Tutorial material inventorization

Post by **arvisrend** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:10 am

This is a list of things that should (eventually) be discussed in our new tutorials. (Though some of it is probably in our old tutorials, which I haven't all read.)

Most of this is technical stuff since it's me writing this list. But eventually it'll grow if you guys suggest more.

- [CS] How to landscape. Caveats (like accidentally pulling up faraway land). Our conventions for vertex shading.

- [CS] Workarounds to CS bugs. (E. g., Region Paint window invisible.)

- [general] Dependency management. What changes merge well, what changes don't. (This needs some experimentation, but the rule of thumb is "additions and modifications merge, deletions and movings don't".) How to be careful with dialogue; what happens when you duplicate an entry.

- [tes3cmd] Cleaning mods with tes3cmd common/delete/dump/clean. When to use TESAME (answer: not very often). About CELL, PGRD and LAND.

- [TESAME] How to use TESAME. What not to do ("cleaning" out LTEXes, sorting entries).

- [python] How to rotate an object in reference to another rotated object. (I have some Python code for that; I hope OpenCS will eventually make this easy.)

- [scripting] Global vars are *not* evil. Hacky workarounds are.

- [nifskope] Usage of nifskope. (This is something I'm quite interested in myself.)

- [TESDTK] Dependency management in TESDTK. How to turn your TR_Mainland.esm-dependent showcase into a TR_Mainland.esp-dependent claim.

- [dialogue] Where to insert dialogue to an existing topic. (I need to figure this out myself...)

- [scripting] Common tasks in NPCing. How to make a rentable bed in an inn. How to bulletproof an escort NPC against kagouti attacks.

- [tes3cmd] How to un-name cells in tes3cmd. (Example: tes3cmd modify --type cell --sub-match "Name:" --replace "/AAAAAAAAA AAAAA//" "Data Files\experiment.esp". No need for the buggy Enchanted Editor!)

- [Balancing] What kinds of levlists we use and what ones we avoid.

- [scripting] Basics of optimization. GetDeadCount is fucked up. Code running only in ints or only on day change or only on CellChange almost never needs optimization (unless, uhm, it uses GetDeadCount). Code running only in exts and global scripts should be optimized. Global scripts should ALWAYS be made sure to stop when the quest ends. Global scripts starting when you start the game are not OK.

- [?] What programs to use for BSA packing/unpacking. What programs NOT to use for it.

wollibeebee · Post by **wollibeebee** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 1:38 am

I plan on doing a tutorial covering modeling in morrowind, which will include: in/exporting, making collision meshes, bounding boxes, optimizing models in nifskope (like removing the nistencil or nispecular) and materials.
Then the next post will be about textures, covering: DXTs, alphas, setting up the texture directory in nifskope, etc.

And then I'll have a third post about 3D art in relation to TR. That will include texture sizes, art style, polly count and most importantly the prefix system (which needs to be discussed with Haplo first, as he controls the bsa.)

Adanorcil · Post by **Adanorcil** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 8:06 pm

In addition to the many useful technical topics listed above, I'd like to add a few things that I've mentioned before. The idea behind these is that they're not straightforward "How To"-style tutorials, but rather discussions on topics that Tamriel Rebuilt and its membered have gathered experience with over the years.

Things I have in various stages of being finished (all work titles):

How to write natural dialogue: A bunch of tips, tricks and recommendations to not make your characters talk like a highschool paper. I think I'll eventually split it up into a section on dialogue in general and one Morrowind dialogue specifically.
How to write a Morrowind book: Expanded from [url=http://tamriel-rebuilt.org/old_forum/viewtopic.php?t=23844]this thread[/url].
Themes in Morrowind: Some basic notes so far (would like to cooperate with Sload on this)

Things I have heard mentioned:

Quest tropes to avoid
What makes a good landscape
Will add as I remember more

Post by **rot** » Tue Jan 07, 2014 8:54 pm

- how to debug scripts / interpret error messages
- cataloguing all the info that's missing from MSFD ?

If someone mentions video tutorials I will weep/barf/die

Re- stuff on style, please no "DO NOT" lists (yes I see what I'm doing there), they're unhelpful and often wrong

Why · Post by **Why** » Sat Jan 25, 2014 8:18 pm

I would love to write, or contribute to, a comprehensive questmaking tutorial series for beginners, all the way from the level of simple fetch quests to complex quests that could be TR claims.

sasquatch · Post by **sasquatch** » Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:51 pm

I think it would be a huge benefit to have a short guide available to interior folks on scripting basics. In addition to this, a small selection of scripts in a doc that are copy-paste ready should be added. This would also need a short description of what they do and a blurb on where they are acceptable to use perhaps they could even be categorized into general scripts and by specific interior type and difficulty level. This would allow tombs/cave/hideouts to easily progress to a new level of interactivity that could be implemented immediately and with little long-term assistance or oversight.

Add the following:
1.basic scripting guide dedicated to interiors
2.copy/paste catalog of useful scripts
-explanation of function
-guidelines for acceptable use
-categorized by int type and difficulty

Rats · Post by **Rats** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 3:19 pm

sasquatch wrote:a small selection of scripts in a doc that are copy-paste ready should be added.

This. From the top of my head it'd be nice to have a library of template scripts for:

_lever/pull rope & gate set
_platform that collapses if GetStandingPC/Actor == 1
_valve & water level rising/lowering a little

with annotations on how to apply the template on a specific activators

Post by **Haplo** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:43 am

I plan to revise my comprehensive exterior modding guide and add more detail to it in the near future, at which point it can be re-added to a Tutorials section. TF, are you interested in doing the same re: your interior guide?

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 2:44 am

I feel like there is something I forgot to do for the int tutorial that was a glaring omission, but until I can think of what that was I don't see any need for changes to my tutorial.

I mean does anyone else think anything is missing? Except for that nagging feeling I thought I covered everything.

Not · Post by **Not** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 1:19 pm

Thrignar Fraxix wrote:I feel like there is something I forgot to do for the int tutorial that was a glaring omission, but until I can think of what that was I don't see any need for changes to my tutorial.

I mean does anyone else think anything is missing? Except for that nagging feeling I thought I covered everything.

Yeah, you forgot to put the North Marker in your tutorial. Though I believe you corrected that months ago when you finally realized you forgot that, so it may be fine now.

Silly TF, forgetting one of the most fundamental parts :p