For example, I wish to create my first mod as a house/buildings mod.

I managed to make a little cave thing with some rusted vault pieces, but I am having a bit trouble with a couple things.

First of all, lighting.

I don't understand how to do lighting properly, or make bright lights. My lights are very dim, and are hardly emitting any light. I have to scale them up WAY big to even have a ray of light on something.
If anybody wants to take a look at my current .esp file and see what I am doing wrong by viewing it in the GECK and additionally in-game as well. I would much appreciate it.

http://www.mediafire.com/?q23nanrp40t2w5l

Basically the following things are what I struggle with in the GECK:
-Lighting (obviously)
-Navmeshes
-Room Markers / Portals

I managed to make the cave type thing out of vault hallways, and attach it to the world. If you want to take a look at what it looks like in-game, you can just throw my .esp in your Data and load it up with NVMM; it works in-game. You access it by a hatch right in front of the Vikki and Vance Casino.

Anyways, I would appreciate it if I could get some further help, explanation, or tutorials about Lighting, Navmesh, and Room Markers / Portals; because all of those confuse me in the GECK tutorial wiki.

Thanks!

Also, name of the cell is called MyCasino

I'm going to take a peek at your esp and, I'll get back to you shortly.

cev

OK, first assuming that the little hallway is all that you've gotten done yet. You don't need the big FX light rays, kill them and select your cell in the cell view window. Wright click on it and, go to common data, change it's image space modifier. Play with them see which one fits your needs some are brighter than others.

Navemesh is a little more complicated, watch the FO3 youtube tutorials on the subject. some things you'll need to watch out for are, the nodes can get attached to pipes on the ceilings or, chair markers. Once you've finished your cells navemesh you need to check for cover and edges then finalize both your navemesh and, the one it is connected to.

Navemeshing is important without it npc's will just stand around or do odd things.

Don't worry about Roombounds and portals until you've gotten the basics down. They are more about large cells and performance, they help to optimize cpu usage.

cev

Thank you for looking at it Cev! I appreciate you taking the time.

Yes all I have finished so far is the little hallway thing, I just was kind of playing around with the GECK since it was my first time using the GECK when I made this.

I don't really understand what you are talking about with the lights, could you be more specific and/or dumb it down a bit? Haha sorry, really new to the GECK/modding.

What are the room markers and portals used for? Are they necessary? And thanks I'll look up some navmesh tutorials. I'd rather get the basis of creating the space down though before I worry about navmeshes, because I kind of want to make my first mod as a house mod; and add NPC support later - after the release.

And again, thank you for taking a loot at it.

*EDIT* To clear up all confusion, the cell for what I created is called MyCasino, forgot to mention that in the OP...

Ok so I found what you were talking about with the lighting, but it is still pitch black in my cell. I set it to the brightest image space modifier, but there is 0 light.
How do I allow my whole cell to be evenly lit, and bright?

I would start by duplicating Vault 21. (This way you'll get it's lighting and image space.), It is a bright well lit cell. Go to view\show hide. check the roombounds portals box, you seen a lot of blue boxes. Delete them! for now you don't need them and, they are complicated for you at this point. Well delete everything in the cell and start to play. See if the lighting ends up to be more of what you want.

I don't have much time, got to head off to work but, try starting with vault 21 as you base lighting templet. If you need more help just ask.

cev

Ok I'll try that in a minute, in the mean time; this is what I made copying Vance and Vikki's Casino:

http://www.mediafire.com/?47e47a879pe5qqr

Unfortunately, it seems to not be working, and I don't know what is wrong. The cell is called "UndergroundHideout" and "UndergroundHideoutEnt" (for the entrance/tunnel part)

Getting from the hatch in front of the Vikki and Vance Casino goes into the Underground Hideout Entrance just fine, but once I get to that, the door to Underground Hideout teleports you into the middle of the room (?) and you are stuck in a door with all the items I added stacked on you.

Could you; Cev, and any others take a loot at this both by trying it in-game, and looking at it in the GECK to see what I did wrong?

Thanks!

Also, Cev can you make a duplicated Vault 21 cell and save it as a .Esp or something? Because when I do it I get all these message pop-ups and stuff when trying to clear the copied cell.

