What do black planes do?

[Joj157]

I've tried using the black planes, but they don't appear in-game, if you know how to use them, please tell me.

[DiodeLadder]

Hi there Joj157,

 

Blackplanes are used for hiding whatever is under them in auto generated Local Maps (the area map you see in Pip-Boy), but they won't affect what you can see as a player.

 

For example, if you have a destroyed wall in a corridor with a giant rock sticking out, the big chunk of the rock behind the wall you won't see as a player would still show up in the Pip-Boy map. In the case like this, you can place Blackplanes above it, so that the unnecessary parts would not show.

 

Personally, I think the local maps are kind of useless in Fallout 4. I guess Bethesda comes from making flat D&D style maps traditionally, but Fallout 4 has so many multi floor locations that local maps are not really helpful in most places.

 

By the way, "Hide from Local Map" check box in Object Reference editor is also referring to this Pip-Boy Local Map. Say, if you have tons of pipes running on the ceiling, for example, you would want to select all these pipes and hide them from Local Map, so that the map would be readable.

 

Hope that helps. :smile:

[hereami]

Have encountered lots of them inside Noir Penthouse. They seem to stop light rays and can be detected (seen), when using pip-boy spotlight.

[DiodeLadder]

Have encountered lots of them inside Noir Penthouse. They seem to stop light rays and can be detected (seen), when using pip-boy spotlight.

....and which maybe the reason why you would normally put these planes waaaaay above the actual interior cells, lol. I think BlackPlane is just a crude and convenient static item to draw blank in the auto generated Local Map.

 

I took Switchboard as the example to learn how to use blackplane, since that cell uses curved tunnels made from straight hall assets and pivot pieces. If you don't use blackplanes in these kind of cells, the Local Map would show all the tricks you've used behind the scene to build the level.

 

I wonder what they would do about generating the Local Map in their next games, because the current system is not suitable for levels with stacked floors. I don't think I used the Local Map as a player in Fallout 4 beyond the first couple of hours. Placing blackplanes and making sure the local map draw cleanly actually takes a lot of work, and I really hate the fact I have to spend so much time on something no players will ever use in Fallout 4. :-/

[hereami]

 

I wonder what they would do about generating the Local Map in their next games

Who needs maps... Local maps always excited me, they are dynamic, even show, what you've built. That's just a nice thing in self.