Immovable Object

[hmarrs]

Wasn't sure if this was for a Mesher,or Modder..
Does anyone know why certain Meshes once selected in Leveleddit mode..
I cant move them or relocate them...Some meshes are Movable some I can't move them around anyone know why?

[BentonGrey]

So, can you tell me a bit more about what you're seeing?  I know of meshes without bounding boxes that can't be selected in the first place, and I know of objects in the Layout list of the map, which can be moved, but which aren't saved when you save the map, and thus go back to where they were.  I don't know of objects that you can select but not move.

[hmarrs]

Ok so let's say I'll open up a mission and go into Characters and Area Specific items..
So as I put some items and characters in some are moveable some get place in but stay stationary and and stay whever they are placed...its werid.

[SickAlice]

It's been a long time but I think that has to do with snap to grid, may be wrong about this though. You can snap to grid an object which makes it uniform to the level. And I think you can also unsnap them and that's you need to do. Refer to the documents under Level Editing. There the shortcuts for that are G for toggle snap to grid and H for toggle snap to terrain.

[BentonGrey]

Hmarrs, can you select them after you place them?  If not, then the issue is a lack of a bounding box, which is an incredibly easy fix.

SA, snap to grid does make objects a bit 'sticky,' but they can still be moved.  They just, well, haha, snap to the grid. 

[hmarrs]

Well what's werid is that not all or every object just a few.
If it was snap to grid wouldnt that affect all items.
Once I out certain items in..let's say the "Tubes with Kiquid type Bubbles from FF 1 "
Once put in it goes in Randomly...Then I cant highlight it or move it or anything...

I dont know if it's an FF1 one item in an FF2 Map?
But then I tried it on N FF 1 Map n it does the same...

Are there conflicts between the 2?

[BentonGrey]

Yep, that's bounding box.  And yes, this is usually the case for certain  objects, or all  objects that aren't from the MapPack.  So, all you need to do is add a bounding box, which is crazy easy.  You've got two options.  Here's the safe one:
1) Open a similarly shaped object in Nifskope, find its bounding box under its menu, right click on the boundingbox name, select "copy branch."  Now, go to your problem object.  Open it in Nifskope, click on the "Scene Root" at the top of the list, right click, "paste branch."  Adjust the object through right click, "Transform," "Edit," until it fits over the object neatly.  This should work with no issues, and it is easy to do.

Second option is something I've experimented with, and as far as I know it works.  However, I assume there must be some kinds of issues with it, as folks a lot smarter than me have used the previous method, but you can try it if you like.  Just caveat emptor.

2) Open your object in Nifskope, click on the object, and you should be taken to the right entry in the menu on the left.  Same deal, "Copy Branch," "Paste Branch," except your copying the object itself.  Now, paste into the "Scene Root."  Rename the new copy "boundingbox," right click on it, "Flag," "Hidden."  That should do the trick.

[hmarrs]

Ok but question...What if I import it in Blender and Export it out as an FFv3r Nif?

[BentonGrey]

I know nothing about importing (RD can provide some wisdom there), but it will still need a boundingbox.

[hmarrs]

Can you explain a Bounding Box...
Also in some Maps I'll open I'll see these Grey Boxes everywhere somtimes are this the same thing if so can you explain to me how that works please?

[BentonGrey]

Sure, Hmarrs.  So, a bounding box is a concept from game design.  It's a structure around an object that tells the game where that object is and where it can be interacted with.  In other words, this is the 'outline' of the object in the game's world, letting the game know where it starts and stops.  In practical terms, it is a separate piece of a nif that is listed under the "Scene Root" in Nifskope, is invisible in the game, and allows you to interact with that object, both in the editor and in the game itself.  You can add one using the process I described above.  To get a sense for what this looks like, just open up any native  object in Nifskope, click on Render/Show Hidden, and then look for the outlined box around the object.  That's the boundingbox.

The gray boxes you're seeing are not bounding boxes; those are missing nifs or templates.  That's telling you that the map is pointing to objects that you don't have in your mod directory or you don't have entries for in your dats.  You should be able to see what these are in the Mission Objects window in the editor.  Look down the list for anything that has an unknown template.  When you click on it, the Object Details window to the right will show an error message, something like 'unknown template.' 

[SickAlice]

My importing BBox trick is basically the same as the Uncoupling trick. I copy and paste things then borrow the values from them. Mostly so I don't put the wrong values in. Else myself I just model simple BBox models in a 3d program, export them as an OBJ and import them using Nifskope. It's pretty much as straight forward as all this was. Basically what Benton said but import a model through Nifskope if you like. You really don't need to though, just so long as the BBox you copied from elsewhere is "sort of" the shape and size as the model it will work out fine. This game isn't all that exact anyways. I do not suggest doing BBox's with Blender, they are more likely to come out messed up then anything.

[hmarrs]

Ok.
Thank you it sounds like it's going to take some Practice but I'll give it a go.👍

[SickAlice]

It's super easy once you've done it. Most of anything here is and you'll usually end up laughing about how simple it turned out to be. Only tedious is what somethings are but not actually complicated. I mean you're just Copying and Pasting here. The only thing you need to get down well, and I cheat and just have documents to look at myself for this is Settings. Always know the right settings a game calls for and check to make sure they have the values they should. Once you do that this all falls into place. When the settings are not right that's when most issues happen.