Region

Region Object

A Region is a form that holds data for collections of cells in a worldspace. In contrast to locations, regions are meant to be "painted" across large exterior areas. They are manipulated through the Region Editor, found by clicking "Regions..." under the World menu.

Regions are only available in worldspaces, and one worldspace only (some regions, such as those that hold audio data, are available in all worldspaces). Only the region data is stored in the region (REGN) object; the region's area of effect is stored in each individual cell, in the form of a list of regions it is a part of. As a result, painting a new region will add cell edits for the entire affected area to your mod, which has implications for compatibility when done on a vanilla worldspace. Firstly, your mod will override cell data (but not references within the cell) from earlier-loading mods, such as locations and custom region membership, which may break that mod's functionality (Hearthfire in particular is affected by this). Secondly, later-loading mods with cell edits will override that cell's membership of your region, causing it to lose effect in that cell and leaving a gap in your region (which may or may not leave the game unstable). It is recommended that you only add new regions to worldspaces added in your mod, and edit existing regions if you need to modify or add data to a worldspace already present in the game. On a different note, despite the way region membership is stored in cells, it is the exact shape of the region as drawn in the Region Preview Window that will decide its actual area of effect.

To create a new region, select the worldspace you wish to add the region to, then right-click and select "new". To create a new region based off an existing region, right-click the region you wish to use as a basis and select "duplicate". This will copy the region's data, but not its shape in the worldspace. To delete an existing region, right-click that region and select delete.

Region Data

The data defined in a region is organized in a set of tabs, each with their own type of data. These tabs share a few common parameters.

• Enable this type of data: Exactly what it says on the tin. Unchecking this flag will clear all previously entered data.
• Override: Checking this flag will allow the region to override other regions with regard to the current data type. If multiple overriding regions overlap, the one with the highest Priority will take precedence. Note that a region added by a mod will always override regions from earlier plugins in the load order.
• Priority: An integer between 0 and 100 that decides which region will have its current data type take effect in overlapping areas. Higher numbers mean stronger precedence. Only used when the Override flag is checked. If two or more overlapping regions have the same priority, none of them take precedence in the common area and the region with the next highest priority will take effect.

General Tab

Region Name

The region's EditorID. These IDs are not used in any Creation Kit environments outside of the Region Editor, so there is no need to prefix them (e.g. with a DLC number or mod name).

Map Color

The color of the shape the region will leave on the preview pane.

No Color

If checked, this disables and clears the region's map color.

Border Region

Tags the region as a border region, making areas outside of it inaccessible; the player will hit an invisible wall and be shown a built-in message if they try to leave the border region. Multiple border regions in one worldspace are possible, and overlapping one with another will extend the playable area to the volume of both regions.

Edge Fall-off

Undocumented. Defaults to 1024 units.

Auto Navmesh Generation

Can be used to automatically generate and finalize navmeshes in the current region. The resulting navmesh is not dependent on the region object.

Apply

Applies the data from all tabs.

Objects Tab

Your system must be sufficiently powerful to make use of this feature.

Used for creating randomly generated content, commonly referred to as "region generation". This usually includes trees, plants, rocks, but also textures and grass. Add objects or textures to the Objects Tab by dragging and dropping them from the Object Window. The objects can be organized into a hierarchical tree, with a number of parent objects that can in turn have one or several child objects. This allows for the creation of recurring "themes" in the generated objects. E.g. a parent object can be a world texture, and child objects for this texture could be a selection of alternative textures that sometimes blend with the parent texture, and typical rocks and plants for that texture. Another parent object for the same landscape could be a tree, and child objects could be a special texture that occurs around the tree and typical mushrooms and plants associated with that tree. The occurrence of each object can be conditionalized by its frequency, its spacing and the terrain's slope and height.

The "Enable this type of data" flag here is shared with the "Objects (more)" Tab.

