Disabling vanilla hair?

[Klokinator]

Hey there, I have what should be a somewhat simple request. I use Apachii's skyhair, the most popular hair mod, but I've noticed that hair mods in particular tend to crash skyrim. After further deduction and some creative googling, I found that usually this is due to VRAM issues, loading too much makes the game crash, etc.

 

If I were to use his NPC Overhaul mod that makes all NPC's use his hair instead of vanilla, and all mods I installed (Such as follower mods) used apachii skyhair, then I should theoretically be able to just get rid of vanilla hair, and hopefully prevent CTD's when I start a new game. (I noticed that using "showracemenu" when you're a bit more into the game usually doesn't crash it, so that's an alternative too.)

 

So my question is, how do I get rid of vanilla hair, and by doing so will that help me with VRAM issues?

 

Edit: Also I'm really loving using this mod, which is even more taxing than normal on the showracemenu. It's another reason I want to eliminate the ugly vanilla hair.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Klokinator

[Oubliette]

First: Apachii is female. Second: Apachii has not release an NPC Overhaul mod that I'm aware of. Third: Apachii's hair models are higher poly (probably uses higher res textures as well) than the original meshes - which is what eats up the vram and causes the crashes, this means disabling the vanilla hair will not give you fewer crashes when you use Showracemenu.

 

To have fewer crashes when you start a new game - disable all but one hair mod at a time. I'd also recommend holding off on any follower mods or NPC overhauls until after you've created your character (iirc each one of these causes duplicates in the hair slider, which increases your chances of crashes).

 

Since your character can only use one hair at a time any way, using one hair mod at a time is a reasonable work around for the crashing issue. Good luck :thumbsup:

[ripple]

First: Apachii is female. Second: Apachii has not release an NPC Overhaul mod that I'm aware of. Third: Apachii's hair models are higher poly (probably uses higher res textures as well) than the original meshes - which is what eats up the vram and causes the crashes, this means disabling the vanilla hair will not give you fewer crashes when you use Showracemenu.

 

I am not trying to be a jerk, but....

 

1) Skyhair does have an male hairs collection add-on.

2) There are a couple Skyhair NPC distribution plugins created by people other than the Skyhair author (note to OP, to my knowledge, they do not replace the hair of -all- NPCs in game, just most or some).

3) Skyhair has a standard res version now, I believe.

 

Since your character can only use one hair at a time any way, using one hair mod at a time is a reasonable work around for the crashing issue. Good luck :thumbsup:

 

The problem is that there are some NPC cosmetic overhaul mods that require multiple hair mods as masters. I don't use any of those mods and I don't encourage anyone to use them. Also, OP, keep in mind that it's not just hair mods that contribute to instability during showracemenu, but all cosmetic mods (skin textures, eyelashes, warpaints, etc.)

 

My experience with showracemenu is the opposite of the OP. I only use Skyhair and no other hair mods, and I have no issue accessing the create character screen during the Helgan tutorial. I can also showracemenu anytime during the tutorial and in Riverwood to make further edits. After that, however, I will usually freeze when I showracemenu, unless I do it after a PC reboot (then I can access it.....once). Location has a lot to do with it. Showracemenu should always be done in an interior cell, with no NPCs. A lot of this stuff has already been documented in countless discussions about the showracemenu. So in sum, I would say the OP's idea is....hazardous at best, and probably not useful since it's not the vanilla hair that's making the showracemenu unstable, but hair mods.

Edited January 9, 2013 by ripple

[Klokinator]

So basically, if I want to enjoy my character alteration mods, I should disable them, run to an interior cell, open the Showracemenu, then make my character there? It's actually quite a reasonable conclusion, I had just assumed that vanilla hair contributed to some slowdown and that getting rid of it would allow me to use my mods as normal. Since it does not affect my VRAM issues, I'll just make a save shortly after helgen and edit my character from there. Thanks for the feedback, this helped me quite a bit.

 

I also might look into getting a lower-res version of Apachii. Thanks for clarification on Apachii's gender btw.

 

Edit:

The problem is that there are some NPC cosmetic overhaul mods that require multiple hair mods as masters. I don't use any of those mods and I don't encourage anyone to use them.

Yeah I don't use any of those either. Just the apachii NPC overhaul, downloadable on her mods page.

Edited January 9, 2013 by Klokinator