How to use EHT well, even as a beginner

Krainor1974

@R_K
You know we all got your back and are checking the forums for you.
😆

Chryseia

@tsaescishoeshiner yes EHT is the best way to gain better control, precision, or just user friendlyness (imo) regarding editing tools. There are several editing modes packaged in EHT, so experiement to figure out which jives best with you.

I personally prefer to select an item or group of items into the EHT menu, then use "nudging" arrows to move or rotate the selection on one of several increments (and you can choose exactly how far it will nudge or rotate when you use the arrows). I also like to use the edit placement menu, which lets you directly input coordinate values for its x, y, z, and rotational positions (i.e, set the item to be rotated exactly 0 degrees, 30 degrees, etc).

If you don't like those modes, there is also the "easy slide" edit mode, which lets you click and drag an item along the x, y, or z axis, or you can use the builds tab as well (which stabby talked about a bit in her picture of the glass floor -- it basically does the math and placement for you if you want to create geometric shapes and stuff).

@StabbityDoom great idea for a forum post! Thank you for sharing some tips and examples with the community!

Tigerseye

StabbityDoom wrote: »

See this lovely jacuzzi? It's gone now (I redid my tel galen), but it had fx water. Going under fx, you can select "water, round" of different types, like coldharbour water or aquarium water or all sorts. You pick that, place it simply with the arrows that will pop up, and you now have a full jacuzzi.

That's lovely.

Why they don't just allow that in the base game, I have no idea.

Same with soil, for pots.

StabbityDoom

tsaescishoeshiner wrote: »

Thanks for the informative post!

1 Question: Is EHT the best tool if I'm just looking for a way to adjust, rotate, and move furnishings better?

(I keep having this problem—no addons—where "flat" objects like carpets and floors are very noticeably angled when tilted upward to use as a tapestry or wall, and the rotational increments always overshoot being truly flat)

Yes, I think @Chryseia went into some detail on how to use precision nudging to get items the way you want them. But I have found two other tools to get things exactly the way i want them, because I find that annoying as well. Generally, you can click on the item and hit Q and the item's X Y Z coordinates come up. Remember or write down these numbers, 90, 180, 270, 360 (or O). If your item should be flat to the ground and it isn't, try adjusting those numbers and seeing how it moves. Usually putting them in those numbers works, but not always. If there's something next to it that IS laying flat, look at it with Q and try copying its coordinate for that angle and it should be right.

I found a way I really like in how to align things perfectly, I select the middle items and then use "align items between two items" - then select the targets on either side and voila, it centers them beautifully, pic below. You may have to adjust the height of the items but that's easy with the arrows.

I realize this gets complex sounding, but for the simplest way, put on custom precision and move it by pixel until it is where you want it to be.

Example is from my pariah's, feel free to visit and examine the angles and whatnot.


Second pic is using the Q option to open up degrees for editing:

StabbityDoom

Feendish wrote: »

StabbityDoom wrote: »

There's a deeply-held reason for that. I spend a few hours every morning making sure I tour all the new ones. This is for one reason alone - because I want people to know that someone cares. I care about the work and creativity and passion that goes into each of their builds and I want them to know that their art is seen and appreciated. There's nothing sadder to me than when I had a house nobody came to see when I busted my butt on it. So I don't want --anyone-- to feel that way.

You are the only visitor in the vast majority of my homes (that has signed the log, at any rate), and because of this, I'm very grateful. Thank you.

That's a shame, your homes are spectacular. Your Erstwhile and Snugpod are amazing, especially.

StabbityDoom

I thought of something else, my pariah's would not have been possible in the first place without Magic Carpet. This is another addon, also written by cardinal05. You can use plenty of objects to just run around on, for example, the celestiodome. If you are doing anything tall or over a hole of nothingness, you want this addon.


Secondly, my tel galen.

I could NOT have done this house without it. Even with it, I died, a lot, out of forgetting to turn it on. Please ignore the ugly side walkway, it was there for a contest reason. I'll eventually go away.

StabbityDoom

R_K wrote: »

I don't know what I did to deserve all of your help (looking at @StabbityDoom this time), but thank you... thank you so much.

