I think that would be Awesome. I have toyed with the idea of writing a GECK manual myself, but as you know I'm way too deep into my project to back out now and as such I have to limit my non-mod committments. I'm currently working for Cipscis on his validator and have done some mod work for MystykStar, but the GECK manual is just too-big a topic to do in anything less than 100+ pages. If you don't end up writing one, and once my mod is complete, who knows - but we need at least a year of stick-time on the NV-GECK too as it's coming with a bunch of new features that we'll have to figure out. Also if its possible to do an asset-transfer from a Fo3 to a NV mod (swappin gout FormIDs for references in NV), that will take time too.

Either way, one desperately needs to be written one day. The WIKI is Awesome for modders as the reference for stuff, but its not a manual.

It is if you don't what the remedy is, which I didn't until just recently. Now it's just a minor annoyance, but that wasn't the case for me not to long ago. I found myself repeatedly exiting the GECK and rebooting to be able to see things. It also frequently crashes on exit, which I admit is not really that big of a deal but annoying none the less. It's also not uncommon for it to crash when I'm in the middle of doing something. And like the Oblivion CS before it, sometimes the text in a menu pop up will disappear for no apparent reason and I'll have to reboot the program. And I've already mentioned the problems I was running into with the LOD functions. I spent several hours trying to get that working right but was never able to. I've worked with a number of fairly complex programs and I've never encountered the number of problems that I have using the GECK.



I'm not sure where you get that info from but it's not correct. I use a single monitor at a fixed resolution and it's still a very common occurrence to have my objects disappear.

Another tip to exit the Geck quickly is to click on the script icon, then hit new and then save. Then answer No and then Yes and the Geck will close instantly.

Oh its correct, but not on Every computer. I have seen many folks with the issue post about it, and I too have it. Again not a major issue.

I Don't know your system or, if you simply missed a file. When, I was getting errors, I would read them and, trannslate them into the files I didn't place. Once it was all set up right it worked like a charm. Yes, it takes some time and, a lot of patients. :brokencomputer:




I'm sure Miax's is correct. I get this issue when I resize my render window with a cell open. As Miaximus has said the GECK is not bugged it's just simply glitchy, Built to be used on a specific system, by people who know it's limitations. Now that it's distributed to all of us with our random graphics cards, processors and, ram. how could you expect it to work like say, Photoshop which you pay $600 + for?

The GECK can be annoying but, if I'm able to run it on a Mac, (Running Vista on a Bootcamp Drive,) with limited errors, Pulling off LOD over 13 times, it can't be all that bad.

When you run into trouble simply come to the community! ( I do! ) There are tones of competent modders out there willing to lend a hand. This is where you'll get the help you need.

If you simply give up, well I have to call you a wimp or even a P***Y! :drool: ( simply making a bad joke! :facepalm: )

This! I could not have said it better. I have learned more from the community than I ever thought possible.

Miax

You and the, themadition and, many many others have helped me, more times than I can count. Keep up the good work and I'll try to reciprocate.

Yea that happens to me too, to fix it I simple minimize, then restore the geck and its all better.



This is probably, like Miax said, because it was not indended for commercial use. So they just were like "Oh why not release so people can mod?" and did, without worrying about fixing the minor that can be avoided with the proper know-how.

This was well past that stage. As I mentioned, I got it working just fine for a couple of trial runs but after I tried to actually get my objects in, everything just started screwing up. And I just couldn't get it to work right after that. While my VWD object appeared in the game, almost all of my LOD textures were distorted.

OK, that's a new one on me. I'll have to try that next time it happens.

I truly hope you didn't find my comets offensive. ( Not my intent,) Simply trying to get my point across, all I was really saying was, when you have issues come to the community, post screens of your errors, ask for help. (yes I know this is a run on sentence.) :brokencomputer:

I, myself, Miaximus and, many, many others are willing to come and lend a hand.

Simply saying the GECK is bugged is a cop out. Most anything you want to achieve is possible. (given it's not a hardcode issue.)

LOD entirely works, I'm sorry you didn't figure it out but, again I really feel you could of, with a little patience and, the help of the community.

Again, if you need any help in the future feel free to ask.

Then perhaps someone can enlighten me on why my LOD textures were coming out messed up. I had put all the files in their proper places, i.e. Source/TGA Textures etc., ran a couple of test runs using the Generate Objects option the way the Wiki described and at first everything came out just fine. But once I tried to add the suburbanranchdestroy_lod.nif file with the VWD set on the static, I started getting a barrage of error messages and my textures were coming out all distorted. I could see the Ranch houses in the game but most of LOD textures were messed up. Even after I went back to just using the stock files, no suburbanranchdestroy_lod.nif, I was running into the problem. I was never able to get a clean graphic once things started screwing up.

Alright, but did you convert them to TGA as well? They cant just be there and be .dds, they have to be .tga files to work. I bet that is what you did?

in the gamebryo exporter, LOD is also used in reference to the different levels of mesh detail and even in animation, boneLOD data. VWD seems to be a landscape specific term.

