Someone please, tutorial needed, for BUILDING a house

[steveyos2]

I just want to build a damn house so bad. I'd prefer a text/screenshot tutorial but I'll settle for video.

 

 

I just want to click a link, and there's a webpage, and on that webpage "step 1 install geck" it's so geared towards new people that that's step 1, not "function_ref_alphabravocharlie run ctrl_f3efef fortune ////http: forks ##*#%H8shgs8" you know what I mean? I don't even know how to start. The beginner tutorials fill my brain with all sorts of stuff I don't need, I just want to build a house.

 

The outside and the inside. I also searched this forum too by the way don't tell me to search the forum and don't tell me to google it just don't we're so past this already why are we still talking about it.

 

I'm extremely good at building, extremely. For example I can create the most beautiful structures mankind has ever seen in second life, but that's in-game visual click and drag super easy building blocks. This is similar but instead of just right clicking and choosing create to start I need to learn this confusing ass program outside of the game. Once I'm at the part I can start clicking and dragging I'll be set.

 

 

Super easy house no need for added fun stuff, just a house with a toilet and bath tub and some loot chests! So easy if there's no tutorial for it, it'll probably only take you a few minutes to write one since you're so good look at you! Now look at me, I'm terrible! I'm so talented in the design aspect, but I don't know what to do after running geck.exe!

 

 

Oh please, PLEASE, help me out! I might just be the guy to make your new favorite home(s) in the capital vegas!

 

 

 

I'VE BEEN GOOGLING FOR HOURS I CAN ONLY FIND ONES THAT SHOW YOU HOW TO MODIFY ALREADY MADE BUILDINGS. I WANT TO MAKE THE WHOLE BUILDING MY DAMN SELF. AGAIN USE THE WORD PLEASE. MAKING HOUSES WOULD BE MORE FUN TO ME THAN ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME, BUT I NEED A REALLY GOOD TUTORIAL. Okay now tell me to go away since this is the internet and you want to crush my dreams!

[MeinName]

Okay, look... I've got some stuff to do right now, but when I come back from my stuff, I'll make your tutorial since you seem pretty... let's say desperate.

How does that sound? :)

[steveyos2]

Not so much desperate as Used To People Being Horrible On The Internet. So I'm Not Bothering To TaKe tHis tooooooo SeRiOusly !

 

Yes that would be grand, and I'm not alone in life on wanting more tutorials geared right towards a specific topic- these modding communities would have so many more talented people who like me can't look at the terrible tutorials out now that go "UGH DO THIS THEN THIS THING LET ME DO A BUNCH OF THINGS NOW WITHOUT TELLING YOU WHAT I DID OK NOW DO THIS BUT I WON'T TELL YOU HOW, OK NOW YOU DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW ANY OF THAT TIME FOR THE TUTORIAL TO END THANKS."

 

 

I wanna build the house, not learn the process of which ryobi oils their gears and eats their peas and carrots.

 

Annnnd yes people, it IS better to start like this as opposed to learning basics of geck that I'll never ever ever ever use and again I'm not the only person whose brain operates this way.

 

 

Looking forward to your tutorial if it's good and works you're gonna be a hero pal.

[MeinName]

Okay here's my tutorial on building stuff...

 

First of all:

Download GECK... In case you didn't know: You will most probably need it!

Also: If you're trying to use GECK with a mousepad on a laptop you're gonna have a bad time... You will need a mousewheel and a mousewheel-button.

 

One advice before the start:

The GECK is a very unstable tool. You really ought to save as much as you can to prevent data loss if the whole thing freezes up!

 

Set and ready?

Okay, let's start some serious GECKing!

 

1:

Open that s*** up!

If you're running Win Vista or 7 you will need to run it as admin. I don't have any clues on how this works on a Mac...

 

2:

Four windows will open: The Main Window, the Object Window, the Render Window and the Cell View Window.

Now in order to make a mod you may need stuff that mod consists off.

Click on "File" in the Main Window and then on "Data".

Select the master files (.esm) you want to use. If you just want to build a simple house, you will just need FalloutNV.esm.

Check it and leave any possible other files unchecked.

Click "OK" and let GECK load the file. Since it's pretty big this may take a while.

Don't get confused if GECK freezes. It's just to busy loading the file to answer. Wait until it finished loading.

