Purple head on follower

[Sasquatcher]

Hello everyone. Recently, I tried porting an Oldrim follower to SE after seeing that simply slapping them in SE with the Oldrim mod gave them a purple head whenever I saw them. I've messed with SE NIF Optimizer and SE Creation Kit in an attempt to try and fix their tint mask as I think that was the problem. At best, SE CK gave this follower a different head entirely BUT resolved the purple skin, but that wasn't what I wanted. Is there anyone here that could help me figure this out?

Here's a screenshot.

[Metalsaber]

Yeah the tint mask is missing.  Open the up Facegen NIF (EXAMPLE: meshes\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom\XXX Custom Follower.esp\0000D6A.nif) file in NifScope.  Click on the face.  Then expand it -> Expand BSLightingSaderProperty -> Select BSShaderTextureSet.

 

There should be a link that points to the corresponding FaceGenData\FaceTints folder in the texture directory.  

 

It should look something like:

EXAMPLE:  data\textures\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceTint\XXX Custom Follower.esp\00000D6A.dds

 

If thats missing or pointing to teh wrong folder that would explain the issue 

[Sasquatcher]

There are only two links there for MouthHuman.DDS and MouthHuman_N.DDS

Do I have to MAKE links to the tint mask then?

[Metalsaber]

Think you are in the wrong place.

 

Example assuming you installed to the default settings for skyrim.  Just change out teh "Kendra Follower.esp" folder for the custom follower you are working with.

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Data\meshes\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom\Kendra Follower.esp

 

Open up that NIF.  

[Sasquatcher]

I loaded the right NIF but I opened the wrong tree last time, woops.

I can see the file path for the FaceTint, it's similar but not the same as what's actually in my SE Data.

[Metalsaber]

Should just be able to fix the pathing and solve your problem.

[Sasquatcher]

I right clicked the path, texture, choose, chose the dds in Data\textures\Actors\character\FacegenData\facetint\YuiH's Screenshot Models - Freyane.esp and she still has a purple face.

[Metalsaber]

Could be because you opened it up and saved in Creation Kit.  Uninstall it and then extract teh files locally.  Fix the navigation path and then zip it back up and try again.

[Sasquatcher]

Nope, still purple. I'm stumped.

[Lodakai]

Are you using wetfunction redux?   Overlays and texture swaps can cause this to happen if you are using the wrong replacement texture types.

Specifically it seems the specular maps could be an issue in this situation.

 

If you are not using wetfunction redux.. try removing your wet skin, or replacement skin specular files temporarily and see if it changes anything.

[Sasquatcher]

16 hours ago, Lodakai said:

Are you using wetfunction redux?   Overlays and texture swaps can cause this to happen if you are using the wrong replacement texture types.

Specifically it seems the specular maps could be an issue in this situation.

 

If you are not using wetfunction redux.. try removing your wet skin, or replacement skin specular files temporarily and see if it changes anything.

I'm not using wetfunction redux, no. I HAVE tested this follower on a clean install with nothing else but Alternate Start so that I wouldn't have to sit through the intro to force her into view with the console and she still had a purple head. This may be a stupid question, but do speculars and the like affect followers? I was always under the impression that their bodies and textures were all their own.

[Lodakai]

3 hours ago, Sasquatcher said:

I'm not using wetfunction redux, no. I HAVE tested this follower on a clean install with nothing else but Alternate Start so that I wouldn't have to sit through the intro to force her into view with the console and she still had a purple head. This may be a stupid question, but do speculars and the like affect followers? I was always under the impression that their bodies and textures were all their own.

the specular files are included in many skin textures,  and lots of followers have their own custom textures, or they might share the same texture as the player...   I know that when I do a texture swap on a follower... the skin color can change to purple if the texture file does not match the nif it was meant to be for.   It could be the specular for the head or maybe the diffuse...   

 

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/What_are_all_these_texture_files%3F

 

I know that your head appears shinier than the rest of your body.  This is what leads me to believe it is a problem with the specular. 

