Tutorials WITHOUT "youtoob"

Allannaa · August 20, 2012

Allannaa, is it possible on your introductory post to make internal links to tutorials posted in this topic? I don't know how extensive the BBCode implementation is on this board, but I know that on some boards it's possible to use BBCode to reference posts within topics.

Good plan, let me see if I can figure out how to do that.

And thank you kindly for your defence of the written tutorial methods!

An additional note -- Someone once gave me links to free or student or reduced-price versions of such modelling/texturing software as

3DSMax

Blender

Gimp

and so on -- if anyone has links to these downloads, could you post them, and we'll add those to our list here, since those are some darned good resources.

There currently is no free version of Poser (which is what I use most, and yes, indeed, it CAN BE a modelling program) or I'd post that.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Allannaa

IsharaMeradin · August 20, 2012

Gimp -- http://www.gimp.org/ -- fully free

Blender -- http://www.blender.org/ -- fully free

3DS Max -- http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/ -- try before buy

NifTools (where you can get NifSkope) -- http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/

Blender & NifSkope tho need to be able to communicate with each other. Unfortunately while both programs have advanced in versions the plugins used to convert and translate files have not been updated. The files have to be converted in such a manner to make Blender think they are from Fallout 3.

It is recommended then to check out this tutorial which includes links to the exact program versions needed to work together:

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/3790.

--Note: There is a video option but it is an option the main tutorial is text and pictures. Thus I think it still qualifies as being linked here.

Please note these are not links to actual downloads but rather to the homepages. Finding the download links from there is not that difficult.

Allannaa · August 20, 2012

Here's a non-illustrated tutorial on how to make Ingredients, Food, and Cooking Recipes. I'll post it on my site later, with screenies.

Click the Spoiler button to "unfold" the tutorial.

Adding a New Ingredient or Food and the Recipe to Make It

(Skyrim specific)

Opening Notes

Be very careful with these procedures. Do not over-write existing files; be absolutely sure you Create New. Do not add food or ingredients that will unbalance the game. Whats the point of that?

A word about naming conventions....

I am old, and I am lazy. I dont want to scroll through the entire inventory assets of Skyrim to find something, or to figure out what classification it falls under, and so on. Because of this, I always name my items something like AllaThing. Im lucky; my name starts with A; this means the stuff will be near the top of any classification list. You can do the same thing; simply add aa in front of your own name, for instance, aaSusieStuff.

Ive been told that in Skyrim (and Oblivion, and probably Fallout) its best to avoid naming conventions such as 1AllaThing or 01SusieStuff. Apparently putting a numeral in the initial position of an ID can confuse the games in some fashion. Therefore, I avoid doing that.

--------------------------------------

Open the Creation Kit

* Double-click Skyrim.esm

* Double-click your working mod, and set it as the active file OR

* Once the CK has loaded, click File > Save, and save a new plugin file to work in

To create a new INGREDIENT

Method One, Creating a New Ingredient

In the Object Window, find Items > Ingredient
Right-Click a blank line in the Editor ID part of the window
Name the item
- For the ID, type something like AllaBerries
- For the Name, type something like Berries
[*]Set an appropriate Weight for your item. Small things like berries would weigh less than something large like a mammoth snout.
[*]Set an appropriate Value. Small things may be worth less than large things, or things with special properties may be worth a little more than ordinary things.
[*]Leave Inventory Image and Message Icon fields alone.
[*]Add the Model for your ingredient. Click Edit, and select the appropriate NIF
[*]Leave Add Destruction alone.
[*]Be sure References Persist is unchecked.
[*]Decide if your Ingredient can be eaten or not and check or un-check Food Item appropriately.
[*]Decide if you want a sound associated with picking up (or dropping/putting down) the ingredient. Scroll through the list of sounds in the dropdown and select one that matches your item. (If you are using a unique sound file, be sure you have recorded it and saved it appropriately, so that it shows up in this dropdown.)
[*]Under Results (the big window in the middle), Right-Click and select New, Edit, or Delete, as appropriate.
- If you selected NEW, then scroll through the dropdown in the window that pops up, until you find the effect you want. If you selected Edit, just then make the appropriate changes here.
- Now set the magnitude and the duration. (For instance, you may have selected AlchFortifyMagicka. Now, set the magnitude - How much it boosts your magicka. Set the duration - How long it gives you that boost.)
[*]Click OK

Now you will see your new Ingredient added to the list.

