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Edited visability in the Creation Kit for a mod and it messed up the base game?


JMan240

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Okay, so I edited visibility around Echo Lake Lumber while trying to learn how to use precombines and previs. Problem is, even though I was working in a mod file, those visibility setting persist even after I've deleted the esp and reinstalled the whole game via Steam's delete local content feature. Obviously there's been a file left somewhere, or something that didn't get deleted by Steam needs to be removed, but I don't see anything that jumps out at me and don't know enough about how to fix this. If you do, please let me know, thanks.

Also if anyone knows a good tutorial for precombine and previs, I'd appreciate a link. Echo Lake Lumber is a decent sized settlement and I'm expanding it a bit, so I'd like to use that stuff if I can. Thanks.

 

Edit: Welp, naturally, I found the Vis folder immediately after this. Was too tunnel visioned on the data folder. That said, I would still like info on how to work with that stuff without busting everything, if anyone feels like being helpful.

Edited by JMan240
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Here's what is available on the Creation Kit site on the topic: http://www.creationkit.com/fallout4/index.php?title=Precombined_References

 

 

It's a bit tricky, since Bethesda offers no tutorials and previs and precombineds are primarily an automated feature where you just tell it to run and it makes them. I know a lot about how how they work and when you want to disable them, but I haven't done much as far as remaking them goes.

 

I'd guess any static/static collection that doesn't have the "NonOccluder" tag on the base record will be included in previs, and any without the flag will be used in generating previs. Not sure on precombined objects, although it might be related. I'm also fairly sure any base objects set to "have distant LOD" will have precombined meshes generated.

 

Again, this is pure speculation, based on the things I'm seeing these flags on (and common sense, which is not as applicable as you would hope for Bethesda games).

 

Edit: Just took a look at the Mechanist's Lair, and I'm seeing things without that flag that aren't part of a precombined mesh, so while what I said above might have some impact on previs/precombineds, it's not the whole story. The only thing I can guess is that hiding a layer before you generate precombineds/previs will keep it from being used when creating/calculating previs/precombineds, but again, this is guesswork. I'll try and let you know if I figure anything out.

 

Edit2: Nope, seems hiding and/or freezing layers does nothing as far as preventing it from being packed in a precombined mesh.

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@ VlitS

 

lol today i tried "unchecking" previs for each cell in their edit windows..for my sanctuary mod.

 

Result..

 

All cells got "disconnected" from each other and became individuals as far as the workbench is concerned.

In other words the workshop would shut down when crossing from cell to cell .

 

Is this supposed to happen??..

Because in my my mind it shouldnt even be relevant.

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I would think so as well, as far as I knew the workshop build space was related to some dummy volume records, and had nothing to do with previs.

 

I have heard about people having that problem a while back, I think it was related to them moving the workbench out of the original cell (using Move that Workbench, or something), but I'm not sure. Not sure how to fix that, beyond using FO4Edit to remove previs instead of marking it as a "No Previs" cell.

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  • 2 years later...

Here's what is available on the Creation Kit site on the topic: http://www.creationkit.com/fallout4/index.php?title=Precombined_References

 

 

It's a bit tricky, since Bethesda offers no tutorials and previs and precombineds are primarily an automated feature where you just tell it to run and it makes them. I know a lot about how how they work and when you want to disable them, but I haven't done much as far as remaking them goes.

 

I'd guess any static/static collection that doesn't have the "NonOccluder" tag on the base record will be included in previs, and any without the flag will be used in generating previs. Not sure on precombined objects, although it might be related. I'm also fairly sure any base objects set to "have distant LOD" will have precombined meshes generated.

 

Again, this is pure speculation, based on the things I'm seeing these flags on (and common sense, which is not as applicable as you would hope for Bethesda games).

 

Edit: Just took a look at the Mechanist's Lair, and I'm seeing things without that flag that aren't part of a precombined mesh, so while what I said above might have some impact on previs/precombineds, it's not the whole story. The only thing I can guess is that hiding a layer before you generate precombineds/previs will keep it from being used when creating/calculating previs/precombineds, but again, this is guesswork. I'll try and let you know if I figure anything out.

 

Edit2: Nope, seems hiding and/or freezing layers does nothing as far as preventing it from being packed in a precombined mesh.

 

Sorry for the necro on this topic, but its the ONLY thing that came close to something I've been trying to figure out.

 

I'm trying to figure out how to mark certain items in a cell to NOT be part of the precomb/vis builds, and thus allowing those items to be 'removed' in-game (like via Scrap Everything).... and having no luck. However I know its now been 2 years, and maybe you have since figured out the magical checkbox or procedure to detach items in a cell from being considered for precomb/vis.

 

If you have, could you share a brief, or point me to a vid or other page that has documentation to the effect? My googling has resulted in nothing but this thread here :(

 

Again, apologies on the necro. It really is the closest thread I found.

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Ahh. Hmm.

 

Its that darn (-) menu that gets me, since changes done with it are almost impossible to see what has/hasnot been 'DO'ed to something lol. But at the bottom of the section 17, it has to undo-disabled the items after making the mesh/vis files. Which, that part didn't occur to me, due to the wonky behavior of these settings in the editor. I'll have to fuss and give this article a try.

 

Thanks.

 

-edit-

 

So far so good on the disable/renable front. I managed to break a house a part and do precombineds/vis for the area and still was able to then scrap it after the fact while keeping performance up. Thanks for the article SKK50!

Edited by Frigidman
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Looking over this routine to exclude items from precombineds... this couldn't have been how they did this. I mean, everytime they had to make a tweak or change and rebuild the precombines... they would have had to find all the workshop area items, temporarily disable them, rebuild, then re-enable them all, and save.

 

There has got to be some sort of flag that says 'not included in precombines'... just cant find it!

 

Digging into the vanilla esm, and looking over all the records for things that are and are not scrapable in a single workshop area... looking over what is linked to precombines. Sheesh, nothing is standing out as a flag.

 

Maybe they DID go through the hell of disable/renable all the time lol. Maybe thats why it seems like vanilla scrapping rules are so f*#@ing haphazard to begin with! LOL!

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From what I can tell, there is no visible flag to exclude inclusion in precombines. Generally, the system will exclude scrapable items (items with a scrapping recipe) or items with havok animations on its own with no user intervention. Anything other than that (regarding static objects) you’ll need to do manually. When regenerating in a settlement, you can look at the Warnings window and it will list exactly what items are being excluded and why: items with scrap recipes, havoc animations, linked to enable markers are all items I recall seeing listed on this output.

 

And yes, there are cases where the devs would have either manually disabled/enabled certain static or added them after precombines had been generated. Certain static furniture items come to mind. The round café chairs for example: there are two versions, clean and dirty. The dirty version is made with a custom material swap on the base object. Custom material swaps to static items made this way will break when precombines are generated and the mesh will revert to its base material file. That would be the clean version of the café chair in this case. So in order to have these static dirty chairs present in the world, they would likely either have been disabled during precombine generation or added to the cell afterwards. Why they would have done it this way is questionable, as it seem to make much more work than making an actual material swap and applying it to the ref in a cell.

 

EDIT: I'm pretty sure most if not all of the colored Vault crates are also made with custom material swaps on the base items. In my experience they also need to be disabled or added to a cell after generation otherwise they will revert to the default bare steel of the base material file.

Edited by RedRocketTV
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Hi, Mr Redrocket is correct anything that is not disabled that has custom material swaps will revert back to its original state. The best way around this is to put any items with custom material swaps ie special furniture etc, is to put it on its own layer. then hide the layer before doing the previs geometry and vis precombines.

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