Adventures across the 3rd dimension

I've been watching some Blender videos about.... Geometry Nodes!

Like minerals and diamonds and stuff?

Or is that deevonds?

 

Did you create that just for Val?

Yeah, that's the setup to make a default cube, really simple and only takes a few weeks to put together.

(No, it's just a picture I found online)

I'm getting tired of trying to figure this one out and my snot filled brain is tired of thinking all together. So maybe one of you can see what the heck I am missing here...
Here's a super fancy illustration:
 

So, I first build the chest in Blender, all pieces in the proper place and then all translations applied (so everything shares the same origin, corresponding to 0,0,0 in picture) before exporting it as a nif file.

When I set it up to be an animated chest, I basically just replace the parts of the original chest and keep the animation and the "animated nodes" (the other two pink dots in the picture). So the base of the chest is replaced with the base of my chest and any extra pieces like handles - they all end up in the right place because they end up relative to the main ninode (a nif node thing) at 0,0,0.
The lid pieces are then placed inside the ninode for the hinges at the back, and since they are connected to an existing node they end up flying high above the chest and they need to be translated back in place. So if the hinges are at -25 y and + 35 z, the lid pieces need to be moved + 25 y and -35 z so end up in the correct spot. Once the animation runs, they move around the purple spot (the x axis through that spot), no trouble.

And then we get to the latch. Following the logic of above, since the latch is a ninode connected to the lid, the latch piece is once again moved out of place and needs to be translated back into place. It should then rotate around the axis that runs through that spot. Right? But it doesn't.
1) It ends up in the right place in Nifskope but too far back in Creation Kit (and game)
2) If I move it at all, it will rotate around the hinge spot at a bit of a difference, if you get my meaning, so it doesn't rotate in place but moves away from it's position.

I think, if I move it to exactly where the purple spot is in nifskope it does rotate around the right spot (hard to tell as it ends up inside the lid in the CK) and also if I move them so the "hinge" of the latch is at 0,0,0 in blender when exported - this will make it end up at the ninodes location without any translations in nifskope. Both these approaches result in the latch being too far back into the chest (and I have no idea why it would end up inside the chest instead of the correct spot - also it IS in the right spot in Nifskope just not in game/CK...). Any attempt to adjust the location of the latch/hinge in Blender or Nifskope results in it moving from it's place. Basically, when the lid opens the hinge detaches from the lid and floats in the air.

I have NO IDEA why this isn't working. I was thinking it worked in my two first chests but I've rechecked and the only one that looks OK is the first one. Possibly because it's a larger latch where the exact placement/movement doesn't matter as much. I've looked inside the animation keys as well, but there's no translations that could explain why things end up in the wrong spot, only rotations.

I've tried moving the ninode/hinge location further forward but it wouldn't budge (which is odd since I CAN move it. Possibly I have to restart CK between every test of such changes, but I don't if I move the latch only so I don't get why...)


 

I tried moving the latch hinge node further forward, closing CK and restarting it and it's still in the same place. So.... I guess I'm just moving it in nifskope but not really?

I wonder how to really really move it?

Edit: And how did I manage to make the back hinges align perfectly if nothing I do matters?

I am not that familiar with how Blender does things, but I do recall something about it requiring object transforms needing to be reset, so is your lid completely zeroed out? If not, I suspect it is throwing your rig out of whack when it is animated as it's initial position is not where you might think it is. It's difficult for me to offer much advice as I don't know how the stuff is meant to be set up in the first place when moving it to the game 

EDIT - I might also be thinking of the "Set scale to 1" thing that screws people over.