Suggestions for improvements to SOS - Schlongs of Skyrim

[Fredas]

I'd like to focus once more on the prospect of making changes to the animation of the schlong, for I feel that its current animation state could really use some finetuning.  If absolutely nothing else, one aspect of the animation could be considered broken.

 

The erection slider permits 20 positions, as can be revealed with the use of the SOS RaceMenu plugin for example.  These 20 positions dictate the following variables used in animating the schlong: 1) Angle (say, from -75 degrees to +75 degrees), and 2) length.  The angle's graph is a gentle bell curve.  The length's graph, unfortunately, is broken, as it starts out at the maximum extra length (100%) at the lowest setting, shrinks to 50% at the middle setting, and then re-lengthens again to 100% at the highest setting:

 

 

This is disguised to some degree by the fact that at the lowest setting, most SOS-based apps call the "Flaccid" animation which causes the schlong to eventually shrink to 0% extra length.  This disguise is instantly dispelled, however, at any setting above the lowest, when the schlong immediately gains its maximum length.  And the perhaps more troubling aspect is the inconsistency of the length, as it seems to hinge upon the halfway point on the slider.  I strongly suspect that the original intent was for the schlong's length to follow a bell-curve (rightmost graph), but a bug was allowed to remain, causing the dubious animation dynamics currently in place.  (One can test the veracity of what I report by making use of the built-in shift-PageUp / shift-PageDown functions.)

 

I would consider this to be the second easiest thing to correct.

 

Now to cover territory that was discussed somewhat earlier in the SOS thread.  The easiest item that could be improved is the slider itself.  20 positions, truth be told, does not allow for subtle transitions to the erection state.  Finer control would be useful.  As a case in point, I offer the example of my own mod, which allows the user to induce a modest enhancement to their arousal state with the press of a key.  This increase occurs over the span of some 20 seconds and the erection slider gradually increases accordingly.  But since there are only 20 erection positions, the visual result is a series of non-subtle jumps, when ideally it should be a subtle growing and changing of the angle.  100 erection positions would offer a much better result.

 

The meat of this post has to do with the actual physics of the schlong.  In order to make my case, I feel it would be best to attempt to describe the schlong's current physics, insofar as how I interpret them.  It seems that the schlong's bones (as defined in its mesh) are made to remain 100% static, like a rock, affixed to the schlong's base - even while a flaccid state - as long as the movement of the base does not exceed a certain small threshold.  This threshold is generally not exceeded if the player is merely sitting still, ie going through standard idle animations.  Once it is exceeded (or a new erection position is called), the schlong is free to move about, snake-like, and the bones of the schlong find their new position, one by one, starting at the base and ending at the tip, over the course of about one second.  Once that is done, it's back to the rock-like state.  It seems probable that no HDT is being used to achieve these results.

 

If anything can be done to improve upon this, it may as well entail a proper overhaul, with HDT fully taken advantage of.  In the SOS thread, I recommended the utilization of two more graphs dictated by the erection slider: Base give (the sturdiness of the schlong at its base) and shaft give (the sturdiness of the schlong's bones along its length).  For examples of how these two new graphs would dictate the schlong's physical characteristics, I described it this way:

 

Fully erect (slider at 100 on scale from 1-100), schlong is almost immune to physical interaction, but there remains some reasonable give at the base (so it doesn't look like an artificially rock-hard object as the body moves about).  Similar in effect to a paralysis spell.

Half erect (slider at 50), schlong much more susceptible to physical interaction at the base but still trends towards neutral like an arcade joystick.  Also some measure of flexibility in the other bones along the shaft.

Flaccid (slider at 1), schlong floats freely.  Physics must reflect the existence of gravity.  Ideally, collision is taken into account.

 

To better illustrate the two graphs and how their differences are important to the realism of the effect, I put together some more simple illustrations:

 

 

(Schlong shaft bones would likely need to approach immobility more quickly than the above illustration indicates.)  This hopefully makes it clear that the idea is for the shaft to become essentially immobile relatively quickly, and the base less so, as the erection status increases.

 

Of course this is all just talk.  Someone would need to dig into the actual animation of the schlong in order to achieve any of this, and that's beyond anything I'm personally capable of.  I'm just doing what I can to garner interest in making improvements to SOS, some which I feel are absolutely necessary, others which would render it a much more compelling mod overall.