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About this mod

A State-based animation system for Realistic Movement, with Starts, Stops, Directional changes, and Speed transitions. Featuring Momentum-injected animations that react to movement speeds and stances for player situations, powered by OAR.
No esp, no scripts, no behaviors, and no plugins. This mod will act as a base for my upcoming animations.

Requirements
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INTRODUCTION

I started playing Skyrim about 9 months ago. While that doesn’t amount to much in the face of more than a decade of experience some people here might have, I have also been in love with the modding scene, and this community in particular, for all those 9 months. Here is my humble offering to that community - StanceLUMI and the subsequent mods that depend on it.

This mod adds a Stance system (it’s in the name after all), similar to Stances - Dynamic Animation Sets, but intended for movement and traversal options. This mod will also function as a base to springboard multiple movement mechanics, using Momentum and eventually Inertia as grounding constraints. Watch the animations react to your Stances, Movements, and even Camera Motions. Woohoo!

These are 3rd-Person PC-only animations, but y’all are free to make suitable 1st-Person animations to go along with this. Using this mod with Improved Camera in first-person gives unreliable results so I’d avoid this mod for a first-person playthrough. Feel free to publish a patch and link it in a post though. You can also try this with NPCs, but don't wag a finger at me if it doesn't work. Finally, I am only a Keyboard-and-Mouse player, having never owned a Controller (gasp, I know, right?) and so have not and cannot test this mod on a Gamepad. The main issues will be input detection, which dTry's Key Utils says it can handle, and variable speeds due to the analog control. Test it out and get back to me if it works well or if you know what can be fixed.

This mod is a two-parter, the sister mod for which, MoveLUMI should be uploaded within a month of this release. That mod will expand movement options, add 360 directional movement independent of TDM, and offer base native movement animations. The decision to split this mod was based on wanting to incorporate user feedback from this mod into MoveLUMI before the size becomes too prohibitive. Also coming soon is an Experimental Add-on to inject Inertia into the movement mechanics by altering speeds based on animations and calculated Momentum.

I write when I get anxious (can’t you tell?) so feel free to skip to whatever sections of this writeup you feel is relevant to your needs. I will recommend a trip down to REQUIREMENTS to check out the newest attraction of True Directional Movement, perusing the INSTALLATION giftshop and peeking in on the KNOWN ISSUES before you lambast me in the comments. Lengthy descriptions lie beyond the gates of the Spoiler tag. Drive Safely!



THE LUMI SYSTEM

While “Animation System” might be a strong word to throw around for what amounts to animation replacers without a plugin or a script, this mod rests on the laurels of two amazing works that came before it and that enable it to function as intended - Open Animation Replacer and Payload Interpreter. OAR and its expansive feature set is used to read and gauge the PC actions, while PI can write state information into these animations by way of annotation data. Add in dTry's Key Utils for a way to reliably interpret directional input and you have a recipe for success.
State Information tracks Stances, Directions, Momentum and Footsteps using a single variable.
To note, the description might have promised a certain momentum-injection. This mod does not touch any game physics. Rather I track a pseudo momentum generated by movement speeds, directional changes and Skyrim’s engine spitting out different animation speed clips during movement. This has been manually adjusted to add realism to motion and inform movement options you can have in a particular stance. 
On that note, let us dive into what this mod actually does.


FEATURES

  • Stances that reflect the Player's situations and change movement animations based on them. This mod currently ships with 5 Stances - Standard, Action, Combat, Lock-On and Danger. More will be added in updates or subsequent mods.
  • A State-based system to track player Stance, Direction, and Momentum. This state dictates most of the animation changes and reacts to movement inputs.
  • Transition animations for moving between speeds, directions, and Stances - This means we can now have Start and Stop animations for Walk, Run, and Sprint movements as well as Transitions between these speeds.
  • A new Jog state reflects running at low speeds - starting or stopping run or gaining speed from a walk. This also doubles as a strafe in the Standard Stance
  • A new Dash state to quickly gain momentum from an Action Stance. This also doubles as a dash turn at higher speeds.
  • Incorporate both the vanilla Strafing side run and modded Directional side run based on Speed and Stance
  • Directional facing (restricted to 180) for users who don’t use True Directional Movement’s 360 in each Player Stance
  • Tap to turn animations in all Stances with a 180 heading angle from Right to Left
  • A limited Footstep Matching system, only implemented in the stops for now, to allow for smoother transitions based on which foot has touched the ground.


