scrptrx Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 (edited) I've tried several female skin textures now and they all have the same problem except one stands out as unique, with its own problem. All skins look great in full light or indoors. The problem is when women stand in the shade. I don't know if this is the skin itself (normal/spec files maybe) or a setting in my game. I don't think it would be Climates of Tamriel, and I'm not running an ENB. This problem happens both with and without Realistic Lighting Overhaul and on both high and ultra settings. The first issue is with almost all skin mods (UNP, SG, Real Girls, etc). The problem is that in the shade, the skin takes on a red glow. This is different from the bronze sheen I see on Real Girls. It's as if the normal map turns radioactive. I think I uninstalled all skin mods and the vanilla ladies still did this (but I might be misremembering).screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/lNqK6uT.png The second issue is only with Mature UNP. The problem is that in the shade, the skin looses all depth and much of its texture. This is unique to this skin; I can't replicate it with any others. screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/kXlFXBO.jpg I have tried several things, like using other mods' spec files which does nothing, increasing contrast/brightness on Mature's VERY dim specular map, does nothing good anyway. This made me think it might be the alpha. I was reminded here that many texture files have an accompanying *_n.dds file and I have none in /female/ or /male/. But considering my men look fine without any alpha files, though perhaps a bit radioactive red in the shade (FAR less than the ladies), I'm not convinced. I have the ability to edit DDS files but I am just not convinced that's the WHOLE problem. If all skin mods are doing something funky in the shade, isn't that something to do with shading? I don't know what to do, so I'm here to get help. Thanks in advance. some of my ini settings are:(Skyrim.ini)fShadowLODMaxStartFade=1000.0fSpecularLODMaxStartFade=2000.0fLightLODMaxStartFade=3500.0iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048 (SkyrimPrefs.ini) [General] fBrightLightColorB=1.0000 fBrightLightColorG=1.0000 fBrightLightColorR=1.0000 iStoryManagerLoggingEvent=-1 bEnableStoryManagerLogging=0 [Imagespace] bDoDepthOfField=1 iRadialBlurLevel=2 [Display] iBlurDeferredShadowMask=3 fInteriorShadowDistance=3000.0000 fShadowDistance=8000.0000 iShadowMapResolutionSecondary=1024 iShadowMapResolutionPrimary=2048 iShadowSplitCount=2 iMaxAnisotropy=16 fLeafAnimDampenDistEnd=4600.0000 fLeafAnimDampenDistStart=3600.0000 fTreesMidLODSwitchDist=10000000.0000 fGamma=0.8000 fDecalLOD2=1500.0000 fDecalLOD1=1000.0000 fSpecularLODStartFade=2000.0000 fShadowLODStartFade=200.0000 fLightLODStartFade=3500.0000 iTexMipMapMinimum=0 iTexMipMapSkip=0 iWaterMultiSamples=0 iMultiSample=8 iShadowMode=3 bTreesReceiveShadows=0 bDrawLandShadows=0 bFull Screen=1 iSize H=1440 iSize W=2560 fMeshLODFadePercentDefault=1.2000 fMeshLODFadeBoundDefault=256.0000 fMeshLODLevel2FadeTreeDistance=2048.0000 fMeshLODLevel1FadeTreeDistance=2844.0000 fMeshLODLevel2FadeDist=10000000.0000 fMeshLODLevel1FadeDist=10000000.0000 iScreenShotIndex=2 bShadowMaskZPrepass=0 bMainZPrepass=0 iMaxSkinDecalsPerFrame=250 iMaxDecalsPerFrame=800 bFloatPointRenderTarget=0 sD3DDevice="Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics" bFXAAEnabled=0 iShadowMapResolution=4096 fShadowBiasScale=0.1500 iShadowMaskQuarter=4 iAdapter=0 iPresentInterval=0 iShadowFilter=3 bShadowsOnGrass=1 bTransparencyMultisampling=0 bDeferredShadows=1 bDrawShadows=1 [Grass] b30GrassVS=1 fGrassStartFadeDistance=7000.0000 fGrassMaxStartFadeDistance=7000.0000 fGrassMinStartFadeDistance=0.0000 [MAIN] bGamepadEnable=0 bCrosshairEnabled=1 fHUDOpacity=1.0000 bSaveOnPause=1 bSaveOnTravel=1 bSaveOnWait=1 bSaveOnRest=1 fSkyCellRefFadeDistance=150000.0000 [GamePlay] bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=1 bShowQuestMarkers=1 iDifficulty=4 [Interface] bDialogueSubtitles=1 bGeneralSubtitles=1 fMouseCursorSpeed=1.0000 bShowCompass=1 [Controls] fGamepadHeadingSensitivity=1.0000 fMouseHeadingSensitivity=0.0100 bAlwaysRunByDefault=1 bInvertYValues=0 bGamePadRumble=0 bMouseAcceleration=1 bUseKinect=0 [Particles] iMaxDesired=750 [SaveGame] fAutosaveEveryXMins=15.0000 [AudioMenu] fAudioMasterVolume=1.0000 fVal7=1.0000 uID7=0 fVal6=1.0000 uID6=0 fVal5=1.0000 uID5=0 fVal4=0.6500 uID4=1325554915 fVal3=0.5000 uID3=94881 