Does anyone remember this mod...

[Demonwise]

So I posted the same question in the Nexus Forums and so far no one has answered my question. Maybe some of the folks around here will know. I seem to remember once upon a time that there was a mod similar to Bodies by Race except that it was for the companions. I'll explain with an example. Take for instance the Willow companion mod. Willow is her own race and when you install the mod there are separate folders both for her body meshes and for her body textures. Well the mod that I am thinking of made individual folders for each of the companions as well so essentially you could customize the bodies for each of your companions as well. Am I just crazy or did something like this exist? Come on guys please tell me I am not crazy.

[KainsChylde]

I seem to vaguely remember seeing this a while back. I thought it looked interesting, but I had just gotten started modding and the install instructions looked beyond my abilities at the time. If you have any luck finding it again please post a link, I'm tired of everyone looking the same too.

[astymma]

This kind of mod would be simple to make on your own with FNVEdit.

 

Open FalloutNV.esm in FNVEdit.

Find the companion NPC record, right click it and choose copy as override and choose new file and give the file a name.

Find the companion RACE record, right click it and choose copy as new record and choose the file you created above.

In your new file, reassign the NPC to use the new race you just copied to that file.

Find all the files your new race uses (probably in the BSA and will need exporting) and copy them to a new folder structure.

Change the race to use the new files in the new folders.

 

Repeat for each companion. It's boring copy-work but it isn't difficult.

[Demonwise]

This kind of mod would be simple to make on your own with FNVEdit.

 

Open FalloutNV.esm in FNVEdit.

Find the companion NPC record' date=' right click it and choose copy as override and choose new file and give the file a name.

Find the companion RACE record, right click it and choose copy as new record and choose the file you created above.

In your new file, reassign the NPC to use the new race you just copied to that file.

Find all the files your new race uses (probably in the BSA and will need exporting) and copy them to a new folder structure.

Change the race to use the new files in the new folders.

 

Repeat for each companion. It's boring copy-work but it isn't difficult.

[/quote']

 

Interesting... I have never used FNVEdit but from the way you describe it other than, as you so aptly describe it, the boring tedious copy work it does sound like it wouldn't be too hard. If I can do then then maybe someone can help me turn this into a mod. I'm sure others would like to benefit from this.

[astymma]

This kind of mod would be simple to make on your own with FNVEdit.

 

Open FalloutNV.esm in FNVEdit.

Find the companion NPC record' date=' right click it and choose copy as override and choose new file and give the file a name.

Find the companion RACE record, right click it and choose copy as new record and choose the file you created above.

In your new file, reassign the NPC to use the new race you just copied to that file.

Find all the files your new race uses (probably in the BSA and will need exporting) and copy them to a new folder structure.

Change the race to use the new files in the new folders.

 

Repeat for each companion. It's boring copy-work but it isn't difficult.

[/quote']

 

Interesting... I have never used FNVEdit but from the way you describe it other than, as you so aptly describe it, the boring tedious copy work it does sound like it wouldn't be too hard. If I can do then then maybe someone can help me turn this into a mod. I'm sure others would like to benefit from this.

 

I think the reason this type of mod is uncommon is that to make just a purely vanilla copy that others could then mod isn't legal. It would involve redistributing vanilla assets. That's why most replacers simply require Lings or Mikoto and let those beautification mods handle the race changes. But to give the companions a custom body that differs from what's in data\meshes\characters\_male you have to use a custom race for just that npc and ist has to reside in a new folder structure. TBH, in my above description on how to edit the race you only really need to change the path to the upper body unless you want more than just simple body replacement (i.e. mouth, teeth, head texture, etc.).

[Demonwise]

Ah ok, scratch the mod idea. I don't really want to do a full overhaul of each companion although I suppose I would be nice to have that option since I know that there are others out there who have put in a great deal of time and effort to create various variations on the different companions. Right now I am purely thinking about body changes, ie. Cass gets a body with smaller breasts whereas Victoria gets one with "huge tracks of land". I don't know just an idea. Like I said though it would be cool to also be able to incorporate other peoples' mods that also change things like hair and face textures. It strikes me that it would be very easy for people to do it this way. They would have the freedom to change all the companions or just one or two; just drag and drop meshes and textures into the respective character folders.

