HGEC "Vest" Armor

[kingtitan]

Never mind, I found a post on the forums after a little searching that explained how to make it work. I figured it would be a pretty simple fix, but sometimes Windows security causes more of a headache than a comfort.

[Striker879]

I'm on XP so I don't need to deal with UAC as well. I edit any shortcuts requiring administrator level authority so that they prompt for a user name and password (Run with different credentials off the Advanced button on the right click properties menu). It's a minor inconvenience that avoids needing to run logged in with my administrator account on a day to day basis.

[kingtitan]

Well, I got it to work and it looks, well amazing actually. Except for one thing. The walking animations and such are applied to both males and females, making the male characters look a bit more effiminate. Is there a way around this so that the animation meshes just apply to female characters instead?

[Striker879]

Ya, that's why I do the 'selective install' method using the Construction Set. I only use NoMaaM globally and then use selections from the other animation mods to assign specific NPCs different walks (confined to NPCs I've added to my houses and cities). It's a bit of a 'hands on' approach, but I like to tinker.

 

Edit: Have a look at load order. I thought Woman's Move just affected the ladies (but I could be wrong, as I don't use the esp).

Edited April 19, 2011 by Striker879

[kingtitan]

What would woman's move have to do with load order? I don't have it installed, but it is pulled up in my browser. Ill read into it to it and check. Also I was not aware that you could apply animations to certain npc's (but not your character i assume). How can i go about making that happen? The main thing is, I dont want my male npc's to look like douches when they walk (please excuse the language).

[Striker879]

No offence taken. I was wondering out loud about the Woman's Move. When you have more than one animation mod loaded, the last one to load does the animating if two or more are trying to change the same characters. As I indicated in my musing, I thought Woman's Move only affected the ladies and wondered whether a load order issue might be at the root of your guy's walk.

 

To assign a particular walk to an NPC you just put the .kf files you want into the Data\meshes\characters\_male\specialanims folder. Then in the CS you edit the NPC in the Object window, and on the Animation tab you'll see all the available animations. The ones with the red check mark are the vanilla animations, the ones you added to the specialanims folder will be a blank check box. Double left click the one you want to try and you'll see a black X. Save and go into the game and see how you like it. Don't select more than one specialanim for the same move (i.e. only choose one walkforward type, one walkfastforward etc.). I haven't gone wild on any of the vanilla characters, just my own, but there's no reason you can't. From the resources of the mods I've downloaded I have three or four walkforward animations I like (three I really like and one that I use less often). Adds variety to the game.

Edited April 20, 2011 by Striker879

[kingtitan]

Ok the second part makes sense, but my biggest concern right now is taking care of walking animation by gender. I don't like the fact that in order for BBB to work, the walk animation is unisex and frankly looks extremely gay for male characters. However, if you remove the "walk" files from the oblivion\data\meshes\characters\_male folder, BBB does not work when walking, but the male characters look normal at least. The fact that the file is an OMOD makes it extremely difficult to both edit and\or see the files that it installed or overwrote.

Striker, the only mod I have installed as far a BBB animation goes is the HGEC Body with BBB. What mod can i install to make the walking more natural (vanilla) for males while keeping BBB animation?

 

Also, selective animation could work, except that your character (if female) would not have BBB animation, which once again is a major issue. Preferably, I would like a mod that ONLY edits female animation and leaves male animation alone (if that is even possible).

 

Edit* I went ahead and downloaded NoMaam animation replacer and tried parts of it out. So far so good. The walk is closest to vanilla that I have seen while still providing BBB animation. I am gonna play around with it a little more and see what I like and what I dont. Striker, thanks for pointing me in the right direction and helpin me out.

