Custom Skeleton not showing in game

[Guest kimbale]

I've been trying to edit the skeleton of the ECE ygNord race with nifskope.

 

Anything i change shows up fine in nifskope after reloading.

 

But the race does not use the skeleton ingame, at least i looks like that.

 

I've read somewhere that i had to update tangent spaces in nifskope, i did that, but nothing changed.

 

I've checked out any skeleton i have in my skyrim directory and none of them seem to be used by the ygNord, ie change anything ingame...

 

So, do i have to do something other than replacing it to make Skyrim recognize the edited skeleton? (Would be wierd, as i usually replace skeleton files with newer skeletons like XPMS and it works just fine...)

 

Or do i have to do something else with the skeleton(_female).nif to make it work ingame...?

[Groovtama]

To make a race use another skeleton you need to change the skeleton path in the race. Nothing else.

If a race doesn't come with a custom skeleton in a custom path, you can assume that the race is using the default path.

[Guest kimbale]

To make a race use another skeleton you need to change the skeleton path in the race. Nothing else.

If a race doesn't come with a custom skeleton in a custom path, you can assume that the race is using the default path.

 

So either ECE uses only the vanilla skeleton in the meshes.bsa (which i doubt, as ECE has all those skeleton editing sliders.)

 

Or I'm doing something wrong in editing the skeleton.

I only edited the position of some bones with the transform tool, the changes showed up in nifskope and are saved/can be reloaded. I used spells->batch->Update all Tangent spaces.

Do i have to apply them in anyway? Like additionally using transform>apply...?

 

Update: I got the skeleton ingame. I used transform>apply on the whole mesh, hoping it would carry through the hierarchy. And i unchecked automatic validation. Now i don't know which did what.

 

Update2: And again, it's not working. It's not that the ygNord race wouldn't use the skeleton in it's skeleton path, but somehow skyrim doesn't use the skeleton. It still uses some older one.

Or nifskope shows my changes without applying them. Automatic validation makes no difference. Applying transform again makes no difference. Updating tangent spaces makes no difference.

And i just don't know what i did differently when it did apply my changes once...

[Guest kimbale]

Okay, I've tried everything i could think of.

 

Nothing works.

 

So if anyone who already did ANYTHING with skeleton and had them work ingame would kindly give me a step-by-step how to change a bones postition, it would be highly appreciated.

 

I just want to change some proportions for a custom race, mostly stuff that can be done with ECE ingame without a hitch. But nothing i change in the skeleton is applied in any way in the game... It doesn't matter if i replace the vanilla race skeletons or that of a custom race, the result is the same. It's as if i can change anything in the .nif, the changes show in nifskope and all - but there's a copy of the base skeleton i started with and THAT is used instead of anything i have changed...

[Cyndi]

Are you changing weapon positions?

Those are a bit different, it's usually the node before the named node that handles the srsbusiness.

 

I use a modified cherry skeleton as opposed to an xpms so it might be different for you, but for instance, the node named QUIVER does nothing, but the node that QUIVER is the child of moves the quiver.

 

Other bones... idk, can't usually get them to do exactly what I want other than scale.

 

Also idk which skeleton the female ygnord uses though.

[Guest kimbale]

Are you changing weapon positions?

Those are a bit different, it's usually the node before the named node that handles the srsbusiness.

 

I use a modified cherry skeleton as opposed to an xpms so it might be different for you, but for instance, the node named QUIVER does nothing, but the node that QUIVER is the child of moves the quiver.

 

No, i want to change the overall proportions of the skeleton, ie. i've edited the shoulders and legs.

 

Other bones... idk, can't usually get them to do exactly what I want other than scale.

 

Okay, this is what i want too. So how do you do that?

 

I've done it this way til now:

1) I mark the node i want to move in the hierarchy view. (Left part)

2) I right-click the node in the hierarchy view and choose Transform>Edit.

3) In the new window, i edit the values to my liking. I see the node move in the preview window.

4) After moving the node i click "Apply" in the transformation window.

 

I've tried steps 5-7 in all combinations to no avail.

5) I right-click the edited node in the hierarchy window again and click transform>apply.

6) I click spells>batch>Update all tangent spaces.

7) I uncheck file>automatic validation.

 

8)a) I save the edited .nif at a seperate location than the source file, then replace the older file.

8) I overwrite the old .nif.

 

So far this hasn't done anything. The PC has the same proportions as before when i try it in skyrim.

 

I've had some edits go through, but i don't know what i did when it worked and couldn't reproduce the process.

 

Also idk which skeleton the female ygnord uses though.

 

It uses a version of XPMS. (At least mine does, i use groovtamas skeleton.)

[Cyndi]

>_<  

 

I hate xpms. Editing that thing makes me cringe

Anyway, try skipping the apply transformations part.

 

Just edit, update tangent spaces, save and go.

I've been finding lately that applying a transform in the case of skeletons sometimes just resets the node.

 

Just remember when you scale a node, you are also scaling all of it's child nodes too. So when you scale stuff up, you may need to scale some stuff just after it back down, and vice versa.

This is very important, unless you're a fan of random beetlejuice heads when your testing....  as funny as that can be.

 

[Guest kimbale]

I had my suspicions, but i found the culprit in a legendary facepalm moment:

 

Animations - of course - change the node positions. I even made animations before, moving around nodes of the skeleton...

 

So the only way to change proportions that carry through all animations is scaling.

 

There could be problems with scaling the base bones, but thankfully groovtama's XPMS has all those nifty scale bones.

 

 

>_<  

 

I hate xpms. Editing that thing makes me cringe

Anyway, try skipping the apply transformations part.

 

Yeah, it took me some time to figure out what all the stuff does. The dismemberment parts made my head spin.

But once you figure it out it's not as complicated as it looks, just a lot of extra stuff for a shitload of mods, it's XP32s Maximum Skeleton in the end.

 

 

 

Just edit, update tangent spaces, save and go.

I've been finding lately that applying a transform in the case of skeletons sometimes just resets the node.

 

I'll keep that in mind when i try with the scaling.

 

 

 

Just remember when you scale a node, you are also scaling all of it's child nodes too. So when you scale stuff up, you may need to scale some stuff just after it back down, and vice versa.

This is very important, unless you're a fan of random beetlejuice heads when your testing....  as funny as that can be.

 

Duly noted.