• Generated Objects List: This list contains all of the EditorIDs that can be generated by the currently selected region. To add an object to the list, simply drag an item from the Object Window into the object list. With a few exceptions, just about any object type can be generated by the Region Editor. To add an item as a child object, simply drag the desired item over top of the desired parent object in the object list and release. There should now be a collapse/expand button next to the parent object. Child objects can be added to other child objects and so on, in the hierarchy. To delete an item from the list, simply right-click the selected item and choose Delete from the pop-up menu. Cut and Paste will trim and graft the selected item to any other selected item the object list. Reset Radius to Size will reset the current radius value of the selected object back to its default average bounding volume radius. This value is the radius value seen when an item is initially added to the object list for the first time.
• Up: This button will move the currently selected child or parent one level up in the object list hierarchy.
• Down: This button will move the currently selected child or parent one level down in the object list hierarchy.
• Object Name: Shows the EditorID of the currently selected object in the Generated Objects list.
• Density: Specifies the 'amount' or 'frequency' in which the currently selected object will be generated. This value works in tandem with the other object settings and is not a fixed amount. Higher numbers equate to a greater chance that object will appear. Range: 0-100
• Min Slope: Specifies the minimum terrain slope angle, in degrees, which an object can appear upon. The currently selected object will not appear on slope angles below the specified number. Range: 0-90
• Max Slope: Specifies the maximum terrain slope angle, in degrees, which an object can appear upon. The currently selected object will not appear on slope angles above the specified number. Range: 0-90
• Min Height: Specifies the lower cutoff, in units, for which the currently selected item will appear along the Z or 'Up' axis in the game world. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Max Height: Specifies the upper cutoff, in units, for which the currently selected item will appear along the Z or 'Up' axis in the game world. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Clustering: Specifies how likely the currently selected object will 'gravitate' or 'shift' towards others of its kind. The higher the value, the more likely that object will shift its final generated XYZ position to be closer to the same object types within a region. For best results, use sparingly. Range: 0-100
• Radius: Specifies the radius, in units, of the currently selected object. The radius can, and will most likely, differ greatly from the physical dimension of the object in question. This radius value factors heavily into determining how likely an object will appear in a region. Since the area of a cell is a finite amount, smaller radius values greatly increase the chance of an object appearing in a cell/region. Range: 0 to ∞
• Radius wrt Parent: Specifies an additional radius amount 'with regard to' an object's parent. This field is grayed out unless the selected object is a child of a parent object in the Generated Objects list. The number defines the width of the area outside of the parent object's radius one level up in the hierarchy for which the selected child object(s) can appear. Use this setting to determine how far out mushrooms (children) can appear around and out from the base of a tree (parent) for example. Range: 0 to ∞
• Is a Tree: This checkbox tells the Region Editor to handle the radius value for the selected object in a different manner from its default behavior. With this flag, the radius amount is multiplied up when two or more objects flagged as trees are placed near each other. This is useful, for example, when you would like to place mushrooms around/next to the base of a tree using the default trunk radius, but would like to keep the trees themselves further apart from each other to avoid excess foliage overlap and clipping. The amount that the tree flag modulates the default radius value is a modifiable game setting.
• Is a Huge Rock: This checkbox allows the Region Editor to generate other region objects on top of the surface geometry for the selected object.
• Copy Objects From Other Regions: This button allows the user to select another region from the same world space and copy all of its object data and settings into the currently selected region. Any pre-existing object data will be cleared out and completely replaced by the copied data.
• Generate Now: This button will generate the objects/settings defined for the current region in the game world for all of the cells affected by the region. If there are other regions affecting any of the same cells, they will be generated as well, but only for the cells in common with the currently selected region. The generation process should ideally work seamlessly around any hand-placed objects, with the exception of any custom landscape texturing and vertex painting.
• Obliterate Now: This button will clear out any previously generated content for the currently selected region as well as for any other overlapping region that might have generated content in cells common with the selected region. Hand-placed objects are ignored by this pass, with the exception of any custom landscape texturing and vertex painting. The generated objects can not be obliterated with this function after saving and reloading the plugin. Instead they will have to be deleted manually, e.g. in the render window. To test out generated regions in the game that you may want to obliterate and redo, leave the Creation Kit open while loading Skyrim.

