Skyrim suddenly reverted back to 'bat faced' vampires

[drej0z]

I don't know what's going on. I stopped playing Skyrim for a little bit, and I've just started playing again after about a week. I have made NO changes to what I had besides swapping some eye textures and adding dynamic snow. No other changes whatsoever.

 

Now my vampires are back to having the ugly, bat-like face. It's weird, too - I go to Castle Volkihar, and Serana and a couple of other guys look fine. The rest have the gray/black, forehead ridged, freaky nose form. The weird thing is the fact that there's no red line on the face like vanilla.

 

Here's what I have installed:

 

Skyrim.esm Active
Update.esm Active
Dawnguard.esm Active
ApachiiHair.esm Active
RaceCompatibility.esm Active
DragonsReach_Hideout.esm Active
JSwords.esm Active
Ranger Ridge.esm Active
SkyMoMod.esm Active
Better Dynamic Snow.esp Active
Dark Dungeons for ENB.esp Active
SkyMoMod_lists.esp Active
Auto Unequip Arrows.esp Active
IMAGINATOR - Visual Control for Skyrim.esp Active
AsharaPrinceOfTheWoods.esp Active
BowOfShadows.esp Active
DemonHunterArmor.esp Active
Dread Knight Weapon Set.esp Active
DreamBurrowsRegalAssassin.esp Active
GDRangerArmor.esp Active
NarquelionBow.esp Active
R18Pn - Ritter Armor - Heavy.esp Active
Ranger's Cape.esp Active
Raven Set v1.4.esp Active
THCraftableVampireArmory.esp Active
The Bow of the Drow.esp Active
TrissArmorRetextured.esp Active
zz_GD_DB_RAHoods.esp Active
zz_GDRAHoods.esp Active
DragonsReach_Hideout_Nightingale.esp Active
Ranger Ridge.esp Active
RayeksEnd.esp Active
FasterHorses_Sprint_x2.esp Active
NerniesRangerPack.esp Active
MidasSkyrim.esp Active
Dragon Knowledge Spell.esp Active
QuickShouts.esp Active
Crimson Tide - Blood.esp Active
Dryad Race.esp Active
EpicElves by zzjay.esp Active
race+.esp Active
ESPv1_1.esp
EnhancedCharacterEdit.esp Active
Extended Slider Colors.esp Active
Vampire Eyes Fix.esp Active
VanillaRaces.esp Active
NormalVampireFaces.esp Active
ethereal_elven_overhaul.esp Active
RaceMenu.esp Active
RaceMenuPlugin.esp Active

 

Like I said - NOTHING changed, besides what I mentioned. I don't have Dragonborn yet, and I've made sure everything is updated. I don't understand why my Normal Faces for Vampires is no longer working - I've even tried switching out head textures (replacing the vampire.dds files with the regular ones) and it still remains that way. My PC is not a vampire, so I only can tell that it's happening with NPCs. I've even just now completely removed the 'characters' folder from the texture section of the Data folder and no change whatsoever.

 

I'm not sure how to check if this is only happening for a certain race or not, because like I said, Serana and a couple other guys look fine. There's one other vamp I ran into at a mill with the face error. Normal Vampire Faces appears to have stopped working altogether. I've cleaned my addons with TESV Edit, reorganized everything with BOSS, still no change. I'm not sure how this changed for some characters and not others, because there's at least two people not counting Serana in Castle Volkihar who look fine.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ETuK255.jpg

[fiewiel]

I guess NormalVampireFaces.esp should normalize the vampire face?

Try to put it last on load order.

[drej0z]

Nope. :/ It's like nothing's being recognized at all.

[fiewiel]

I kinda dont understand the problem.

A bunch of NPC vampires have sunken cheeks and some not.

So far I didnt saw a single mod which fixes npc vampire cheeks and I think its just normal. Serana is something special, as I played through dawnguard she never had sunken cheeks (at least not much). Shes also an essential follower.

If its about your char being a vamp with the cheek problem, there are a couple of mods who try to fix this. I used http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/22477 for some time.

One thing to remember is that ECE is using own faceparts and will conflict with other mods doing the same except the one I linked

 

After rereading your text I realize that most what I wrote is useless anyway. -.-

What I can say is that sunken cheeks isnt a texture problem, its a mesh one. Actually its just normal for vampires and I know of no way to "fix" it for npc vampires.

Edited February 11, 2013 by fiewiel

[drej0z]

Well, I took out all my vampire mods, so this is either an unfixable glitch or it's part of the game. It's not just the cheeks, it's the nose and the ridges and lines on the head - is that a mesh, or a texture? I've never seen it before, and it's weird to have it just pop up like that. I do remember having normalized vampires though, because I've never seen that particular face till now.. :/

[drej0z]

Update: Went to some cave/hold thing down in Falkreath, found a vampire there. She doesn't have the same facial morph as I've shown above and looks relatively normal, if grayer than any regular NPC.

 

Uh....do I need to reinstall my game? I'm sure at this point it's a mesh/headmorph issue and I don't know how to resolve that.

Edited February 12, 2013 by sydlet

[fiewiel]

Bevor reinstalling I would first try to uninstall (not untick) all mods which can alter bodyshapes. Custom race mods, beauty mods and so on. Just everything related.

If that doesnt help, use your game version with the uninstalled mods and start a new game and check if the vampires in the new game are also distorted. If thats the case I would start new (rename skyrim folder to skyrim old or something) and install new. You still have your backup of your old skyrim just in case.

Try to use your savegame where you encountered distorted vamps and check if its still the same. If it is uh well...

 

Another idea... Just checked a mod Im using which alters townfolk. I see its installing into /skyriminstalldir/data/meshes/actors/character/facegendata/*.* Check if you have a facegendata folder at the same place and if so, move it to a backup place.

Also found this: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/21839/ which is a retexture mod, but not sure if its npc or pc. It changes /skyriminstalldir/data/textures/actors/character/male/maleheadvampire.dds and a couple of other files in near directories. Check if your skyrim install is vanilla at these places.

Edited February 12, 2013 by fiewiel

[drej0z]

Alright, removing the facegendata folders did nothing, so I went and removed both of the 'actors' folders from the textures and meshes folder. Still had the crinkly bat face, but without the beauty mods, it didn't look so....out of place? The discoloration seemed to be gone, at least.

 

I'm thinking it's more or less supposed to look this way, even though I've no idea why nothing I install will make them use their regular face. Should I kill one and then resurrect the npc so they'll reset?