Flying Creature Altitude

[oc3]

Is there any way to change the height at which flying creatures " fly " ? The Imp for instance.

 

I realize they don't actually fly. they just hover around on what looks like a collision capsule, in game. The odd thing is, I cannot find the corresponding collision object in nifscope on the skeleton mesh or on the creature mesh.

 

I have adjusted the heights of the skeleton in nifskope and the scene height, both with no changes in game.

 

The only way that works is to change the scale of the creature in the CS. I'm trying to create a bat here, and they are already too large as it is.

 

Suggestions....Is it even possible. Is the height hard coded into the game? Is there an AI variable?

Thanks

Edited July 26, 2014 by oc3

[The_Vyper]

Try Mr_Siikas Bats. They already have meshes & animations. It's also a modder's resource. Just give credit to Mr_Siika.

[oc3]

Try Mr_Siikas Bats. They already have meshes & animations. It's also a modder's resource. Just give credit to Mr_Siika.

Thanks mate, but that's what I'm using as base already. Just can't seem to adjust the altitude at all.

Thanks!

[DrakeTheDragon]

As they're still walking on the ground like every other actor in this game and it's just their animation making them 'appear' to be flying, while still keeping a fixed distance to ground at all times,

I'd suggest looking into the animations in order to change the height at which they're hovering.

 

Either the "Bip01" node itself or some other node coming closely after it in the tree (in human skeletons it'd likely be either "Bip01 NonAccum" or maybe "Pelvis" even) would be the best bet. Coming to think of it I think "Bip01" has to remain at (0, 0, 0) by all means, as it defines the origin, so "NonAccum" it'd be for humanoid skeletons rather. But it really depends on the skeleton the Imps are using, which bone node it will be for them.

 

As you're already working with animation files and skeletons meant for "flying" creatures, it's a rather safe bet they use the one bone with the longest tail (distance to parent bone) for exactly this purpose.

 

The most important thing to keep in mind here is that most Vanilla animations contain information about bones they really rather shouldn't, for example they're already un-doing any and all changes to the actor skeleton's bones' positions and scales in every single animation file, while animations of these bones should actually only contain their rotations anyways, so it's a rather safe bet you'll end up having to edit every single animation file the creature will be using in order to successfully and persistently modify the height at which the creature hovers, more or less.

 

Unless you're lucky and modifying only the "idle" will do already. This requires the other animations not to just undo all you did by wrongly included animation data for the bones, just like is the case for humanoid actors in most, if not all, Vanilla files already.

[oc3]

Thanks Drake, I'll look into that. But I think it may be simpler. If you are in game and type tcg in the console so that the collision geometry shows, you can actually see that the imp/bat has an elongated capsule shaped collision object attached to it. This appears to be what gives it constant height separation from the ground. (I should have made that more clear in my post)

 

Unfortunately, that collision object does not show in Nifskope. Do you think it can still be related to an animation issue? Come to think of it, that collision box has to disappear when the creature dies. So it kind of makes sense that it would be controlled by an animation.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I'm off base. Trying your suggestion.

 

Tried changing the Z value of the BP01 nonaccum in the idle animation. I was really hopeful, but it didn't work. I think you are definately onto something. The animations are the key. If I had the time, I think I could get it, but I nee to get this thing done and out the door. After 2 years, I really need to get back to my real life.

 

Thanks for the time/help