=========== SDR - Sneaking Detection Recalibrated ============

=========== Current Version ============

7.3.2 is now available in the following installation package formats:
- Patch Only (for those with 7.3.1 installed)

7.3.1 is now available in the following installation package formats:
- Wrye Bash Bain package with Installer Wizard (works for Oblivion and Nehrim)
- Manual installer for Oblivion Only
- Manual installer for Nehrim Only
- RGO for SDR patch is available as a separate download in the optional files section. (It is already bundled in the Wrye Bash installer, but not the other packages)

Note: omod installer is not available at this time. I apologize for the inconvenience, but will rectify at a later date.

Download links, installation instructions, and load order recommendations here: http://www.saebel.net/SDR/sdrInstall.php

The .ini file structure system has changed, so if you are upgrading from any version prior to the 7.x.x series, only use your old .ini files as a reference.

Visit the http://saebel.net/sdr.php for complete details, including mod-conflict info, performance tips, and much much more!

=========== NEW 8.x.x BETA version available for download/testing! ============

It should be stable, but there is always a risk when working with Alpha/Betas.

New Modder's Resource Package is now available for download:

Nexus (under the miscellaneous section): http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37385/?

SDR Website: http://www.saebel.net/SDR/sdrModdersResourcePackage.php

Reserved.

Decided to merge the old SDR thread and the WIP thread together, since a beta release is fairly imminent.

Bugger. So although I've made great strides in the documentation, as well as lots of bug fixes, etc., I've run into a major snag. Oblivion keeps crashing on me. No idea why.

I even deleted everything from the Oblivion directory (both in games and mygames) and reverted to a bare bones clean install that I knew for sure worked. Deleted all the saves. I can't even create a character. It either crashes or won't let me click on any buttons.

I'm stumped. I've never run into this before. Until this gets resolved, everything else is on hold. I've spent the last four hours trying to figure out what the heck is going on and am going to walk away from it for a bit. I may have no choice but to do a full uninstall reinstall.

That's one royal hissy fit. Have you deleted the Oblivion ini file?

yup. I've tried that several times.

Did you reboot your machine? If that doesn't work, kick it. And if that doesn't work, it sounds like you're right - complete removal and reinstallation. I don't have any other ideas, unfortunately.

A new Oblivion installation is required, if even a 99% pure vanilla is crashing

I forgot that the default Oblivion.ini always gives me problems. I was able to clean it up and at least get to the character creation stage where buttons worked. Now I'm reinstalling mods and hoping for the best.

Update:

Seems to be working now, albeit a little sluggish (pushing my limit with the graphics settings). Going to back up these files for sure!

Whew! I'm glad you recovered... That was seriously scary!

Yes, thank goodness.

Quick update. I have nearly completed revising the SDR Players Handbook (prev. ini Users Guide), the .ini defaults, and the SDR.esm. All that is left is to revisit/revamp the rules on movement rates (running, sprinting, sneaking) and fatigue. After that, I will be ready for a Beta release on the Nexus.

I'm even considering throwing in the option for NPCs to use sprinting as well under certain conditions, and I'd like to open up the discussion on that before I get too deep into the reprogramming of that whole section.

Currently I am using an obse function that can only modify the player's movement speed. However, I can in theory could switch it and use ModAVMod to alter the scripted factor of the speed attribute for any actor. I would mainly have to establish a few conditions:

1. Under what conditions would an actor start sprinting?

2. Under what conditions would they stop sprinting?

3, How do I make sure that the speed doesn't exponentially increase by mistake? (that shouldn't be too hard actually)

My initial thoughts are as follows:

Initiating Sprint

- Anyone who wants to sprint must have at least 50% of their max fatigue available. They must also be already running.

- The player will sprint when they hit the sprint key on the keyboard.

- if the actor is a follower of the player, and the player starts sprinting, then the follower would sprint too to catch up if they fall behind a certain distance (exterior range max).

