I'm currently working on a mod that adds some dead NPC's to the crypts included with Vampire Realism. I found that by using one of the animations from Korana's Clothiers of Vvardenfell, I could get a convincing lying down animation. However, it's not exactly what I'm looking for, as I want to use a proper lying down pose for my dead NPC's that doesn't become mucked up in-game.
Here's an example of a position I'd be happy to use:
http://bikramyogami.com/files/imagemanagermodule/@random4942b8de854fa/Savassana.jpg

So, has anyone done an animation that looks similar? If not, I could try it myself.

Hey, Krovosos

I played around with the already-existing MW "Death" animations for some mod I was making.
Basically, an NPC tells the Player they "Need to sleep now," and the Dialogue Results Box then sets their Fatigue to -100,
and "PlayGroup, DeathKnockOut, 1" for example. (Oh, OK, they were using a heavily modified "MCA Courtesans" script also, but we can't discuss "advlt Content" on the open forums).

I used DeathKnockout, Death3, Death4, and Death5 very successfully for these. Can't remember which one is which, but at least one is a "lying on the back" pose that resembles your picture of what you're looking for, as I recall.

Something to try, if you like.

Cheers

DARoot

Thanks, but I can't really use a method like that; My NPCs are dead as a doornail. I can't use the dialogue for anything, which Is why I'm relying on the 'Add Animation file' function in the NPC window. Also, none of the vanilla death animations look like something that a corpse in a crypt would be positioned, properly at least.
Thanks again for the help though

There's some lying down animations in Qarl's http://www.elricm.com/nuke/html/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&req=viewdownloaddetails&lid=1096, not sure if they'll work for you.

I downloaded that, and the animations were simply perfect for what I planned However, I've hit a snag; In-game, the position of the corpses changes radically from what I saw in the CS, which is very irritating to say the least, and I have no idea how to prevent this from Occurring. Here are some screens to show my problem more clearly:

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/5073/corpseincs.png, in the CS..
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5866/corpseingame.png in-game...

I know that this is caused by the death animations, I just need to know how to prevent this, or make the death animations identical to the lying down position.

Hey, Krovosos

No, no. No dialogue for corpses (that would be...REAL spooky).

Hmmm.. Hard to tell from your screenies, but, yeah, looks to me like the MW Game Engine is substituting one of the "Death" animations for the one you want (legs canted to the right relative to the upper body, hands clenched, etc...?) And, obviously you are using BB in-game -- which bring up the question, is anything ELSE you are using in-game interfering (but, if your new animation plugin is loading last, that shouldn't be a factor, but I'll mention it anyway).

Try setting the NPC's "Fatigue" to 0 (or -1, if the CS will let you) rather than "Health = 0" (or whatever you are using. There's lots of "Practice Dummy" mods out there where the thing has, like, 2000hp, but still doesn't move) and see if that sorts it.

If not, might have to try scripting it. Something simple, like:
If GetDistance->Player < 9999
SetFatigue -1000
PlayGroup, [YourAnimation], 1
endif

Seems like a lot of fuss 'n feathers for something so simple, but, that's "Mod Artistry," ain't it?

Hope you sort this out to your liking.

Cheers

DARoot

What animation(s) are you replacing with this? Because it's only those animations that will actually be different, if you see what I mean. NPCs don't play idle animations when they're dead, so if it's replacing an idle, you won't see it ingame.

You can use LizTail's merge_kf tool to make a replacer for death animations instead, that should work.

http://www.gamesas.com/?showtopic=1071872
All (I hope really all) animations that we can use.

I think I'm going to have to go with the 'Mannequin" route with this; Is there a tutorial on creating Mannequin NPC's? I've already found a suitable animation, just need to prevent the death animations from overwriting it.

Did you read my post? If you're using the animation un-edited, the death animations aren't overwriting anything at all. They have nothing to do with it. Each animation has information stored in the kf file that tells the game which animation it's supposed to replace. It can't read your mind and just know you want a death animation when the kf says "idle 9".

I'm not replacing any animation, I'm just attaching a new one to the NPC's. Uggh, all this is confusing me :confused: I've never worked with animations or scripts before.

I see... Sorry if I'm being very irritable :blush:

Anyway... I don't think the mannequin thing would work too well (usually they call SkipAnim every frame to stop them falling over if they're the dead/0 fatigue type, or else replacing animations, which brings you back to the same thing anyway). An animation would be better I think.

You might need to replace all death animations except knockdown & knockout - I could well be wrong about that though. Hm. Do you have LizTail's animation kit installed? It comes with the merge kf thing, you just have to use the command line to do it.

Oh what the hell... Can you upload the kf file somewhere temporarily? I don't want to dl the whole mod right now but I think I can make a death animation replacer thingy if you send me the kf. Not sure how well it will work, but hopefully it won't need Blender editing.

Well, I don't really want to replace anything if there's another way around this, but if not, I'll send you the KF. Thanks for the help!

In MW you can only replace existing (original sequences). "Idle9" or "Death4", does not matter: for this particular NPC you are replacing originals with custom ones.

PlayGroup/LoopGroup functions are not always working for NPCs (upper body parts will not follow custom animations, this could be the case on your pictures).
Moreover, AIWander function loops between "Start"/"Stop" and not "Loop Start"/"Loop Stop". In some cases it is possible to overcome that by setting (in NifScope) end frame to something stupid e.g. 36000 (10 hours).
BTW text keys can be also edited in NifScope.