GECK won't load converted mod

Post by **DaWrecka** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:06 am

I've been working on trying to convert xCALIBR Universe and THIS Starcraft Ghost armour mod (disclaimer; I already know xCALIBR has copied assets and I can't distribute it; I also know that NV has Ghost armour mods, but I like this one because of the quest/dungeon attached, which none of the NV ones seem to have) The FNVEdit part of things has gone well-enough, but I feel like I need to load the files in NV GECK if for no other reason than to recompile the scripts. Problem is... GECK won't load the files.

I get the same result with both files; when I use Check for errors in FNVEdit at the root of the files, it finds no errors. But when I try to load the file into GECK... well. Take a look: [img]http://www.catballbakesale.webspace.virginmedia.com/Fallout/GECKFail.png[/img](I shrunk the size of the GECK window and resized the other panes to fit, so that I wasn't capturing a 1920x1080 picture of mostly-empty space)

The GECK is... sort of usable in this state. I can navigate through the menus. I can call up dialogue boxes, the script editor, the batch reference window... but the object window is never populated, the cell list is never populated, and no changes are actually saved.

I'll admit; this isn't a problem I've had exclusively with converted mods; one of my own NV-only mods exhibited these symptoms for a while. (I'm not actually sure how I fixed that one) It isn't even a problem I've always had when converting mods; my conversion of the FO3 Tailor Maid (which I did before I knew someone had beaten me to it) loads just fine.

I've corrected every single error reported by FNVEdit (even some I know to be false positives, in this case flags on ENCH records which FNVEdit doesn't know the definition of, but which can be toggled in GECK normally without problem) and... I've hit a wall. I've got NO idea where to go from here. I've already tried Google, but either my Google-fu is weak or this really isn't a common problem. Can anyone advise?

Anyone?

Post by **Risewild** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 1:22 am

That pictures shows GECK still loading the plugin, I see no problem in it.

I hope someone more knowledgeable will come by and help, since I have no idea of what the issue even is...

Post by **Kainschylde** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:01 am

Complex mods can take a really really REALLY long time to load in GECK. You should probably look up GECK Power-up and how to activate NVSE Editor, those will help GECK run a little faster and more reliably.

Post by **DaWrecka** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:40 am

Every time. Every time I ask for help on a forum or something, I ALWAYS manage to forget to include something important. And then along come good, intelligent people with smart, well-intentioned advice that doesn't actually apply, all because my memory has the qualities of a sieve.

That's not GECK still loading. That's GECK having given up loading. I've already got GECK Power-Up installed, and I already use the NVSE editor mode. When I took that screenshot, GECK had just stopped. All of the menus were usable, if impotent, and the log file stops at the same time. I once left GECK in the background in this state for ten minutes, and nothing happened. The log file hadn't been updated, the lists were still unpopulated, et cetera.

I'm not a GECK newbie; I've been making mods since FO3, and oh LORDY have I made myself familiar with the oh-so-delightful additions of NVSE. (Seriously, who writes a scripting language that can't use loops out-of-the-box? Bethesda, apparently. Or... whoever it is behind Gamebryo.) I know what it looks like when GECK is just taking its time to load a mod, and this isn't it. Actually, normally I don't even see those boxes properly if GECK is still loading; for me at least, it doesn't redraw them properly until it's finished loading. (or it gives up, as the case may be) Windows actually tells me that GECK isn't responding if I click anything in its window before it's done loading. That doesn't happen here. At all.

Thank you for the advice, but it's not actually applicable here.

Post by **Kainschylde** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 2:46 am

I have that issue myself, so no worries.

How many times have you tried loading the plugin you want to edit? I ask because I've had multiple instances where I'd tried to load a mod and GECK would freeze or crash, then I try again and it'd load just fine.

Post by **DaWrecka** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:00 am

I just tried loading the file twice, both times with the same problem.

I DID take another screenshot that should hopefully illustrate things a little more clearly...

[img]http://www.catballbakesale.webspace.virginmedia.com/Fallout/GECKFail2.png[/img]
Voila. The AI Packages pane and the Data pane open while GECK is still "initialising references". This REALLY isn't possible for me if GECK is still loading.

Post by **Shardoom** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 3:32 am

When you converted the mod and added the masters to your new file, did you hit 'sort masters' too so that they are all in the correct order? (starts with nv esm, dead money esm etc etc) The geck has a fart if the masters aren't in order.

Post by **RoyBatty** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 7:28 am

My advice is to stop using XP and upgrade to Win 7 64 bit, you are probably running out of RAM.

Post by **DaWrecka** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 6:13 pm

[quote=Shardoom]When you converted the mod and added the masters to your new file, did you hit 'sort masters' too so that they are all in the correct order? (starts with nv esm, dead money esm etc etc) The geck has a fart if the masters aren't in order.[/quote]

Yes, I did. Did that on the TTW ESM, actually, since I have my load order set differently. (I have it in order of DLC1, 2 and so on in order of the internal values, while TTW assumes Anchorage, which is FO3's DLC2, comes before The Pitt, DLC1. It's a minor thing, but I'm kinda neurotic like that. I'm willling to concede that MAYBE the sorting has contributed to this issue, but it seems unlikely.) Wrye Flash uses colour-coding to show files whose master lists are out-of-order, and I've used FO3Edit/FNVEdit to sort the masters list for every plugin and ESM I've ever installed. (with the exception of FOOK for FO3 which won't sort for some reason. FO3Edit barfs on it, if memory serves, but it's been a while.) [quote=RoyBatty]My advice is to stop using XP and upgrade to Win 7 64 bit, you are probably running out of RAM.[/quote]

I'm kind of way ahead of you on that score. I've got 16GB of main RAM and Win7 Ultimate. I use a Classic theme because Aero gives me no advantages that I actually give half a toss about, and it's slightly-nippier. (I also think Aero is kind of on the ugly side.)

Post by **JaxFirehart** » Thu Nov 27, 2014 7:30 pm

...maybe your sorting doesn't do anything, maybe it does. But I can tell you that sorting is a very touchy issue with TTW, it was built using very specific ordering on the assumption that the DLCs are ordered in release order. Because you have modified that order and thus modified TTW.esm, I can't help you and there is no guarantee anyone else can. Basically, we did it that way for a reason and you can't just change the foundation and hope everything else falls into place.

Generally, when a mod fails to load in the GECK it is because masters are out of order or there is a corrupted record somewhere.

Open your conversion and tell FNVEdit to check for errors, if errors pop up, fix them and try the GECK again. If you fix all the errors or no errors pop up and you still can't load it in GECK we need to do some troubleshooting. Run the conversion again, from scratch. Follow the instructions verbatim, like read them like you have no idea what's going on. Don't skip steps. Once you have done that we can assume that the conversion script was run properly. Load up the mod and see if it is working in GECK yet. If it still isn't, make a backup, load it in FNVEdit and start removing one "category" at a time, e.g. remove Weapons, save quit, load in GECK is it working? No? Delete the next category and keep moving on until it does load. If you remove all the categories and it still won't load, something is VERY wrong with your GECK. Once you find a category whose removal allows it to load, restore a COPY of your backup and delete just that one category. Does it load? Excellent, restore a copy of your backup again, go into that category and start deleting a record at a time until it loads. Keep doing this until you narrow down which record is being a bitch. Examine said record closely, see if you can find an issue. If you can't post an image of the record here for others to examine.