Better Females/Bijin Warmaidens help

[Dilios300]

I recently started started looking for a mod to change Jordis the Swordmaiden's appearance and after I got done looking, I started to experiment with a few mods and see what looked best. I eventually decided to stick with the vanilla mesh, but use Better Females to enhance her textures. But I already have a broad spectrum retex for general NPC's which came into conflict with Better Females by simply being overwritten. I'd like to know if there is a way to apply Better Females to ONLY Jordis, but use the other retex for everyone else?

 

I had also noticed a long time ago that she had the grey face bug, but because it wasn't a game breaking issue, I didn't bother trying to fix it. So I thought I might as well kill 2 birds with one stone and fix the problem and I quickly found out that it was Bijin Warmaidens causing the problem (I'd removed the changes by Bijin and forgot a few records). So, I'd removed all references to Jordis, but the issue persists. Any help with either question?

[Ash71]

The gray face bug typically happens because of conflicting facegeom nif or facetint files in the data folder(or mod organizer). Best bet if you are trying to keep her vanilla appearance is to find what her formID is with tes5edit then find the facegen and facetint in your data/meshes and data/textures folders with the same ID and delete them.

 

As far as giving her a unique texture you will have create a override for her record in tes5edit that gives her a unique mesh(can be the same mesh you use now, its just a seperate instance of it that only she uses instead of shared by similar npcs) and then link the texture to it I'm guessing. A little time studying the records in bijin warmaidens and how it alters npcs will get you there if you have the patience. Good luck.

[Dilios300]

Well, to be honest, I'm not against using a mod to change her appearance completely. Problem is that there aren't many mods that change her appearance to begin with, not to mention the fact that I'm a picky little bugger and just dont like the one's available. So until a better alternative is available, I'm going to have to stick with a vanilla-ish look. But are you sure that method you suggested is safe to use? It couldn't break anything if I screw up?

 

On the subject of fixing the grey face bug, I fixed it. What I did was install Bijin Warmaidens by selecting the "Seperate installation" option in the FOMOD, then I selected all the npc's *except* Jordis and merged the resulting esp's using Merge Plugin's. All I need to do now is copy the files for my body mod over to the merged mods folder and get that set back up again.

[Ash71]

No it shouldn't as long as you create a new esp. While in tes5edit you just right click jordis records and select copy as override into. The first time you do so choose "new esp" then if anything dosnt turn out as expected you can just delete or edit the esp.

 

Hell you could probably even just copy the jordis records from Bijin warmaidens into a new esp as a base to work with. Change the non-player character records back to vanilla values then create a filepath with your chosen meshes and textures. Then you would just change her female world model under armor addon to that filepath as well changing her textures under texture set. Might take a bit of experimentation but it shouldn't be too tough.

 

Sounds like maybe you had a leftover record in the bijin esp changing her tint colors or pointing to a texture that was no longer present. That can give gray face as well. Cheers

[Dilios300]

I'll see what I can do and see what happens. I -- as the thoroughly depressing person that I am -- expect exceptional failure, but I might as well give it a shot. And yes, your right about it being a leftover tint color record in Bijin Warmaidens. I'd found that out last night.

 

How do I chose the filepath to the meshes and textures? Once finished, I'll make a new post with the results.

[winny257]

On 8/20/2018 at 6:22 AM, Dilios300 said:

I recently started started looking for a mod to change Jordis the Swordmaiden's appearance and after I got done looking, I started to experiment with a few mods and see what looked best. I eventually decided to stick with the vanilla mesh, but use Better Females to enhance her textures. But I already have a broad spectrum retex for general NPC's which came into conflict with Better Females by simply being overwritten. I'd like to know if there is a way to apply Better Females to ONLY Jordis, but use the other retex for everyone else?

if you just want to change Jordis, then she must be standalone, so own ESP \ meshes \ textures folder.

 

here some examples.

 

Jordis the Sword-Maiden Overhaul

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/87395

 

Skyrim Beautiful Followers - SBF

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37861

 

 

[Ash71]

As winny257 pointed out, you will basically be making a standalone mod for jordis. So the file structure will go something like: Meshes>actors>character>jordismod>femalebody_1.nif(this is where you will put all her meshes to link to in her armor addon entries)

 

Then same goes for textures: Textures>actors>character>jordismod>femalebody_1.dds ect.

