The first person to ride a horse

Using dedicated hotkeys, you can ride your horse from a first-person perspective. No more forcing third parties! The design is lightweight, efficient and easy to use without compromising performance. SKSE is required.

One of the biggest annoyances for me in Skyrim is forcing a third person to ride a horse. I found it took me out of the moment and really discouraged me from using the horse.

This was addressed in Classic Skyrim, which had a fantastic enhanced camera mode - but for various reasons this hasn't been ported to Special Edition. I'm about to start a new game and I'm really not keen on the idea of ​​being forced into third person while riding. So I created this mod to solve this problem.

In short, this mod allows you to ride a horse like first person, using hotkeys to change from installed 3rd person view to installed 1st person view. It is designed to be lightweight, efficient and easy to use. I created it purely for my latest game, but I thought I'd share it because I know I'm not the only one who hates riding third person horses!

Here you can see a video of how it works and feels:

Note that this shows a very early beta build - so any debug information you see won't be shown in the release build.

SKSE required

Install

Install easily using the mod manager, or install files manually by copying them to the Data folder.

How to use

Ride your horse as usual. Once installed, press the installed camera hotkey (the default setting is "F", the same key you normally use to switch between third and first person).

This will put you into the first person mode you have installed. Your character will disappear, your camera will lock to first-person view, and you can now ride a horse in first-person. Pressing the hotkey again will change your view back to third person, and you'll automatically move your horse back to whatever view you were in before you rode it.

custom made

MCM

The mod comes with a simple MCM menu that lets you customize the hotkeys used to switch between third person and installed first person. Hotkeys only have effect while mounted, so you're free to use keys that would normally be mapped when you're not on horseback. MCM will issue a warning if a key is already mapped, but it will work fine as long as the key is not used when installing (e.g. changing FOV, calling, etc.).

If you're using a controller, the MCM menu also allows you to map hotkeys to gamepad buttons. As mentioned above, any buttons not used when installed (above and below the d-pad, left thumbstick, left and right bumpers, etc.) will work. If you are using a controller but still want to map hotkeys to keyboard buttons instead of controller buttons, you will need to disconnect the controller to be able to map the keys. However, the key is still available after enabling the controller.

No MCM

If you don't have SkyUI, you can customize the hotkeys for switching installed cameras using the following console command:

Set _SWG_FirstPersonHorseHotkeyValue to xx

Replace xx with the key code of the key you want to map it to. Then use the following command:

StopQuest _SWG_FirstPersonHorseQuest

StartQuest _SWG_FirstPersonHorseQuest

compatibility

The goal of making this mod is to make it as lightweight and compatible as possible. The script only runs on installation and is optimized for death. There is almost no performance impact and no save game bloat.

There is no direct editing of horses or vanilla scripts, so this mod is compatible with both immersive horses and convenience horses. Extra features in these mods, such as talk and harvest when installed, should work fine when in first person. However, if you find that things aren't working as expected, just use the hotkeys to switch back to third-person view when you need to perform these actions.

Mods that edit cameras may have some visual compatibility issues depending on how they do it - but it won't be anything game-breaking and may just involve some minor editing.

Known issues and quirks …