(WIP) TCRA - Modular custom race and companion creation

[Trykz]

Since the latest patch broke most (if not all) of my race mods yet again, I decided to devise a new method of building custom races that is less susceptible to Bethesda's incessant changes (that typically break my mods (and most everyone else's as well) with every Skyrim update.

 

Not too many modders build multiple custom races for Skyrim. At least not at the rate that I do, afaik. But the single biggest issue I've encountered while attempting to add new and interesting races to the game, is the ongoing issue of RaceCompatibility's inability to reliably handle race controller script loading at character creation. For those who might be wondering, the race controller script is what grants access to hairs, eyes, and other customization options to custom races. Without them, the race must be added manually to the proper headparts formlists in order for them to use those things.

 

For a single race, that's not really an issue. The problems start when another custom race is introduced to the load order. Because of the *last to load* manner in which Skyrim handles the loading of assets, the race at the bottom of the load order always assumes control over the above mentioned formlists, causing the previous race to lose all access to customization parts. The purpose of RaceCompatibility is to *dynamically add* new races to the proper formlists automatically.

 

However, RaceCompatibility also has one fatal flaw which creates issues for multiple race mods:

 

Script Lag.....

 

Script lag occurs when multiple mod scripts compete to start and finish loading at the start of the game. I'm pretty sure some (or many) of you have already experienced this in one form or another, whether you realize it or not. For instance, when a mod that isn't working properly needs you to use the console commands *stopquest XXX* and then *startquest XXX* to get it working again. The reason is at game load, the script that controls the function you want it to perform either hasn't fully loaded, or has failed to load entirely.

 

Currently, there is no known method of overcoming this problem. And I suspect it's a design flaw in the Skyrim engine, that there's really no need to fix from Bethesda's point of view. However, I have found a way of *sidestepping* the race controller loading issue, that's proven pretty reliable so far. It also brings the flexibility users have with my races into a whole new perspective.....

 

Essentially, this has been a "find a way to fix problem A, and lo and behold, look what can be done now that it's resolved!" kinda thing.

 

First, I wanted to build a new database type system of usable and share-able assets for building (and rebuilding) my races.

 

So in my hunt for a resolution to the script lag issue, I ended up building *TCRA*

 

TCRA is a highly modular, custom asset BSA and ESM file, loaded with hundreds of assets that can be used to build a custom race. But that's not all it can do. It can also be used to create a standalone follower. Or to swap the body type of a particular race(s), or even specific NPCs, adding extensive variety. It also allows race modders to convert their Race.esp into an ESM, which can then be used by anyone even mildly familiar with the CK to build a companion specific to that race. It can also be used to modify and increase the overall Skyrim population, with vanilla OR custom race, highly customized NPCs. Currently in the package are:

 

140+ custom eyes

20 eyebrows

4 different female body types (with textures)

1 male body type (with textures) I'll be adding other types as well

10+ head meshes (hand picked to work with ECE eye and nose morphs) many by Ran46

20+ horn and ear types

3 different tails (2 animated)

2 wing types (and growing)

fully textured armored troll and dog (for creating summons spells or companion mods)

1 slave collar

 

.....and the list is still growing as I continue building the BSA.

________________________________________________________________________________

 

With TCRA starting to come together, I still needed to resolve the script lag issue, because I want ALL of my races to work together in a single Data folder, without compatibility issues at character creation OR mid-playthrough. So after a little research, I found that the Skyrim engine loads files from ESMs first. So I converted 2 brand new RACE.esps to Race.esms, and BOTH races had access to EVERYTHING at character creation. Hair, eyes, eyebrows, etc., because their respective race controller scripts were loaded immediately at character creation.