- If an actor is in combat, their target is the player, the player is moving away from the actor (not sure how to calc that, perhaps heading angles?), and the player is moving faster than the actor, and they have fatigue to do it, they might sprint to overtake the player.

Stopping the sprint

- Anyone who reaches a threshold of 40% of their total fatigue will be forced to return to running until their fatigue builds up to at least 50%.

- The player can stop sprinting by releasing the keyboard sprint key.

- Followers will stop sprinting when they get within a certain distance of the player (short range max).

- Those in combat with the player will stop sprinting when either the player is no longer running away from them, they run out of fatigue, or they end combat with the player.

In terms of fatigue limits, I'm thinking of initiating similar rules for running.

- Anyone who wants to run can only do so if they have at least 15% of their fatigue.

- They would be forced to walk wen their fatigue reaches 5%

I could have it set up so that the movement rules would work as follows:

0 = turns off all movement rules, letting Oblivion or other mods decided.

1 = turns on all movement rules, sprinting for player only

2 = turns on all movement rules, sprinting for player and NPC followers only.

3 = turns on all movement rules, sprinting for player and all NPCs only.

4 = turns on all movement rules, sprinting for everyone including creatures.

My instinct is to make the default 3, because the sprinting calculations are based on human movement rates, and creatures move at various speeds and have different movement patters. Perhaps I shouldn't even make option 4 available for performance reasons.

Looking forward to y'all's thoughts on this.

I like it just exactly as you describe it. There's nothing you've said there that I would change.

Unrelated, sorry: If I want my mod to be compatible with SDR, is it ok to use the vanilla "Blindness" actor value in a blindness-inducing scripted spell, or does SDR have its own blindness mechanic I should use? I'm not concerned with affecting the player, only NPCs.

This is the official SDR thread, so yes it's related.

Yes, you can use the vanilla "Blindness" actor value. SDR also has its own blindness mechanic with a separate "temp blindness" custom AV which is the recommendation for temporary effects like spells. Once the new beta version is released, I'll be working on a Modders Guide that will explain how everything works.

SDR will have some pre-built spells / potions that you can tap into but the Guide will go into more detail on how to create your own.

Been running around with SDR a few days on my 'sin, so far so good! I love the fps improvement.

Would doing an alpha of build 7 be a good idea, to be sure the new features work as intended?

I'very been working on Alpha 7/8. I'm stuck on sprinting because I get CTDs when I test for isRunning. It's not SDR though. Something else is causing it. So until I figure out what that is I can't make any progress.

If I can figure it out today, I should have a new Alpha by end of day.

Update:

Resolved issue with CTDs (it was Improved Water 1.2. Updated to 1.3 fixed it)

Sprinting is work for the player.

To do list:

- add rules for NPCs

- massage settings so that fatigue loss rates are "right"

Update 2:

In my description of my plan, I was saying "%", but it's actually going to be a fixed number. % doesn't work when you compare someone who is athletically at their peak vs. someone who is untrained with average ability. The former is going to have way more fatigue than the latter due to training, endurance, etc., and it doesn't make sense to force them to wait until they recover 50% of their max fatigue. Side by side, if the athlete and the untrained both lost all of their fatigue and recovered at the same rate, the untrained person would be able to sprint sooner than the athlete, which doesn't make any sense.

Update 3:

Finished rules for NPCs. Fairly simple stuff. Next up is the hard part: calculating the fatigue stuff and running backwards movement rates. It's complicated, especially when you take into account that other mods will be impacting fatigue as well.

Update 4:

Okay, kinda funny. I'm trying to test out all these different rules in terms of speed/athletics/fatigue/etc. And nothing seems to be making a difference. And I'm like "what's going on?" Well, I have nGCD installed, so every time I manually changed my stats, it would change them back.

Update 5:

Got stuck for a few hours trying to resolve CTDs. I did resolve them. Apparently "GetAlarmed" is not a very reliable function and can cause CTDs. That feature is commented out for the time being until a workaround or fix can come in to play.

Update 6:

Changed my mind and going back to a percentage for run/sprint cut off. Just going to handle the math differently.

