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Updates:
6/16/15 - New dynamic SKSE armor swapper,(also it does hair too) this means no more clunky skyproc patcher, this will be 'beta 5' now. You need to perform a full 'clean install' before upgrading or things are liable to break horribly. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Major changes in beta 5:
Spoiler
2/19/15 - Moved download links into OP. The download manager/file page for LL appears to be broken, plus I'm tired of using it as its absolutely awful, so from now on you can find the download links under the 'Downloading the files:' section of the installation instructions in this post. I also made one or two minor corrections to the FAQ, and added a link to some compatibility patches for other mods containing children under the installation instructions section.
11/16/14 - Cleaned up OP. That's really all that was changed, the mod itself has not been updated in any way. There are a few more FAQ entries as well which everyone should read.
8/24/14 - NMM/MO installer is now available(I'm technically calling this 'beta 4'), though you really shouldn't be using NMM as its terrible. Manual install instructions have been rewritten to reflect the single file we have now. CGE support file has been removed, as support is now automatic and comes bundled with race menu. The only actual update to the mod is that spyder's altered male textures are now included by default, so there's no changelog. I've also added a link to spyder's alternate NPC replacer addon.
2/17/14 - Small update, the vanilla child replacer now includes support for all of the DLC NPCs, as well as 'placeholder' support for the vanilla males(Babette is still not supported). Redownload and install the vanilla child package to update, but be sure to read the new installation instructions as they have changed with the addition of DLC support. Additionally, in compliance with the new rules at LL, both nude body options as well as the girl body modders resource have been removed.
1/19/14 - Beta 3 is out. The first beta release of the vanilla child replacer is now out, though presently it only contains the 16 vanilla skyrim girls excluding Babette. There are also two new follower addons available that put the two addon races to use on some NPCs, they have their own sections below. The Monli preset patches are fixed now as well, so if you're using that race feel free to try them out. There have also been some updates/additions to the FAQ section, so please check to see if your question is answered in there before posting in the thread. This time there is an incremental patch, so you don't need to redownload the files when upgrading from b2. However there are specific upgrade instructions on this one, which have been added to the installation instructions section, so be sure to read them when upgrading. A complete list of changes is provided below.
Major changes in beta 3:
Spoiler
12/14/13 - CharGen Extension support has been added, it has its own section in the installation instructions. I've also made some revisions to the installation instructions in general, most notably highlighting the fact that NMM is not supported. You need to manually install the packages using the provided instructions. I also want to point out that the monli preset plugins are presently broken due to an error on my part, please refrain from using them until I am able to release a hotfix.
12/6/13 - Beta 2 is out. Unfortunately this will require a complete redownload of all packages in order to update, future updates will come with incremental patches for updating between major revisions. The installation instructions have been amended for this new release, so be sure to read them before installing. The BOSS userlist entries have also been updated, so be sure to grab those as well as read the accompanying instructions as they have changed.
Major changes in beta 2:
Spoiler
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Before we get into it,
Project features as it stands now:
- Playable, functional, child versions of all vanilla races with both genders(including beast races!)
- Extra standalone fantasy-styled races(optional)
- Working vampirism, werewolf, and vampire lord form as well as racial quest checks(DB potage quest for instance)
- Mostly complete(missing Babette, boys are WIP) replacement of vanilla+DLC child NPCs
- All race assets are completely isolated from vanilla formlists and art assets, and will not conflict with anything(vanilla, mod content, or otherwise)
- Custom body+textures for girls, with weight slider support(UNP UV layout)
- Custom body+textures for boys, no weight slider support at present(Vanilla male UV layout, option for UNP UV body available)
- Functional ARMA based armor swapper for transparent model swapping on equipment(more details below)
- Complete set of child resized vanilla+dlc armor/clothes for boys(no weight slider support as the body doesn't support it)
- Complete set of child resized vanilla+dlc armor and limited selection of clothes for girls(no weight slider support on these yet)
Future Goals/WIP:
The project is actually mostly done and 'feature complete' as it stands. It still says 'beta' on the tin, but its more or less all there. All the old stuff that used to be listed in this section has been scrapped, as it has become readily apparent that 'we' really consists of just 'me'.