Edited April 20, 2011 by kingtitan

[Striker879]

In the past I have had issues with Rivelle's BBB Body OMOD making changes on me, but I can't remember for sure if it was the normal walk animations. When you get into the world of animation replacers, the order you install things can make a big difference (one look at the file names and the directories they go into will show you, he who installs last is the file that doesn't get overwritten). The game is hard wired for directory structure and default animation file names (in other words without an esp). The upside is to fix things, once you figure out who overwrote who, is copy the files you want to be used from your extracted archives. OMODs make that difficult because they're all wrapped up. I had a look at the Data file browser in the Utilities section of OBMM and it claims that my walkforward.kf and walkfastforward.kf are parented to the OMOD. My behind the scenes copying may have it confused though, I'm not sure. I don't recall the walks changing when I installed the OMOD and before I installed fore's NoMaaM. I did have trouble seeing the BBB action until I got a bunch of clothing mods that were BBBed. The weighting (what gives the bounce) differs from one author to the next, so not all clothes have the same bounce on the same NPC. I finally went with the 'day you were born' method ... and they bounced just fine. Some of the specialanims walks change the bounce considerably, that's one aspect of my yeah or nay process in what to use and what not to use.

 

I've sort of crept up on where my understanding of how it works and what seems to work and what doesn't in a more gradual manner than you're getting. I've kinda dragged you to the end of the dock and thrown you into the deep water. Let me know if you need a breather or another floaty cushion. I'll do my best to help keep your head above water.

[Striker879]

Update after a night of mulling it over.

 

As I stated above, the order you install matters. In the case of my installation here's what's happening. Rivelle's BBB Body OMOD does change a number of animations, those of note for you are the walk and walkfast ones. It is just a complicated (due to the range of options it offers) animation replacer plus texture replacer with skeleton and body replacer thrown in (i.e. no esp). The NoMaaM BBB Animation Replacer is exactly the same thing, it just doesn't include as many options (i.e. no body, skeleton or textures are replaced) but it replaces more of the fighting animations than BBB Body OMOD. What had me going last night until things clicked into place for me was how the OBMM utility Data file browser was claiming some animations were parented to the OMOD and others were unparented (when I did the check I excluded bsa files, so all I was seeing was the installed animations in Data\meshes\characters\_male). The unparented animations are from NoMaaM, but as it's not an OMOD there was no way for OBMM to know where they came from. Key point here ... it's also not aware of any changes made to the files after it has installed the OMOD. The animation files must have certain file names unless they are referenced through an esp ... all it knows is it put walkforward.kf and walkfastforward.kf in the Data\meshes\characters\_male folder (among other files). When NoMaaM installs (via copy and paste) it overwrites files with the same name (walkforward.kf and walkfastforward.kf among others) and adds it's files that the OMOD didn't change from default.

 

Bottom line ... install BBB Body OMOD first, then NoMaaM and your girly walks will be history. Everyone will walk the same regardless of gender (just like vanilla). If you want to get the ladies walking more femininely install Pretty Woman Animation Replacer or Woman's Move. Both mods use an esp and place their animations in specialanims, so NoMaaM's and BBB Body OMOD's won't be overwritten. All the ladies will use whatever walk you choose. If you want different walks for different ladies Mur_Zik's Sensual Walks for Female NPCs allows you to assign different walks according to class (he does not allow any modificationof the mod to the BBB system though, so those ladies will lose their bouncy parts). The alternative (which is the route I'm on) is to use the CS and assign different walks individually.

[kingtitan]

I hope this does not sound arrogant (as it is not intended that way) but i figured out all that last night :) Basically, like you said, I figured out that any time the OMOD is installed (deactivated and then re activated, and im usually a manual installer, OMOD's are completely new to me) the OMOD's default animation files go back into the mesh folder. All I had to do if i decided to change the body type was overwrite the walkforward.kf animation file with the one from NoMaam's animation list, which fixed the girly walk for everyone while still managing to keep BBB animation. More importantly, Im just glad that I found NoMaam's animation and that those animations use BBB without looking gay for the guys. Maybe a little more bounce than reality, but definently not an issue in my book :). I still haven't gotten a chance to try out every animation in NoMaam's "mod" (quotations since there is no activatable .esp, only a compilation of files) but I am most certainly looking forward to being able to play around with the animation stuff to see what I like the best. So, I guess as far as your comparison goes, I'm a natural born swimmer!! A little frustration at the beginning, but honestly this is the most (and best) direction i've gotten as far as BBB goes. Plus I got what I think is pretty dang close to what I was looking for in the armor, and the author was a genius seeing as he weighted the armor for BBB. A double bonus if you ask me.