Skeleton nifs and mesh nifs - how are they connected?

[Grafenstein]

So how exactly does a mesh nif know what skeleton to use? I'm sure there's a piece of data somewhere that makes the connection, but I can't find it.

 

Example - recently, I've been experimenting with some custom skeletons (the one from Animal SOS) and some creatures. Specifically, the goblins from the Beyond Skyrim Bruma mod. They've got their own meshes and skeletons etc. etc. They're based on the falmer creature. I wondered "Can I alter these meshes to work with the ASOS falmer skeleton?" So, to experiment, I took the ASOS naked falmer mesh and skeleton and used it to replace one of the goblins. Result: the in-game model is now a falmer, but the ASOS skeleton didn't seem to take; there's an incorrectly floating dong just hovering around.

 

So, next I hypothesize: could the problem be inherent to the ASOS parts? So to check, I took the same model and skeleton and used them as a falmer replacer. Result: works perfectly.

 

Now the tricky part - I spawned one of the falmer-replaced goblins from the first experiment. And now, it's working perfectly too. Apparent conclusion: instead of using the skeleton that's actually placed in their folder, the goblin creature meshes appear to be linked directly to the skeleton in the falmer folder somehow.

 

So now I come here to ask: what's up with that? Where is this piece of information that says to a mesh "This is the skeleton you must use?" A node in the nif somewhere? Because I've searched the meshes but I can't seem to find anything like that. Can anyone help me out?

[zenonthez07]

1 hour ago, Grafenstein said:

So how exactly does a mesh nif know what skeleton to use? I'm sure there's a piece of data somewhere that makes the connection, but I can't find it.

 

Example - recently, I've been experimenting with some custom skeletons (the one from Animal SOS) and some creatures. Specifically, the goblins from the Beyond Skyrim Bruma mod. They've got their own meshes and skeletons etc. etc. They're based on the falmer creature. I wondered "Can I alter these meshes to work with the ASOS falmer skeleton?" So, to experiment, I took the ASOS naked falmer mesh and skeleton and used it to replace one of the goblins. Result: the in-game model is now a falmer, but the ASOS skeleton didn't seem to take; there's an incorrectly floating dong just hovering around.

 

So, next I hypothesize: could the problem be inherent to the ASOS parts? So to check, I took the same model and skeleton and used them as a falmer replacer. Result: works perfectly.

 

Now the tricky part - I spawned one of the falmer-replaced goblins from the first experiment. And now, it's working perfectly too. Apparent conclusion: instead of using the skeleton that's actually placed in their folder, the goblin creature meshes appear to be linked directly to the skeleton in the falmer folder somehow.

 

So now I come here to ask: what's up with that? Where is this piece of information that says to a mesh "This is the skeleton you must use?" A node in the nif somewhere? Because I've searched the meshes but I can't seem to find anything like that. Can anyone help me out?

 

The skeletons used by a certain race are determined by where the skeleton path points to in their race record in SSEdit or the Creation Kit.

[Seijin8]

2 hours ago, Grafenstein said:

So now I come here to ask: what's up with that? Where is this piece of information that says to a mesh "This is the skeleton you must use?" A node in the nif somewhere? Because I've searched the meshes but I can't seem to find anything like that. Can anyone help me out?

 

It is in the race record.

[Grafenstein]

Gotcha. What a nonintuitive answer.

Thanks for the (quite fast) help, everyone.