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General Information:
At its core, the project(at least as of the latest update) is designed as more of a 'technical framework' than a mod in and of itself. It takes care of all the technical problems inherent with child races(and custom races in general), and provides a solid framework for others to build off of. The original goal of modularity that was touted so loudly is still around, and I'd like to think has been achieved. There are of course a few 'example' packages that ship along with the mod that utilize the aforementioned framework, so you have your basic NPC replacer and a couple standalone races or conversions that use the resources provided here...
Main package - Skykids:
This is the core component of the package, and is required for everything else; it has the child versions of all the races and the records necessary to drive the armor swapper. The races in here are set to non-playable by default and have to be enabled via an external plugin if you want the option to play as them. All the other packages(or external mods+addons) depend on this part of the mod. In its default configuration, this component of the mod should have absolutely no outward effect on your game, so if you're just installing it as a requirement for something else(one of the official addons, external mod by another author, etc.) you shouldn't have to worry about it interfering with anything.
Main package - Vanilla Child NPCs:
This module aims to switch all the vanilla children's races over to their Skykids counterparts, and give them new facegen data and outfits(resized vanilla Skyrim clothing). This is just a basic visual overhaul, nothing fancy. It presently changes all vanilla and DLC NPCs save for Babette(each DLC gets its own separate plugin). The quality here isn't the best as I'm not super great at making faces(especially with the vanilla skyrim assets that are being used here), but it gets the job done if you simply want to rid yourself of the vanilla potato-heads.
Alternate Vanilla Child NPCs: (external link)
Credit for this mod goes to SpyderArachnid. This is an alternative NPC replacer with a different visual theme(think more like CotS). This does the exact same job as the 'official' NPC replacer that comes with Skykids, but simply looks different. Obviously you can only have one of the two NPC replacers active at a given time. More information and screenshots can be found on his mod page at the link above, be sure to read the instructions and install all the requirements before using.
Addon - Monli Race:
This is one of the 'standalone fantasy races' talked about above; it is female only presently, is shorter than the main races, and uses an alternate skeleton morph on top of that, not much more than that to say about it. It uses some different facegen assets from the main races(and as such looks a fair bit better) which are taken from various sources I forgot to cite(as I was never intending to share it initially). There are also some optional plugins that apply hairs from Apachii and the Oblivion hair packs to the racial presets, if you happen to have those mods installed and wish to use them. There are also appropriately labelled screenshots in the relevant section(optional hair plugins enabled).
Addon - Drow Child Race:
This is a similar 'unofficial continuation' of Zazemel's Drow Race(all credit for original assets goes to their original authors) as the other one also available here on LL, however this only implements the child version of the race(and only the females at that, the males were never finished in the original mod either). The textures are now setup for UNP instead of CBBE like the original, most of them were rebuilt from scratch to appear similar to the original, while the specular maps were merely converted(there might be some minor seams in this at the top of the legs). It is shorter than the main races, and uses the same alternate skeleton setup as the Monli race does. Most of the other assets are taken from the original mod along with most of the presets, though some of the facegen assets have been replaced so those will likely look different. Screenshots can be found in the screenshots area and will be labelled as coming from this race. One other note, despite the male side of the race not being implemented, their hair appears to be broken for some reason. The female side operates correctly, and considering the males aren't supposed to be playable anyway I have not endeavoured to fix it yet, I just want to point out that it is a known issue(and seemingly doesn't affect anything else).
Addon - CotS R2 Race:
It's the old CotS R2 race! Except brought into line with current LL policies, and with all of the bugs fixed. It's in actuality a ground up rebuild, but it uses all the same visual assets as the original did. I apologize for the hot pink swimwear as underwear for the girls, but it was literally the only file I could dig up as far as underwear was concerned(if you have something better, or less... pink, please let me know). I'm not bothering to do up a fancy description for this, as I figure most people already know what it is. It looks and plays exactly as the original mod did, just with no bugs or conflicts, and no asset overwrites on the vanilla files, and armor swapper support.
Addon - Lolydia(follower):
This is inspired from a rather old version of the Lolydia mod that's been floating around for a while now. Redesigns(and replaces) Lydia based off of the Monli race(which is required obviously), nothing too terribly fancy here. This is simply a graphical replacement.