 

Here's what else I found:

 

When a race (or even a follower) is created under the TCRA.esm, it can be given the *default* body type of choice (even the vanilla yuck body), and then another body type can be easily selected via add-on ESP:

 

This screen was taken from a SINGLE character save

one character, 4 bodies, WITHOUT save file damage

 

In other words, if I build a race with the vanilla body set up as the races' default body type, the user can select the alternative body type that THEY want from a Race(BodyType).esp selection (which take about 5 minutes each to create from the Race.esm) at ANY time. The currently included body types are:

 

ADEC

CBBE vanilla

CBBE-BBP

CBBE Teen Body (the one I made for Dovahteens)

CHSBHC

UNPB-BBP

UNP Teen Body (the alt Dovahteen body)

FavoredSouls Erect male body (I'll be adding more during the build)

 

In the ESM are duplicate TCRA versions of every playable vanilla race (set to non-playable to avoid duplicates at the character creation screen), and all of their vampire variants, with updated combat data to facilitate mounted combat right from the start, without relying on Update.esm to add it at race/follower creation. And duplicate TCRA dog and troll races to use for the armored dog and troll meshes. Also pre-made on the ESM are:

 

custom body arma and armo forms, in ALL the various female body types, for human AND beast races. The males currently share the one FS body on every form, but this can be easily swapped out at race/follower creation by building new arma/armo forms

complete eye texture set

dozens of body/hand/head texture sets, with muscle maps and sweat speculars (either or both)

textured custom parts

___________________________________________________________

 

At this time, I'm still building the package (adding the eye texture sets currently....VERY time consuming), but I wanted to get some input. I'd like to add more options, but I'm not quite sure *what* many of you might like to see/utilize. So here's your opportunity to make suggestions.....

 

But please, try and limit suggestions to things that a "majority" of users would make use of regularly. I don't want to clog this up with stuff that may only be used by the very few. These may include:

 

additional *popular* body types (anything with more than just a handful of armors available)

additional texture options (tattoo sets and such, but all body parts MUST match perfectly)

custom items that can be used *as a body part* (such as collars, wings, tails, ears, etc..)

pretty much anything else that fits into the race/companion creation category

 

Just keep them reasonable, and most importantly.... popular.

 

Thanks,

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

I managed to acquire permissions to include TairenSoul's awesome tattoos and warpaints......

 

you can see all of his stuff on his files page here. Really nice stuff. And I'm extremely appreciative for his okay to use them in this.

 

On that note.....

 

I'm slowly plugging away adding tons of assets (building texture sets and adding tintmask colors takes forever.... especially when the CK is constantly crashing randomly). Thankfully my laptop still loads and runs the CK lightning fast. I just wish it could still play Skyrim as good as it once did :/

 

I hope to have this just about wrapped up by the time my new rig is finished, so I can begin rebuilding all of my races under this. Which is going to make that process very, VERY efficient  

 

Trykz

[Koko.Hekmatyar]

I was wondering if this will have different skin tones added to it as well? I ask because I've been trying forever without any success to recreate a pure white skin tone for use on either vampire or non-vampire characters that doesn't have the brown undertone and I was thinking if this was going to have skin tone options it might be something cool to look into.

[Trykz]

I was wondering if this will have different skin tones added to it as well? I ask because I've been trying forever without any success to recreate a pure white skin tone for use on either vampire or non-vampire characters that doesn't have the brown undertone and I was thinking if this was going to have skin tone options it might be something cool to look into.

 

Skin tone is determined by the base color of the texture when it's created. Essentially, selecting *white* in the CK will do nothing more than provide the base color of the texture. Nothing lighter.

 

If you're familiar with GIMP (or other .dds texture editor), you could feasibly lighten the base textures pretty easily. Just be sure to do the femalebody_1.dds, femalehands_1.dds, and femalehead.dds evenly to make sure everything matches.

 

Adding a fair skin tone shouldn't be *too* hard. I'll look into it tomorrow. I'll need to lighten all of the base textures I have in the package. As long as I can get everything to match, it shouldn't be a problem. Currently, the textures folder stands at 1.00gb (uncompressed).

 

Trykz

[LolGG]

Awesome.

 

My request:Could you add earless head meshes?For all I know,I tried it once...went horribly wrong.

