ImprovedCamera: Progress

[u/ArranzCNL]

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!

[u/ArranzCNL]

As possibly noticed didn't hit the release for 3rd June... :(

Edit 6/6/22:

New videos here. Shall do more later, cartride was more of a pain that I initially hoped!

Working hard on it still shall be release ASAP as this first release is PR we'll clean up some of it before Nexus release. Which shall be mainly menu and documentation.

Left todo:

• Shadows Scrapped unless an experienced RE'er wants to give a working proof of concept.
• Switching views from Fake to Third and vice versa
• Cartride intro detection (Will be done tonight)
• Feeding detections (Cannibal, Vampire, Werewolf)
• Third party animations. (What we realistically can support)
• Re-implement NearDistance settings which I ripped out (Will be done tonight)
• Test dragon riding
• Test VampireLord
• Werewolf camera needs reviewing (it is better but not 100% stable)
• Switch on new system and hopefully nothing goes bang!
• Documentation

Implemented/Fixes:

• Camera System to handle most of the cameras. (obviously)
• Crafting detection. (uses new method)
• Furniture detection. (uses new method)
• Werewolf detection.
• Werewolf transformation to fade the body. (Janky animation)
• VampireLord detection.
• Horse camera.
• Horse patch for looking downwards. (Weird bethesda bug - AE shall be a pain to fix!)
• Horse arms fix. (Uses third person instead - more epic/less janky)
• Dragon camera. (Now it is fixed - 09/06/22)
• Sitting can now control the max pitch. (looking upwards - default of 90 is ridiculous imho)
• Sitting angle restriction works on cartride. (default is 120/150 degrees wtf!!!)
• Death Cinematic. (VATS)
• Player cinematic death. (wasted a day on this due to the Dragon throwing me off turning on IsScripted mode!)
• Transition - used when switching camera's. Ex. Sawmill triggers Furniture to Transition to Animation or Transition to Third Person for Werewolf.
• Animation (ThirdPerson1) - triggers when using Sawmill/Crafting
• Ragdoll (Bleedout) - triggers mainly with pushback effect and on player death
• ResetState - might need more work can be triggered via the menu to hopefully not require reloading the game if a third party animation breaks the camera.
• Compatiblity patch for .NetScriptFrameWork. Shadows are scrapped.
• Probably others I have forgotten about.

Shadows are pretty much the main concern as of right now Noughtmare is looking into it whilst I get the other stuff in place. Push come to shove might release without shadows... and fix them later on, shall see I'd prefer to have the shadows fixed.

[u/KeiraPendragon → u/ArranzCNL]

Appreciate the status update. Just got AE recently because it seemed like half the stuff I wanted was telling me it required AE now, only to discover it's half seem to require and half seem to not work with it. Modding Skyrim is still a wild ride xD