You all are the reason that I write these tools and you never give me a reason to second guess the decision to do so.

It's hard not to be devoted to someone who gives so much with nothing in return. It helps that your program makes building so amazing.

I know I sound like I'm ridiculous here, but I can't help it.

R_K

Krainor1974

@R_K

StabbityDoom wrote: »

R_K wrote: »

I don't know what I did to deserve all of your help (looking at @StabbityDoom this time), but thank you... thank you so much.

You all are the reason that I write these tools and you never give me a reason to second guess the decision to do so.

It's hard not to be devoted to someone who gives so much with nothing in return. It helps that your program makes building so amazing.

I know I sound like I'm ridiculous here, but I can't help it.

I agree with you, @R_K ’s work and addons are amazing and everyone in the guild and in the eht community after all these years have been able to get our homes to where we always wanted them to be. You took the game to a level we all have wanted since homestead came out. You my friend have changed the game for the better and we all thank you for it.

Araneae6537

I finally decided to download EHT, primarily for being able to visit others’ homes, but to check out other features as well and maybe save my sanity when trying to get items positioned just so!

I followed the instructions to install, but ESO says that several things (I think they were libraries) are out-of-date. I tried allowing out-dates add-one but this just resulted in a series of error messages when I logged onto a character. I asked some guildies about this and they said I might need to update these with Minion. Eep! I just caved and downloaded my first add-on, I’m not getting another! (Not yet anyway, come back in six months? Lol!)

Is there a site or another thread I should reference on how to get EHT set up and running?

And thank you, @StabbityDoom, for all you do for the housing community!!! People like you make me extra happy to join in and be a part of it!

StabbityDoom

@ErinM31 yes, EHT does need several libraries. Libraries can be considered just additional info for one or several addons, not really an addon on its own.

Libstub, LibAddonmenu-2.0, LibMainmenu-2.0, and LibCustommenu are needed to run it (and several other addons) properly. *Most* addons these days refer to libraries, so this is normal. Minion will help you to find and install these, or you could use ESOUI website and do it manually.

Sorry for the additional trouble.

bayushi2005

I've been very reluctant to comment under this thread as I mostly deal with animations. Most of people will consider it "advanced" use.
There are few things, though, which will make your build shine even if you're just a beginner:

1. Precision - there are things which are simply impossible to make using "freehand" method:



take a look at the rosette: freehand wouldn't build that. No bloody way. Can't thank @R_K enough.

2. FX: Cardi has made them very simple to use: they cost nothing and the limit is 2k. I usually can't even get close to that as it's spice for me and I tend to use "real" furniture instead of FX.The reason is: I can show my friends and visitors animations done on furniture but not on FX.They have one major advantage: you can fill the, otherwise unfillable, space with FX.

3. Animations and triggers: While somewhat advanced, they may be a huge addition to your house, even if they are simple: sliding dood, locking/unlocking a hidden area, or going utterly crazy The only issue is that you need to be present in the house for them to work (sometimes requires the guest to be in the group). Not a bad thing if you want to make a part of your home inaccessible to visitors. Worth it imho. Have an example - skip to 10:00 or so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD0YTnAkf0U

How to start with:

1. Be patient - none of the advanced users got there instantly. We all watched Cardi's tutorials and just tried to use EHT making maaaaaany mistakes. It takes a bit, but once you get the routine, you're home.

2. Experiment - you will discover many "hidden" functions every time you use EHT. Dealing with animations and triggers will teach you solving logical problems (not a joke).

3. Observe - not all furniture behave in the same way, sometimes ZOS doesn't give the right meaurements or the furniture is "misbehaving" due to being unusual. Return to #1 - be patient. It took me roughly 6 months to finish the main room in my Lakemire Xanmeer Manor:



4. Be patient - yes, again - best builds require time to develop! You may change your mind hundreds of times before you hit the "sweet spot".

Good luck on your journey! If you have any questions about your EHT animations feel free to PM me.

