Help with NifSkope Physics

[Jericho]

As far as I can tell, messing with Skyrim's physics features in NifSkope is poorly documented at best. I found a guide for Oblivion which is essentially 90% like Skyrim with respect to ragdoll skeletons.

I'm having a very specific problem and was hoping some wizard out there could explain this to me.

I've been editing all sorts of data for Skyrim's humanoid races' ragdolls - mass, friction, constraints. This isn't like that "Realistic Ragdolls" mod that just makes everything heavier; I'm carefully redistributing weight among the limbs and trying to create a truly more realistic experience.

Here's my trouble: modifying the Min Plane Angle and Max Plane Angle for the constraints between COM and the various Spine segments seems to behave incorrectly. I want to limit ragdolls from bending back too far and enable them to bend forward considerably more, but for some reason Max Plane Angle appears in NifSkope to act similarly to the Cone Angle. Furthermore, changing these values appears totally ineffective in-game.

I would also love to be able to rotate the thigh joints up and forward, enabling greater movement forward and less movement back. I've currently got bodies doing unrealistic splits in order to accomodate a good 90 degree swing forward, but ideally I'd limit the hip joint so that the legs can only move so far forward, not backward.

Ultimately, I'm trying to un-trash Skyrim's ragdolls and Bethesda seems to have guarded against that as best as they can. I tried modifying some Planes and Twist axes and may go back to that, but I could definitely use some expert input if anyone knows something about this. Thanks!

[Jericho]

Actually, I'm having tremendous success adjusting the Twist Axis of either thigh and the spine joints. This is looking nice! :D