Have you ever found yourself excited to get a new settlement, and get started building, only to discover there are literal piles of trash everywhere you cannot scrap and broken and/or multiple objects that are also not removable? So what is a player to do? A popular option for many is Scrap Everything, but that mod does not play well with many other mods as it breaks what is known as Precombines. Another option is for those with beefy systems to disable all Precombines in the game ini file. Both those options work poorly with larger mod series for example Sim Settlements 2, Horizon, etc.
Well my DC & R series is all about giving the cleaning power back to the player while keeping updated Precombines and Previs(PnP) and larger mod compatibility and keeping the original game visual style/being very lore friendly. This series removes those permanent unsightly trash and structural restrictions while keeping all the original removable objects, even trash, letting the player keep or scrap as they see fit.
The remodel portion addresses the other issue, which is that many vanilla structures cannot be repaired in game without using strange mismatch of parts. Most repaired home/settlement mods that are downloadable (done in CK) don't have Previs/Precombines either. Also many vanilla settlements have permanent objects in strange places that should be removable. So the goal here is twofold: maintain original design using lore friendly matching parts with basic structural repair i.e., walls, floor or ceilings, AND to remove those permanent counters, bathroom stalls, etc, that prevent deeper levels of settlement customization.
If you have any issues with missing visuals or collisions, or any other strange occurrences, please post below, preferably with load order and a screen shot.
Great job on the clean-up and remodel. I really like the look.
That said I am seeing visual glitches inside the main building as I approach the E arch where the metal panel was removed. I get glitches on both sides of that opening that was originally covered by the sheet metal panel. It happens in both of the mod versions. I removed the disable flag on that object (0020ABE2) restoring that panel and thus far I've seen no further graphic (previs) glitches in the clean only version. Making the same change to the main version creates more issues within the main building.
Also I would suggest updating the description of the deep clean only to indicate it is deep clean and light re-model as there look to be several changes to the original location. I was expecting mainly debris and general clean-up in the optional version, I found some walls, gates, the panel removal etc.
All in all a great job. My thanks for your excellent work!
Going from Bunker hill to Cabot house, crossing the bridge, I have sever lag. Researching for ways to better optimize that area, I came across your mod. Will try it, see if it improves my lag spikes. im using PRP as my main source optimizations, and am using MOFAM's guide..
I know it is not the mod's goal but, would it be possible to increase the buildable area of this settlement? Doesn't need to be all 4 sides, just one. (eg. fourth pic)
V1.33/V1.22 Fix of previs issue to the far SW of BH. Just N of the circular plaza on the bay with the statue, just S of the Super mutant camp. Just below the small broken Poseidon energy sign, 3 walls/planter caps/ground were blinking in and out.
V1.32 - To quote Doug Adams "We apologize for the inconvenience"
The navmesh on V1.31 accidentally deleted a few of them, this is a common side effect of doing mesh at all. I learned since the prev version how to better do mesh updates.
So Why even update navmesh?
Spoiler:
Show
Stolen from Glitchfinder's JP Navmesh Update: Ever found yourself building at most settlements, only to realize the settlers weren't the sharpest tools in the shed? Trying to walk through benches, running around the settlement rather than through it, and generally just not really understanding where they could walk? Turns out most settlements need some real work.
The main issues are precuts (for custom/new and vanilla objects), areas missing navmesh, navmesh below terrain and navmesh poorly shaped.
Precuts: objects that can be scrapped or moved get a special navmesh under them to prevent NPCs from moving thru them, this is called "pre-cut". When you scrap or move those objects the navmesh under them opens up for NPCs. Most precuts in the game were autogenerated and have poor shapes creating delays to NPCs navigating the space. Also most exterior pre-cuts where much larger than the objects they were under to the point where large sections of settlements would be un-navigable by NPCs, until those trees, cars, etc were scrapped. Lastly, a lot of objects that are scrapable did not get precuts at all.
Given the large number of custom scrapable objects the DCnR mods introduce this makes navmesh updates significantly more effective and necessary.
Areas missing Navmesh: A large variety of objects/sections are missing or deliberately did not get navmeshed, these include: Large rocks/Cliffs, small/low rocks, hill edges, ramping terrain, fallen logs, junk or trash piles that are low to the ground, so on. When remeshing these I do not do objects with more than an apparent 30 degree ramp up, or large protruding objects BUT honestly there is no reason that logs parallel to the ground should not be navigable. Also many of the high to low sections like cliffs and hill edges can get something called an Edge Portals, which I call jump-downs (as that is what the NPCs do when they use them), so I mesh those cliff/hill edges so the NPCs will actually use them. Many of the hill edges were setup that only flyers would use them, as far as I know flyers will use those Edge Portals to go up.
