Dark faces

[AwfulArchdemon]

Im amazed that I haven't found this problem posted here already! I've Googled and BInged like crazy, but all I ever get is the Creation Kit F4 fix for created npcs. About half of the npcs in my Skyrim have a darker face  than body, and I haven't created anyone. These are npcs with the usual mods: UNP BBP body, Apacchi hair,  Better females by Bella... all of the common mods that EVERYONE uses. I have Lydia transformed into Agelydia (Jolie, lol), and I have never seen a single problem with her, but Jordis the Swordmaiden has Better Jordis (or something) mod (makes her a really hot blonde), and she gets the darker face. Both housecarls, both modded to be hotter, but Jordis ALWAYS has a dark face, and sometimes it's darker than usual (it varies, for some wierd reason). That's what happens to other NPCs as well, but not all. Nobody from a major faction (Dark Brotherhood, Thieves Guild, college mages, etc.) seems to have this problem. If this problem was already posted here or on Nexus, it must have been well disguised, therefore I cannot apologize. Do the makeup mods have a bug? I noticed it with Coverwomen, too. Maybe UNP BBP? In rare occasions, when a person gets naked, their body will be what gets darker. When that happens, their body gets really, really dark.This annoying problem has been on my game for a LONG time, and I've finally had enough. How do I murder this problem so I can look at people in Skyrim without going "WTF!?"? These mods are supposed to make them look way better, not way worse! Thanks.

[Ark of Truth]

One this should be in the Skyrim Technical Support section.

 

Two you have put FaceTexturingGen = 0 right?

[AwfulArchdemon]

One this should be in the Skyrim Technical Support section.

 

Two you have put FaceTexturingGen = 0 right?

Dammit! I thought I did post this on Skyrim tech support! That's the second time that happened! Sorry. So will this fix the body turns dark thing too? It does say "FaceTexturing" afterall...

[gregathit]

The bfacetexturing deal just turns off the facial features additions of age and whatnot.  It doesn't do anything to the body.  If the body is turning dark then there is something wrong with either the texture (the main one or the normal) or the nif file.  Which it is will take using nifskope and a dds program like GIMP to determine.  I would first check the nif file to be sure all is well with it.  The only other thing it could be is a wonky setting in the mods esm\esp.

[AwfulArchdemon]

 

One this should be in the Skyrim Technical Support section.

 

Two you have put FaceTexturingGen = 0 right?

Dammit! I thought I did post this on Skyrim tech support! That's the second time that happened! Sorry. So will this fix the body turns dark thing too? It does say "FaceTexturing" afterall...

 

 

The bfacetexturing deal just turns off the facial features additions of age and whatnot.  It doesn't do anything to the body.  If the body is turning dark then there is something wrong with either the texture (the main one or the normal) or the nif file.  Which it is will take using nifskope and a dds program like GIMP to determine.  I would first check the nif file to be sure all is well with it.  The only other thing it could be is a wonky setting in the mods esm\esp.

Okay, final question. This should tell you how new I am to computers... Where do I change this FaceTexturingGen? It's not in any .inis I've checked. Sorry, but i have owned a comp for a total of 5 months now, and I jumped strait into modding. (Nobody ever accused me of being too smart) Thanks for putting up with my IQ.

[gregathit]

In your my documents file you should have a my games folder with a skyrim folder inside it.  Inside the skyrim folder you will find a file named: Skyrim.ini

[AwfulArchdemon]

In your my documents file you should have a my games folder with a skyrim folder inside it.  Inside the skyrim folder you will find a file named: Skyrim.ini

Oh crap! is that where I'm supposed to be adding my camera adjustments too? like the fovershouldercombat and fovershoulderhorse stuff? I've just been using the ini in the c://progamfiles(86)/steam/steamapps/common/skyrim/data/Syrim Ini. And, do I type this facetexturing stuff in myself? Like, in General or Display? Or, must I add something I don't have to it?

 

Edit: I tried to copy my .ini here 3 different wys, so you could see it, but it just is NOT working.

