New black-face bug developed on Sybille Stentor

[VulcanTourist]

In the middle of a playthrough, the Sybille Stentor NPC has developed the dreaded black-face. To my knowledge I've made no mid-game changes that should have caused this to develop... but I'm probably wrong. It's a likely clue that this NPC is a vampire, right? The majority of other NPCs are unaffected that I can tell; this is the only one so far.

 

I have never encountered black-face before myself, only read about it... and sadly remember nothing of the common causes and solutions. What sort of other clues should I be looking for to resolve this?

[Algabar]

Black faces are usually caused by multiple mods changing one and the same NPC. Technically, in most cases it's missing FaceGen data. "Missing" can mean several things: Either the FaceGendata isn't there (e.g. due an incomplete install of a mod) or the game can't find it, because the data was moved to a custom location.

 

The usual solution is to sort your load order properly and also create a bashed patch with Wrye Bash (which you should do anyway).

 

The "usual suspects" are NPC replacers (especially if you got several of them), mods that make changes to clothes and weapons NPCs are wearing (e.g. Immersive Weapons) and in this case maybe also Vampire overhauls. ALso make sure mods like NPC replacers are installed correctly.

 

The best way to track down issues like these is to load all your plugins in SSEEdit. Expand "Skyrim.esm" and search for Sybille Stentor. If you click her entry, SSEEdit will show you all files that modify her in any way. Among these files, look for the mod you want to control her appearance. Put this mod AFTER everything else that affects her in your load order. Then create a bashed patch.

[VulcanTourist]

Black faces are usually caused by multiple mods changing one and the same NPC. Technically, in most cases it's missing FaceGen data. "Missing" can mean several things: Either the FaceGendata isn't there (e.g. due an incomplete install of a mod) or the game can't find it, because the data was moved to a custom location.

After getting Sybille's ID from Skyrim.esm, I ran down the rabbit holes in \Meshes and \Textures, looking for face geometry files named after her ID inside the Skyrim.esm subdirectories; there weren't any.

 

The "usual suspects" are NPC replacers (especially if you got several of them), mods that make changes to clothes and weapons NPCs are wearing (e.g. Immersive Weapons) and in this case maybe also Vampire overhauls. ALso make sure mods like NPC replacers are installed correctly.

The only replacer I'm using that could affect her face is Botox for Skyrim; I don't have any Vampiric mods at all. I reinstalled Botox and my body replacer mod and then replaced my custom body again, but that changed nothing.

 

The best way to track down issues like these is to load all your plugins in SSEEdit. Expand "Skyrim.esm" and search for Sybille Stentor. If you click her entry, SSEEdit will show you all files that modify her in any way. Among these files, look for the mod you want to control her appearance. Put this mod AFTER everything else that affects her in your load order. Then create a bashed patch.

I did just that, but there were no record conflicts for Sybille, and I was confidant there would be! She's only affected by Skyrim.esm, the Unofficial Patch, and AI Overhaul, but AI overhaul just duplicates the record additions of the Patch.

 

What I deduce from the latter is that is must be a loose-files or hidden BSA conflict. If it's a loose FaceGen files conflict, I should have found something suspicious when I went looking, but I'm still empty-handed. Botox does use a BSA....

 

Edited July 31, 2020 by VulcanTourist

[Algabar]

TBH, I never encountered a blackface "bug" that couldn't be resolved with the measures desribed above in years of Skyrim modding (both "Oldrim" and SE)... So this seems to be an "interesting" case. :ohmy:

 

What you can do:

1. Just for testing: Remove "Botox" and see, what happens. From what you said, this could be the most likely culprit. I doubt it, but who knows...

 

2. If "Botox" isn't responsible for the black face, check all other BSAs from mods. Yeah, I know, BSA conflicts are hard to track down... Or play around with the load order of plugins that call a BSA file. Maybe you're lucky. A good start would be to put "Botox" after everything else that uses a BSA (if "Botox" isn't the cause of the issue).

 

3. Last ressort: Open up Skyrim.esm in the CK. Re-export her FaceGen data. High potential of getting an ugly Vanilla "potato face" and not guaranteed to work.... Before you do this, please create a backup of all your relevant FaceGen data (both meshes and textures) in the "data" folder. This should be

data/textures/actors/character/FaceGenData/Facetint/Skyrim.esm (textures) and

data/meshes/actors/character/FaceGenData/FaceGeom/Skyrim.esm

 

I usually DON'T recommend this - ugly Vanilla face incoming....

[Gorsha]

The "usual suspects" are NPC replacers (especially if you got several of them), mods that make changes to clothes and weapons NPCs are wearing (e.g. Immersive Weapons) and in this case maybe also Vampire overhauls. ALso make sure mods like NPC replacers are installed correctly.

The only replacer I'm using that could affect her face is Botox for Skyrim; I don't have any Vampiric mods at all. I reinstalled Botox and my body replacer mod and then replaced my custom body again, but that changed nothing.

 

 

 

In my experience it can change a lot. It can give you the infamous black face bug.

There is another way to find out which mod it does.

If you have the More informative console, you are able to see the last RefID changes if you select Sybille.

 

Then you can easily select the right plugin to export the facegen files as Algabar proposed, not necessary with ugly face.

[VulcanTourist]

 

 

The "usual suspects" are NPC replacers (especially if you got several of them), mods that make changes to clothes and weapons NPCs are wearing (e.g. Immersive Weapons) and in this case maybe also Vampire overhauls. ALso make sure mods like NPC replacers are installed correctly.

The only replacer I'm using that could affect her face is Botox for Skyrim; I don't have any Vampiric mods at all. I reinstalled Botox and my body replacer mod and then replaced my custom body again, but that changed nothing.

 

In my experience it can change a lot. It can give you the infamous black face bug.

There is another way to find out which mod it does.

If you have the More informative console, you are able to see the last RefID changes if you select Sybille.

 

Then you can easily select the right plugin to export the facegen files as Algabar proposed, not necessary with ugly face.

 

I do have More Informative Console, and I'm slowly learning to use it to full effect. I think I tried that last night, but I will try it again today armed with what you've said. If that doesn't reveal anything obvious, then next I'll try some load order trickery, since that is easy enough in Vortex with some custom rules or group reassignments.