Difference between revisions of "A beginner's guide, lesson 2 - Creating a room"

 

 

Look for the cell on the '''LHS''' of the [[Cell View Window]] that refers to the cellar. It is called ''ChorrolTheOakandCrosierCellar'', and is right above the tavern in the list. Right-click on it, select '''Edit''', and a dialog box pops up. This has three tabs. '''Common Data''', '''Lighting''', and '''Interior Data'''. Select '''Interior Data'''. In the '''Ownership''' drag down box, select '''NONE'''.  

Now save your mod. Call it something useful like ''Test02''. Now before we go look in the game, just have a quick look at the [[:Category:Objects|objects]] inside the cellar. You'll notice that some of the objects listed under '''Containers''' are still owned by an NPC. These are locked chests. If you feel you deserve a treat for all your efforts so far, you could go ahead and change these to ''no ownership'' and ''unlocked''. It's a cheat. You’re getting something for nothing. If this bothers you, don't do it. If you ''do'' choose to modify these containers, remember to save your mod again.

Firstly, we will need a cell to work in. We create this by copying an existing cell. We could copy any cell but since we are altering the cellar it makes sense to copy that.

 

A new cell appears called ChorroltheOakandcrosierCellarCopy001. We change this by left-clicking on the name and waiting a few seconds. Change it if you like. The game has no rules about the name you give a cell as long as it is unique. Call it ChorroltheOakandcrosierCellarAlternative if you want. This will make it easier to find later.

The NORTHMARKER is an aesthetic object. It does not show up in the game but does play an important role in the immersion into the game.

When we fast travelled to Chorrol, we were facing North with the door behind us. The Entrance to the tavern was roughly to the North West. When we enter the Tavern and teleported in with our back to the door we still face North West.  

 

 

Ok, go ahead and delete these objects. You could leave the door and the Northmarker since we will be putting them back later but since this is a practice drill we should do everything from scratch.

Save it. (In fact, you should save within the CS on a regular basis. Not necessarily after every tiny change, but certainly after you perform major functions like positioning a room, Furnishing it etc. This is not only to avoid dirty mods but because, although the platform is fairly stable, it is not rock solid. So save, save and save again.)

 

 

* Items - All the objects you can carry in your inventory.

* Magic - All those objects which have a magical effect.

* Miscellaneous - Objects used externally and animations.

* World Objects - All the objects you see in the world that you can't put in your inventory.

The World Objects list is also sub-divided into 9 branching categories. We will look at each as and when we need them, although most are fairly self explanatory.  

What we want are the static objects/ Architecture List. Select this.  

 

Here's a little shortcut to save you time later in your Modding career:

 

 

Start the CS up again and select only the oblivion.esm.  

 

 

Make a copy of a Cell, empty it, and rename it TestBasementArch or something equally catchy. Drag and drop all the basement objects into this render window and spread them out so you can look at them. You can then save the mod as say ''libraryofstockitems''. Now every time you want to look at some basements, you can mod this mod and refer to this library. This Library mimics many of the TEST cells already provided by the CS. At first it is a pain. Now I find myself loading up the library mod every time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again the CS has an odd default setting for the lighting of object. It sets the light at zero. We can use the '''A''' key to set an artificially bright light while we edit. To change the lighting in the cell we need to use the right-click/edit on the cell in the cell view window.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the world objects, select doors, locate the ChorrolDoorMiddleAnim03 and drop it into the window. Use the object placement techniques we learned in Lesson 1 to put the door in position at the top of the stairs. it's not a perfect fit, but if we put it in front of the rectangular door space it will do the job fine.

Before we link it to the Tavern lets just look at the NorthMarker.

Now I have had a real problem adding NorthMakers to the window, but I have found a fix around. Try dragging and dropping first. Sometimes it works - sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't here’s what to do. From the Static list, drag in a Night Mother Statue Base in to the window. It’s the object just above the Northmarker. Now use search and replace to replace it with the NorthMarker. Position the NorthMarker just outside the door and adjust its' Z angle to 270 so it faces left in the render window view. Now go to top view and shift it about 5 degrees. This ties in with the marker in the original cellar cell. You can move between the two to confirm the set up.  

The next task is to link the door from your room to the tavern, First we are going to disable the existing link. This is because the CS has already allocated a link to that door and will not let us use it. It’s a useful safety feature.

Load up the original tavern cell, and locate the cellar door. Open the cellar doors reference window. Now select teleport. Uncheck the teleport check. We have broken the link. Close the box and open it again. Tick the box and you will be greeted, assuming no other mods are loaded with the CELL and REFERENCE information about the Abandoned mine.

Click on the drop down menu to the right of the Cell information and scroll down to find

Now do the same to the reference box. Here we are offered only one option which is the ChorrolDoorMiddleAnim03 we have added. If we had added other doors, we would have been offered other options. That’s the link done. The CS takes care of the other side of the door (in the cellar) for us.  

Close the dialog box. We have now linked our cellar to the tavern. But we still have a really important job to do - which is to set our teleport markers. The CS has a curious but practical default setting. It establishes the marker inside the door itself. If we used it as is we would materialise in the middle of the cellar door and that is never fun. We should be able to see the marker inside the tavern. It behaves just like every other object. We can drag it, rotate it, and use the '''F''' key to make it fall. Reposition it so that the pink pyramid faces away from the door and you have a good clearance, avoiding collision with objects in the tavern.

Now do the same for the cellar. Save your mod. Go test it, return to the CS and reactivate it (or just save and minimise the CS).

Now let’s add some extra touches. First right-click and choose edit on the ChorroltheOakandcrosierCellarAlternative. In the Interior Data section, select the NPC owner and scroll down till you find player. You now own the cellar.

 

 

 

 

 

Containers

 

 

 

 

You can now add or delete items, you can decide to respawn or level.

 

 

Now save it.  

 

A very scary looking dialog box appears. Again, the first time I saw this I panicked and clicked No. This is a very bad thing to do.

The box will read for the above operation  

What this is saying is that you have changed the name of the Master file relating to the middle class barrel. Should I change all middle class barrels or make a new form? You want a new form, so click '''Yes'''.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three types of lighting effects provided. One type is those which look like practical lights but don’t work. You will find these under statics.

The other two are listed under World Objects/Lights. The second type of light looks like a light emitting object (eg candle, chandelier, etc) and works. The other is simply an ambient light with no physical form. I have found that the practical working lights offer the best atmosphere but at an increased processor cost. Try to mix these up to get a smooth running mod.

 

 

In [[A beginner's guide, lesson 3 - The external world|Lesson 3]] we step out into the world and start looking at exteriors and landscaping.