Method Two, Edit an Existing Ingredient *Careful With This Procedure*

In the Object Window, find Items > Ingredient
Select any item, and click EDIT
Name the item
- For the ID, type something like AllaBerries
- For the Name, type something like Berries

[*]Set an appropriate Weight for your item. Small things like berries would weigh less than something large like a mammoth snout.

[*]Set an appropriate Value. Small things may be worth less than large things, or things with special properties may be worth a little more than ordinary things.

[*]Leave Inventory Image and Message Icon fields alone.

[*]the Model for your ingredient. Click Edit, and select the appropriate NIF

[*]Leave Add Destruction alone.

[*]Be sure References Persist is unchecked.

[*]Decide if your Ingredient can be eaten or not and check or un-check Food Item appropriately.

[*]Decide if you want a sound associated with picking up (or dropping/putting down) the ingredient. Scroll through the list of sounds in the dropdown and select one that matches your item. (If you are using a unique sound file, be sure you have recorded it and saved it appropriately, so that it shows up in this dropdown.)

[*]Under Results (the big window in the middle), Right-Click and select New, Edit, or Delete, as appropriate.

If you selected NEW, then scroll through the dropdown in the window that pops up, until you find the effect you want. If you selected Edit, just then make the appropriate changes here.
Now set the magnitude and the duration. (For instance, you may have selected AlchFortifyMagicka. Now, set the magnitude - How much it boosts your magicka. Set the duration - How long it gives you that boost.)

[*]Click OK

Now you will get a popper that says:
Create New Object?
Old ID (variable)
You have changed the Forms Editor ID
Create a new Form?

[*]CLICK YES! If you do not, then you will change every instance of this item in Skyrim -- and you absolutely do not want to do that.

--------------------------------------

To create a new FOOD

This works about the same way as creating an ingredient, but there are some differences.

In the Object Window, find Magic > Potion
Scroll down till you find the things that start with the word Food
Right-Click a blank line in the Editor ID part of the window and select New
Name the item
- For the ID, type something like AllaLunchmeat
- For the Name, type something like Lunchmeat
[*]Leave Inventory Image and Message Icon fields alone.
[*]Add the Model for your ingredient. Click Edit, and select the appropriate NIF
[*]Leave Add Destruction alone.
[*]Decide if theres a sound associated with eating or drinking your food. Scroll through the list of sounds in the dropdown and select one that matches your item. (If you are using a unique sound file, be sure you have recorded it and saved it appropriately, so that it shows up in this dropdown.)
[*]Decide if you want a sound associated with picking up (or dropping/putting down) the food. Scroll through the list of sounds in the dropdown and select one that matches your item.
[*]Decide if your food is addicting. If it is, decide the Chance, and select the Addiction type.
[*]Leave the Equip Type dropdown alone.
[*]Set an appropriate Weight for your item. Small things like berries would weigh less than something large like a mammoth roast.
[*]Under Results, Right-Click and select New, Edit, or Delete, as appropriate.
- If you selected NEW, then scroll through the dropdown in the window that pops up, until you find the effect you want. If you selected Edit, just then make the appropriate changes here.
- Now set the magnitude and the duration. (For instance, you may have selected AlchFortifyMagicka. Now, set the Magnitude - How much it boosts your magicka. Set the Duration - How long it gives you that boost.)
[*]Set an appropriate Value. Small things may be worth less than large things, or things with special properties may be worth a little more than ordinary things.
[*]Decide whether your item is Food, Medicine, or Poison, and check the appropriate box.
[*]Click OK

REMEMBER -- If you edited an existing Food, then when the Create New Form popper comes up, CHOOSE YES, so that you dont change every instance of the original food.