Navmesh below terrain: A large part of the navmesh in most exterior cells is below the terrain itself. Sometimes it is not very much and the pathing AI can handle it, other times its a massive difference and the AI fails badly. Rocky cliff areas have the worst of this I have seen so far with mesh several feet below the surface, but if you look at a before image (I try to post a before and after for each of these), you will notice massive sections of road and ground that are below the red triangles that make up the navmesh.
Navmesh poorly shaped: So the autogenerated navmesh (especially the precuts) make weird elongated shapes that the NPCs will hesitate or act drunk or spin around using. While the transition sections thru doorways and changes in elevation can have narrow triangles (I do this myself) these are sections that the mesh must use the narrow triangles. Autogen mesh with create primary paths where it is not uncommon to have an elongated triangle 1/3rd the length of a cell (roughly 100 feet) and less than a foot wide, that is a triangle with dimensions 100 x 100 x 1... and it normal to have several triangles like this stacked!
Light fixtures converted to WS versions, that includes, Cage Light Strands, Barrels, Various generic light bulb fixtures, and Lanterns.
Light effects will disable when the nearby source is scrapped, in the case of the Cage Light Strands they can be tricky as the must be selected from one edge. Several of them are quite high and might require a ladder or something to reach.
There is some kind of low ambient light over the inn area that is not any object I can identify in CK. Most of the light can be scrapped there, still just weird.
Roof/Roof edge can now be built on! There was a properly missing that was preventing players from putting objects on the roof without Place Everywhere.
Scaffold can be scrapped as a single piece.
Iron Fence and posts can be scrapped.
Doorways already seemed to take buildable doors.
FO4Edit deep clean, CK likes to do weird stuff so I have been doing a entry by entry inspection of every change to make sure everything is working as best as it can.
V1.2 is for both Deep Clean Only and DCnR (repaired main building). All vegetation is clear in the settlement and most around the edges of the build zone.
If anyone sees any blinking around vicinity of the settlement let me know I now have fixes for those.
There had been a bad one just to the NE near the waterline, there was a building there that was blinking in and out, and a piece of ground/retaining wall. Both fixed now.
Any chance you could remove the ground leaves in your settlement clean mods? Leaves are the only objects not manageable with texture replacers other than Clean My Settlements, so removing them would make your mods work better for ppl not using CMS due to texture reason.
Did you try clean my settlement holotape? Most leaves are picked up via that, select last option, than select leaves or all. Also main page mentions this.
I mean I don't use Clean My Settlements due to some other texture replacers. There're alternative ways to hide everything covered by Clean My Settlements except leaves, so if you could remove them, it would be perfect.
Well, than unfortunately we are at an impasse. I strongly endorse Clean My Settlement and consider my mods like a bonus to them, so I am not going to be re-doing what I already use them for. If leaves are not allowing you to select them, I suggest using console mode select and delete, as leaves do not affect previs/precombines which is the entire reason Clean My Settlement is so popular.
Leaves are parts of precombines and technically parts of ground cover. Clean My Settlement doesn't break precombine bcuz everything scrappable by it are placed by the mod. Scrappable leaves in CMS are not vanilla leaves, vanilla leaves and all the other plants/debries are still there but transparent. I don't use CMS since it places way too many things to the game. It's ok if you feel differently and keep your mod as it, so nvm.
Learning a lot here thanks for bringing that to my attention. Got me curious, so I peeked at the Clean My Settlement BA file since you brought that up and wondered why it overwrote so many base game structures. I have to say there is pretty clever. My mods(or mods like them) will never fly on XBL due to size constraints, but Clean My Settlement works like a dream there. I really wish that precombines didnt count against the size cap, if XBL ignored previs files against the 2GB cap that would be anywhere from 100-500meg more space. Fun fact, the game ignores the previs file when calculating the size of mods.
Yea, I don't see any reason XB players need a few-hundred-mb settlement cleaning mod, but I saw Trosski's 700mb Cleaner Commonwealth mod (XB1 ver) got quite many downloads in Beth.net.
Due to your request and others, and some additional research I decided to retroactively remove the leaves, plants etc, that Clean my Settlement would normally remove. There was a lot of reasons to do this, so hopefully you will find the mod more usable now.
31 comments
Well my DC & R series is all about giving the cleaning power back to the player while keeping updated Precombines and Previs(PnP) and larger mod compatibility and keeping the original game visual style/being very lore friendly. This series removes those permanent unsightly trash and structural restrictions while keeping all the original removable objects, even trash, letting the player keep or scrap as they see fit.
The remodel portion addresses the other issue, which is that many vanilla structures cannot be repaired in game without using strange mismatch of parts. Most repaired home/settlement mods that are downloadable (done in CK) don't have Previs/Precombines either. Also many vanilla settlements have permanent objects in strange places that should be removable. So the goal here is twofold: maintain original design using lore friendly matching parts with basic structural repair i.e., walls, floor or ceilings, AND to remove those permanent counters, bathroom stalls, etc, that prevent deeper levels of settlement customization.
