Definitely one of my favorite things in my modlist, holotapes feel less like a tiny chunk of steel to pick up
Also works wonderfully with Videos of The Wasteland! I downloaded it without the holotape retexture they provide in that mod and was beyond happy to see that this was able to cover it
(something to note about VoTW if anyone ends up hearing about it from here) Not a big thing by any means but, when you insert holotape into the media player, the holotape will look like the VoTW retexture but ONLY when it is being inserted into the player. Otherwise, you will see these holotapes and it is totally compatible with this mod.
Thanks for pointing that out, VotW is on my list of mods that I'll use in a project so I'll take a look at it while installing, maybe it's easy to patch! =)
I originally had made a slightly modified model that had an actual geometry indent for the spool viewport (you can see the modified model in the gif on the description). The base for the normals was baked from that, on top it, I used NDO (I guess 3 at this point, I'm using the new quixel suite) to do the rest of the details. I have a nice specular map too (the metal and tape on the spools are supposed to have specularity) I wanted to use but I'm still learning how to change what materials the item uses in game - when I tried to include it originally, the game just ignored it.
You have be sure that you have plugged in the various materials properly. I have learned from experience that if you ad pieces from one nif to another in Nifscope that whatever material was assigned to the original piece will be adopted by the new one. After import you have to go back and re-edit the materiel list so that it points to the right ones. I have been working on some totally new trees and let me tell you this new way of dong things kind of sucks. But the engine and nifs require this format so we have to learn it. So if your nifs are pointing to the wrong material, load it back into nifscope and check that the various parts of your mesh are in fact pointing to the right materials. If they changed than manually change them back and save it again and have another look. As for the size issue. If its based on a new mesh, even if its came from the original there is a change its scale got changed in the process. Again something I have come across in making trees. The scale of objects in MAX with the plugin seem to get either enlarged or shrunk. You can open your nif in Nifscope and try and resize it. If you used the original collision mesh than it possible that your mesh will be kind of floating in the middle of it in game. Meaning that the collision box surrounds the tape mesh. If that is the case then right clicking your mesh and selecting Transform and then edit, you can upscale the mesh and it will have no influence on the size of the collision meshes as they are separate. This might be the only way to get the scale right. That or reopen your mesh in what even 3D app you used to make it and resize it there and re-export and do the whole process again. I really think we are seeing a scaling issue in the exporting of the mesh to nif format. It either scales up or it scales down. I have exported the same objects over and over and most of the time they are the same, but on occasion one will end up out of scale. It seems random and we might just have to live with this quirk until and if the tools get refined. I just wish Bethesda would release the dam MAX plugins they made for creating nifs with F4 Creation Kit so we can use them. I mean other games studios give out their plugin tools, why can't Bethesda. It makes no sense to me and its aggravating as all hell.
Actually, for the size issue - that's something that's in the original. I checked and the vanilla game holotapes are smaller when dropped on the ground then the standard. Thank you for all this info though!
This is actually the first time I've made a mod for a fallout/elder scrolls game, so the whole nif format is entirely new to me. Because of that, I ended up just baking down the details of altered mesh instead of trying to put a new mesh in the game because I honestly can't figure out how just yet.... I'm also limited by the fact that I use blender to do my modeling and it seems like the blender nif export scripts are severely outdated.
Excellent, that attention to detail shows through. I've had NDO on my check list of things to check out, because I need more control over normal maps in situations where I don't have a model to bake from (more often than not.)
As for the specular, yeah the mesh itself does not have specularity enabled for the mesh (see Shader Flags 1 under BSLightingShaderProperty) and this is one of the rare meshes that does not point to an external material file (.BGSM) for its shader data.
I would reference another mesh that has specularity, enable the same properties in the NIF, add a path for the BGSM file, and copy/edit an existing material values to get the right data in there, and you should be good.
Hey BTW you seem to know what you are doing when it comes to the coding and formatting aspect of things for this game; if you ever need any models or textures and want to collaborate, feel free to hit me up. Oh and here's a small selection of some of my from-scratch models, https://sketchfab.com/skyeshark .
Hello PsiSkye! I'm one of the leads of the Fallout 4 New Vegas project, bringing back Fallout New Vegas in the Fallout 4 engine, and we would absolutely love to be able to use your mod in our project. Do you think that would be possible? Cheers!
You've probably noticed this already, but the different size on game holotapes is because their on-the-ground meshes are smaller. However, they're just rescaled, rotated and retextured holotape meshes, so it's an easy fix you can do using... Outfit Studio (from Bodyslide)! It's not just for outfits, surprise!
First you use Archive2 (included with FO4's GECK) to extract Meshes\Props\Holotape_Prop.nif and the meshes under Meshes\Props\Hologram\ for game holotape meshes.
Next, open the plain holotape in Outfit Studio, then open one of the game holotapes beside it.
Right-click the plain holotape (in the mesh list on the right panel) and open the Rotate tool. It needs to be rotated Y: 180 and Z: 90 to match the orientation of game holotapes perfectly.
