Newbie Questions

[spyhunter2009]

I have been playing around with the GECK and other tools and believe I have the basics covered. But how do I do the following - just need someone to point me in the right direction please;

 

1) How do I create my own Object Paletters - What I mean is import various objects from other palettes and/or create own objects (non Fallout 3)

 

2) How do you create NIF objects?

 

3) Is there a way to merge the esp files into one esp or esm file?

 

4) Following on from Q3 above, how do you create a master (esm) file?

 

5) How do I change the menus/loading screens, etc - where are these located?

 

6) How do I add NPC or item user input choices? How and where please?

 

7) What programs do I sue to create my own corridors, halls, etc (objects within the main FO3 GECK window)

 

 

Thanks,

Neil

[TheChan]

I have been playing around with the GECK and other tools and believe I have the basics covered. But how do I do the following - just need someone to point me in the right direction please;

 

1) How do I create my own Object Paletters - What I mean is import various objects from other palettes and/or create own objects (non Fallout 3) You must convert them into .nif files and then use Nifskope to properly edit them for Fallout. FYI:Distributing mods using models from other games is illegal.

 

2) How do you create NIF objects? There are several 3d modeling programs that you can use. Once you make and export your model, you must use Nifskope to edit it to work in GECK, which can be a pain in the ass.

 

3) Is there a way to merge the esp files into one esp or esm file? Fallout Mod Manager I believe.

 

4) Following on from Q3 above, how do you create a master (esm) file? Again, Fallout Mod Manager.

 

5) How do I change the menus/loading screens, etc - where are these located? If you mean changing them aesthetically, you must edit the .dds files located in Program Files->Fallout 3->Data->Textures in Photoshop after you've extracted them. I'm pretty sure the Fallout Mod Manager can extract .bsa files.

 

6) How do I add NPC or item user input choices? How and where please? Not sure.

 

7) What programs do I sue to create my own corridors, halls, etc (objects within the main FO3 GECK window) Not sure what you mean here. Create new pieces or create new dungeons and stuff? If the latter, I suggest looking at GECK layout tuts on Youtube.

 

 

Thanks,

Neil

[spyhunter2009]

Thanks for your comments.

 

(1) You must convert them into .nif files and then use Nifskope to properly edit them for Fallout.

What programs are good for creating NIF models?

 

6) How do I add NPC or item user input choices? How and where please?

Anyone got any comments on this please?

 

7) What programs do I sue to create my own corridors, halls, etc (objects within the main FO3 GECK window)

I mean the actual corridor objects - I assume thesea re NIF objects as well - but how do I import into the list like the other stuff is shown, and not via Object Browser.

 

 

Thanks.

[Pronam]

What programs are good for creating NIF models?

3dsmax/maya..but those have to payed for...hard..Blender/gmax are free. The free programs are a bit harder to work off, but you'll not be able to pull something good off in a while anyway. It'll take a lot of time to learn to work with these programs. Luckily there are some tutorials around that decrease that time.

 

6) How do I add NPC or item user input choices? How and where please?

What do you mean? Dialogue and messages or...?

[spammster]

1) How do I create my own Object Paletters - What I mean is import various objects from other palettes and/or create own objects (non Fallout 3)

 

if you just want to include objects that are already listed in the geck, open the object palette, click on new and then just drag and drop the ones you want (don't forget to save it once you added all, or you gotta do that again when you load geck again).

 

 

2) How do you create NIF objects?

 

as mentioned, you shall require 3D editing software: which would be Maya or 3DSmax (and yes these are expensive, though I'm pretty certain you can get trials for these) as a free alternative you got Blender (which if you go free you should pick, because it comes with plugins for F3, making the importing less annoying), however you get what you pay for, Maya and 3DSmax are professional tools, which are easier to understand and can do more but charge for it and they charge you good. blender is hard to learn and has less functions but is free

 

3) Is there a way to merge the esp files into one esp or esm file?

 

FOMM

 

4) Following on from Q3 above, how do you create a master (esm) file?

 

FOMM

 

5) How do I change the menus/loading screens, etc - where are these located?

 

as mentioned you will need Adobe Photoshop and the Nvidia DDS filter, which allow the direct editing and saving of DDS files in Photoshop, location has already been given

 

6) How do I add NPC or item user input choices? How and where please?