STANCES

The initial version of this mod offers 5 Player Stances, dynamic animation states based on the Player's situations and actions. This is separate from something like Conditions used by EVG Conditional Idles and this mod works very well with that excellent mod. I aim for the Stances to be more of a reflection of your actions. The Stances are:

Standard Stance
This is the default pose that the character can adopt and will always return to at the end of the inciting situation. In the Standard Stance, the character will stand with a relaxed pose, having all motion be steady and balanced and deliberate. This is also a Stance where Momentum is reset, so the animations will reflect this state.
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To enter the Standard Stance, simply stop movement until you see the character’s shoulders relax and their feet align. This can also be achieved by dropping to a walk cycle or stopping with the walk toggle held. Directional facing and Footstep Matching is supported but Tap to Turn is optional (Fixes)
Walking from the Standard Stance results in a WalkStart that blends into your preferred walk animation.
Running from the Standard Stance puts you in a Jog for a few seconds, with relaxed arms and a bounce to your step. Turning in this state is a Strafe,  preserving the Standard Stance and Jog, but once the camera is moved or a faster run speed is achieved, your character has gained enough momentum to enter the Action Stance.
The Standard Stance is also where the influence of this mod ends and it opens up the possibility of your installed idles or poses from other mods to play



Action Stance 
This is the movement mode where Momentum is tracked and increased/decreased based on player motion. The Action Stance also tracks Direction and Footsteps like the Standard Stance, but to a lesser extent, it allows sudden dashes to affect animations more than historical data.
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The Action Idle is characterized by arms raised to waist height and feet apart, ready to take off. The Action Stance is reached when player movement gathers enough of the simulated momentum and is dropped after idling or walking for a few seconds.
Walking from the Action Stance results in a WalkAction, where the tense shoulders will relax as you blend into the default walking animation.
Running from the Action Stance allows you to access a Jog Dash or Directional Dash based on your heading and speed. A Dash can also reduce momentum if pushed in quick succession and any slow running beyond that goes back to a Jog to gain momentum.
The Action Stance will prove useful in the future for accessing variants of different movement systems such as sneak, climb or cover.



Combat Stance
The name should explain all. This is the Stance when you sustain combat. Remember this mod only features unarmed idle and movement so it will only be in those animations where this pose is expressed. 
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The Combat Stance will have you stand feet apart, arms slightly raised in a menacing or alert pose. There are fluid transitions from all states into the combat stance, along with dedicated run, walk, and action stances in this state. The directional facing of the Standard Stance is back for this state.
The Combat Stance can be exited by either leaving combat, killing the enemy, or locking on to the enemy at which point you enter the Lock-On Stance.



Lock-On Stance
This is a Stance enabled by True Directional Movement’s Lock-On feature. This allows for unique animations to bleed into and stem from this locked-on state. 
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The Idle has the player hunched over in an alert pose, hands poised in front of the body, and feet wide apart. The Lock-On Stance changes based on the distance to the target, with a Lock Jog at low speeds to circle around the target. At a very close range, the Lock Jog becomes the default movement, allowing for quick maneuvers akin to a dodge.
Disengaging Lock-On transitions smoothly into the previous Stance. Works outside of Combat as well but can be configured to be Combat-specific.



Danger Stance
Here’s where we start (and end) going from action-based to more situation-based states. The Danger Stance acts as a warning to the player when entering a dangerous situation or a reflection of their mental state. This state triggers when you’re under-leveled in a dungeon, trespassing in an area with low sneak, are thrust into combat without seeing the enemy or have spotted a combative enemy searching for you. This is the most subjective of the states and I’ll have to rely on feedback as to what can be tweaked or added. Support for Stress & Fear will be added in a future update.
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The Danger Stance ends whenever combat begins, or you have successfully evaded an enemy. I’m looking at methods to reduce the Danger over time; being stuck in the same state for the 30 minutes it takes to complete a dungeon makes little sense. This will also be addressed in a future update.



MOVEMENT

Movement with this mod depends on the stance you’re in and the actions you take. For the Combat, Lock-On, and Danger stances, it depends more on your situation. Action and Standard Stances depend on the pseudo momentum and can be entered or exited via traversal options. 
Skyrim’s Havok engine outputs 3 speeds per walk/run animation while moving - slow, normal, and fast. This mod realizes the SlowRun as its own Jog animation, given that’s the speed you drop into when starting to run or changing directions (turning speeds). Similarly, FastRun becomes Dash to quickly change heading during a run. MoveLUMI will add SlowWalk, FastWalk, and SprintToRun animations for better speed granularity.

This mod does not provide Walk/Run/Sprint animations, you can use your preferred animations instead. To ensure proper functioning, I’d ask that you mark all such Walk/Run/Sprint animations as Interruptible, which is simple to do in the OAR menu. For these gifs, I’m using Pristine Vanilla Movement, an excellent middle ground between modded and vanilla animations, but any replacement should work fine.

Here’s what a typical movement loop looks like with StanceLUMI

Idle: The default Standard Idle will play when your Momentum hits zero and the direction is facing Front. This has variants to keep up variety, but an empty folder VarIdle is provided so that you can drop in all your preferred Idles from other mods there and have it be a part of the loop. StandardIdle is also on a timer to allow for any other Idles to play given enough of a pause. Refer to the CONFIGURATION section to incorporate other animations.
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Tapping the movement key will have the actor turn to the desired direction in a 180 arc from Right to FrontRight to Front to FrontLeft to Left. In the Standard Stance, you cannot turn in an idle after movement stops, however hitting the Shift key with Dynamic Activation Key installed will instantly enter the Action Stance and allow for turning without input. Turning is allowed for all other Stances as well. To do the same in Standard Stance, download the Turning Fix.

