Help: skin texture turns glossy issue

[anjenthedog]

Heh... My worst ever instance of that particular issue (I still have no idea how she contracted the "disease" or why it was so overboard)

 

[traison]

11 minutes ago, ratabeaver said:

Hi ive read through the thread and so far ive tried replacing the estrus file, and searching for the override (which doesn't seem to be there), and lastly the new save<load old save.

Is there anything else I can do? Im really lost..

 

So you saved a new preset of your character while the problem was present, and searched in that but didn't find any issues? In that case I'd suggest you post a screenshot of your problem, and your jslot file.

[traison]

43 minutes ago, anjenthedog said:

what does this mean?

; NOTE AddNodeOverride* does not work unless key 9 index 0 has been set first.

 

Most likely a bug I've encountered. Might be specific to some RM version. I have this in my FHU script:

    ; AddNodeOverrideString on an Ovl* layer requires the diffuse texture to
    ; be set on that layer too. Setting the default femalebody_1.dds texture
    ; breaks skin tint, because of course it does.

 

And my code is now setting the override on the "3BA" node, rather than any of the Ovl* nodes.

 

Edit: skin tint in this case refering to the skin color if I remember correctly. So if you had a Reguard character, after calling AddNodeOverrideString on an Ovl* node, you'd be pale as a Nord.

 

Edit again: and the "because of course it does" is me being fed up with running into problem after problem after problem... this is from the pizza hands issue.

Edited April 30, 2025 by traison

[anjenthedog]

15 minutes ago, ratabeaver said:

Hi ive read through the thread and so far ive tried replacing the estrus file, and searching for the override (which doesn't seem to be there), and lastly the new save<load old save.

Is there anything else I can do? Im really lost..

 

So, you do not have an entry that looks like this in your player's active Racemenu preset?

   "skinOverrides" : [
      {
         "firstPerson" : false,
         "slotMask" : 4,
         "values" : [
            {
               "data" : "textures\\actors\\character\\female\\femalebody_1_s.dds",
               "index" : 7,
               "key" : 9,
               "type" : 2
            }
         ]
      }
   ],

 

And if you're experiencing the shiny body and do have one similar, then I'd bet that "data" is empty OR is populated by a link to the female estrus body, which is only provided when you install an Estrus related mod that includes it.

[ratabeaver]

Sorry im not sure how to reply directly to comments so ill try to answer both above me.

Ive attached a 7z of the jslot file. Ive looked through it an its honestly a little peculiar, alot of the data: "?" is numbers, im not really sure how it works.

Strangely, the preset isnt related whatsoever to the estrus mod at all, I got it somewhere else. But the issue im pretty sure is estrus related. Right now im trying to replicate the bug in a new save but I havent had much success.

Heres some things I found that might help? Or at least are consistent.
- New saves do not have the issue
- Disabling anything estrus related and loading the more recent save doesn't remove the issue
- It happens ONLY with "body slot" pieces
- Ive tried removing wet redux, and some cum texture mods, but the issue still persists.
- Ive tried rebuilding the CBBE bodies, but it didnt do anything
- Completely reinstalling CBBE didnt work either

Ill update here once I try a few more things, thanks for the help though 😄

Update: I ran the estrus animation on a new save and this is what happened:
Before the animation, there was no gloss on any part of the body < The animation begins and the body is replaced with gloss entirely < Post animation, I equip a wizards robe (This covers the body, but not the hands, nor feet) < After removing the wizards robe the body has returned to normal, but the hands and feet are still glossy < I put on gloves and shoes, then removed them: this caused the hands and feet to return to normal.

 

Lorabella.7z

Edited April 30, 2025 by ratabeaver

[anjenthedog]

I don't see anything overtly "wrong" about the preset file, there is no skinoverrides array, there's not even a tertiary reference to femalebody_1_s.dds, so something else has to be causing it for you.

 

All boils down to something screwing with the player's *body* specularity.

