Jump to content

DiodeLadder

Supporter
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    324

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by DiodeLadder

  1. DiodeLadder
    aurreth, this actually would not be the case, since PreVis won't do any culling without data. Having some files in those folders that don't correspond to current state of the game with all mods loaded - that would cause void / badly culled objects. OP needs to see which mods installed PreComb + PreVis, and decide which ones to keep. In any case, OP, install mods one at a time. It's much easier to troubleshoot these things that way.
  2. DiodeLadder
    What did the Vis and PreCombined folders contain? The folders inside should tell you which .esp are using them (check the folder names). Deleting them would mean the optimization put in by those mods would be removed. You'd need to decide if those mods are working for you or not. If the answer is no, you can delete them. The game would just revert to its original state.
  3. DiodeLadder
    Do you have anything in the "Vis" folder inside of Fallout 4 / Data? If your "Vis" folder has something in it, try to move everything out temporarily, just to see if your problem goes away. (The content in Vis folder is "Visibility" data. You might have some leftover data from removing a mod - removing a .esp only won't fix this problem.) Your problem reminds me of what happened when I generated visibility without knowing what it actually does (lol).
  4. DiodeLadder
    Hello SynthWendigo, Try lowering the Aggression level in AI data to "unaggressive" if you haven't. "Very Aggressive" will make the NPC to shoot on sight.
  5. DiodeLadder
    Hello uysiorly, Before getting into finding conflicts, have you tried running the game in borderless windowed mode? I used to get frequent random crashes even with vanilla setup, but using borderless windowed mode stopped my problem completely. If you haven't, it might be worth a try. About "moving between places" and "fast traveling" - these things will load new areas (in exterior space, crossing cell borders will cause new cells to be loaded in the background), and the game can crash during loading (bad assets, referencing deleted refs, etc.). If it is reproduceable by going to the same spot, that's highly likely the mod using that area causing the problem. I would suggest cutting down on how many mods you use at first, though. It's much easier to troubleshoot if you start small and add mods one by one. The vanilla game isn't as bad as some people say IMO.
  6. DiodeLadder
    Hello Sammy, What you need to do is to create a high poly mesh (which is your original sculpture with details), and a low poly mesh (what you use in game engine). You need to bake a normal map to put the details on your low poly mesh (this should look more or less identical to your high poly). I always use Marmoset Toolbag 3 for baking, so I don't remember how to bake in Blender anymore. Blender is using OpenGL for normal map polarity, and you would need to flip the green channel to make it compatible with DirectX format.
  7. DiodeLadder
    I think it should be noted that it takes more skill to create an appropriation of something than just replicating something 1:1. 1:1 real life references exist, and working with that is very simple. To shrink something down, you need eyes for understanding the essence of the subject, and then translate it in a way it can be communicated to the audience. I myself actually think the scales in Fallout 4 didn't work out, though, and I'm not disagreeing with your points. What I wanted to say was that treating them with more respect may offer you an insight to what may happen in development of a game, mistakes included. About shrinking down the interiors - you might be a completely left-brain person and don't think the way I do, but I think architectures tell stories. For example, the size of Dragonsreach in Whiterun in Skyrim is meant to communicate how important and powerful the Jarl is to the city. If you shrink down the castle interior proportionately to the building shell, you'd probably end up with a less interesting dude in an armchair. I think this kind of thinking can improve what you want to express in some cases. There is one game that does the fully 1:1 size for everything. Arkane Studio's Prey did all the interior matching up 100 % in the space station Talos One. It's only about 830 m long, but it feels huge in game. That's definitely one way to do something, but I don't think you could do it as easily in open world games without sacrificing game pacing. (Prey is an amazing game, by the way. One of the best immersive sim out there IMO.) Personally, I think Fallout 3 and NV assets felt better proportion-wise than the uniform Fallout 4 modular kit. Of course, Bethesda had to sacrifice flexibility and varieties, but those older assets felt more relatable to me. Just trying to offer different perspectives. :happy: (You know what's the most un-immersive thing in Diamond City? Nat says the motor on the printing press would burn out from printing so many copy of their newspaper, but the printing press itself is HAND CRANKED. :laugh: )
  8. DiodeLadder
    The building shells are about 30% smaller than they should be in general for the entire game, I think. It's what we have to work with, unfortunately. I think the worldspace map was shrunk down to accommodate the kind of pacing they wanted for gameplay, and also the amount of contents they could create in the given time frame. In Fallout 4, there'd constantly be something to look at or get involved in, and I think that's why people are still playing it. It is easy to take a look at just one element of the game and say how bad it is, etc., but Bethesda people have way more experience than we do, and thinking in a way we can learn something from their work would probably be more beneficial.
