Why is FO3 such brahmin poo at rendering GECK CharGen NPCs?

[mindumindumindu]

Edit: I checked in my Data folder (in both meshes and textures) and I only see custom facial textures for females, not males. I only have body textures for males and the only thing custom my males are using for their faces are teeth and eyes. (My females use custom teeth, eyes, bodies and faces while my males only have custom teeth, eyes and bodies.)

 

 

 

I spent hours almost nodding off behind my computer fixing this guy's face to the chiseled goodness you see in the first two left faces (that's how he looked in the GECK CharGen modeler) only to get okay results as shown in the third face and then, just as the lighting gets super bright - he looks like he's been pigging out over three winters on Mrs.Palmer's sweetrolls! (Edit: I just found out that this was cause I turned off shadows. Turning on shadows got rid of the fat face in daylight, but it all goes to hell when he's in a shady dungeon, because then his whole face is covered in shadow.)

 

 

 

 

So I turned on shadows and lighting, restarted the game and this fixed it somewhat...except now he looks like an old man in badly-lit places and the fat face returns (although it is less severe than w/ no shadows on) in mostly-dark places. Going far away gives him a rectangle head as well.

 

 

 

The only (most accurate) result I seem to get is to turn on shadows/lighting, bathe him in bright daylight and stand in front of him with my Pip-Boy light on.

 

 

Any tips on getting FO3 to render in-game GECK CharGen-created NPCs as accurately as possible? I'm also wondering why NPC faces look so much fatter in the game as opposed to the GECK previews. (Well, except Ronald Laren, whose head actually looks skinnier than the ball-shaped preview in the GECK.)

Edited December 1, 2015 by mindumindumindu