 

Edited April 30, 2025 by anjenthedog

[traison]

16 minutes ago, ratabeaver said:

alot of the data: "?" is numbers

 

Different keys have different meanings. The problem discussed in this thread is related to key 9 and its various indexes and their values.

 

"data" : 1,
"index" : -1,
"key" : 8,

 

Key 8 is ShaderAlpha. So 1 is most likely fully opaque, if I had to guess.

 

19 minutes ago, ratabeaver said:

Strangely, the preset isnt related whatsoever to the estrus mod at all

 

Any mod can easily add overrides. The interface is exported to Papyrus. It could in theory also be you downloaded a preset that uses mods you don't have, or your preset contains references to mods you no longer have. For instance, do you have community overlays:

 

"data" : "Actors\\Character\\Overlays\\Community Overlays\\CO 3\\63 Body Back F.dds",
"index" : 0,
"key" : 9,
"type" : 2

 

20 minutes ago, ratabeaver said:

After removing the wizards robe the body has returned to normal, but the hands and feet are still glossy < I put on gloves and shoes, then removed them: this caused the hands and feet to return to normal.

 

Unfortunately with the bugs I've seen in RM, I wouldn't count this as a reliable test. The only thing I know of (outside of perhaps querying all nodes, keys and indexes with the Papyrus functions) that is reliable is the jslot file when its exported from a character as the problem is present. But this too has some potential issues, as some people report the issue with glossy skin goes away when they open RaceMenu. However if I remember correctly, even if the problem goes away visually, the exported jslot file still has the error in it.

 

And speaking of errors in jslot files. Outside of some potentially missing dds files I can't see anything obviously wrong with your preset. So post a screenshot.

[ratabeaver]

First one is before putting on armor (I can reset it to normal if I play any sexlab scene)
Second is after putting on and removing armor, ignore the purple hue on the 2nd one its just a nearby spell
Third is the second one just with ENB off

Also I do have the mentioned overlays

Edit: I tried what you said, and using "showracemenu" also is able to make the glossy skin go away until the next time I put on armor

Edited April 30, 2025 by ratabeaver

[traison]

That is not the same problem discussed in this thread. You just have something that turns specularity of the body mesh up to 11. Some kind of sweat mod if I had to guess, based on what you said about when it appears.

[ratabeaver]

I see.. sorry about this then. Its just seemed related since others in the thread had similar triggers for their issue.

Is it safe to conclude that its not a texture or preset problem then? I just need to remove whatever mod is turning the specularity up?

 

[anjenthedog]

Equipping or unequipping slot 32 items replaces the player body that they are applied atop. when equipping, the "body" is whichever bits of the body that the slot 32 item leaves showing, sometimes the entire body, sometimes a clipped version, but in any case, it is NOT the "player body" but a replica, (the armor's "reference body", which is an entirely separate resource from the player texture files). If that body isn't configured correctly, its specular map file link could be messed up, resulting in the issue when it is equipped and then disappearing once unequipped, although in my experience, once the shiny has been triggered, only dipping into racemenu can fix it.

[traison]

You can probably set the specularity through the NiOverride functions (same vector as what is causing the issues in this thread). You can also set it in a dll like Soaking Wet. You can also modify the mesh with NifSkope to change its properties. All of these will make a character look wet.

 

For instance if we take this hypotential situation: Maybe you have a mod which edits the shine on the body nif itself, then you have this in your overrides:

{
   "data" : 0,
   "index" : -1,
   "key" : 2,
   "type" : 4
},
{
   "data" : 0,
   "index" : -1,
   "key" : 3,
   "type" : 4
}

 

Here's the part of the NiOverride key list that seems relevant:

; 2 - float - ShaderGlossiness
; 3 - float - ShaderSpecularStrength

 

So if we assume 0 means none, then in this case it would actually be something that *removes* an override which makes your character glossy because the override is "fixing" it. But this is obviously only one of several ways to make someone look wet, like I mentioned earlier.

 

Edit: To clarify, this example is not the problem you're seeing. If the preset was saved when the problem was present, then with those overrides and my speculation you shouldn't have been seeing the issue. My point here was that sometimes you need to think backwards. Remove something to indirectly add something else - remove an override to reveal a previously suppressed value.