 

3:

An owerwhelming mass of writing will appear in the object window. That's just fine since Fallout consists of an owerwhelming mass of things.

You want to build a house. What does one need to build a house? Metal? Concrete? Windows and doors and stuff?

WRONG!

First of all you need a place where your house is going to stand later on.

So: You may click on the Cell View and select "WastelandNV" in the World Space tab. (Again: It's a lot of stuff there... After all it's a big map. Wait till it's loaded.)

Find a suitable cell to place your little house in. As you are just beginning to mod I suggest the cell "Goodsprings", 'cause it's where the player will start so testing will be easy.

Later on you may explore the cells of Fallout on your own.

Double-click on the cell "Goodsprings" and wait a little. (GECK isn't the most stable of all tools so it may freeze up again. Just wait.)

 

4:

The selected cell will appear in the Render Window. There you can navigate using your mouse (you really should use one) and the shift-key.

Left mouse-button: Well... Clicking things and stuff... (Selected things will have a green and red frame around them.)

Middle mouse-button: Moving the camera over the cell. If you exit one cell by moving out of it the bordering cell will automatically load.

Right mouse-button: Spinning things that are selected with the left button around the z-axis.

Shift-key + mouse movement: Turning the camera angle. If used when an object is selected the camera will turn around that object.

 

5:

Okay. You have your construction site, but you don't have a house yet. We'll fix this in a second.

If you wanna have a really simple house with very low effort you can click on the tab "World Objects" in the Object Window if it isn't already open and then click on "Static". (Wait again...)

Alternatively you could look after houses under the tab "Static Collection" where you will find files that are made up from several single models found under the "Static" tab.

You may filter the whole bunch of static objects by typing "house" or "shack" into the filter-entry.

On the results you can right-click and select "Preview" to see how it looks and select one of the preset houses.

(I suggest "WoodShack01" under "Static" as the easiest one to handle. You know... Just for the beginning.)

If you want a completely custom house you will have to work some time, but I will come to this later on.

(Look at the end of the post.)

 

6:

Drag and drop the selected house into the Render Window with the loaded cell. (In our case drag "WoodShack01" into the "Goodsprings" cell.)

If you aren't EXTREMELY lucky (and one never is) the house will completely be misplaced, say it will float up in the air and will be oriented to the wrong sides and all that s***.

By holding the x- y- or z- button while dragging an object around in the Render Window the object will only move on this particular axis. Say while holding down "z" dragging the object around, it will only move up or down, etc.

The height of an object cannot be adjusted by just dragging it around, because it it will only move on the x- and y-axis dragging it around by default.

You can press "f" when you've selected your little house to automatically bring it down onto the nearest surface below.

ATTENTION: The house won't be perfectly fitted on the ground and some of it's edges will still float.

You can adjust the last bit by holding "z" and dragging the house down a little bit until there are no more floating edges seen.

 

7:

Well... That's a house... Still: No interior, no use! Accordingly you may need a door. (Just a little advice... ;))

Click on "Doors" in the Object Window somewhere below "World Objects".

Select a door that fits your taste or intentions.

(Again: You won't need to drag them into the Render Window one by one to see how they will look. The preview will work just fine again.)

Drag your selected door into the Render Window and place it in front of the house's entrance.

(f-key for grounding, a little bit dragging with the left mouse-button, a little bit spinning with the right mouse-button and a little bit of height adjustment with the z-key and the mouse...)

As to fit the door frame of your house you may be forced to edit the doors size.

Therefore double-click it.

A much too large variety of stuff will appear in a window. That's the reference window of your door.

Click on the tab "3D Data" and look for the "Scale" entry. You can enter the size you wish into the entry or just use the up- and down-buttons for changing the size.

If you enter the size manually you will need to just click into another entry to make your changes visible in the Render Window. (Not so if you are using the buttons.)

When your door is fitted, let's get over to the technology stuff of doors.

 

8:

If you already have the reference window of your door open, everything is fine.

If not, open it by double clicking your door in the Render Window.

Put a check into the little box on the lower left side that says "Persistent Reference".

Your interior door will have to refer to your exterior door and the exterior door has to refer to the interior door in order to teleport between the exterior and the interior.

