AndrewClements

The "F12" command is for the Steam screenshot. If u just want to take a normal screenshot then u need to use the "Print Screen" key. These two lines must be in your "skyrimprefs.ini" file: "bAllowScreenShot=1" and "sScreenShotBaseName=ScreenShot" I also have this file: "iScreenShotIndex=1" but I don't know if it needs to be a "1" or not. Those files are under the "[Display]" heading.

Out of curiousity I glanced through my working folder for the mod we are working on. I have... niffix.nif niffix2.nif texture01.dds texture9A.dds blankLOD.nif thisishopeless.nif. (a little frustration there..ha ha) Naturally those won't be in whatever I would upload, but I found the humour since I read your post. But to be serious, occasionally I have come across generically named files as u mention. Your comments and suggestions are good and I will definitely remember to do my labelling accordingly.

Maybe u are deleting a branch that the game relies on to display the textures is why it's becoming invisible. I'm not sure about this. There are some tutorials over at the NifTools site about what the various block branches do. I don't yet fully understand them though. As for changing the colour of an item, that isn't too hard. Find the .dds file that is associated with the .nif file u want to change the colour on. (It will show the path to the .dds file in one of the NiTexture branches). Then u convert the .dds file to a .jpg file with the "DDS Converter" tool. Load the .jpg file into Photoshop or GIMP (or similar image editor). Change the colour or texture until it is the way u want it. (If u are doing a more complex object, this might take some trial and error to get the colours right for the right places. Sometimes it's hard to calculate from the flat image where curving areas on the mesh are and such). When u are finished editing the image, convert it back to a .dds file with the "DDS Converter". Then simply replace the original .dds image with the new edited one. The "DDS Converter 2" tool is available free here: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8698

We are working on a mod. And encountering a lot of trouble along the way. We are creating a toll road in the northern areas of Elsweyr and Valenwood. We are about halfway done. Done so far... The road. The tunnel (a real nasty customer too...but it looks and functions perfectly as a tunnel should now except for the LOD problem which I have posted requests for assistance about elsewhere). The toll menus, fare tickets, and the scripts involved are done. The toll collectors. (they are mean, sneaky and ornerey too) The two towns along the toll road (these are just plain generic towns with the usual inn/shop and blah citizens). A big observation tower (just an eyecandy thing where u can climb up and see Cyrodiil landmarks). What needs to be done.... Dialogue voice overs. My gf and me are going to try this and see how it comes out. If it sounds funky, then maybe there won't be spoken dialogue. The LOD problem at the tunnel entrances. (so far I can't seem to get the edited LOD meshes to export out of Blender back into a .nif file....I'm working on it though). A trigger problem when the player is riding a horse (trigger seems to only function properly when the player is dismounted) A few minor issues with the toll collector scripts and positioning. This is our first mod and we are really doing it just because we are having fun with it. We will slap it up on this site when it's done just in case someone else might like to look at it. It's doubtful that there will be much interest in it since there are no quests involved or anything. But then maybe someone else can use it and add some of their own quests or something.

I guess this attempt at editing LOD messhes isn't something hardly anyone does. But we did finally get the LOD mesh in question to load into Blender. By setting the scale slider all the way to 100 in the .nif import thing, we got the mesh to load into Blender. We were also able to edit the points in question, but when we tried to export it back out to a .nif file, it always give the error "Value out of range 83932" and of course "python error" after that since it's probably from the import/export plugin. So basically we are needing to find a way to make it export back out to a .nif file after editing.

The file in question is "60.-32.-32.32.nif" It's located in the oblivion\data\meshes\landscape\LOD\ folder I know this is the correct file I need to edit because I replaced it with a flat one and ran the game and the area in question was flat. I just either want to be able to disonnect a few vertices (to create an opening), or else find a way to make the texture at that point transparent. I can't get this file to load into Blender. When I try to import it, all I get is one HUGE flat surface.

Ok so me and my girlfriend have made a nice tunnel. And I think it looks decent myself. We used various rocks already in the vanilla game and just repositioned them and scaled them. Then edited the landscape on either side to blend in. We used the rocks because they already had green "moss" that was nearly identical to the landscape. With a few trees on them it looks like real landscape. Now of course there has to be a problem. I think Gamebryo's programmers were more intent on coding problems than games. But it's the LOD mesh. It makes a wonderful "curtain" for my tunnel entrances...but it looks terrible. When I first generated the LOD after making the tunnel, the tunnel was filled with LOD artifacts because it was really a deep valley rather than a tunnel to the LOD generator. So I loaded a backup of my plugin which didn't have the valley and generated a LOD from that. Now the inside of the tunnel is perfect, but the LOD mesh overlaps at both entrances. I either need to remove that area from the LOD or make it transparent. I have tried the usual tools....The LOD generator in the CS and TESLODgen. I have read a lot of conversations about improving the detail of the LOD, but haven't come up with any solution to how to edit it for my purpose. I haven't even found where this LOD mesh is located in the Oblivion game directories. I did learn that it's too big to load into Blender...which sucks. Does anyone have a solution to this? I will be more than willing to help u in return if I can.

Thanks for the quick answer. So I guess u couldn't load the collision mesh for the landscape into blender and disable it in one tiny spot to allow a character to go through without using "tcl". Come to think of it, the landscape might be too big to load into Blender. It would have been easier if that was possible. The 2nd way will require a lot of work. The "fake" land and then a tunnel structure to go through. And then maybe it wouldn't be weather proof either. I mean in the tunnel if it was raining or whatever it will be that way inside the tunnel too. I guess I could resort the teleporting and make up some excuse for a tunnel to have doors. Like maybe to keep out goblins or something. This game is definitely not tunnel friendly.

I want to build a tunnel in the Tamriel worldspace. I really would like to do this without using "doors". In other words I want to go through a mountain directly and not first teleport to an interior cell and then back out at the end of the tunnel. I was thinking if I could remove collision at the entry and exit points of the Tamriel landscape that I might be able to place a "tunnel" object at those points to enable the character to travel through. As an alternative, could I make a deep gorge in the landscape and place a separate item..or items (similar to a large deformed rock made in Blender or whatever) over the gorge to simulate the terrain that was depressed? I'm new to this, so if u have any ideas please explain them as if u were talking to a primary school kid...ha ha.