CREDIT CRUNCH UPGRADES ISSUE 225 APR 2009
PERFORMANCE GEAR & GAMING
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PHENOM II X4 94O CPU Supertest Forget Core i7 AMD’s budget CPU is the king
ISSUE 225 WAIT ‘TIL THEY GET A LOAD OF ME
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HARDCORE PC ADVICE ¤ HACKING & TWEAKING ¤ OVERCLOCKING ¤ MODDING MADNESS
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GTA IV Tweak Guide
Issue 225 Apr 2009 £5.99 Outside UK & ROI £6.49
CRYOSTASIS TERRIFYINGLY COLD PCF225.cover 1
EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR TOTAL DOMINATION 20/2/09 12:21:52 pm
InDepth
Fallout 3 Modding
More on how to master the G.E.C.K. This month, build your own steel-walled home from home
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allout 3’s world is already bigger than the flesh-mass at the world pie-eating championships, but that doesn’t mean it can’t cope with getting just a little bit bigger. Last month, we talked you through the rudiments of creating a simple quest in Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG, but now it’s time to use your hands. Below is a bluffer’s guide to building a very simple indoor dungeon, then connecting it to the wasteland. As to what goes inside that dungeon – well, that’s entirely your call. Monsters, people, rare loot, quests… Again, we can only teach you the bare bones in the available space, but to continue your world construction challenge, try visiting the G.E.C.K. Wiki at geck.bethsoft.com, or plead for more specific help at a fansite such as www. fallout3nexus.com. ¤ Alec Meer
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Step 2: Getting meshy The sinister-sounding ‘navmesh’ will remain. To delete this, click ‘Navmesh’ > ‘Remove Cell Navmeshes’ from the G.E.C.K.’s top menu. Now it’s time to stick some new stuff in there. Select the Render window and press [Q] to turn on snap to grid, then [Ctrl]+[Q] for snap to angle – this makes moving stuff a lot neater. Now turn your peepers to the Object View window, then find ‘World Objects’ > ‘Static’ > ‘Dungeons’ > ‘Vault’ > ‘HallSmall’. Select ‘VHallSm1Way01’, then drag it into the Render Window. Tada! Your first room. Press [A] to turn on the lights. Hit [T] to get an overhead view, then right-click and drag to rotate it 90°, until the pipes on other side runs horizontally across the screen. Then hit [Ctrl]+[D], which creates a copy. Click and drag to move this until it connects neatly to the right of the original piece.
Step 1: Build a bunker First load the Fallout3.esm master file – just hit ‘File’ > ‘Data’ then double-click the lad in question. Now, to embark on creation in the age-old manner: copying someone else. In this case, we’re going to base our new vault on an existing one. In the Cell View Window, select ‘Interiors’ from the drop-down list, then scroll down under ‘EditorID’ until you find ‘Vault106a’. Right-click on it and select ‘Duplicate.’ Then select the freshly made copy and double-click on it to give it a new name – eg. ‘TestVault01a’. To give it a fancy-doodle, in-game name, right-click on it, select ‘Edit’ then ‘Interior Data’. Change Name to whatever you want to call it, eg. ‘Super-secret Vault’. Now to make our new area a blank-slate: on the right of the Cell view, select everything under ‘Objects’, then hit ‘Delete’ to nuke the lot. 100
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CREATOR SHORTCUTS 1 You’ll find men and monsters under ‘Actors’ in the Object View – we ran a guide on the easiest way to place such folk last issue, but for help on how to define where they walk and how they behave, take a look at tinyurl.com/allxtj 2 The Render Window can be tricky to navigate. Hotkeys worth remembering are [Shift]+[mouse] to rotate, [V]+[mouse] for smooth scrolling, [T] for an overhead view and [C] to cycle between preset camera angles. 3 The light and sky buttons will make it easier to see what’s what, but bear in mind they’ll degrade the G.E.C.K.’s performance. It’s worth turning them off whenever you don’t need them.
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4 You can duplicate anything in the Cell View, but be sure to give your copy a memorable, logical name so that you can jump back to it easily later. Be careful not to rename the originals, too.
