Skyrim SE HDT SMP--problem with J3's Royal Vampire Armor skirt (has SMP physics)

[Vanishing Silkmoth]

I am having an issue with the skirt in the J3 Royal Vampire Armor mod. The issue is that when equipped the physics is applied, but several parts of the skirt just "disappear" into the ground. I knew that this could happen if there was a problem with either SMP itself or with the xml file, but SMP is in working order and I haven't had physics problems with anything else. The only other thing I know of that could be causing issues is the xml file, but I don't really know enough about SMP xml files to find what's wrong. (some people have also been having problems with this and they, like me, have LOTD installed, but that makes absolutely zero sense why that would be causing problems, especially when the SMP logs are spitting out warnings).

 

The aforementioned warnings state that certain nodes don't exist and so SMP is skipping bone creation and the constraints (I have no idea why though, as those bones have been declared in the xml and there's no discernible errors in spelling or naming. The problematic bones are lb1, lb2, lb3 and rb3, and their locations correspond to the parts of the mesh that are falling through the floor).

 

Links:
Log entries: https://pastebin.com/Jbb1N2ri

The skirt.xml file: https://pastebin.com/bkj2TLw0 (this is the xml that's been subject to problems)

The mod itself: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/128690

 

Edit: I disabled LOTD, started a new game and tested the skirt, and it worked fine. I re-enabled LOTD and the same parts of the skirt disappeared into the ground. I just don't get it...

Edited September 25, 2024 by Vanishing Silkmoth
Updating

[Vanishing Silkmoth]

I was thinking, and I didn't stop to ask if anyone else ever had this happen to them (where they had a piece of apparel with SMP enabled, but the physics wouldn't behave properly because for some ungodly reason they had a specific ESP or ESM enabled in their load order).

 

Has there ever been a case of this happening to anyone? If not, does anyone have any suggestions for how I can try to diagnose the actual cause (why would an ESM cause SMP to just up and fail to find nodes in an SMP mesh, especially when there doesn't seem to be any discernible link between the two)?

[traison]

On 9/28/2024 at 4:26 AM, Vanishing Silkmoth said:

I was thinking, and I didn't stop to ask if anyone else ever had this happen to them

 

Yes. Usually as a result of a clothing item containing physics definitions for things it really shouldn't be concerned with. I generally do not consider these errors however as my physics setup is vastly different from the mainstream.

 

On 9/28/2024 at 4:26 AM, Vanishing Silkmoth said:

why would an ESM cause SMP to just up and fail

 

It wouldn't.

 

On 9/28/2024 at 4:26 AM, Vanishing Silkmoth said:

...how I can try to diagnose the actual cause...

 

If LOTD (whatever it is) isn't huge, consider posting a link to it here and specify exactly which version you're using. If an installer (such as fomod) is involved, specify which options you picked. Perhaps I'll look into it later today.

 

If you want to do it yourself, I would start by crawling through all xml and nif files to make a list of all SMP related stuff it may contain. Files it overwrites and mods it conflicts with would be useful as well. Your answer will be in this information.

[Vanishing Silkmoth]

Oh. LOTD is an acronym for legacy of the Dragonborn v5.6.5 (Link: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/11802), and it doesn't come with a fomod, installation had to be done manually.

I apologize for any confusion I might've caused.

 

I'm looking through the skirt nif that's in the bodyslide shapedata folder and aside from having a whole bunch of nodes that aren't used by the mesh (These can be removed using "remove bogus nodes" in nifskope and it doesn't appear to have any negative effect on the skirt), nothing looks out of place.

 

My guess is that the problem might be in the skirt.xml file. it looked "odd" compared to some xml files I've looked at, but I don't really know how SMP xml files are supposed to be structured and written, and I couldn't find a whole lot of documentation explaining it.

Edited September 29, 2024 by Vanishing Silkmoth
Correcting a minor error

[traison]

Not going to download 3.3 GiB just to check some config files unfortunately, it would be a terrible waste of Nexus' resources.

[Vanishing Silkmoth]

Understandable.

 

I think I'll extract everything from the BSA and see if there's anything in there. If I find anything, I'll post it here..

 

Edit: I didn't find anything unusual, and I didn't find anything related to SMP in LOTD...

 

I'm completely stumped, and the most I can really say is that it's a case of "It just [doesn't] work" for some ungodly reason...

Edited September 30, 2024 by Vanishing Silkmoth