SSE Intermittent floors not loading in cells... weird.

[cumbrianlad]

Really, as the title says when testing, sometimes pieces of floor are there. Sometimes they're not.

 

It's not a roombound issue, the floor is really gone as if deleted from the esp. You can fall through into the void. Next time I go into the same cell, having done nothing in CK or SSEedit... magically, the floor has reinstated itself.

 

I first noticed it after adding a few of my clutter items into the Solitude Fletcher's shop for him to sell. I tested and bought all the stuff. To see if it would respawn properly, along with stuff in his chest, I went in later. Poof! things were falling through the floor. Fihada was standing behind his counter beyond the gaping chasm...

 

... that's some way to deter customers, if you're having a bad day! Cast them into oblivion.

 

I checked SSEedit but his cell had no edits other than the misc items added to the shelves. Mystified, I went back in game and the floor was back.

 

Today, when testing, it happened in one of my own cells. I've been in there dozens of times testing. that piece of floor was always there! I saved and jumped into the void again and hit load once I'd confirmed it was the same issue. I reloaded and the floor was back!

 

When testing, I'm always using load doors, no COC or anything.

 

This testing is deliberately made using a save that had used my earlier version of the mod. I've not seen any other issues. Also, these cells were not even in that version. The ones that were all behave correctly.

 

Any ideas what can be going on?

[maxarturo]

After the update of ACT II v1.1 one specific 'Vanilla Mesh' started disappearing and appearing randomly 'On Cell Load', this issue wasn't there before v1.1.

I've made a post asking from other modders if they know anything about this, but i had no useful answers or answers at all.

Here is the link to my post:

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/8993613-a-little-help-with-a-vanilla-mesh-randomly-disappearing-after-first-released-of-mod/

Now i'm doing the last and final update (+ add-ons), and i'm narrowing down all the possible responsible culpable that are causing this issue, i'm very close to find the exact cause / nature of the issue.

BUT

For my answer to be applicable to you too, you need to test in a 'save file' that hasn't seen your mod and not test it on an existing save.

If this issue keeps happening with the last version of your mod in a clean from your mod save file, then my answer / solution can run on yours also.

* But i need 2 more days to have a solid conclusion.

[cumbrianlad]

Wow.

 

First off, Hi Maxarturo! Good to hear from you!

 

On my end, I'll test from a save that hasn't seen the mod ever. I tested like this to see if pllayers could get the extra benefits of the expansion without a new game. So I've been testing just using the new BSA files and saves made using the old version of the esp, if that makes sense.

 

Perhaps this is related. Reading that post it looks similar. II've done tests with just the BSA files on saves without the mod having been played before. No problem.

 

Maxarturo, my friend, take your time. I've been busy adding new arrow crafting to my mod. I'm set now to do testing on clean saves. The way I test (no coc, no advancing levels, basically no debug console, I'll need to play my mod for a full day to get to some of the cells)

[maxarturo]

How things went with you ?, did you test your mod on a 'clean' from your mod save file ?, what were your results ?.

From my end, i managed to pinpoint the exact culpable and rectify my issue, but i don't think my solution would help you...

Since it's directly attached to how i create interior cells look and behave like exterior, while adding to them scripted functions to make them simulate exterior behaviors, while retaining all the benefits of the interior cell.

Anyway, it was an esp 'Bug' cause by CK / game engine after i implemented a few visual add-ons / details to that particular cell in v1.1 of the mod without testing them, i wrongly had a blind trust on the cell's functions.

It was a really tedious and time consuming bug hunt, but i caught the bastard !.

[cumbrianlad]

Good that you found it in the finish! No matter that the findings don't seem to apply to me. I'm interested in what you did to 'Make the interior behave like an exterior', though. In what way? are we talking lighting here, or something else?

 

For me, I did a complete test on a clean save. It takes some time since there's a full day's game play in the mod, even though I know all the answers to the puzzles! There was no repeat of the disappearing meshes. I'm going to do the whole lot again on a save that had seen version 1.1 of the mod to see if I get the problem back.

 

In both cases I'm testing using the BSA files and no loose files. That way, I'm guarranteed to play the mod as my players will. I don't think that a lot of modders ever test like this, judging by the comments I've had from modders asking me for help with mods that play fine on their PC, but not for players... I've quickly found nifs pointing to textures that are missing in the BSA etc!

 

If I do find that these meshes disappear again, I have a definite answer to the question "Can I play the extended version of your mod without starting a new game?" It's looking like the answer is "No, version 2.0 requires a new game to avoid problems!"

 

I also cured a daft problem with parts of a gauntlet mesh disappearing but reappearing if I saved and reloaded the save without exiting the game... that was just down to my lack of understanding how partitions worked in nifs, not helped at all by the fact that the full details of partitions can't be seen in Nifskope for SSE meshes!

 

On the way, I also made a few cosmetic tweaks to some cells and found a part of one quest that I wasn't entirely happy with. So it's been quite constructive in the end. There has to be a point that you stop altering things, but I'm such a perfectionist that it probably comes much later for me than it would to some other modders!

 

One really odd problem, which prompted me to make changes to an exterior, resulted in a much better look in the end. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that. Screenshot of my new Rkundingth exterior... I like it! I know it's small, but that doesn't mean you have to pay any less attention to details! Think I'll make a new load door with a 'snow' directional material on it. I may even play around with the 'Max Angle' it's applied at. There I go again with being a perfectionist!