Worldspace playable area limiting?

[Noobo]

Hi guys Im currently working on a new worldspace.

 

Im quite invested into this little project. There is a foreseeable problem however.

I wanted to know how I can limit the size of the world - Essentially stop a player from going beyond a certain area

This landmass is surrounded by sea, so I cant put any statics to block the players path. How would i limit the size of my worldspace?

 

A few screenshots just so u know im serious:

 

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y540/arquey/ScreenShot2J.jpg

 

http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y540/arquey/ScreenShot4j.jpg

[scrivener07]

Create collision plane with the button on the main toolbar. Button reference http://www.creationkit.com/Main_Toolbar#Collision_Buttons

[acidzebra]

Scriv: if the worldspace is large that would make for some awfully big collision markers. The preferred way is, I think, to use the region editor (menu World > Regions), select your worldspace from the dropdown, define a new region (right-click in the region name list > new region), select that region and designate it as a border region (Tab general, check border region, apply), and then draw your desired borders in the little world map shown (left-click on a cell to place marker, left click new cell to place marker, two more times until you have a nice box (or more if you need a different shape), then right click in the map window and choose "done" to complete the box. Or undo last point to go back. Then apply once more and close the editor.

 

This may sound more complex than it is, see this page (for fallout but still valid) for more graphic detail.It also talks about lots of other stuff but you just want to know how to draw a region. But man you can do some awesome stuff with the region editor.

 

When you try to cross the border you will get the familiar "you cannot go that way" message.

Edited December 9, 2012 by acidzebra

[scrivener07]

Didnt know about that, Do what acid says. Collision planes are better for smaller areas or rooms.

[Noobo]

Kudos, Many thanks to the both of you =)

[Noobo]

Another related question. Is a heightmap nessesary for the worldspace, or can I just keep working with terrain editing in the render window?

[acidzebra]

For large worldspaces you generate heightmap > terrain > then detailing. Since you've gone straight to detail you've essentially skipped the heightmap stage (this is fine for smaller and medium-sized worldspaces, so don't worry about it - it would be too much work to manually build a worldmap the size of Tamriel and that's where heightmaps come in).

 

If you want some more tips

a) make a manual backup of your file before you start working and every 4 hours, especially when things get complex. The CK autobackup will only save the last X saves (if turned on) so if you save a lot that is useless.

b) if you're going to add dragons you will need to generate terrain height data (not heightmap), details here or they will just fly through everything

c) if your worldspace is fairly large and you get terrain and building pop-in or fade-in (or you don't get the "endless sea" view you would get in a port town) you will need to generate LOD for terrain and/or objects. I find terrain LOD is easiest done through Oscape, details here and object LOD can be done through the CK, the most complete information I found here.

d) if you're doing landscape texturing with the CK's landscape/paint tool remember that there is a maximum of 6 textures in every cell quadrant and if you go over that black spots will appear. You can remove them by undo or move the camera into the offending cell, press "H" to enter landscaping mode if you're not already in it, then "i" to get the quadrant texture info window. you can select any texture and press del to remove it. The CK will not ask for confirmation and just do it so be careful.

e) don't go around changing water and land height in world > worldspaces after you initially set it because it may confuse the hell out of oscape and the CK terrain LOD generator, preventing you from generating proper terrain LOD

f) similarly, in World > worldspaces don't touch the usable dimensions or cell coordinates (in the map sections) unless you know what you're doing

g) LODs are generated at several levels (2,4,8,16,32 IIRC) with less mesh detail the higher the level. The highest (least amount of detail) level, the 32 set, is used to build the local map data (what you see when you press M ingame)

 

That's all I can think of for worldbuilding right now.

Edited December 10, 2012 by acidzebra

[Noobo]

Brilliant thankyou