Walk Cycle: From the Standard Stance, a walk begins with a WalkStart that bleeds into your default walk animation. WalkStart also kicks off the Footstep Matching, only used for WalkStop in this mod but which will be expanded on in subsequent mods. A Walk resets momentum and forces a drop from the Action Stance to the Standard Stance.
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If starting to walk from an Action Stance, a few seconds of WalkAction will play to lose the stored momentum and then switch to default animations.
From the Walk, running switches to a JogStart or a RunStart depending on the Stance that transitions smoothly into a JogStand or a JogDash animation.
Dropping from a Walk to a Run triggers Run2Walk where momentum is quickly dispelled. Warning: this animation can be janky as hell sometimes due to the game spitting out 6 different clips in a matter of a few frames. Look to Fixes. Further updates will try to smooth this out.


Jog Cycle: Jog is the movement state whenever the player runs at a speed lower than the game’s default run speed. This happens when starting to run from an idle or a walk, turning in a direction, or dropping from a run to a walk. Depending on the Stance, the direction of the movement, and the speed, different animations will be triggered. Using Scrambled Bugs with SteepSlopes = true allows you to jog up steep slopes (check EVG Clamber conflict)
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From the Standard Stance, Running from an Idle plays JogStart into JogStand. This also happens from a walk, though the JogStart time is truncated. JogStand is a Strafing motion with the waist twisted to face the front. It allows for slower direction adaptation and a JogStop will leave the player facing forward. A leisurely pace is reflected in the animations, relaxed shoulders and bouncing steps. This can also be triggered when the camera is pointed upward, a sort of respite during running as you look at the skies.
From the Action Stance, Running from an Idle plays RunStart into JogDash. This cannot be triggered from a walk. There is a pause as you tense and then a release of speed in a dash. A JogDash can only begin facing forward but can be implemented for turning from an Idle. At the end of a Dash, momentum is temporarily used up until it is restored by the following run. A wild burst of speed with arms flailing until you regain posture, stopping from the dash can have different results. When the stop is abrupt, on a FastRun clip, or is interrupted, the accumulated momentum carries over to your idle, giving a HopStop, the intensity of which depends on the momentum before the stop. A gradual halt or stopping on a SlowRun gives SlowJog and StopJog that returns you to the base Action Stance. Finally, pointing the camera down at the character adds some external pressure forcing them to resort to a JogDash to keep you happy.


Similar to the previous cases, Combat Stance and Lock-On Stance have dedicated Jog animations. While Combat Stance forces you into that unarmed Jog until the encounter ends, Lock Jog is used for quick maneuvers around the target or circling around at close range to facilitate evasive actions. 

Run Cycle: This mod doesn’t add any run animations but includes a Directional Dash at the end of every JogStand to transition from Strafing to Directional Running.
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This is also triggered when the camera is moved during a transition (or just before turning) to add oomph to turning animations with a burst of momentum. Finally, a Directional Dash can be used to leave Idle when the camera is pointed in a direction other than the character’s heading, forcing a sudden adjustment in direction.


Sprint Cycle: As is tradition you have SprintStart and SprintStop animations. SprintStart is a burst of speed, curling the body and shooting forward into a Sprint. SprintStop can have varied effects based on the amount of stamina you end the sprint on.
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With a Stamina > 75% you can end in a slight SprintSlide to an ActionStance or an ActionHop based on the momentum you carry. Any lower Stamina, however, will cause you to flail to a SprintStop, the duration and intensity of which is directly proportional to your stamina remaining. If you have Dynamic Activation Key installed, the flail stop will also depend on how late after the stop you release the Shift (Sprint) key. Holding Sprint well after stopping causes the Idle following the stop to flail with the stored momentum, whereas releasing the key just before releasing the movement input keys will bring you to a stable stop much faster. To avoid an unstable stop, release Sprint key before Movement keys, stop before Stamina hits 0 and don't stop on an inclined surface.
As an added bonus, you can release movement keys and quickly press it again to do a Slide mid-sprint, as long as Stamina > 75%. This can also happen when turning in a Sprint using the TDM Add-On


Starts: Movement Start depends on the Momentum before starting movement, the Stance you currently are in, and the Speed you're moving. Walking from Standard Stance gives WalkStart, Running from Standard gives JogStart. Walking from Action Stance gives ActionWalk, Running from Action Stance gives RunStart. Running in the opposite direction gives Directional Dash.

Stops: Similar to Starts, Stops consider state information to decide the animations. In addition, they also depend on Movement Direction. Stopping during a Walk gives StopIdle or WalkStop, Stopping during a Jog gives JogStop or RunStop based on Momentum, and Stopping from a Run gives RunStop or HopStop based on Momentum. Sprints have their own Stops, including the optional Flashy Sprint Stop (Read CONFIGURATION)


REQUIREMENTS

Necessary Mods
Open Animation Replacer: This is an essential mod, not only to the functioning of this one but to any playthrough of Skyrim. The expanded conditions of this mod as well as the revolutionary things Ersh’s doing with Variants, State data, and Blending is what made everything I offer here a reality. Make sure you’ve updated to at least v2.3 though ideally the latest version is always best to have.

