What is UNP and CBBE?

[MichaelTorr]

I'm having a hard time with mods, mostly because I don't understand something.

1. Body texture.

2. Skeleton.

3. UNP, CBBE, SeveNBase etc.

I know what a body texture is.

I had assumed that UNP and CBBE are wire frames, that which gives the body a shape, hip to waste ratio etc.

But then what is a skeleton?

Also, I installed CBBE and chose Skiny. But then recently I applied Mature Skin, a body texture pack. It asked what body type I was using. I said CBBE Skiny, but when I loaded up the game and looked at Lydia the texture didn't fit her, she had chunks of her hip missing. I tried telling the texture pack I was using CBBE, same problem. I then chose UNP, that seemed to fit.

Of course the Mature Skin said it over wrote portions (or all) of CBBE.

So I am seriously confused on what the differences are between Skeleton, CBBE, and Skin Texture.

And is it possible to have some actors built as CBBE, others as UNP, just the males as one and the females as the other, just certain races as one?

And what happens if I have one custom follower I downloaded, that uses a UNP, and then I download another follower that uses CBBE? Will the old follower now be CBBE, will the new follower be UNP? Can a UNP become a CBBE? If so, does all the armor have to change? Do all the skin texture packs have to be changed?

[Project579]

The skeleton is where everything is attached in the NPCs or Character mods like CBBE and UNP contain Textures and Body Meshes.

[Talyna23]

i will say it, as I understand, and it may not be absolutely correct...

 

1. Skeleton

A Skeleton is the base, where you "attach" animation on. It also is essential, how ragdolling (how the body reacts on e.g. impacts or how it falls).

2. Body Mods like CBBE and UNP

These Are Bodymodells, containing meshes and textures, building and moddeling frame and shape of the body of PC and NPCs.

3.Body textures

Ok, the name says all...it's the "skin" of characters.

 

But I think, your problem might be more simple but essential to solve...

 

Do you use Tes5edit?

If "no" you simply HAVE TO get used to it, if you want to mod decently.

 

In the meantime, try to reset the archive invalidiation with NMM ( the tool dropdownmenu) after installing your mods. Quite sure it exists also in MO. But since I don't use it...

 

Hope this helps.

(Sorry, if there's something not clear. English is not my native language)

[Jeir]

Texture = picture that goes on the mesh.

Mesh = 3D object.

Skeleton = invisible thing the mesh is stuck to. Is what is animated. Has some control over the shape of the mesh applied to it.

CBBE = female body mod. Replaces the mesh and textures for the body, feet and hands, and optionally the textures for the face. Does not contain a skeleton.

 

The reason you had issues with Mature Skin is because you didn't install the CBBE-compatible version of it. CBBE doesn't even have a 'Skinny' option; it has 'Slim'. UNP has the 'Skinny' option, though, which is why the skin retexture worked; you installed the UNP version of Mature Skin.

CBBE and UNP have different UV maps. A UV map is how the texture lines up on a mesh. If you put an UNP-compatible texture on a CBBE mesh, the texture wont line up - you'll get nipples and bellybuttons, all over the place and gaps at the hip, as you've already noticed.

 

You can have different NPCs using different body mods. It's not really ideal, though, but I have never used such mods so am not completely sure how/if they work. You can look up things like 'Custom races' if it's important to you. Better to just stick with one body mod, and, if you want different shapes, experiment with BodySlide and RaceMenu to get different shapes.

 

If a follower is standalone, then it will not affect anything but that follower; only that follower will use the body/face meshes/textures/etc. Thus, if you install two standalone follower mods, one using CBBE while another uses another body, they will use whatever body they were made for. The issue comes with giving them outfits, as an outfit will replace the body rather than go on top of it; if you put an UNP outfit on, say, a CBBE Curvy body, the shape will be UNP; bigger and gravity-defying breasts, wider shoulders, narrower waist, etc. The UV map will also be UNP's, so the textures wont line up on the visible parts of the body.