Moving backpack closer to the back (NifScope)

[MercerMeka]

Hello,

 

I'm trying to use Nifscope to make a backpack appear closer to the players back (and a bit further down) but I don't know how to do it.

There is a spine node I think I'm supposed edit called "Bip01 Spine2" but since I'm a beginner at NifScope I don't know what to do.

 

Can anyone help me out?

[DrakeTheDragon]

There's a few problems with this.

 

If you edit the backpack NIF and only move the "Bip01 Spine2" node around, it most likely won't change much about the result in game. The node inside the NIF is used more for reference than placement. The relative distance to this node is used to relatively distance the backpack to the skeleton's node in game more like it.

 

And if you edit the skeleton.nif so the "Bip01 Spine2" node is moved more forwards, this will affect much more than just the backpack. Additionally any locational or rotational changes to nodes inside the skeleton.nif are undone by every Vanilla game animation playing at the time, as for whatever reason the Vanilla game's animations always contain both, location and rotation, for every bone node at every time, effectively undoing everything done to the skeleton nodes.

 

The only way you can get the backpack closer to the back in a way that actually works is by editing the actual mesh and moving the vertices closer. This can be done in NifSkope, by selecting the NiTriShapes/Strips and through first editing the location and then applying the changes. Or it can be done in a modeling app like Blender or 3DS.

[MercerMeka]

Thanks a lot, Drake.

I managed after some trial and error to snugly fit the backpack on my character.

 

Btw do you know why some backpacks will only allow use of the amulet slot instead of the tail slot?

One of my backpacks becomes invisible if I set it as tail slot. Amulet slot works fine.

[Pellape]

Yes, I know why. It is because the backpack uses either of those slots in CS so have you checked the different backpacks in CS?

[MercerMeka]

Hey Pellape,

Yea I've checked and tested all backpacks. One of them (which I've merged from a different mod) will only show up in-game when set as amulet slot. The rest I can switch to whatever and they will show.

Edited August 30, 2021 by MercerMeka

[Pellape]

That's odd... Well I get the feeling you are not out in the blue though? ;) It seems you solved it with the help of Drake though... :D

[MercerMeka]

Yea it's fine. Glad I got it working so fast.

[DrakeTheDragon]

Yeah, as there is no slot for back items per se, some authors use the tail slot, others the amulet slot, especially since equipping a tail slot item on a tailed race will remove their tail.

And yes, there are certain types of NIFs, or contents of NIFs, which cannot be set to every slot. Certain setups will only work when mounted to 1 slot but not with others.

 

While meshes oriented and rigged to a normal skeleton setup can usually be mounted on every slot, meshes assigned to certain bone nodes through other means, like PRN (I myself only know the name, not what it really is), which is often used for helmets or amulets especially, can only be mounted to a select group of slots. A look into the NIF would probably tell, why it works only on the amulet slot. But I don't think that's really that important anymore now either.

[MercerMeka]

Thanks for explaining, Drake.