Payload Interpreter: Another absolute requirement as it allows the setting of state information that can be read by OAR. I don’t know what magic dTry’s put into this, but it opens up a lot of possibilities for aspiring modders everywhere. 1.1.0 supports the newest game version too

True Directional Movement: Another banger by Ershin and makes the Lock-On Stance viable. Also, the unlocked camera makes vast improvements when moving. There is a caveat with this recommendation, though. In making the 360 movement as fluid and capable as it is, this mod eliminates directional movement other than forward. In doing so the variations in left/right/back animations are lost and so is the change in speed during rotation. This makes a lot of what my mod is trying to implement impossible. Luckily Ershin has allowed for detailed configuration via the mod’s MCM.
So here are your options:
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I love the 360 movement and am willing to sacrifice a few animations for it - Ok, great, because I have a TDM Add-on available that supports the 360 movement. You lose footstep matching and strafing movement but are able to retain the jogs and the dashes, the starts and the stops. And of course, the Stances persist, though without the turning animations from the Idle. Just download the Add-on from Miscellaneous files and have it overwrite the main mod. You also absolutely need the dTry's Key Utils. (I’m working on integrating a limited 360 movement into the sister mod MoveLUMI, so keep an ear out for that). This also works with Vanilla direction seamlessly.


I prefer to stick with Vanilla directions that incorporate both Strafing and Side Movement - Congrats, you win… this mod. You only need download the main file. If you were using 360 movement and would like to switch (because of me? wow, thanks!) refer to the image below on how to do it. The sister mod MoveLUMI will have a limited 360 movement system, but I’ll keep it optional just like TDM does, so you can use it without worries.


You can also turn off Head Tracking Affects Spine if you feel the side-facing animations are twisting too much to the front. Also with Leaning turned on (I use), the turning movement looks sooooo goooood.

dTry's Key Utils: And another banger by dTry. This mod is used to trace user directional input for when reading the engine’s movement directions are just not enough. Remember to also grab dTry Plugin Updates (for 1.6.640 and later) and tick Key Utils in the FOMOD. Technically, if you’re using the main file only and not the TDM version, this mod is not absolutely necessary. But for most cases, the isMovementDirection function is sluggish to update and loses finer control, so tracking user input rather than movement direction becomes handy. Necessary for the TDM Add-on, without this, the mod will not function.

Highly Recommended / Bonus Features
Dynamic Activation Key: A fun lightweight mod from Jayserpa adds a lot to this mod. First, it acts as an additional input to inject Momentum into the character instantaneously. This might be immersion-breaking but think of it as a shot of adrenaline and limit your usage and you’re golden. This injected momentum might not be useful for this mod, but will largely affect a lot of the upcoming LUMI mods where you need to gain momentum suddenly to perform some actions. Second, when bound to the same key as the Sprint, it acts as an extension to the system to carry over additional sprint momentum to subsequent animations. This is reflected in the stop animations primarily and will be built upon more in MoveLUMI.

OAR Detection Plugin: An extension of the framework laid by OAR, this mod adds some much-needed awareness to player movement. Like DAK the implementation is limited here, relegated to an optional Add-on. The mod is essentially used to improve on the Danger Stance conditions, providing a reliable and configurable upgrade to target detection. Necessary for the Powered Add-On Danger Warning. I intend to use Nonameron’s mods much more extensively in later mods.

Precision: It’s like Ershin’s greatest hits in here. A stellar mod, necessary for all your Combat needs, here only really required for the Powered Add-On Combat Tackle.

Classic Sprinting Redone: this should already be in your load order for how much it improves the Sprint movement while acting as an extension to momentum via the Shift key.

Scrambled Bugs: the Steep Slopes option acts as a natural extension to jogging. In Data/SKSE/Plugins/ScrambledBugs.json set steepSlopes = true and don't forget to get the Movement Speed fix in Bug Fixes SSE. There is a slight stutter sometimes when using this on Slopes, check out KNOWN ISSUES for more.

Other Recommendations to enhance movement but not necessary: Pristine Vanilla Movement, Animation Motion Revolution, SmoothCam, Disable Turn Animations, and Sprint/Sneak Movement Fix