Now you will see your new Food added to the list.

--------------------------------------

To Create a New Food Recipe

In the Object Window, find Items > Constructible Object
Scroll down until you find the items that start with RecipeFood
Right-click and select New
In the ID field, type a name for your new recipe; for instance, RecipeFoodAllaLunchmeat
In the Required Item List, drag the food or ingredients you need to cook your new food. Remember, you can combine FOUR things in a pot or on a spit.
Leave the Match Conditions area alone (UNLESS your recipe applies to alchemy or to smithing, which are beyond the scope of this tutorial)
In the Created Object dropdown, select the finished product.
In the Created Object Count, select how many items the crafting combine will get you. One is the default, and thats a good number to keep.
In the Workbench Keyword, scroll down until you find CraftingCookpot and select that
Now click OK and your new recipe will show up.

Usual Disclaimer: This is how I do stuff. If it doesn't work, contact me. If you have a better method, please by all means share! If you see errors in this post, speak up!

Edited October 18, 2012 by Allannaa

Allannaa · August 20, 2012

Gimp -- http://www.gimp.org/ -- fully free
Blender -- http://www.blender.org/ -- fully free
3DS Max -- http://usa.autodesk.com/3ds-max/ -- try before buy
NifTools (where you can get NifSkope) -- http://niftools.sourceforge.net/wiki/

And once again, Ishara is there with the goods! Thank you, I'll add these links up front shortly.

Edited August 20, 2012 by Allannaa

Allannaa · August 23, 2012

Okay at some point, someone had a "cell grid map" for Skyrim, to make it easy to pick an exterior cell to use for placing a house, linking a dungeon door, and so on. I can't find mine, and I apparently didn't favourite the download page. If anyone has the link, let's add *that* here, too.

This is one I found earlier but for me at least, it was a huge download, so I haven't even got it ready to open yet.

Tamriel World-Space Modder's Map

Edit -- Okay, after 2 hour download (rural internet, yay?) I *finally* got this installed, and it is pretty good, though the grid numbers are pretty hard to read, and oh lawdy, the clouds of Skyrim.... But it does work well enough, it's very nice for general cell ID so you can go into the CK and find your spot.

Edited August 23, 2012 by Allannaa

Allannaa · August 25, 2012

Just in case anyone else ever wants to tie "cure disease" to anything, I figured out how, WITHOUT script-writing.

(Side rant about the CK tutorials series... Learning how to make a rock talk in game does not teach anything at all about writing useful, usable scripts. All it does is teach you how to make a rock talk. I R disappoint, as the kids say.)

Anyway.... For those not aware, I made a bathtub, with water, that's activatable. I used the tutorial posted here, about how to turn anything into a chair, and then, using the marker created with that tutorial:

In the edit window for that item, on the lower left of the window, is a drop-down for "Associated Spell". Scroll through it until you find "dunHallOfTheVigilantCureDisease"

This is, apparently, the ONLY cure disease spell in Skyrim (other than the potions you make at your Alchemy bench).

In the middle column of this window -- the same place where Sjogga instructs us to click "IS MARKER", there is another dropdown for "Interaction keyword". Select MagicAlchBeneficial.

(note, I'm not absolutely positive that's necessary, but it's what I did).

Click OK.

Now put the marker in the bathtub, horse-trough, privy, washbasin -- whatever you were making -- and it WILL cure disease! Yay!

(Thanks to Ishara, Sjogga, Steve40, and a few others for advice, and for their patience as I did this!)

