DurictheBold

I have been using mods in Fallout 4 and Skyrim for over 20 years. I am recently revisiting Fallout 4 after 4 years so there is a lot I have forgotten about modding this game and there are hundreds of new mods. I am currently using Mod Organizer 2 but I have used every mod manager that has ever been created (NMM, Vortex, etc.) I usually run 300+ mods. It never fails but in both of these games I always run into the black face, dark face, rusty face or neck seem issues. I am a little OCD about this because it breaks immersion for me when someone is walking around looking like someone slapped their head onto their body with duct tape or like they put their head in a deep fryer. It probably does not help that I have an ultra high resolution monitor running display port and will support to 144 MHz so I notice things most people would miss. Moving on I am sure other people may know more about this subject than me or offer their own advise and I will not be offended. First the reason why the rusty face, dark face, black face occurs is there is either a texture mismatch, missing textures or a texture conflict.Bethesda's High Resolution Texture Pack will cause this bug as well. If this was a vanilla game this would never cause this issue but only when you start introducing new textures or overwriting textures is when it will cause a problem. (As a side note I did not even remember I had this installed when I was first trying to troubleshoot this issue because I first installed it 4 years ago and I was using NMM at the time.)I tried installing every patch including the High Res DLC Black Face Fix and it did not fix the issue for me. The only thing it fixed was the dark faces for Depravity Companions. Better Settlers still had dark faces.Here are some suggestions on how to fix this issue.The first suggestion is to use vanilla textures and you should never have this problem. (However, I cannot live with 2015 (1k) textures and even the High Resolution Texture Pack is not good enough for me. Additionally, any mods you install that creates new NPC's or modifies textures may cause the above issues. It is a rabbit hole Alice once you start modding.)Moving on the first thing you may want to change is the body and CBBE is the most common.You would think that you would not need to install anything else but you would be wrong. Any quest mod or texture pack can write their own textures that may not match the body or skin.The next thing you need to install is a texture mod (skin). The reason you need to do this is because it overwrites all the different skin textures so that they are the same. There are no conflicts, the head and body match and none of the above issues.Some suggestions on selecting a body texture mod is you want a mod that changes both the body and the head. If you just use a body replacer the head may not match and still look "jenky"You do not need a skin replacer that is over 2k. First I am not sure the game supports above 2k textures and if it did it could cause performance issues or even a slight delay would annoy me. Additionally, most people would not be able to identify the difference between 2k and a 4k texture.I am currently using Dream Skin which is one of he most popular. And here are the reasons why...It replaces both the head and the bodyIt is 2k. I do not need 8k skin textures and most do not replace the face. More importantly I want all my skin textures to be the same resolution.It looks really good.IMPORTANT - do not panic if after modifying your textures if some of your NPC who use previous Looks MenuPresets look like someone squished their faces or a Piccaso painting. Just reapply the Looks Menu preset and this should fix it. YOU SHOULD SAVE ANY CUSTOM PRESETS PRIOR TO MAKING CHANGES SO YOU CAN REAPPLY THEM LATER. THIS INCLUDES YOUR CHARACTER JUST IN CASE.How do I troubleshoot this issue??? It it still not fixed.You need to be careful of any mod that overwrites or tries to replace your textures. This can be any mod that replaces or adds new NPC's into the game.You need to make sure you overwrite all skin textures so that they are the same.You can try setting your .ini file to only use 2k textures. I suggest your custom.ini .The reason for this is sometimes the game will try to convert these textures back t0 1024 (1k).[CharGen]uTintWidth=2048uTintHeight=2048If you want to change the appearance of NPC's in the game I suggest you use Looks Menu Presets and learn how to go into the console and apply them. This will ensure you are not replacing any textures. You want to toggle off their AI so they do not walk away and you are unable to see the changes you have made.tai - toggle off aishowlooksmenu <npc id> 1You can try using "recycleactor" if the changes do not take affect immediately but this will also change the appearance of a settler or any NPC who is not unique.This may also cause the actor to become naked. (Their cloths are in their inventory but not equipped. You can equip their cloths when you trade with them but when using mods like Better Settlers you will need to use the console to trade with them. I do not know why but it takes a little while before they start talking to you again. Maybe you pissed them off. Use "openactorcontainer 1" after selecting the NPC to force a trade through the console. You then need to equip them.)Move your new skin texture to the bottom of your load order and make sure it overwrites all other skin textures (below all your quest mods or NPC replacers or anything else that may modify your textures.HELP now my AI doesn't work. Everyone is just standing around and not moving.I experienced this issue when I had multiple texture replaceers installed at once. I was confused that a texture replacer could break the AI but what I think was happening is that it was creating an unresolved conflict because both programs were trying to modify the same files. You just need to disable one of them. (i.e. High Res DLC fix and a skin mod)PRECAUTIONSAny time you make changes to the game you are taking a risk and Fallout 4 is very unforgiving when you make changes in the middle of the game and there is ALWAYS the risk it could break your play through or cause a CTD. It is suggested to experiment with mods with a new game or always be able to fall back to a previous save. Additionally, the only mod manager I currently use is Mod Organizer 2. There is a little bit of a learning curve but I have found it to be the best. The purpose of this information is to help other modders not to experience the same frustrations I have over the past few days. I know there is a lot of information this does not cover but hopefully this is of use to someone. Now go save the world (...or destroy it your choice)! ~Duri