 

After you get everything sorted in the esp you will drop these folders into your skyrim data folder so the game can find them, or if you use mod organizer put them into a folder named jordismod or whatever you want to name it then compress it with 7zip and install. Then I think you should be good to go, hope this helps.

 

edit: Thought about this and realized I'm not sure you could give a npc a unique head texture with an esp, if so i'm not sure how. You would have to give her own head mesh then edit shaderproperties in nifskope unless i'm missing something. Same concept you are just editing texture paths if you decide to attempt it.

 

 

[winny257]

I forgot one point.
I would say Better Females by Bella not to use!
this mod is absolutely outdated (12 December 2011), he is not compatible with any current body mod.
The facial mod is based on CBBE v2, therefore, you need very old textures.
next problem, do you use an old CBBE v2 body, then this body is not compatible with the XP32 skeleton. (100% CTD) also no body physics! 

[Dilios300]

@winny257 I actually dont use CBBE or BodySlide at the moment. I was thinking about trying to use it again after I finish my current playthrough. I always seem to have problems with it for Skyrim and wanted to wait to try again. The body mod I currently use is CHSBHC (not version 3, but the older version) and so far Better Females hasn't caused any issues at all, so their compatible as far as I can tell.

 

My previous question was in regards to TES5Edit in particular. Ash71 said I could make an esp that way and told me I had to specify a texture path. I made the esp, but I didn't see anywhere to specify a texture path, so my question was if I had to do that in TES5Edit or another tool.

[Ash71]

It will be her female world model entry under armor addon, If you load up your merged bijin esp you will see entries under that tree such as JenassaHandsAP, JenassaTorsoAP ect.

 

you need to make them for jordis and then make a seperate entry for her under the armor tree that references them in the Armature section.

 

Then you need to make records in texture sets that have: diffuse=dds, normal=msn.dds, detail map=sk.dds, specular=s.dds

 

then you need to have her armor addons reference the matching texture sets under NAM1-female skin texture.

 

I think I'm about to make my own jordis mod at this point, this was like a refresher course lol.

 

 

[winny257]

27 minutes ago, Dilios300 said:

@winny257 I actually dont use CBBE or BodySlide at the moment. I was thinking about trying to use it again after I finish my current playthrough. I always seem to have problems with it for Skyrim and wanted to wait to try again. The body mod I currently use is CHSBHC (not version 3, but the older version) and so far Better Females hasn't caused any issues at all, so their compatible as far as I can tell.

 

My previous question was in regards to TES5Edit in particular. Ash71 said I could make an esp that way and told me I had to specify a texture path. I made the esp, but I didn't see anywhere to specify a texture path, so my question was if I had to do that in TES5Edit or another tool.

the CHSBHC Body is based on CBBE v2, therefore do not you have any problems, because you can only use CBBE v2 textures.
By the way, I also use CHSBHC, the best Body. 
what the modify affects, I can not help you, I have no modding experience.

[Dilios300]

@Ash71 I think you should make your own Jordis mod. I certainly am not seeing most of what your describing. There is no Armature section, there is no diffuse/normal/ or specular texture sets anywhere, and there is no NAM1 section.

 

When I try to link the meshes with the directory path, or an ID of some sort?

[Ash71]

Hmm I guess I got a little ahead of myself sorry, I could be explaining this much better. So first off which records have you copied into your new esp. I'm guessing you have her non-player character record copied from the skyrim esp. Any other records? Also you said you have a merged version of bijin warmaids in your load order. Have you looked it over in tesedit to see the type of esp contents you will need, most of the things I'm talking about should have examples in it's records.

[Dilios300]

During the re-install of Bijin Warmaidens, I had chosen to seperate the installation (1 esp for each npc affected by the mod), then I chose all the npc's EXCEPT Jordis and then merged all the esp's together. A simple solution to the grey face bug that I was experiencing.

 

Suffice to say that not 1 of my 3 different versions of Bijin Warmaidens has any record at all of Jordis. I have no other records in my esp that I created asides from the non-player character record from the Skyrim.esm

[Ash71]

The records don't have to be of jordis specifically, we are just using them as a example. Look at any other npc in bijin and they will have the records im talking about as a indicator of what you need for jordis. 

