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Detailing

For physical objects there are currently two ways of setting them up: specify an asset bundle and path to load a custom asset you created, or specify the path to the item you want to copy from the game in the scene hierarchy. Use the Unity Explorer mod to find an object you want to copy onto your new body. Some objects work better than others for this. Good luck. Some pointers:

  • Use “Object Explorer” to search
  • Generally you can find planets by writing their name with no spaces/punctuation followed by “_Body”.
  • There’s also this community-maintained list of props which you can use to find interesting props and check to see if they have collision.

Debug Raycast

If you turn on debug mode (the mod option), you can press P to shoot a ray where you’re looking. This will print location info to the console that you can paste into your configs, as well as paths that you can explore further in Unity Explorer.
Of note: the rotation of the raycast will have the up direction facing away from the ground/wall/ceiling and the forward direction facing you.

Unity Explorer

You can use Unity Explorer to tweak the position, rotation, and scale of your props. These docs will not elaborate too much on this tool. There are other tutorials out there.

Asset Bundles

There is an old unity template and a new one

The project contains ripped versions of all the game scripts, meaning you can put things like DirectionalForceVolumes in your Unity project to have artificial gravity volumes loaded right into the game.
Either one works, but the new one has more tools and better versions of the scripts (in exchange for being invite-only).

Read this guide on how to work with asset bundles in editor.

Importing a planet’s surface from Unity

Making a planet’s entire surface from a Unity prefab is the exact same thing as adding one single big detail at position (0, 0, 0).

Examples

To add a Mars rover to the red planet in RSS, its model was put in an asset bundle as explained above, and then the following was put into the Props module:

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
                "assetBundle": "planets/assetbundle/rss",
                "path": "Assets/RSS/Prefabs/Rover.prefab",
                "position": {
                    "x": 146.5099,
                    "y": -10.83688,
                    "z": -36.02736
                },
                "alignRadial": true
            }
        ]
    }
}

To scatter 12 trees from the Dream World around Wetrock in NH Examples , the following was put into the Props module:

{
    "Props": {
        "scatter": [
            {
                "path": "DreamWorld_Body/Sector_DreamWorld/Sector_DreamZone_1/Props_DreamZone_1/OtherComponentsGroup/Trees_Z1/DreamHouseIsland/Tree_DW_M_Var",
                "count": 12
            }
        ]
    }
}

You can swap these around too. The following would scatter 12 Mars rovers across the planet and place a single tree at a given position:

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
                "path": "DreamWorld_Body/Sector_DreamWorld/Sector_DreamZone_1/Props_DreamZone_1/OtherComponentsGroup/Trees_Z1/DreamHouseIsland/Tree_DW_M_Var",
                "position": {
                    "x": 146.5099,
                    "y": -10.83688,
                    "z": -36.02736
                },
                "alignRadial": true
            }
        ],
        "scatter": [
            {
                "assetBundle": "planets/assetbundle/rss",
                "path": "Assets/RSS/Prefabs/Rover.prefab",
                "count": 12
            }
        ]
    }
}

Custom Items and Item Sockets

Items

You can convert details into custom items for the player to pick up and hold by adding the item properties to your detail:

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
        "path": "Moon_Body/Sector_THM/Interactables_THM/Prefab_HEA_Recorder/Props_HEA_Recorder_Geo",
        "position": {"x": -35.30206, "y": -79.12967, "z": 182.912},
        "rotation": {"x": 300.8207, "y": 32.93826, "z": 141.4214},
        "item": {
          "name": "Tape Recorder",
          "itemType": "Decoration"
        }
            }
        ]
    }
}

The name and itemType can be anything you want. The name will be what’s displayed to the player when they mouse over it (“Pick up X”), and itemType determines the kinds of item sockets that the item can be placed in.

Note: Outer Wilds is unfortunately very picky about the types of objects you can use as items. There must be a collider on the object itself which the game will use to check if the cursor is over it or not to allow you to pick it up. Colliders on child objects will have collision as normal but won’t allow you to pick up the item when you mouse over them. By default, New Horizons will add a spherical collider to your detail to act as this mouse-over collider. If your object already has a working collider on it, you can disable the New Horizons spherical collider by setting "colliderRadius": 0.