It appears another mod may be overwriting CBBE. Try moving CBBE to the bottom of the load order by dragging it to the bottom. (You can lock it in place by right clicking if LOOT or another utility keeps moving it.) Another way to troubleshoot this is by disabling everything except CBBE and see if you have the same issue. Do you have the folllowing lines in your fallout4custom.ini file to enable loose files? In MO2 you need to make these changes inside MO2 using the "Explore Virtual Folders" C:\Users\<username>\Documents\My Games\Fallout4 for the changes to take affect. [Archive] bInvalidateOlderFiles=1sResourceDataDirsFinal= ~Duri

Update: Originally, I thought the settler data was corrupted or missing. I installed Better Settlers and thought this fixed the problem because I did not see it happen after a couple of days. However, the issue later started occurring again. I tried searching the Id's of the floating heads and traced it back to workshop framework. (I had tried to remove some of the NPC's it adds from leveled lists. Evidently, this caused issues.) The code is beyond me on some of the features of this program but it does weird things like change settlers to cockroaches. I reinstalled the program and it seems to have finally fixed the problem. ~Duri

You really need to checkout Mod Organizer 2. It is what all the cool kids are using. :cool: ~Duri

After about 4 years I decided to revisit the Wastelands to continue my rein of terror. :pirate: I am a long time "modder" over 20 years and I actively mod in both Skyrim and Fallout 4. Basically, I understand MO2, Loot, Load Order, etc. I also understand how to use the creation kit (FO4Edit). There is still a lot I don't know but I learn quickly. This is the first time I have asked for modding help in a forum but I am sure someone may be able to offer a solution I hadn't yet considered. Even better, someone may have experienced this before and knows a solution Here is the issue. All my synth settlers are now all floating synth heads with just hands. They have no skin or no bodies. Background: This occurred after trying to fix the rusty face bug a little different from the black face bug. The skin meshes did not match the bodies and I was seeing a neck seem. I eventually figured out I needed the HD graphics patch for the DLC Plugin which solved this issue. Now all my human settlers look great by now my "hidden" synth settlers have no skin or bodies. I tried reversing the process but nothing brings back their bodies. My game is heavily modded. I can sometimes average over 300+ mods. Currently, I have only +156 but I am trying for only the essential mods. This is already my second play through in the last 6 months but I have 1674 hours logged into this game. I can list all my current mods if someone requests it but I would rather someone tell me what mod they think is causing this bug. I already tried the obvious solutions: The first thing I did was try to recycle the actor by typing in "recycleactor". It recycles but they still have no bodies or skin. I looked at the creation kit and I can find any mods that are modifying the synths settlers. I tried disabling all my body and texture mods and I cannot yet track down which mod is causing it. There are some mods I can't disable or my save crashes. I know this is mod related because when I disable all mods the issue goes away. The problem is that I do not want to start a new play through. Everything else is working perfectly and looks amazing. I already tried installing a skin texture pack but then my settlers faces look messed up again. If I had to chose between killing all the synth settlers or having to stare at a rusty face then it does not look good for the synths. :dry: Ideally, I just want someone to tell me they have seen this before and know what is causing it and how to fix it. :cool:I am also open to new ideas or suggestions. Please do not tell me it's my load order unless you know of a specific mod that may cause this bug. Thank you and I appreciate the help! (I am hoping I don't seem like a pompous, "kwow-it-all ass" :laugh: ). Additionally, I am feeling a little guilty for not spending more any time in these forums helping others solve their issues. Maybe I will try to answer a few questions as well. ~Duri