CK Question: Making custom eyes to work with npcs

[evolvedbullet1]

Hey folks, quick but possibly complicated question:

 

I like making mannequins of live NPCs. Enhances realism of armor display. I can make it happen no problem, but the face tint, custom details, and eyes do not correspond with their custom ESPs associated with that specific NPC. The way of modding may not be familiar to you, but the errors may be. As I bring up the question, you'll see how I made the mannequin and you may discover the problem along the way.

 

Video instruction on how to make a mannequin, step by step:

 

The mods I intend to combine are:

-NPC Editor 1.75.1

-Flan's Eyes

-BlackTower - Black Sacrament Household (where the mannequins are being placed, don't think it has significance)

 

For those with experience using that NPC editor, you'd know you can customize practically anything about an NPC, both stat and physical appearance. They generate ESPs along with .BSAs that replaced FaceGenData folders.

 

I will be making this woman into a mannequin: *Modded elements underlined*

Name: Irilieth

Stance: Fighter

Characteristics: HairFemaleElf10, EyesType28 w/ zFemaleEyesDarkElfDarkHeart6, -Custom- skin (purple/teal combination) w/ yellow warpaint

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/8846/tesv2012041904344456.jpgI will now make her into a mannequin, like the one you see in the shade on the left. All of the mods involved are esp activated. I activated the listed mods with their appropriate esms. The CK gives me these errors:

 

The errors with the same source (EDITOR) and sentence structure. The list continues..:

• zFemaleEyesHumanSerpent5 for HDPT (03006489) -> zFemaleEyesHumanSerpent5DUPLICATE000
• zFemaleEyesHumanSerpent6 for HDPT (0300648A) -> zFemaleEyesHumanSerpent6DUPLICATE000
• Serpent7, Serpent8, SerpentBlood, Serpent 2-8, ArgonoianSerpentBlood, ArgonoianSerpent 2-8, HumanSerpent (exactly identical to previous sets), WoodElfVessel 1-8, KhajiitVessel 1-8, it's looking like all the files.

New files appear to be poping up errors, saying that they cannot find the texture set of the eyes. From the last errors I just wrote, it's possible that the newly created duplicates didn't carry over the textures. Included in image:

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/2200/232cz.jpg

The mannequin has been created with no difficulty after these errors. Left - Mannequin \ Right - Irileth

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/1909/tesv2012041905224150.jpg

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/337/tesv2012041905233272.jpg

A close up. The right is the desired face; the left is the result. Stating the obvious, the mannequin carried the body's custom color but not to the face.

 

I'll contact the authors for more intel on what can be done. I should add that whenever I want to investigate deeper into the ESPs of the mods involved (this would include NPC esps created by the NPC Editor), I get an error: "Invalid TES4 file". Online research yielded no results. Any help from yall folks would be well appreciated. This has been an issue I've been plagued with; it wasn't until recently that I got solid evidence that help fix this problem. Thanks for reading and even more for replying :laugh:

[evolvedbullet1]

Any thoughts?

[DarNilavu]

I've never used the NPC editor, so I cannot say that I am familiar with anything here. :/ The only thing I can think of do get the eyes to work is to find the duplicated eye entry and check that the texture is connected correctly when you open the editor. In order to add new textures to Skyrim you actually have to add them to a list of all the textures in game and then add the entry that connects that texture to race/mesh/blah. When it duplicates the entries, it's most likely not duplicating the actual texture entries, which you might have to add manually.

 

I'm not sure what is causing the error. Which mod do you have marked as the active mod? (Like, you select some but only one is active)

[evolvedbullet1]

Currently attempting to do a fix. I see where your getting at Dar. I've located the DUPLICATE backups by typing the errored files' names. What the error messages and what you said are true.

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8415/tesv2012041922530340.jpg

I fixed the eyes. At least I know how to do that (with a great deal of hassle), and now there is the face to deal with.

 

The file generated from the NPC Editor gave infomation on scars, eyebrows, hair, face structure, and body. All of these are visible on the mannequin, except the custom colors given to the skin, makeup, and warpaint. The skin color isn't 100% the same as the moving Irileth (on the left) on the rest of the body, but it's close (it may be the torch light, idk.. hmm). The face color is the problem still, as it always has been for me. I've tried to toggle 'Opposite Gender Animations' in the actor's menu, that didn't work. I'm open to all suggestions.

