UOP Talos Bridge Mitigation 1.0.0

 

Requirements: Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.5.9a

Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.416

 Author: Sigurd Stormhand

 

Description

 ===========

An attempt to fix/mitigate the reported issue of collision boxes placed on the Talos Plaza Bridge by the UOP from “rising up” and making the bridge impassable.

 

Details

 ===========

This mod/patch is part of an attempt to mitigate (or completely fix) the collision issues with the Talos Plaza Bridge.

The original issue was that, due to how the bridge sections are placed in the world, they can sometimes be loaded by the game after the NPC’s that are supposed to be walking on them. When this happens, NPC’s will fall through the bridge and get stuck, usually until the cell is reloaded via fast travel to another location. To mitigate this, the UOP added collision boxes just under the bridge’s roadway. This gives NPC’s something to walk on whilst the bridge mesh is loading. However, the UOP fix has caused a secondary problem for some users of the patch; sometimes the collision boxes seam to “rise up” above the roadway, making it impassable for NPC’s and the player (unless you jump over the collision).

I tried to get to the bottom of this in the run up to the release of UOP 3.5.9, but unfortunately I have never experienced the bug myself and so can only postulate a fix and wait to see if it works for users who do have the problem. My initial plan for a fix was to add slopes to both ends of the collision boxes to give something for NPC's to walk up and over if the collision rose above the level of the bridge. In the process of exporting and cleaning up the new nif, I discovered that the NiNode the collision is attached to has a translation applied that lowers it about 24 Todd units. I then checked both of the Talos Bridge meshes and discovered that their collision meshes have a point-of-origin -256 units on the Z axis.

Collision point-of-origin is different to NiNode translation, but these discrepancies could help to explain why the bridge collision "drops" and the collision box "rises". Given that no member of the team was able to reproduce the bug, the decision was taken to only include the fixed bridge meshes in UOP 3.5.9, and then add the separate sloped collision meshes if that doesn’t work. From my investigations, I believe that the new sloped collision meshes will ultimately be necessary, so I am releasing them separately so that we can hopefully get some data about how they perform for people who experience this bug.

My theory is that the sequence in which Oblivion loads assets around the Talos Plaza Bridge is being interrupted somehow and as a result the collision boxes are sometimes loaded without the translation in the nif (which the game essentially treats like a single frame animation) being applied. If my theory is correct, then the sloped collision boxes should never “rise” out of the ground and the bug will be completely fixed. If this is the case, then the UOP will need to fix the base collision box nif as there may be other instances where it moves out of alignment.

Worst case, player and NPC’s can walk up and over the slopes, and will appear to float above the road surface slightly.

 

Install

 =======

 

Manual:

 1. Extract the files to a temporary location.

 2. Copy files inside “Data” your “Oblivion\data” folder.

 3. Activate the included esp, “UOPTalosBridgeFix.esp”.

BAIN:

1.     Drop the archive into your “Bash Installers” folder, start Wrye Bash and go to the “Installers” tab.

2.     Select the “data” package, make sure the esp is ticked, and select “install”.

3.     Activate the included esp, “UOPTalosBridgeFix.esp”.

Other Mod managers:

You should just be able to drop the archive into your installs folder and run the install and activate the esp.

 

Incompatibility

 ===============

None known, only tested with the lasted version of the UOP, “”

 

Known Issues or Bugs

 ====================

None known

 

History

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1.0  Initial release

 

Contact

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 You can find me on Discord as “SigurdStormhand”, on NexusMods.com as “Sigurd Stormhand” or on AFKMods.com as “Sigurð Stormhand” – using an “Eth” seemed like a good idea at the time, sorry.

 

Credits

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 A Thank you to the following:

 

To Bethesda for creating Oblivion.

To everyone at AFKMods and in the Elederscrolls Modding community, past and present.

To everyone who helped with the development of Blender, the Blender Niftools Plugin, and Nifskope.

 

Tools Used

==========

NIFSkope - https://github.com/niftools/nifskope/releases

Blender – www.blender.org

 

 Licensing/Legal

 ===============

This mod is provided “as is” without guarantee or warranty, I take no responsibility for any damage to your Oblivion game install, your computer, your other electrical equipment etc. To the best of my knowledge this mod is free from errors and fit for use.

This mod is provided for personal use and as a resource, you may use the included mesh freely in mods for TES 4: Oblivion provided you credit me. The included mesh derives ultimately from Bethesda assets and therefore you may NOT convert it for use in another game. You may NOT derive any profit from using this resource, nor may it be included in any mod which is behind a paywall of any kind. The included esp file is intended to be used with the 3.9.5a version of the Unofficial Oblivion Patch, you may not upload the esp, or the whole archive, to another site without my express permission or the express permission of the Unofficial Patch Team.

I can be reached via private message at afkmods.com or nexusmods.com, or on Discord @sigurdstormhand, if I am unreachable for more than two months you may seek permission to upload this mod to another site from the staff at afkmods.com, at their discretion.