Belthan

I'm using pre-alpha 4 https://github.com/jonwd7/nifskope/releases/tag/v2.0.dev4 which sounds like it may be the one you're already using. It is a bit glitchy, but hey, it's a pre-alpha.

I've been trying to stay positive and reply constructively to specific thoughts, but a few posts back someone mentioned Obsidian in a way that seemed to view their work favorably compared to Bethsoft. Which is verging on giving me a meltdown. Modding FNV was a screaming, hair-pulling, rage-inducing nightmare - the FNV GECK (and in some ways the game itself) made FO3 look positively stable and robust by comparison. Prime example: they disabled script compiler errors because, you know, why be bothered with warnings about things you don't intend to fix? You want to talk about lazy? That's effing lazy! I know some people have blamed those issues on Bethsoft for putting Obsidian under such intense schedule pressure, but the only reason I stuck with modding FNV as long as I did was because of the enthusiastic fan response to Coito Ergo Sum. Whew... with that off my shoulders, I'll try to regain my positive attitude. So, almost anything game developers can screw up, modders can fix. Case in point, the FNV GECK Powerup, which restored compiler errors and fixed most of the bugs with the FNV GECK, and made modding FNV tolerable. So, anyplace you see a problem, try to see an opportunity instead.

How can a section of a mesh be made partially transparent? I can make a section completely transparent, but I need partial opacity for lace and such. The following configuration gives me a fully transparent "cutout" in an outfit, but it's supposed to be semi-sheer material so that isn't exactly what I'm looking for. - BSSubIndexTrishape block has NiAlphaProperty with flags=4844, threshold=128 - bgsm has Alpha Test checked and Alpha Test Reference=127 - Diffuse dds has an alpha channel with full-intensity transparency where the cutout should be

Changed threshold to 128 but no difference. EDIT: Okay, after a little more experimentation I increased the intensity of the alpha channel in the dds and the cutout is now transparent. Yay! Which brings up another question that I will ask in a more appropriately named thread. Thanks for the assist, rickerhk.

Okay, so I figured out how to add the alpha property, but I'm still having problems. I'm trying to make a "cutout" in the back of a dress, but it isn't becoming transparent. I have the following: - The BSSubIndexTrishape block in the nif has NiAlphaProperty with flags=4844, threshold=0 - The material (bgsm) file has Alpha Test checked and is pointing to the correct dds files - The diffuse dds has an alpha channel with transparency where the cutout should be But... the dress still doesn't have the "cutout" in game. Any idea what I'm missing?

I'm trying to add an alpha property to a a BSSubIndexTriShape block. Right click the block, Block->Insert->NiAlphaProperty creates a new NiAlphaProperty, but it's added as a child of the scene root rather than the BSSubIndexTriShape block. Using NifSkope 2.0.0 Pre-Alpha 4. EDIT: Never mind, figured it out. For anyone else who has the same question: go to the BS Properties list in the BSSubIndexTriShape, add the index of the new NIAlphaProperty, and there you go.

No, I don't mean the animation stops like a bad frame drop situation, I mean the player actually stops running and goes to a standing still animation when switching from 1st person to 3rd person, like the switch made the game forget I was running. Holding W for another second or so, and character starts running again.

You mean when switching from 1st person to 3rd person mode? I noticed that too. And not just a delay, but the player's running animation stops, actual forward motion stops, and they start back up again after a second. Doesn't happen every time, but damn, it's annoying when it does happen.

You can probably change the small handful of related GameSetting values with FO4Edit, but I doubt the damage formula itself can be changed until CK and a more full-featured version of F4SE are available. If I squint, I can sort of imagine they thought were going for increased realism with the ratio idea. IRL even something as simple as layers of heavy leather might offer some degree of protection against .25 ACP (don't try this at home, kids), but if you get hit with an enormous amount of kinetic energy like a .50 BMG round, it doesn't really matter if you're naked, wearing a consumer-grade flak jacket, or state of the art military body armor - you're dead. But... why did they bother with a half-baked attempt to increase realism in one area while completely ignoring reality in every other aspect? The same ammo fired through the same length barrel is going to do the same damage if it hits you in the same spot, to the near-exclusion of all other factors. Doesn't matter if it's fired from a S&W or a Ruger (so receiver mods should change ROF but not damage, unless you change what ammo type it's chambered for). Doesn't matter how many bullets are coming out of the barrel per second - getting hit with N rounds from an assault rifle on full auto will shred you just as badly as N separate shots from the same weapon in semi-auto mode (so the reduced per-shot damage for full-auto receivers is B.S.). Doesn't matter whether the shooter is a professional killer or someone who never fired a gun before and just happened to score a lucky hit (so gun skill/perks should change your chance to hit but not damage). I guess what I'm saying is, I agree with you, and I hope the tools necessary to fix this mess are available soon. EDIT: And while I'm thinking about guns & bullets, if you're going to take weapon modding from FNV to the next level, why get rid of the ammo types? WHY!?!

