Changing bodies from UNP to CBBE and back again.

[Nintii]

Updated today to make it more understandable. 26-07-2012

 

The Problem ....

 

They say that change is like a holiday ... so i decided to change from my All time favorite body modder Dimon99 and his UNP body mod to another one the CBBE.

Each one of these bodies is excellent and have their own special and unique attributes and so whatever floats your boat, go for it.

 

Anyhow, I decided to go back to my original UNP body - because of armours etc - and did the following ...

 

Solving the Problem ... Part 1 ....

 

1) I deactivated CBBE in the NMM and deleted the file you have to create in your Steam Skyrim folder (find the full path further down), for the slider function.

2) I then did a Manual reinstallation of UNP, just in case some files had been over written by CBBE (just to be safe).

 

But then on returning to my game I discovered that my character did not even look like the original UNP body anymore ... This is or might perhaps be where you could find yourself oneday if you have changed between these two bodies and then back again.

 

I was miffed, what the heck was going on ... I went back to my Skyrim Data folder and manually reinstalled the UNP meshes in the Mesh folder and did the same thing in the Texture folder for like the 4th time.

Started the game once again but still nothing had changed.

 

So after a bit of thought I came to the conclusion that the "slider" feature in CBBE might be where the problem lay, because this was where I had created my custom character body.

 

The Slider in CBBE ....

 

Now if you're unfamiliar with the "slider" feature (excellent) in CBBE then let me explain ... it's a seperate file you download and then unpack in a new folder you have to create in Steam\SteamApps\common\skyrim called Caliente's Tools (or something like that) ... you then open the little program contained amongst those files and create your own custom body there.

 

It will give you two (2) main body options to work on ... the one on the left will be "light" body and the one on the right will be the "heavy" body.

Please note there are a number of different types of bodies and each one of these bodies has the light or heavy body option.

 

If you choose the "light" body option here - like I did - and custom create your character, then when you start the game and create your chaaracter there, it will

have the "light" or "heavy" base body you chose with the Calientes body slider ... makes sense ? ... great.

That's how the "slider" program works ... yup, it's that simple.

 

Back to the problem ...

 

And so even though I had deactivated CBBE and installed UNP, my "base" body "was still" based on the CBBE "slider" creation.

And because of this the UNP body shape was now distorted.

 

Solving the Problem ... Part 2 ....

 

So this is what I did to make it work properly again.

 

Follow the steps above (1 and 2) but here comes the catch ... unfortunately you will have to start a brand new game and create a new character for UNP to work properly again.

 

You see, these steps will just eliminate the CBBE body type that might well prevail even if you started a new game.

So this is only to remove that preset that might continue.

 

The option that you could try to continue with the same game - which I only thought of afterwards - would be to follow the two (2) steps above and then open the console ... you know the ~ button and do a ... showracemenu ... change and then recreate your character again current game.

That could very work.

 

Anyhow, I also deleted the slider folder that I created in Skyrim just in case it would interfere.

Then I created a new character in a new game and everything worked just fine, UNP was up and running just the way it was intended to.

 

Perhaps there is an easier way ... you might want to follow the "Uninstallation" process in each of the mods ... that's your choice.

Or maybe the "showracemenu" option.

 

But this was the way it worked for me ... so I thought I might share it, hope it helps you too.

Edited July 26, 2012 by Nintii

[Nintii]

I have seen a increase in number of discussions on the CBBE and UNP body mods and so I polished up this post and made it a bit clearer ... just in case it would be of help.

To the Moderators my sincerest apologies for "bumping" this topic but I felt pretty certain that it was was going to be a help ...

[ginnyfizz]

I would say, people should please try and install body mods manually. I do and I have had no problem. Skyrim should be easier because there does not appear to be the issue with archive invalidation that is causing some of us to pull our hair out even now with FONV... I have never had any probs with getting Type 3 to work, but others clearly do (invariably because they have not read the instructions...)

 

I have changed between e55 (my all time favourite and my default female body) and UNP several times with no issue, and I have also popped in CBBE at times when I was beta testing the e55, in order to compare performance. Because I wanted my cake and eat it, in other words wanted both e55 and UNP in my game ( as well as another WIP body that I have been testing), I made myself learn how to mod in a custom race.

 

I install body mods manually because I like to see exactly what files I am overwriting/replacing, and see if it worked. The experience you described in regards the Body Slider mod is a perfect example of why - sometimes programmes like that, though excellent and innovative, write stuff in that is not so easy to get rid of.

[qazxcer1776]

Ok...I'm just trying to find the files to change off of UNP to CBBE...I'm a noob at this...sorry.