SSE New way of handling facegen data for NPCs in SSE - incompatibility for mods modifying vanilla NPCs

[thumbincubation]

I'm confused by this whole thing. I made a small mod with just a few NPCs and it did auto-create facegen folders. (I did not hit ctrl + f4, did it on its own.) They are in the meshes and textures folders, like

 

meshes > actors > characters > facegendata > facegeom > (mod name), but they are empty. I don't understand if I did something wrong, or if the ck just decided I didn't need actual meshes and textures? The

NPCs are all guards, with full helm, if that could be a reason.

 

Are there any mods with NPCs that aren't going to need a separate .bsa now?

[SydneyB]

Good to know, Idiotic :)

[Ordellus]

Fixed! You only need to pack the facegen data files under the Skyrim.esm folder and it works fine! Forget about the ones under the Mod.esp folder!

 

Now, all modders releasing mods modifying vanilla NPCs need to follow this to avoid problems :smile:

 

 

There is no "meshes>actors>characters>facegendata>facegeom>skyrim.esm" folder?

 

When my mod was saved and facegen was created it was ONLY "facegeom>modname.esp"

 

Am I just blind?

 

Edit: Was this issue fixed? If so, does that mean I need to re-port my old mods using the creation kit again so that it's done correctly? Do I need to include "facegeom>modname.esp" files?

Edited November 7, 2016 by Ordellus

[idioticidiot]

If you are modding vanilla NPCs you are safe to include the facegen files in Skyrim.esm. Say If I'm modding Babette, it will export two files with the same name "00014db7.nif" at two locations: Skyrim.esm and Cute Babette.esp. You need the former.

 

P.S. same thing happens to Serana, as far as I can tell.

[LazyAltmer]

 

There is no "meshes>actors>characters>facegendata>facegeom>skyrim.esm" folder?

 

When my mod was saved and facegen was created it was ONLY "facegeom>modname.esp"

 

Am I just blind?

 

Edit: Was this issue fixed? If so, does that mean I need to re-port my old mods using the creation kit again so that it's done correctly? Do I need to include "facegeom>modname.esp" files?

 

You are right, the skyrim.esm folder is not there by default. So, when packaging up mods that affect an existing NPC in Skyrim, just manually create the skyrim.esm folders for meshes and textures and move the NPC files created by the CK (except any TGA files, of course) from modname.esp folder to skyrim.esm folder. If all your mod does is modify an existing NPC, there is no need to include the modname.esp folders in the packaged mod.

[migal130]

 

You are right, the skyrim.esm folder is not there by default. So, when packaging up mods that affect an existing NPC in Skyrim, just manually create the skyrim.esm folders for meshes and textures and move the NPC files created by the CK (except any TGA files, of course) from modname.esp folder to skyrim.esm folder. If all your mod does is modify an existing NPC, there is no need to include the modname.esp folders in the packaged mod.

 

 

Alternatively, you can just press <ctrl-F4> and it will put the files in their proper folders. However, something is different between that method and the automatic method and I'm not yet sure what it is.

 

When you force a facegen export by pressing <ctrl-F4>, the resulting files will be a significantly different size than if the same files were created just by saving the plugin.

[Taserbation]

Alright, I've been trying to read this and I need someone to explain it to me like I'm three. I'm new to the CK and tried editing a vanilla NPC's hair with KS hairdo's lite and it turned their face black. I don't really understand what you mean by unpack the mod to skyrim.esm, considering I can't even find the folder of skyrim.esm and given I don't know what it means to unpack a mod. Any help would be awesome!

[Arkadaemus]

EDIT: I fixed this after perusing the nif/dds files and finding that the one npc I had been testing in game was the only one missing the required files in the Hearthfires.esm folder. Somehow I missed those two files when I copied. *gratuitous facepalm*

 

The above fix with copying the facegen data nif/dds files to the appropriate .esm folder does indeed get rid of black face on vanilla npc face edits. Confirmed.

 

 

Previous issue:

I've recently converted all my old Skyrim mods to SE. No issues with any except for modified faces to vanilla npcs: black face.

 

1- Deleted the old face gen data, used CK and saved the file (new facegen data created automatically), no change.

 

2- Hit Ctrl+F4 to export data, saved, no change.

 

3- The folder Hearthfires.esm is in meshes and textures, with the appropriate nif and dds files.

 

I have no other mods that modify npc appearance. Tried a new game, running only Skyrim SE and this mod, and same issue.

 

Am I missing something from the above instructions? Should I reinstall CK? At a dead end at this point.

Edited January 9, 2017 by MarkyKiller

[JRICH604]

Ok, so I have been trying my best to follow this and I am currently changing a busload of NPC's so I did notice that what migal130 said is correct in that when I export I get nifs/textures in both vanilla esm and mymod folder. Thing is there is a noticeable difference in size between the 2. I would just pack them both but now that I know there is potential problems courtesy of SydneyB it seems that the correct way is to only pack using the original vanilla path. So when I do this is what is already there from export safe to use or do I need to manually copy over from the mymod folder into the base folders? Im still confused?