New to mods, want to become a modder

[Erich3300]

Hello everyone, I just wanted to know if anyone could direct me to a complete guide to moding Fallout new vegas. I've been an xbox gamer for years and never moded a PC game before.I did some texture hacks to Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii but i assume this is more complicated.I'd like to start with some visor Hud which i assume is easy to do. I'll appreciate any help. ill also look into the GECK guides in Fallout's webpage and would like to know which other programs should be good

 

Thanks in advance

[NorthWolf]

GECK Wiki is what I've been using for reference. Someone can probably direct you to texture/modeling tools, as I don't want to misinform you, though Blender and Nifskope is what I see mentioned on the forums.

[deu58]

The basic response for this is do the My First Vault tutorials found on the GECK wiki home page.

 

http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Main_Page

 

These tutorials are not designed to make you an expert but rather to get you used to the necessary basics of all the areas of the GECK. In that respect it is a very thorough series of tutorials. But as far as more advanced tutorials go you will simply have to hunt around for yourself.

===========================================================

 

There are a couple of edits you should make to the GECKcustom ini file right now because you will be back here asking for help on at least one of them. This is a text file that is located in\Documents\My Games\FalloutNV

The vanilla render window has a bug that causes only parts of a cell to be loaded leaving large grey areas.

 

Here is the fix for that.

 

http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1148040-how-to-fix-lighting-havok-and-rendering-issues/

 

Another common question is how to load more than one master file. Again in the GECKcustom ini

Locate this string,

 

bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=0

 

and change it to read

 

bAllowMultipleMasterLoads=1

 

=======================================================================

 

If you have any intentions on doing any scripting with then I strongly recommend down loading this GECK utility mod.

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41642

 

This adds debug comments to the scripting function so if there is a mistake in your script it will help you locate it.

 

Another mod that I love myself is the coordinate locater mod.

 

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=42166

 

This little guy will help you find word space locations in the game. Especially useful for identifying exterior locations. For example say you want to build a player home in an open wilderness area. Start the game with the locater mod active. The locater tool will be added to your Pip Boy weapons menu. Equip the locater like any other weapon and shoot it. A window opens giving you the X and Y coordinates of the cell you are in. Then in the GECK Cell View window open the drop down window and select WastelandNV and wait for it to load up. Then type in the X and Y coordinates that the locater gave you and it takes you right to the exterior cell you want to edit.

 

 

There is also a WIKI section here at the NEXUS that covers various modding topics.

 

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Main_Page

 

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Besides the GECK the most common tools are Blender for creating new meshes. Nifscope for stuff I do not really understand such as adding removing textures and adding HAVOC physics and GIMP for photo editing. All are free and can be found easily using Google.

 

Each of these tools if you have no previous experience with using such tools can be very time consuming to learn in an advanced sense. There are lots of basic tutorials around for all of these though including in the NEXUS wiki I gave you a link to.

Edited June 18, 2011 by deu58

[Erich3300]

thanks you've been very helpful

[Erich3300]

i have one more question as you guys are more experinced than i with GECK. i instaled geck in c:program files/Bethesda Softworks/Fallout New Vegas (i don't own Fallout 3 which was its default instalation directory) but when i try to run the 1.5 update which i also found on the GECK wiki it says it cannot find the old file and wont install... how do i set it up for new vegas. if i follow the guides an error message saying that there are missing fallout 3 files will appear whenever i try to do something Edited June 19, 2011 by Erich3300

[deu58]

I am assuming that you went to the official Bethesda site.

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/eng/downloads/geck.html

 

There are two different types of GECK. One for New Vegas and one for FO3. The Vegas link is the on the very top section of the page. The two links at the bottom of the page are for the FO3 GECK and the FO3 GECK 1.5 patch

 

Another thing to check is to make sure that it gives you the New Vegas 1.3 GECK. This is the most recent version. Sometimes people have been getting the older GECK from this site instead of the updated GECK and it does not work either with the recently updated New Vegas.. If you have problems finding the 1.3 GECK post here and I will help you find it.

[Erich3300]

thanks ive found it

[deu58]

I did not even think about this but you may find this thread very helpful

 

http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/269597-how-to-become-a-modder/page__pid__3250896__st__90#entry3250896

[TheMightyLordSheogorath]

Hey, I just started creating "real" mods with the GECK last night/ this morning (around 11-3ish am). Anyways, those youtube videos sure do help. Good luck though, man.

[Erich3300]

thanks for all the help. is there a fallout new vegas especific blender? or can i just use the Fallout 3 blender. i gogled and this is the only one i found http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=30