If you have any issues with missing visuals or collisions, or any other strange occurrences, please post below, preferably with load order and a screen shot.
Happy building!
That said I am seeing visual glitches inside the main building as I approach the E arch where the metal panel was removed. I get glitches on both sides of that opening that was originally covered by the sheet metal panel. It happens in both of the mod versions. I removed the disable flag on that object (0020ABE2) restoring that panel and thus far I've seen no further graphic (previs) glitches in the clean only version. Making the same change to the main version creates more issues within the main building.
Also I would suggest updating the description of the deep clean only to indicate it is deep clean and light re-model as there look to be several changes to the original location. I was expecting mainly debris and general clean-up in the optional version, I found some walls, gates, the panel removal etc.
All in all a great job. My thanks for your excellent work!
Researching for ways to better optimize that area, I came across your mod.
Will try it, see if it improves my lag spikes.
im using PRP as my main source optimizations, and am using MOFAM's guide..
I know it is not the mod's goal but, would it be possible to increase the buildable area of this settlement? Doesn't need to be all 4 sides, just one. (eg. fourth pic)
The navmesh on V1.31 accidentally deleted a few of them, this is a common side effect of doing mesh at all. I learned since the prev version how to better do mesh updates.
So Why even update navmesh?
Stolen from Glitchfinder's JP Navmesh Update:
Ever found yourself building at most settlements, only to realize the settlers weren't the sharpest tools in the shed? Trying to walk through benches, running around the settlement rather than through it, and generally just not really understanding where they could walk? Turns out most settlements need some real work.
The main issues are precuts (for custom/new and vanilla objects), areas missing navmesh, navmesh below terrain and navmesh poorly shaped.
Precuts: objects that can be scrapped or moved get a special navmesh under them to prevent NPCs from moving thru them, this is called "pre-cut". When you scrap or move those objects the navmesh under them opens up for NPCs. Most precuts in the game were autogenerated and have poor shapes creating delays to NPCs navigating the space. Also most exterior pre-cuts where much larger than the objects they were under to the point where large sections of settlements would be un-navigable by NPCs, until those trees, cars, etc were scrapped. Lastly, a lot of objects that are scrapable did not get precuts at all.
Given the large number of custom scrapable objects the DCnR mods introduce this makes navmesh updates significantly more effective and necessary.
Areas missing Navmesh: A large variety of objects/sections are missing or deliberately did not get navmeshed, these include: Large rocks/Cliffs, small/low rocks, hill edges, ramping terrain, fallen logs, junk or trash piles that are low to the ground, so on. When remeshing these I do not do objects with more than an apparent 30 degree ramp up, or large protruding objects BUT honestly there is no reason that logs parallel to the ground should not be navigable. Also many of the high to low sections like cliffs and hill edges can get something called an Edge Portals, which I call jump-downs (as that is what the NPCs do when they use them), so I mesh those cliff/hill edges so the NPCs will actually use them. Many of the hill edges were setup that only flyers would use them, as far as I know flyers will use those Edge Portals to go up.
Navmesh below terrain: A large part of the navmesh in most exterior cells is below the terrain itself. Sometimes it is not very much and the pathing AI can handle it, other times its a massive difference and the AI fails badly. Rocky cliff areas have the worst of this I have seen so far with mesh several feet below the surface, but if you look at a before image (I try to post a before and after for each of these), you will notice massive sections of road and ground that are below the red triangles that make up the navmesh.
Navmesh poorly shaped: So the autogenerated navmesh (especially the precuts) make weird elongated shapes that the NPCs will hesitate or act drunk or spin around using. While the transition sections thru doorways and changes in elevation can have narrow triangles (I do this myself) these are sections that the mesh must use the narrow triangles. Autogen mesh with create primary paths where it is not uncommon to have an elongated triangle 1/3rd the length of a cell (roughly 100 feet) and less than a foot wide, that is a triangle with dimensions 100 x 100 x 1... and it normal to have several triangles like this stacked!
Bug on the SE corner of the previs zone should be fixed with Update V1.31
It was a house S by SE of BH near the waterline.
Navmesh - remeshed the market floor & roof, NPCs now go thru the all new doorways, and use the entire roof if they have steps up.
HA and BH are always going to be the top creators of these kinds of bugs. Its the buildings at the edges of the Previs transitions that do it.
Edit: I found it. Vilance's Library Plugin. Looks like this mod requires it since you used a few pieces of furniture from it (counters)
Since so many mods have workshop craftable versions of objects it was easier to make a library to support all my settlement mods.
All vegetation is clear in the settlement and most around the edges of the build zone.
If anyone sees any blinking around vicinity of the settlement let me know I now have fixes for those.
There had been a bad one just to the NE near the waterline, there was a building there that was blinking in and out, and a piece of ground/retaining wall. Both fixed now.