Skyrim archery bug? crouched and on a cliff shooting

[mangolais]

Hello all,

 

I like skyrim very much, i am almost level 31 by now. I got pretty annoyed by the archery aiming system .

At first, i was crouching, at the edge of a cliff, shooting down at some banditts or monsters or whatever, happens me all the time whatever the cliff is, the arrow instead of hitting my target sometimes it just launches from the feet and hits the cliff and bounces back, giving away my position which is not good since i play a sneaky cat character.

 

I thought, hmm if i post it on youtube, will someone know a fix for it? Well to do that, i need to record some game footage about it, i start up fraps, start up the game aswell, run into a cliff and before the recording i make sure im shooting down at a certain angle that somehow the arrow launches from the feet and hits the cliff, then i press F1, which is the hotkey i selected for recording videos with fraps, and suddenly, shooting arrows doesnt even hit the cliff and bounce back, even at extreme angles that even we when shooting it looks like the bow is aiming at the rocks, and somehow the arrow just goes like it should go.

 

Why exactly is Fraps ( while recording) in skyrim actualy ignore this problem fixing it temporarily? And why is it that when i stop recording the arrows just are "layed" down again like chickens and bounced back?

 

Is there a fix for this?

 

Thanks for reading and sorry for the wall of text, but i find it important to post this here.

Posting vids doesnt really show the problem since fraps fixes it by a few seconds while recording.

[AstralFire]

...My first thought is that your mouse is broken and briefly doesn't register a button being held, resulting in a misfire, while with fraps on your computer slows down enough that it fails to register some of the brief impulses from the mouse.

[NoobusExtremus]

It happens to me quite often, whether it be on cliffs or a balcony in a dungeon, or whatever. You either need to sneak up just a little closer to the edge (without falling off), or find a different hiding place where you don't have to aim downwards so much (so the enemy isn't directly beneath you).

 

Why Fraps makes it so you can shoot fine without actually moving is beyond me. I guess stranger things can happen... Does the F1 key have a default action in Skyrim that gets activated when you start Fraps with F1?

[mangolais]

...My first thought is that your mouse is broken and briefly doesn't register a button being held, resulting in a misfire, while with fraps on your computer slows down enough that it fails to register some of the brief impulses from the mouse.

 

Not really, my mouse is working quite fine, this problem also shows up on some other mouse i have in my house right now (also from diferent brands) but i think that fraps actualy makes the game focus more on the registry, im not an expert on this , im not really sure of what it could be :S

 

It happens to me quite often, whether it be on cliffs or a balcony in a dungeon, or whatever. You either need to sneak up just a little closer to the edge (without falling off), or find a different hiding place where you don't have to aim downwards so much (so the enemy isn't directly beneath you).

 

Why Fraps makes it so you can shoot fine without actually moving is beyond me. I guess stranger things can happen... Does the F1 key have a default action in Skyrim that gets activated when you start Fraps with F1?

 

I actualy choose various keys to confirm this, and it didnt really make a difference, its so strange...

[xlcr]

@mangolais, i have the same experience that you and NoobusExtremus described when aiming an arrow clearly over a ledge or other object but

the arrow strikes and bounces off the object all of which is probably due to sloppy invisible mesh collision issues.

Reckon this is clearance issue and is normal for Skyrim and just adjust my player's position or aim further out to compensate.

Suspect engaging FRAPS recording is probably impacting your gaming rig's FPS performance in such a way as to mess around with

the mechanics of graphics object physics which seems to be allowing an arrow to clear objects better lol.

Edited June 27, 2012 by xlcr

[tetradite]

Do you use 1st or 3rd person view?

 

Pretty sure I've been in positions like that and found that one view made the shot possible, and the other it would hit the 'invisble part of the rock', if that makes sense. Same for activating some objects/opening containers etc - even when you are in the exact same position it sometimes seems impossible to do in one view or the other.

 

No idea on the FRAPS thing, xlcr's explanation sounds the most plausible though.

[mangolais]

Do you use 1st or 3rd person view?

 

Pretty sure I've been in positions like that and found that one view made the shot possible, and the other it would hit the 'invisble part of the rock', if that makes sense. Same for activating some objects/opening containers etc - even when you are in the exact same position it sometimes seems impossible to do in one view or the other.

 

No idea on the FRAPS thing, xlcr's explanation sounds the most plausible though.

 

first person works fine, but i use third person and the arrows are "layed" like chickens and boucing back from the walls

 

@xlcr well, i really dont know how that is possible, but try it yourself and see if it goes thhe same with you, if fraps actualy temporarily fixes it while recording then its the problem of the game itself, but recording while playing is not a viable option, since it drops fps dramaticly and just gets my C drive completely full, (havent been playing with fraps recording all the time)

Edited June 28, 2012 by mangolais

[tetradite]

I'm guessing then that what causes the problem in the first place is the game calculates the physics/arrow paths etc based on the 1st person view, and the 3rd person view changes what you can see/what the shot looks like to you, without changing the underlying calculations.

 

I.e what you can see in 3rd person is not accurate enough to make these tight shots.

 

If this is the case, change your camera view when taking these kind of shots. (I mix between the two cameras anyway, usually use 1st person for archery just because in 3rd person the player obstructs my view of what's in the distance. And the reverse, I use 3rd person for melee because the weapons in 1st person obstruct my view of what's close to me).

[mangolais]

I'm guessing then that what causes the problem in the first place is the game calculates the physics/arrow paths etc based on the 1st person view, and the 3rd person view changes what you can see/what the shot looks like to you, without changing the underlying calculations.

 

I.e what you can see in 3rd person is not accurate enough to make these tight shots.

 

If this is the case, change your camera view when taking these kind of shots. (I mix between the two cameras anyway, usually use 1st person for archery just because in 3rd person the player obstructs my view of what's in the distance. And the reverse, I use 3rd person for melee because the weapons in 1st person obstruct my view of what's close to me).

 

I use thirdperson for archery sometimes because it just looks good, sometimes i use first person to make sure i aim correctly and that im certain that the arrow hits my target,

Well what i think is wrong that the game calculates the arrow paths , and when crouched , the path is a bit lower than the actual arrow in the bow, i mean, the arrow leaves the bow not from the bow but from the feet i guess, with fraps seems like it swaps the arrow path back to normal

[mangolais]

Does no1 have any idea how to fix this? hmm :/