Tips on Fixing Rusty Face, Dark Face and Black Face

[DurictheBold]

I have been using mods in Fallout 4 and Skyrim for over 20 years. I am recently revisiting Fallout 4 after 4 years so there is a lot I have forgotten about modding this game and there are hundreds of new mods. I am currently using Mod Organizer 2 but I have used every mod manager that has ever been created (NMM, Vortex, etc.) I usually run 300+ mods. It never fails but in both of these games I always run into the black face, dark face, rusty face or neck seem issues. I am a little OCD about this because it breaks immersion for me when someone is walking around looking like someone slapped their head onto their body with duct tape or like they put their head in a deep fryer. It probably does not help that I have an ultra high resolution monitor running display port and will support to 144 MHz so I notice things most people would miss. Moving on I am sure other people may know more about this subject than me or offer their own advise and I will not be offended.

 

• First the reason why the rusty face, dark face, black face occurs is there is either a texture mismatch, missing textures or a texture conflict.
  • Bethesda's High Resolution Texture Pack will cause this bug as well. If this was a vanilla game this would never cause this issue but only when you start introducing new textures or overwriting textures is when it will cause a problem. (As a side note I did not even remember I had this installed when I was first trying to troubleshoot this issue because I first installed it 4 years ago and I was using NMM at the time.)
  • I tried installing every patch including the High Res DLC Black Face Fix and it did not fix the issue for me. The only thing it fixed was the dark faces for Depravity Companions. Better Settlers still had dark faces.
• Here are some suggestions on how to fix this issue.
  • The first suggestion is to use vanilla textures and you should never have this problem. (However, I cannot live with 2015 (1k) textures and even the High Resolution Texture Pack is not good enough for me. Additionally, any mods you install that creates new NPC's or modifies textures may cause the above issues. It is a rabbit hole Alice once you start modding.)
  • Moving on the first thing you may want to change is the body and CBBE is the most common.
    • You would think that you would not need to install anything else but you would be wrong. Any quest mod or texture pack can write their own textures that may not match the body or skin.
  • The next thing you need to install is a texture mod (skin). The reason you need to do this is because it overwrites all the different skin textures so that they are the same. There are no conflicts, the head and body match and none of the above issues.
    • Some suggestions on selecting a body texture mod is you want a mod that changes both the body and the head. If you just use a body replacer the head may not match and still look "jenky"
    • You do not need a skin replacer that is over 2k. First I am not sure the game supports above 2k textures and if it did it could cause performance issues or even a slight delay would annoy me. Additionally, most people would not be able to identify the difference between 2k and a 4k texture.
    • I am currently using Dream Skin which is one of he most popular. And here are the reasons why...
      • It replaces both the head and the body
      • It is 2k. I do not need 8k skin textures and most do not replace the face. More importantly I want all my skin textures to be the same resolution.
      • It looks really good.
    • IMPORTANT - do not panic if after modifying your textures if some of your NPC who use previous Looks MenuPresets look like someone squished their faces or a Piccaso painting. Just reapply the Looks Menu preset and this should fix it. YOU SHOULD SAVE ANY CUSTOM PRESETS PRIOR TO MAKING CHANGES SO YOU CAN REAPPLY THEM LATER. THIS INCLUDES YOUR CHARACTER JUST IN CASE.
• How do I troubleshoot this issue??? It it still not fixed.
  • You need to be careful of any mod that overwrites or tries to replace your textures. This can be any mod that replaces or adds new NPC's into the game.
  • You need to make sure you overwrite all skin textures so that they are the same.
  • You can try setting your .ini file to only use 2k textures. I suggest your custom.ini .The reason for this is sometimes the game will try to convert these textures back t0 1024 (1k).
    • [CharGen]
      uTintWidth=2048
      uTintHeight=2048
  • If you want to change the appearance of NPC's in the game I suggest you use Looks Menu Presets and learn how to go into the console and apply them. This will ensure you are not replacing any textures. You want to toggle off their AI so they do not walk away and you are unable to see the changes you have made.
    • tai - toggle off ai
    • showlooksmenu <npc id> 1
  • You can try using "recycleactor" if the changes do not take affect immediately but this will also change the appearance of a settler or any NPC who is not unique.
    • This may also cause the actor to become naked. (Their cloths are in their inventory but not equipped. You can equip their cloths when you trade with them but when using mods like Better Settlers you will need to use the console to trade with them. I do not know why but it takes a little while before they start talking to you again. Maybe you pissed them off. Use "openactorcontainer 1" after selecting the NPC to force a trade through the console. You then need to equip them.)
  • Move your new skin texture to the bottom of your load order and make sure it overwrites all other skin textures (below all your quest mods or NPC replacers or anything else that may modify your textures.
• HELP now my AI doesn't work. Everyone is just standing around and not moving.
  • I experienced this issue when I had multiple texture replaceers installed at once. I was confused that a texture replacer could break the AI but what I think was happening is that it was creating an unresolved conflict because both programs were trying to modify the same files. You just need to disable one of them. (i.e. High Res DLC fix and a skin mod)

PRECAUTIONS

• Any time you make changes to the game you are taking a risk and Fallout 4 is very unforgiving when you make changes in the middle of the game and there is ALWAYS the risk it could break your play through or cause a CTD. It is suggested to experiment with mods with a new game or always be able to fall back to a previous save. Additionally, the only mod manager I currently use is Mod Organizer 2. There is a little bit of a learning curve but I have found it to be the best.