Addon - Drow Taldyn(follower):
As the Drow Child race was based on the original Drow race mod, this follower is
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Screenshots:
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Installation Instructions:
Required content:
Skyrim v1.9.32.0
Dawnguard
Required mods:
SKSE v1.7.2 (or newer)
Racial Compatibility for Skyrim and Dawnguard (use of this specific version of RC is required(v1.80 or later); this version contains specific extra functionality for custom races that is required for Skykids)
More Follower Voices Mod (only required for follower addons, however still strongly recommended)
Recommended mods:
BOSS or LOOT
Race Menu (strongly encouraged over ECE(I will no longer support ECE!))
Size Does Matter (fixes child NPCs becoming huge, and getting stuck that way, when interacting with objects in the world(yes there will be clipping as a result of this mod, but its better than gigantic NPCs))
Player Size Adjuster (allows adjustment of move speed/jump height independently of actor scale via MCM menu(remember to disable during initial character creation due to a bug, see FAQ entry for more info))
Load Order Manager userlist entries and instructions:
-LOOT Users: Autopilot, run it and forget.
-BOSS Users: These are the BOSS userlist entries which need to be installed; if you don't know how to do this simply paste the below spoiler tagged section into the file located at '<BOSS install location>\skyrim\userlist.txt'. If the file or directory doesn't exist, run BOSS at least once and it will generate it for you. This has entries for everything, so BOSS may complain about having user rules installed for files that don't exist unless you install every possible optional file; just ignore it, it isn't hurting anything(this issue may have been patched out though). tl;dr: some of the files have been added to the official BOSS masterlist since the initial release, however they messed up the order so you need to make sure to have these overrides installed or you will end up with out of order masters and crash(thanks boss masterlist guys!).
These have been updated for all the new content, so be sure to clean out any old userlist entries(if present) before adding these('Skykids.esm' is intentionally absent).
Spoiler
Downloading the files:
Due to LL's download system generally being a broken PoS(more so than usual at the moment), I've elected to just store the download links here instead of using the awful file manager. The necessary files for each package are listed under its installation instructions.
Skykids main file (installer package)
(Resource) Follower voices revert (special file for those having trouble with follower voices, see FAQ)
(Resource) Tes5edit Scripts (used for making your own compatibility patches, see technical information section)
Cosmetic mod(eyes/brows) compatibility patches:
Certain cosmetic mods will require patching in order to function correctly with the new races; essentially anything that isn't hair will require a patch(hair is now patched automatically via the mods SKSE plugin). Officially created patches are listed here and instructions for making your own can be found below in the technical information section. Patches only work for a single module, and need to be kept active(see technical information section), so for any given mod you will require a patch for every SK module you wish to use it on. You obviously need the listed version of the parent mod installed before installing any of these. All compatibility patches are contained in the main download(and listed in the installer), with the name of the individual files listed below alongside the mods that they patch.
Spoiler
Compatibility patches for other mods containing children:
A number of compatibility patches for other mods have been generously provided by arkayn71 over on the nexus, and can be found here. A full list of the covered mods can be found on its mod page, and as it is updated fairly regularly I won't bother attempting to list them all here, just check the link.
Upgrading from an earlier version to B5: <-- THIS PART IS NOT OPTIONAL!! Don't go asking for help in the thread unless you've done this, you will be shunned otherwise.
You need to perform a clean install in order to upgrade! I cannot stress this enough, the mod will break horribly if you try and install over an existing install of B4 or older. If you were using B4, you should be able to just use its installer to remove it. If you were using B3 or one of the other earlier versions which did not come with an installer, you will have to manually delete everything(consult the archives you installed from for a list of files).
You also need to be absolutely sure to delete the following files(double check that they have been removed, even if you uninstalled via the wizard included in B4!):
The entire directory at "Data\Meshes\skykids-armorswap\"
Your generated armor patch plugin "SK Child Armor Swapper.esp"(yes it is safe to remove this on an existing save)
The entire SkyProc armor patcher directory "Data\SkyProc Patchers\SKArmorPatcher\"(you will likely need to rerun SUM if you are using other patchers, after removing this one)
Any plugins to patch hair mods such as apachii or the oblivion hair packs(hair mods are now patched automatically via the SKSE plugin).
