L  ast night marked my first foray into the innards of an OStim NG (ONG) animation pack.

Like many others, I've been an ONG user for a while and content with just that. However, recent shake-ups in the O-ecosystem have left me marooned on older versions of everything. I'm not the sort of person to jump ship for new updates immediately as there are usually unexpected issues; the best policy is to just trail behind and let problems be already resolved by the time one gets to them. Suffice it to say, I'm sticking with 6.7e for now as current versions of ONG are making drastic changes.

But regardless of the framework, I also found myself stuck with an older version of OARE. Versions>1.34 got rid of poly animations as well as a lying hand-job animation (LHJ) that I was a bit fond of. Consequently, I was content to remain with 1.34 until Open Animations 3PP, a poly animation pack, was publicly released. OARE kept getting new and revised animations though, so I finally just caved and updated to 1.37. I then decided that I should attempt to bring back the animation I liked.

Hence the point wherein this entry started. I have to say, the ONG system's a bit esoteric. I have a presence in both ONG Discord forums, but there wasn't any readily available resources to help out as far as I could discern. EDIT: the mod description has some outdated links regarding the API. With no guide or documentation at hand, I turned to my usual and limited approach for mod-making: examination and replication (E&R). It has been an important concept for me, someone who straddles the line between mod author and mod user. I'm not a full-fledged creator, but nor am I a fledgling user clogging up support channels with inane questions. It's a methodology I recommend to those in a similar situation as it'll allow one to make some limited scope mods to fulfill one's own desires.

But I digress. Back to the point at hand, I examined OARE 1.34, 1.37, and Drago's Anal Add-on. Like how I originally learned how to make SLAL packs, I applied E&R and determined that my solution would consist of three parts: animations, scenes (XMLs), and FNIS stuff (list and corresponding HKX). I gathered all related files from my 1.34 installation, and after a cursory examination, I figured out that last item could be accomplished in a similar manner to how SLAL packs are. The other parts were where some complications laid.

Figure 1: The modified XML of LHJ.

People unused to these XMLs might find their contents to be a bit overwhelming, but they're surprisingly readable. This case was no exception; a quick glance made most self-evident things clear. ONG utilizes a tag system of some sort, and the folder structure seems to reflect this to some degree. Now, without a guide, one must apply some guesswork, e.g. LyB!Kne seems to indicate that the LyB is referring to the "lying back" male actor while Kne is for the "kneeling" female actor and ! is a delimiter. EDIT: Confirmed by tags.xml. HJ likely stands for hand-job, some of the red variables can probably be safely ignored if they're the same across multiple options, etc.

Anyways, this made it clear that my first idea of messing with the folder structure was probably not a good one, at least without better understanding. I eventually settled on the simplest solution also being the best one after some reconsideration. I had never intended to make a replacer (the original LHJ I prefer was replaced by one that I didn't like as much after 1.34). No, to make it easier and more compatible, this entire thing was intended to be relatively self-isolated as add-on content instead. Thus, all the animations were renamed to AceCuddlingHandjob from the original AceLyingHandjob, and similarly, all references to the original name within the XMLs were also mass changed. This way I could retain the original folder structure and tags for the most part.

Figure 2: The modified folder structure for the new add-on.

From there, I had to decide how to integrate LHJ back into the system. There was a new MaleLyingKiss animation (MLK) in 1.37 that was perfect both in terms of positioning and as a leaf animation so it was chosen as the point for appending. The flow of animation within ONG is akin to an undirected graph so aside from modifying MLK's XML so that it could lead to LHJ, I knew I also had to make it reversible. This is done via using <option> as you can see up above.

With everything in place with regards to anims and scenes, I created the FNIS list via referencing 1.34's and copying it with some changes to account for new naming. Run FNIS Blue and voila, one HKX as needed. Put everything in the appropriate folders, and the "mod-making" is all done. Zip and load into a mod manager, activate Nemesis, and the moment of truth awaits...

Figure 3: A loving caress returned.

It works! I'm satisfied; OARE Personal Add-on only has one conflicting file with the main installation, MaleLyingKiss.xml, so compatibility should be easy to maintain, and I'll likely be returning to LHJ to try and add sounds when I one day update my ONG. Now, this wasn't a titanic undertaking or anything actually complicated, but this minor example helps illustrate how simple E&R has helped me achieve smaller goals when it comes to Skyrim modding.

As an aside, I found some guides later on and would direct anyone else interested to search the Nexus using "ostim guide" to peruse them. One, by the name of porting guide, is old and outdated but does shed some light on the old animation system somewhat. The other is very recent and covers the XMLs in detail; as a guide, it is much more helpful and relevant what with all the changes that have occurred since the original OStim. That said, I'll hopefully be able to find even more and better resources eventually, the O-community develops more, and the former occurs as a result of the latter!

- BB