fVal2=0.6500 uID2=466532 fVal1=0.8500 uID1=554685 fVal0=0.4500 uID0=1007612 [Clouds] fCloudLevel2Distance=262144.0000 fCloudLevel1Distance=32768.0000 fCloudLevel0Distance=16384.0000 fCloudNearFadeDistance=9000.0000 [TerrainManager] fTreeLoadDistance=75000.0000 fBlockMaximumDistance=250000.0000 fBlockLevel1Distance=70000.0000 fBlockLevel0Distance=35000.0000 fSplitDistanceMult=1.5000 bShowLODInEditor=0 [NavMesh] fObstacleAlpha=0.5000 fCoverSideHighAlpha=0.8000 fCoverSideLowAlpha=0.6500 fEdgeFullAlpha=1.0000 fEdgeHighAlpha=0.7500 fEdgeLowAlpha=0.5000 fTriangleFullAlpha=0.7000 fTriangleHighAlpha=0.3500 fTriangleLowAlpha=0.2000 fLedgeBoxHalfHeight=25.0000 fEdgeDistFromVert=10.0000 fEdgeThickness=10.0000 fPointSize=2.5000 [Trees] bRenderSkinnedTrees=1 uiMaxSkinnedTreesToRender=20 [Decals] uMaxDecals=1000 bDecals=1 bSkinnedDecals=1 uMaxSkinDecals=100 uMaxSkinDecalsPerActor=60 [LOD] fLODFadeOutMultObjects=15.0000 fLODFadeOutMultItems=15.0000 fLODFadeOutMultActors=15.0000 fLODFadeOutMultSkyCell=1.0000 [Launcher] bEnableFileSelection=1 bShowAllResolutions=0 uLastAspectRatio=3 [BlurShaderHDR] bDoHighDynamicRange=1 [BlurShader] bUseBlurShader=0 [Water] iWaterReflectHeight=512 iWaterReflectWidth=512 bUseWaterDisplacements=1 bUseWaterRefractions=1 bUseWaterReflections=1 bUseWaterDepth=1 Edited March 11, 2017 by scrptrx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algabar Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 (edited) I have tried several things, like using other mods' spec files which does nothing, increasing contrast/brightness on Mature's VERY dim specular map, does nothing good anyway. This made me think it might be the alpha. I was reminded here that many texture files have an accompanying *_n.dds file and I have none in /female/ or /male/. But considering my men look fine without any alpha files, though perhaps a bit radioactive red in the shade (FAR less than the ladies), I'm not convinced. What do you mean by "alpha files"? Body texture files are not supposed to contain any alpha channels.In general, I'd strongly recommend installing all 4 types of textures for each body part: diffuse map (no suffix), normal map (_msn), specular map (_s) and subsurface texture (_sk). For bodies to look good, you will need all of them. Normally, you should also simply use the files, that were made by the textures' author and were designed to work together. Mixing an matching is possible ofc, but you should really know, what you're doing - and why. In most cases, results of mixing and/or playing around with textures will be interesting - but not necessarily pleasant. "Keep it simple" is also my advice for your ini files. In general, you can follow the STEP guide: http://wiki.step-project.com/Guide:Skyrim_Configuration_SettingsDon't change anything without knowing, what the setting is for. I'm not that experienced, that I could comment on every value in your files. Therefore I'd avise to "start over" with your ini files: Backup your current files somewhere, then delete them at their original location. Let Skyrim create new ones with standard values (this will be done automatically). Try how your game looks with standard installation of body textures and standard ini files. If it lloks okay, you can start tweaking your ini files again according to the STEP guide. BTW, if you're interested in learning more about textures in Skyrim, take a look at this: http://beyondskyrim.org/skyrim-nif-files-bsshadertextureset-and-textures/ Very comprehensive, but also very, very "technical". EDIT: Just for clarification:1. Body textures don't have "tangent space normal maps" with grayscale specular map as alpha channel (suffix _n, but often falsely named _msn too). These are used for objects, that don't move/bend in themselves (e.g. weapons, solid objects).2. Specular maps for bodys are supposed to be very dark. Lighter (or missing) _s files will make a body way too "shiny". In use are (almost) black or dark red _s files. In fact, as a "quick and dirty" solution, you could use a pitch black square as a body specular map. Edited March 11, 2017 by Algabar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrptrx Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 Oh, I have all the necessary texture files installed, what came with base UNP and Mature overwriting that. That's not the issue. An issue may be something isn't loading properly, I don't know. But I haven't messed with those files. The images I posed are unedited, out of the zip files. The base UNP and Mature