Does the "copy" "paste" function work in CS at all?

[Heartcloud]

I'm trying to copy the face data from one CM companion mod to another, in this case transferring the face of a Diablo Elf Vilja (one that's based on my player character) to another Diablo Elf Vilja (vanilla Diablo Elf).

So I open up one CM companion mod in CS, double click on the NPC Vilja in NPC tab, click "preview: head" so it doesn't crash in Windows 7, then go to the "face advanced" tab, select all 30-or-so values and hit "copy". Then I open up another instance of CS, select and activate the vanilla Diablo Elf, open NPC window, click "preview: head", go to "face advanced", select everything then hit "paste".

Now if I'm lucky enough that CS doesn't crash (since it usually does at least 80% of the time for everyone using Windows 7), none of the values are pasted, wtf? The only thing that does change is the preview picture, which now displays an identical head to the one I'm copying from, which is what I want. So then I assumed it's something messed up with the values not displaying correctly, so I save the .esp, close CS, then launch Oblivion. I would expect my companion to now have the same face as that Vilja mod, or worst case scenario no changes were made, but when I saw her she somehow turned into the vanilla Nord Vilja... even the Diablo Elf race was lost? Yes the diablo elf esp is activated and in the correct load order. It's a good thing I made a backup of that .esp.... sometimes CS is just so... stupid.

So does anyone know how to copy face data in CS? I mean there's a "copy" and "paste" button in the face data window for a reason right? Wrye Bash doesn't work on my computer, so please don't suggest that. TES4Edit does not work either, I've tried for hours already and if I have to get near that program again I'm gonna throw something.

Edited September 25, 2011 by Heartcloud

[jamochawoke]

The CS comes with a copy/paste for face values command built in. You don't have to select anything.

 

Just load up both .ESPs and then copy the one's face you want by going to Face Advanced tab in the NPC box and clicking the Copy button. Then open up the NPC box you want to copy it to and hit the Paste button.

 

You'll have different results for different races as they use different head meshes (the Imperial is the closest to a normal human head) but you should be able to get a pretty good likeness. Then you can adjust the sliders a bit.

 

 

EDIT::

 

Forgot to add that it only copies the face mesh distortion values. It does not copy things like age/hair/eyes/complexion/et cetera.

Edited September 25, 2011 by jamochawoke

[Heartcloud]

Yes that's pretty much what I did. The two races are absolutely identical (diablo elf), the only thing I'm copying over is the face shape. In fact the only reason I'm copying over values is because the better looking version lacks animations and uses vanilla poses, while the worse looking one has all the animations. I clicked "copy", then "paste" in the other esp, then only the preview picture changes, none of the numbers change. When I load it up in-game, Vilja reverts back to vanilla Nord form...

[Harvald]

Hello friend,

 

the problem is that the esp-files from diabolo elf and cm vilja work isolatet. If you do a dependency between diabolo elf and vilja OCS it would not be saved by OCS. Therefor one way is to make your own custom race by loading Vilja as an active file and diabolo elf. Then make a copy of diabolo elf under races, make a copy of the required hairstyle and eyes and save the new vilja.esp. Quit OCS and restart. Now load Vilja esp as akive file, look for diabolo elf copy and ad the hairstyles and eyes to the race by drag and drop. Set Viljas race to Diabolo Elf copy. Now the race shold work on Vilja.

 

Another way is mastering the esp file, as Drake the Dragon says. You can do it with Wrye Bash by right-clicking on the ESP you want as a master and selecting "ESM-ify", which will switch an internal flag in the file from ESP to ESM and the CS will accept it as a masterfile and keep dependencies intact on save. Later switch it back via "ESP-ify" and it's ready to use again. Just remember to do the switch every time prior to loading your plugin into the CS or the dependency will again get lost.

 

Or simply use the CS-Extender (CSE), as it extends the CS to support ESP mastering already right away.

 

Now you can go on in the way you have done before.

 

Don't forget

have fun

 

Harvald

[Heartcloud]

Thanks Harvald, yes it turned out I forgot to re-link it to the master file, 1em_Vilja.esp, after editing. I simply did this with TES4Edit and now it works!