Need help understanding how to properly replace armor and clothing

[vwmc]

Hi, I'm new to modding so I'm having a hard time to put the right pieces together to properly replace armor and clothing from different mods.

 

My goal is to have Immersive Armors for males and UNP Armor Replacer Package for females--which body is UNPB with Naturalistic HDT. Animations are working fine with XPMS Extended, FNIS etc.

 

Once I install one of these armor replacers, I'll start observing 3 problems:

1. Some armor pieces will start rendering in either a solid black or shiny purple color that seems like missing texture (e.g. ebony body, but not hands/feet). Same for the Courier's clothing.
2. Game will start crashing in a predictable manner, eventually upon looting or managing inventory, but occasionally opening a door as well--perhaps first time loading some NPC?
3. Oddly, if I disable texture mods like Verdant (landscape textures, completely different I guess?) it'll no longer render some items in black/purple, but still crash eventually.

Please note I'm *always* testing with a *new* save game.

 

How do I solve these issues? Do I *need* to convert these armors from UNP to UNPB? How about HDT support, is it optional or required? If required but not supported, how hard is it to add HDT support when converting these armors and clothes? Am I missing something else? Any other advice is greatly appreciated as well.

 

Thanks,

-v

[IsharaMeradin]

Sounds like you are running out of VRAM if you're getting textures to not render on occasion.

 

Question is: How long does it take before these 'oddities' begin to happen?

 

I've always found it best to get a rough estimate of how long I could play before 'oddities' would start. Then when playing, be sure to save and exit and take a small break just before that time would be reached. But that is really only a viable solution for time periods greater than an hour. Anything less and you might need to reduce how much you are trying to make the game process.

 

You could try Crash Fixes if you want. It may allow you to pass points that the game would ordinarily crash and thus allow you to have a longer time period to play.

 

You don't need to convert armor and clothing to use HDT. You can, but it isn't required. You'll have to ask others how best to do something like that, if you wish to go that route. You don't even need to convert the outfits to use the same body shape.

 

The only time having a body that is a different shape than your outfits would cause a 'major problem' is when the outfit pieces you are wearing do not use body slot 32 (default slot for upper torso).

Example: body is shape A in slot 32, vest is shape B in slot 60, shirt is shape B in slot 32. vest fits over shirt. if vest is worn without shirt, the body may clip through the vest. equip the shirt and the 'body' then has the correct shape for the vest.

[vwmc]

Sounds like you are running out of VRAM if you're getting textures to not render on occasion.

 

Question is: How long does it take before these 'oddities' begin to happen?

 

I've always found it best to get a rough estimate of how long I could play before 'oddities' would start. Then when playing, be sure to save and exit and take a small break just before that time would be reached. But that is really only a viable solution for time periods greater than an hour. Anything less and you might need to reduce how much you are trying to make the game process.

 

You could try Crash Fixes if you want. It may allow you to pass points that the game would ordinarily crash and thus allow you to have a longer time period to play.

 

You don't need to convert armor and clothing to use HDT. You can, but it isn't required. You'll have to ask others how best to do something like that, if you wish to go that route. You don't even need to convert the outfits to use the same body shape.

 

The only time having a body that is a different shape than your outfits would cause a 'major problem' is when the outfit pieces you are wearing do not use body slot 32 (default slot for upper torso).

Example: body is shape A in slot 32, vest is shape B in slot 60, shirt is shape B in slot 32. vest fits over shirt. if vest is worn without shirt, the body may clip through the vest. equip the shirt and the 'body' then has the correct shape for the vest.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

It happens within a minute. I'm using Skyrim Unbound to start in Whiterun in the morning. Always new char, first thing I'll run a bat to reach level 100, go in and out Belethor's and observe the Ebony Warrior and Courier with the purple issue. Then if I play for another few minutes or even seconds it'll eventually crash.

 

Good to know I don't *need* to convert UNP armor to UNPB or worry about adding HDT support just yet. I'll make those improvements once I'm comfortable with these first steps. I think all body pieces I'm using are assigned to slot 32 because I notice the body shape changing when I equip them.

 

As long as I don't have any armor replacer, I can play for several minutes with 1000 speed multiplier through the whole map just fine while using several other HD landscape textures and observe Performance Monitor counters at about 60-80% GPU and far below 3.1 GB VRAM usage (is that still the limit BTW?). I haven't reached nearly 1 GB VRAM usage, so it keeps running smoothly. The rig is pretty dope though (strix 1080) which probably helps, so it seems like crash fixes, mem block etc. are not the case. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Given that enabling armor replacers will predictably cause the issue- what else should I consider other than converting armors?

[IsharaMeradin]

Make sure you are using XPMSE 3.0+ and that it has all needed nodes for any specific armors that you feel are problematic. If an armor/body needs a node that the skeleton doesn't have, the game will have issues. But if the skeleton has more nodes than what the armor/body needs, it will be fine. If you have any custom races in the game, check to make sure that they are also using the XPMSE 3.0+ skeleton.

 

I know Immersive Armors has scripts that need to process at the start and again after setting options in the MCM menu. I find that using Live Another Life with its starting jail cell is a good place to allow all the mods with start up scripts to process and to set up all MCM mods before continuing. It could be possible that by using Skyrim Unbound to start in Whiterun that you're surrounded by too many NPCs trying to be affected by Immersive Armors' scripts.

 

Have you tested without running your BAT file? It may be possible that something done on the BAT is breaking something behind the scenes just enough that the game gives up on you. Doesn't sound likely, but you never know. Always worth a test.

 

Beyond that, I'm clueless and merely suggest that you decide what you really want in your game and remove anything that isn't necessary in the hopes of reducing strain on the game/system.

[vwmc]

Make sure you are using XPMSE 3.0+ and that it has all needed nodes for any specific armors that you feel are problematic. If an armor/body needs a node that the skeleton doesn't have, the game will have issues. But if the skeleton has more nodes than what the armor/body needs, it will be fine. If you have any custom races in the game, check to make sure that they are also using the XPMSE 3.0+ skeleton.

 

I know Immersive Armors has scripts that need to process at the start and again after setting options in the MCM menu. I find that using Live Another Life with its starting jail cell is a good place to allow all the mods with start up scripts to process and to set up all MCM mods before continuing. It could be possible that by using Skyrim Unbound to start in Whiterun that you're surrounded by too many NPCs trying to be affected by Immersive Armors' scripts.

 

Have you tested without running your BAT file? It may be possible that something done on the BAT is breaking something behind the scenes just enough that the game gives up on you. Doesn't sound likely, but you never know. Always worth a test.

 

Beyond that, I'm clueless and merely suggest that you decide what you really want in your game and remove anything that isn't necessary in the hopes of reducing strain on the game/system.

 

Yeah skeleton is latest XP Extended 3.93 - here's the full installation filename in MO: XP32 Maximum Skeleton Extended-68000-3-93.7z - when I start a new game I notice exactly as you described, a message from Immersive Armors right after I setup the game start on MCM.

 

I tried these other suggestions as they were new to me- not running the bat anymore and starting somewhere quieter, and I'm still having the same issue. I'm realizing yes I'll need to give up on something eventually, like a custom armor sounds reasonable but I'd love to get the armor replacers to work because they look so good and make a positive impact on the whole game. Thanks a lot for your help again any other advice that comes to mind is still greatly appreciated.

[vwmc]

 

Hey Ishara just wanted to share some good news, I did a fresh install and everything's working just fine now. I'll probably some next steps soon (converting armor + HDT) but for now I'm very happy with this. Thanks for stopping by and helping me out!