Thank to all for your positive and constructive comments.
I don't make conversions to TTW. If someone wants to make the conversion to TTW, you've got my permission. Please, remember to credit me.
I will make a version for NV eventually. Although in NV there are only about 20 of these machines, unlike in FO3 where there are about 150 of microfilm machines.
Thank you for the mod! But you broke the connection between several door teleport markers and their NavMesh triangles - was that on purpose? Because if this does hwat i think i does, its unintended, harmful edits. Can't be cleaned with QuickAutoClean either. I'll (preliminarily) fix it in my (U)UFO3P Patch, but I'd really like to hear your input on that :)
Just notes from an old timer who used these quite a lot back in the 1970s & 80s - and in fact the last one I used in action was in 2009 in a tech library, and it is still prob used there today (see note below). These are actually usually called microfiche machines - and in fact FO3 surprisingly calls them that too! But some, including the model FO3 uses, can run both fiche and film. The difference is film is a roll whereas fiche are plates (maybe slightly bigger than A6 index card size). Film would go on the rolls you see so would traverse left-right, not up-down - this isn't like a film roll, they're a photo roll. To save thread space, I've hidden more info in a spoiler:
Spoiler:
Show
Though some machines could do both, and film can store images more densely and cheaper in terms of cost per image, most archives/libraries actually used microfiche because it's thicker and far sturdier for repeated use. Also, the fiche are grid referenced to easily zoom right to the frame you need whereas of course film would have to be rolled back & forth and harder to index (and quickly wear out). It's also easy to just hold a fiche up to any light and say "ah yes here's the drawings section" or whatever. Being so sturdy, fiche can be expected to last 500yrs in typical use scenarios (microfilm potentially longer, but only if not used, and only if very carefully stored). So you can perhaps now see why serious technical data libraries and archives would want to keep them as more reliable hard-backups to CDs or digital forms. The one I last used was hooked up to a PC for ease of transferring to PDFs for circulation purposes, but the microfiche was staying long term - it's still by far the most durable of any practical storage option. Yes, there's M-disc nowadays, but you'd need the right hardware & software and no-one really knows how long data on those discs will last intact, whereas microfilm already goes way back to the 1830s and fiche a few decades later.
You're both welcome! Fun fact: FO3's slide-show intro is meant to be the view looking at the first (title) image of each microfiche as it's inserted into a viewer. There'd be a title image, then contents/index images, then all the image plates themselves of course.
They'd all be kept in binder volumes with a handy listing. So you'd know which fiche to pull. That might also tell you the images involved eg, "Engine Manifold Blueprints - F9 to F12" would be row F, images 9 to 12, but if not you'd soon find out via the index image on the fiche itself.
Machines that make both microfilm & microfiche are still made (web search for the SMA 51) but sellers tend to only market the film aspect. Folks maybe don't bother with fiche for it's benefit was sturdiness for repeated access - and that's been taken over by putting documents on computers. So it's just the hard-copy film backup archiving that's still needed - stuff you'd put in a secure vault rather than access regularly.
I used your combined file and added this and your other animated mods into my game. I finally came across this and let me tell you this is really neat. Would you consider adding additions to what can be shown on the screen? I like the older posters and adverts contained inside. I really like this. I endorsed this and all your other mods. Kudos and thanks again for making FO3 fun to play!
This is a pretty cool mod. However, I'm wondering why there is a world space edit that just removes a navmesh placed by Broken Steel. Is this intentional, or just a wild edit?
Would it be possible to add pieces of lore to this mod, like newspaper articles and such? It would be very atmospheric if we could read some this way, especially since Washington D.C. hosts a number of important buildings which most likely would keep microfilms around about many things. And while this may not be feasible because of limitations, if we could zoom into the machine to fill up the screen like the startup sequence does, it would be awesome.
Dude, you do some REALLY cool work. This gizmo can easily be adapted (I'm sure it's just a matter of redirecting paths in a .nif to display different pictures) to give players directions in new quests without cluttering their Pipboy with too many notes. Question: DId you use the Vanilla-game Microfilm mesh, or the "Improved Collision" mesh by KaneWright? (KaneWright's mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/21946 )
19 comments
I don't make conversions to TTW. If someone wants to make the conversion to TTW, you've got my permission. Please, remember to credit me.
I will make a version for NV eventually. Although in NV there are only about 20 of these machines, unlike in FO3 where there are about 150 of microfilm machines.
They'd all be kept in binder volumes with a handy listing. So you'd know which fiche to pull. That might also tell you the images involved eg, "Engine Manifold Blueprints - F9 to F12" would be row F, images 9 to 12, but if not you'd soon find out via the index image on the fiche itself.
Machines that make both microfilm & microfiche are still made (web search for the SMA 51) but sellers tend to only market the film aspect. Folks maybe don't bother with fiche for it's benefit was sturdiness for repeated access - and that's been taken over by putting documents on computers. So it's just the hard-copy film backup archiving that's still needed - stuff you'd put in a secure vault rather than access regularly.
I used your combined file and added this and your other animated mods into my game. I finally came across this and let me tell you this is really neat. Would you consider adding additions to what can be shown on the screen? I like the older posters and adverts contained inside. I really like this. I endorsed this and all your other mods. Kudos and thanks again for making FO3 fun to play!
This gizmo can easily be adapted (I'm sure it's just a matter of redirecting paths in a .nif to display different pictures) to give players directions in new quests without cluttering their Pipboy with too many notes.
Question: DId you use the Vanilla-game Microfilm mesh, or the "Improved Collision" mesh by KaneWright?
(KaneWright's mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/21946 )
Thank you