How to make a face preset mod?

[TicTacToad]

Hi folks, I have been wanting to make my characters face one of the preset faces in the character creation menu for a while now but....honestly, I don't really know where to start. A quick googling didn't turn up anything useful, so I was wondering if someone could help me out? (either by taking me through it step by step or posting some relevant articles/videos) I don't use any face mods on my character. Also this is my first time modding, is this a good starting place?

[IsharaMeradin]

I had a tutorial for this a long time ago. That site was eventually taken down (and not by me). Unfortunately, I did not keep a copy as that was also a couple computers ago.

 

From what I remember (and I do not have the CK installed to confirm):

• Create an Actor with the appearance you want.
• There is a check box or a keyword that needs to be added which indicates it is to be used in character generation. -- check an existing preset actor to see what it might be
• There is also a formlist that the Actor needs to be added to so that the game will pull it up and use it. -- right click on an existing preset actor record entry and select 'Use Info' to find what that list might be.

 

And I think that is it in the raw basics.

 

The other issue not addressed yet is actually getting your characters face. There is the console command 'spf <filename>' which will export your characters face to an .NPC file with the supplied name. However, this will only properly export faces made with base / DLC settings. It cannot handle any additional things provided by mods such as RaceMenu (especially script added things). If the value in a particular setting is not available on the associated formlist, you will end up with a null value which in turn gets translated as 0 and thus applies the default for that entry.

 

Do note that if using a mod which adds entries to a specific formlist that is used in character generation, that so long as that mod is installed and active, those entries would be saved and used properly. It is the mods that add dynamically via script that cannot have entries properly saved and used.

 

Is it a good place to start modding? It can be provided you are not using mods like RaceMenu to further alter appearance beyond the norm.

 

All that said, if you are using RaceMenu there should be a way to save a preset file specifically for use with RaceMenu. Instructions should be in the included documentation.