Blackface bug on Aela, Farkas, and Vilkas (No Bijin Warmaidens)

[St0rmM00n]

What it says on the box-- flat brown, Redguard-but-ugly head+neck on JUST those three.

I'm (mostly, fairly) sure it has something to do with a load order conflict between the werewolf mods and the body texture mods, but Vortex doesn't know what the problem is, SSEEdit says everything's clean, and I'm using the load order LOOT spit out. Maybe I just goofed up and forgot a patch or grabbed incompatible mods somewhere (I am pretty new at this) but I can't for the life of me figure out where.

Most of the similar issues I've come across online (involving Aela, in particular) came down to a conflict with Bijin's Warmaidens, which I've never downloaded or used. I've also seen suggestions that "setnpcweight" can fix it, but all that did for me was replace their heads with random Nord presets, and that's fine I guess but not preferable. I will also of course be applying the old remove-and-check, but even with less than 100 mods, that's going to be a bit of a time-consuming pain... so I thought I'd check in with more experienced minds here in the meanwhile.

The load order, as ordained and recorded by LOOT:

 

0 0 Skyrim.esm
1 1 Update.esm
2 2 Dawnguard.esm
3 3 HearthFires.esm
4 4 Dragonborn.esm
5 5 RSkyrimChildren.esm
6 6 Lanterns Of Skyrim - All In One - Main.esm
7 7 Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.esp
8 8 BSAssets.esm
9 9 MajesticMountains_Landscape.esm
10 a BSHeartland.esm
11 b ApachiiHairFemales.esm
12 c ApachiiHair.esm
13 d ApachiiHairMales.esm
254 FE 0 Ecotone Dual Sheath.esl
14 e MajesticMountains_Moss.esp
254 FE 1 RealisticWaterTwo - Resources.esm
15 f BS_DLC_patch.esp
16 10 Campfire.esm
17 11 Schlongs of Skyrim - Core.esm
18 12 SkyUI_SE.esp
19 13 Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
20 14 Vivid WeathersSE.esp
21 15 Cutting Room Floor.esp
22 16 SMIM-SE-Merged-All.esp
23 17 RaceMenu.esp
24 18 FNIS.esp
25 19 SkyTEST-Settings.esp
26 1a AmazingFollowerTweaks.esp
27 1b WerewolfCompanions.esp
28 1c CBBE.esp
29 1d SOSRaceMenu.esp
30 1e Schlongs of Skyrim.esp
31 1f SOS - VectorPlexus Regular Addon.esp
32 20 SOS - VectorPlexus Muscular Addon.esp
33 21 SOS - Smurf Average Addon.esp
34 22 Atlas Compass Tweaks.esp
35 23 Slof's Fluffy Khajiit Tails.esp
36 24 SkyTEST-RealisticAnimals&Predators.esp
37 25 Hothtrooper44_ArmorCompilation.esp
38 26 Ars Metallica.esp
39 27 Point The Way.esp
40 28 Run For Your Lives.esp
41 29 Cloaks.esp
Lanterns of Skyrim - All In One - Main - Skyrim Bridges Patch.esp
42 2a aaalizsh07pumpkinestate.esp
43 2b Immersive Patrols II.esp
44 2c SinderionLabHome.esp
45 2d WaterView.esp
46 2e Frostfall.esp
47 2f WetandCold.esp
48 30 Vivid Weathers - Wet and Cold patch.esp
49 31 Skyrim Flora Overhaul.esp
50 32 Footprints.esp
51 33 Skysan_GlassAW.esp
52 34 IcePenguinWorldMap.esp
53 35 RSChildren.esp
54 36 Hothtrooper44_Armor_Ecksstra.esp
55 37 dD-No Spinning Death Animation.esp
56 38 KS Hairdo's.esp
57 39 BlendedRoads.esp
58 3a Improved Eyes Skyrim - Serana.esp
59 3b RaceMenuPlugin.esp
60 3c RaceMenuMorphsCBBE.esp
61 3d 360WalkandRunPlus-RunBackwardSpeedAdjust.esp
62 3e Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp
63 3f Dr_Bandolier.esp
64 40 Chesko_WearableLantern.esp
65 41 Ecotone Dual Sheath Patch.esp
66 42 12FemaleBrows.esp
67 43 Naruto-Hair-Pack.esp
254 FE 2 Delphine's Map Reveals Dragon Mounds.esp
patch_AtlasMM_DelphineMap.esp
254 FE 3 BlendedRoadsFixes.esp
68 44 ApachiiHelmetWigs.esp
69 45 HRElegantGown.esp
70 46 Improved Eyes Skyrim - Vamp.esp
71 47 Cloaks - USSEP Patch.esp
72 48 XPMSE.esp
73 49 Improved Eyes Skyrim.esp
74 4a BarenziahQuestMarkers.esp
75 4b Thief skills rebalance for Ordinator.esp
76 4c Perk Points at Skill Levels 50-75-100.esp
77 4d weaponizedjunk.esp
78 4e MajesticMountains.esp
254 FE 4 EquipableTailsSE.esp
254 FE 5 BA_BardSongs_Drums.esp
254 FE 6 Elder Souls - sweep attack standalone.esp
254 FE 7 PetTheDog.esp
254 FE 8 BA_BardSongs_Flute.esp
254 FE 9 BA_BardSongs_Lute.esp
79 4f mod_julihah_circus-of-mirth_clean.esp
80 50 zenabi's pet shop.esp
81 51 Moonlight Tales Special Edition.esp
82 52 Skytest Creature Extension.esp
254 FE a Less Confrontational Animals (For SkyTEST).esp
83 53 Vivid Weathers - Extended Rain.esp
84 54 Imperious - Races of Skyrim.esp
85 55 Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim.esp
86 56 Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim.esp
87 57 Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
88 58 Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul.esp
89 59 Relationship Dialogue Overhaul.esp
90 5a Convenient Horses.esp
254 FE b CH BRU.esp
91 5b AFT_NoFriendlySpellDamage.esp
92 5c RealisticWaterTwo.esp
93 5d CRF_RSChildrenPatch.esp
94 5e RSChildren Patch - BS Bruma.esp
95 5f Vivid Weathers SE - Bruma Patch.esp
96 60 CloakTails.esp
97 61 Apocalypse - Ordinator Compatibility Patch.esp
98 62 RDO - AFT v1.66 Patch.esp
254 FE c Ordinator - Beyond Skyrim Bruma Patch.esp
254 FE d Alternate Start - Bruma.esp
99 63 Atlas Legendary.esp

