Undo previsibine breaking done by another mod

[pra]

The "restore precombines" script is pretty much finished. Seems to work so far. You can select masters, a target file, and it will then look if any files except these do any changes to the cells you run it on, and undoes them.

It undoes the changes to the cell itself, to anything referenced within the precombined references, anything refenced within that physics area, landscape changes, and even the actual files, if any.

 

It's the landscape part which makes me wonder, though: is that thing even used in previs or precombines? I have the feeling the precombines don't care about the terrain, and have no clue about previs. Does anyone know this?

 

Edit: I published the script now: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/28898

The information about the landscape was mostly for the documentation, I just put in that I have no clue whenever it affects the previsibines for now.

[PJMail]

I think you are correct as precombines are only composed of referenced statics (including SCOLs), and previs is constructed from precombines (only). This implies previsbines ignores landscape (terrain) records. The important thing to remember is my point about previs - it must 100% match ALL the precombine meshes in the 9 cells a previs (uvd) file covers. Just one changed/rebuilt precombine mesh causes visibility issues. Does your script look at this? You mention 'files' (I am away so can't try your script). I would LOVE a script that could (at least) tell me 'this mod has broken visibility in these cells'. Unfortunately making no changes to a Cell, but rebuilding precombines in it, can break visibility - so just looking at cell changes is not enough. Edited September 10, 2022 by PJMail

[niston]

I will leave this here:

 

- Took Greekrage's Fort Hagen Is Alive mod

- Did some slight changes to the landscape directly in the mod

- Made a Patch for Boston Natural Surroundings for it

- The patch moves trees and does nothing else

- As soon as patch was loaded, landscape reverted to vanilla and stuff removed by the mod came back

- To fix it, I had to:

 

-- Remove XPRI/XCRI records from the Patch

-- Check "No Previs" flag for the cells affected by the Patch, in the Patch

-- The landscape would revert to vanilla unless I deleted XPRI/XCRI, the "No Previs" flag made removed stuff not coming back.

 

The same thing just happened the other day when I was working on a mod for that power station next to County Crossing.

Made a BNS patch that does nothing but move some trees, landscape was reverted and stuff removed by the power station mod came back.

Solution was the same.

 

 

This has me thinking there is a bug in how the game handles disabling of precombines when a mod changes something in a cell.

Namely, another mod is loaded afterwards that changes the same cell, the game "forgets" that it needs to disable precomb/previs for that cell.

[PJMail]

Hi niston - are you sure the VC1 info on the changed refr's wasn't causing this issue? CK and xedit seem to handle that field differently. Not sure what you used for the patch. Can't imagine the 'rule of 1' isn't being followed.

[niston]

I made the patch using CK (with CK fixes) with both my Mod and BNS loaded, so I could actually see where to move the trees :smile:

Then I cleaned the patch in xEdit, ofc.

 

It touches no Refs but 14 trees that BNS placed in the area.

Loading it brought back, for example, the wrecked truck that's there and which my mod removes. But the patch doesn't touch that truck ofc.

 

Now that we're speaking about it, a user reported similar happenings with the Operations interior my Forest Grove Waterlock mod.

They would get back everything I removed from that cell (the broken terminal, for example), superimposed on what I placed there instead (new terminal).

They swore xEdit showd no conflicts for the cell and, after checking the mod in CK, couldn't explain it either.

[PJMail]

I am clearly missing something as you know far more than me, but what you describe sounds exactly like what happens when you have a mod that breaks precombines (moves/deletes precombined statics) but works because it relies on the game noticing this and disabling precombines in that Cell. Then a later mod comes along and updates that Cell's precombine date (PRP does this all the time to me) - so that now the game thinks precombines are not broken (cell date is later than all the Refr vc1 dates) so enables precombines which shows the original objects - not the moved/deleted ones. Edited September 14, 2022 by PJMail

[PJMail]

Another situation it would be nice to have a detection script for. Though I don't think it would be possible (except perhaps one that just says 'this mod breaks precombines')

[PJMail]

Someone has mentioned that landscape are static meshes so also included in precombines. I can't confirm or deny this, though it seems odd as they are not listed with the rest of the precombine statics in the CELL record. I would not put it past Bethesda to be inconsistent though.

[niston]

Pra linked a wiki page the other day that said changing the landscape disables precombines.

[PJMail]

Interesting - I suppose it is logical as the landscape record is a big list of vertexes so can be considered a static mesh itself.

I gather then that the 'disable precombines' detection works the same way for it (compare it's VC1 date to the CELL's).

Live and learn.