Difference between revisions of "Creating Large Worldspaces"

As opposed to small [[:Category:World_Spaces|worldspaces]] (4 quads or less), working on large worldspaces (4 quads or more) requires almost a completely different method from the very start. Before starting your grand project, you should first take a moment and think over what it is you are hoping to achieve, and how much of it is doable by you or your team. Large worldspaces, like the large projects which require them, require rather excessive amounts of hours of work, however unlike with that quest mod that takes place in mostly vanilla spaces, work on a large worldspace often requires several weeks of work and preparation before you can even START on placing buildings, NPCs, and quests. As such, it is not something which should be taken lightly.

=== Required Tools ===

====Notes====

*In particular TES4Gecko can be tough to get working right with the shortcut, but the additional memory which is setup through this shortcut '''is NECESSARY''' for merging.  

*TES4Gecko will work fine without the Shortcut on '''very small files'''. However, with large world space files the Shortcut is '''required'''.  

== Essential Skills ==

Before continuing, this article assumes you have already familiarized yourself with using both the Heightmap Editor and the Region Editor. If you haven't used these tools it is recommended you start a test worldspace and learn at least the basics of how to use them. This article contains some pointers on using them, but if you haven't used them before expect to do a lot of trial and error work at first.

 

Once you have a handle of the related tools, you can begin. Even if you already have significant aspects of your mod completed, you should ALWAYS start a new worldspace within a new [[Glossary#E|.esp]]. The reason for this is simple, if you're only loading your worldspace in the CS and not some other mod, the CS has more memory free so crashes are less frequent. The added benefit of not having some chance of screwing up the mod you already worked on is pure bonus.

Start a new .esp. '''You do not need to load Oblivion.esm at this time.''' You are creating a new worldspace. You will not need Oblivion.esm until you get to region generation. Not loading Oblivion.esm here at the beginning will save you time by not having to process it. And you will need all the time you can get on this type of project.

 

 

 

 

It is very important for large world creation and editing to learn how to navigate with the landscape editor most efficiently. The method is contained in the points below.

 

 

 

 

1 - Start by pressing 'T' to get the camera oriented properly for using the arrow keys. The arrow keys do NOT work relative to the camera position. Rather the 'Up' arrow always moves the camera north, the 'Down' arrow always moves the camera South, etc. Pressing 'T' will orient the camera to a bird's eye view perspective where up will be North, down will be South, etc. This will make the arrow keys match the direction the camera is moving on-screen. You can press 'T' at any time to restore this position. <br /><br />2 - After pressing 'T' to get the camera oriented properly use the mouse wheel to zoom out. Zoom out until you see the edge of the currently viewable cells. Navigating from this perspective will allow you to see errors and rips which will usually appear as purple just as long as the land is above water. Rips under water will require zooming in closer to find. <br /><br />3 - Make the mental connection between Cell coordinates and how the coordinate system is related to the world you created in the heightmap editor. To do this start by finding Cell 0,0 in the landscape editor and loading it. Then follow steps 1 and 2 directly above to get the camera oriented properly. Now go to the heightmap editor and figure out where 0,0 is. Note how the Cell coordinates change on the heightmap editor as you go North, South, East, or West. You should be able to pick a cell from the heightmap editor and navigate to it manually in the landscape editor using '''only''' the arrow keys. <br /><br />4 - Find errors in your landscape textures in the heightmap editor and then locate them in the landscape editor using the error keys. Correct them in the landscape editor using 'Soften Vertices' or 'Flatten Vertices' then save your corrections in the CS - BUT NOT IN THE HEIGHTMAP EDITOR. <br /><br />5 - Avoid using the 'Shift' key and 'Space Bar' for navigating except when making corrections that would be difficult to make otherwise. Once these types of corrections are made press 'T' again to restore proper camera perspective and zoom out.

 

 

*When navigating with the landscape editor set your keyboard over to your left(if you're right handed) so that your left hand can easily work the arrow keys while your right hand works the mouse. Left handed folks won't need to do this.  

Now on to heightmap editing!