To find it better afterwards you may (you don't have to, but it's advised) give the door a specific reference ID you will recognize later on.

(In our example we name it just "000ExtDoor". "000" at the beginning so it will later be displayed at the very top of the selection.)

 

9:

Okay... Now you have a door that can be referred to, but you have no interior and therefore no interior door that actually refers.

We'll go on by creating an interior space.

Well... I don't like creating interiors... It's always a mess with the interior parts not matching by one hundred of a centimeter, overlapping, flickering and stuff...

So I mostly just duplicate interior-cells that are already there. This is the easiest way of creating interior (at least for preset houses as the interiors match the shape of the exterior facade).

If you also want to do this go to the Cell View Window and navigate to the tab "Interior".

(If not read at the end of this post.)

Right-click on the interior cell you want to duplicate and click on "Duplicate Cell".

(If you used the "WoodShack01" model I suggest the "SLJeanSkyDivingINT" interior or the "SLBeerBootleggerINT" interior if you want to have a cellar with more space to be creative. Both match the exterior model "WoodShack01".)

A new cell with the same ID plus the ending "COPY0000" should appear above or below your selected cell.

You may right-click it and click on "Edit".

A window appears with all existent cells on the left-hand side and further information to your cell on the right-hand side.

Basically all information is alright in this cell and can be left unchanged but you should go to the "Interior Data" tab and change the name of the cell to the name you want to be displayed upon aiming at the entrance door.

Also you may want to change the ID of your cell to something more suitable. (Advice: Add "000" at the beginning of your new ID so it's sorted on top of all interior cells when the list is sorted by ID.)

This is done by marking the cell in the Cell View Window with one click and than another click on the ID. (Don't double-click it, because it would only load the cell again in the Render Window.)

Now we have an interior!

 

10:

Onwards!

Double-click the door in the interior cell. (ATTENTION: Make sure it's YOUR cell and not the original cell you copied!!!)

The reference window will open. Click on the "Teleport" tab if it's not already open.

Check the box with "Teleport" beside it and so activate the box below.

Select your exterior door in the tabs.

(In our example it would be "Goodsprings" in cell and "000ExtDoor" in reference.)

Alternatively you can keep the reference window of the interior door open and load the cell of the exterior door where you can select it using the "Select Reference in Render Window"-Button.

The cursor will become a red crosshair with which you have to double-click the exterior door.

(In our example you would keep the reference window of the interior door open and load the "Goodsprings" cell, navigate to your exterior door, click "Select Reference in Render Window" and double-click the exterior door.)

Good!

Strange yellow marker should appear pointing away from the doors. These are the markers where the player will spawn after being teleported through the doors.

Orient them in the way you like, but PLACE THEM WITH THE BOTTOM ON THE GROUND!!!

They are allowed to float a little, but dont let them be high in the air or below or within the ground!

High above would cause the player to fall and break his bones, in the ground could cause the player to get stuck within the ground or fall through it and below... You know *SoundOfFallingInAnEnragingEndlessLoop*...

Very well...

 

11:

Your house is basically done...

Now it's your task to decorate exterior and interior

(I would suggest to start with deleting everything beside the walls in the interior to have it before you like a blank page, but do as you wish...)

Decoration like statics (clutter, furniture, etc.) items or containers can be placed just like doors or your exterior house.

To adjust the orientation of your statics etc. more precisely you can double-click them and change the x- y- and z-axis rotation in their reference window (double-click in Render Window) under the tab "3D Data" in smaller amount than with your mouse alone.

To handle with these rotations can be a pain in the ass since it never really works out as you expected it to, but click a little here and click a little there and it will work...

Happy decorating!

 

 

 

5 (the version with a hell of a lot more effort to do!):

If you DON'T want to use one of the preset exterior houses you can simply build yourself one of statics that look like walls...

Since it's a wasteland walls could consist of merely everything that is wall-like... You know: Flat and hard and s***...

Being the nice person that I am I've looked the IDs some wall-like statics up for you (just type them into the filter entry):

"WoodWallChunk01", "Barrier03", all walls with "BLD03DivWall" or "BLD11DivWall" (Filter it in the Statics), all "BoxcarWall" statics, "GomorrahCourtWall", all "JunkWall" statics, all "NVmoatwall" statics, all "TenPenRWall" statics, "MetalPlank01" and "MetalPlank02" and I'm sure if you look more closely you will find many more.