NMM/MO Wizard Install:
With the new installer enabled package, there's just the one main download(Skykids.7z). Run this installer through either NMM or MO(no BAIN support for wrye yet, so wrye users need to follow the manual instructions), and it should handle everything automatically. It should check for dependencies before giving you the option to install something(with the exception of the cosmetic patches! requirements for those will be listed to the user but not enforced by the installer!), so if a specific option isn't showing up you're probably missing something it requires.
There is also an 'express install' option which only installs the main Skykids esm file and its required assets; this is mainly for users installing the Skykids framework for use with some other external mod or addon that requires it(this configuration will have no outward effect on your game by itself).
The armor patcher is gone as of B5, and has been replaced with an SKSE dll that does the same job automatically, so you no longer have to worry about running it.
The old manual instructions are still provided below and have been amended to reflect the new installer package(and further amended for B5), so you can still use them to install as well as to find more info about the specific bits.
Manual Install:
Spoiler
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FAQ/Troubleshooting:
Armor mod X isn't working with the armor swapper:
With the new SKSE based armor swapper(java patcher has since been taken out back and shot), you should honestly never run into this issue. Nevertheless if it happens, you will need to post in the thread with the name of the armor that is not working, along with a link to where the mod containing it can be obtained.
Vanilla armor X isn't working with the armor swapper:
If you're using any mods for your adults which change the model paths on your armors in order to replace them with alternate variants, this will adversely affect the SK armor swapper seeing as it checks for replacement child sized models based on the regular adult path. The only real solution to this problem is to copy the existing child sized models inside the armor swapper folder over to new paths matching that of the replaced adult models(still inside the armor swapper folder mind you). That or uninstall the offending mod.
Racial Compatibility isn't working(can't pass racial quest checks, transformations aren't working correctly, etc.):
If you're running into issues where you can't pass quest checks or any of the other things that RC addresses, the problem is usually some other mod is overriding RC's changes with their own. There are actually quite a few mods out there that for one reason or another didn't properly/fully implement RC, added a hacky workaround instead, and then left the RC requirement; rest assured this mod is not the culprit. First off, try reinstalling RC(making sure to overwrite everything); some mods come bundled with old/outdated/wrong copies of RC scripts for whatever reason, and can gum up the works(though if this wound up being the problem, you may be stuck making a new character or performing console wizardry; make sure you have the right RC scripts loaded before you start a new game unless you want to have to deal with this). If that doesn't work, sadly there isn't a simple answer; you can either start turning off extra mods(typically races) and try to pass the check until it works, then turn them back on afterwards which usually takes care of it. Alternatively, users familiar with tes5edit can attempt to clean the offending mods themselves; just load your entire load order up and start checking the records that RC patches for conflicts(and those nearby, where quests are concerned), then delete the records from the offending mods(and go bother the creators to fix their mods!). I ran into this issue myself during development, turns out I had no less than 3 mods in my load order that were all guilty of this(and like an idiot I didn't bother to write down which ones they were before I patched them). This is pretty much guaranteed to cause the issues you are experiencing on the skykids to happen on the race you are patching, but the only alternative is disabling the plugin as stated above(or hoping the developer releases a fix).
I'm using one of the follower mods, and their follower dialog is unvoiced:
Before MFVM was created, the only way to use the child voice on a follower was to do a dirty hack, and add the child voice type to the list of acceptable follower voices to get the dialog working. This made it 'work', but obviously none of the lines were actually voiced, leaving you with this exact problem. MVFM creates entirely new dialog paths specifically for the child voice(among many others) and reuses the vanilla voice samples for its lines, in order to make it more or less as functional as any of the intended vanilla follower voice types. Unfortunately if you have that formlist hack included in any of the mods in your game, it takes priority over the dialog for MFVM and you go back to having silent voices on the followers. Ideally you would want to get updated versions of any offending mods, that don't include the the formlist edit, however that isn't always possible so I made a simple plugin to revert the formlist to its vanilla state. If you can't get it to work any other way, try downloading [Resource] Follower voices revert.rar, extract and activate it and stick it at the absolute bottom of your load order and it should fix the issue. As long as you have MFVM enabled, any mods that previously required the edit should continue to function as intended(at least as far as the child voices are concerned).
