I'm trying to do a huge quest with a custom dungeon. I can't script, so I'm making up for it by making the cave interesting. I place clutter and movable static objects in usefull ways, check the 'don't havok settle' box, but when I go in game, they all move without anything touch them. I did have it going fine in the first room I made, everything worked perfectly. I finished the room and continued with another with no problem. then I decided to change the ambiant lights to make it extremly dark to fit with the story, and afterwards everything moves. WTF. I changed the lights back to the default but it doesn't help. I already had to restart making the whole cave just becasue of this, and now it's happening again. what do I need to do so things will work right?

an example wof what I trying to do...

dagger stuck in a table, a hole in ceiling boarded up till player sees it, bones placed in an arrangement.

I am no scripter either but conveniently there is a script that has already been written that should help with what your trying to achieve.

Double click on the offending item and then press the right arrow until a "scripts" tab appears. In this tab, click on add script (or something along them lines, cannot remember the exact phrase off the top of my head). In the next window type "defaultDisableHavokOnLoad" in the search and then double click it when it appears. Now just press ok until you are out of the menu's.

This script disables the Havok on an item while still allowing it to be selectable by the player. I've used this a lot while making my house mod, especially when arranging food on a dinner table. Before I added this script to all the items, whenever somebody sat the table, all the food went everywhere. Now, you can do an Irish jig on top of it all, and nothing moves an inch

Hope this helps,
- Hypno

Sorry, but that doesn't really help. Every item is the offending item. Plus, I need a lot of items to move for instance, I have a hole boarded up with movable static object, and when the player opens the door th the room, spiders break through. That worked perfectly every time I tested till I changed the room's lighting. Now nothing floats. I cant even mod cause of it. Who wants a room without clutter?

I only found out about this after I had the problem. Trust me, going through one item at a time gets pretty tedious. But it was the only solution for me.

This should work with your dagger on the desk (I did the same thing my mod) and the bones. Not too sure about the boarded up holes tho.

Are you testing with a "clean" save (no mods loaded), maybe there might be some interior data that got saved into your save file. When you start the game, at the main menu instead of pressing "continue", bring up the console and then coc to your cell. This loads up a clean default level 1 character to test with.

To tell you the truth, I don't even know if this could be affecting it but it won't hurt to check

- Hypno

It may be to do with the collision mesh of the object your placing other items on to.

A good example is the NorRmSmFloorRaised01 statics used in the CK tutorial. Place an item on them and tick Don't Havok Settle and you will likely find that they have moved when loaded in game.

Simple way to tell is to move your player to the location in your cell where the objects are moving. Swivel the camera to see the players feet and look to see if the player appears to be raised above the floor or whatever you placed them on. If they are, then other objects placed there will likely jump upwards when the cell loads.

Rocket, thats what I thought at first but am I right in saying that the whole point of the "don't Havok settle" checkbox is to avoid that happening?

It's the reason why I then suggested just disabling the object's Havok outright

- Hypno

Don't take this as gospel, but "Don't Havok settle" appears to be primarily used for http://www.creationkit.com/Run_Havok_Sim in the CK.

The CK tutorial has this to say ...


I'm guessing that interaction with the collision mesh of another object of some kind would be considered an "impulse".

It also has this to say ...


SetMotionType( Motion_Keyframed ) does appear to prevent things moving, even when the player bumps into them. However, this is likely not desirable except in specific instances (but can obviously be modified by a script on-the-run).

In my case, I learnt from the experience and modified my cell layouts to account for it. A reply from the Bethesda Gods regarding this would be nice.

Ye fair play, you make sense there mate. Just thinking out loud then, but could checking the don't Havok settle on the floor/table aswell maybe help?

- Hypno

Hmm. I never thought to try that ...

Thanks for your replies, but its to no help. I do use a clean character. My plugin is the only mod added and I do teleport to the cel from the menu. I need things to move after impulse, the boards will fall by the spiders 'breaking through'. the items are not having collision problems with other things, they float and stay exactly how I placed them before, then they decide to completely disregard that 'don't havok settle' is chchecked later in the construction of the cave. I dont even click on the items once im working on the next room. new items wont take that setting into acount, even when I place then floating comptly away from everything, no collistion conflict at all. I know it all is suppost to stay static ingame till player interaction, but everythin seems to ignore that part of the script, and I havent messed with any kind of script.

This always happens if you are 'loading' your save game from 'inside' that cell. It causes everything to fly all over. It also happens to a cell that you modified and then enter later (such as changing the lights).
Use a clean save game. That means, a save game that has NEVER had your mod enabled when you saved it. This will fix the 'tornado' look of your items.

I dont have the items flying around, they just drop. Like if something just bumped them, and nothing has. I do use a clean character, I even placed some teleport doors from whiterun to the cell thinking it has to do with the player loading in cell, but everything is still settled. I never save in there, only use the defualt lvl 1 character by 'coc'ing from the title menu.

Edit: just on computer, can quote properly.

I did do that thinking that was the problem last time, but wtill didn't work. I think it the game skipping the whole 'don't havok settle this cause it's set that way' script.

Bump

don't anyone know how to fix this? I thought I would be able to mod, but I guess i was wrong.

Other then disabling the Havok on each individual object using that script, I cannot think of any other way you can achieve what you need

- Hypno

I have actually stopped using the Creation Kit for this reason, it simply doesn't work. The script mentioned by hypno88 is a good shout because I can use that on some of my stuff, but until the "Don't Havok Settle" check box is fixed, I can't do the things I want. Unless there's a perfect work around, maybe a script that will disable a script when contact is made with the object.

I'm sorry to hear that mate, it's a shame. Hopefully this thread may catch the eye of one of the Beth developers who may be able to shed some light on it. Or, even better (but im not holding my breath), that a fix gets included in the next update of the CK

- Hypno

I can't use the script to stop the havok all together, as some things do need to move later. it's a lot more fun to watch things break through stuff that used to hold them at bay. I do hope this thread does get looked at by one of the dev.s. To me, it seems the script for 'don't havok settle' gets skipped entirely if certain atributes to a cell gets changed. I had the same problem when I made a new lvl based ambush encounter... It wouldn't ambush on trigger, instead the monsters needed to notice the player first, no matter what I did. The problem with a lot of things in the creation kit seem to be related with the order of the scripts ran, which make some atributes ignored. till it all gets fixed, I won't even try to mod, as I'm more a level designer than anything. too much DnD and all that.

I've run into this same problem. Nothing with "Don't Havok Settle" obeys. I test after every addition, so I was able to pin point when the objects stopped settling. It was immediately after I'd added the room markers and portals. I haven't tried anything with lighting yet, but aside from lighting, room markers, and portals, the dungeon was finished and working. I tried placing an object in the first room loaded, thinking that the portals might be responsible for the rooms rendering without checking the "Don't Havok Settle" flag. The item was on the ground as soon as the cell loaded.

Oddly enough, the level seemed to run slower after I'd added the room markers and portals. Occasional, but noticable drops in FPS where none existed before. I'm new to the kit, but it was my understanding that these objects are meant to make rendering the cell faster and smoother.

Hopefully this gets addressed soon.

It's a bit couraging to know I'm not the only person that has this problem, meaning it has to be fixed in the future. I myself haven't got a far a portals, won't move on next rooms if the one I'm writing on first work for the benefit of debugging. So maybe the levels will self alert how it runs the scrips if to much memory is used to increase performance. Guess I'll wait another 3 months to get a good level complete. Maybe by then the problem will be fixed.