Creation Kit Object Window MIA

[rself3]

Somehow, my Object Window is MIA and nothing I've tried (view-->'click' display object window, reload, reinstall) is working. Needless to say this is a pain when trying to do ANYTHING in the CK. Is anyone else having these types of problems or am I the lucky glitch magnet? I'm assuming there is an ini file that is corrupted or something, but I figured a clean install would have cleared it up... but it didn't... so I'm out of ideas.

 

SEE BELOW FOR THE TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE.

Edited April 10, 2012 by rself3

[rself3]

For anyone who comes across a similar problem for any of the windows (render, object, cell, etc.), I found a way to restore functionality. I believe that my case is an extreme one, so I recommend troubleshooting it before editing any ini files unecessarily.

 

1.) Make sure that the CK is fully loaded by clicking on the screen - I've seen reports that by simply interacting with the CK allows non-visible screens to become visible again.

 

2.) If that doesn't work, be sure to actually load skyrim.esm to make sure that doesn't clear it up.

 

3.) If that doesn't work, be sure that the window in question is actually active by going to the main drop down menu [view --> (object, render, cell, etc.) window] and clicking it to display the window. You'd be surprised how easy it is to ignore this when you're new to the CK.

 

4.) If that doesn't work, you are more than likely dealing with a problem with the ini files or a bad install. Since it is easy to simply overwrite your CK with a new install without doing any damage to the main game or any created esms and esps, I recommend that to be the next step. Simply redownload from Steam and overwrite what you've got.

 

5.) If that doesn't work, you are now in the land of ini file problems. This is where my problem is/was. Now I recommend finding a file called SkyrimEditorPrefs.ini in the main install folder and simply deleting it. This will force the editor to 'reset' it and create a new one on the next CK initialization with default values. There is a youtube video floating around somewhere that deals with this issue. (Not in the video, but in the description.)

 

6.) If THAT doesn't work, we're going to have to get our hands dirty with some old fashion ini notepad editing. Right click on the SkyrimEditorPrefs.ini file and open it with your word processor of choice --> I prefer notepad.exe since it simple and 'to-the-point'. Now search (ctrl-F) for (In my case) "ObjectWindow" - you should see something that looks like this:

 

Num Object Windows=1

ObjectWindow X=1283

ObjectWindow Y=176

ObjectWindow W=637

ObjectWindow H=626

 

What you want to do here is edit these values to make sure that the window is active and/or in the viewing area of the CK. X,Y are the cordinates of the upper left corner of the window and W,H are the width and height of the windows respectively. Change X,Y to 0,0, Num Object Windows to 1 if not already, and make sure that the width, height is at least 600,600 so your values look like this:

 

Num Object Windows=1

ObjectWindow X=0

ObjectWindow Y=0

ObjectWindow W=600

ObjectWindow H=600

 

Hopefully now the window will now show up - don't be afraid to try different values if the ones above don't work (works for render, cell, etc. by simply replacing 'object' with 'name of window' in the ctrl-f search.)

 

7.) Now, if you have the million dollar glitch like I had, you're going to have to make a non-sensical edit to make the window magically reappear. Now, if you notice, Num Object Windows=1 makes sense to display, but of course, one Object Window. But if that is the value and no object window is present even after going through this troubleshooter, then it only makes sense to take it's current value and, guess what, add 1 to it. It should now look something like this in the ini file:

 

Num Object Windows=2

ObjectWindow X=0

ObjectWindow Y=0

ObjectWindow W=600

ObjectWindow H=600

 

(I don't know why this worked, but it did. I cannot deactivate or hide it from the view menu, but hey at least my Object Window is back.)

 

8.) If none of that worked for you, then call Bethesda.

 

***Note: this basic principle should work for any window that doesn't display.

 

Hopefully this helps anyone who is suffering from a similar problem like I had. Cheers & Merry Modding.

[Hakman99]

Got another solution (atleast solved mine) :

The problem was, the window was OPEN, but not VISIBLE (if you click "object Window" under "View" and it still isnt ticked, thats normal)

Download this : http://www.ntwind.com/software/windowspace/download.html

the program lets you change window sizes over your keyboard.

then click on "object window" under "view" and hold "CTRL"+"Windows Key"+"ALT" and smash your arrow keys a little bit, it should make the window visible by resizing it like that!