Here’s a more complex example, with every property filled out:

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
        "path": "BrittleHollow_Body/Sector_BH/Sector_NorthHemisphere/Sector_NorthPole/Sector_HangingCity/Sector_HangingCity_BlackHoleForge/BlackHoleForgePivot/Props_BlackHoleForge/Prefab_NOM_VaseThick",
        "position": {"x": -33.30206, "y": -79.12967, "z": 182.912},
        "rotation": {"x": 300.8207, "y": 32.93826, "z": 141.4214},
        "item": {
          "name": "Nomai Vase",
          "itemType": "Decoration",
          "interactRange": 3,
          "colliderRadius": 0,


          "droppable": true,
          "dropOffset": {"x": 0, "y": 0, "z": 0},
          "dropNormal": {"x":0, "y": 1, "z": 0},


          "holdOffset": {"x": 0, "y": -0.3, "z": 0},
          "holdRotation": {"x": 0, "y": 45, "z": 0},


          "socketOffset": {"x": 0, "y": 0.2, "z": 0},
          "socketRotation": {"x": 0, "y": 45, "z": 0},


          "pickupAudio": "ToolProbeRetrieve",
          "dropAudio": "ToolProbeLaunch",
          "socketAudio": "PlayerSuitLockOn",
          "unsocketAudio": "PlayerSuitLockOff",


          "pickupCondition": "VASE_PICKED_UP",
          "clearPickupConditionOnDrop": true,
          "pickupFact": "EXAMPLES_VASE",


          "pathToInitialSocket": "Sector_TH/Strucutre_NOM_Shelf"
        }
            }
        ]
    }
}

To see the full list of item properties and descriptions of what each property does, check the ItemInfo schema.

Item Sockets

You can also designate a detail as an “item socket,” which will allow certain items to be placed into it. For example, the Nomai whiteboards have a socket for scrolls, and the Vessel’s warp core slot is also a socket. You do this by adding the itemSocket properties to your detail:

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
        "path": "QuantumIsland_Body/Sector_QuantumIsland/Sector_QuantumTowerInterior/Sector_QuantumTowerFinalRoom/Interactables_FinalRoom/FinalRoom_QProps/FinalRoom_Shelf/Q_Shelf/Prefab_NOM_Shelf/Strucutre_NOM_Shelf",
        "position": {"x": -29.89541, "y": -79.87562, "z": 183.1785},
        "rotation": {"x": 314.8642, "y": 286.1038, "z": 235.4039},
        "itemSocket": {
          "itemType": "Decoration",
          "interactRange": 3,
                    "colliderRadius": 0.5,
          "useGiveTakePrompts": true,


          "insertCondition": "VASE_INSERTED",
                    "clearInsertConditionOnRemoval": true,
                    "insertFact": "EXAMPLES_VASE_INSERTED",


          "removalCondition": "VASE_REMOVED",
                    "clearRemovalConditionOnInsert": true,
                    "removalFact": "EXAMPLES_VASE_REMOVED",


                    "position": {"x": 0, "y": 0, "z": 0.5},
                    "rotation": {"x": 0, "y": 0, "z": 0},
          "isRelativeToParent": true
        }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Item sockets will allow any item with a matching itemType to be placed into them; all other item types will show the “item does not fit” message.

Item sockets are also picky about colliders in the same way items are. The detail object must have a collider on it; colliders on child objects will not work for placing and removing items when the cursor is over them. New Horizons will add a spherical collider for you if you set colliderRadius to a non-zero value.

The position, rotation, and isRelativeToParent properties on the itemSocket don’t describe the location of the detail itself, but rather the point on the detail where items will be inserted. This will likely not be at the exact center of the detail, so you should use this properties to customize the location of the socket. If there is already an child object you want to use as a pivot point, you can put a relative path from the detail to the child object in the socketPath property to use instead of the generated socket point.

To see the full list of item socket properties and descriptions of what each property does, check the ItemSocketInfo schema.

Making Puzzles with Items and Sockets

You can use items and sockets to create simple puzzles purely with New Horizons configs! Consider this cut-down example. It describes a “Rusty Key” object, and a “Locked Door” object. The locked door will disappear when the key is inserted into it, allowing the player to move through the doorway.

{
    "Props": {
        "details": [
            {
        "path": "BlahBlahBlah",
        "item": {
          "name": "Rusty Key",
          "itemType": "Key"
        }
            },
            {
        "path": "BlahBlahBlah",
                "rename": "Locked Door",
                "deactivationCondition": "DOOR_UNLOCKED",
        "itemSocket": {
          "itemType": "Key",
          "insertCondition": "DOOR_UNLOCKED"
        }
            }
        ]
    }
}

When the “Rusty Key” item (or any other item with "itemType": "Key", for that matter) is inserted into the “Locked Door” item socket, a condition we’ve named DOOR_UNLOCKED is set to true. These conditions are mainly used for dialogue in Outer Wilds, but New Horizons also allows us to control objects with them. The locked door object has the DOOR_UNLOCKED condition as its deactivationCondition, which will cause it to disappear (“deactivate”) when the condition is set.

There are a handful of other properties that can be used like this: activationCondition and deactivationCondition on all details, insertCondition and removalCondition on item sockets, and pickupCondition on items. There are other properties that can further customize these behaviors.

Use the schema

To view additional options for detailing, check the schema