Aisleyne

I've only recently migrated to PC so the world of add-ons is new to me. I saw in one of the other threads that you can resize objects with this. I was wondering what happens with those resized things when someone without add-ons views your home? Does it appear in its regular form or not show up at all? I tried searching for an answer but there was so much to sort through I couldn't get anywhere.

bayushi2005

Aisleyne wrote: »

I've only recently migrated to PC so the world of add-ons is new to me. I saw in one of the other threads that you can resize objects with this. I was wondering what happens with those resized things when someone without add-ons views your home? Does it appear in its regular form or not show up at all? I tried searching for an answer but there was so much to sort through I couldn't get anywhere.

@Aisleyne They can't see it at all. I consider it a "good practice" to plan for that.

Aisleyne

bayushi2005 wrote: »

They can't see it at all. I consider it a "good practice" to plan for that.

Good to know. Thank you!

Araneae6537

StabbityDoom wrote: »

@ErinM31 yes, EHT does need several libraries. Libraries can be considered just additional info for one or several addons, not really an addon on its own.

Libstub, LibAddonmenu-2.0, LibMainmenu-2.0, and LibCustommenu are needed to run it (and several other addons) properly. *Most* addons these days refer to libraries, so this is normal. Minion will help you to find and install these, or you could use ESOUI website and do it manually.

Sorry for the additional trouble.

Thank you for the info! After looking into it, I figured it would be easier to install Minion even if EHT is the only add-on I use. It looked like it would be straightforward, yet I point Minion to the Add-Ons folder that ESO creates, where I put the EHT folder and ESO recognizes it, but Minion does not find it. It seems so simple; I don’t know what I could be doing wrong.

StabbityDoom

ErinM31 wrote: »

StabbityDoom wrote: »

@ErinM31 yes, EHT does need several libraries. Libraries can be considered just additional info for one or several addons, not really an addon on its own.

Libstub, LibAddonmenu-2.0, LibMainmenu-2.0, and LibCustommenu are needed to run it (and several other addons) properly. *Most* addons these days refer to libraries, so this is normal. Minion will help you to find and install these, or you could use ESOUI website and do it manually.

Sorry for the additional trouble.

Thank you for the info! After looking into it, I figured it would be easier to install Minion even if EHT is the only add-on I use. It looked like it would be straightforward, yet I point Minion to the Add-Ons folder that ESO creates, where I put the EHT folder and ESO recognizes it, but Minion does not find it. It seems so simple; I don’t know what I could be doing wrong.

Are you on Mac or PC? presuming pc? so the location to point it to would be this: documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/Addons/

that should help

StabbityDoom

Oh and, I get it you are not big on the idea of addon use, but there are so many quality of life ones you would love, I might throw a list together of the bare necessities of quality of life! (hint: do you daily writs? Dolgubon's lazy daily writ addon practically does them for you, taking hours of work down to minutes if you have multiple characters/accounts)

R_K

ErinM31 wrote: »

StabbityDoom wrote: »

@ErinM31 yes, EHT does need several libraries. Libraries can be considered just additional info for one or several addons, not really an addon on its own.

Libstub, LibAddonmenu-2.0, LibMainmenu-2.0, and LibCustommenu are needed to run it (and several other addons) properly. *Most* addons these days refer to libraries, so this is normal. Minion will help you to find and install these, or you could use ESOUI website and do it manually.

Sorry for the additional trouble.

Thank you for the info! After looking into it, I figured it would be easier to install Minion even if EHT is the only add-on I use. It looked like it would be straightforward, yet I point Minion to the Add-Ons folder that ESO creates, where I put the EHT folder and ESO recognizes it, but Minion does not find it. It seems so simple; I don’t know what I could be doing wrong.

Hi @ErinM31 ! I am sorry that you are encountering an issue installing Minion or EHT. If you have downloaded and installed Minion already, the AddOn path that you will want to use is as follows:

This PC | Documents | Elder Scrolls Online | live | AddOns



If you set it up just as I have shown here under the Options tab, that should get you up and running.

After that, you should be able to find Essential Housing Tools under the Find More tab.

If you run into any problems, please post a screen capture of the error that you are receiving and we can go from there.

Thanks!