My character walks/runs slower than other races:
This is on account of the races scale, the child races in the main package are set to 0.80; an actors scale adjusts its move speed as well as size. In contrast to other child mods that handle their downscaling via the skeleton, lowering the races scale results in a slower move speed and lower jump height. This makes sense from a realism standpoint, however if you dislike it you can use a mod such as Player Size Adjuster to adjust your move speed and jump height independently of your actor scale. There is one catch with Player Size Adjuster though; upon leaving initial character creation with its plugin enabled it has a habit of making short races very tall for some reason. In its MCM menu it displays final scale(actor scale * base/race scale) on its slider, so putting it back in the 'default' position is a little more complicated than just setting it to '1.0'. The simple solution is to just disable the PSA plugin during initial chargen, and then re-enable it when finished; after that it works properly on entering/exiting the chargen menu.
I have CME/ECE installed and <insert any problem here>:
Don't use bad mods like ECE; I'm done cleaning up other peoples messes.
Spoiler
I have Race Menu installed and my characters head is the wrong size/too small:
Race Menu comes with an extra, optional plugin that provides skeleton scaling support, 'RaceMenuPlugin.esp'. In older versions of RM it unfortunately does not work correctly with skeletons that have scaling built in like the ones provided with this mod do, and resets all bones that it supports to a scale of 1.0. You need to disable 'RaceMenuPlugin.esp' and the problem will go away. Alternatively you can just update your copy of race menu to the latest version as this problem has since been fixed.
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Technical info:
Armor Swapper:
Now with 100% less java and 100% more SKSE! I don't actually feel like writing up a tech entry for the SKSE patcher at the moment, so I've just spoilered the old info regarding the java patcher as both solutions essentially do the same thing, however the SKSE one just does it dynamically when you launch the game as opposed to creating a static plugin like the SkyProc one did. The SKSE plugin does a whole bunch of other stuff too(like patching hair mods) that will eventually be outlined here when I feel like it... so basically never.
Spoiler
Vanilla formlist independence(hair/eye mods not working):
Addendum: New SKSE patcher dynamically patches hair mods by merging their 'valid race' formlists with the relevant skykids ones in memory, I have not amended the below information to reflect this. Eye/brow/etc mods still have to be patched the old way listed below.
There is but one slight problem with isolating mods from the vanilla formlists; suddenly hair and eye mods don't work anymore. The issue is that bethesda lumped about 80% of the face parts onto one valid race formlist, which happens to include the hair(and is consequently where pretty much all hair mods wind up getting put). I can't simply stick us in there(via script of course) as not only would that enable the hair, but it would enable most of the other vanilla face parts, which in all likelyhood are not going to fit on the child faces. So we would have a ton of gimped face parts hanging out in the chargen, not good, and replacing the vanilla facegen files with our own like some mods do was simply unacceptable(why do people think this is ok...). The only alternative I could think of was to patch the hair mods themselves to check a different formlist(the races in the mod have a dedicated formlist for hair, separate from the rest of the face parts), to this end I created a set of tes5edit scripts to automate the process. Ideally, once things get up and running smoothly we can provide pre-patched copies of popular mods so people don't have to fool with doing it themselves, however the process is relatively easy and almost entirely automated so if it comes down to it you can do it yourself with minimal effort, there are instructions for this further down. Also of note, the way hair and eye(or anything else non hair) mods are handled is different and its somewhat important to understand, there's a section dealing with it directly above the section explaining how to make your own patches.
Hair and eye mod compatibility patch technical differences(and to a lesser extent, operation):
Addendum: New SKSE patcher dynamically patches hair mods by merging their 'valid race' formlists with the relevant skykids ones in memory, I have not amended the below information to reflect this. Eye/brow/etc mods still have to be patched the old way listed below.