Edited April 30, 2025 by traison

[anjenthedog]

 

hmm... what a mess. pseudo-academic babblings (because I don't have the skyrim "code chops" to go any further than babbling half incoherently)...

 

ok. so it seems clear that the problem can be generated from multiple vectors. a crap skinoveride array entry in a Racemenu preset, some aberration in Racemenu's save (or possibly read) functions, a mod capable of dynamically altering player (or other) body proportions and texturing, etc (I ran into a long time ago with both Lazy Tools and with BOSSE as a result of some glitch)

 

it also seems clear that, at least for the "shinySkin(tm)" error that we're often talking about, where the player's specular layer is missing, that the specular player for the layer IS "missing" (that is, the link to them is not routing to the player's secular map resource)

 

Don't their edits all end up going through a global r-renderer function when applied to player? And if so, could said messages be intercepted and filtered for an empty string (ie the texture path)? (don't ask me how, another mod? a script edit? idk)
 

IF so... that Might be an avenue, because otherwise it's so tangled idk if it'll ever get solved, outside some sort of total overhaul.

 

Edited April 30, 2025 by anjenthedog
many... typos thoughts, expandedthoughts

[anjenthedog]

* by a possible avenue, I mean that if you could do a filter prior to the final render step, and by render i mean the application of diffuse, specular, etc layers to the player body - or hands or feet -  (and skipping any NPC considerations for a moment.. .simplicity) , then conceivably you could also provide said utility with an ini file in which you'd deposit (define) a failsafe link to your default specular map file, where, logical IFF a blank was intercepted, it would overwrite the value with its own before passing it to the renderer. Not that it's doable, but idk.. Do mods that alter the player, render their output changes on their own (mod internal player renderers) or use "system" calls to service that operation? it would probably hinge on the latter being true (or patching every mod that includes its own internally coded player renderer)

Edited April 30, 2025 by anjenthedog

[ratabeaver]

im gonna be honest guys.. im a bit of an idiot so your words are wasted on me. Right now I just loaded to an older save.. and everything seems a-ok. I suppose it hasn't actually modified a texture of mine since otherwise (im assuming) going to an older save wouldn't save me because it still has to reference that texture.

I appreciate the help alot though ❤️

[traison]

25 minutes ago, anjenthedog said:

Don't their edits all end up going through a global r-renderer function when applied to player? And if so, could said messages be intercepted and filtered for an empty string (ie the texture path)? (don't ask me how, another mod? a script edit? idk)

 

I very much doubt the file name is passed to a renderer of any kind. The file name is used to load and uncompress the texture. This texture is then placed most likely in GPU memory and a pointer to it is passed around. This fix would have to be applied to RaceMenu, or if its using some native to Skyrim function to load textures then in there somewhere. If the source code for RM was available I could perhaps look into it, but since it isn't that kinda immediately turns into a job for a disassembler. With no pdb file available either I'm not really interested in taking this up. It might be a bit easier now that I know how to get a debugger into SkyrimSE.exe, but that's about it for good news.

[anjenthedog]

that's what I meant by "renderer", whatever function/macro/subroutine/etc  causes the texture to be applied to the player. don't care how complex or uncomplex it is. something is spitting out a literal blank for the specularity map onto the player assembly (ie all the layers used to "render" the player), so visibly, we get the midas touch. it's that point in the equation that could be used to ameliorate it, even if it doesn't address the cause. Again, unless that's handled locally in every mod that screws with the player's body

 

sigh. I'm lost in the nebulousness of this again. I keep thinking I'm supposed to accept it's all just incomprehensible (to mere mortals) magic and I should just nod, keep my head down, and say Moo. 

