New Vegas GECK, Got a couple of Questions.

[uberlux]

Hello all,

I recently got into the new vegas geck. Its the first time ive used any thing like it and i seem to be learning it nicely. I just got a couple questions because a few odds and things i yet need to understand.

 

before i continue, this is a personal project. i have used material from other mods and i do not plan on publishing.

 

So i downloaded 'house mod x' we'll call it, it has lots of functioning things like water purifier and oven food station etc.

so i made this little house using the point lookout resources contained in new vegas. it is very point lookout looking too.

I have a slow impatient computer so crashing and saving is common. The problem is, i copied > pasted some functioning items, and even some normal stuff like lockers, then i saved and a little while later my geck crashed. Upon loading the geck again only some of the stuff i added from 'house mod x' stayed in my cell.

If i were to crack a guess at the link between what disappeared, i would say its all the custom stuff, that isnt anywhere other than 'house mod xs' files.

 

Also, i noticed the doors section of the GECK. But how do i tell if its a open/close door, or one designed to load a cell?

I mean, apart from being textured on only one side. Is there setup involved in open/close doors?

 

Next question i have is about Getting world objects from another mod, and cramming it in my own plugin file, is this possible? life would be easier if i didnt have to have 12 mods for my own house.

 

Thats it thanks fellas.

I appreciate all those who will respond to this post. Even if you just call me a Geck noob ha ha.

[Pelgar]

Assuming you had the house mod x loaded into the Geck along with your mod before and after the crash, I have no idea why the items are gone.

 

I think that most doors can be used as open close or cell load doors. It's been a long time since I've messed with doors at all but how they are set up in the Geck determines what they do.

When you look at a teleport door in the Gecks view window it will always have a yellow rectangle marker in front of it. If you work through the Geck tutor at http://geck.bethsoft.com/index.php/Category:Getting_Started#My_First_Vault_Tutorial_Series It shows you how to do a cell to cell teleport door. I think it shows how to do an open close door as well but it's been a long time so I'm no sure about that one.

 

Now for the one I do know about. Yes you can grab items from a mod and use them in your mod. You've said you're not going to release the mod you're working on but before I get into it I want to stress that you should always get the Authors permission before releasing a mod with someone elses work in it.

 

I'll use Exeter's Neck seam concealer chains at http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/37969/ as an example. Exeter gives permission to reuse these neck chains in his description. He just ask that you give him credit it you use them in a mod. (Thaks Exeter, I've learned a lot just from looking at some of your work!)

 

If you download and install the neck chains you can find them in back of the old truck in front of Doc Mitchell's house in Goodsprings.

 

Load Neckchains.esp into the Geck and set the Filter to 01 and you'll find the neckchains in the ARMO Form Type. (Geck Tip: Once you've typed into the Filter box if you click the Form Type header then the Editor ID header then the Form Type header once more the items in the right section of the Object Window will be alpha-numerically sorted). Double click Exters 01Tags to pop the dog tags up in the Armor Editor. You'll see the Male and Female section over on the right. The file paths you see there are relative to your Fallout NV data\meshes folder. So you will find Exter's male dog tags (Exeter\chains\tagsm.nif) in Data\Meshes\Exter\chains. Once you browse to that folder you'll find all of Exeter's neck chain nifs there.

 

If you want to use the male dog tags in your mod grab the tagsm.nif file and place it where you want it. Maybe something like Data\meshes\uberlux\Exeter\DogTags. I like to use the original authors name like that to help me remember where it came from so I can give them credit if I ever do release it.

You're going to need to grab the textures too. You'll need to open the nif file in NifSkope to find where the textures are. In NifSkope look at the BSShaderTextureSet under the BSShaderPPLightingProperty of the NiTriShape. Once you click BSShaderTextureSet click the triangle next to Textures to open them up. The dog tags have two textures a Color Texture (textures\exeter\chains\tags.dds) and a Normal Texture (textures\exeter\chains\tags_n.dds). This path is relative to your Data folder so you should find the textures in Data\textures\exeter\chains. Exeter's male dog tags have two NiTriShape properties but they both use the same textures so where good here.

Just like with nif file you need to copy the textures to where you want to use them, something like Data\textures\uberlux\Exeter\DogTags.

After you copy the meshes and textures you have to open the nif and change the texture paths. In NifSkope expand one of the NiTriShape's then BSShaderPPLightingProperty and click the BSShaderTextureSet. Click the purple gear next to a used texture then browse to where you stored the textures. (Note: once you've set one of the textures look at the new path and make sure it's not an absolute path i.e. starts with C:\, D:\...) An absolute path here is a pretty common problem amoung us noobs but can really leave you scratching your head if you ever relase the mod. To fix this, in NifSkope, click the Render Menu item then Settings and the Rendering tab. Click the large Add Folder (at top) button, select the New Folder then click the small Folder button (at bottom) and browse to your New Vegas Data folder.

 

You should be ready to place the dog tags into your mod. The easiest way is to copy an existing item. I like to pick something similar so there is less to change. So load your mod into the Geck and pick something like the Slave Collar. I think it's the only neck wear in the vanilla game. Double click the SlaveCollar ARMO and change both the Male path to point to where you placed the dog tag nif file. If you wanted to do the female version as well just copy that nif over, change the texture paths and set the Female path in the Geck. Be sure to change the ID before you click the OK button then tell it yes to create a new form.

 

You may have noticed the World Model and Icon Image paths in the Armor Editor. You can grab those from Exeter's neck chains as well, just follow the file paths.

 

Hope this helps.