How do I avoid Grey Face, body/head mixmatch all together

[DustyDuckDustin]

I am assuming it has something to do with texture mods I have installed? Would it be safe to assume that I can completely rid this problem if I stuck to armor mods. I really like ApachiiHair mod too, do you think I could be safe with that?

 

It bothers me so much I will typically completely erase a game, and start over without mods. I am currently re-installing my entire game. Any help would be appreciated.

[GoodfellowGoodspring]

How many mods did you have installed? It would be best to determine which mod is causing the gray face bug and contact the author asking them to fix the problem via the export etc method

[Auzarion]

I have this to and I suspect something with the modding community is responsible or a patch from Bethesda. Mostly I think its a Bethesda patch that screwed something up. Some people still have this bug when deleting their entire Skyrim archive. And I mean every trace of it, then when they reinstall the whole thing, they still get it. Somethings not right.

 

 

If you using ApachiiHair it could be the reason why. On another forum it said it can cause it.

Edited May 7, 2013 by Auzarion

[Tharbad123]

It's fairly easy to solve the grey head bug.

 

First find out which NPC is affected. If it's one already in the game, go to the UESP website(just google UESP), find the NPC and look for their base ID on the right. If not in the game find this by going to the console and clicking on the NPC and getting it that way (first way is quickest as you don't need to load the game.

 

Go to the Data foider and go to Textures, then Actors, then Character then Facegendata then Facetint In here you will find various ESM folders - if your modder has created more than one NPC they will most likely have created an ESM folder here, if not look in Skyrim.ESM - delete the corresponding tga and dds files.

 

Then go to Meshes in Data folder. Follow a similar path until you reach Facegeom. Again go to the corresponding folder and this time delete the corresponding Nif file.

 

This should return the NPC to the vanilla version.

 

Ok, so I want the special hair and face and all you've done is to tell me how to take it all off?

 

There is a reason for this. The chances are that there is a conflicting mod and the facegen is packed in a BSA file. Loose files will always overwrite BSA files, so you get the grey head bug. The dds and tga files are texture files whilst the Nif is the mesh, but they work in tune to each other.

 

Right, now find the mod that changed everything. in the first place. Look in the Data folder and see if it has a corresponding BSA file. If it does, this should solve your problem. If not then the texture and mesh files need to be reinstalled. If it's a single NPC mod then just reinstall it. Should solve it. If it's a multiple NPC mod then you are going to have to do it manually but simply copying the files doesn't work all the time. You need the Creation Kit.

 

Load up the CK and click on File. Choose Data (just saying this if you've never used the CK before) Load up the mod esp that has the desired NPC. You do this by clicking on it and making it Active. If the modder has created it with new hair in mind then it should load the corresponding hair mod.

 

When it has loaded (just ignore the warnings - happens all the time) The big window on the left will fill up with all the Skyrim data as well as the mods data. Click on Actors or All (at the bottom) and search for the name of the NPC - if it doesn't appear then you might have to do it manually - for instance Lydia isn't called Lydia she's called "HousecarlWhiterun" but most are called the NPC's name. Once you have found it. Click on it and then press Control and F4. This will export the facegen files to Textures and Meshes.If you have a look in the folders you'll see newly generated files with corresponding dds, tga and nif's. What you'll also notice is the base ID number is the same.

 

Finally and very importantly, save the esp in the CK. I don't know why this is, but sometimes it does not work if you don't..

 

Then load up the game and you should see the NPC with the desired look.

 

If you install any other mods that change this NPC then they will overwrite these files. So check what NPC's it affects first.

 

If you are fed up of this particular NPC being affected then I'd point you to the "Skyrim NPC Editor" here on the Nexus. You can change any attribute or create your own NPC's (although you'll need the CK to place them in the game)

- when you save the NPC make sure it creates a BSA file. This way you should keep the settings. If you get the grey head bug again - delete the texture and Mesh files as discussed above. Place the NPC esp near the bottom of your load order so as it loads last.

 

Now a year and a half ago I didn't even know what modding was. Skyrim is the first game of it's kind I've bought, but through mods, I've found out just how they work (up to a point) and I can certainly change an NPC's appearance now and know how it changes. All through just playing around with mods.

 

Hope all that helps. :-)