[astymma]

Ah ok' date=' scratch the mod idea. I don't really want to do a full overhaul of each companion although I suppose I would be nice to have that option since I know that there are others out there who have put in a great deal of time and effort to create various variations on the different companions. Right now I am purely thinking about body changes, ie. Cass gets a body with smaller breasts whereas Victoria gets one with "huge tracks of land". I don't know just an idea. Like I said though it would be cool to also be able to incorporate other peoples' mods that also change things like hair and face textures. It strikes me that it would be very easy for people to do it this way. They would have the freedom to change all the companions or just one or two; just drag and drop meshes and textures into the respective character folders.

[/quote']

In that case all you'd have to do is what I mentioned originally but only alter the paths to the upper body (and provide the nif and texture folders and redistributable files).

[Demonwise]

cool beans....

[Demonwise]

so I'm looking through the RACE tree and I see all the races Asian, Asian Old, Hispanic, Hispanic Old, so on and so forth. I assume that Cass and Veronica are both Caucasian. Now here is the thing if I go and export the Caucasian race entry to the Cass and Veronica overides isn't that going to mean that not only that any changes that I make to one of the followers going to affect the other but won't it also affect anyone who falls into the Caucasian race? If that is true isn't it possible to simply create new races for each of the followers? I know who ever created the Willow companion mod did that. Willow is her own race so I should be able to do something similar for the other followers too right? Am I crazy and over thinking this or am I on to something?

[BruceWayne]

so I'm looking through the RACE tree and I see all the races Asian' date=' Asian Old, Hispanic, Hispanic Old, so on and so forth. I assume that Cass and Veronica are both Caucasian. Now here is the thing if I go and export the Caucasian race entry to the Cass and Veronica overides isn't that going to mean that not only that any changes that I make to one of the followers going to affect the other but won't it also affect anyone who falls into the Caucasian race? If that is true isn't it possible to simply create new races for each of the followers? I know who ever created the Willow companion mod did that. Willow is her own race so I should be able to do something similar for the other followers too right? Am I crazy and over thinking this or am I on to something?

[/quote']

 

That's exactly what astymma is suggesting. You copy the vanilla race as a new record in your plugin(not as an override, like the NPC entries). That way you can assign your new race different body parts, without overwriting vanilla races.

[astymma]

What he said ^^

 

 

The two copy functions in FNVEdit work like so:

 

Copy as Override - copy the record into a new or existing file so that it retains its ID and replaces the original.

 

Copy as New Record - copy the record into a new or existing file so that it is given a new ID and does not replace the original. It becomes an entirely new entry.

 

Deep Copy options to the two above allow you to copy an entire category of entries at once, like most recently I copied all my sideburn/beard/moustache addition mods into my Merged_Races.esp by simply deep copying the Head Parts category from each of the mods. This allowed me to reduce my mod count by 5.

[Demonwise]

Ok,everyone bear with me a sec while my little brain tries to wrap it's self around this. So I found the entry for cass in the FalloutNV.esm file. I then exported it as an override and named it Follower_Cass. That made it an *.esp file. Then I found the race that she is attributed to, Caucasian, and exported that as an override but attributed it with the Follower_Cass.esp file. After this I set up a separate folder within the Characters folder in both the meshes and texture folders named Cass. Within each I dumped some test body meshes and textures. Then I opened the Follower_Cass.esp file and went into the Race tree and found where the Body Data entry was. Then where it listed the default location for both the body mesh and the body texture I changed to point to the separate folders that I had set up for Cass.

 

Is that about right?

[Demonwise]

Ok' date='everyone bear with me a sec while my little brain tries to wrap it's self around this. So I found the entry for cass in the FalloutNV.esm file. I then exported it as an override and named it Follower_Cass. That made it an *.esp file. Then I found the race that she is attributed to, Caucasian, and exported that as an override but attributed it with the Follower_Cass.esp file. After this I set up a separate folder within the Characters folder in both the meshes and texture folders named Cass. Within each I dumped some test body meshes and textures. Then I opened the Follower_Cass.esp file and went into the Race tree and found where the Body Data entry was. Then where it listed the default location for both the body mesh and the body texture I changed to point to the separate folders that I had set up for Cass.

 

Is that about right?

[/quote']

 

Ok I will partly answer my own question. Yes it did work. For only one follower. With my process I was able to change Cass's body and textures but since she is still attributed to the Caucasian race when I did the same thing with Veronica she didn't get the body and textures I wanted and instead got the ones that Cass has. I believe that this is because they are both attributed to the Caucasian race. Unless I am able to make unique races I don't know how to get around this problem.