 

The purpose of this information is to help other modders not to experience the same frustrations I have over the past few days. I know there is a lot of information this does not cover but hopefully this is of use to someone. Now go save the world (...or destroy it your choice)!

 

~Duri

 

 

 

 

[talesofwill]

You mentioned how presets might get squashed when adding new textures. that happened to me and I have been unable to fix it, I was wondering if you could provide further assistance.

[deffjeff87]

I have been using mods in Fallout 4 and Skyrim for over 20 years. I am recently revisiting Fallout 4 after 4 years so there is a lot I have forgotten about modding this game and there are hundreds of new mods. I am currently using Mod Organizer 2 but I have used every mod manager that has ever been created (NMM, Vortex, etc.) I usually run 300+ mods. It never fails but in both of these games I always run into the black face, dark face, rusty face or neck seem issues. I am a little OCD about this because it breaks immersion for me when someone is walking around looking like someone slapped their head onto their body with duct tape or like they put their head in a deep fryer. It probably does not help that I have an ultra high resolution monitor running display port and will support to 144 MHz so I notice things most people would miss. Moving on I am sure other people may know more about this subject than me or offer their own advise and I will not be offended.

 

• First the reason why the rusty face, dark face, black face occurs is there is either a texture mismatch, missing textures or a texture conflict.
  • Bethesda's High Resolution Texture Pack will cause this bug as well. If this was a vanilla game this would never cause this issue but only when you start introducing new textures or overwriting textures is when it will cause a problem. (As a side note I did not even remember I had this installed when I was first trying to troubleshoot this issue because I first installed it 4 years ago and I was using NMM at the time.)
  • I tried installing every patch including the High Res DLC Black Face Fix and it did not fix the issue for me. The only thing it fixed was the dark faces for Depravity Companions. Better Settlers still had dark faces.
• Here are some suggestions on how to fix this issue.
  • The first suggestion is to use vanilla textures and you should never have this problem. (However, I cannot live with 2015 (1k) textures and even the High Resolution Texture Pack is not good enough for me. Additionally, any mods you install that creates new NPC's or modifies textures may cause the above issues. It is a rabbit hole Alice once you start modding.)
  • Moving on the first thing you may want to change is the body and CBBE is the most common.
    • You would think that you would not need to install anything else but you would be wrong. Any quest mod or texture pack can write their own textures that may not match the body or skin.
  • The next thing you need to install is a texture mod (skin). The reason you need to do this is because it overwrites all the different skin textures so that they are the same. There are no conflicts, the head and body match and none of the above issues.
    • Some suggestions on selecting a body texture mod is you want a mod that changes both the body and the head. If you just use a body replacer the head may not match and still look "jenky"
    • You do not need a skin replacer that is over 2k. First I am not sure the game supports above 2k textures and if it did it could cause performance issues or even a slight delay would annoy me. Additionally, most people would not be able to identify the difference between 2k and a 4k texture.
    • I am currently using Dream Skin which is one of he most popular. And here are the reasons why...
      • It replaces both the head and the body
      • It is 2k. I do not need 8k skin textures and most do not replace the face. More importantly I want all my skin textures to be the same resolution.
      • It looks really good.
    • IMPORTANT - do not panic if after modifying your textures if some of your NPC who use previous Looks MenuPresets look like someone squished their faces or a Piccaso painting. Just reapply the Looks Menu preset and this should fix it. YOU SHOULD SAVE ANY CUSTOM PRESETS PRIOR TO MAKING CHANGES SO YOU CAN REAPPLY THEM LATER. THIS INCLUDES YOUR CHARACTER JUST IN CASE.
• How do I troubleshoot this issue??? It it still not fixed.
  • You need to be careful of any mod that overwrites or tries to replace your textures. This can be any mod that replaces or adds new NPC's into the game.
  • You need to make sure you overwrite all skin textures so that they are the same.
  • You can try setting your .ini file to only use 2k textures. I suggest your custom.ini .The reason for this is sometimes the game will try to convert these textures back t0 1024 (1k).
    • [CharGen]
      uTintWidth=2048
      uTintHeight=2048
  • If you want to change the appearance of NPC's in the game I suggest you use Looks Menu Presets and learn how to go into the console and apply them. This will ensure you are not replacing any textures. You want to toggle off their AI so they do not walk away and you are unable to see the changes you have made.
    • tai - toggle off ai
    • showlooksmenu <npc id> 1
  • You can try using "recycleactor" if the changes do not take affect immediately but this will also change the appearance of a settler or any NPC who is not unique.
    • This may also cause the actor to become naked. (Their cloths are in their inventory but not equipped. You can equip their cloths when you trade with them but when using mods like Better Settlers you will need to use the console to trade with them. I do not know why but it takes a little while before they start talking to you again. Maybe you pissed them off. Use "openactorcontainer 1" after selecting the NPC to force a trade through the console. You then need to equip them.)
  • Move your new skin texture to the bottom of your load order and make sure it overwrites all other skin textures (below all your quest mods or NPC replacers or anything else that may modify your textures.
• HELP now my AI doesn't work. Everyone is just standing around and not moving.
  • I experienced this issue when I had multiple texture replaceers installed at once. I was confused that a texture replacer could break the AI but what I think was happening is that it was creating an unresolved conflict because both programs were trying to modify the same files. You just need to disable one of them. (i.e. High Res DLC fix and a skin mod)

