perfectlydiverse Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 I've been exploring the creation kit and just decided, after going through the basic tutorial, to just browse some of the levels already made. So I started surfing around Asilvund01. In the process I zoomed out to get a top view of the entire map... and I found black panels placed everywhere. I thought they might have just been a way the creators premapped their layout before starting to work, but it doesn't look the same as the final layout, so I'm not sure. Anyone know why those black panels are there. It seems a bit pointless to me, because it's just unneeded data floating out in space, but I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heromaster Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 (edited) Black planes are used to hide areas from the local map. For example if you enter a dungeon which has a shortcut exit after the boss fight, without black planes you would see the shortcut. But since they placed them there you will only see the shortcut tunnel when you go through the shortcut tunnel. Another usage is to hide floor or ceiling tiles. So you created an interior, placed your walls but you just want to place the walls at the middle of the floor tile. Without black planes everyone would see this on the local map. Edited March 12, 2015 by heromaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perfectlydiverse Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 That makes sense, but these panels are way way above the map just floating out in space... they don't seem to be serving any purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heromaster Posted March 12, 2015 Share Posted March 12, 2015 They are because the local map is just a snapshot of all contents of the cell minus actors and objects which have 'Hide On Local Map' checked. The planes are placed so high that they can cover everything below in black, hence the name. If they would lie on the floor, they just would hide the floor tiles but everything above would be visible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perfectlydiverse Posted March 12, 2015 Author Share Posted March 12, 2015 Ok, I understand what you're saying. I did a test where I copied the cell and in the copy removed the planes. Then I teleported to each one and compared the local maps. I then could see how the planes sculpted the image. Thanks for answering my question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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