Terrain features

[Sadistic Insomniac]

I'm trying to make certain terrain features buildable, but I can not find where the big tree in leviathans coast is located at all.
Also when I place down the new buildable terrain feature in the game it just instantly disappears
any help would be great, thanks

[Cattrina]

Did you make the terrain feature an outdoor furniture first? A player cannot place the item otherwise. Also the tree needs to be optimized first as they are vertex heavy. We cannot place terrain features and foliage as is, they need to be turned mesh furniture first.

The Leviathan coast is mostly Northern towers, the trees listed under the biome foliage are:

FanTree << is not this, this is the propeller looking thing
Tree_Cascader01K
Tree_SPIKEY SPRITE

Import each one at a time in blender so you'll see which it is. Reduce the size and vertex count, then export as mesh.

[Sadistic Insomniac]

Thanks for the reply, I did not know that, I'll try it out now thanks.
Yeah I have done those and its not any of them, checked through all the foliage in the files
I made it an exterior furniture and still nothing...

[Cattrina]

Did you reduce it's size and vertex count? Because if it is too large the game simply won't spawn it. Also how used you are to modeling with Kenshi? Did you export it with tangents and binormals?

If you could post a photo (fe a link to imgur or other image host site) of the tree's new outdoor furniture file on FCS, we could better see if there is an issue with the file setup.

[Sadistic Insomniac]

I have tried doing so but cant seem to get the files to import to blender, I have read up on it and many things are required to get it working with blender, so I guess that's a problem for another day. not used to it at all, just tried to do this today as I was trying to make a base with a couple of the those curved cliffs and a couple other rocks to act as plateaus but found out foliage doesn't stay in shift f12... and that kind of set me off on other ways to do it, found a guide on how to make them buildable so I followed that but no luck, then I copied what another mod has done with adding rocks but again no luck, so i'm assuming it is as you say and its too large to load and needs to be cut down.
Thank you for the help in realizing this

[Sadistic Insomniac]

I have gotten it to load in and I have edited the vertex of the tree but its still quite a large size, is there anyway to get it down further without it looking absolutely terrible? but when editing the cliff it just crashes each time, could it be because its too large?

[Cattrina]

Yeah it is still too big vertex-wise. As its physical size, you can just resize it in Blender. Sometimes that does affect positively also the file size of it. One can always resize it back up in the FCS file.

As the trees were never meant to be built as furniture also their collision is way too complicated. So do not use that. Just make a box collision like I show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng0qJcjKbco

What comes to reducing the vertex count I always use the ctrl + F tris to quads, then decimate and tris to quads again. But the result is never as pretty, as it usually messes the texture UV. Only way to keep some of the texture UVs in place, is to do manual reducing edge by edge and delete edge loops. Horrible amount of work tho. And you need to control the UV map every once and a while to see if the latest removal messed something.

The vertex count should be around low thousands. You -might- get away with 8000-10000.

[Sadistic Insomniac]

Worked out great! thanks (: now if only it would let me edit the cliff without it crashing...
As soon as I either try go into edit mode, decimate it or export it, blender just crashes, is there any workaround to this? or do I just have to give up?

[Cattrina]

Sounds like you might need more video memory. Try turning everything else off, internet browser, games, all of it. If you can get an external drive you can set up virtual memory, it helps. ALSO Blender takes a really long time sometimes in the (not responding) state. It often does recover. So just hands off keyboard and give it ten minutes.

And you can decimate in the object mode.

[Sadistic Insomniac]

I allocated more space and still no luck, I don't think that's the issue since before I allocated more space I could edit a mesh that had over 3mbs, the cliff is barely over 1mb. Yeah I have been doing all that in object mode.
It instantly crashes as soon as I try use decimate, I don't click anything just as soon as I try click and drag its crashed, doesn't freeze just closes, It is kind of frustration since that one is the whole reason I started.
Anyway your advice and videos have helped me out loads that I could probably just build a mesh similar to what that one, i'll still keep trying at it though if you have anymore advice haha

Okay all sorted, had to remesh it first now I can edit it and lower the vertex

[Cattrina]

Yeah I'd advice you making your own. That sounds the asset is way too big XD

[Sadistic Insomniac]

It is, plus its kind of a mess too, now that I have figured out a fix my fixation on it can calm down haha D: again thanks for all the help

[Cattrina]

Yw, any time :)

[Sadistic Insomniac]

The edited version of the tree places fine in the game when built but after saving and reloading it disappears, kind of like what happens when you place terrain feature using shift +f12. Can you spot anything I have done wrong that could be causing this apart from the Collison?
https://imgur.com/HDunmHV
https://imgur.com/urteLbe

[SnugSnug]

Non of those pictures show mod references in them, its still /data not /mod/24bitnbobs/
always worth running the mod 1st time with custom references so *.bin files have a place to generate ans save to, can switch back to /data if using direct overwrites later.

Also are you saving the game or saving the world data to the mod when "saving"?

[Cattrina]

As SnugSnug says you are not using your newly made custom mesh or collision, all those links point to vanilla files. You should not replace the vanilla meshes with your mod, as the foliage needs to remain as is. (Besides the game will re-replace them on the next file validification if you replaced them)

You need to make a separate folder called 'buildings' inside your mod where you place the new mesh and use that folder in the link paths.

So instead of .\data\newland\Assets\Plants\Monster-Plant_Branches01.mesh
the link would be .\mods\Bits and bobs\buildings\YourNewMeshName.mesh