danielmzbr

Cool, thank you kitcat81! Since I plan doing this on a lot of objects, it's important for me to understand that naming thing beforehand. Imagine if I had to change all the node's names later on, with dozens of objects. And I'm glad this helped you too. Being able to sink objects partially into the ground helps them blend a bit better with the environment imo. Cheers!

Hey again, I followed your directions and it worked :smile: At first, objects were invisible and couldn't be placed in-game, but I learned that it was because I didn't have my game properly setup to load loose files. All I had to do was add a few lines to my Fallout 4 .ini files (the "fix" can be found here). http://i.imgur.com/OAJAPUz.jpg I'd just like to share how I've done it, step by step, so people have an extra reference on how to achieve this. Just please note that since I'm still learning, there may be important steps I missed. If that's the case, please, veterans, let me know and I'll edit this reply with the necessary corrections. Solution I'll use the object pictured above as an example, FiddersGreenSign01.nif. It should work for other .nif files. 1 - Make a copy of FiddersGreenSign01.nif and rename it to workshop_FiddersGreenSign01.nif (exact name is optional). 2 - Make sure to place the copied file in your /Fallout 4/Data/Meshes/ folder.* 3 - Open workshop_FiddersGreenSign01.nif with Nifskope. 4 - In the Block List tab, right-click "0 NiNode", go for Node, then click Attach Extra Data. 5 - Select BSConnectPoint::Parents from the list that shows up. 6 - Select your new BSConnectPoint::Parents line, then in its Block Details right-click the line called "Name" and select Edit String Index. 7 - Type "CPA" (without quotes) and hit OK. 8 - On the second line, "Num Connect Points", right-click the value column, type 1 and hit Enter. 9 - On the next line, "Connect Points", click the double green arrows OR right-click the line, go for Array and select Update. It does the same thing. 10 - Expand the "Connect Points" line, then double-click the Value column for the "Parents" line and type "WorkshopConnectPoints" (without quotes) and hit Enter. 11 - Double-click the next line's, "Name", Value column, type "P-WS-SinkMax" (without quotes) and hit Enter. 12 - Double-click the "Translation" line's Value column and adjust the Z axis value. The object will be able to be placed into the ground up to this point. 13 - Double-click the "Scale" line's Value column and set it to 1. 14 - Back on the Block List, right-click the blank area, then go for Sanitize and click Reorder Blocks. 15 - Save your file. From there on, you have to setup a Static Object (using the .nif file you just modified as its model) and its respective Constructible Object, which can be done in Creation Kit. People who don't know how to add new objects to the workshop will find a good starting point in this tutorial by Seddon4494. Extra question - Since I've used and modified a copy of a vanilla mesh, when I look at the new one in Nifskope, I notice there are some lines that still have their original names. Should I change that to match my modified filename, and how do I do that? Thanks a lot! Any feedback is appreciated.

Great, I'll start studying from there then. I gave the link a quick look and it seems it'll help me a lot, and not just with this specific topic, but rather on understanding even* better how mesh properties work. Thank you very much for the fast response and help! Regards.

Nice, I'll give it a try. Thanks a lot! Edit for quick question: how are these snap-points created? Can I make them directlly on Nifskope or they have to be done in a 3D modelling software?

Hey there! In vanilla Fallout 4, there are objects that "ignore" terrain collision and can be placed (partially) into to the ground in workshop mode. Is it possible to replicate that on custom objects? How? http://i.imgur.com/kzI73KY.jpg Details The object pictured above is a static called "Shack Foundation" (workshop_ShackMidFloor01Foundation02), created by its respective constructible object (workshop_co_ShackWoodFoundation02). In Creation Kit, I've tried adding its same actor values (WorkshopItemOverlap=8; WorkshopPlacementAllowWater=1; WorkshopStackableItem=1) to a custom static object to see if it would clip through the ground in workshop mode, but it didn't work (image). I've also tried messing around with other actor values, including various combinations of "WorkshopOverride...XYZ...MinMax...Bounds" values, but I had no success so far. My noob guess is: whatever it is that makes a buildable object to ignore terrain collision either comes from its 3D mesh properties (from a modelling software, from Nifskope, etc) or it's hardcoded somewhere/somehow. Or maybe both... There is also a chance that I simply did something wrong in Creation Kit, but then again, what directions should I follow to understand and achieve this in a mod? Any help is really appreciated. Thanks a lot!