You'll have to drag them into the Render Window one by one and orient them the way you want to and then have to out a door at a place you wish.

That grants you way more freedom in design but it's a HELL of a lot more effort to build this way.

 

 

 

9: (the version with a little more effort but way more frustration potential!):

If you don't want to use a preset interior you can also duplicate a random interior cell and delete all items in this cell.

(Done by marking the duplicated cell in the Cell View Window and deleting all the items shown on the right-hand side, which are all the items in the selected cell.)

Then you may proceed dragging interior statics into the empty cell building your very own interior.

Interior walls are quickly found by filtering all statics by "wall".

This is over all possible, but I personally find the view of the yawning void in the cell very depressing because I have to think of how much work is still in front of me.

 

 

 

 

Well, that pretty much does it for building and decorating things...

If there are still any questions to be answered just pm me. :)

I hope I could help!

 

I will try to make some screenshots to depict what I was trying to explain in nearer future, but during the week I have to work pretty long and may not find time for that...

 

MeinName

Edited October 15, 2012 by MeinName

[steveyos2]

Hey I'll be trying this out soon and I'll throw some pm's at you I really, really, really, really, really, really, really appreciate it, thank you, thanks, for real thanks, I could come up with other words but for now let's streamline this appreciation with one more good old fashion thanks

[TrickyVein]

I would not follow the advice to copy an existing interior cell. There is good reason for this, and insofarasmuch as you want to learn something, you'd be better off. :armscrossed:

 

It is too much of a headache to keep track of all the references which you should end up having to *delete* inside of your copied cell. You are actually creating work for yourself and the possibility of conflicts with door references and quest-tagged objects that shouldn't be copied. For beginners especially, you're making changes to things that you may not even understand.

 

Simply go to the worldspaces dialogue, select " Interiors" and right click => create new. Now you can cut => paste only the things that you want from one cell to another. :thumbsup:

[MeinName]

I don't think there will be any issue with door at all because a door reference always consists of a concrete reference object (a door) AND a specific cell and no outside door will randomly change it's reference to your interior door.

It's a bit more difficult with quest objects...

Static objects and triggers are referred to the same way as doors are and therefore unproblematic, but quest items could double say it could be possible that you accidentally pick up a quest item which you normally only could find secretly hidden or well guarded.

That really COULD be a problem if you weren't thoroughly deleting the unnecessary objects in the cell. I suggest deleting them through the Render Window as you can overlook better what is necessary in the cell (as walls and stuff) and what isn't (items, furniture you don't want to have and so on...).

If you do it that way there shouldn't be a problem with anything.

I mod myself quite a lot in recent days and also earlier and I always built interiors that way without having any problems (especially with "SLJeanSkyDivingINT" and "SLBeerBootleggerINT" as there are no important object that could interfere with anything).

But if you want to be absolutely sure that no such thing will happen then I agree with TrickyVein and also suggest building the interior on your own.

 

I hope to see your first creations in GECK soon on newvegasnexus.com :)

Happy GECKing!

[steveyos2]

Thank you both I completely wasn't expecting any help at all gonna take this as an early christmas present

 

 

I need to get used to the geck's controls, it's like they just had a random generator assign the keyboard and mouse navigational controls but I ain't scared, and I need to make everything pixel perfect I punch my monitor every time I see texture overlapping

 

 

I SAY THANKS IN CAPITALS. Hopefully this thread helps out other people too, I swear if they don't make a website catered to actual useful tutorials ................

[TrickyVein]

I don't know if you could find a tutorial for something as vague as "building a house." You learn by doing in this instance. You can find tutorials for specifics like lighting, using the object palette, navmeshing, scripting NPC's and creating loot.

 

The best repository for information is actually Bethesda's own wiki.

[JustinDK]

Try getting creative with different static objects that aren't intended for 'house' building. Utility poles can be used to construct simple exterior frames. Some floor textured objects can act as walls, even some interior objects can be made to work outside.

 

Still, I highly recommend the bethsoft tutes, they will save you time in the long run. I assume you actually want to do something with your creation. However, if you insist on taking shortcuts, I can tell you now to research the snap / grid functions and navmeshing.

 

Good luck!