Objects (more) Tab

• Angle Variance: These 3 number fields correspond to the local X, Y and Z axis for the currently selected object. The values are in degrees and specify the range in which the selected object can rotate about that particular axis. Each number field supports positive and negative values. Additionally, the +/- checkbox can be enabled individually for each field, effectively stating that the angle value can go in either a positive or negative direction when the Region Editor generates the selected object type. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Sink Variance: Specifies the range, in units, for which to modulate the Sink value along the game world's Z axis. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Sink: Specifies the amount, in units, for which an object is 'lowered' or 'sunken' along the game world's Z axis after it is initially placed. This is helpful for placing tree or rock objects where you want to vary how far they clip into the terrain geometry. This value is assumed negative by default. Manually entering a negative value here will in effect cause the object to 'raise'. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Size Variance: Specifies the range, in percent, of the final size or scale for the selected object type. The +/- checkbox effectively states that the scale amount can go in either a positive or negative direction when the Region Editor generates the selected object type. For best results, use sparingly, extreme values will be capped in the engine. Range: -∞ to ∞
• Conform to slope: The checkbox states that the selected object will take into account the average terrain delta directly underneath the XY surface area of the object upon generation. The resulting placement will align the object with the general angle of the terrain and is done prior to any Angle Variance adjustments. This is useful for generating terrain conforming objects, such as rocks, upon steep or inclining landscape.
• Paint Vertices: This checkbox enables terrain vertex painting for the selected object type. Click the color swatch to use the Windows color picker to select a vertex color, just as you would in the landscape editor. The % of Radius slider chooses the amount, in percent of the object radius, to paint terrain vertices directly above or below the selected object type. Each terrain vertex is 128 units apart. Range: 0-200

Weather Tab

• Weather Type: From the pull down menu, choose the current Weather Type and press the Add button to enter it into the Weather Type list for that region. To remove a weather type from the list, right-click the selected weather type and choose Delete.
• Chance: The chance number specifies, in percent, the likelihood of that weather type occurring for the given region in-game. A higher number increases the likelihood for that weather to appear. The chance amounts for all weather types in a region must add up to 100. To alter the chance number, double click the appropriate row in the Chance column and type in the amount. Range: 0-100
• Global: When adding the weather, you may optionally choose a global variable that will represent the chance.

Map Tab

• Map Name: The name of the region that is shown on doors and save files.

Landscape Tab

Not used.

Grass Tab

Not used.

Sound Tab

• Music Type: This pull-down menu allows for control over which type of music will play when the player is within the confines of the currently selected region.
• Sound ID List: This list shows all of the EditorIDs of sounds that will play when the player is within the confines of the currently selected region. To add a sound object, simply drag one into the list from the Object Window. Press the delete key with the currently selected sound object to remove it from the list. Double click a sound object to enter in a percent amount (0-100) of how often that sound object will play in-game. Single left-click on the Pleasant?, Cloudy?, Rainy?, and/or Snowy? columns to set up weather specific conditions as to when a particular sound object will play. X=True

Region Preview Window

The bottom right section of the Region Editor dialog shows a grid of cells belonging to the currently selected world space, and the regions which have been made for it. When mousing over the map, the bottom left corner of the dialog shows the coordinates of the cell, and to the right, the unit coordinates.

The controls are as follows:

• Click and hold the middle mouse button/mouse wheel to pan around the grid.
• Scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in or out.

The behavior of left and right mouse clicks depends on whether you are currently drawing a Region Area or not.

If you are not already drawing one, left clicking in the grid will set down a point for a new region area (you must have a Region selected in the list). You can then click on more positions in order to line out a polygon that will be the region area. Right click and select "Done" to connect the last placed point with the first one and complete the region area, or select "Clear last point" to redo the last point.

You can also enter drawing mode by right clicking on an existing region area and selecting "Edit Region Area <...>". You can then add more points, or right click again and select "Clear last point" to redo the shape.

See Also

• Glossary#Regions