[gregathit]

Under General should be fine, and yes add the full code in.  As to the "other" location....that one is the backup file so changes made to it aren't doing you any good unless you run the launcher which makes a new ini.

 

Also if you are running win7 or win8, having steam installed to the program files directory is bad.  UAC and permissions can F with modding.  I advise you to move steam the heck out of there.  Here is how to do it without having to redownload all your games: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

 

[AwfulArchdemon]

Under General should be fine, and yes add the full code in.  As to the "other" location....that one is the backup file so changes made to it aren't doing you any good unless you run the launcher which makes a new ini.

 

Also if you are running win7 or win8, having steam installed to the program files directory is bad.  UAC and permissions can F with modding.  I advise you to move steam the heck out of there.  Here is how to do it without having to redownload all your games: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129

Great Caesar's ghost that's confusing!     Can't I just move this thing to a different folder or something? I've never ever felt so stupified as I did when I saw this little "how to".  A backup sounds great, but D:/????? I made a backup (I think), but can't find it (through Steam). This backup thing sounds easy, until I see how it's done. I have no blank discs or anything, so I really hope I don't need to go buy one. I've been at it for a while, but I have a lot  more homework to do on this, so I guess I'll be back later or tommorow to mark this thing "solved" if ever I can figure out where I'm supposed to put this elusive backup I may or may not have just made. I know this, I sure don't wanna reinstall everything. And here I thought I was getting good at using this computer...

Btw, my comp is Windows 7 (Alienware, if that helps at all). Thank you for all the quick replies! You're one heck of a moderator!   Now it's just up to me to understand these 27 links I get when I check out https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7418-YUBN-8129.

[gregathit]

It is not all that hard at all:

1. Exit the Steam client application.  - exit steam
2. Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move  - make a couple of new folders - C:\Games\Steam  - this would work great.
3. Delete all of the files and folders except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe  - find the steam apps folder and the steam.exe file (don't delete anything at this point - you'll do it during number 5 below).
4. Cut and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example: D:\Games\Steam\   - Move (I prefer drag and drop by holding down the right mouse button, dragging the folder and exe file to the new folder location and selecting "move to") the steamapps folder and the steam.exe to the location specified.
5. Now go back and select the old steam location folder and delete the folder (the one in the program files directory).
6. Launch Steam and log into your account.  - double click on the steam.exe file and login.  Steam will do the rest.

Using the above method you don't need to create a backup.  It is a good idea to create a backup at some point just in case your hard drive ever fails but that is a totally different deal.

[AwfulArchdemon]

It is not all that hard at all:

1. Exit the Steam client application.  - exit steam
2. Browse to the Steam installation folder for the Steam installation you would like to move  - make a couple of new folders - C:\Games\Steam  - this would work great.
3. Delete all of the files and folders except the SteamApps folder and Steam.exe  - find the steam apps folder and the steam.exe file (don't delete anything at this point - you'll do it during number 5 below).
4. Cut and paste the whole Steam folder to the new location, for example: D:\Games\Steam\   - Move (I prefer drag and drop by holding down the right mouse button, dragging the folder and exe file to the new folder location and selecting "move to") the steamapps folder and the steam.exe to the location specified.
5. Now go back and select the old steam location folder and delete the folder (the one in the program files directory).
6. Launch Steam and log into your account.  - double click on the steam.exe file and login.  Steam will do the rest.

Using the above method you don't need to create a backup.  It is a good idea to create a backup at some point just in case your hard drive ever fails but that is a totally different deal.

