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Navmeshing - A Very Simple Guide

Topics:

  • Basics
  • Navmeshing
  • When It Goes Wrong
  • The Nuclear Option
  • Copying Navmesh With FO4Edit
  • The NavMeshGenCell and the Navigation Mesh Info Map
  • Do Not Use Automation
  • Other

Caveat: I'm no expert. There appears to be no definitive "how-to". So this is a grab-bag of things that I've gathered together from asking questions, plus having to navmesh things over-and-over-and-over.
 
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Basics

* Navmesh - essentially a way of telling the game that settlers (and companions, and enemies, and etc) can walk on an area.

* Collision - solid ground etc. If the settler/companion/enemy knows it can walk on an area, it walks on the solid ground aka collision of that area. Try not to sink the navmesh into the solid ground/collision, it confuses things and your navmesh doesn't work well.

* Navmeshing Roofs - you can and should do this, mostly for players who want to put things (like turrets) on roofs. The reason is that turrets (and those display mannequins from the DLC) are actors, aka like a settler/companion/enemy. If there's no navmesh in an area then they may slide off to the "nearest" navmesh - a prime example of this is the turret under the overpass near Sunshine Tidings. It will sometimes move out from it's place under the overpass, because in the base game the stand where it is has no navmesh.

* Narrow areas - don't bother if it's under a stairway or narrower than a doorway, your settler's probably can't get there.

* Here's Kinggath's video on Navmeshing workshop items, watch it to learn the basics of doing navmeshing:
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Note that navmeshing is also required for Sim Settlements plots.
 
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Navmeshing

After navmeshing something you'll see the outer edges of your navmeshed area are yellow:
1632810889319.png


When you finalize, all of these should turn a reddish/purple. Those which aren't, are not "finalized" - aka they're broken:
1632811027808.png


This usually because of three reasons (there are others):
  • The navmesh is too narrow
  • The navmesh is too steep
  • The navmesh corner is too high in the air
Make your corrections and try to finalize again.
 
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When It Goes Wrong

Sometimes when you finalize the navmesh, more nodes appear randomly.

Here's the original navmesh "tongue" from the top picture:
1632812948472.png


This is after finalizing - note the heap of extra nodes that I did not create:
1632812994052.png


These nodes cannot be selected, cannot be deleted, they're not connected to anything, etc. At this point the navmesh is broken:
1632813080038.png


When you try to select them:
1632813142530.png


You can select only the points which you yourself placed:
1632813176625.png


At this point:
  • Cancel out of navmeshing
  • Exit the Creation Kit
  • Do not save

You can try it again, and again, and again. If you're lucky then you might get it to work. Eventually.
 
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The Nuclear Option

Delete all existing navmesh from a static item, from within FO4Edit.

Open your plugin, find your static item - here is your navmesh, aka NVNM information:
1632813447835.png


Right-click the top of the NVNM information and select "remove":
1632813487711.png


Save. Nuclear option complete. Open once more in the CK and try again.

Note: There are times when that is not sufficient. Some things absolutely will not navmesh properly. I have no solution to this, I've struggled with it off and on for a long time - if I find out how I'll update this.
 
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Copying Navmesh With FO4Edit

When you have a set of near-identical pieces it is possible to make navmesh for one piece and copy it over via FO4Edit to several other pieces. The base pieces must be very similar or near-identical.

A good example is near-identical floor pieces (variants of the base 1x1 floor piece) or when making Sim Settlements 1 or 2 building skins (which are a material-swap on otherwise-identical NIF files).

Open your plugin in FO4Edit, expand the Static section, and select all the pieces that you want to copy the navmesh from/to:

1632853163269.png


In this example only the wWGAM_AgBase_Level2 piece has navmesh:
1632853267092.png


The _CastleBlocks version does not (note the MODS - Material Swap section):
1632853353473.png


Hilight all the pieces, then Right-Click and Compare Selected:
1632853424141.png


They now all appear side-by-side:
1632853488671.png


To copy, Right-Click the top NVNM of the item which has navmesh and choose "Copy to selected records":

1632853534494.png


It asks which records to copy to (sanity-check), click the OK button down the bottom:
1632853656359.png


Copy complete!
1632853686963.png


Notes:

I have heard that we should open the plugin in the Creation Kit, choose to navmesh each copied piece, and re-finalize them (without changing the existing navmesh - just re-finalizing). I have also heard that we do not need to do this. I asked in the xEdit server, it turns out that nobody really knows.

I have personally had issues when re-navmeshing an object and have had to go nuclear on the existing navmesh on said object, re-navmeshing it from the beginning.

Your mileage may vary.
 
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The NavMeshGenCell and the Navigation Mesh Info Map

The NavMeshGenCell is a temporary cell which is changed every time you navmesh an object:
1632855352079.png


Leaving it in your plugin is "probably" safe, but you can remove it. (You can remove it because the actual navmesh for your pieces is saved on the pieces themselves - it's essentially not needed. I prefer to remove it, leaving that cell "clean" from the base-game for doing navmeshing.)

The Navigation Mesh Info Map is more problematic, it is a copy of the entire world's navmesh - exterior and interior:
1632855618487.png


If you have only been navmeshing pieces, then this appearing in your plugin is a "wild edit" which has been done in the background by the Creation Kit. That information is only required when creating custom worldspaces and interior cells - definitely remove it.
 
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Do Not Use Automation

Automation is the following options in the Creation Kit:

DoNotUse.jpg


Automated navmeshing generates garbage - it might seem quick, however there's a high chance you'll spend a longer time getting rid of the junk it creates. Might as well do it properly from the start.

I've been told not to use the options under the Generation > Advanced as well - apparently these also generate not-so-great navmesh:

1646111160034.png

1646111204085.png


* More to come.
 
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Other

* More to come
 
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