Trentosaurus

The script doesn't seem to be doing anything now. It doesn't even load the exterior shells. IMO swapping to a separate .nif from the vanilla one for the exterior shell model isn't *really* necessary, since I can just overwrite the vanilla shell .nif with my own. But the scripts aren't loading the interior shells either.

Oh crap, it's because I goofed and switched up the script types on the two scripts when I redid everything for the fresh new plugin. Compiled now and will return with results.

Decided to actually move this project to it's own esp plugin, so that everything is a bit neater. Was about to comment back with a slightly different error on line 7 again. But now with this new script I'm getting an error on line 8, saying unknown variable 'aEntry', even though it's in the other script and compiled. https://i.imgur.com/3KNy28R.png Do we still need to add the quest ID before rWeapon as well? Because if so, it doesn't make a difference with this error.

No problem, thanks for your continued support EPDGaffney

Alright, so now I get a syntax error on line 7: https://i.imgur.com/7UPoRXB.png

Yeah, I think the error I was getting before was probably because I forgot to launch Geck with NVSE and instead launched regular Geck powerup. Anyhow the new script compiles just fine. But I'm having trouble updating the other script correctly. This is what I'm getting when I try to save it: https://i.imgur.com/XfVSKPW.png I know I'm probably doing something horribly wrong. Quick edit: this error pops up after clicking the previous one off, not sure if helpful: https://i.imgur.com/0IYArTl.png

I'm getting an error with the new script, says script command array_var not found on line 2. Screen: https://i.imgur.com/MLswmug.png Also sorry I slapped my name on your scripts, I do it so it's easy to filter to only my items in the GECK @Mktavish Yes, I believe the projectile node does two things. One is to tell where to place the muzzle flash, which is a separate nif. The other is to tell the game where the projectile will exit the weapon model. Nah, I didn't duplicate anything. The muzzle flash in my screenshot is just the regular flash at the end of the muzzle.

Yes, I was planning on making a vanilla replacer mod with my new shells after I finish the weapon mod I made them for, but then I ran into the issue with the shells being way too dark indoors. Then we fixed that part, but now to expand my shells and your scripts to all shotguns. I can easily make 20ga versions of the shells and scripts as well. Somebody could make a stand-alone version of just the script so they can use vanilla shells or any replacer mod they like. Or I could make it an optional file or something, but I feel like it'd be most useful as its own file, however niche of a fix it is.

If there was a way to tell the script to scan for only weapons that use shotgun shells, instead of specific individual weapons, then in theory it could universally applied to all weapons that use shotshells including weapons from mods. Like IfAmmoType=12ga then blahblahblah, or something to that effect. This is really beyond my knowledge of Geck scripting though. If somebody knew how to get the engine to render the lighting right, that'd be fantastic. The only reasons I can think they made it like this is because it caused tons of lag/crashes, or they were simply too lazy to get it working in the first place.

Sweet, thanks for the updated script. Seems to be working fine. It's such a small issue that it's alright if it doesn't work 100% of the time, as long as it works most of the time I'm happy. So after some experimentation I've got some pretty good results now. Changed the emit multi back to 1, since that is default and means in a pitch black environment, the object should be perfect black as well. This solves the issue of shells glowing in the dark. Bumped the alpha multiplier to 1.6969, which made the textures a bit washed out, so I cranked up the saturation on my diffuse map and got it looking pretty close. The good news about this is that it only requires one separate diffuse texture, and both shells can share the same normal and specular maps. Some more screens: https://i.imgur.com/CJRL3ti.jpg https://i.imgur.com/iXpjNvj.jpg And one with muzzle flash: https://i.imgur.com/l9iJU6P.jpg I double checked to make sure that the brightness was consistent inside of different interiors with different lighting, and since the shells are only affected by ambient light they look basically the same in all interior cells. In some interiors they will have a bit over saturated colors, but since they are pretty dark textures (compared to vanilla) it's not very noticeable. And it's pretty much a non-issue since nobody takes the time to look at their spent shotgun shells on the ground when actually playing the game.

Yeah, and to be sure it was working I changed the diffuse map to pure white, and I verified in game that outdoor has regular shells, and indoor had white shells. So the script is definitely working. Anyway, I got a much better result by changing the emit multiplier to 1.0505 and also adding in a 50% grey map in the glowmap slot in the nif. quick screen: https://i.imgur.com/JkidOig.jpg Something is still off though. The overall colors are pretty close to the same brightness but there is no light reflecting off the spent shell, besides whatever ambient light Goodsprings Saloon has. Also, a problem with changing the emit multiplier is that it will make the shells glow in very dark interiors. This is how the glowy dots on the ironsights work on guns like the hunting rifle. Although they are set to 4 or 5 on the emit multiplier.

Thanks a ton guys. The scripts work great, with the exception of the new shells don't eject if you load the game into an interior from the main menu or load menu. Instead it still ejects the "exterior" shells. It fixes itself once you leave the current interior and enter a new one. However, messing around with the textures a bit, and I can tell that this is not something that can be fixed by simply editing the textures. I think it has to be an engine/lighting problem. It's almost liike he ejected shells don't receive environment lighting from interior cells or something. It is interesting to note that the ejected shells look great when illuminated by muzzle flash. But they don't appear to be affected by interior light sources. Except maybe if the interior has some ambient light level, it receives that (not sure if that's possible or makes sense). It can't be anything in the nif because the material data is virtually the same as in the weapon nif. Some screenshots of the script-replaced shells with significantly brighter diffuse and spec maps: https://i.imgur.com/RLGxnqh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/crv6cCm.jpg https://i.imgur.com/wA1Sp8h.jpg

Alright, so this script will only work for this weapon mod, right? If I want these spent shells to work on all vanilla 12ga shotguns, each weapon would require its own script? And if I wanted them to work on other 12ga shotgun mods, I would have to make a patch for each one yes? What happens when I have 20 scripts running each time I enter an interior cell to check if I have a particular weapon equipped? And yeah I have the very basics of scripting down, it's just that if I ever wanted to actually script something besides injecting stuff into formlists I'd be lost. I'm more adept at the art side of modding and not the technical side.

3 nifs actually. One for the main weapon model. One for the live shells. And one for the spent shells. The live shells will never actually leave the weapon, the script I was talking about earlier during the firing animation will be essentially hiding the shells as they revolve around and are fired. I can't really explain any further. If you want to know more about this in particular you should message Asurah, she is the one that will be doing the animations and relevant scripting for me.

So if I'm understanding right, this would require two different nifs, and two different sets of textures, one adjusted for outdoor lighting, and one for indoor? The extend of my knowledge of GECK scripting is simply injecting my weapon IDs into vender, perk, repair, and other form lists. Also, this mod will technically be in the 2handHandle animation slot, since that's the only anim set that has free space to make new custom animations, or least that's how it was explained to me. And it will NOT be fully automatic. Animation restrictions force me to use semi auto. The Attack Loop anim simply doesn't have enough frames to fit this animation into it.