Open the Move tool on the plain holotape next. You need to move the holotape Z: 1.18844 so the bottom of both holotapes match almost perfectly.
Open the Properties dialog of the game holotape. You'll need to copy the contents of Material over to the plain holotape. Visibly it'll change to look like the game holotape, but don't stop here!!
Open the Properties dialogue of the game holotape again. Click "Textures.." and copy all of the fields from the game holotape into the plain holotape.
You're done making a new, larger mesh for one game holotape! Now right-click the model in the mesh list and 'export > to nif', place it in the correct data directory like you would a texture, and done. With that one, at least. You can use the adjusted plain holotape again for each of the games, just change the materials and textures assigned for each one.
Edit: Haha, whoops. This mod's getting a bit old so I'll send this as a PM just to be sure it gets there.
Awesome! If it's at all possible though, could alternate reels and/or a transparent outer case be an option?
switching out the 'reel to reel' tape hub pattern with something more like an old school Quarter-Inch Cartridge tape would fit the computer era Fallout's going for. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/QIC_DC600A.jpg
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Also works wonderfully with Videos of The Wasteland! I downloaded it without the holotape retexture they provide in that mod and was beyond happy to see that this was able to cover it
(something to note about VoTW if anyone ends up hearing about it from here) Not a big thing by any means but, when you insert holotape into the media player, the holotape will look like the VoTW retexture but ONLY when it is being inserted into the player. Otherwise, you will see these holotapes and it is totally compatible with this mod.
by the way, if you want to use both , choose vanilla looking holotape during the VTM setup, otherwise you won't get the new look ：）
As for the size issue. If its based on a new mesh, even if its came from the original there is a change its scale got changed in the process. Again something I have come across in making trees. The scale of objects in MAX with the plugin seem to get either enlarged or shrunk. You can open your nif in Nifscope and try and resize it. If you used the original collision mesh than it possible that your mesh will be kind of floating in the middle of it in game. Meaning that the collision box surrounds the tape mesh. If that is the case then right clicking your mesh and selecting Transform and then edit, you can upscale the mesh and it will have no influence on the size of the collision meshes as they are separate. This might be the only way to get the scale right. That or reopen your mesh in what even 3D app you used to make it and resize it there and re-export and do the whole process again. I really think we are seeing a scaling issue in the exporting of the mesh to nif format. It either scales up or it scales down. I have exported the same objects over and over and most of the time they are the same, but on occasion one will end up out of scale. It seems random and we might just have to live with this quirk until and if the tools get refined. I just wish Bethesda would release the dam MAX plugins they made for creating nifs with F4 Creation Kit so we can use them. I mean other games studios give out their plugin tools, why can't Bethesda. It makes no sense to me and its aggravating as all hell.
This is actually the first time I've made a mod for a fallout/elder scrolls game, so the whole nif format is entirely new to me. Because of that, I ended up just baking down the details of altered mesh instead of trying to put a new mesh in the game because I honestly can't figure out how just yet.... I'm also limited by the fact that I use blender to do my modeling and it seems like the blender nif export scripts are severely outdated.
As for the specular, yeah the mesh itself does not have specularity enabled for the mesh (see Shader Flags 1 under BSLightingShaderProperty) and this is one of the rare meshes that does not point to an external material file (.BGSM) for its shader data.
I would reference another mesh that has specularity, enable the same properties in the NIF, add a path for the BGSM file, and copy/edit an existing material values to get the right data in there, and you should be good.
Cheers!
First you use Archive2 (included with FO4's GECK) to extract Meshes\Props\Holotape_Prop.nif and the meshes under Meshes\Props\Hologram\ for game holotape meshes.
Next, open the plain holotape in Outfit Studio, then open one of the game holotapes beside it.
Right-click the plain holotape (in the mesh list on the right panel) and open the Rotate tool. It needs to be rotated Y: 180 and Z: 90 to match the orientation of game holotapes perfectly.
Open the Move tool on the plain holotape next. You need to move the holotape Z: 1.18844 so the bottom of both holotapes match almost perfectly.
Open the Properties dialog of the game holotape. You'll need to copy the contents of Material over to the plain holotape. Visibly it'll change to look like the game holotape, but don't stop here!!
Open the Properties dialogue of the game holotape again. Click "Textures.." and copy all of the fields from the game holotape into the plain holotape.
You're done making a new, larger mesh for one game holotape! Now right-click the model in the mesh list and 'export > to nif', place it in the correct data directory like you would a texture, and done. With that one, at least. You can use the adjusted plain holotape again for each of the games, just change the materials and textures assigned for each one.
Edit: Haha, whoops. This mod's getting a bit old so I'll send this as a PM just to be sure it gets there.
switching out the 'reel to reel' tape hub pattern with something more like an old school Quarter-Inch Cartridge tape would fit the computer era Fallout's going for.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/QIC_DC600A.jpg