Tintable animal ears and matching tails?

[Kathonica]

Has anyone seen anything like this, aside from the Animated Animal Ears mod? I already use both Calyps Animal Ears and the HDT Ears/Tail pack, but none of them really match with any reasonable hair color other than black. A custom race with these kinds of assets would probably work equally as well.

[PsychoMachina]

The Elins have color-matching ears and tails.  It's the same method I use for the Painted Lady.  If you want to know how to do it, let me know and I'll get back to you when possible (have to leave for work in few minutes).

 

FYI, if the ears/tail textures are dark then the tint will not look that great.

[Kathonica]

The Elins have color-matching ears and tails.  It's the same method I use for the Painted Lady.  If you want to know how to do it, let me know and I'll get back to you when possible (have to leave for work in few minutes).

 

FYI, if the ears/tail textures are dark then the tint will not look that great.

 

If the Elin ears could be used on other races, that'd be great - they're better meshes, anyhow.  I would be interest in knowing your method, though!

[PsychoMachina]

Here is the How-To.  I was pressed for time when writing this so if you run into any problems let me know.

 

 

How to Make Ears and Tails Match Colors with the Hair.

 

Step One:  [Nifskope] Editing the Meshes.

Open the mesh in Nifscope.
Go to 0 NiNode > NiTrishapeData > BSLightingShaderProperty.
In the Block Details window for BSLightingShaderProperty, you will need to edit:

• Skyrim Shader Type
• Shader Flags 1
• Shader Flags 2

[skyrim Shader Type] Change the Value of Skyrim Shader Type by double-clicking on the value field and changing it to HAIR TINT.

[shader Flags 1] For Shader Flags 1, double-click on it's Value field and you'll get a drop-down list.  Check (add) the following flags:

• SLSF1_Hair Soft_Lighting.

[shader Flags 2] For Shader Flags 2, double-click on it's Value field and you'll get a drop-down list.  Check (add) the following flags:

• SLSF2_Vertex_Colors
• SLSF2_Assume_Shadowmask

Save the mesh.
Done.

Step Two: [Creation Kit] Changing How the Game Handles the Ears and Tails.

The game changes the color of headparts, but not equip-able items.  This is why the ears and tails need to be converted from an equippable 'armor' to an actor's headpart.

You will need to create Headpart forms for each ears and tails you want to use and add the tail as Additional Headpart.  To make a comparison, the tail would be like the Hairline whereas the ears would be like the Hair.

Tail as Additional Headpart.
Double-click on a vanilla hairline form and change the Editor ID and Name to identify the tail.
Change the reference (file path) to the hairline mesh to now use the tail mesh.
If there are any references to TRI (morph) files, delete those file paths.
Make sure the Option 'is Extra Part' is selected and the Type is 'Misc'.
You can leave the Valid Races as is or, if using a custom race, the custom race's formlist.

Save the changes as a NEW record.


Ears as Headpart.
You first need to create a dummy form to allow the ears/tail set to appear in the character customization menu.
Double-click on a vanilla hair headpart form and change the Editor ID and Name to identify the ears.
Change the TYPE to 'Facial Hair'.
Leave the Valid Races value and data flags (Playable, Female) untouched, but delete all other information (mesh file path, Tri file paths).

Save as a NEW record.

Open the dummy form and use it as a template to for the ears.
Change the Editor ID and Name to identify the ears.
Add the Nif path to the ears mesh.
In the Addtional Headparts list (bottom right), right-click > Add > select the tail headpart form from the list.

Save the changes as a NEW record.

Repeat step 2 for each additional tail and ears.

 

EDIT

To avoid any confusion, you only have to create one dummy form.  When I said, "Repeat step 2 for each additional tail and ears", you can omit the part about creating a dummy form.

Save the plugin and test it out in your game.