Quick question about Racemorph & Chargen morph

[DrSeptimus]

 

I keep seeing different opinion regarding this part in CK. Some modder told me to leave it blank while other say to keep the racemorph and chargen there.

So what it does and should I keep it blank or should I have the morph remain?

[scorrp10]

There are two distinct use cases.    

A. The character design in RaceMenu.

First, a fully configured head part that is for loading into RaceMenu during character design.   It has a name, points to a mesh, a regular .tri, a race tri, a chargen .tri  and a texture set, and it is flagged 'Playable'.
The mesh pointed to should contain only a single BSDynamicTriShape

When you select a head part in RaceMenu via one of the selection sliders (Face Part; Brow Type; Eye Color; Scars; Hair; Facial Hair), its name and source plugin is displayed briefly, and:

• The mesh this head part points to is loaded into the edited head instead of the one it replaced.
• The textures specified in texture set are applied to that head part mesh.    If there is no texture set, it uses textures specified in the mesh itself.
• Mesh is deformed according to selected race, using the morphs specified in the races .tri.
• Mesh is deformed according to the values of chargen sliders (i.e. Brow depth, Nose Thickness), using morphs specified in the chargen .tri
• Mesh is deformed according to values of various expression and phoneme sliders, using morphs specified in the regular .tri

When you export a head, the composite head .nif file is created consisting of those deformed meshes with selected textures applied, and each BSDynamicTriShape is renamed to the EditorID of the head part that supplied it.

B. The in-game usage of head part by an actor.

The Actor record (Character Gen Parts tab in CK) lists all the head parts that this actor's head is comprised of.   Those CAN be the same exact full-featured head part forms as used during the design, but they don't have to be.   The only really important things about those are:

• They must have same EditorIDs as the BSDynamicTriShape name
• They need to provide the link to a .tri  file (regular one) to impart in-game facial movement.    There is no need to race or chargen .tris

 

[DrSeptimus]

1 hour ago, scorrp10 said:

There are two distinct use cases.    

A. The character design in RaceMenu.

First, a fully configured head part that is for loading into RaceMenu during character design.   It has a name, points to a mesh, a regular .tri, a race tri, a chargen .tri  and a texture set, and it is flagged 'Playable'.
The mesh pointed to should contain only a single BSDynamicTriShape

When you select a head part in RaceMenu via one of the selection sliders (Face Part; Brow Type; Eye Color; Scars; Hair; Facial Hair), its name and source plugin is displayed briefly, and:

• The mesh this head part points to is loaded into the edited head instead of the one it replaced.
• The textures specified in texture set are applied to that head part mesh.    If there is no texture set, it uses textures specified in the mesh itself.
• Mesh is deformed according to selected race, using the morphs specified in the races .tri.
• Mesh is deformed according to the values of chargen sliders (i.e. Brow depth, Nose Thickness), using morphs specified in the chargen .tri
• Mesh is deformed according to values of various expression and phoneme sliders, using morphs specified in the regular .tri

When you export a head, the composite head .nif file is created consisting of those deformed meshes with selected textures applied, and each BSDynamicTriShape is renamed to the EditorID of the head part that supplied it.

B. The in-game usage of head part by an actor.

The Actor record (Character Gen Parts tab in CK) lists all the head parts that this actor's head is comprised of.   Those CAN be the same exact full-featured head part forms as used during the design, but they don't have to be.   The only really important things about those are:

• They must have same EditorIDs as the BSDynamicTriShape name
• They need to provide the link to a .tri  file (regular one) to impart in-game facial movement.    There is no need to race or chargen .tris

 

 

Damn, this is a bit complicated for me to comprehend.

 

But based on the second distinct use cases the way you describe... Unless I am making a follower with custom race, I can leave the race morph and chargen morph at default. Am I right?

Sorry to ask about it, I gotten soo many different answer I just need an expert opinion about it.

[scorrp10]

If you are just creating an NPC, custom race or not, its head parts generally only need to point at the regular tri - and hair  parts usually don't need even that. 

In a nutshell, once you have designed a look in RaceMenu, take stock of the parts used (easiest to do by going to Presets tab and saving your work as a preset - it will list the head parts used and the plugins they are sourced from)

Any head part that is vanilla - i.e. FemaleHeadNord - you just have the NPC use that part, no need to copy it.

However, if you use a head part from a mod - i.e. Kalilies Brows - you will need to make a copy of that head part form within your mod, set the NPC record to use that form, AND rename the brows shape within the head .nif.

Now, if you open The Kalilies Brows mod, you will see that  head parts defined within it have all the .tri specified - regular, race and chargen.    This is because those are designed for loading into RaceMenu.    But when you are creating a copy for your NPC to use, all you need is the regular.tri.  (for in-game brow movement)  No need for race or chargen tris - the brow mesh within the head .nif is already shaped according to those.   No need for texture set - proper textures are already specified in the head .nif.   The head part does need to have something in its mesh field, but the mesh file it points to need not exist.     

I.e. original HeadPart form as defined in Kalilies Brows mod

 

 

I design an NPC in RaceMenu, and she uses this head part.   Here is the 'copy' I create inside my follower  mod:

Then, in the Actor record, I set her to use 0_Jenny_Brows as her brow part, and in the exported head mesh, I rename her brow shape from _KaliliesBrows08 to 0_Jenny_Brows.
Of particular note: I can see that this head part uses vanilla mesh and morph files.    If it were using custom files, I would need to include the custom .tri file within my mod, and point the head part to its location. 

[scorrp10]

One particular caveat:   Converting an NPC to a vampire.   I generally don't care for vampire stuff, so I rarely think about it, but if it is possible that an NPC might be turned into a vampire in the course of the game, one would need to make more complete copies of the head parts, including the race morphs.