PRECAUTIONS

• Any time you make changes to the game you are taking a risk and Fallout 4 is very unforgiving when you make changes in the middle of the game and there is ALWAYS the risk it could break your play through or cause a CTD. It is suggested to experiment with mods with a new game or always be able to fall back to a previous save. Additionally, the only mod manager I currently use is Mod Organizer 2. There is a little bit of a learning curve but I have found it to be the best.

 

The purpose of this information is to help other modders not to experience the same frustrations I have over the past few days. I know there is a lot of information this does not cover but hopefully this is of use to someone. Now go save the world (...or destroy it your choice)!

 

~Duri

 

 

 

Hello

 

Thanks for the post/guide! Really helped me out!

I was stumbling my way from 1k to 2k face/body textures and it was fun but frustrating when I couldn't find any help to start off with. But I did manage to get the 2k textures working on everyone, then I thought "my computer can handle 4k so why not" well 2 days later I ran across this post and did some more research and just settled for 2k faces until I want to take some screenshots. The Dream Skin FACE & BODY texture was the biggest indicator for me to just stop for now and have some fun.

 

I noticed there isn't a lot of full 4k face & body textures out there for newbies like me to look for. And learning that if just one texture is off it can black face more then just your character. Which happened to me! I managed to get my playable character in 4k face & 8k body but the Bethesda engine didn't like that and there were a lot of npc's that would have black face and not to mention all my downloaded companions were still in 1k and 2k textures so I guess I'll save a true 4k run when I play Skyrim or whenever the next Fallout comes out.

 

Now after a couple weeks of modding I feel I have everything in order for two different type of playthroughs. Well anyways just wanted to say thanks for the post and keeping me from totally giving up and just quitting!

 

 

 

[StormWolf01]

Lighting, weather effects, and even some general area zones can cause darkface with the CBBE textures (Dunno if they affect other textures, as those are the only ones that I've used).

sometimes loading a previous save will cure it. I have found tho, that by opening the console, clicking on my own character, or the character that is affected, and then typing in SLM ###### (the numbers that represent the character ID numbers. which you will get when you click on the actor while console is open) then going into looks menu.

Then change the skin tone of the character, apply the change, go back in, and reset it to the previous skin tone color, apply, and then leave looks menu.

 

This has fixed the problem for me on several occasions.

 

It will NOT however fix the problem if you have mismatched textures.

[Dreadshow]

Lighting, weather effects, and even some general area zones can cause darkface with the CBBE textures (Dunno if they affect other textures, as those are the only ones that I've used).

sometimes loading a previous save will cure it. I have found tho, that by opening the console, clicking on my own character, or the character that is affected, and then typing in SLM ###### (the numbers that represent the character ID numbers. which you will get when you click on the actor while console is open) then going into looks menu.

Then change the skin tone of the character, apply the change, go back in, and reset it to the previous skin tone color, apply, and then leave looks menu.

 

This has fixed the problem for me on several occasions.

 

It will NOT however fix the problem if you have mismatched textures.

 

I usually just change the hair, not even apply the change just esc)Back out of it and it fixes it every time.

[StormWolf01]

 

Lighting, weather effects, and even some general area zones can cause darkface with the CBBE textures (Dunno if they affect other textures, as those are the only ones that I've used).

sometimes loading a previous save will cure it. I have found tho, that by opening the console, clicking on my own character, or the character that is affected, and then typing in SLM ###### (the numbers that represent the character ID numbers. which you will get when you click on the actor while console is open) then going into looks menu.

Then change the skin tone of the character, apply the change, go back in, and reset it to the previous skin tone color, apply, and then leave looks menu.

 

This has fixed the problem for me on several occasions.

 

It will NOT however fix the problem if you have mismatched textures.

 

I usually just change the hair, not even apply the change just esc)Back out of it and it fixes it every time.

 

Noice! Great tip! Thanks Dread! :thumbsup: