My followers skin is being put onto NPCs in game...

[MayhemMistress]

I made a custom skin, with tattoos baked on, for my follower. I have The Pure skin for the female skin in general which isnt supposed to have any tattoos baked into it and I even have The Pure after my follower in my load order but my follower's skin is still being put on NPCs in-game... I made sure that my follower's skin mesh is properly set up in nifscope with the textures only being directed to my follower's uniquely named files. How do I stop this from happening?

[scorrp10]

It works like this:

Pretty much all regular human NPCs get their skin from their race record, and that skin is 'SkinNaked' (0xD64). Specifically its ArmorAddon component called 'NakedTorso' (0xD67)

And if you look at that ArmorAddon record, you can see that its 'Skin Texture' field (for female) is populated with TextureSet 'SkinBodyFemale_1' (0x3EDE7)

And Normally, that texture set points to textures in textures\actors\character\female\femalebody*.dds

 

So, if your custom tattooed skin shows up on regular NPCs, you either:

Replaced the femalebody* textures in textures\actors\character\female\ with your own.

Changed SkinBodyFemale_1 to point at your tattooed textures.

Changed NakedTorso ArmorAddon to use a different skin texture set.

Changed SkinNaked to use different ArmorAddon.

Changed Race record (Nord?) to use different NakedSkin armor.

 

It does not matter which textures the actual body mesh specifies (in NifScope)

 

The proper way of putting a custom skin on a specific NPC: I will just give an example from a mod I am working on:

I put the custom skin textures under textures\actors\character\LilyFollower\Body.

I created a textureset form, Lily_SkinBodyTS, that points to those textures.

I created an ArmorAddon form Lily_TorsoAA (as well as feet/hands) that uses that texture set as skin texture.

Created Lily_SkinNaked Armor consisting of those ArmorAddons.

In Actor record of my NPC, Traits tab, I assigned her skin to be Lily_SkinNaked.

[MayhemMistress]

.

[MayhemMistress]

It works like this:

Pretty much all regular human NPCs get their skin from their race record, and that skin is 'SkinNaked' (0xD64). Specifically its ArmorAddon component called 'NakedTorso' (0xD67)

And if you look at that ArmorAddon record, you can see that its 'Skin Texture' field (for female) is populated with TextureSet 'SkinBodyFemale_1' (0x3EDE7)

And Normally, that texture set points to textures in textures\actors\character\female\femalebody*.dds

 

So, if your custom tattooed skin shows up on regular NPCs, you either:

Replaced the femalebody* textures in textures\actors\character\female\ with your own.

Changed SkinBodyFemale_1 to point at your tattooed textures.

Changed NakedTorso ArmorAddon to use a different skin texture set.

Changed SkinNaked to use different ArmorAddon.

Changed Race record (Nord?) to use different NakedSkin armor.

 

It does not matter which textures the actual body mesh specifies (in NifScope)

 

The proper way of putting a custom skin on a specific NPC: I will just give an example from a mod I am working on:

I put the custom skin textures under textures\actors\character\LilyFollower\Body.

I created a textureset form, Lily_SkinBodyTS, that points to those textures.

I created an ArmorAddon form Lily_TorsoAA (as well as feet/hands) that uses that texture set as skin texture.

Created Lily_SkinNaked Armor consisting of those ArmorAddons.

In Actor record of my NPC, Traits tab, I assigned her skin to be Lily_SkinNaked.

 

Ok so after reading your response, I went into xEdit to check the body parts between skyrim.esm and myfollowermod.esp to what is being overwritten. And youre right, under the skyrim.esm > Armor Addon > 0000D67 'NakedTroso > 'Female world model' is being overwritten with my mod's femalebody_1.nif even tho its in a totally different file path directory than skyrim's.

 

Also, I made sure to create my own "NakedTorso, NakedHands and NakedFeet" to put into my own unique ArmorAddon for the actor. So i'm not sure exactly how or where I made the mistake.

How can I fix this in CK?

[MayhemMistress]

After looking at in CK, I think what happened is that instead of creating a new form, I just edited the existing forms for the naked torso, hands and feet... Oh man. How do I fix this? Am I going to have to trash the whole thing and start from scratch because I havent the faintest clue how to restore the vanilla forms...

[MayhemMistress]

oh man... please tell me there is a way to restore the vanilla forms from skyrim.esm inside mymod.esp in the CK? Please?

[scorrp10]

In CK, get your esp loaded. In ArmorAddon section, find the NakedTorso/Feet/Hands you edited.

 

Open 'NakedTorso' (one you edited) change the ID, click OK, say yes to create new form. Same for Feet/Hands.

In the Armor section, locate the naked skin form you created for your follower. Make sure it is indeed a different form, that you did not just edit 'SkinNaked' itself. In the models section, delete everything, then add the new ArmorAddon forms you just made.

Save and exit.

 

In xEdit, locate entry for your plugin, expand its ArmorAddon section. It will likely have 6 items: 3 of them the new ones, overriding nothing, 3 of them overriding forms in Skyrim.esm. Just right-click the overriding ones and choose 'Remove'.

While there, click on the new ArmorAddons you made and check their properties. In the 'DNAM' section, they should have entries for 'Weight Slider - Male' and 'Weight Slider - Female'. Make sure 'Weight slider - Female' has 'Enabled' under it. CK seems to have an annoying habit of losing that flag when creating new ArmorAddon forms.

Just in case, expand ALL categories, make sure your mod is not overriding anything in Skyrim.esm - except for the Cell where you place your follower.

What you should have:

2 TextureSets for body and hands skin

3 ArmorAddons for torso/feet/hands (feet AA uses the body texture set)

1 Armor for the skin.

Save and Exit.

[MayhemMistress]

In CK, get your esp loaded. In ArmorAddon section, find the NakedTorso/Feet/Hands you edited.

 

Open 'NakedTorso' (one you edited) change the ID, click OK, say yes to create new form. Same for Feet/Hands.

In the Armor section, locate the naked skin form you created for your follower. Make sure it is indeed a different form, that you did not just edit 'SkinNaked' itself. In the models section, delete everything, then add the new ArmorAddon forms you just made.

Save and exit.

 

In xEdit, locate entry for your plugin, expand its ArmorAddon section. It will likely have 6 items: 3 of them the new ones, overriding nothing, 3 of them overriding forms in Skyrim.esm. Just right-click the overriding ones and choose 'Remove'.

While there, click on the new ArmorAddons you made and check their properties. In the 'DNAM' section, they should have entries for 'Weight Slider - Male' and 'Weight Slider - Female'. Make sure 'Weight slider - Female' has 'Enabled' under it. CK seems to have an annoying habit of losing that flag when creating new ArmorAddon forms.

Just in case, expand ALL categories, make sure your mod is not overriding anything in Skyrim.esm - except for the Cell where you place your follower.

What you should have:

2 TextureSets for body and hands skin

3 ArmorAddons for torso/feet/hands (feet AA uses the body texture set)

1 Armor for the skin.

Save and Exit.

 

Yes! omg thank you so much!! youre a literal life saver!!! I'm never making this mistake again lol thank you