 

Many many thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to look this over, and even more to anyone with a suggestion! I've never had to post in the forums before--since this is such a knowledgeable and helpful community, this is the first time I couldn't find a solution already waiting here somewhere. At worst, I'll report back in a few days (time permitting) with the results of my manual investigation. :sweat:

[Helmsmasher]

And this happens on a fresh savegame as well? I don't see any mods in your list that should affect them visually.

[St0rmM00n]

Yes, it was happening on fresh save files as well. I still don't know exactly what was causing it; removing Werewolf Companions completely seems to have fixed it, even though there's no earthly reason it should have been causing the issue to begin with. The Werewolf Companions mod actually has a video on the description page entitled "fixing the black face bug" but the solution presented there wasn't even applicable--all the overlapping entries in SSEEdit were already aligned and not apparently in conflict in any way. :confused:

Oh well. Thanks anyway, friends!

[Helmsmasher]

You probably have a mod that alters the directory skyrim looks for the facegen of the companions. I don't see why you need the mod at all though, it seems like a very dirty way of handling werewolf transformations, better to use AFT for it. The fact that the mod author claims the mod is compatible with anything also worries me. Does not look like a mod I would use in my save game ever.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Helmsmasher

[Glanzer]

I've found the following xedit script to be VERY helpful in identifying dark face bugs in plugins. To use it, download the script into your \SSEEdit\Edit Scripts folder, then load all your active plugins when you start xedit. Then right-click a specific mod and Apply Script, choose the DarkFaceIssueReporter script and choose one of the 3 options.

 

Dark Face Issue Reporter

 

NOTE: This will not FIX any issue, but it will narrow down which NPC in which plugin has problems.