[666dragonborn666]

7 hours ago, traison said:

 

Highly unlikely. The versions of RaceMenu I've tested have all been able to reset skin overrides when a jslot is loaded, as in, there was never any residual overrides from previous presets:

0-4-13

0-4-14

0-4-15

0-4-16 (1.5.97.0)

0-4-19-16 (1.6.1170.0)

3.4.5.0 (1.5.97.0, different fork, rare)

 

If you fix the problem as per the instructions in this thread (find my posts), and reapply the jslot file, the problem goes away for good. If you only fix a part of it, chances are the problem won't go away either:

• Fixing only the jslot file will have it break again when the mod that's causing the problem reapplies its override.
• Fixing only the mod that's causing the problem will not fix your character, as RM will remember the overriedes it has been given. You need something to edit overrides to get rid of the invalid entries. I personally just use notepad for this, as the json format is very human-readable.

 

 

Depends on how you look at it. If it's other mods feeding RM invalid data, the problem is elsewhere. You could perhaps make the argument that if a textrure is missing, or has an empty value, RM should just ignore it. But since it doesn't, the responsibility falls on you as the modder to make sure that doesn't happen. In cases where a mod adds a valid override, and RM somehow loses that information and replaces it with an empty data value, that does very much smell like a RM or SKSE bug. Since I haven't seen this problem myself, I can't really comment on which one of these is occuring:

• Some people report the issue happening with NPCs all over Tamriel. This could indicate some kind of limitation in how many NPCs can be stored in RM and it simply drops data for the overflow; or it has some other bug in it preventing it from successfully reading data for certain NPCs.
• Others report the problem returning almost immediately after cleaning the jslot file, and they're seeing this on their player character. This to me is more a problem with the mod adding the override, as it doesn't seem likely that RM would fumble the value so quickly.

 

 

It is not a line, it's an array of objects. One of these objects has a key with an invalid value assigned to it. Look up the json file format if you want to learn more about this.

 

 

Maybe this works because older RM versions can't read data stored by a newer version? Still, changing versions is not always an option when many game versions only have one compatible version to choose from.

 

 

While not essential, it would at least allow you to see and make sure you have all the dependencies. While reading through the overrides array, you can also check the tintInfo array for any potentially missing makeup and warpaints.

 

Very nice info.

[Amonshinky13]

On 4/30/2025 at 9:53 AM, ratabeaver said:

First one is before putting on armor (I can reset it to normal if I play any sexlab scene)
Second is after putting on and removing armor, ignore the purple hue on the 2nd one its just a nearby spell
Third is the second one just with ENB off

Also I do have the mentioned overlays

Edit: I tried what you said, and using "showracemenu" also is able to make the glossy skin go away until the next time I put on armor

I have the same problem

[traison]

35 minutes ago, Amonshinky13 said:

I have the same problem

 

Fairly certain this thread already has all the answers:

1. ENB/CS
2. Dll based wetness and sweat mods.
3. RM jslot file.
4. Current body or armor mesh.

 

Edit: If it helps any, my bet is on #3, so that's where I'd start.

Edited October 20, 2025 by traison

[Amonshinky13]

I'm not a native English speaker, and a translator isn't my best friend. But you can help me. Here's my JSON file for the character I play.

Elvenia.rar

Edited October 20, 2025 by Amonshinky13

[traison]

6 hours ago, Amonshinky13 said:

Here's my JSON file...

 

You have an invalid skinOverride entry in key 9, index 7 (specular). Find and remove the mod that added it (if it's still installed). Then reapply the fixed jslot file to your character.

Elvenia_fixed.7z

Edited October 20, 2025 by traison

[Amonshinky13]

Do you know what mods they could be? I have these from Sexlab that I think interact with sweat or something.

 

[traison]

8 hours ago, Amonshinky13 said:

Do you know what mods they could be?

 

I generally do not use LL mods, I make my own mods, so I'm the wrong person to ask.

 

I would search through all pex files in all mods, including in BSA archives for the functions that add overrides.

[NiffyFox]

On 10/20/2025 at 9:05 PM, Amonshinky13 said:

Do you know what mods they could be? I have these from Sexlab that I think interact with sweat or something.

 

I got the same problem I think its a racemneu preset, you got Etrus installed?