Amen. I got movement & combat keys pretty much where I want them, but it made crafting a pain in the arse. Example: the E key (which I use for jump) now doesn't work in many crafting & looks menu situations so I have to click accept with the mouse.

I don't want to fan the flames of discontent, because some things I view as flaws in FO4 are features that others love, and vice versa. The good news: almost anything that anyone doesn't like about it will eventually be correctable with (drum roll please)... mods. For example, I loathe the dialog wheel and voiced protagonist (which between NoPlayerVoice and NewDialog, are pretty much fixed already). Regarding the original topic of this thread, I actually like the new leveling/perk system but I imagine once the CK is released it will be less daunting to tweak it to suit different tastes. In the interim, there are already mods that remove the level requirements for perks, which I think mitigates some of the issues previously mentioned. In FO3/FNV you could specialize in a particular skill right off the bat, and max it out by level 5 or so. With the level requirements for perks in FO4 removed, you can sort of simulate that same experience.

Here's another vote in favor of the forum name change. I posted a FO4 question here myself before I learned there was a new FO4 mod authors forum. And I'm a bit embarrased I wasn't the first to read this thread - I hope that doesn't damage my reputation as a moral deviant ;)

Okay, I figured it out. I needed to export the _s.dds file with BC5 / 3Dc compression. I had been using BC3 / DXT5 and apparently that doesn't export the layers correctly. On a related note for anyone having similar issues, I discovered the normals look almost but not quite right unless you use BC5 / 3Dc for the _n.dds file as well. However, BC5 / 3Dc completely hoses the _d.dds file so I'm using uncompressed for that. And my apologies for the cross-post. I posted the question here before I knew the Fallout 4 Mod Authors Forum existed, and I figured I'd post the answer in both places in case anybody looks here instead of there.

Okay, I figured it out. I needed to export the _s.dds file with BC5 / 3Dc compression. I had been using BC3 / DXT5 and apparently that doesn't export the layers correctly. On a related note for anyone having similar issues, I discovered the normals look almost but not quite right unless you use BC5 / 3Dc for the _n.dds file as well. However, BC5 / 3Dc completely hoses the _d.dds file so I'm using uncompressed for that.

No, the wet texture gets applied to everything else, just not the new body texture. Even the face & hands (which I didn't change) look wet, but the body (which I did change) does not.

I created a new body texture, and it works fine except it doesn't get the glossy wet look in the rain. I'm guessing maybe there's a layer that isn't getting exported correctly by the GIMP DDS plugin? Any advice appreciated.

I suspect that's not the problem, because vanilla NPCs look wet when it rains. I only replaced the vanilla dds files with my dds files, and now they don't. I didn't change anything in the esm that should have interfered with scripts or whatever else creates that effect in the vanilla game, so it seems like the difference has to be something I'm doing wrong with the dds files themselves.

I created a new body texture, and it works fine except it doesn't get the glossy wet look in the rain. I'm guessing maybe there's a layer that isn't getting exported correctly by the GIMP DDS plugin? Any advice appreciated.

Don't know of a way to directly modav by a percentage, but you could calculate it, e.g. SHORT CurrentRads SHORT LastRadCheck SHORT RadChange SHORT MaxHealth SHORT HealthChange SHORT CumulativeDebuff if CumulativeDebuff == 0 ; Permanent AV changes not only when player levels up, ; but also when we debuff health for rad effect. ; So, only update max health when the debuff is zero. set MaxHealth to PlayerREF.GetPermanentActorValue Health endif set CurrentRads to PlayerREF.getav RadiationRads set RadChange to CurrentRads - LastRadCheck if RadChange != 0 set LastRadCheck to CurrentRads set HealthChange to ((RadChange / -1000) * MaxHealth) PlayerREF.modav Health HealthChange set CumulativeDebuff to CumulativeDebuff + HealthChange endifFull disclosure: this is entirely theoretical and untested. EDIT: If the player has low health and high rads the first time this script runs, it could instantly kill them. Probably a good idea to have the ability to toggle the feature on and off, and warn the player about the dangers before they activate it.

What kind of object is the destination of the moveto function? I haven't seen this exact behavior, but I have seen something similar with setpos, where a REF's physics don't update until something interacts with it after it is moved. Anyway, you could try making the moveto target an object with collision data, and that might force havoc to update the physics.