IsharaMeradin · August 25, 2012

It was recently suggested to me that I make the character in my avatar picture available for others to play with. While I'm not too sure if I want to do that, but having a preset of my character is a good idea especially since I seem to restart more games than I actually play. (modding can do that to you :P )

This then is a compilation of various bits of instruction that I found across the net. Seems more efficient to me to have all the instruction in one place rather than scattered about.

Please read this fully before diving in. While it does go step by step, there are some things that you can do at the same time if you feel so inclined.

Because it is super long I'm hiding it in spoiler tags ^^ and yes I got lazy and stopped putting colors in to make things stand out

Tools needed:

Skyrim

Creation Kit

Gimp or other image editing software

Getting the character basics from game:

1. Launch Skyrim and load up a save that contains the player character you wish to turn into a preset

2. Once loaded move your character to a well lighted area and have them face the light source, be sure to be in 3rd person view if you will be doing step 5.

3. Open the console by pressing the ~ key

4. Type in spf name replace the word name with whatever you want to call the character. If you will be doing a series of presets at the same time then be sure to name them in such a way that you can tell them apart. This will create a npc file in your skyrim directory with the name you gave it.

5. If you use extended or custom colors on your character from another mod then follow these instructions otherwise skip ahead to the next step.

5a. Type tfc 1 in the console. This will freeze npc actions and allow you to take a screenshot without npcs getting in the way.

5b. Type sucsm 1 in the console. This will slow down the camera movement to allow you to line things up for just the right picture

5c. Type tm in the console. This will hide the compass and other displays to make for a better screenshot

5d. Press ~ to exit the console. Line up the camera so that it is facing the front of your character and he or she is centered in the picture. Zoom in as close as possible while keeping your hairstyle especially along the scalp visible.

5e. Once you have everything lined up press f12 or Print Screen to take a screenshot.

Note: if you already have a decent screenshot that meets the criteria of being well lit and zoomed in with the hair nearest the scalp still visible you may be able to use it instead.

This is the character I chose to make a preset from and the image I used:

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/Therin303/2012-08-22_00005.jpg

5f. Press ~ to re-enter the console

5g. Type tm to restore menus

5h. Type tfc 0 to return to normal 3rd person camera view. Oddly if you don't do this when you next load the same save the camera won't be attached to the character.

6. Exit Skyrim either by typing qqq in the console or via normal exiting procedure.

Making the preset:

1. Open the Creation Kit

2. Click the folder button that when hovered over says "Load master/plugin files"

3. In the window that opens select Skyrim.esm and/or Update.esm. If you want your preset to show up already sporting a custom hair then you'll need to include that mod as a master. ApachiiSkyHair is built as an esm file and is the one I used for my character. If you will be using a different hair from another mod and it is not a master then you'll need to convert it temporarily to trick the Creation Kit into believing it is a master file. (There is already a tutorial linked on the first page of this thread which explains how to do that)

4. Press Ok to load the selected master files and wait for the Creation Kit to catch up to you. Any warning/error boxes that pop up say Yes to all to ignore them.

5. Once you are able navigate within the Object Window go to Actors - Actor - Preset - race of character - gender of character.

In my case I went to Actors - Actor - Preset - RedguardRace - Female

6. Pick any preset and right click then choose edit

7. In the following box that pops up, change the ID entry to something else. Advancing the number to the next in the sequence of presets for that race is sufficient enough. In my case there were 10 presets and I changed the ID to RedguardFemalePreset11

8. Within the same window (in the middle part) are a series of tabs, select Character Gen Parts. if necessary there are little arrow buttons which can be used to move the displayed tabs left or right.

9. Press the Import button on the top right underneath the tabs, a standard windows open/save file box will pop up. select the npc file you created earlier. by default it opens up to the skyrim directory so it should be right there.

10. You characters face is now present, however you will notice that the hair and eyes are not what you had selected. Also while your colors are currently there if they were custom they won't remain there. You need to make those colors recognized by the Creation Kit.