Yeah, that's it. I just needed a way to check if previs/precombined meshes are behaving like expected (if the right cells have them disabled and the others don't, stuff like that). I remember that Source Engine/Left4Dead2 would let you visualize in-game a lot of what was going on under the hood via console commands, would be great to have something like that in this game too. Stuff like visibility, nav meshes, plus lots of data were rendered/displayed in real time, in-engine, so you could diagnose your map/mod, etc. Anyway, thank you very much!

That's good to know, man, can't thank you enough! And I'll certainly keep that * piece of advice in mind in case I ever mod interior cells. Edit in time: Is there any way to visualize how precombined meshes and visibility are working in-game? Like a debug mode, or a console command?

Using Scrap Everything to compare results and reading more about the subject, I did a lot of testing and here's what I got. First, "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" seems to work just as it states: it literally wipes all precombined meshes and visibility data from every cell containing a reference of the object you used it on. So when you right-click a given object in Creation Kit and use this option, then you look for the affected cells' data in FO4Edit, you get the following changes (in my tests, I used it on TreeSapling04, a static): - All values for "VISI - PreVis Files Timestamp", "RVIS - In PreVis File Of" and "PCMB - PreCombined Files Timestamp" are removed. (image 1) - All combined meshes for "XCRI - Combined References" and each and every reference are removed, regardless if they were related to the object you used it on or not. (image 2) - Physics data is not removed, as long as the object doesn't involve them. If you use it on an object which is not a simple static, it'll probably remove this too. - The Data Size value of the affected cell is reduced. Doing so does allows you to scrap objects as long as you set up their respective Constructible Object and FormList in the Creation Kit (here's what I did for TreeSapling04) but at the cost of wiping precombined and visibility data from all cells containg it, even ones where you won't be doing any scrapping at all. In my case, using the option on TreeSapling04 was enough to obliterate precombined meshes and visibility data of over 250 cells across the Commonwealth. That's a lot of "deoptimized" cells and that's for a single object; imagine when you start adding more stuff to your scrap list. In short: "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" does get the job done, but goes way beyond what you really need to enable scrapping on vanilla settlements. To minimize precombined and visibility data removal, you can go with the Scrap Everything approach. You remove data only from the cells that really involve scrapping, and you do it directly on FO4Edit. It's more work because you'll need to identify the exact cells and do it "by hand", but worth it as it is expected to cause less impact on performance. Gameplay-wise, I can't say if it has any negative effects, but I can say FO4Edit showed me no critical conflicts while doing it. And finally, I can't predict how it affects mod compatibility since I'm really new to all of this, but from what I've read, it potentially does. Take this all into account when you're trying to create your own "scrap list". I ended up with a customized version of what Scrap Everything does, which is nice and pretty much sums it up for me. Doing anything other than that is beyond my knowledge at the moment. Anyway, thanks a ton, VlitS, for your input (the cell naming tip helped me a lot to understand the whole thing in FO4Edit). I hope this helps other people as well, so I'll leave some additional reads about the subject. - Edits to *ANY* Cell Records Can Block Mesh Overrides - Precombined References - [Fo4]What is the progress on the Pre-combined mesh issue created by editing a cell? Additional thoughts or findings are always appreciated, and I'll probably report back if I have any new info. Best regards.

I'm on the same boat as you, but with a couple of days of headstart. As a noob trying to learn modding, I'd say one thing that is helping me is trying to reverse-engineer stuff. If you want to do something, search for original stuff that is similar to it and try to start from there - be it scripts or Creation Kit stuff. You'll start noticing patterns and common rules, even if you are not familiarized with them yet. That is, of course, in addition to watching/reading tutorials, searching google and looking/asking for info on the forums. Good luck! *Edit grammar

Sounds like a good call and I'll certainly give it a try. If all I need to enable scrapping* is clearing precombine data on specific cells (settlement cells in this case, the ones where I'll actually scrap stuff), then clearing it for so many other cells is really overkill. And I bet 99% of the worldspace's cells uses the items I'm making scrapable by using "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" on them. I didn't notice any major performance hit or bug so far, and I tested it with Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch on. But as you said, it's messy to say the least, and I'd like to make it as clean as possible. Anyway, I'll report back with any new findings. Only thing I'm still not 100% sure is how "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" works. Does it literally wipe all the PreCombine data from cells containing the object I used it on? Or does it just rules that specific object out of the PreCombine generation? I noticed that in my game folder, in Data > Meshes > PreCombined, there are 79 visible .NIF files all marked as modified today, at the time I last tested it. Any thoughts on this? Thanks again! *In addition to setting up a respective constructible object, formlist, etc.

