Please note that I started this thread after searching exhaustively for a similar issue.

I am trying to relocate the QUIVER bone on skeleton.nif. Doesn't matter where, I just need to see that I can modify it and view the effects in-game.

Translating it in NifSkope results in no change in-game.
Moving it using the bone tools in 3DS Max, exporting the skeleton, and then copying the QUIVER bone node to the existing skeleton using NifSkope results in no change in-game.

I haven't been able to export an entire working skeleton directly out of 3DS Max, so that was off the table for now.

Does anyone know how to modify the position of a bone and have the change reflected in-game?

Thanks for any insight.

Are you talking the human skeleton?
I'm curious how you're testing it in game. Did you re-rig a body mesh to the new skeleton and finding the quiver still in the current spot?

Yes. actors/character/character assets/skeleton.nif.

I am testing it by overwriting the file and then equipping a quiver in-game on a male dunmer. The body mesh (malebody_0.nif) doesn't have this bone, so the body mesh shouldn't matter (right?) For what it's worth, the body mesh doesn't have any of the weapon attachment bones.

Well, no, you won't see weapon bones actually on body nifs, they're inherently part of the skeleton the body is rigged to.

(I could be completely off the mark, I'm still in Oblivion way of thinking, however comparing the two bodies and skeletons I'm tending to think they act the same)

I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Either way, I'm still interested in what I'm missing in terms of why repositioning the bone in NifSkope and 3DS Max has no effect. If anything, if I made a mistake, quivers would start looking severely jacked up. But it's like I'm not changing anything.

Morning bump.

I had some minor success last night by deleting the bone and then copying another one and renaming it QUIVER, and parenting it to a different node than Spine2. However, the bone's same basic shape / length orientation was still retained, just moved closer to the parent node.

You should be able to relocate the bone but you will also have to edit all the dependencies of this bone and you risk to breack some stuff i the game ... But I think the 3dsmax exporter is still buggy and doesn't allow proper export but I have not tried on bones either ... The best could be edit it directly in nifscope and rename ...

I know some people had success in adding new bones and use them to "animate boobs" and have a kind of bouncing bone derived... So it is doable but is not easy... As for the know how , saidenstorm is a reference to ask for according to bones , new creatures and animations he may have your answer...

Btw animations in game tend to reset changes done in bones...

Thanks Prometheus, I'll contact him.

Just got a massive point in the right direction by EvilDeadAsh34 on Skyrim Nexus:


Huge, huge thanks. This is the information I was looking for. Posting it here in case anyone else needs to know how to do this.

Chesko, I'm running into trouble. My quiver problems have been solved by simply reducing the scale of the node to 0.0001 (essentially making it invisible), which is a solution I prefer because I don't like quivers to begin with (had I known of the solution before, I might never have made my original inquiries in another thread).

However, as I've said before, I'm having terrible clipping issues with the Well Placed Weapons and Quivers mod (I use it because of its No Dangling Swords version, where he went further than the author of the original NDS mod by including beast races). To make matters worse, I've also edited all weapons to remove their scabbards, as I don't like those either (I like a very primitive, bare bones look to my characters, as you can see ). The combination of the no-dangling-swords and the lack of scabbards has caused terrible clipping into the hip, especially on certain armors. I would very much like to inch the sword away from the body a bit, so the method you've discovered might be my salvation. However.....

I have Nifskope open right now and node > attach parent node doesn't end there, as you know. I get a pop up with about two dozen choices, I guess asking me the "type" of parent node I need to add. What choice do I make?

Also, when picking a parent node type (randomly) I can still see where it says "WeaponSword" without needing to "expand". I have my new blank, unnamed node and the "WeaponSword" right beneath it. While this may sound like an insignificant detail, the fact that I didn't get the predicted results as outlined in his instructions makes me think I did something wrong.

Anyway, can you or someone else possibly instruct me on exactly how to edit this new node to get the desired results? Again, I simply want to achieve separation between the body and sword. I can experiment with distance once I know what to change.

Thanks for your ongoing help. You've been awesome.

EDIT: Well hold on now. Since I was using an already edited skeleton.nif to make my changes, that extra parent node was already created, hence the unpredicted results. Half my work is already done for me. I simply need to find a sweet spot for the new sword positioning and I'm good to go. So disregard my long question above.

Valuable tip there. Thanks for helping me learn new tricks.

No problem. And I've confirmed that it http://i.imgur.com/ool8R.jpg

I'll tell you what. As I'm going back and forth, tweaking this axis and that, shifting, pulling, re-positioning, sometimes in small increments, I'm so thankful that Skyrim is a fast loading game.

Can you imagine the poor people trying to mod The Sims 2?

Nice. I got it working too. I angled the back weapon so it's more diagonal, and I also lifted the mace off the leg and pulled the handle forward. Both tweaks help somewhat with reducing clipping with Winter is Coming cloaks.

Do you happen to have an animation that will accommodate the quivers at the hip like that? If not, I guess that's the next thing we need to learn, but I have a feeling it won't be so simple.

Your quiver looks so good there I may consider bringing mine out of the mothballs. What are the exact XYZ/YPR numbers you're using for that?

EDIT: Also, what backpack mod are you using and what node is it attached to? Can't be quivers. I'd use a backpack as well, provided I could distance it from the back so it doesn't clip with the cloaks as badly.

EDIT 2: You know what else you might want to think about doing? Download the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=12506 mod and check out the quivers. There's a picture of it on the mod page (the one in the picture with the Nord Bow). I can't be sure, but it looks more slim than the Bethesda models. It might look good where you have them positioned. You could replace all the quivers in the game to use that, but of course keep the arrows as some mods do.

I'm not sure if it's possible to modify animations yet. I'm not sure that I will care that much (though some might). Torches come out of nowhere, for instance.

I'll PM you when I get home.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=13687 They attach to Spine2 and use apparel slot 47. I am modifying them for inclusion in Frostfall to reduce cloak clipping.

Chesko,

Re: animations, there's the one mod that adds the dagger to the ankle and he included an animation for drawing it from there.

Re: the coordinates, thanks!

Re: Sabre Gear, great...I already have the mod in my mod storage folder along with about every other mod released on Nexus since 11-11-11. Should be a simple matter now of using EvilDeadAsh's method to move it away from the body and I'll have full compatibility with everything.

Editing spine 2 on skeleton.nif has disastrous effects (it changes the shape of the character bodies). Editing spine 2 on the backpacks shows the edits in Nifscope but makes no changes in game. Attaching a new parent node to spine 2 as per above instructions also shows edits in Nifscope but no changes in game.

Heh, yea, do not edit a node that has more than one linkage. Weapon bones are fine, the spine is not.

To translate the backpack away from the spine node, 3DS Max might be required

Grrrrr.