Araneae6537

@StabbityDoom and @R_K Thank you so much for your help! I did not mean to clog this thread with my difficulties— thought it would be a “quick question” the answer to which might be generally helpful to new users. I don’t know whether a moderator could relocate these posts to a new thread?

I had the folders and everything correct; for some reason, Minion just didn’t visibly do anything after I pointed it to my add-on folder — no error message nor adding EHT to my as then empty “Installed Add-Ons” list. But when I started Minion this morning, it was there, so okay, next step!

I had hoped that by clicking update that Minion would find and update all necessary libraries for me — alas! Thank you, @StabbityDoom, for the list of which I need for EHT! Now the only problem there is that I cannot find LibraryAddonMenu-2.0 but only the first version, which didn’t help to install (thought I’d try it).

I tried to also set-up the crafting writ add-on you recommended, and there the difficulty I run into is that it says LibMapPing is out of date, even though I just installed it with Minion.

Not sure how to find and update these libraries now.

I would be interested in other QoL add-ons, perhaps, although not ones to find things as I enjoy that (although I can imagine it would become less fun by the third alt or so). My weariness of ads-ones was mostly worries that the might cause errors with patches or worse, move and lose my items (heard of this possibly happening with a GW2 add-on, maybe not true but).

StabbityDoom

ErinM31 wrote: »

@StabbityDoom and @R_K Thank you so much for your help! I did not mean to clog this thread with my difficulties— thought it would be a “quick question” the answer to which might be generally helpful to new users. I don’t know whether a moderator could relocate these posts to a new thread?

I had the folders and everything correct; for some reason, Minion just didn’t visibly do anything after I pointed it to my add-on folder — no error message nor adding EHT to my as then empty “Installed Add-Ons” list. But when I started Minion this morning, it was there, so okay, next step!

I had hoped that by clicking update that Minion would find and update all necessary libraries for me — alas! Thank you, @StabbityDoom, for the list of which I need for EHT! Now the only problem there is that I cannot find LibraryAddonMenu-2.0 but only the first version, which didn’t help to install (thought I’d try it).

I tried to also set-up the crafting writ add-on you recommended, and there the difficulty I run into is that it says LibMapPing is out of date, even though I just installed it with Minion.

Not sure how to find and update these libraries now.

I would be interested in other QoL add-ons, perhaps, although not ones to find things as I enjoy that (although I can imagine it would become less fun by the third alt or so). My weariness of ads-ones was mostly worries that the might cause errors with patches or worse, move and lose my items (heard of this possibly happening with a GW2 add-on, maybe not true but).

Don't feel bad. If you are having trouble than others are having trouble, so you are helping people. I am not having these problems with it, but I will look into it, maybe Cardi can figure out just why you are getting these errors.

As for Libaddonmenu, I believe that *is* version 2, because I looked and it says version 2.0 r29, but it's not obvious, maybe the author changed the name. Ignore the out of date wording, when you are in the addons selection page in the game just click "Allow out of date addons" - enabling these should make it work! The game updates so often, everything gets out of date really quick! I'm sorry this is so confusing.

Never had anyone lose items with addons and yes, there are occasionally problems with them, but usually not.

Araneae6537

StabbityDoom wrote: »

ErinM31 wrote: »

@StabbityDoom and @R_K Thank you so much for your help! I did not mean to clog this thread with my difficulties— thought it would be a “quick question” the answer to which might be generally helpful to new users. I don’t know whether a moderator could relocate these posts to a new thread?

I had the folders and everything correct; for some reason, Minion just didn’t visibly do anything after I pointed it to my add-on folder — no error message nor adding EHT to my as then empty “Installed Add-Ons” list. But when I started Minion this morning, it was there, so okay, next step!

I had hoped that by clicking update that Minion would find and update all necessary libraries for me — alas! Thank you, @StabbityDoom, for the list of which I need for EHT! Now the only problem there is that I cannot find LibraryAddonMenu-2.0 but only the first version, which didn’t help to install (thought I’d try it).

I tried to also set-up the crafting writ add-on you recommended, and there the difficulty I run into is that it says LibMapPing is out of date, even though I just installed it with Minion.