 

Looking at the FAQ on the NPC Editor page. It says that this happens because the editor can't find the relationship between your model and the texture within the game. In this case, Irileth's face and body data were found, but it cannot interpret the colors (I think). A quote from the page.

Discolored NPC heads are caused by the Game not able to match the .esp's description of the NPC to the meshes or textures. Or some 'visual' entries in the NPC record is incorrect.

 

So if you use BSA files, you need to remove the older meshes and textures overrides or they wont match. Remember that the game will look for overrides first. If you are going to transport your plugin to another machine, make sure they remove those overrides too.

 

There is a problem with that bit of help. Since BSAs are a bunch of files combined together (and don't overwrite any vanilla files), what he's saying only applies to making changes to an already existing NPC file made by the editor. The game doesn't come with a "textures\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceTint\skyrim.esm + meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\skyrim.esm" so we can't knock out the editor's competition in terms of what it loads first. If there is such a file, I've never heard of a way to access it or get in it. I have hidden files toggled in my control panel and cannot see it.

I know most of the folks seeing this thread wanted to help but had no idea how; let me help you beat this problem if your following along with me.

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

To fix the eyes:

You will be told that *namedeye* is not unqiue and has been remade *namedeyeDUPLICATE000#*. Every time you open this file and that message appears, the duplicates will stack. Causing a mess of duplicated files with numbered extensions to boot. To fix the eyes without this hassle and just doing it all at once:

 

To find out the eyes being used on the mannequin:

-Type in your mannequin's name in the search bar. Double click it once it appears.

-Go to the CharacterGenParts tab (click the right arrow button till you see it). You'll see the eye texture row in the 'BaseHeadPart' window

-These are the eyes your using. Proceed with the next steps.

 

*Assuming you know what eyes are being used on the npc in question (or yourself)*

-Type "Eyes(race)* that's above the drop down tab column on the left of the CK

-If you know the extension of the eyes (it's unqiue name w/ it's number), type that in after 'race' in the search bar to narrow the results down

-Once you found your pair of eyes, select the box 'Facegen Textures' thats to the right of the Title box of the window.

-Select 'OK' and type "z(gender)eyes(race)(extension)" in the search bar to find precisely the file to modify. Enter it.

-A box will open, select the 'TextureSet' drop down menu and select the eyes you just modified (ex.EyesDarkElfDarkHeart6). Than hit OK

-Type in the title of the mannequin your creating in the search bar. Enter it and head to the 'CharacterGenParts' tab. (Hit the right arrow button in the window till you see it)

-Under 'BaseHeadParts' in this tab, you will see the eye texture row. Select it and select the drop down menu underneath the 'BaseHeadPart' window. Select the eyes you just edited (the z file).

 

***************

IMPORTANT:

If your using a custom NPC esp file to govern the base data, this is where the 'FaceGen Textures' come in. Before you hit OK, you need to transfer the texture file in "Data\textures\actors\character\eyes\FlanConversions" to "textures\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceTint\*NPC file name*.esp". This worked for me.

********

 

I'm not sure if this will work for people without an NPC esp file (generated from the NPC Editor), but making a relationship with the duplicated files with the originals should work just fine.

Edited April 20, 2012 by evolvedbullet1

[evolvedbullet1]

Update:

The preview in the actor menu shows an authentic face. Very interesting.. http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9327/previewzr.jpg

Edited April 20, 2012 by evolvedbullet1

[DarNilavu]

I'm not sure how to fix the problem with the face and tat colors not appearing. I think that might be a problem in NPC editor itself not wanting to play nice with custom colors. :/ Are the extra tints that you are using inside a BSA file? If so, you might need to extract them in order for the editor to read them - again, I've never used NPC editor before and really have no idea how it runs. xD You may have better luck posting this problem on the mod's thread or pm-ing the author?

[evolvedbullet1]

I guess it would have to be something dealing with the NPC editor. I don't have the files I need to make the fix. I know that if you create a custom folder in where the editor looks for textures/meshes first, it'll read it with no problem. That is the case with Irileth here; however I have 3 others like her that are all customized NPCs; they don't have a special folder dedicated to them. If the NPC editor could make files that could help the editor identify color along with the other features of the face, than everything would be perfect.