UNP have the same files, so nothing is extra or missing. The INI stuff is default, as far as I can remember, but just in case something wasn't default or correct I posted it, in case something about shading was obvious to anyone else. Because that's how confused I am about what is wrong, here. This is a very fresh Skyrim install, base and mods together. If it's not an obvious or known problem I guess all I can do is see what the mod looks like without any other mods installed, what vanilla looks like, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Algabar Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Thanks for the clarification. Strange problem indeed. I've already seen something like your second pic - but only with ENBs using not optimized subsurface settings. "Mature skin" in general reacts very sensitive to lighting. Since we can rule out ENB and IMHO CoT too (I used it for more than a year and never had any lighting issues), there's only the way of narrowing down the problem by "trial and error" - unless someone else knows exactly what's going on here.Start with no mods at all, then add a body replacer and see how it goes. Also check, if the textures are in their correct place: Skyrim/data/textures/actors/characters/female. BTW, what mod organizer are you using? Might indeed be an installation problem. I know for sure, that CBBE requires an esp file. Not so sure about UNP, since I never used the "classic" version. The more advanced UUNP, that comes with bodyslide, doesn't need one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeir Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 I know for sure, that CBBE requires an esp file.Nope. CBBE has never, ever required a plugin. Also, the pink glow is caused by Beth's crappy lighting. There was a mod that fixed it by turning the subsurface textures black called 'No More Ugly Bronze Shine', but it was taken down for some reason. You may be able to find it again using the web search engine of your choice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrptrx Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 I'm pretty sure the Mature skin has that black subsurface (_sk?) - it's literally just a small black square which may be why it lacks the sheen I sometimes see on Real Girls. I do manual installs. Everything's in their correct folders (been at this for years lol). The only additional files UNP needs are its meshes and those are obviously fine and not the issue here. I did notice one thing. I installed this fix for the Mature skin faces, just for S&Gs, and the same scene capped in OP image showed A BIT (and I mean a bit) more texture even in the shade -- because, I'm just guessing here, the diffusion file was twice the MB size (11MB vs 22MB). Soooo........ maybe, just possibly, it's a diffusion compression issue? If that's the case I might have to compromise between hires skins (which I already did for the body) and normal looking shaded faces. In any case yeah I think trial and error is all I can do. And if the pink glow is caused by default lighting issues then maybe I'm SOL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeir Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 In any case yeah I think trial and error is all I can do. And if the pink glow is caused by default lighting issues then maybe I'm SOL. I told you what the fix is. If you don't want to search for it, either use the subsurface textures (the _sk.dds) from Mature Skin if it does indeed have black ones, or make them yourself.Or, use an ENB. That fixes it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrptrx Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 In any case yeah I think trial and error is all I can do. And if the pink glow is caused by default lighting issues then maybe I'm SOL. I told you what the fix is. If you don't want to search for it, either use the subsurface textures (the _sk.dds) from Mature Skin if it does indeed have black ones, or make them yourself.Or, use an ENB. That fixes it as well. I already said (though my language was a bit vague) the Mature skin _sk files are installed. They're little black squares. (An experiment replacing that with a pinkish one makes it look like any other skin mod with that pink glow). If the little black square is the best option then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Wish "install an ENB" wasn't necessary. Ah well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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