Getting Custom Colors Setup -- Skin, warpaint, lips anything but hair:

1. Without closing your actor preset window, navigate with the Object Window till you are at Miscellaneous - ColorForm.

2. In the panel on the right you should see lots of entries for various colors. Right click and choose new.

3. Move the various windows around until you can see both the actor preset and your black color form

4. In the preset window highlight SkinTone.dds within the Face Tint Layers box. To the right of that is the Face Tinting Color box. If the preset entry says (custom) then enter the Red Green & Blue values shown there in to the blank color form.

5. Give the color form a meaningful name and ID, check the box next to Playable and press Ok

6. Repeat this process for any Face Tint Layer on your preset that is marked as (custom).

Getting Custom Hair Color Setup:

This is the same process as above except that instead of getting the RGB values from inside the Creation Kit we have to get them from an image editing program.

These steps replace step 4 and step 6 above.

1. Open Gimp or other image editing software and load up the screenshot taken earlier.

2. Gimp has this tool and hopefully your program has something similar: Color Picker tool. It lets you click on a pixel in the image and set that color as the foreground color.

3. Zoom in pretty close around 500% to 600% and be sure that the scalp line is visible. Find the darkest part of a well lit section and select that color.

4. In Gimp double click on the new foreground color to open the Change Foreground Color box, without changing anything note the R G B values of the selected color.

5. Take those numbers and enter them into the blank color form. -- Go do step 5 in the section above and then come back here

6. While the ColorForm section is still showing, locate an existing hair color, right click on it and choose Use Info. A box pops up that show everything that hair color is used in. There should be a FLST entry called HairColorList. Double click on it.

7. With the HairColorList open drag and drop the color form you just made for your hair from the ColorForm section into the HairColorList

Your colors are now in but they are still not recognized. The race as a whole needs to know about them.

Getting the Race to Recognize New Colors

1. Still without closing the actor preset window, navigate once again in the Object Window until you get to Character - Race.

2. In the pane on the right, scroll down the list till you find the race that your preset is part of and right click then select edit.

3. In the Race window locate the Tinting tab, select a Tint Layer which had a custom color

4. In the Presets box a series of colors will appear, within this list of colors right click and select New. a window pops up with all the colors including the ones you recently added. Select the color you made for the current Tint Layer, else be lazy and put all the colors you made on each Tint Layer.... Ok technically the lazy way is more work but you don't have to worry about which color goes on which layer if you happened to forget and also there would then be a few more color choices for everything else too.

5. For each color you put in you need to specify an Interpolation Value else it may not show up properly. For lack of anything better, with the color selected follow suit and move the slider to the far right and press Set to set the Interpolation Value at 1.00

Now for the Hair

1. While still in the Race window switch to the Face Data tab, you should see a list of Available Hair Colors, right click and choose new.

2. A window pops up which has all the colors that are found in the HairColorList which you should have added your custom hair color to earlier, scroll down and find that color, select it and press Ok.

The Race now recognizes all your custom colors, time to go back to your preset. If you look at your preset which you should not have closed, it may or may not already recognize the custom colors for Tint Layers however it does not recognize the hair color as it had pulled its data from the old form list. You need to press Ok to close the preset window. Navigate thru the Object Window again to Actors - Actor - Preset - race of preset - gender of preset and reopen your preset.

Making Sure Custom Colors are assigned properly.

1. After reopening the preset window, re-import the npc data. This time when it loads up all the custom colors for the various Face Tint Layers will be correctly assigned.

2. Assign the Hair Color by opening the drop down menu and selecting the custom hair color which should now be present if everything was done properly.

Colors are good but the hair is wrong...

Pointing To The Right Hair

1. On the Character Gen Parts tab of the Actor Preset window there is a section called Base Head Parts

2. Select the hair entry and a drop down box immediately below the Base Head Parts window will be populated with all the current hairs in the game.

