Custom Mounts for Skyrim-Creation Kit

[hellacool]

Hello all. I'm trying to figure out how to use the animals currently in Skyrim and make them animals you can ride, but I having some trouble with locating them in Creation Kit. I didn't really want to make another topic in the hundreds that our out there, but I was unsuccessful in finding one that helped me, so apologies.

 

Anywho, The animals that I want to focus on are Elk, the Elk with moose antlers, mammoths and cows, but I can't find them, let alone figure out how to make them mountable and able to store things.

 

I have found a "Mammoth", but it's in the Static tab, so I'm assuming it's not the one I need.

 

Thanks to all who help me. :blush:

 

EDIT: I seem to have found the actual actors of the animals. Now I just need help on how to make them mountable and have storage.

Edited August 3, 2014 by hellacool

[hellacool]

Bump, because I still really need help.

[hellacool]

Okay, so I've found what I need for making other animals mountable, but I just need the digital skeletons for Nifskope in order to make the saddle bone from the horse and paste it onto the elk, cow and moose skeletons. Would ANYONE be able to help me find them, as many Google searches have not revealed any, and I cannot find them in my files?

[Gorndar21]

Sorry if I posted that unfinished reply - something on the website just freaked.

Anyway, just in case it didn't post:

If you open up a race dialog, under the "Body Data" tag, you'll see lots of changeable settings. The one that matters is "Skeleton", because that one will tell the program where "SaddleBone" is.

Lets say you want to make a sabrecat rideable. I suggest creating a new race rather than overwriting the old one, but that's up to you. Once your race is all set up, use your .bsa extracting program to open up the "Skyrim - Meshes.bsa" in the default skyrim directory. The sabrecat files are under Meshes/Actors/Sabrecat/Character Assets. Extract "skeleton.nif" to a location of your choosing, preferably in the correct folder structure in the 'default Skyrim diretory\data\meshes\...'. I suggest renaming the file to avoid confusion (eg. "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif"). Now open up that file in NifSkope. Also extract the "skeleton.nif" for the horse and open it up in a seperate instance of NifSkope.

In NifSkope, under skeleton.nif\NPC Root\Horse_COM\HorseSpine1\HorseSpine2 of the horse skeleton, you'll find "98 NiNode" with the value "SaddleBone". Go ahead and expand that, then delete "105 bhkBlendCollisionObject" because that'll interfere with the copy-and-paste process. Click back on "98 NiNode" and hit Ctrl + C, or right-click\Block\Copy Branch.

Now go to "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif". In the 3D view find the bone closest to where you want your character to be mounted and click on it. This will expand the block list to that node. Hit Ctrl + V, or right-click\Block\Paste Branch to paste your "98 NiNode" there. Now, you'll notice the value of the node will have changed away from "SaddleBone" to something else. That is normal, but has to be changed back. Click the NiNode you just pasted and in the Block Details part of NifSkope, find the Name field. On the value field of that row, click the little "Txt" and a new dialog box will open with a text field at the bottom. Type in "SaddleBone" and hit okay (this will create a new node name, and assign that name a number, then assign that number to your node - essentially you've renamed the node). Save "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif" and go back to the CK. In the race dialog, under the Body Data tag, click "edit" by the skeleton field and select your modified skeleton. Don't change any of the other fields there. Now the mount will use the SaddleBone and your character will move along with the mount. All that's left now is to fiddle with the translation and rotation of the NiNode in NifSkope to position the bone just right.

Then you might have to modify the "mount data" in the race dialog, but I'm not sure about that.

 

The process should work with any skeleton you have. Again, be very careful not to overwrite any original data in the Skyrim directory unless you intend to do so. I usually copy all necessary files to a seperate location first, then cut-and-paste the finished product into the right directory.

[devtrell1]

Sorry if I posted that unfinished reply - something on the website just freaked.

Anyway, just in case it didn't post:

If you open up a race dialog, under the "Body Data" tag, you'll see lots of changeable settings. The one that matters is "Skeleton", because that one will tell the program where "SaddleBone" is.

Lets say you want to make a sabrecat rideable. I suggest creating a new race rather than overwriting the old one, but that's up to you. Once your race is all set up, use your .bsa extracting program to open up the "Skyrim - Meshes.bsa" in the default skyrim directory. The sabrecat files are under Meshes/Actors/Sabrecat/Character Assets. Extract "skeleton.nif" to a location of your choosing, preferably in the correct folder structure in the 'default Skyrim diretory\data\meshes\...'. I suggest renaming the file to avoid confusion (eg. "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif"). Now open up that file in NifSkope. Also extract the "skeleton.nif" for the horse and open it up in a seperate instance of NifSkope.

In NifSkope, under skeleton.nif\NPC Root\Horse_COM\HorseSpine1\HorseSpine2 of the horse skeleton, you'll find "98 NiNode" with the value "SaddleBone". Go ahead and expand that, then delete "105 bhkBlendCollisionObject" because that'll interfere with the copy-and-paste process. Click back on "98 NiNode" and hit Ctrl + C, or right-click\Block\Copy Branch.

Now go to "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif". In the 3D view find the bone closest to where you want your character to be mounted and click on it. This will expand the block list to that node. Hit Ctrl + V, or right-click\Block\Paste Branch to paste your "98 NiNode" there. Now, you'll notice the value of the node will have changed away from "SaddleBone" to something else. That is normal, but has to be changed back. Click the NiNode you just pasted and in the Block Details part of NifSkope, find the Name field. On the value field of that row, click the little "Txt" and a new dialog box will open with a text field at the bottom. Type in "SaddleBone" and hit okay (this will create a new node name, and assign that name a number, then assign that number to your node - essentially you've renamed the node). Save "SabreSkeleton_modified.nif" and go back to the CK. In the race dialog, under the Body Data tag, click "edit" by the skeleton field and select your modified skeleton. Don't change any of the other fields there. Now the mount will use the SaddleBone and your character will move along with the mount. All that's left now is to fiddle with the translation and rotation of the NiNode in NifSkope to position the bone just right.

Then you might have to modify the "mount data" in the race dialog, but I'm not sure about that.

 

The process should work with any skeleton you have. Again, be very careful not to overwrite any original data in the Skyrim directory unless you intend to do so. I usually copy all necessary files to a seperate location first, then cut-and-paste the finished product into the right directory.

Wow just wanted to say thank you for the detailed info on this, almost 10 years later and this info is enabling me to make the mod I want. You're an unsung hero my friend, I salute you.

Edited February 18, 2023 by devtrell1

[magnet55sphere]

how do you make mount jump, sprint, and do that little kickback when standing still and hitting space?