Looks nicer than original stiff preset, but still not quite it. There are two presets for argonian and khajiit for another tail physics mod Equipable Beast Tails, and those presets look much better. Do you know if it's possible to port those presets to fluffy beast race tail replacer or just port the fluffy khajiit tails to Equipable Beast Tails?
i agree, while this looks better, it's still far from right. but even those presets for equipable beast tails are not quite right too, they just look better. the hard part is that animals with tails actually move them actively as a balance tool. more than flinging around from momentum, the tail tends to follow in their tracks, a bit like a trail of particles. the big issue is that on a real animal, when they run in circles or just take a curve, their tail does not fling to the outside from centrifugal effect, instead they keep it curved towards the inside of the turn to help with the counter balance. and this shows a lot.
i don't know how much you can configure in skyrim's hdt smp, but i'm gonna assume the engine is limited and it's not possible to have the same bone of the skeleton both be controlled by an animation and pushed around by physics. on top of it, it would require a s#*! load of conditional turning animations to make the tail behave convincingly in all the situation. so here are a few suggestions that have a chance of being doable: -have the first bone at the base follow a walking animation instead of being affected by physics. this way you can impart some voluntary movement to it. such as up and down motions during jump and fall, or swinging opposite of the steps during walk and run to look like it's counter balancing. -having different physics parameters for the vertical axis and horizontal plane. stiffer on the vertical axis because the animal is holding it up, and more flexible side to side so it can follow into of turns. -lowering the inertia of the tail or/and increasing the drag. this would participate to reduce the visual of the tail being centrifuged into a straight line when you make tight turns.
cool mod anyways. i'll look into how to try some edits myself.
hi, i really love these tweaks, makes it a lot more realistic! is there any way to reduce the amount of stretching in the long tail version though? its pretty noticeable if you're sprinting or turning around in combat
Not that I know of; I made the weights with the originals in mind and I also change a string in the nifs themselves so that Argonians and Khajiit could have different physics to their tails.
I will be that ass, but the tail is not a peace of long cloth or hair that twists and turns so fluidly as the animal moves. Most animals keep it pretty rigidly, especially lizards. Unless they turn and need balancing, but even then it doesnt go all wibbly-woobly all around. Please do not missunderstood me, it is awesome you did this. It just feel less part of the character with bones and muscles and more as an accesory.
That's exactly why something like this is needed. If you want them "realistic" you are better off using vanilla tails, as they are rigid and would perform like in real life, for the most part at least.
Animations would be awesome. Skyrim's tail animations are rigid and flat-out broken.
for example:
The idle animation has a weird kink in it
Only one sitting animation does anything with the tail, the rest just let it clip through the seat.
The sprint animation doesn't stop when you stop sprinting. It stops when you stop moving.
Because of the previous issue, if you do a crouching stealth-roll as a khajiit or argonian, you'll start wagging your tail until you stop moving because that counts as sprinting so it plays the sprint animation. This looks ridiculous, of course, when you're slowly sneaking across the room.
You don't have to be that ass. We all know that this isn't hyper realistic. The vanilla is a lot more realistic but that is also why it is so less pleasing aesthetically. Tails are a nightmare to work with, you have to know exactly how the player is moving in any situation and make the tail feel like a working appendage... and I've STILL yet to see a game that does it well and convincingly.
during mod installation, it makes you pick between argonian and khajiit tails, is this intentional? i figure it would be check boxes, rather than only letting you select one, unless i'm misunderstanding something here.
Yes. I have made different files for the physics of Argonian and Khajiit tails. Your choice is the one that gets distributed to everyone (including the player, if they have the tail). I will see what I can do to distribute different files.
I believe I have gotten it set up so that it distributes different physics to the argonians and khajiit in game at the same time now! Please let me know if you run into any issues.
18 comments
the big issue is that on a real animal, when they run in circles or just take a curve, their tail does not fling to the outside from centrifugal effect, instead they keep it curved towards the inside of the turn to help with the counter balance. and this shows a lot.
i don't know how much you can configure in skyrim's hdt smp, but i'm gonna assume the engine is limited and it's not possible to have the same bone of the skeleton both be controlled by an animation and pushed around by physics. on top of it, it would require a s#*! load of conditional turning animations to make the tail behave convincingly in all the situation. so here are a few suggestions that have a chance of being doable:
-have the first bone at the base follow a walking animation instead of being affected by physics. this way you can impart some voluntary movement to it. such as up and down motions during jump and fall, or swinging opposite of the steps during walk and run to look like it's counter balancing.
-having different physics parameters for the vertical axis and horizontal plane. stiffer on the vertical axis because the animal is holding it up, and more flexible side to side so it can follow into of turns.
-lowering the inertia of the tail or/and increasing the drag. this would participate to reduce the visual of the tail being centrifuged into a straight line when you make tight turns.
cool mod anyways. i'll look into how to try some edits myself.
for example:
The idle animation has a weird kink in it
Only one sitting animation does anything with the tail, the rest just let it clip through the seat.
The sprint animation doesn't stop when you stop sprinting. It stops when you stop moving.
Because of the previous issue, if you do a crouching stealth-roll as a khajiit or argonian, you'll start wagging your tail until you stop moving because that counts as sprinting so it plays the sprint animation. This looks ridiculous, of course, when you're slowly sneaking across the room.