Glad to know this helped you too. If you find any issues (be it about performance, gameplay, compability, etc), or find anything noteworthy while using "Clear Affected Cells For Precombine Data" to enable scrap, please post it here, if possible. I'll do it as well. For now, it seems like it's working with no problems, and as VlitS said on #2, it shouldn't cause any performance issues. Quick question remais, just so ourselves and future readers can understand it better: How exactly does "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" work? Last but not least, I forgot to link the tutorials I mentioned. Here they go, for reference: Fallout 4 Creation Kit Tutorial (part 9) (Adding items to scrap list) by FelloutIsLife Making an item scrap-able in game from creation kit answer by WallaceMacDuich Fallout 4 Creation Kit Tutorial - How to make scrapable objects #1 by Ray

That's good to know, thank you, sir. I feared that using the "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" option would also mess with performance, although not globally as using the .ini file command. There are bushes and shrubs everywhere after all, and the majority of the world's cells seemed to be "affected" in-editor (though I don't know exactly how). One quick extra question: How exactly does "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" work? For future reference, this is what the Creation Kit's Precombine Options page have to say about that option: "Replacing NIFs When a NIF is changed out from under an existing reference, that reference doesn't know it was changed, so precombination isn't disabled. Poking that reference, or any other combined reference in the cell, to get it into the plugin will disable precombined data though, and when the game tries to load the actual 3D for the reference, the game finds the new model and loads that model correctly. For similar changes to base objects, there is a Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data option in the Object Window right-click menu that should wipe the combined data from any cell containing that base object." And these are the .ini file lines that were mentioned: [General] bUseCombinedObjects=0 bPreCulledObjectsEnabled=0 I'll keep working on the mod, again thanks a lot!

Hey there, short-version of the problem/question upfront: I'm trying to create a mod that allows me to scrap a few selected objects (mostly bushes and shrubs) while in workshop mode, among other things. The problem is it only worked in-game after I used the "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" option on each static object that I included in the list. Am I good to go or it will mess performance/gameplay? Detailed version: I've watched a few tutorials about making objects "scrapabble" in the workshop and decided to give it a try. This is how I done it (I'm using only Bethesda.net Creation Kit + Steam to launch the game and test the mod) 1 - Created a FormList with the ID "workshopScrapRecipe_ScrapFoliage" 2 - Added some objects to it by dragging them from the World Objects list (all of them are the statics, no REFRs) 3 - Created a Constructible Object with the ID "workshop_co_ScrapFoliage" 4 - In the Constructible Object window, I added the keyword "WorkshopRecipeFilterScrap" and set "workshopScrapRecipe_ScrapFoliage" as the Created Object. 5 - Added c_Wood_scrap as its component (by draging it directly from the item list and setting the quantity). 6 - Saved the file, launched Fallout 4 on Steam, enabled the mod via in-game menu and.... nada. Nothing. It simply wouldn't work. I followed the tutorials to the letter before doing what I described above, and tried it many times, with different objects, slighly different ID/names (like "workshopscrapreciper_scrap_scrapX", for example) but it just didn't work. So I read about the "Clear Affected Cells For PreCombine Data" option and decided to use it (you just have to right click the object in the main list, find the option and click it). I used it on every object that I had previously added to the FormList, saved the file again and launched the game. This time it worked. Don't ask me why, but just like that I can now scrap the selected brushes and shrubs in my settlement via workshop mode. I'd be happy with the result but I read somewhere that tinkering with precombine stuff (and visibility overall) may lead to seriously bad issues, both on performance and gameplay. So I would like to ask for some help here. Should I proceed the way it is, if it worked for me? Did I do something wrong along the way (before "Clear Affected Cells...")? Is there any other way to do it? Well, any thoughts are really apreciated, hope this also helps other people who have simillar issues. Thanks a lot!