GUIDE Fear and Loathing in New Vegas - Feedback

[Jax765]

I know that, I crafted the prototype armor from the schematics found at Helios One, and it doesn't look right. Gonna investigate further.

[Jax765]

Ok, I made a separate profile with only ADAM loaded, and it still looks messed up. As though it's clashing with the vanilla ranger armor.

 

[Hackfield]

I know that, I crafted the prototype armor from the schematics found at Helios One, and it doesn't look right. Gonna investigate further.

It's because in the ADAM.esp, under Armor, the Prototype Riot Gear (XX004CC8) uses the combatranger.nif instead of combatranger_upper.nif as MODL o Male biped model.

 

Anyway I prefer it that way, because when using the combatranger_upper.nif, You rely on another slot for using the "legs" and addons of the armor, but that slot is the same slot that flashlight NVSE uses, and it's not restricted, so You can wear the lantern and a "legless" armor.

[Jax765]

I see. The mods really is a cluster**** under the hood. I noticed how wearing a holster can cause the modded armors to revert to vanilla. It's probably because it mashes together various vanilla armor parts.

[EssArrBee]

I've added a couple fixes in here and there, but I'm not an expert when it comes to meshes. The original files have the prototype riot gear under the floor of the Helios ONE workshop, so you can't get to it. I have been learning a little Blender, so I'll have to just stick with it until I can edit meshes properly. Maybe fixing the texture paths in the meshes can be done in nifskope, I actually know how to do some of that.

[Jax765]

 

It's because in the ADAM.esp, under Armor, the Prototype Riot Gear (XX004CC8) uses the combatranger.nif instead of combatranger_upper.nif as MODL o Male biped model.

 

Anyway I prefer it that way, because when using the combatranger_upper.nif, You rely on another slot for using the "legs" and addons of the armor, but that slot is the same slot that flashlight NVSE uses, and it's not restricted, so You can wear the lantern and a "legless" armor.

 

How would I go about changing this in the GECK then, precisely?

 

EDIT: NVM, fixed it. The legs are fine now, but I noticed that the chestplate is still vanilla. When I use the original mod ESP, it uses the modded chestplate, but the merged one provided for the guide doesn't.

 

Edited March 23, 2015 by Jax765

[Hackfield]

How would I go about changing this in the GECK then, precisely?

I don't know about GECK, I use FNVEdit, here is what You have to change.

 

Ignore the "prototypecombatranger.nif", yours should be saying "combatranger.nif", mine is different because I'm using another model for that armor.

 

You should also complete the female biped model, if not, females will use male armor (I think, is that o nor wearing armor at all). Note that the naked body is considered an armor too, so when I'm saying "not armor at all" I mean, nothing at all, basicaly, you will see only her head and probably her hands and nothing more.

 

Same happens with the "Nemesis" aka "Defaced" armor you find at the Lucky 38, If you give it to a female o you wear it along with the NVSE flashlight, some parts will be missing.

 

 

BTW, to fix this, in Nifskope, you can easily make 1 file for each armor (Helios and Lucky38), and merge the combatranger_upper.nif with defacedcombatranger_trousers.nif for the Nemesis and the combatranger_upper.nif with the armorcombatranger_trousers.nif for the Helios one. Then you have to edit the formsID of those armors so they don't show said files.

 

EDIT:

 

 

How would I go about changing this in the GECK then, precisely?

 

EDIT: NVM, fixed it. The legs are fine now, but I noticed that the chestplate is still vanilla. When I use the original mod ESP, it uses the modded chestplate, but the merged one provided for the guide doesn't.

 

 

Yeah, because it was using the default combatranger.nif, it used the default textures too, because the assigment of the texture was set to be used with the combatranger_upper.nif blocks.

 

I think the best option is to use a single nif file for the armor, merging all the content. Although, that won't solve the clipping problems both armors have.

 

At this point, probably the best way to solve the clipping is just use the textures of said armors with the default combatranger.nif, or at least with a slightly modified version of it. I've made one myself for the prototype using the default armor meshes, the prototype textures and some parts of the riot gear.

 

 

As you can see, not only has a lot less clipping, but also you can wear the NVSE flashlight along with it. You can easily make a female version too.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Hackfield

[Jax765]

This sounds like a compatibility patch waiting to happen :P

 

It's working fine now after some GECK editing. There was no reason to modify the original ESP in the first place, all it did was screw up the model. I'd take a minor glitch when combining it with a certain other piece of apparel over the model being constantly visually buggy. Only downside is that females don't get their own combatranger_upper.nif mesh, but it's not a huge deal.

Edited March 23, 2015 by Jax765

[Jax765]

That custom armor looks damn awesome. I think I'm gonna see if I can just get rid of the shoulder plates on the prototype armor, the clipping is terrible.

 

Also, is there a way to make a female version of combatranger_upper.nif? The vanilla armors obviously work fine, but the modded ones only have male shapes.

 

EDIT: The prototype armor's shoulder plates come from the combat armor mesh included in the mod files. Is there a way to delete part of a mesh instead of the whole thing? Because deleting the shoulders in this case also deletes the legs, making them invisible in-game.

