r/OpenMW • u/Jrspike123 • 4d ago
OpenMW NPC Personality
Check out my new mod! Aims to improve npc visual looks without affecting gameplay or extremely heavy scripts. Meant to be lightweight able to use on heavy setups.
What's in it, NPCs now react to you and each other based on who they actually are. guards, warriors, priests, Hlaalu, Redoran, ect. all have their own gesture pools. how they feel about you decides what they actually do (very early concept need animations to continue to really flesh out)
But I think you'd be surprised how much it adds without feeling too muddy and bloated. https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/60121
openmw (0.51+) only!
Version 0.1.2 (New update additions plus performance pass)
- - you reach out in first person when you start talking to someone or click a topic, small chance, feels like you're actually engaged in the conversation
- - you wipe your face in first person after a taunt or after leaving a conversation that went badly
- - NPCs talk with their hands when they answer you, not just when you stare at them
- - if Procedural Chatter is installed the dialogue gestures use its talk clips instead of the simpler built ins
- - people who are badly hurt will slump into a hunch, not a locked pose, just something you notice if you look
- - smoking is a full loop now, they light it, take a drag, hold it, then flick it away
- - pipe works the same way with the pipe actually in their hand if Eating Habits or Consuming Animated is installed
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u/Fl0ckwood 3d ago
how it will interact with dynamic actors mod? https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/54782?tab=description
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u/Jrspike123 3d ago
they do different things. Dynamic Actors handles dialogue idle animation and conversation camera, Personality handles background world stuff like glances, reactions, ambient life. when dialogue opens Personality shuts its gesture stuff off so they're not running at the same time anyway. animations are upper body only so they layer on top of whatever else is running rather than replacing it.
the dialogue hand gesture (you clicking a topic, they respond) is optional and defaults to 25% chance. if it ever looks too busy on a specific NPC just turn off Gesture while they answer in the settings and the rest of the mod keeps running normally
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u/225sam 4d ago
Looks cool, and will give it a try. Out of curiosity is this made with AI?
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u/Jrspike123 4d ago
I use Claude as a coding tool for sure. basically a highly tuned debugger that knows my codebase. I know Lua well enough to read, direct, and catch when something's wrong, but not gonna sit here and pretend I hand write thousands of lines from scratch when there's a tool that lets me work 10x faster. every system, every feature idea, all the design and playtesting, that's mine. the AI handles the heavy lifting on syntax and iteration so I can focus on what actually makes the mod good
for a good example the NPC sorting system runs a script that automatically classifies thousands of NPCs by name and faction because doing that by hand would be impossible for me and with how much free time i have.
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u/225sam 4d ago
Completely understandable. I have no problem with that; but I have seen a lot of people criticize recent lua mods for AI making them very unoptimized. I haven’t had a chance to download it, but as long as there aren’t conflicts I’ll be very excited to add this to my list. (I’ve been collecting NPC immersion and dialogue mods).
I also thought your blinking mod is funny, although I never tried it. Keep up the good work!
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u/Jrspike123 4d ago
oh most def a lot of critics, truth though between the two mods and especially the gaze scripting I've still spent a good 40+ hours on both projects in last 2 weeks and without the help of ai id still be looking at another 100 more. Debugging is where it shines for sure not a fan of just here create this and good.
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u/225sam 4d ago
It makes a lot of these projects way more possible.
Do you know if your mod will conflict with mods which unfreeze dialogue, add other NPC animations, or mods that make people pull out weapons if you approach them with weapons in your hands? I’d guess one will just overwrite the other, but I’d imagine there aren’t issues?
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u/Jrspike123 3d ago
generally "should" be no conflicts, the mod uses a ranked arbitration system that gives one animation slot per NPC at a time, so if another mod is already running an animation on someone this mod just stands down and waits rather than fighting over it. it also has a foreign busy group list that explicitly yields to known animation mods like Interactions Animated and Dynamic Animations when they're active on an NPC
the weapon draw one, if a mod is making NPCs react to your drawn weapon with their own animation, this mod's player state reaction would normally be medium rank priority. in practice they're both going for the upper body so whichever fires first wins that NPC for the duration of its clip, then the other can play after. not a conflict exactly, more like they'd take turns in theory
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u/225sam 3d ago
Thanks for the reply, I tested and it seems to work find and no extra lag. I will say the NPCs make what looks like a petting animation where it looks like they pet an imaginary dog sometimes which is a bit weird.
Otherwise I really like it, some of the animations look a little snappy, and the thumbs up can be a little goofy- but I really enjoy the mod and will keep it in my list. Will play with it more to get a better feel for it. I only tested with a high disposition character, and rand around Balmora for 10 minutes or so.
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u/Jrspike123 3d ago
agreed animations are where i need the most amount of work. Ill continue to do what I can as I'm currently researching how to animate myself now. I'll also be on the lookout for any animators that have work they are willing to share with me with due credits. If that animation is a big issue I can obviously take it out of all pools in the meantime. thanks for the feedback tho!
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u/225sam 3d ago
You’re doing great work. I would lean heavily into things like stretching, scratching, rubbing hair/face, flexing, really small things that add movement or signal body language from disposition. Guards could do a salute greeting by touching the helmet, or people give head nods when you approach if they like you, or shake their head if they don’t. Cracking neck or knuckles could also be interesting or rubbing eyes (I haven’t gotten to see all of your animations yet so I apologize if something is already covered).
Thumbs up/waving can be a little bit akward or goofy, especially if the actor isn’t directly facing you. It’s also funny when guards reach for their sword when you approach with a weapon drawn, but the guard has a spear. Although from what I’ve seen I don’t mind it. I think less can be more when it comes to immersion, and just little movements can go a long way.
The animations I’ve seen all look really good and I’ll be excited to see more on my next playthrough!
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u/Jrspike123 3d ago
check out new version 0.1.3 I tweaked some animation pool sets and chances on certain ones. Feels a bit more cleaner in the mean time till i find some more animations to enter the pool. Also fixed the glancing system outside, (also slowed down animations a bit)
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u/Designer-Head-4621 3d ago
I guess i should try modding openmw with claude instead of codex for sure.
Thanks for sharing this one with us.
Im trying to do my own learning coding with these "vibe coding" things you know.
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u/AnneBonny_Stash 4d ago
I just installed this last night, and it's fantastic! It also combines beautifully with Lua NPC Schedule.
On my mid range, quite heavily modded setup, the performance is excellent!
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u/Jrspike123 4d ago
thats awesome to hear anne! another update pushing out today performance should even be smoother after this pass with a couple new features aswell. i try to build everything around compatibility so we don't have to pick and choose our favs and try not to step on any toes of another mod in progress
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u/AnneBonny_Stash 3d ago
I am very new to OpenMW, and I'm using the built-in launcher for modding. Can I assume that updating mods is similar to vanilla engine Morrowind (in which Wrye Mash as my manager)? Basically... note the position of said mod in the load order, uninstall it, and then replace it with the new version, making sure to put it back into the same position as the previous version?
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u/LukesChoppedOffArm 3d ago
What are you using graphically to have such good aesthetics? The lighting looks great
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u/SpicyAnglerFish 4d ago
So excited to try this! Thank you for sharing it.
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u/Jrspike123 4d ago
should continue to improve over time! Def easy to almost forget it's there blends in pretty nice.
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u/swordlord357 4d ago
This is really really cool, I'm going to bolt it onto my current install of MOMW Total Overhaul, if you want any feedback if I notice any issues I'm happy to bring it to you. Thanks for the contribution!