Thanks.

I'll take a look at it in a few minutes and, get back to you.

As I said earlier, If you use cells that you like the lighting in as your base, it's a lot easer to do the lighting. If you want to build a wasteland shack, find one you like the lighting in the duplicate it, remove what you don't want and, start. As you go you'll learn what all of the little check boxes and, tabs are used for.

Also, I'm guessing you know but, the light markes (which look like light bulbs) are used to brighten specific areas in the cell.

When I first started modding I would simply duplicate cells delete everything accept one floor tile peace (To be replaced later by, using the find and replace on. This keeps all new peaces on the grid.) and, all of the light markers. Which helps because you know all of the lights used in the original were men't to be used with the specific lighting templet of the cell.

Off to look at your cell be back soon.

cev

I just did a somewhat rough but, proper lighting rework for your entrance cell. Then I ran into the object stacking issue you mentioned looking into it now. I will upload my aultered version and, a cleaned vault 21 for you as soon as I can.

I'm also going to tell you some about some other issues I've found, not to talk down or, to be mean but, I want you to start your modding carrere on the right foot.

I'll upload these once I figure out the stacking issue.

cev

even better PM me an email addres and I will send them to you directly. There small files so, should be no issue.

cev

I sent you the PM, and stuff. Still awaiting any of the uploads or critiques on this thread or in a PM

got it, I've ran into to some confusing issues! Could be GECK bugs, not sure yet. The Stacking issue is confusing! :facepalm: I deleted everything you added then built a new room out off several tile sets. I still had the stacking issue then got a CTD! :brokencomputer: Now I'm going to delete your underground cell and try to connect your entrance to a new one.

as a person who loves to build new interior spaces this is somewhat disconcerting.

Is the GECK completely bugged, Are we initially given the 1.5 but?

I'll be back once I've done some more testing! Thanks, I thought I was going to simply help out the new guy now, I'm trying to figure out potential issues I may run into.

cev

Interesting.

Maybe I wasn't doing things completely wrong, some of it might have just been buggy.

I appreciate you looking into this!

No trouble, I'm done for the night but, I'll get back on this after work tomorrow.

I need to Know!

I do have some other ideas to try.

I'll be back somewhere around 7 or 8PM US CST.

I'm working off of what I know from the FO3 GECK, Things have changed now! It's a new world, Helping you helps me. I haven't started my personal mod yet but, the more I figure out before I start is quite helpful.

cev

Zorph

I just sent you an email of the clean vault 21 you asked about. I'm still looking into the stacking issue you have in your mod.

cev

Ok sounds good!
And hope you figure it out soon!

BTW, I still; even using your entrance that you sent me, don't see how to make lights; and it's still pitch-black?

pitch black in game or, the GECK? I tested the rework I did of your mod and, had a somewhat lit hallway. If your seeing this in the GECK, there is a lighitng bug when adjusting, placing lights. Hit the F5 ke and, the cell will re-render, your changes should show up then. The lights you want to use are the ones that look like little white lightbulbs, download my http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35971 there are lists for every light in the game. Look for Lighting_1 (I think thats the name or, it may be light_1). Those are all of the placeable lights for ambient lighting. The light rays or only meant to be used as special affects.

please clarify if the issue your having is in game or GECK.

cev

In-game.

It's just simply not bright enough.

If your lights are not bright enough, either use different lights, scale your current lights' radii up by holding 's' and dragging (make sure you have the light radii visible by hitting 'L' first), or copy the lights to a new base object and edit them directly. Note that if you make a new base object, you can increase brightness without increasing radius by manipulating the color and falloff values to suit your needs. The lights the game uses are sufficient for most purposes though.

When I make the lights as big as my whole cell each by holding S, it still is same brightness, just further range.

Also, I don't know what you mean by the base object thing

Dubble click on an item, you'll get a new window, hit the edit base, then rename any item in game, click ok the geck will ask if you want to create a new form. click yes and, then you can edit the attributes of you new form without changing anything that is vanilla.

It is best to try to use unique mod specific names that to try to insure no one else will use the same form ID. Don't use names that are too simple like "light2" odds are, someone else will use the same name and, you'll have a conflict.

cev

Ok. Also, any progress on stacking thing?