 

Edited March 23, 2015 by Jax765

[Hackfield]

That custom armor looks damn awesome. I think I'm gonna see if I can just get rid of the shoulder plates on the prototype armor, the clipping is terrible.

 

Also, is there a way to make a female version of combatranger_upper.nif? The vanilla armors obviously work fine, but the modded ones only have male shapes.

 

EDIT: The prototype armor's shoulder plates come from the combat armor mesh included in the mod files. Is there a way to delete part of a mesh instead of the whole thing? Because deleting the shoulders in this case also deletes the legs, making them invisible in-game.

 

Unfortunately not, at least not with Nifskope, for that you have to import the mesh into blender, 3D studio or another 3d mesh editor, make the modifications you want, and export it back to nif.

If it's exported correctly, the mesh will be already rigged, you won't need to deal with bones weight and those things, just delete the vertex you don't want and export the mesh back, is not that complicated.

[Marthenil]

Something relatively minor that popped up.

 

In the installation for roberts male bodies, it's mentioned that ""If black bars are showing on male bodies in game, try ticking or unticking the BSA for Roberts Males. If that does not work check that no other mod than aMidianBorn Book of Water, ALR - Aptom's Legion Retextured, Ghouls Hires retexture, or Wasteland clothing Hires retexture overwrite Roberts Males."

 

However, it's not overwritten by Ghouls Hires retex. In fact, it overwrites it. What I think is that at the time of writing, Robert's male bodies used to be a BSA, which is not the case anymore. 

 

Anyways, do you think I should move Ghouls below Roberts? I really like them ghouls :P

[EssArrBee]

Yeah, you can move them if you like.

[Jax765]

What is the main thing that effects loading times? ESPs, BSAs or the various loose files provided by mods? When I was testing the ADAM armor in an otherwise vanilla profile, it made me remember how quickly the game loads without my huge modlist being active.

 

Also yeah, high-res ghouls should definitely be placed below Roberts and New Vegas Redesigned 3 in the load order. Much higher quality, and less emphasis on grossing the player out lol.

 

Edited March 24, 2015 by Jax765

[Marthenil]

Still on the topic of ghouls, Raul's hands are mismatched :( 

 

It's using the bloodier, redder texture (a prime example would be the left screenshot in Jax's post), while his head is the more beige version.

 

Also, on a similar note, when choosing the ghoul race, the hands are purple. Is this a thing? (FCO author mentions the races are not fully functional, just for screenshot purposes).

Also spawned Rotface, he's fine.

 

And on a completely unrelated note, I can't decide on an ENB. I set off to use Rudy, but the New Vegas Redesigned author heavily advices against it. My whole will to start playing FNV again was based on a new 4k Rudy video :P

 

 

EDIT: Adding screens for reference. Please ignore horrible horrible first pic pixelation, was running 0 AF and AA in preparation for ENB. Will have to wait for now though as I have discovered a few more issues.

 

Raul mismatch:

 

 

Another mismatch: 

 

Also, sometimes, when loading in areas, sometimes I get texture missing errors, fixed by reloading. 

Last but not least, I got carried away when installing, however, I noticed I have more than 135 plugins installed. Isn't that too much?

I followed the guide to the letter, merging plugins and so on, and even omitted the extra weapon packs (EssArrBee's recommendations and the extra Millenia weapons).

 

On the topic of mismatch, I have a feeling its NV Redesigned, I had similar issues in the past which I hoped were fixed :/

Edited March 25, 2015 by Marthenil

[Hackfield]

On the ENB topic, I've tried a lot of them, and I found Viradia (from the author of Vividian ENB for Skyrim) The most suitable for the environment of a desert. Along with FNV Realistic Lighting (oddly enough, NOT the ENB version of it) and ILO.

All the others ENB I've tried were or too bleak (not really suitable for a desert) or the sundown (between 7pm and 8pm) were darker than the night (I couldn't even see my companions at that hour, while at 10pm I could see it perfectly)

 

But for an actual gameplay, honestly, I don't recomend any ENB. Not that there are not good presets, but the ENB itself is not worth at all in FNV. I don't even recommend to use enboost. You trade proper anti-aliasing, for a speedhack that doesn't seems to do anything TBH.

 

And the tradeoff of having an ENB it's even worst, lack of anti-aliasing (SMAA doesn't work in FNV as in Skyrim, look at the power lines, they look jagged even with enboost's AA and SMAA in the most highest setting possible), lack of proper nightvision, huge drop in framerate only to have AO, and not a really good one, not as good as the Skyrim one.

 

So I've come to the conclusion that the best post-processing option for an actual gameplay in FNV it's having a weather mod (I use FNV Realistic Lighting), a good interior lighting mod (Interior Lighting Overhaul) and a SweetFX setting to remove the natural orange tint and probably enhance the contrast and some color adjustment. Along with vainilla AA and AF I get solid 60fps in all places, plus proper night vision, less incompatibilities with mods, no transparency bugs and actual AA and a good environment setting.

Edited March 25, 2015 by Hackfield