At their core, patches for these kinds of mods simply swap the valid races formlist used by the HDPT records in the mods to point to new lists for the races in this mod(this is done with a simple string replacement). With the mod in question patched, it stops being selectable on the vanilla races(and any other races with properly implemented RC), and becomes available on the races provided in this mod. Of note, the only time the valid races list is actually referenced is during chargen(and also in the CK); once you've made your character you can turn off the plugin and your hair will stick without issue, conversely mods and existing characters on vanilla or other races will be unaffected while the plugin is running. Hair mods are the simplest of the bunch, there's no extra data that needs to get changed for them to fit properly, so all that needs to be done is to create a new [separate] plugin that patches the existing mod and changes the formlists; simply turn it on when you go to make a character with the new races, then turn it off when you're done. This kind of patch can be done in bulk if you're doing it yourself; I have all of my hair mods patched by one single esp. Eye and other kinds of mods are slightly more complicated; these kinds of mods reference facegen assets, specifically the vanilla facegen assets, this means they will almost invariably not fit properly. The obvious solution is to change the paths to point to the files used by this mod instead, however that comes with a nice little catch; now any other race or mod that uses the file ends up using the facegen assets for this mod and now they don't fit properly. This is kind of a crapshoot, but the best solution I've been able to come up with is to make a copy of the file and then patch it directly(vs externally like we did with the hair). The patching script has some extra code that kicks in when working with things other than hair and will automatically patch the facegen asset paths(using string replacement, as above). Obviously this two file system makes creating mods which rely on external eye mods based on the new races kind of a pain, as everyone's copy needs to be named the same; for this reason I'd suggest sticking with the "SK " prefix for consistency. I'm working on a better solution for this however, more to come on that as progress is made...
Making your own hair/eye mod compatibility patches:
Addendum: New SKSE patcher dynamically patches hair mods by merging their 'valid race' formlists with the relevant skykids ones in memory, I have not amended the below information to reflect this. Eye/brow/etc mods still have to be patched the old way listed below.
First, read the above section that explains how these work. I want to point out that tes5edit is a powerful, complicated tool, and pretty much requires a solid understanding of how plugins and the various records function in order to operate it without making a mess or setting something on fire; there are very few safeguards. I can explain the procedure to a certain extent, but you may notice that I don't go into a whole lot of detail regarding what to do if something doesn't happen exactly the way it's supposed to. To explain every possible circumstance that you may find yourself in along the way is far far outside the realm of what I am prepared to or capable of doing, this is already easily the largest section of the FAQ(and as such, gets a spoiler tag). If you've never used tes5edit before, and while following the directions exactly, you run into a problem that isn't explained, you're pretty much on your own. For those experienced modders among us, unfortunately you have to stomach this wall of text; this was enough of a hassle to write, I don't want to have to go back and write a second, less idiot-proof version. More importantly there are a few important details to pay attention to while patching these things, so I'd really recommend that at the absolute minimum you read the above section before jumping in head first...
Spoiler
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Credits:
Development & Contributors:
en_hawk - Plugin design, refined installer script, tes5edit scripts, girl body, small number of armor conversions
luthien - SKSE based armor swapper and hair patcher dll
D4rkOn3 - Pretty much all of the armor conversions and the new boy body
arlekin - Optional/old boy body
Johann7124 - Porting original XPMS skeletons to XPMSE
Pogost - Original facegen presets
Alwin Wormheart - Handful of new facegen presets
JerWA - Handful of new facegen presets and all around helper
Zixaphir - Contributing original NMM/MO installer script
SpyderArachnid - Updated male textures
Thanks:
TMPhoenix - Adding new functionality to RC, per-request, to better support mods implementing non-standard formlist configurations
Other mod's assets:
XPMS by xp32 - Really old version that's been heavily modified, .nif component only
UNP Body by dimon99 - Girl face and body textures based loosely on the official UNP ones
SG Female Textures Renewal by hellosanta - Girl face textures based on these, as well as tint masks
numenume femalebrows MARO by itamukun - Some of the eyebrow textures use a modified version of these
SoS by VectorPlexus - Boy body and textures based on this(permission obtained and all SoS functionality removed)
Mens Underwear replacer by Imperator3 - Boy body underwear based on these
XPMSE by Groovtama - Included skeletons are based on this
Drow Race by Zazemel - Drow Child race is based on, and as such draws heavily from this
CotS R2 Race(no link) by Jiitek - CotS module is obviously based on this, and gets all of its assets from here(if he borrowed them from somewhere without listing it, it doesn't say on the tin...)
Download links may be found in the installation instructions section, under the heading 'Downloading the files:'
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