 

Tell me if it worked!

[jacobman0313]

Hakman99's fix worked for me. Gracias.

[HayzusKingOFTHEJUICE]

For anyone who comes across a similar problem for any of the windows (render, object, cell, etc.), I found a way to restore functionality. I believe that my case is an extreme one, so I recommend troubleshooting it before editing any ini files unecessarily.

 

1.) Make sure that the CK is fully loaded by clicking on the screen - I've seen reports that by simply interacting with the CK allows non-visible screens to become visible again.

 

2.) If that doesn't work, be sure to actually load skyrim.esm to make sure that doesn't clear it up.

 

3.) If that doesn't work, be sure that the window in question is actually active by going to the main drop down menu [view --> (object, render, cell, etc.) window] and clicking it to display the window. You'd be surprised how easy it is to ignore this when you're new to the CK.

 

4.) If that doesn't work, you are more than likely dealing with a problem with the ini files or a bad install. Since it is easy to simply overwrite your CK with a new install without doing any damage to the main game or any created esms and esps, I recommend that to be the next step. Simply redownload from Steam and overwrite what you've got.

 

5.) If that doesn't work, you are now in the land of ini file problems. This is where my problem is/was. Now I recommend finding a file called SkyrimEditorPrefs.ini in the main install folder and simply deleting it. This will force the editor to 'reset' it and create a new one on the next CK initialization with default values. There is a youtube video floating around somewhere that deals with this issue. (Not in the video, but in the description.)

 

6.) If THAT doesn't work, we're going to have to get our hands dirty with some old fashion ini notepad editing. Right click on the SkyrimEditorPrefs.ini file and open it with your word processor of choice --> I prefer notepad.exe since it simple and 'to-the-point'. Now search (ctrl-F) for (In my case) "ObjectWindow" - you should see something that looks like this:

 

Num Object Windows=1

ObjectWindow X=1283

ObjectWindow Y=176

ObjectWindow W=637

ObjectWindow H=626

 

What you want to do here is edit these values to make sure that the window is active and/or in the viewing area of the CK. X,Y are the cordinates of the upper left corner of the window and W,H are the width and height of the windows respectively. Change X,Y to 0,0, Num Object Windows to 1 if not already, and make sure that the width, height is at least 600,600 so your values look like this:

 

Num Object Windows=1

ObjectWindow X=0

ObjectWindow Y=0

ObjectWindow W=600

ObjectWindow H=600

 

Hopefully now the window will now show up - don't be afraid to try different values if the ones above don't work (works for render, cell, etc. by simply replacing 'object' with 'name of window' in the ctrl-f search.)

 

7.) Now, if you have the million dollar glitch like I had, you're going to have to make a non-sensical edit to make the window magically reappear. Now, if you notice, Num Object Windows=1 makes sense to display, but of course, one Object Window. But if that is the value and no object window is present even after going through this troubleshooter, then it only makes sense to take it's current value and, guess what, add 1 to it. It should now look something like this in the ini file:

 

Num Object Windows=2

ObjectWindow X=0

ObjectWindow Y=0

ObjectWindow W=600

ObjectWindow H=600

 

(I don't know why this worked, but it did. I cannot deactivate or hide it from the view menu, but hey at least my Object Window is back.)

 

8.) If none of that worked for you, then call Bethesda.

 

***Note: this basic principle should work for any window that doesn't display.

 

Hopefully this helps anyone who is suffering from a similar problem like I had. Cheers & Merry Modding.

Steps 1-5 ended up not working for me, when I checked step 6, my x and y were somehow set to x=6950 y=3300

I only have the one 1080 monitor, and have no idea how it got skewed that far off.

 

Thank you for this so damn much, years after you solved your own dilemma

[Bisonfan95]

I know this is old, but I fixed it while on a rampage. Just go to View, select object window. It will not appear BUT DONT TOUCH ANYTHIN YET. Now press the Windows Key and finally the left arroy key. No install, no edits... just pure luck LOL. Hope this helps someone

[nightrifle1015]

The problem still exists and one cause is changing the resolution to something lower when you have multiple monitors. Bisonfan95's fix worked for me except it was right arrow key instead of left. I'm using windows 10 if that matters.