[LE] Default body mesh appears when custom-meshed race wears armor

[SaintUlvemann]

I'm trying to add a custom race with a custom body mesh. I've done the typical thing and created the SkinNaked body mesh as an armor made up of three addons, and then set that armor as the skin in the bodydata tab for my race.

 

The custom body mesh displays fine when my characters are naked; however, the instant I put any body armor on them, including the mostly-naked ones like preset HunterOutfit02, the custom body mesh is replaced on my character with the default one.

 

I would much prefer that my character does not change race every time they change clothes! Does anyone know a workaround for how to prevent this?

[Niborino9409]

For that you need to make a new armor race for your custom race otherwise they revert to the default body you have installed. I am not sure how to do that apart from unchecking all the other allowed races in the armor add-on window. Which would mean adding that armor race on every armor too. But there must be a quicker way. That's the only way I know of though.

Edited December 6, 2017 by Niborino9409

[SaintUlvemann]

...oh. I actually just found the answer.

 

So, I had already sort of tried what you'd said, Niborino, but all I'd done was copy the existing file, thinking that the ArmorAddons files point to a .nif exclusively of the armor that gets added onto the body. This is not so.

 

Every single ArmorAddons file in the entire game that I've seen does the same operation: it *replaces* the default body mesh with an entirely different body mesh, that only *happens to look like* the default one. Specifically, the role of the ArmorAddons file is to replace the .nif containing the naked default body mesh with a different .nif containing the same default body mesh that is also wearing the armor in question. There's not some separate .nif file for the items themselves that gets applied onto the naked body models in the game. For example, the BanditCuirass1AA ArmorAddon (a hide armor that's prominently bare-chested for men and also very scantily-clad for women) replaces the default body mesh with a different nif: Armor\Bandit\Body1M_1.nif. That nif contains the default body wearing the correct cuirass instead of the usual naked underwear.

 

So when I see my naked new-race body getting replaced by a default mesh, I'm actually seeing the same thing that goes on in the coding *every time* any character puts on any piece of armor: the armors are a single .nif object together with the torso wearing them. The only reason the same armors work for all the different races right now is because they use the same basic shaped body mesh whose only difference is the texture. Honestly, I probably should've noticed that from the way the clothing meshes warp slightly when you perform an action in the game.

 

So basically, in addition to adding ArmorAddons files to every single armor that I want my race to be able to wear, I would have to point those ArmorAddons files to *newly-generated nifs* containing both the armor *and* the custom race body that I want to appear.

 

 

All is probably not lost, because it's only the torso that's different on my custom race, so I can probably focus on making .nifs only for the skin-baring armors and skip things like steel plate... still though...

 

If I remember to, I might stop back and drop a complete list of which armors / clothes involve bare arms and/or chest.

Edited December 7, 2017 by SvenrickHauser