Step 4: Changing rooms
Step 3: Deck the halls
Now to build a room. Type ‘VURm’ into the Object View filter box, and drag ‘VURmMid01’ into the Render view. Align it with the rest of the map, then duplicate it three times to create a small room. Over in Cell View, select all four of the VURmMid01 pieces, click in the Render view again, then duplicate to create a clone of the whole 2x2 area. Do this twice more to create a 4x4, 16-tile room. You’ll then want to replace the piece that connects to the door with, say, ‘VURmWallExSm01’. Next, [Ctrl]+[F] to replace the four corners with ‘VURmCorner01’. Then, sort the bordering walls with ‘VURMWall01’, ‘02’ or ‘03’. Finish off the far end with ‘VURmGearExit01’ and a ‘VGearDoor’, to create a big Vault Door exit, and you’ll want to replace the piece in front of it with some ‘VURmSunkenStairs01’.
Now find ‘VHallSm2Way01’, a corner piece, from Object View and drag it into the Render Window. It’ll probably be floating above the existing hall – hold down [Z] while moving it to move it up and down until it matches up, then drag it over to the right and link it to the hallway. Repeat the process with ‘VHallSmEndExSm01’ to create an ending around the corner. Duplicate it to create an ending at the other end of the hall. Now to add some doors. In the Object View, click ‘All’ down at the bottom, then type ‘vdoor’ into the Filter box. There’s a choice of doors, but just go for ‘VDoorSliding01’ for now. Carefully place it into the doorframe in that ‘EndExSm01’ piece, then [Ctrl]+[D] to duplicate it to bung one at the other end of the hall. Then hit [Ctrl]+[F] to find/replace the object – select ‘VDoorSlidingRR01’. This’ll replace it with a derelict-looking door, as this one ain’t going to open. April 2009
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InDepth Interior design
Go for that nuke chic look, by adding clutter and scenery to your map There are two established ways to add detail to your Fallout 3 additions. The easiest option is to download an Object Palette – these are pre-made collections of themed objects, which take a great deal of the legwork out of the second way – manually finding each object from the Objects list. There are a few official palettes that can be found here: tinyurl.com/ bdj5kw, and some user-made ones at tinyurl.com/bfo9lk. To access a palette, dump whatever ones you’ve downloaded into [your Fallout 3 directory]\OPAL, then in the G.E.C.K. go to ‘World’ > ‘Object Palette Editing’ and click ‘Load’. You’ll then get a handy list of related objects, complete with visual previews. Drag and drop anything you want into your rooms, and use the same controls as in the main tutorial to adjust them. Hotkeys of note are [Shift]+[mouse] to rotate, [V]+[mouse] for smooth scrolling, [T] for an overhead view and [C] to cycle between camera angles. Be careful not to have stuff floating above the ground or clipping through the floor.
Step 6: Make an entrance In Cell View, select ‘Wasteland’ under ‘World Space’. Under the EditorID, find ‘MegatonMainGate’. Then, in render view, find a rocky cell. Place ‘CanyonCaves Entrance03A’ and ‘CanyonCavesEntrance 03B’, and arrange them to create a serviceable cave entrance. Then drop a ‘CaveDoor01’ into the entrance. If you hold down [S] and drag, you can scale it. Rename the door to ‘TestVaultDoor’, then double-click on it in the Render view. Check the box next to ‘teleport’, then push the window aside for a moment. Using the Cell view, load up your Vault and its Gear door. Back in that teleport window, click ‘select in render view’ then double-click on the Gear door –you should see a yellow marker appear. Now you can access the Vault!
Step 5: The tour Go ahead and build more rooms if you like, experimenting with the various other pieces available. Sometimes you’ll need to alter the snap to grid for precise placement. Right-click in the Render Window with nothing selected, click ‘Render Window Properties’ then ‘Movement’ to alter this – ‘32’, ‘64’, ‘128’ and ‘256’ are the most common variables. Once you’re done, take a look at what you’ve made. Add the object named ‘COCMarkerHeading’ to somewhere sensible (not forgetting to align its vertical placement), then save up (call this ‘testvault.esm’ or something), exit and load up Fallout 3. Before you hit play, select data files and check ‘testvault.esm’. Load the game proper, then bring up the console with either ‘~’ or the key to the left of ‘1’. Type ‘COC Testvault01a’ and you’ll soon be in your DIY vault. Let’s get back to the G.E.C.K. to link this up to Fallout’s main world, though. 102
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