COMPATIBILITY

This mod is usually compatible with most other mods out there, being mainly animation replacements. However tying unique timed animations and transitions to specific movement speeds and conditions, any mod that changes movement speed could cause stuttering or repeated animations. I have included fixes for the most common issue I found with walk/run/sprint speed changing mods, but there will be cases I’ve overlooked. Please let me know in the Conflict Forum section. 
Mods | Compatible | Compatible with Fixes | Might be Compatible with Changes | Incompatible
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  • True Directional Movement - Refer to the REQUIREMENTS section for more information, but fully compatible otherwise.
  • Wounds- this changes movement speed based on injuries. I have a fix for the broken legs condition but was unable to test the full suite of wounds effects, so let me know if anything has to be added. Also, check out Wounds injury animations that slot in appropriate replacements for these conditions. Similarly, other mods like SunHelm or Frostfall might add slow-down magic effects due to cold or tired conditions. If you can tell me the specific magic effect that slows you down, I can patch in those conditions in the next update.
  • Skyrim Motion Control - This is a difficult one because on the surface this seems to be the perfect compliment to my mod, S.M.C. provides the speeds, and I provide the animations. However, my animations change depending on the speed and timing, two things that S.M.C. fundamentally alters from the vanilla experience. Furthermore, I was unable to get this mod to work properly for my load order. This is not an indictment of the mod itself, there are many users satisfied with the mod (you might want to check out the latest version, Jerome rewrote a lot of the code with additional features). I have accounted for the speed changes due to Decline/Incline and timed my Stop animations according to the MotionStop condition. But there was still some janky-ness that I couldn’t address as the mod wasn’t functioning as intended. If you are trying it out, know that at worst you’ll experience a disconnect between speed and animations in specific cases. Please report these as feedback in the Conflicts section of the Forum. Here are some things you could try:
    • ONLY use S.M.C. with the TDM Directional Movement and Add-on
    • In the S.M.C. ini or MCM set the Min Speed to 1.0
    • Disable or reduce Slope Mults and use Scrambled Bugs (steepSlopes enables) or EVG Clamber instead (or one of my upcoming mods ;))
  • Scrolling Speed2 - A mod that sometimes challenges other movement mods but is fully compatible with my mod! Few things to consider, a sudden change or a large enough change in speed can result in some snapping irregular movements. This should stabilize in about a minute while the Scrolling Speed speed reduction updates. In the MCM, keep "Steps" at 20 and "Min Walk Speed" no higher than 0.7. If any stutters persist during a movement speed, use the "Speed Range Exclusion" options - read the Scrolling Speed 2 mod description.
  • Improved Camera - Never having played First-person in Skyrim, I’m unable to make this mod compatible as of now. From what limited testing I have done, Improved Camera doesn’t seem to read animation annotations from third-person animations or I’m doing something wrong. This means that even when it does translate the animations from this mod into first person (and does this very well in fact), it does not read the variables that then allow the animation transitions. This means that it gets stuck in a particular type of Stance or Start/Stop animation and loops over, producing abrupt out-of-place motions. Won’t affect your movements, but is unpleasant to the eye. For a first-person playthrough avoid my mod until that capability gets integrated (or make a patch yourself and publish it!)
  • EVG Clamber: An extensive addition to the movement scene that made me doubt weeks of work I did on a similar mod (!). Everglaid's newest mod is mostly compatible with mine. Using this with Scrambled Bugs might override their Incline Running with my Jog. Check out CONFIGURATIONS - Don't Jog on Slopes to solve this. Stair movement will be unaffected.
  • Underdog and CHIMgarden’s Mods - Our mods tread a lot of similar ground in making detailed conditions to replace specific animations. My future mods will further step on the toes of these mods and upping priority will make for an unsustainable competition. My recommendation is to use all three mod author’s works to address specific needs. Chimgarden’s mods usually tend to add a lot of subtlety and nuance to animations and with a low priority can act as base animations for both the PC and NPCs. Underdog I see as a varied mod that integrates a lot of lore-sensitive animations for a lot of different personality types. This, to me, seems a perfect fit for NPC actions and behaviors, with Tsaxaman’s animations taking into account their personalities and story roles. My mods will never touch NPC animations, primarily because I can never be sure if the state system will affect something in the NPC behaviors. So the LUMI system can be seen as PC-specific animations. Both this mod and Underdog have enough Randomness and leeway to allow Chimgarden’s animations to shine. I suggest you use these mods like this.
  • Other OAR mods - for your essential idle and walking replacements, either set them at priority < 2000006000 or have them Interruptible. This mod only replaces movement animations during speed/direction transitions. If you want certain animations to take over mine, FMAK, or EVG Conditional Idles during specific conditions, increase their priority. That's easier than for me to make adjustments for every such use case. Play around with the mods and make liberal use of the OAR GUI
  • "This mod is not working, random animations play at odd times and it messes with other mods" - The LUMI System manipulates an inert animation variable fIdleTimer to track State Information. This is the reason the mod is PC-only. I'm not sure what purpose this variable serves. If you have a mod that also changes this variable, it can result in inconsistencies. Post your mod list in the Conflict sticky in Forums and we'll figure out the conflict together.