Not sure how to find and update these libraries now.

I would be interested in other QoL add-ons, perhaps, although not ones to find things as I enjoy that (although I can imagine it would become less fun by the third alt or so). My weariness of ads-ones was mostly worries that the might cause errors with patches or worse, move and lose my items (heard of this possibly happening with a GW2 add-on, maybe not true but).

Don't feel bad. If you are having trouble than others are having trouble, so you are helping people. I am not having these problems with it, but I will look into it, maybe Cardi can figure out just why you are getting these errors.

As for Libaddonmenu, I believe that *is* version 2, because I looked and it says version 2.0 r29, but it's not obvious, maybe the author changed the name. Ignore the out of date wording, when you are in the addons selection page in the game just click "Allow out of date addons" - enabling these should make it work! The game updates so often, everything gets out of date really quick! I'm sorry this is so confusing.

Never had anyone lose items with addons and yes, there are occasionally problems with them, but usually not.

You’re right, and even though it didn’t show as “LibAddonMenu-2.0” in Minion, it does in ESO, although ESO also says it is out-of-date. Allowing “out-of-date” add-ons did it! Now EHT is up and running— woohoo!

You can lock furnishings, omg, why was I so stubborn and didn’t install this sooner!!!

StabbityDoom

ErinM31 wrote: »

StabbityDoom wrote: »

ErinM31 wrote: »

@StabbityDoom and @R_K Thank you so much for your help! I did not mean to clog this thread with my difficulties— thought it would be a “quick question” the answer to which might be generally helpful to new users. I don’t know whether a moderator could relocate these posts to a new thread?

I had the folders and everything correct; for some reason, Minion just didn’t visibly do anything after I pointed it to my add-on folder — no error message nor adding EHT to my as then empty “Installed Add-Ons” list. But when I started Minion this morning, it was there, so okay, next step!

I had hoped that by clicking update that Minion would find and update all necessary libraries for me — alas! Thank you, @StabbityDoom, for the list of which I need for EHT! Now the only problem there is that I cannot find LibraryAddonMenu-2.0 but only the first version, which didn’t help to install (thought I’d try it).

I tried to also set-up the crafting writ add-on you recommended, and there the difficulty I run into is that it says LibMapPing is out of date, even though I just installed it with Minion.

Not sure how to find and update these libraries now.

I would be interested in other QoL add-ons, perhaps, although not ones to find things as I enjoy that (although I can imagine it would become less fun by the third alt or so). My weariness of ads-ones was mostly worries that the might cause errors with patches or worse, move and lose my items (heard of this possibly happening with a GW2 add-on, maybe not true but).

Don't feel bad. If you are having trouble than others are having trouble, so you are helping people. I am not having these problems with it, but I will look into it, maybe Cardi can figure out just why you are getting these errors.

As for Libaddonmenu, I believe that *is* version 2, because I looked and it says version 2.0 r29, but it's not obvious, maybe the author changed the name. Ignore the out of date wording, when you are in the addons selection page in the game just click "Allow out of date addons" - enabling these should make it work! The game updates so often, everything gets out of date really quick! I'm sorry this is so confusing.

Never had anyone lose items with addons and yes, there are occasionally problems with them, but usually not.

You’re right, and even though it didn’t show as “LibAddonMenu-2.0” in Minion, it does in ESO, although ESO also says it is out-of-date. Allowing “out-of-date” add-one did it! Now EHT is up and running— woohoo!

You can lock furnishings, omg, why was I so stubborn and didn’t install this sooner!!!

Well it was tricky to get the install done, so I'm glad you stuck with it!

R_K

Sorry, just checking in now again on this thread and it seems that I missed out on helping - but thank you so much @StabbityDoom for helping @ErinM31 - and Erin, I am super happy that you both were able to get your EHT up and running!

...and yes, Item Locking is pretty awesome. Oddly, I never hear many people mention it. Come to think of it... I hope that people know it’s there at all...

(Insert The Thinker statue here)

Now, please go forth and build epic things (and stuff).