Okay, I am rather glad I didn't delete everything in the folder in the order listed in that tutorial! I was poopin' myself when I went to that dir and saw how much they wanted me to delete (everything). So... before I commit, I wanna get things strail; I will:

Exit steam, go to C:\games (not program files(86))\create new Steam folder and another folder (you said "a couple"), which is the same place I see my Nexus Mod Manager, btw, and find my Steamapps folder and steam.exe (in C:\program files(86)\steam), then drag and drop (right mouse button) those 2 files to my new Steam folder and select "move to". Then I shall delete the entire Steam folder from the old C:\program files(86) (which frightens me because there is an awful lot of stuff in there like appcache, Backups, bin, config, etc., and appoverlay.dll, appoverlay64.dll,avutil-51.dll, ClientRegistry.blob, etc.. There's even steamerrorreporter.exe, and SreamTmp.exe. Delete all of these?? The whole Steam folder (minus the .exe and steamapps)? Then I log in to Steam and let it do stuff, right? I assume that running with SKSE will be fine right after. Am I right, or will doing this end up making me very, very angry instead due to major f***ups?

 

Edit: Typing in FaceTexturingGen=0 under [General] in the .ini in my documents did nothing.

[AwfulArchdemon]

Success! I got Skyrim moved to C:\Games and did all the Steam stuff, like updating and signing back in and such. Thanks gregathit!  I probably should have asked this before making my move but why is this such a good idea? What do you mean when you say Steam can F with your mods when Skyrim is installed in its default location?

Well, that's 1 problem solved I guess, but my post here is not marked "solved". Afterall, I still get dark faces on some people sometimes, even with FaceTexturingGen=0 typed in my Documents' Skyrim .ini in [General]. Aything else I could type or... do to fix it, or will I have to start checking each of my mods to find some kind of problem and (try to) fix it. Could this be as simple as running TES5editor and deleting identicle to master files and undeleting and disabling preferences? Does that even fix anything (skyrim.esm and update.esm excluded of course), or does it simply free the memory that the useless identicle files had?   Sorry for all the questions.   

[gregathit]

Not steam, steam has no issues, it is WINDOWS that messes with your mods.  Windows has UAC and permissions issues that can hinder you trying to install and use mods.

 

Actually the full code is:

bFaceGenTexturing=0

 

That you should be entering.  If you don't have the b in front of it, it won't work correctly.  You might need to take a screenshot of the "dark" face so we get a feel of what you are talking about.

[OlBenny]

Gee, I had no idea about this Steam/Windows mods conflict via Program (x86) Steam installation.  Though I'm encountering no issues myself with my mods and game, just to be cautious I moved my Steam as advised, too.  Thank you for this post, otherwise I would've continued living on in ignorance.  And thank you for being awesome, Gregathit.      Cheers all around! 

[gregathit]

The issues with permissions and UAC started with windows Vista and has remained through all other windows OS's to date.  Sometimes and for some things you can get away with having games in your program files directory.  However, most do not fare well when they get heavily into modding with games in there.  It is better to move the games out just to make sure you don't have an extra thing to fight.  Modding your game is hard enough as it is after all!

[AwfulArchdemon]

Not steam, steam has no issues, it is WINDOWS that messes with your mods.  Windows has UAC and permissions issues that can hinder you trying to install and use mods.

 

Actually the full code is:

bFaceGenTexturing=0

 

That you should be entering.  If you don't have the b in front of it, it won't work correctly.  You might need to take a screenshot of the "dark" face so we get a feel of what you are talking about.

There it is, still there after the new face gen code. I think I'll always have this problem, so F*** it!   I'm really sick of dealing with this problem, so I'll just stick with the fugly face. Enough is enough sometimes, you know? I just wanna play the game at this point, fugly girls or no. Thanks for all the help though. I give up. Good day to you.

[AwfulArchdemon]

OK. Round 2. I'm ungiving up. This problem is back with a vengeance! Deep, dark, black faces, and pale, albino-ass skin. On everybody! I just made the switch from NMM to MO, and reinstalled Skyrim fresh, with no mods. When I got all the mods in that I wanted to use, the faces/bodies were mismatched again. I'm just using UNP BBP and a bunch of SexLab stuff (oh, and Tropical Skyrim). Apachii hair (NPC Overhaul), and X-Vision Children are there too, and I've heard one of those may cause it (maybe). I wanna mark this old problem solved. More help?