3. Scroll thru the list of hairs till you find the one that you want. To see a preview select a preview option at the bottom of the window either Full or Head.

Note if you choose Head, custom hair for some reason will not be on top of the head but rather a good ways above. Choosing Full allows you to see the hair, head and body altogether. In either case you have to manipulate the preview window to get a good look at the hair style.

OH NO!!! I just looked at the preview and my character is hideous! Or at the least doesn't look like I expected...

Don't panic. The Creation Kit does a very poor job at displaying characters and color except hair color seems to be spot on.

Oh alright, but the eyes what about those eyes. Mine weren't like that at all.

True. Without making any custom eye mods into masters and thus requiring them to be installed you won't be able to make your character with the exact same eye. Best you can do otherwise is to use a decent stock eye that is available and each time you use the preset change the eye color. Select the eye just like you did the hair.

Onwards and upwards...

Getting the preset to actually show up.

1. Press Ok to save that preset.

2. Go back to the Object Window and navigate to Character - Race and open the Race entry back up

3. Select the Presets Tab in the Race window. its the one farthest to the right

4. Move the Race window out of the way and go back to the Object window

5. Navigate back to the presets and drag and drop your preset from the presets pane in the Object Window to the presets pane in the Race window.

6. Press Ok on the Race window

7. Press the icon that looks like a disc. If you haven't saved the plugin yet you will be asked to give it a name before you can save it.

Test it out in Skyrim.

1. Make sure the plugin is selected via the game's launcher or a mod manager program.

2. Start a new game and look for your preset. It should be added to the far right of the preset slider

If everything looks good you can stop there. However.... you may want to be on the safe side and make the vampire version recognize the colors too. Repeat the section Getting the Race to Recognize New Colors and use the vampire version of the race instead.

Here is the preset character before eyes were changed to match.

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/Therin303/2012-08-25_00002.jpg

And the same character after eyes were properly selected, with menus hidden and at fov setting of 35

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff438/Therin303/2012-08-25_00001.jpg

I hope this not so brief tutorial helps someone out.

Allannaa · August 26, 2012

hey, that's neato! And I like how you used the "spoiler tag" thingy. I'm going to try out your instructions.

Allannaa · August 26, 2012

Okay, not sure if I should add this into a tutorial or what, but it's a heads-up for those using this collection of stuff.

I wanted to see something in another cell (specifically WhiterunBreezehome, the cheapest player-purchase house). Somehow, although I did nothing but copy a reference to paste into a blank cell to look at, I changed Breezehome. I didn't click on the thing in the Render window, I used the CellView window, highlighted the object, right-clicked, and so on.

However, doing this put a "change flag", the well-known Asterisk of Death, on Breezehome.

No worries, I thought, I'll just clean it the usual way -- Data > Details > Ignore flag (the delete key, with the changed reference highlighted).

Oh, so wrong.

It caused the CK to crash, and to refuse to load, even when ONLY skyrim.esm was checked.

I uninstalled CK, I rolled back my computer, I reinstalled, I verified, I did everything I could think of (including forum searches) and nothing worked.

Then I got the bright idea of having Steam validate SKYRIM -- not the CK, but the GAME.

That fixed the CK crash as well as whatever I'd invisibly changed in Breezehome.

The reason for the crashing? I was trying to clean SKYRIM -- not the plug-in file that had the change-flag on Breezehome.

Save before you ever touch a cell you haven't created yourself. Then if you get the AoD, reload and the cell will be back to its unchanged state.

And be careful. Be very careful. Be really very careful.

Edited December 9, 2012 by Allannaa

IsharaMeradin · August 26, 2012

O.o how the heck did you screw up the game? As far as I know the CK won't allow you to save anything to the ESM files.

Have you made any adjustments to your SkyrimEditor.ini other than allowing multiple masters and/or multiple creation kits?

Tutorials WITHOUT "youtoob"

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