Scope Graphic Trouble

[Ranx31]

Hello all,

As a newcomer to the mod author area I have what might seem to be a noobish type of problem but I'm hoping the experience of the people here can help out...

I'm working on a mod that adds a number of weapons and one of them uses a scope. I used a scope reticle mesh from a modder's resource to give the weapon a unique one. The problem is awhile after using and testing the weapon that I noticed a graphical error with the display through the scope. What's happening is grey bars are appearing on the sides of the view through the scope.



The trouble is that I didn't notice this right away but I immediately suspected the new reticle mesh once I did see a problem. I've checked out this mesh and another one I've been using for ages as a replacer for the default (which had no problems) using Nifskope and everything looks fine there. I looked at all the textures the scopes use and nothing seems amiss there either. More puzzling is that the replacer I was using for the sniper rifle and other default scoped weapons now shows the same grey bars. However, when I use the gauss rifle (from EVE) it's scope view looks fine.

So can anyone tell me what the problem is and how to fix it? Is there some setting or parameter of the weapon or game or whatever that's the cause?

 

In the same vein, is there a way to get the scope view to move forward so the top and bottom of the scope circle aren't being chopped off? I'm guessing there might be as the gauss rifle's scope view doesn't seem to have the same trouble...

 

[RoyBatterian]

I had this problem with some scope replacers too, it's actually the mesh causing the problem. There's a view plane for the scope and it just needs to be widened a bit and the grey bars will disappear. This becomes very apparent when you use a wider than 75 FOV as it amplifies the problem.

[Ranx31]

I had this problem with some scope replacers too, it's actually the mesh causing the problem. There's a view plane for the scope and it just needs to be widened a bit and the grey bars will disappear. This becomes very apparent when you use a wider than 75 FOV as it amplifies the problem.

 

Thanks for the insight. Don't suppose you have an easy way to widen the view plane? My available choices are to either try fiddling with it in Nifskope or import/export with 3ds-Max. Could I simply try scaling it in Nifskope?

 

And, as far as I know, my FOV should still be at 75 as I've never messed with it. I'll double check in the .ini files to see if it's been altered somehow though.

[RoyBatterian]

I'm a total noob with nifskope still it's voodoo to me at this point. I had someone else fix them for me when I had the issue.

[drithius]

I recently fixed this for a port of the laser rifle scope to fo3. I'm not sure if this is the 'correct' way to tackle it, but perhaps it can help you.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0b7l8hsftdtete/Screenshot%202014-09-12%2012.31.58.png?dl=0

 

In that picture, there are two planes that I scaled down from 1.0 to 0.95... the keepscope01:0 and MaskRing branches. Together, they make up the front part of the scope in the mesh.

Edited September 12, 2014 by drithius

[Ranx31]

I recently fixed this for a port of the laser rifle scope to fo3. I'm not sure if this is the 'correct' way to tackle it, but perhaps it can help you.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0b7l8hsftdtete/Screenshot%202014-09-12%2012.31.58.png?dl=0

 

In that picture, there are two planes that I scaled down from 1.0 to 0.95... the keepscope01:0 and MaskRing branches. Together, they make up the front part of the scope in the mesh.

 

OK, now I'm a bit confused! You say that you were able to fix it by reducing scale and RoyBatterian was saying I should widen the view... Unless they mean the same thing - that I can achieve a widened view by reducing scale?

 

At any rate, Drithius, I will give your solution a shot as I've already tried to make a larger view plane in both directions, one at a time, and all that did was to turn the grey bars black and, after making the view plane taller, it seemed the scope circle was chopped off even more. So that wasn't working.

 

Thanks for the tip and I'll try it out right away!

[Ranx31]

Just to update and for anyone looking for a solution to the same sort of problem, I did as Drithius suggested and it seems to have done the trick! :thumbsup: Learned more about scope .NIFs in the process too... So thanks again guy!

[africaisstarving]

You need to change your fallout.ini settings change a line called scissor something fscopescissoreffect or something like that to 0. Fallout automatically adds the stupid lines . Your scope is bigger than normal.

edit

 

Find or add or change this line

 

[Display]

...

fScopeScissorAmmount = 0 ;1 - add gray lines 0 - no gray lines
..

 

That will fix your problem.

Is an engine thing not a script /geck thing.

The function cannot be changed from script only from fallout.ini. Anyone using your mod will see the gray bars until they add/change that ini setting.

edit2:
Also, unrelated. Don't make the fov lower than 15 or so. You will start seeing low res sky/low res background terrain and sometimes you can go thru background terrain see gray. I have done it and it sucks. I was using these binoculars in FONV which zoomed so much fov 12 I think that I could see the unloaded far away cells . Breaks the immersion. Just an advice tho. Try it :smile: You will realize you are playing a game and not like a badass cowboy in cool world. The way the engine works is it preloads nearby cells 6 usually and far away cells are only lod/low res loaded. They look like crap if you can see that far.

edit3:
The fov of the game affects all other fovs but scopes have their own fov so don't touch game fov just change weapon fov for scope. You CAN in fact change game fov from script. But dont do it. Affects terminal, pipboy, vats, everything and you can sometimes see thru walls . Haha

Edited September 25, 2014 by africaisstarving

[Ranx31]

I'll definitely try out the change to the Fallout.ini you suggested but here's the thing: I didn't notice this side-effect until I tried out this reticle which I've never used before and the Gauss rifle's scope showed no such artifacts.

 

As well, if I edit the .ini file and it works for me, what about the people using my mod that end up experiencing the same thing? Seeing as how drithius' suggestion of changing the .nif scale seemed to fix the problem, I'm thinking it would then be fixed for anyone using the same .nif. The file's getting included in the mod either way and I won't have to bother including any sort of info about users having to edit their .ini file if there's a problem.

 

The FOV of the scope I'm using is set to the same value as a sniper rifle, which is 25. Incidentally, I was thinking of making the number larger anyway as the weapon I'm using the scope view with SHOULD have a shorter range. Possibly change it to 30 or 35.

[africaisstarving]

In response to Rank31's question . You didn't notice it before because the scope reticle was smaller . Once you used a bigger one you ended up seeing the edges. Yes your mod users will see the gray bars until they add or change that setting to 1 in Fallout.ini. Is a game engine "minor" annoyance. Minor cause it can easily be fixed.

Normally to make it universal noob-friendly you need to make the scope smaller.

But please don't do that! Simply write in the mod description that you need to change the ini or at least provide 2 nif files for the scope reticle 1) the way you want it and 2) the universal one that is smaller to avoid the gray bars.

Why? Because when I play this mod I wanna play it like you meant to build it not selling yourself short for 1 ini setting.

FOV scope 25-35 is normal in game and is fine. I think most scopes in the game are around that setting. My binoculars that I added in FO3 are around 15 which is the lowest limit (after which you start seeing the unloaded far away cells) and looking at the sky it appears really low rez photo zoomed in hard so now I am looking for higher rez sky texture to compensate. Most users with high end computers won't notice a thing cause they all use super high resolution textures.

Edited September 26, 2014 by africaisstarving