[astymma]

Ok' date='everyone bear with me a sec while my little brain tries to wrap it's self around this. So I found the entry for cass in the FalloutNV.esm file. I then exported it as an override and named it Follower_Cass. That made it an *.esp file. Then I found the race that she is attributed to, Caucasian, and exported that as an override but attributed it with the Follower_Cass.esp file. After this I set up a separate folder within the Characters folder in both the meshes and texture folders named Cass. Within each I dumped some test body meshes and textures. Then I opened the Follower_Cass.esp file and went into the Race tree and found where the Body Data entry was. Then where it listed the default location for both the body mesh and the body texture I changed to point to the separate folders that I had set up for Cass.

 

Is that about right?

[/quote']

 

Ok I will partly answer my own question. Yes it did work. For only one follower. With my process I was able to change Cass's body and textures but since she is still attributed to the Caucasian race when I did the same thing with Veronica she didn't get the body and textures I wanted and instead got the ones that Cass has. I believe that this is because they are both attributed to the Caucasian race. Unless I am able to make unique races I don't know how to get around this problem.

 

You need to follow my instructions exactly. When you copy Cass (the NPC record) you copy as an override. When you copy the Caucasian race entry to your esp, you copy it as a new record NOT as an override. You will need to copy the NPC's race each time to a new record for every NPC you intend to have a custom race for to allow a custom body.

 

Basically the concept is this:

You want to *replace* the original Cass so you'll need to override.

You want a *brand new* race for Cass to allow for a custom body mesh/texture path so you don't want to override.

Each NPC you intend to have a custom body for needs the same three steps (1 - copy an override of the NPC, 2 - copy the race as a new race, 3 - assign the NPC to new race and change paths to new files).

[Demonwise]

Ahh thank you. that makes more sense

[astymma]

Ahh thank you. that makes more sense

 

NP

[Demonwise]

Yup after that little fix everything is great.

[astymma]

Yup after that little fix everything is great.

 

Cool, glad we could help.

[Demonwise]

Well almost everything is great. Now if someone could make a really good oiled skin texture for the Type 3F body that would make the holidays that much better.

[astymma]

Well almost everything is great. Now if someone could make a really good oiled skin texture for the Type 3F body that would make the holidays that much better.

 

You can take a look at GlossMax. It's for Oblivion but I'm fairly sure it will work for Fallout NIFs.

 

Alternatively' date=' you can just edit the glossiness of the material property yourself using nifskope:

 

 

In both cases you'll likely also need an "oily" normal map. Any type 3 textures should work with Type3F so just about any oily skin and normal map should work.

[DeadSomething]

so, this means, i can use the GECK to make every race use its own unique bodymesh/texture?

so like i want asians to have alice body and blacks to use BOG? would that be possible?

[astymma]

so' date=' this means, i can use the GECK to make every race use its own unique bodymesh/texture?

so like i want asians to have alice body and blacks to use BOG? would that be possible?

[/quote']

 

Yes. See the mesh an NPC uses is dictated by their race. The RACE record contains what body/head meshes the race uses, what hairs the race can use, and what eyes the race can use. The simplest way to have an NPC use a custom body is to give them a custom race. You could, though, have multiple femaleupperbody versions in data/meshes/characters/_male/ and just change the races to point at them. For example you could have femaleupperbodyN.nif and femaleupperbody6M.nif and femaleupperbody6BB.nif in _male and point say Asians at N, Caucasians at 6M, and african americans at 6BB in the race records. This won't change their "size" while clothed... only when nude. It's why the Body by Race mod has an Armor by Race expansion that specifically expands the armor system to include body size specific versions of each armor/clothing piece to match the new racial bodies. So you'll get things like "underwear_asian" and "underwear_caucasian" and "underwear_africanamerican" and such.

 

Personally, I use a mix of both. I have specific bodies assigned to each race as my defaults. I then customized any NPC I felt should be more unique by using a custom race and body and gave them armor/clothing that matched. As an example, my default body for most women is Type6M. Cass uses Type3M. Veronica TypeN. Willow Type3 Cali. And so on...

[DeadSomething]

ah so i understand is there version of that mod for FO3 ?

[astymma]

ah so i understand is there version of that mod for FO3 ?

 

No, that mod is very NV specific. It would be quite a bit of work to port it to FO3 (though its possible).