Update 7:

Fatigue is finished. All that is left is running backwards and updating the documentation with the changes. (I think)

Update 8:

Finished all programming (I think). Updating documentation.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

This is *probably* going to be the final Alpha. This is a Beta release candidate. Nearly all programming is complete. The only thing I have forgotten to do was create leveled lists for Nerhim (assuming I decide to do that, I might not bother).

This version includes major major changes, especially to running, fatigue, etc.

It also includes the first draft of the newly revised SDR Players Handbook.

PLEASE DO A COMPLETE UNINSTALL AND CLEAN SAVE BEFORE INSTALLING!

If you have iniTweaks, make sure you back them up and double check them against the new ini reference guide as there have been changes.

Here's the link: http://www.saebel.net/SDR/sdrAlpha.php

I've got several other things to do this week, so you all have plenty of time to test while I take a break and get my RL in order.

Thank you for your patience.

w00t

w00t indeed! I've done a preliminary run through all of my testing scenarios and haven't found a single problem. It looks good to go to beta to me. Nice job!

I am officially moving SDR into the Beta test phase.

You can download it on the Nexus: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37385/?

For a summary of all the changes prior to the latest version and more info on the Beta test process, please visit: http://www.saebel.net/SDR/sdrBeta.php

For those of you that want to pop open the hood or are curious about making mods that take advantage of SDR's new features, the first incarnation of the Modder's Resource Package is now complete.

It can be downloaded from the SDR Nexus site in the miscellaneous section, or directly from the SDR website here: http://www.saebel.net/SDR/sdrModdersResourcePackage.php

With the default settings, I still get occasional (rare) instances of people trying to attack each other in inappropriate ways, like through walls. Dropping iSDRsBaseValue back to -65 seems to allow them to do better pathfinding. Or at least I haven't seen any more of those instances.

~5 actors 5-10 detection calls per second
~15 actors 50-200 detection calls per second
~25 actors 800-1000 detection calls per second
~35 actors 1200-1400 detection calls per second

These are number of detections per actors. But they are rarely met with default settings from the ini:

So, it has to be at least 25 actors in the vicinity. Isn't it a very rare occasion? Or is the new DLL good enough to handle it without slowdowns? I dind't notice any unusual slowdowns yet, but I just started using it. Haevn't been to Market District or Waterfront in Better Cities yet.

BTW I presume that the only scenario that NPCs benefits from the SDR, is when another NPC is trying to sneak near them? I only saw two such instances to date. One was some Argonian in Bravil I belive, and the other was maybe Methedrel. Or are NPCs benefits from SDR formulas not only when somebody is sneaking but for non-sneaking detection as well?

EDIT: What's a new Reboot feature that you mention on the Beta page?

You can type "StartQuest sdrQReboot" in the console to reboot SDR and reset everything.

Saebel, I just did a quick check and don't see it mentioned anywhere in the docs.

Hmmm. That's interesting. I'll keep that in mind for the next update.

Regarding actor counts, yes, it will be very rare. You will only find something like that happening in places like the market district or the arboretum, and only during peak hours. That also assumes you have mods like Better Cities that boost populations in those areas. The vast majority of the time you probably won't run into any issues.

The detection formula applies to everyone. Everyone makes detections all the time, regardless of whether or not someone is sneaking. It's essential that an actor be able to detect another actor, otherwise they just stand around staring blankly into space and no one interacts with anyone else. In general if actors are friendly or at least on good terms with each other, the detection issue isn't all that important because they don't mind being detected by the other. But for thief types, rivals, any scenario where the target and detector are on opposite sides of the spectrum it becomes important.

The reboot feature is explained in the Players Handbook at the end of the traits section. In short, it allows you to reset all the tokens in case you have made any changes to the race sets. This allows you to "reboot" and reinitialize everyone's core stats without having to do a clean save with SDR inactive.

I only just added it to the documentation in the latest release. Although I forgot to update the website with the new Player's Handbook, which I've just done.

(It's on page 13)