Help! Mismatched custom Follower head and body skin colors

[RoninWoof]

I am VERY new to Skyrim mods, but I have been carefully reading mods and compatibility, load order and such before I download anything. I felt I had been doing a good job at it so far as I have a ton of mods and no issues had popped up. But I noticed on custom follower mods The skin color of the heads are discolored and different from the body. I have tried several follower mods and they are all the same.

 

"Skyrim Mercenaries" mods are unaffected.

The "Sofia fully voiced mod" is unaffected.

All "Simple Followers" (ie: Tryggr, Blanka) are affected

All Followers from the mod "Skyrim Followers PC" are affected

 

I spent a long time on google trying to find to solution to the problem as I didn't want to clutter up forums with things I can solve on my own. But so far I can't find a fix. All the fixes I am able to find apparently involve programs I know nothing about, or acronyms and terms I do not understand. As I said I am very new to mods. And when I see things like "open in CK" and other things I do not understand yet. I also notice these are all old posts, and for the original Skyrim. And as I found out in trying to download a Skyrim UI overhaul program some old programs do not work with Special editions or have not been converted over (like I think something called NMM? or was it something called SKSE). So the programs mentioned I'm not even sure work with SE.

I tried to disable mods one at a time to find the one making any issues. Nothing worked. I even disabled ALL mods to see if that was even the issue. And even with every mod turned off except the follower mods, the problem was still there.

Anyone here able to help out a new modder with this issue?

 

Like what programs that work with Special Edition do I need?
What exact steps do I need to take?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RoninWoof]

Anyone have any ideas or encountered this? :sad: All the solutions I find are for vanilla Skyrim :sad:

[NeverwinterPinata]

I'm afraid I can't give you a definitive answer, but I have a method you can try.

 

First, download the latest version of Nifskope and install it to an easily accessible location (in case it does not let you create a desktop shortcut, for whatever reason). And then go to the FaceGeom .nif files of your followers. (Usually at [skyrim Special Edition Location]/Data/Meshes/Textures/Actors/Character/FaceGenData/FaceGeom/[Mod .esp Name]. There you should see at least one .nif file with a seemingly nonsensical arrangement of numbers. Open it or one of them using Nifskope.

 

From there, you should see two lists at the left. Don't worry about the bottom one for now. First click on the arrow (>) next to 0 BSFadeNode and then the arrow next to 3 NiNode. There you should see a list of NiTriShape's. First and foremost, click on the arrow next to the NiTriShape that says something like "head" or "face" under the Value header at the top, and then click on the arrow next to BSLightingShaderProperty. There you should see "BSShaderTextureSet". Click on it.

 

From this point, you should see a list of purple flowers at the bottom. These flowers indicate texture paths that the head reads for textures. Assuming your followers have their own personal texture folders, make sure each of these flowers points to that specific folder. If not, double-click on the file path next to a flower. Doing this will allow you to edit the location. Don't worry about changing the file name at the very end of the path, just make sure everything else is correct (unless you're absolutely sure the file path is pointing to an incorrect texture name). Do this for every single flower on the list where appropriate with the exception of ones that are already blank, one that points to "BlankDetailMap.dds.", and one that points to a .dds file with the same name as the .nif file you're editing.

 

Once you are finished, save the .nif file, and then repeat the process for the other NiTriShapes where appropriate. Save everytime you are done changing the texture paths of a NiTriShape. Before you continue editing the FaceGeom .nif file of the other followers, test to see if this method worked in-game.

[RoninWoof]

Thank you for replying, and for any future help.

I downloaded the program you said. Though I don't seem to have the file path you laid out here.

 

This is what my Skyrim SE folder looks like.

 

 

When I click on the Data File I see this:

 

I didn't see the files you mentioned in any section. I tried opening the .esp file that is named after the mod I use in the program I downloaded, but the program doesn't open.

[NeverwinterPinata]

Your Data folder is quite unusual, I must say. Do you pack mod files (meshes, textures, scripts, etc folders) in .bsa's yourself?

 

Anyway, if a meshes folder is not present, that means the files you need access to are within your follower mods' .bsa files. Use the Bethesda Archive Extractor to extract the .bsa's contents into the data folder. (The extractor is pretty self-explanatory, so don't get discouraged.) Once the meshes and textures folders are in the Data folder, go ahead and test your follower(s) to see if that alone did anything to help.

[RoninWoof]

I'm new to mods. So the only mods I have added to this game are the ones you find directly in the in-game mod market place by selecting mods on the main menu

 

 

So I notice something about the follower mods I'm using. The 3 Follower mods I displayed in the OP do not have .bsa files.

blankafrostfruitinn
Skyrimfollowers

Tryggr (pictured below)

 

 

The other NPC and Follower mods that I have:

 

Sofia
Immersive Wenches
Merchants in Inns
Friends in Skyrim

DO have .bsa files. In fact they have 2 .bsa files. 1 even labeled textures.

Edited November 15, 2016 by RoninWoof

[NeverwinterPinata]

Then there lies your problem. If your follower mods do not have a .bsa file nor a meshes folder and textures folder, the mod has no files to read and, therefor, uses only what is provided by Skyrim itself. NPC's (non-player characters) rely on a personal FaceGeom .nif and a FaceTint .dds file to have their unique faces. Since your follower mods have neither of those, they use generic faces and have skin tones mismatched between the head and body. Try uninstalling the faulty follower mods, and then download them again. If that doesn't work, then the creator of the followers needs to correct the missing files in his mod(s).

[RoninWoof]

Thank you a lot for your help.

Damn! Yea I tried deleting them and installing again. Does not fix it. I've tried to google the mods, but nothing come up.

So can't reach out to modder. And have no idea on where to look for them. (Srenae615 the "Simple followers" uploader, and AdenInferno the "Skyrim Followers" uploader) I really wish the ingame menu allowed you to contact the uploader.

 

 

I ended up marrying my character to one of the custom followers, I suppose if I divorce them deleting that custom follower won't be too much of an issue? Which is such a shame, because this custom follower was probably one of the more fantastic looking male Nords that I have come across. Very viking looking, 2hander , 1hander skill. without being all overly dramatic like a lot of custom male mods. I haven't been able to find a male nord mod that looks cooler so far.

 

[NeverwinterPinata]

You're very welcome! Unfortunately, it is NOT safe to remove a mod from an existing save. Doing so dirties the save, increasing likelihood of crashing and possibly save corruption. If you must uninstall a mod, it's best to start a new game. If you must continue on your existing save, then it is best to simply ignore the content of the faulty mods, at least until they get updated. Is there a way for you to leave a comment or a review stating your issue on the mod? I don't use Bethesda.net, so I wouldn't know.

[RoninWoof]

No, there's no option to leave comments or contact modder. Though many of the mods say there is no scripting so safe to uninstall. Is it still not safe as they imply?