  9. DiodeLadder
    Emil Pagliarulo (director) was saying that the original plan was to do it without a separate worldspace, but they had to isolate the location because of enemy sandboxing in the area. Super Mutants and Raiders are very close to the location, and combat situations can easily spread to the Town while important events / dialogues are going on. I think also that they did this to deal with loading time when going in/out of interior locations like Hotel Rexford, Memory Den, etc.. If they used the same worldspace, coming out of these interior locations would take very long. This loading time issue in particular is a huge problem for my WIP project. :confused:
  10. DiodeLadder
    The "200 years" thing comes from following Fallout 2 which happened in 2241, and Van Buren was supposed to be in 2253. Bethesda probably thought 2277 was a good number for Fallout 3 because that was in line with previous Fallout. Also, Diamond City looked like this in Bethesda's concept art : ...So I don't think they were thinking to go all-out hobo fest in Fallout 4. :tongue: I think what happened in Fallout 4 had a lot to do with their constraints. It looks to me like they had to make assets designed for destroyed areas to be also used for inhabited areas, to save time (and probably to save on disk usage as well), and work things out around that limitation. Personally, I find the 200 years of cultural void / no progress to be very difficult to work with. :confused:
  11. DiodeLadder
    So xEdit does load the local language strings then. Looks like I remembered it wrong - I'm sorry about that. It's been some time since I've switched to English version here. It's odd that the local language strings exist for these texts that won't even show in game, like you said. Hopefully someone with a better insight would chime in.
  12. DiodeLadder
    That's strange - the local strings shouldn't come up in xEdit. I used to work with the French version of Fallout 4, and the Bethesda ESM were all in English. I don't know what is going on there...
  13. DiodeLadder
    Hello there, I am pretty sure all the Bethesda .esm files are in English, and local language text loads as overrides in game (they should be in "Strings" folder in the Main.ba2). Your .esp will be in whatever language you write in, but CK will always load in English. You don't need to install the English version of game and remake your mod, in other words. :smile:
  14. DiodeLadder
    Yeah, people routinely diss CK around here, but I think it has a quite robust engine for handling narrative adventure contents. If you look at Obsidian's The Outer Worlds (UE4), for example, NPCs are really damned stiff, and town locations feel completely dead. It looks like doing what Bethesda had developed over many years in another engine won't be simple, even for professionals. About your large worldspace - If you have a "Chapter 1" type content that takes place in a smaller area, I'd suggest just working on that part, as a starter. If you are familiar with older BioWare games, they used to always have a starting area that is separate from the main parts. I think this kind of small area can be a good place to test your ideas, before you work on the bigger parts. Also, accepting limitations isn't a bad thing. I think creating good contents for a small area can actually be very challenging. :tongue:
  15. DiodeLadder
    Ah, I'm sorry. I'm sure you know your project well, and I should have focused on helping you instead. About working with other engines - I don't know how important it is for you to have : - Story contents / quests - NPC interactions, branching dialogues - inventory management / merchant menu - Perk system - Systemic interactions between factions ...but these things you may take for granted in CK can be a real pain to implement well from scratch in other engines. If you are doing shooter centric game that has little story contents, you might not have much issues going with a blank state engine. If you have non-linear narratives like in Fallout 4, you will have to build that system from ground up. I don't think it will be easy to do this for a first timer. Even in well funded AAA games, NPC interactions can be really stiff, so I'd assume this part is more difficult to do than it may appear. On the other hand, there's this game called "Bright Memory" made in Unreal Engine 4 by one Chinese guy (FPS / hack n slash / open world). So doing a great looking FPS game like this by yourself may not be impossible. I'd highly doubt that you can get that far in your first project, but just as a successful (but rare) example. I think the easiest part of your project will be working on the map and the assets. If you have any narrative contents, I'd suggest nailing down that part first, because it will give you clear direction for your project, and end goal. (This is from my personal experience. I've wasted a lot of time getting carried away doing pointless stuff here.) Good luck with your project. :smile:
  16. DiodeLadder
    Hello there, The game you are planning on making (3750 km2) is bigger than Assassin's Creed Odyssey (130 Km2). Games are rarely made in real life scales. You probably are thinking about a real life area size as a reference for your goal, but you may want to think about scaling it down to make it work as a game.