StabbityDoom

I'm trying. Dude, go see @Tulien 's coldharbour NOW. @R_K -- trust me

StabbityDoom

Thought I'd show you folks another trick. Here you have an image just a second apart, with the fx toggled on and off. It looks like garbage in the first pic, but in the second I'm able to use wall effects dyed the (almost right) color to hide most of the junkiness. I'm playing with the colors now.

Araneae6537

StabbityDoom wrote: »

@MornaBaine so happy you asked ! i love this feature. You can change the lightness and darkness of a home - I don't think @Chryseia will mind me using this pic she took of inside Hundings as an example as dark as you can go. (pic 1) You play with this under "global brightness"

However, there is then pervasive darkness under light fx as well. This is pretty darn cool. Picture dark fog swirling in and out of view, slowly you can see everything around you, now you can't as the darkness comes back. This is UH-MAZ-ING for halloween homes. It is next to impossible to properly show in pics, so I will put it in my Ald Velothi so you can see it in action (pc-na, not my primary so use port to friend or eht hub). Edit: it is now available for anyone to visit to see the effect in action. It's subtle, because i put it on the lightest setting (I should have gone darker) so just stand there looking forward for a bit and you will see it.
Pic 2 and 3 are showing it moments apart, but it doesn't do it justice.

How is the effect in the first picture achieved? I was doing my first experimenting with FX last night and, by default at least, Pervasive Darkness makes everything darker, including dimming lights. I would like to make all shadows darker while leaving light sources bright, as it looks like they are in the first pic you’ve posted here. I want to create some dramatic lighting, basically kill most of the default ambient lighting and create dramatic lit/shaded contrast. Is Pervasive Darkness the best tool for this and I just need to keep experimenting? Or should I be using different or additional effects?

StabbityDoom

The effect in the first pic was @Chryseia 's work but I believe she used overall light/dark, not pervasive, which washes in and out.

StabbityDoom

Now that my house has been revealed I can show you some tricks.

in this picture, the sky, the leaves falling, the candles in the windows (not the pumpkins but the plain candles), and the dark windows are all fx. You can set falling leaves to a multitude of colors. They start out green but you can play with the color palette.

Keep in mind that if I wanted to, I could set it to hide grass and you wouldn't have any grass for anyone to see, including visitors.

Chryseia

@ErinM31 Hey Erin! So, to probably give more detail than you want..

The brightness global and brightness area FX basically just adjust a visitor's in-game graphic settings to set the gamma slider to the specific value that you set for it via the FX color wheel. Gamma is basically just... a way to adjust how "black" and contrasting your game's graphics are.

Normally, if you manually adjust your game's gamma value, you can change it to a specific range that is not particularly dramatic, even at the most contrasting. HOWEVER, Cardi figured out that the game actually allows you to make the gamma much more dramatic than the video setting allows for. As such, he unlocked that ability with the brightness global and brightness area FXs. In the screenshot @StabbityDoom linked, I was messing around with what the home would look like if I set the gamma to be as dark/contrasting as it possibly could be set via the brightness, global FX.

All of that is a long (and probably un-wanted) way of saying that the FX that was used was "brightness, global" at the most contrasting gamma setting possible (via the grayscale on the color wheel of the edit fx menu). And also to explain that it doesn't actually make the lighting "darker" in the way you would intuitively think it would. What it actually does is increase the contrast so much that everything but the most brightest of light sources look black. You can, of course, set the gamma to be less contrasting than what I did in that picture to make it less oppressively pitch black, and in some ways it will mimic true darkness, but light sources wont necessarily behave the way you would expect because its not really adjusting light, just contrast. On this same note, the way that colors appear to you will change as well - just as if you started messing with the normal game gamma settings.

In other words, totally doable! But it will take some tinkering.

Good luck!

Edit: Thought of another thing - you can also use the veil of darkness fx in a similar matter- it also adjusts your game video settings to affect certain brightness/darkness parameters. You can even use the brightness global and veil of darkness at the same time to further fine tune the lighting. BOTH brightness global and veil of darkness can be used to either "brighten" or "darken" a space. (or decrease or increase contrast)