Please don't insult me. I've already mentioned a couple of times now that I had gotten past that stage and done a couple of test runs where everything worked out OK. That wouldn't even have been possible if they weren't TGA files in the first place.

Might I recommend you relax a little? Clearly Ghogiel is not insulting you, he is trying to help and clearly not intending to insult anyone!

As you can see alot of folks are willing to help when you post questions, we like to help folks - especially when they are nice or thankful in return.

Yeah alright. It's can just be a bit annoying going over something I've already mentioned on a few occasions now. Yes I did convert them to TGA, yes I did have all the files in place in their proper folders and I managed to do a couple of successful test runs at first. But all hell broke loose as soon as I tried to actually add the VWD object I wanted, and things remained broken after that.

I meant no insult. Trust me, people can do things like that. Almost all of my issues tend to stem from stupid little mistakes, and once I figure them out I am like "Doh!" :facepalm: So if your files were all in the correct spot then its odd you got errors. I dunno, I just pray it works easily for me when the time comes to generate my LOD.

If this is your attitude, I don't see why anyone is bothering to help you then. Everyone here is Only trying to help, you really shouldn't be biting people's heads off for it even if your annoyed by the situation.

Miax

Gunmaster wasn't offended by my comments, so why should you be? I'm sure you've had days when you've just felt cranky about something, no need to jump down my throat about it. Especially since my initial comment wasn't even directed at you. It had nothing to do with you, so why did you jump in?

Edit, I at first quoted the wrong quote.


This may be a dumb question but, after the LOD process finished did you move the newly created landscape folder. (Which was created in the source folder,) back to the proper textures\Landscape folder? Inside of the Textures\Landscape\LOD folder there should be a subfolder with the name of your worldspace, the game needs this to show the proper textures in game. They'll show up right in GECK.

If I missed you mentioning this before I'm sorry, just trying to touch every base. Theres a little more to the process than just placing the meshes and TGA textures in there appropriate directory and, running through the Generate LOD window. The GECK doesn't place all necessary files where they should actually live.

This could be one explanation for your LOD textures not working properly.

That wasn't a dumb question at all. No I didn't move it, I see now that was one step I missed. But what I was seeing doesn't match what the Wiki mentions would happen. I wasn't getting purple textures, they were simply distorted. I guess I should try that though, maybe that will do it. I'd really like to get Big Town appearing from a distance instead of popping up when I'm right on top of it. I don't quite understand why they didn't include VWD objects for them, there's only a few of them on the map, they wouldn't cause any major performance hit.

PS: I think I see now. There already was a Wasteland.Buildings.dds so the textures wouldn't come out purple, but the order of the various graphics would have been changed because of the one I added. So objects would be using the wrong textures. That was probably what the problem was then. Thanks.

I like the GECK Wiki and, use it myself but, it's not the be all and end all of modding. It does sometimes contain misinformation. Again, reaching out to the community is your best chance of figuring out how to pull something off. I'm not guaranteeing I have the solution for your issues but I'm willing to try to help.

So I gave the LOD thing another try, making sure to copy that file over and setting the archive invalidation and I'm still getting those error messages, and the LOD textures are still coming out screwed up. Though not quite as badly as before. The error messages don't even make sense:

 (null) : (null) is missing a Diffuse map

Nothing is missing a diffuse map, they're all there and I'm not even being told where the problem is supposed to be. So sorry guys but LOD does not work for me and as far as I'm concerned, that part of the GECK is hopelessly buggy. If you have any idea what the hell is going on here please share your info with me, but I'm not going to waste any more time trying to figure it out on my own.

This has already ben posted on the "I messed up my LOD" thread but, I'll let it be known here too.

"I started working on my "LOD Essentials Pack", I've gone through the entire Meshes folder cleaning out everything accept the needed LOD files and, double checked my source/Textures TGA folder against a clean unpack of the textures folder.

I tested it with a duplicated worldspace, of Takoma park. I ran into a few bugs but, fixed them. I think I've gotten most of the necessary files packed up properly. (I'm sure I've missed something but, there are a lot of files to go through.) After, the two errors I found the process worked like a charm.

I'm going to wright up a very remedial readme on the process and, when I say remedial I mean, I'm going to try to make the process seem "Idiot proof."

I'll go through step by step. first on installing the pack properly, then try to walk people through the process I use to generate my LOD. Finally, ending with a description of what files and, there file paths, which will be needed to be included with your mods for distribution.

I hope I can count on you guys to test it for anything I may have missed and, even critique the readme, I'm by no means a writer, I'd really like it to be clear and understandable for anyone who has a basic understanding of the GECK. If one of you who may be a better writer even wants to rewrite it to make it even clearer, that would also be cool. I know my short comings and, I'm OK with them.

This will probably take a few days, my DSL modem seems to have fried out! I've ben responding via, my IPhone and, am unable to upload anything until I replace my modem."