  17. DiodeLadder
    BC7 is what I use for my own projects. Bethesda formats are : _d = BC1 (without Alpha), BC3 (with Alpha) I believe HD texture pack uses BC3 for all diffuse maps. _n = BC5 (only Red and Green channels used, blue is empty) _s = BC5 (Red channel = Specular, Green channel = Gloss) _g = BC1 (maybe BC3 used on some assets, too, I don't remember) I'm pretty sure Bethesda used Elric and processed things in batches from .TGA format (I think Microsoft's texconv.exe does the actual encoding, and Elric is just a UI). The real issue I had with the NVIDIA plugin was that when importing Bethesda normal maps, it would add the blue channel automatically, and somehow adds something else in the process. Normal maps imported using this plugin always looked wrong to me. I remember an LOD tutorial on YouTube was using the NVIDIA plugin and the textures offered for download had the same issue. Basically what happens is that direction of the light hitting the asset would look wrong (it's not simple matter of flipping the green channel like with OpenGL - DirectX conversion, either). My solution was to just avoid using that plugin. It may have been due to my misuse of the plugin, though, so I didn't mention it in my last post. (When opened, Bethesda normal maps should look yellow-ish, because they contain no Blue channel. I assume this was done to save the file size when packed into .ba2 archive.) Anyway, here are some assets I've created from scratch, with BC7 textures applied. (Guns) https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/34555/34555-1608719158-483950534.png (Kitchen furniture, floor) https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/1151/images/34555/34555-1613887280-1319527751.png I think BC7 looks cleaner and sharper in general (less noisy), especially when zoomed out. They tend to pop out better IMO. I'm sorry, this is way off topic. Hopefully someone would find the info useful, though. :tongue:
  18. DiodeLadder
    .DDS format is part of DrectX, so VS can open it natively, I think. Or maybe it is because I have the Unreal + Unity package for VS installed? I don't have anything else that can open .DDS in BC7 on my system, so this is the one I use to preview and convert those files. The reason I stuck with it is that I was having problems importing with the old NVIDIA plugin for old Photoshop. GIMP didn't support BC7 back then, and VS was unexpectedly useful for converting .DDS files to .png to work on retexturing in Substance Painter. I use Elric for converting .TGA files to .DDS, so I don't really need an image editor with .DDS support at the moment.
  19. DiodeLadder
    Ah, I see. I'm sure you have put more thoughts into your posts than I have in my late night post. I'm sorry that I came a bit heavy handed in my tone in any case! I am still in the camp for separating the mesh, and have a different texture for the ceiling, though. Having the ceiling in darker color to make it less prominent can make the corridor feel more spacious. By the way, you can actually have a texture file formatted like this : This is Bethesda's asset, so the vertically long texture works in engine. This sort of format might be useful if the asset is meant to have wraparound wall/ceiling texture. Bethesda's concrete interior wall texture is double height as well, if I remember it correctly. Anyway, sorry about disturbing your discussion. :tongue:
  20. DiodeLadder
    Hello guys, You really wouldn't want to do UV this way. The ceiling should have smooth shading (as opposed to "flat shading" seen here), so that the hard geometry would look like curved, and this part should be a separate island (the normal should split at where the wall and the ceiling meets). Also, mirroring in the middle like this would cause the "bufferfly" looking pattern to be visible near the seam. I think the ceiling as a whole should be one island, and not mirrored. Another thing to consider is that, if you are using the Bethesda textures, many of the walls would tile horizontally, but not vertically (because of dirt and such, like the concrete wall texture which has dripping dirt). The bottom of the floor should match the bottom of the texture in this case. I know it is a very unpopular opinion around here, but I think looking at how Bethesda did UVs helps a lot. Or, at least I've learned a lot from their work (like, how mirroring should be done, or using UV coordinates outside of the first tile for baking the mirrored/stacked UV, etc., those tricks are essentials you won't learn from online tutorials.) Anyway, I'm in the camp who would separate the mesh and use different materials for Floor + Walls + Ceiling. Ronin, the "weird texturing Bethesda does" which you've mentioned earlier in the thread is called "trim sheet texture". Here are couple of videos that explains how it's done : Here's an add-on to help creating trim textures in Blender : https://razed.gumroad.com/l/grabdoc Anyway, for doing textures, I'd highly recommend getting Substance Painter + Designer on Steam, while you still can purchase the perpetual license. Here's a board-formed concrete wall texture I've made in Substance Designer : It has tools to make tile-able materials from scratch using nodes and procedural masks. I'm not going to say it's easy to use, but once you "get it", you can do a lot of things with it even at entry level (which is where I'm at). Anyway good luck with your project! :smile:
  21. DiodeLadder
    Well, I have been working on a project taking place in North End for some time, which is the Little Italy part of Boston, and the fight against Triggerman is the major part of my project. You can read about it here (I start with the new gun assets I'm making, but if you scroll way down, I explain the project more) : https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/images/203385/?force_view=1 It's my very long term project, so it won't be out any time soon. It's a fairly small project compared to the big DLC sized ones out there, but I'll have a lot of brand new assets made for this, so that this addition will be a fresh experience. Basically what I'm aiming for is to have a new town location in Skyrim fashion, meaning a town location with a distinct culture/history, local stories, and a local faction you can join and help. ...Not sure if it's something you had in mind, but just thought I'd throw it in. :smile:
  22. DiodeLadder
    Well, the post I've read was from 4-5 years ago, and I don't remember the name of the thread. What I have read was that the coordinates you can use for object refs have a clipping point, and when you go over that, weird things happen, like those refs getting thrown back to 0, 0. Maybe if you do searches, something would come up, but I don't think there was any elaborate research, or concrete info to chew on in the post I saw. I thought I'd post in case it was relevant, but honestly, I'm not sure.
  23. DiodeLadder
    Hello Andyno, I remember reading around here that is what happens when you place object refs outside of usable coordinates, but it's not something I've seen myself because I wouldn't build anything that large. Are you building a worldspace bigger than the ones in vanilla game?
  24. DiodeLadder
    Ah, thanks Zokaz! I couldn't remember what it was called (GSMirageEffect01 in MovableStatic folder). It really depends on the NIF: Thanks niston, I didn't even know this feature existed. :laugh: So I guess the "depth" is BSMultiBoundOBB - Size - Z amount? This should come in very handy. I don't know why Bethesda didn't make this adjustable directly in CK, though. Ugh. rogierthe20, I think the video you posted is using this Mirage effect + bubbles + DLC03 fish, and the water surface seen from interior looks to be upside down somehow. You can also see the sky from interior below water surface. The way water surface looks change as soon as the player is actually inside water, so I think whatever is happening when player is interior is separate from the actual water effect. I guess from the interior, you can fake the water effect outside with MovableStatic objects, and for the exterior water, you could use the depth specified water Nif to punch a hole in the water volume for your building.
  25. DiodeLadder
    The Weston plant is just using the water plane with "movable" keyword, if I remember correctly. The box primitives are probably related to camera effects, acoustic space, and quest related stuff. I'm pretty sure the moving water script is on the master water plane object. I think Creation Engine just assumes whatever is under the water plane is water, and applies water effect (camera effect, physics, and movement mechanics) if the player is under the water plane. If you are looking for "underwater seen from dry interior window" kind of effect, you could use the animated rising air bubbles and maybe the "heated air bending the light" effect (I think there is a movable static for it), and fake the impression outside the window. Also use "caustic" variation of light objects to get the water effect. Sometime ago, I've tested building a small aquarium with just rising bubbles and swimming fishes to give an impression of the other side of the window being filled with water (without actually using water), and I thought it looked okay.
×
×
  • Create New...