Okay, so by trial and error I determined that if you turn on borders and orient the render window so that North is at the top with the camera facing straight down, the quads within an exterior cell are arranged like this: 3 4 1 2 If the area you want to re-paint is near the corner, then you can tell pretty easily which quad it's in. If it's in the middle, it's still guesswork. So, the original question stands: any way to show quad borders like you can show cell borders, or even better, any undocumented trick to "unpaint" a texture without deleting that texture from the entire quad?

I was perhaps answering the question a bit too literally (i.e. which ones are actually used by which game). As a more philosophical design choice, if you need to control something with conditions that absolutely can't be done with reference variables, quest variables, or script effects, and it will only affect new NPCs or creatures added by your mod, then using VariableXX actor values is generally pretty safe. If you plan to use them for something that affects vanilla NPCs or creatures then it's very prone to conflicts. In Quo Vagis I used Variable04 to give me very specific control of the work schedule at Lolipopz. By using an AV, I could assign every dancer the same set of approximately 12 AI packages (dance stage 1, dance stage 2, go on break, tout duty, eat, sleep, etc.) That allowed the work schedule to change as more dancers were hired. That last bit was the important part, because package conditions can check AV on Subject, but they can't check a variable on Subject; they can only check variables on a specific reference. So, with reference variables, the number of AI packages required would have been (num tasks * num dancers2 ) which clearly didn't scale as I added more staff. Anyway, I knew none of the dancers would ever provide medical services, and none of the vanilla doctors were going to be dancers, so it would have probably been safe to use Variable01, but I used Variable04 to be even safer. Even if another mod used Variable04 for something else, it would be unlikely to conflict because the NPCs added by that mod wouldn't have the Quo Vagis AI packages that are conditional on Variable04, and the Quo Vagis dancers wouldn't have the AI packages, equipment or whatever is controlled by Variable04 in the other mod. HOWEVER, if the other mod used Variable04 for something truly global like say, resistance to a new effect, then weird things could happen (e.g. dancers are partially resistant when they are on the pole, immune when eating lunch, and no resistance when they are on break). In hindsight I probably should have done it with tokens, but live and learn. And yes, I was slightly OCD about the work schedule, but doing it the simple way with a few scheduled sandbox packages was just a mess. I've never seen two real dancers keep pushing each other out of the way while trying to use the same pole (at least not without triggering a StartCombat event). In fact, I decided to keep it simple in Coito Ergo Sum, so I did exactly that: a few scheduled sandbox, patrol and sleep packages, and it's exactly the kind of Charlie Foxtrot that Quo Vagis wasn't: customers clap in front of an empty stage, multiple characters get stuck trying to use the same idle markers, etc. But it works plot-wise, since Malibu is several orders of magnitude more competent at managing a bar than Hilly.

To force any animation to stop at any time, I use a dialog topic called IdleInterrupter with a short speaker animation, a 0.1 second OGG and LIP file (other the player stands still for the game's default "missing voice file" time) and a single space in the response text (so nothing appears in the subtitles). Then any time I want to force a character to abort an animation I can use the following script. I've found it to be extremely reliable. refname.say idleinterrupterIf you want to truncate a specific animation file (for example, you want a create a new animation which is just the first 3 seconds of an existing 10 second animation), you can do it in NifSkope. 1) Scroll to the bottom of the file and find NiTextKeyExtraData. Depending on the animation, there might be anywhere from two for a simple animation to six or more for a looping animation. You'll only need two. 2) Expand the second key, change the Time to however much of the animation you want to play (in this example, 3) and change the Value to "end". 3) Change NumTextKeys to 2. If there were any keys after the second one, they will be deleted when you save the file. Note that this will remove any looping, sound synchronization or whatever else the keys higher than 2 used to do. 4) Scroll back to the top of the file, click on NiControllerSequence, and change Stop Time to the same number that you used as the Time for the "end" key. 5) Save as a new file (obviously don't save over the original). 6) Create a new Idle Animation in GECK which uses the new KF file, and you can use it as a dialog animation or script it with PlayIlde, without having to write extra script to make it stop playing.

Good to know, thanks! I just added Item #417 to the list of mods I'll never actually make: Tabitha's Rave Cave. A player who finds the secret entrance can have a big Matrix Revolutions-style dance party under Black Mountain with NPCs from the Mojave's missing persons list.

Anybody know what causes NPCs to occasionally move to Black Mountain? They are sometimes on the surface, but more commonly underground, as close as the terrain collision will let them get to the 0,0,0 coordinates of the WastelandNV worldspace. I've had this happen with vanilla NPCs as well as NPCs from mods. It's apparently random, but it seems like there has to be some specific set of conditions that causes it to happen.