 

not entirely sure what you want, if you wanna place a new NPC somewhere, just duplicate an existing one from Actors-> NPC and place it in the cell you want it to be (there are generic profiles, which work well, cause you can easily modify them to look unique and they don't use any scripts).

for items: just drop the items in their inventory (double click the NPC or select it in the list and right click edit -> click on Edit base -> go to the inventory tab, you can place everything you want on them (if you add clothing, you can use a generic package which results in them changing clothes every 3 days or a specific clothing item which they will not change, just make sure you select them as the owner of the item or they may choose to ignore or sell it (if they are merchants)

 

for dialogue: this is done with quests, create a new one go to the topics tab and add your dialogue, there's a lot of tutorials on how to do that

 

7) What programs do I sue to create my own corridors, halls, etc (objects within the main FO3 GECK window)

 

I still haven't figured out what you mean, the only program you need is GECK if you wanna change their texture you will need Photoshop as well.

 

just place the piece you want and to make it all faster use the shortcuts

 

CTRL+D = duplicate selected, so if you select 3 wall pieces you connected already and hit CTRL+D you have 3 identical ones which you can move around (this especially works well with center pieces)

 

learn the lingo of the pieces and you can use CTRL+F like this:

you made your wall, and now want a corner piece, instead of selecting the corner piece from the list, just duplicate a piece of the wall, snap it and hit CTRL+F now just select the XYZCor01 and hit enter, this will replace the wall piece with a corner piece already fitting all you gotta do is rotate it to match the room/corridor/hall etc.)

 

the official geck tutorial explains this already.

 

eventually you'll just memorize them and can build large rooms in minutes with the shortcuts

[spyhunter2009]

Thanks. What I meant by Q7 is supposing I want to change the look of a hall or corridor (or room) to my own taste/graphics (not using FO3 stuff) - or change the shape of the hall piece?

How can I do this. Do I select the same piece and re-texture or can I create my own Base units say SWHall01, SWHall02, SQHallRm01, etc etc all using my graphics, etc

 

And what is the maximum size for these pieces? Could I in theory create say a room using one piece and snap these together to create the house or can I only use the 'pieces' to create the room before the house.

 

Also, just out of interest I understand that the internal vaults are internal halls, etc linked together with teleports to get back oonto the Wastleland, but whats the concept of the actual wasteland - is this one huge area or interlinked sections?

 

UPDATE: Going to get hold of a trial of 3DS Max as this appears to be the best one on the market at present. I know it's expensive but worth it in the end - hopefully :)

[spammster]

you can change everything you want, however i would advise that you do not redesign the meshes for the room pieces, but instead only duplicate and retexture them (otherwise it will be a bi*ch to connect them with other pieces)

 

and you can give these retextured ones any name you want, just make sure you put them in the right folders (you need to put them in the DATA\subfolders, if you don't have them, create them or the game will ignore them)

 

I don't think there's a real size limit though though it seems there can be problems with pieces larger than 256 units

 

the wasteland is 1 entire massive piece (which you will see if you switch from interior to the worldspaces, its also the reason the geck needs at least 2 GB to edit worldspaces simply because its such a massive piece (if you edit the whole worldspac and not just a section from it)) (its also the reason the GECK uses more RAM than F3 does, editing a heightmap of a large area can use up to 5-6 GB of RAM and once you run out of RAM the GECK will crash and loose all progress you made)

 

just look for the retexturing tutorials (also include Oblivion guides, since both games are based on Gamebryo (which hopefully they exchange in the future) and pretty much work the same way, so a tutorial for oblivion will most likely work the same way for Fallout.

[spyhunter2009]

thanks. that helps out a lot.

 

I will have a go at re-texturing the stuff first.

 

Do I need to recompile as bsa file or can i just leave in directory structure under FALLOUT 3\DATA, etc etc

 

Also, is there an easy way to clear the Wasteland of everything apart from Trees, Rocks, Land, Sea, etc

So I can start with a clean Wasteland setup.

[spyhunter2009]

Do I need to recompile as bsa file or can i just leave in directory structure under FALLOUT 3\DATA, etc etc

 

Also, is there an easy way to clear the Wasteland of everything apart from Trees, Rocks, Land, Sea, etc

So I can start with a clean Wasteland setup.

[Skotte]

Do I need to recompile as bsa file or can i just leave in directory structure under FALLOUT 3\DATA, etc etc

 

"\DATA\, etc etc" is fine

 

messing with the default .BSA files is ill advised, you can use FOMM to extract any vanilla file you want just PLEASE don't introduce new files into them as that is just a recipe for disaster.

 

Also, is there an easy way to clear the Wasteland of everything apart from Trees, Rocks, Land, Sea, etc

So I can start with a clean Wasteland setup.

 

Sorry, no that could cause a lot of problems unless you made a new worldspace.