+ items. I was dropping and picking up the book and saving all the while; everything ran well.

Only glitch I ran into has been mentioned previously - the mysterious 'golden touch'. Didn't notice anything until I was almost finished moving everything. I was trying to zap something in console which I'd forgot to click on first and ended up bringing up my pip boy... ya:


Leaving the area and loading the autosave didn't help: I had to restart the game. Is that the only way to get rid of it?

Oh, um, and if you're brave enough... ask me what other features I've dreamed up to make your mod even more kick-assity. I have at least 5 now. Are you scured yet? Lmao.

[HugePinball]

Another reason is room bound. If you spawn object in 1 room and move it into another room (make sure they're in different room bounds), it'll usually be invisible after you release it. It'll be visible if you stand in the original room, but not when you move into the other room. If a large object's pivot is outside of current room bound when spawned, it will not be visible.

Oh wow, I never thought of that - I'll bet you're right. I don't really do cell-building, so I've only read about room bounds. Again, I don't think there's much I can do about that other than inform people, but this could be less troubling than that lighting issue I was thinking of. Kudos to you.

[laffindude]

Lemme add some clarification since I wasn't very specific:

Moving items:
Spawn in 1 room, and hit kp_5 to place it. Then grab and move it via "begin placing items".

extra Large object spawning:
When they appear from scrolling and spawned with pivot outside of current roombound, go into TFC and go outside of room bound and usually you'll find it. Even if you've moved your mouse to get the pivot into the room bound, it'll still be invisible while in the original room bound you're standing in. However, not all large item will be invisible when they are spawned outside of the current room bound. Hard to reproduce for me right now since scrolling extra large items leave a ghost image of the item in the world for me (only indoors, outdoors ok).

[cpoindex]

Seems to be working great. My only question is about lamps and other light sources (not including fire); when I spawn them, there is no light emitting from them. I haven't really investigated lighting effects or whatnot, but I'm assuming it's because the "light" is something separate from the object? Would it be possible to spawn the lamps with the light effect still intact? Just wondering, as it would be very useful for dark areas and stuff.

Well I guess not my only question. I was also wondering about removing or "deleting" fixed objects and static objects (speaking of which, I can't highlight the scattered paper that is everywhere, but I don't know if I'm supposed to be able to anyways)? Such as lockers, tables, rubble piles, etc. Would that be possible? Or would it cause problems with the game? I finally wanted to remove objects bad enough that I just started moving them under the floor so that they aren't visible.