Hi, I've been recently playing this gem that I missed out on when it was new. Only one thing I was looking to accomplish was to make the 3rd person camera swivel free when turning the mouse or right anolog stick while not moving, kind of like in Skyrim's 3rd person camera.

Is it possible to configure the camera to do this? I tried replacing the skeleton mesh with one from Skyrim, and while it made the walking and running animations MUCH better, the camera is still locked behind the player's head with all looking based movement.

You don't need a mod.

The F key allows you fly the camera around the character during the game. You can use the zoom wheel to move in and out. Not sure if you can move while doing this, I have never tried. Because:

TGV (toggle vanity mode) allows you to fly the camera around the character while moving around in the game. Once you position it, like off to the side, you can play on and IIRC, the camera retains it perspective and angle on the character.

I'm not looking to make like the vanity camera. More like how in Skyrim when you stop walking/running in 3rd person then look around with the mouse/right anolog the camera moves freely. Then when walking/running again the camera snaps back.

I really enjoy playing FO3 in 3rd person but the deadlocked camera that that forces the player character to move along with it is kind of annoying. Oblivion had a more 'loose' camera that would lag/delay following the player's head. FO3 is just dead locked.

EDIT: I see some possible camera options under the Game Settings dialogue window (in the Eden Creation Kit), with things like "x/y/z", "vanitycam" and the likes. Would any of these options have the effect I'm looking for?

Get one of the Camera mods that are already out there. There is one specifically for flying around your character.

See these first, but there are several of them on the Nexus. Just search for Camera over there.

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/34744/?

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/37632/?

If nothing else, you can see how they did this for your mod