KNOWN ISSUES

The methods I’m using to implement these animations rely heavily on the required mods and is finally at the mercy of the beast that is the Skyrim engine. There are some fixes included that can tame this beast somewhat, at the cost of some features. Refer to the INSTALLATION section for a concise explanation.
Fixable Issue | Fix Included | Issue Unfixable by this Mod (yet)
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  • Snappy or Janky animations - StanceLUMI places heavy animation emphasis on speed and directional transitions during movement. However, these are the exact conditions when the game decides to do something random (or at least I couldn’t figure it out) like a rapid succession of different directions or spitting five different speeds of animation clips in less than a second. This is the game animation blending during these transitions. But by tying specific animations to those transitions, I can cause some flickering poses. This is most apparent during the Start/Stops and Run2Walk animations. The only solution I know is a behavioral patch, something beyond the scope of this mod. I have a fix included that smooths some of this out at the cost of animation fidelity. If the main file causes too many disruptions, apply the fix.
  • Stop Animation not playing or looping - Having to rely on dTry’s Key Utils for Stop detection, I’m sometimes bound by its limitation. At times the KeyTrace can get stuck, and this gives erroneous input detection. This can happen when you open a menu or enter/exit a location cell while pressing the movement keys. The simplest solution if you keep stopping or if stopping does not carry into the ActionStance very often, is to quickly cycle through WASD or movement inputs by tapping each key once. This should unstick the detection.
  • Scrambled Bugs Slope Stutter - the movement variation on slopes relative to the steepness is a very welcome idea, one that works, in theory, effortlessly with this mod's obsession with movement speeds. However, I've noticed occasional stutters when dropping speed on said Slopes. Transition animations like Starts/Stops and Run2Walk feel notorious for this. This is not something I can address for now. OAR in its Measure Surface Angle condition utilizes State data to smooth the surface angle to prevent such jittery movement, something I feel would fix this issue. It's small enough to ignore, imo.
  • AutoMove - This is a major issue and a thorn in my side. I detect MotionStop using keytrace which is snappier than detecting movement speed or direction. This means that during AutoMove, my mod detects no keys pressed and assumes a stop motion. I have it configured so that AutoMove works fine when starting from a run or a walk, but transitioning from Walk->Run during AutoMove or vice versa and my mod shits its pants. There are two fixes included both at the cost of momentum during stops. Refer to the INSTALLATION section for more details and use them if you rely on AutoMove.
  • Run to Sprint - When the actor starts a Sprint from a running motion, Skyrim throws up a frame of Run animation at the beginning of Sprinting. This is a known issue and I know not of any fixes. I have repurposed the DirectionalDash in an attempt to smooth this transition, but can’t assure you of seamless movement. A better band-aid will be included in MoveLUMI.
  • Switching Directions Left to Right or Reverse - For now, an abrupt switch from Left to Right or vice versa causes a stutter in animations, not dissimilar to the vanilla performance if more exaggerated. A Switch animation will be included in MoveLUMI, so you’ll just have to wait until then :(
  • Turning Stickiness - Sometimes when facing to the Side and tapping the directional keys to turn to the front causes a stickiness in heading - the character refuses to turn front or turns in the desired direction but snap twists a little. This is caused by having no walk animations that annotate direction and the game initiating an idle before movement is actually completed. A fix included addresses this with animations to correct direction after stopping, but use only if needed as it can cause unintended turning. MoveLUMI (seemingly the solution to all these issues, huh?) will include walk/run animations and should foreseeably solve this issue.
  • Sliding/Repeating WalkStart - The walk start animation includes a few frames of motionlessness before motion to give a sense of weight and inertia. Depending on your input delay (fControllerBufferDepth under [Controls] in your Skyrim.ini / TDM MCM) you might see this as a sliding motion for the initial frames. A planned (Experimental) Add-On for this mod will see Inertia made true with really changing movement speeds depending on the animations and Momentum, for realsies. That Add-On will fix this problem and is currently being tested.
  • Performance - This mod is only animation replacers, however in OAR’s description Ershin makes note that multiple Interruptible conditions could lead to lower FPS, well, this is that mod. Not by much, I only observed a 3-5 fps drop on my potato of a PC for all the pressure that the conditions put on OAR, so hats off to that mod. Use StanceLite for a lighter (duh) option.


REPORTING BUGS

Some suggestions to keep in mind if you face any issue with the functioning of this mod or the animations offered:
  • "This mod is not working, random animations play at odd times and it messes with other mods" - The LUMI System manipulates an inert animation variable fIdleTimer to track State Information. This is the reason the mod is PC-only. I'm not sure what purpose this variable serves. If you have a mod that also changes this variable, it can result in inconsistencies. Post your mod list and we'll figure out the conflict together.
  • As stated above, this mod does not corrupt your saves, any variables assigned happen at runtime only. You can install or delete the folders at any point in your save (maybe just not while the game is running? idk)
  • StanceLUMI cannot cause CTDs or runtime errors or T-posing. It’s just not that powerful. (OK, maaaaybe the Powered Add-On annotations were a bit rushed)
  • Bugs I expect to be of three types - unrefined Animations, unrealistic/senseless Movement or Conflicts with other mods. There are sections in the Forum page created to address just these. Posting your issues in such an organized format may allow for faster resolution.
  • Additionally, I’ll have a Forum for Feature suggestions. I haven’t been playing Skyrim for very long and so don’t have references for all the kinds of movement/situations/requirements players could have from such a system. If you feel there is anything in line with what I’m featuring, don’t be afraid to shoot some suggestions or requests my way.
A perfect Bug Report screenshot captures all the needed info. Do this--
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Open Animation Log and Event Log | Enter Actor Reference (14 for PC) in both places | Expand the buggy subMod
  
--to get a gold star from me.

INSTALLATION

Since the main meat of this mod is animation replacements, it can be easily installed or uninstalled using your Mod Manager of choice - NMM or MO2.
However, strictly for animation mods, I find it much more reliable to manually download the mod and then simply unzip and drop the folder into its destined directory. To do this unzip the downloaded mod, click your way into the OpenAnimationReplacer folder, and drag the StanceLUMI folder (or any other folder) there. Look for Data\meshes\actors\character\animations\OpenAnimationReplacer\

The Downloads section also includes some additional files, to provide additional functionality or fix an issue (with some cost to animation). Read them carefully to see if you need any. To install them, just download the additional files and overwrite the main file. If you want to reverse any fixes, you’re shit out of luck!!! No just kidding, simply reinstall the main file and overwrite the changes or do so in your Mod Manager through the load order system.

Maybe a FOMOD would have been easier but I feel it trades convenience for opaqueness. If enough of you ask for it, I can look into doing that. (Sigh) There's a FOMOD Installer in there too now. If you install via this option, no other files are needed. Just follow the mod manager instructions and select the options that you need. I suggest not installing the Fixes immediately, but running around a little with just the Main Files and your Add-Ons to get a feel for it, since you will lose some features with each Fix. 
Main Files | Add-Ons | Fixes

Mod Files: Install these BEFORE everything 
  • StanceLUMI - the main file absolutely necessary for all kinds of installations and the main functionality of this mod
  • StanceLite  - use this OR the main file NOT both. This keeps only the Starts/Stops, Jogs, and Transitions while axing the Stances and all the other fluff for a lightweight movement enhancement. ONLY TDMLite and S.M.C. Add-On work for this and NOT the other Add-ons/Fixes (Jank Fix is already included)

Mod Add-Ons: Install these AFTER Mod Files & BEFORE Mod Fixes
  • TDM Add-On - install this AFTER the main file and BEFORE other Add-Ons if you want to use True Directional Movement’s Directional Movement feature (that’s a mouthful) - read the REQUIREMENTS section for more information. This does NOT cause Vanilla movement to stop, only adds to it.
  • Detection Add-On - Using the robust OAR Detection Plugin to stack enemy awareness to the Danger Stance as a much more intuitive condition. Needs the Plugin to work.
  • S.M.C. Add-On - Requires Skyrim Motion Control and TDM Add-On. This is a work in progress as the mod did not work for me and hence I couldn’t test these fixes completely. Read the COMPATIBILITY section for more information.
  • TDMLite Add-On - for TDM’s Directional Movement with StanceLite Only
  • Powered LUMI - Enhanced abilities for each of the Situation Stances. 
    • Combat Slide Tackle - Jump when Sprinting at an Enemy to tackle them and inflict damage based on sliding time (NEEDS Precision)
    • Lock-On Evasion Jog - I-Frames when Locked-on to an Enemy, move left/right at the moment they swing a weapon or fire a missile at close range.
    • Danger Precognition Warning - A Spidey-Sense warning when an Enemy detects you before you detect them. (NEEDS OAR Detection Plugin)
 
 

Mod Fixes (For details read KNOWN ISSUES): Install these AFTER Mod Files & Add-Ons
  • Jank Fix - Addresses the janky animations and snappy movement at times of speed and direction transitions. Installing this will smooth out these issues to some extent while losing some of the animation expressiveness due to interruptions. 
  • AutoMove Fix 1 - Fixes the out-of-place animations when walking during AutoMove while losing certain conditions to retain momentum during Run Stops.
  • AutoMove Fix 2 - Suppresses all out-of-place animations in AutoMove, but Stops lose the ability to retain momentum. Now none of the movement Stops put you into an Action Stance.
  • Turning Fix - Fixes Stickiness when it comes to turning from Idle on tapping keys. By default turning without input is only allowed in the Action Stance, this will allow the same in Standard Stance. Install only if needed as it can prioritize direction over momentum-based turns. Causes turning when Idle even without movement inputs.


CONFIGURATIONS

The latest versions of OAR have introduced a feature called PRESETS which proves to be an extremely useful tool for grouping conditions and applying them to multiple submods. StanceLUMI includes some optional features that can be enabled or disabled according to user preference.
SAVE YOUR CHANGES!


To add your own movement animations:
  • For the default Walk/Run/Sprint - make sure they are of priority < 2000006000 and mark them as Interruptible from the OAR in-game menu. If like me you’re using Pristine Vanilla Movement or the Vanilla animations, you don’t have to make any changes
  • For any Idles you want to use, put them in the VarIdle folder, or have them of priority < 2000006000 or marked as Interruptible
  • To replace any Stance or Start/Stop animations, there are a few changes you must make to the animations. I will make an Article soon detailing all this but suffice it to say you need to copy all the animation annotations, especially the Payload Interpreter Events marked as PIE from the animations you’re replacing by use of the hkanno64 tool. Also, you might have to tweak the Interrupt or ReplaceOnLoop blend times to smooth it out. Do this only if you have experience or wait for the Article.

Some other modifications you can do from the OAR GUI itself:
  • Always Jog Indoors:
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Dashing at top speed inside a small one-room hut never made sense to me. This lets you relax jog all over those wooden floors. This is still just an animation replacement and does not affect speed. The experimental Inertia Add-on will allow slower jogs inside. With UserConfig mode, tick IsInInterior in the JogConditions PRESET. Don’t forget to save your changes!


  • Don't Jog on Slopes (EVG Clamber Compatibility):
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If using EVG Clamber with Scrambled Bugs enable the Movement Surface Angle conditions in the JogConditions PRESET. This will allow Clamber to take over on slopes. An adjustment for movement on Stairs is already included. If using "Extreme Accuracy Mode" in Clamber, mark JogStand as Interruptible (you will have shorter Jog windows)


  • Danger Skill Levels:
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A Danger condition procs when you’re trespassing with Sneak level below 50 or Dungeon crawling (or caves or crypts) below level 15. You can manually change these values in the DangerConditions PRESET for the IsTrespassing condition and the Location conditions.


  • Flashy Slide Stop:
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is your character doing half-assed Sprint Slide Stops even at full Stamina? Does wearing Heavy Armor not even leave enough movement window to gracefully graze your knee to the ground? Presenting Flashy Slide Stop, a revolutionary pill to get your guy back into action! Tick Flashy variant under Slide Stop and Untick Std variant.

  • Condition Changes: If you have experience in modding and familiarity with OAR and would like to change conditions for Movement or Idles, you're free to do so. Please do not touch the CompareValues->fIdleTimer condition as it is essential to the functioning of the state machine. My structure is very messy and includes accommodations for upcoming mods, so if something doesn't make sense, ignore it. The easiest method is to shoot something at me in the comments and we can walk through the changes together. <3


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. I have some issues with this mod. How do I get you to see it?
A. You should read the REPORTING BUGS section, but looking under Forums, you will see specific Stickies under which each issue can be dealt with. For any bug reports please include the name of the animation giving issues (using OAR's GUI menu) and including screenshots of both the Animation Log and the Event Log will be massively helpful. 

Q. There’s no actual movement animation in your movement system mod?
A. The LUMI movement system is split between this mod StanceLUMI which handles the base Stances and Movement Transitions, and MoveLUMI, an upcoming mod that will expand this system with walking, jogging, running and sprinting animations. Look for that mod in a few weeks time.

Q. Splitting up content into two mods set to release weeks apart sounds skeevy and greedy. Why do it like that?
A. This mod already offers over a hundred animation replacements. I believe that is sufficient work to justify its existence, for a free mod. The main reason, though, is that I want my mods to be flexible enough to adapt to user feedback and criticism. This is my first mod and so I want that feedback to reverberate across my mods. Doing it this way makes it easier for me to implement those changes quickly. 

Q. Hmm, wait a minute, those animations look strangely familiar.
A. Ok, that’s not a question, so I shall not answer.

Q. Fine, why do your mod animations look like the ones from the Underdog mod? There, that’s a question for ya.
A. Ugh. So. My animations, as stated in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS section below are retargeted from Mixamo, an open-license animation database. I can’t speculate as to where Underdog author Tsaxaman gets their animations, but Mixamo is an incredible animation resource also used by other authors like CHIMgarden (and to great effects, check out their mods!).

Q. Oh so you’re not doing the animations, then? Well, where’s the effort?
A. While Mixamo is an incredible resource for motion-capture animations, it was by no means created with Skyrim mods in mind. So after downloading the animations, it has to go through retargeting, the process of mapping animations from the Mixamo skeleton to the default Skyrim skeleton. The animations then have to be trimmed to fit a required timing and frame count, modified for rotation angles and root motion that matches the game’s expectations, annotated with both motion information and events such as foot positions, then the “LUMI System” of assigning state information using Payload Interpreter, converting the outputs to hkb files and changing it to SE, then the condition sets and config info. So it is a lot of work, work that still cowers in the shadow of some genuinely talented animators on this platform. (not insecure about the animations btw)

Q. I really like the ideas this mod toys with, but hate you as a person in particular. How do I solve this dilemma?
A. First off, grrrr. If you’re looking for alternatives to this mod, I’d suggest Skyrim Motion Control again. Jerome does a lot of interesting things with their mod and as opposed to my facade of momentum, actually implements weight into motion. An oldie, but goldie is Movement Behavior Overhaul, the mod that inspired me to make this. I’m not sure how easy it is to run these days but you will never see smoother yet more complex movement than this mod. If you’re on LE, what are you doing here, but also try Player Physics - Acceleration - Friction for a physics-based approach to what S.M.C. does.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This was a project in the making for a number of months, but would've never been realized without...


  • opparco for hkanno and hkxposer - two supremely useful tools for what I was going for
  • dTry and alexsyles for allowing me to implement all kinds of stuff from within animations without ever touching a line of code
  • And finally Ershin for OAR, a boon to first-time modders like myself, and for patiently working with me to smooth out all the animation issues I was having


A Sneak peek into MoveLUMI, an upcoming mod based on this system, and the movement mechanics it features -


FUTURE LUMI MODS
 
 
 
 

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Ok, I'm finally done. Unless...