[LE] Skyrim using default head for custom follower instead of generated head

[megatrainer]

Hello all!

 

I'm having an issue where Skyrim refuses to use my merged head for my follower. Instead it's using the default head and the hair mesh. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong and I've tried remaking this 3 times already and I'm ripping my hair out trying to find something similar online, with no luck.

 

If you know what's going wrong please help me!

[justinglen75]

Hello, you might need to include the steps you took to make the custom head — but did you use NifMerge to merge the custom head parts with the vanilla head parts? And just to make sure, are you using Skyrim LE or Skyrim SE? I ask in case because SSE Creation Kit 2.0 will auto-gen the facegeom files and overwrite the custom ones.

 

BTW this is a great tutorial on creating custom standalones and might help you. .

[megatrainer]

Hello, you might need to include the steps you took to make the custom head — but did you use NifMerge to merge the custom head parts with the vanilla head parts? And just to make sure, are you using Skyrim LE or Skyrim SE? I ask in case because SSE Creation Kit 2.0 will auto-gen the facegeom files and overwrite the custom ones.

 

BTW this is a great tutorial on creating custom standalones and might help you. .

 

Ah, yeah, sorry. So:

 

I'm using LE.

 

I made the head by first creating it in RaceMenu and then exporting it. Then creating the follower in CK and exporting it's head which was properly using the my custom default head, eyes, and hair. Afterward I merged it using Nifmerge, named the file the name generated by CK and put it into the correct folder. This is the 3rd follower I've tried making and it's resulted the same way. I've looked up various tutorials and they all follow the same steps.

[justinglen75]

Well that sounds about right to me :) Strange, if you'd like I'd be willing to look over your mod and see if I notice anything in particular. You can drop them in Google Drive and share the files with me -- can PM me the link if you want.

[justinglen75]

I don't think SLE Creation Kit auto-gens the facegeom files like CK 2.0 does -- at least not in my experiences -- so I would suspect that's not happening but I would say it's not impossible. I'm guessing you're already checking the facegeom NIF file (stored in the Data>Actors>Character>FaceGenData>FaceGeom>YOURMOD.ESP folder) for your follower in NifSkope -- is the follower not appearing what it's supposed to look like?

 

My guess is that something is not linking up properly, ie. the headpart meshes are pointing to vanilla meshes and not your standalone meshes OR maybe the merging process in NifMerge is not working correctly.

 

Just to make sure, this isn't a vanilla character you're customizing, right? It's a new, non-vanilla NPC, correct?

Edited August 18, 2019 by justinglen75

[megatrainer]

I don't think SLE Creation Kit auto-gens the facegeom files like CK 2.0 does -- at least not in my experiences -- so I would suspect that's not happening but I would say it's not impossible. I'm guessing you're already checking the facegeom NIF file (stored in the Data>Actors>Character>FaceGenData>FaceGeom>YOURMOD.ESP folder) for your follower in NifSkope -- is the follower not appearing what it's supposed to look like?

 

My guess is that something is not linking up properly, ie. the headpart meshes are pointing to vanilla meshes and not your standalone meshes OR maybe the merging process in NifMerge is not working correctly.

 

Just to make sure, this isn't a vanilla character you're customizing, right? It's a new, non-vanilla NPC, correct?

 

Not customizing a vanilla character. It's a custom race standalone follower.

 

Here is a link to all the files and the RaceMenu head I'm trying to merge with: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1x2ta-CU7Zds0roBsNSyKDuj3T7yHm4Br

 

According to the tutorials, I pointed the follower's head object to the default head as instructed but it's supposed to use the generated head. I made one follower a long time ago but I don't remember what I did differently to get it to work right.

 

When going into the game, the followers head proportions match the default head which is not the same as my racemenu head and there is a bad gap between the hair and the head, which I manually fixed in the generated head. The feather thing attached to the hair, which is separate and the hairline of the head, also does not show. Eyes are the only thing that appears correctly.

 

In the ESP, everything related to my follower starts with an underscore.

[justinglen75]

So far I don't really notice anything completely out of the ordinary. If you can, get a screenshot of your character while in RM so I can compare better, and/or send me a preset.

 

Here's a photo of the OttterHead NIF, the RM nif, and the facegendata NIF taken from that I exported in the CK, in NifSkope, and I have to be honest that the face looks

identical to me. Photo link --> https://imgur.com/a/IC7lLMt

 

Below is an in-game photo on my computer -- is that not meant to be the correct look? -- Photo link --> https://imgur.com/a/Ht1S3F2

Edited August 18, 2019 by justinglen75

[megatrainer]

So far I don't really notice anything completely out of the ordinary. If you can, get a screenshot of your character while in RM so I can compare better, and/or send me a preset.

 

Here's a photo of the OttterHead NIF, the RM nif, and the facegendata NIF taken from that I exported in the CK, in NifSkope, and I have to be honest that the face looks

identical to me. Photo link --> https://imgur.com/a/IC7lLMt

 

Below is an in-game photo on my computer -- is that not meant to be the correct look? -- Photo link --> https://imgur.com/a/Ht1S3F2

 

The differences in the face wasn't really the problem. Since it's a beast race it's negligible. Sorry if I didn't make it clear. The issue's I was having was that the hair and hairline weren't showing up correctly, meaning it was using the default head instead of the Racemenu head I generated and merged with the CK generated head. If you look closely, you'll see a gap in the hair and head. I also realized I sent you the wrong Racemenu head. Sorry. Forgot that I put my updated one in a different folder. This is the racemenu one where I added and edited the hair and hairline since it didn't let me add it to the head in Racemenu.

 

I put the new one into the google drive.

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xNrq9qJFvmue-GGjOvFmoakVdrN3K7HW

[justinglen75]

Ah, I got confused I apologize -- was thinking the look/sculpt of the face/head was the primary issue and the hair/feathers as a separate issue.

So i'm noticing that the dreads hair mesh is from the Apachii mod and that the feather (which also involves a bandana) is the hairline part for that hairstyle. I'm guessing you removed the bandanna mesh/node somehow so you could just use the feathers to be their own?

 

Well, I tried copying the original Apachii NIFs + TRI file that comes with the hair meshes and linked the headparts to those files instead of yours (https://imgur.com/INbP2Dy) , exported a new FaceGen file, openned Skyrim and this is what I got --> https://imgur.com/a/Hh6yD5V

 

So my guess it has something to do with the customized hair meshes -- particularly the hairline mesh, something meta -- and I have no clue how to fix that.

Sorry that wasn't much help.

Edited August 18, 2019 by justinglen75

[megatrainer]

Ah, I got confused I apologize -- was thinking the look/sculpt of the face/head was the primary issue and the hair/feathers as a separate issue.

So i'm noticing that the dreads hair mesh is from the Apachii mod and that the feather (which also involves a bandana) is the hairline part for that hairstyle. I'm guessing you removed the bandanna mesh/node somehow so you could just use the feathers to be their own?

 

Well, I tried copying the original Apachii NIFs + TRI file that comes with the hair meshes and linked the headparts to those files instead of yours (https://imgur.com/INbP2Dy) , exported a new FaceGen file, openned Skyrim and this is what I got --> https://imgur.com/a/Hh6yD5V

 

So my guess it has something to do with the customized hair meshes -- particularly the hairline mesh, something meta -- and I have no clue how to fix that.

Sorry that wasn't much help.

 

No it's no problem! I did edit the hairline because I didn't really like the bandana but I can just deal with it if that was the problem. What exactly did you do this time, though? You just went into CK and changed the hairline being used to the original one and re-exported? I didn't use the tri files originally, so I wonder if I was supposed to?