How to make Armour mods without bodies

[SoujiMonaru]

Hello.

 

I've been working on some modifications to armours in the game, but every time I add them back into the game the texture of the character is darker on the body. Now, I have

done all of the usual things like allowing the facegen=1 thing, archiveinvalidation and making the mod an esm, but the problem still persists. I added the body to the piece of

armour in Nifskope as without it I get an invisible body on my character, which is why I would like to know how I can make the armour not need the body in the game.

 

I have seen a few modders with armours that have no bodies present in Niskope when I look at them, so I was wondering how they make it work? Must these items be seen as

addons only in the Geck? But how do they add torso pieces without the body also? A prime example of what I am talking about is the AEVegas mod by eomanv in the 101Items

add-on, where most of the armour is on its own without the body. Could it also be something in Blender when the originals were exported to nif?

[devinpatterson]

I've been working on some modifications to armours in the game, but every time I add them back into the game the texture of the character is darker on the body. Now, I have

done all of the usual things like allowing the facegen=1 thing, archiveinvalidation and making the mod an esm, but the problem still persists.

If you don't select skin shader (in the body partitions of the armor) the body color will be off (can be lighter or darker etc).

 

I added the body to the piece of

armour in Nifskope as without it I get an invisible body on my character, which is why I would like to know how I can make the armour not need the body in the game.

You could do it, but it would be the wrong way to go about it (clipping, drawing more poly's & textures that arn't even visible, etc).

 

I have seen a few modders with armours that have no bodies present in Niskope when I look at them, so I was wondering how they make it work?

Yeah, it's pretty easy, just parented to teh skeleton. It can be as small as a knife. I do it sometimes to add a piece of armor or a piece of equipment that I want to show up for special purposes.

 

Must these items be seen as addons only in the Geck?

No, they don't have to be. In fact if you make them as armor addons using body slots they will bump each other out of their respective slots, which can be useful if you have multiple items and you don't want them occupying the same space. But you can just as easily make them without any body slots....works fine.

 

But how do they add torso pieces without the body also? A prime example of what I am talking about is the AEVegas mod by eomanv in the 101Items

add-on, where most of the armour is on its own without the body.

I'm not familiar with AEVegas, but it's no different for a torso piece, a satchel, a boot etc. All done the same way. But essentially your going down the wrong turn. Look at the flesh on most armor/clothes nifs and you'll see the shaders you need. Make sure you have them all (especially the skin shader) and you'll find your skin tones with match. Don't worry about pieces of armor except as special applications.

 

Could it also be something in Blender when the originals were exported to nif?

Not sure what you mean. They are weighted & rigged in blender and that's where I do all my work (well 90% of it, some items have to use nifskope for copying/transferring blocks, but that's not really relevant to what your trying to do).