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

On all characters, or just females? Also, either way, does this problem occur with NO MODS applied (ie: pure Vanilla game, clean install)?

 

It sounds to me as though you have at some stage been manually and/or incorrectly installing/uininstalling skin textures - which, even if you uninstall/reinstall Skyrim via Steam, can result in incorrect textures/texture combinations staying around. When you uninstalled, did you actually junk your Data folder as well?

[AwfulArchdemon]

Nope. Still have all my old info. I didn't manually install anything except Better Males by Chris57 and FavoredSoul, and Pretty Faces. I had the problem before pretty faces though, so I don't blame that. I didn't check the vanilla Skyrim.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure it only happens to chicks, now that I think about it. Never actually checked . I didn't notice if they had dark faces, so they probably don't. I'll check in a bit here.

[ettorg]

check  in data/textures/actors/characters/female

 

you must have :

femalehead

femalehead_msn

femalehead_s

femalehead_sk

 

if not, unzip (with 7zip) the pretty faces archive, find these files and put them in data/texture/actors/characters/female

[AwfulArchdemon]

I have those files. I've decided to swith to the All-in-One Face mod now, cause I didn't care for the Pretty faces mod. Still have dark faces though. I want BFG Better FaceGen, but the link's down, and I don't appear to have a copy.  That one was great...

[FastestDogInTheDistrict]

Nope. Still have all my old info. I didn't manually install anything except Better Males by Chris57 and FavoredSoul, and Pretty Faces. I had the problem before pretty faces though, so I don't blame that. I didn't check the vanilla Skyrim.

 

Oh, and I'm pretty sure it only happens to chicks, now that I think about it. Never actually checked . I didn't notice if they had dark faces, so they probably don't. I'll check in a bit here.

 

 

check  in data/textures/actors/characters/female

 

you must have :

femalehead

femalehead_msn

femalehead_s

femalehead_sk

 

if not, unzip (with 7zip) the pretty faces archive, find these files and put them in data/texture/actors/characters/female

 

 

I have those files. I've decided to swith to the All-in-One Face mod now, cause I didn't care for the Pretty faces mod. Still have dark faces though. I want BFG Better FaceGen, but the link's down, and I don't appear to have a copy.  That one was great...

 

Bingo. I thought this'd be it. Okay - go to the file location Ettorg posted (data/textures/actors/characters/female), select the entire contents of that folder and delete them. All of it. Then, pick your skin mod and install it via NMM (*remember - you can right-click a manually downloaded archive file and "Open With" NMM if you need to for any mods which may no longer be available).

 

 

 

What has happened is - sure, you've reinstalled the game, but this is not where the problem lies. The problem lies in the fact that you still have a whoooooole ton of crap which remains from previous botched mod installs. I would be surprised if this is the only problem they are causing. My advice would be - junk your Skyrim folder (ALL of it), and reinstall for a fresh start. If you're getting CTD's, I'd probably junk your saves as well.

 

(**If you want to re-create your character, or "save" their appearance, load up a save, press " ~ " to enter the console, and type spf mycharacternamebackup01. This will create an .NPC file in your Skyrim folder. Copy this to your desktop - you can use it later to make a preset to re-create your character just as they were. Then you can go ahead and junk all the rest).

 

This may sound a little extreme, but treat it as an opportunity to make a clean break & take a fresh look at the game without a whole lotta bugged-out textures and broken things distracting you. I've done it myself a couple of times.

 

... or, you can just junk the female skin textures & see how you go.

[ettorg]

can you try an another texture, to see if that's it?

 

and this instead of bfg

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/12951//?

[AwfulArchdemon]

@ettorg:

Sorry, but I'm not even trying to use that mod again...

 

@FastestDogInTheDistrict:

I already did that. My new Skyrim is just that. New. I totally reinstalled fresh. I switched from NMM to MO (Mod Organizer).

 

I did not, however, know how to make a back-up of my appearance...

Thank you.

[AwfulArchdemon]

I was wrong. Guys have this problem too . Observe: