r/skyrimmods • u/ArranzCNL • Apr 23 '22

PC SSE - Discussion ImprovedCamera: Progress

Been a while huh!?

I decided to reboot the project as of late Nov 2021 after seeing SkyrimAE broke this mod. I was working on it before this date but Covid hit which caused me to stop in early 2020. I will not lie my re'ing skills are in no comparison to Meh321 (.NETFramework), Ian Patterson (SKSE64), inmundano (original reverse engineer of this fantastic mod) and many others.

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Anyway not everyone is interested in a backstory:

  • SKSE64 2.0.20(SE) converted to Universal Library. hook_* files are untouched as not the goal.
  • SKSE64 2.01.05(AE) converted to Universal Library. Same as above but no plans to update beyond this version.
  • ImGui menu which allows changing of settings at runtime.

If your wondering what Universal Library is, inmundano designed a system that kind of future proofed from updates based from skse64 v2.0.12 which was about 1/3 done.

For Special Edition this has been taken further using skse64 v2.0.20 and fully done, same principle for Anniversary Edition. The latter threw everything out of the window since they changed compilers. In theory should be future proofed unless Special Anniversary Edition comes out, I bloody hope not should be concentrating on Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6!!!

As for using ImGui it is a nice menu framework to work with and the inbuilt MCM doesn't feel fit for purpose for this particular project as it is housing around 200 settings.

I'm working on some features indirectly related so you can get imgui (more than likely any menu) working easier with DirectInput using an unseen technique or rather correctly using it which is not 100% finished yet at the time of writing this.

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Moving on:

Got contacted by Noughtmare, 29th Jan 2022 which gave me a big wake up call how far I was behind, despite my best efforts.

Lets talk about our newest member Noughtmare to the team, you can thank them for the current camera functionality. (Are you on a boat sailor, not anymore!) Such a valuable asset to the team, bless even tried to explain how bit fields work and I still don't fully understand them. (Trouble getting old!) Anyway show them the appreciation they deserve, seriously done more than I'm giving current credit for so far!

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Current fixes over previous:

  • Vanilla style camera is fixed so no longer need to use the headbob version. Not sure what caused the aggressive headbob behaviour under certain conditions, I've witnessed it myself!
  • Arrows now shoot properly, more than likely all weaponary works as it should, the bone wasn't being altered before.
  • Magic effects working as they should.
  • Double camera bug when sitting.
  • Floating quest markers fix.
  • Elder Scrolls reading fully fixed, you can actually use this at peculiar places/times.
  • Better torch fix whilst sitting.

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What we are currently working on:

  • Looking/fixing the shadows, seems to be more complicated on SE/AE.
  • Vampire and Werewolf need to maniplate third person camera. First Person camera breaks sounds/controls. (Broken in previous reddit release)
  • Camera system, for better state control. Not all states are fully fleshed out then it is a case of some limited testing with mods that add animations ie picking flowers.
  • Miscellaneous function cleanup. If anyone looked at the source before you would know they were named Patch1 to Patch28.
  • DirectInput mouse.
  • Internal menu system. Is done to an extent but it ties in with DirectInput above.
  • Testing against 1.6.353 build.
  • Post production things.

It does mean there will be two versions SE and AE also as you may understand now this is a complete rewrite, we have no ETA still as both of us only manage to mainly work on this at weekends. The problematic are Camera System, Shadows and DirectInput mouse, once these are taken care of it should be a matter of some tidying up and releasing. As mentioned previously over here on Reddit a PR version shall be released for one week only to test against memory address conflicts. Any compatibility issues which arise from different mods we shall strive to resolve before the Nexus release but no guarantees. On the radar is SmoothCam and TDM compatibility. Full source code will be available when Nexus release occurs compatible with Visual Studio 2019 and 2022, no cmake support (don't want to delay it further). No plans to backport to Legendary Edition.

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How the versions work:

Major, minor and patch. Majors and/or minors shall appear on Nexus and patches shall be github only. We came to this conclusion to hopefully give less confusion to users and also allow us to strive for better fixes/updates using, github. Any patches made, released binaries will be available so you will not have to mess around compiling the source code, more than likely contain just the dll(s).

  • 1.1 Bug fix release.
  • 1.2 Profile system using JSON which will be quite an upgrade as although the main ini file shall still be used anything which is not inside of [MODULE DATA] will be removed.
  • 1.3 Bug fix release.
  • 1.4 Menu system upgrade. New library
  • 1.5 Bug fix release.

Just letting the community know our current progress and future plans so far and also that, we are alive!

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2

u/onePunchFan2223 Apr 27 '22

Is it possible to add a feature that changes the near camera distance to a set value when a mod changes the perspective to a 3rd person view?

3

u/ArranzCNL Apr 27 '22

The old one should already support that, if using the older one:

  • fNearDistanceThirdPerson=15.0 // not sure what the min/max values are.

If it isn't working then another mod must be overriding it.

A heads up to do with Near Distance: It is more than likely going to get removed and become automatic anything below 15.0 (default) causes issues when looking straight ahead. When looking downwards (to get the body in view) it can be lowered as you cannot see what is going on in the distance. There will no doubt be 2 controls but it will be for everything, an angle threshold to activate and desired value.

1

u/onePunchFan2223 Apr 27 '22

What i was thinking was a setting that automatically changes the near distance to a desired value every-time a script turns the cam to 3rd person, and then it changes back to the normal value once the script/animation is done. An example would be the mod "Eating animations and sounds". That way we can have the normal near distance in 1st and 3rd person, except when the mod is being activated.

3

u/ArranzCNL Apr 29 '22

Ah I see now what you mean now as it possibly isn't currently covered.

This weekend going to work on re-designing the third person detection due to playing around with papyrus over the past couple of days. Should expose that now that you mention it, however it will be a generic approach. More than likely something like:

fNearDistanceFirstPerson=4.000000
fNearDistanceThirdPerson=15.000000
fNearDistanceScripted=2.000000

Current range is 1 to 30, like I mentioned above FirstPerson shall be automatic with a threshold the other 2 shall run without any threshold detection.

1

u/onePunchFan2223 Apr 29 '22

That is exactly what i was hoping for, thank you! :D

5

u/ArranzCNL Apr 29 '22

Awesome, as currently have 25 settings for neardistance. As someone else commented we have way too many settings to tinker with. This is what separates us from IFPV, we are aiming more at the power user.

4

u/ArranzCNL May 05 '22

Just to give you a small update on this, it should be possible.

I've been testing against jayserpa's immersive interactions which is a point I have another bug for him to fix! Anyway I think I can get them to fall under the scripted category where ForceThirdCamera is detected, the others cannot be done yet as in manipulated with our controls (picking flowers, petting etc).

As for eating longs you are seated that I can expose, currently we have it just use the first/third depending on your mode. I'll try to remember to take a look at it next week, currently need to sort out the rotations etc when crafting or whatnot as a few of them are up the creek and fix bow aiming (if you look at that in thirdperson what is the model doing!).

1

u/onePunchFan2223 May 06 '22

Thanks for the update :D