 

Honestly I think backing up your merged bijin, uninstalling it, installing the regular bijin, opening up it's esp in tesedit and then copying it's records for jordis into a new esp will be your best bet. Then you will just copy the vanilla records to her non-player character entries in your esp, redirect the filepaths I mentioned earlier, and possibly do what I was talking about earlier with nifskope. Should work hopefully

 

Best of luck

[Dilios300]

Can you elaborate your idea regarding NifSkope? Gimme all the details step by step. I dont know what I'm doing and cant do this on my own. Nifskope is almost completely new to me.

 

Because I use Mod Organizer, cant I just create a whole new mod folder and drop the esp I created into it with texture files from Better Females? Then go back into TES5Edit and change the directory to the files in the mod folder?

[Ash71]

Probably would have to export her facegen in creation kit to get a copy of her vanilla face nif, trash the facetint it makes.

 

Then open it nifskope, expand the branch named femaleheadnord or whatever. Find bslightingshadingproperty and expand it too. There will be something like bstexturesets, highlight and this is where you will change the filepaths to point to your custom textures. Hope this helps

 

For mod organizer I would get everything sorted in the esp then take your meshes/textures folder and the esp and put them in folder with the name of whatever you want to call your mod. zip the folder and install it as a new mod

[Dilios300]

Ok, I did what you suggested step by step, but I copied the textures from Better Females (only the nord related ones and the ones from the "Female" folder) and put them in my mods designated mod folder in MO. Then I went into NifSkope and I pointed to the copied textures.

 

I am about to get ingame and test it out. With any luck it'll work.

 

EDIT : Unfortunately my mod is now acting as Better Females would, and is replacing the textures used for all npc's and not just Jordis. Is there something I missed? What did I do wrong?

[Ash71]

How is your file structure setup in your jordis mod?

If it is- Textures>actors>character>female

 

Then it will overwrite and be used as the main female body textures as this is the vanilla filepath.

 

 

 

[Dilios300]

Thats the filepath I have. Unless its because its not in the data folder, but instead its own folder in Mod Organizer, but I doubt thats the case. The textures in question are not the body textures, but the face textures. Femalehead.dds, femalehead.msm, and femalehead_s.dds to be specific. Other than that there are no textures in that directory.

 

The other textures are located in the Character assets folder and femalebrows folder.

[Ash71]

Jordismod>Textures>actors>character>Jordismod>(here is your head textures)

                 >Meshes>actors>character>Jordismod>(here is where her body meshes go, if you wanted unique ones)

                                                             >FaceGenData>FaceGeom>Skyrim.esm>(facegen nif you edited here, this is the vanilla filepath we want it to overwrite)

                 Jordismod.esp

 

This is what your file layers should look like, we use jordismod in the subfolders instead of "female" so the textures are standalone

 

Textures>actors>character>female, is the vanilla filepath and the folder skyrim.esm looks in for textures to apply to virtually every female in the game. don't use this filepath.

[Dilios300]

Oh, alright. I just fucked up then. I should have known better, espescially because I tweak mods a lot to change another npc than was intended. Shame on me, eh?

 

EDIT : Alright, after a bit of tinkering with the file structure, I've yet again come up empty handed. Changing the file structure didn't do a damned thing ingame and at this point, I've no idea what I'm doing wrong.

[Ash71]

Yes shame, lord dagoth expected better of you

 

yea that is most of what I do as well, and basically just bludgeoning my way through things until they work lol

 

In hindsight I have probably way over-explained this, if you are just doing face textures you can just have the textures folder and the edited facegen.

 

Proobably don't even need the esp......?

[Ash71]

hopefully not applying better females globally now though?

 

you did remember to re-direct the edited facegen textureset filepaths yes?

 

A good way to see if the facegen is being applied in-game is to check conflicts in mod-organizer. if it is working it should register a conflict against skyrim.esm

 

If not your file structure for it is incorrect somehow.

[Dilios300]

In that case, the file structure is wrong somehow. I just checked in MO and the only conflict is for Bijin Warmaidens. As for re-directing the texture set filepaths, I'm pretty sure I did, but I might've botched that too. I just dont know for sure.