Also it appears pinkish (or purple)  in this case refer to the link above under the description for diffuse maps.   

This may not be your problem, but I think it merits looking into.

 

ETA: For reference the default textures used would appear in /textures/actor/character/female/femalehead_s.dds is the specular file

So see if the follower had a different location for the head texture file.  If there is, you can either overwrite your existing specular file with that file and see if it will fix the issue (it may cause everyone elses head to appear purple... so back up the original).  Or you can try pointing the nif to a different location and put that file there and see if that fixes the issue.

 

[Sasquatcher]

I did try changing her specular to the one in the general female folder and nothing, still purple.

Does this all look right to you? Maybe there's something that I'm just not seeing. I'm okay at using NIFSkope, but I'm not super familiar with all of it's workings. 

[Lodakai]

Did you verify that the facetint also exported when you exported the head?   An overlay can cause the same issue.  (you can try removing the tattoos with racemenu to see if maybe a tattoo is missing a texture maybe.

 

I also ran into this thread which may be of some use to you.   

https://bethesda.net/community/topic/22627/ps4-bethesda-fix-the-digital-purple-face-bug-that-every-new-npc-added-by-mods-gets-its-ruining-the-game-for-us/5

[Sasquatcher]

I DO get error messages about facetints in CK whenever I mess with it, I figured that was related but I couldn't find anything helpful about that except for ctrl+F4. I'll definitely read that link, though, thanks.

[Sasquatcher]

From what I can tell so far from my reading, SE CK handles facegen stuff differently, whereas Oldrim was simpler. FaceGen and Facetint are put in a seperate folder from the Skyrim.esm folder where the files are SUPPOSED to go, so I put them there as instructed, but no luck. After trying a dozen different things from that link and links from that one, it doesn't seem to matter what fix I try, either her head stays purple or she has a different head altogether.

[Nyston]

In NifSKope

under 16BSShaderTextureSet

there is a pointer to "textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds"

delete this reference

 

And Freyane will look like she did in Oldrim 

 

Cheers.

[Sasquatcher]

On 2/3/2019 at 2:16 PM, Nyston said:

In NifSKope

under 16BSShaderTextureSet

there is a pointer to "textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds"

delete this reference

 

And Freyane will look like she did in Oldrim 

 

Cheers.

Nope, unfortunately still purple for me. Would anyone happen to have a fixed copy of the mod for SE?

[Nyston]

On 2/6/2019 at 3:43 AM, Sasquatcher said:

Nope, unfortunately still purple for me. Would anyone happen to have a fixed copy of the mod for SE?

Ok, I've gone through the whole procedure a second time, it is the problem.

Maybe I just need to be clearer. You convert the nif with nif optimizer then open it in nifskope,

find the line that says "textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds"

it should be under "#BSShaderTextureSet"

highlight the text (textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds) and delete it. 

It is pointing to a null reference, once it's gone, Freyane looks normal.

 

I would just post my SE conversion, but I would need YuiH's approval to do that.

[Sasquatcher]

On 2/10/2019 at 11:48 AM, Nyston said:

Ok, I've gone through the whole procedure a second time, it is the problem.

Maybe I just need to be clearer. You convert the nif with nif optimizer then open it in nifskope,

find the line that says "textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds"

it should be under "#BSShaderTextureSet"

highlight the text (textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds) and delete it. 

It is pointing to a null reference, once it's gone, Freyane looks normal.

 

I would just post my SE conversion, but I would need YuiH's approval to do that.

Holy shit, it worked! Thanks a ton! I thought I'd never get that fixed, especially after all this time. Thanks for the replies!

[Cicro72]

This worked for me as well. I found textures\actors\Character\Enhanced\male\blankdetailmap.dds under the texture set in the head .nif on an old follower. Unsure why this became an issue recently. The follower worked fine in SSE for some time but then the purple head appeared.