Grey Face

[Deleted54469682User]

I have this recurring problem in Skyrim where some NPC's and my character have grey faces that don't match their bodies and have neck seams. I have completely reverted my game to its vanilla state, reinstalled it and all of its mods and verified integrity of game files. I do not know why this is happening and i have tried different ways to fix it but i can't figure it out, I am only using these 3 body/face texture mods

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69898 - SFW Body Mod (UNP Nevernude)

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/2812/ - Better Females by Bella

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51602 - Fair Skin Complexion

This is affecting male characters too, even though i don't have any male body/texture mods (I used to have a male face mod but i now don't). If anyone knows how to fix this it would be greatly appreciated, since this is ruining my game. See pictures for the grey face, also sorry if they are big they are steam screenshots.

Edit: My load order

0 0 Skyrim.esm

1 1 Update.esm

2 2 SkyUI.esp

3 3 dD - Enhanced Blood Main.esp

4 4 dD-Larger Splatter Size.esp

5 5 AMB Glass Variants Lore.esp

6 6 Differently Ebony.esp

7 7 aMidianborn_Skyforge_Weapons.esp

8 8 SMIM-DungeonsCliffsIceSkirts.esp

9 9 SMIM-FarmhouseFlickeringFix.esp

10 a Tamriel Reloaded Flora.esp

11 b Tamriel Reloaded Trees.esp

12 c UltimateCombat.esp

13 d VioLens.esp

14 e Inigo.esp

15 f RealisticWaterTwo.esp

16 10 Shiva's Vanilla Hair Replacer.esp

Edited June 16, 2018 by Guest

[tomomi1922]

I can tell from screenshot Marcurio is fine. He just has different face textures than the default male body. There is no "grey face" there.

[Deleted54469682User]

I can tell from screenshot Marcurio is fine. He just has different face textures than the default male body. There is no "grey face" there.

So if there isn't a grey face, then how does he have different face textures than his original body when i don't have any male body replacers/face textures installed?

[tomomi1922]

It looks like Maricurio has new hair from Shiva's Vanilla Hair Replacer. I don't use this mod, but this may affect his face's skin as well. Why don't you temporarily take this mod out and see if that will fix him (and other male characters).

I am examining all 3 mods you showed. It seems that you are trying to use UNP body mod (the nevernude version, which means underwear show with their naked bodies).

- SFW Body Mod (UNP nevernude) seems to provide all the body mesh + texture you need. This one should install first.
- Fair skin complexion provides a pretty looking skin texture without the body mesh files. This one should overwrite anything from SFW.
- Get rid of Better Females, it is not only old, it is primitive. It is trying to do what the 2 mods above are doing, and not as good at all.

You have to understand why the neck seam: body texture and head texture do not match (like with Macurio here). I can't see much of Sapphire, but I assume you have a mod that changes Sapphire and not playing nice with Shiva's Vanilla Hair replacement.

Here is what you should do:
1. If you insist, install Better Female first.
2. Install SFW Body Mod UNP Nevernude
3. Install Fair skin complexion last.
4. For testing purpose, uninstall Shiva's Vanilla Hair replacement.

This should fix all your problem. Then after everything is running, start worrying about Hair replacer. There is a caveat with all hair replacer mods. Thanks to Skyrim engine, hair replacer only works perfectly on all Vanilla NPCs. As soon as you add new NPCs or change existing NPCs (with mods) then you will guarantee to have the black face (thats how I call grey face, they look black to me). The only way around this is the author of the Hair replacer mod must make a patch for your mods that add or change NPCs. Or you can try to make yourself (some learning curve), or just deal with Vanilla hair and don't replace any hair. You can download new hair for your character, but NPCs will still don vanilla hair.

I highly recommend Bijin mods that overhauls Warmaidens, Wives, and NPCs. Those are the 3 names of the 3 mods. Each, as you can guess, modify certain groups of NPCs in Vanilla game. Sapphire, I believe, is altered by Bijin Warmaidens. But try to iron out this problem before you download Bijin mods.

Show me your complete load order. Or is this everything?

[Deleted54469682User]

Dude, thank you so much! It fixed everything with the faces and everything. Ill try out the Bijin mods that you suggested, thanks.

[tomomi1922]

I am glad everything works out. Modding is unfortunately not simply plug and play. A little knowledge will make life easy.

I got into Shiva's Vanilla Hair Replacer, on Skyrim SE. I never looked at it before, but surprisingly it got a very long list of patches that will make these hairs work with almost any mods out there that add NPCs. The creator is very attentive to details. Bijin mods work nicely for me as well. On Skyrim SE I believe they have 2 tiny visual mistakes with Bijin NPCs. Nothing major, just a wrong texture file. Most people won't even recognize.

But unfortunately I have to deal with my vampires getting black faced because I am using a Vampire visual mod that doesn't have a patch from Shiva's. So I will have to spend some time later to fix that.