[Trykz]

Awesome.

 

My request:Could you add earless head meshes?For all I know,I tried it once...went horribly wrong.

 

 

I'll need to locate one. If one exists and is a freely usable resource (or I can get permissions to include it), I'd certainly add it to the collection of head meshes currently included without hesitation. I want to pack as much variety into this as I can. Basically, I want this to be a resource platform which while used by multiple mod authors, would only require a one-time download for the user to have access to all of the most popular body types. The way things are now, it's like this:

 

every standalone custom race/follower mod utilizes a body type specific to the modder's preference OR is offered in multiple body type versions. Adding multiple race mods or standalone followers really ballons the Data folder quite immensely over time, because of all the different textures, meshes, tintmasks, or other customization assets included with the mod.

 

With this system, race and companion mod authors can use their choice of hundreds of customization assets and options, with ZERO additional resources required (apart from specialty parts not typically used). They can then duplicate their original ESP, reload the duplicate into the CK, and in minutes alter the entire appearance with a different body type.

 

Better to download a complete body swap that's 100kb, than a whole new version of the same mod that's 100mb. As seen in the screenshot above, just swap out the ESP ANY time you want to change things up, and continue. With no negative effects on the save  

 

Anyway, I recall seeing an earless mesh somewhere a while back, but I'm not quite sure where to find it now (I may already have it somewhere). If you have a link, post it here and I'll have a look.

 

Trykz

[LolGG]

 

Awesome.

 

My request:Could you add earless head meshes?For all I know,I tried it once...went horribly wrong.

 

 

I'll need to locate one. If one exists and is a freely usable resource (or I can get permissions to include it), I'd certainly add it to the collection of head meshes currently included without hesitation. I want to pack as much variety into this as I can. Basically, I want this to be a resource platform which while used by multiple mod authors, would only require a one-time download for the user to have access to all of the most popular body types. The way things are now, it's like this:

 

every standalone custom race/follower mod utilizes a body type specific to the modder's preference OR is offered in multiple body type versions. Adding multiple race mods or standalone followers really ballons the Data folder quite immensely over time, because of all the different textures, meshes, tintmasks, or other customization assets included with the mod.

 

With this system, race and companion mod authors can use their choice of hundreds of customization assets and options, with ZERO additional resources required (apart from specialty parts not typically used). They can then duplicate their original ESP, reload the duplicate into the CK, and in minutes alter the entire appearance with a different body type.

 

Better to download a complete body swap that's 100kb, than a whole new version of the same mod that's 100mb. As seen in the screenshot above, just swap out the ESP ANY time you want to change things up, and continue. With no negative effects on the save  

 

Anyway, I recall seeing an earless mesh somewhere a while back, but I'm not quite sure where to find it now (I may already have it somewhere). If you have a link, post it here and I'll have a look.

 

Trykz

 

 

I found a female one at Nexus,but the mod's author is unreachable t.T

I would be happy to provide the .objs I made if you know of someone who could make them work.

 

[BigOnes69]

Is there any way to add a flying script. One of my favorites in Oblivion was the Chingari demon and the flying scripts were awesome.

[remois]

Wow as always, you're like a magician ^^

Will it fix the dawnguard's vampire problem?

 

Also will it be easy to convert an existing race to tcra, provided you have a basic understanding of the CK.

Last but not least, will it be easy to add resources (adding hairs or eyes) or do you have to mess a lot with the ck

I guess it still keep a bit of compatibility with the standard beauty mods...

 

Anyway thanks

 

 

[Jexsam]

I'm rather surprised the base UNP body isn't already on the body type list considering you've hit all the other popular body types already and then some.  Would it be possible to add UNP Base to the body type selection?

[LolGG]

I made an alpha version of such heads I requested.Due to the way I made the edits,in order to make seamless textures,you will need a bit of patience

[Trykz]

Is there any way to add a flying script. One of my favorites in Oblivion was the Chingari demon and the flying scripts were awesome.

 

There may be. But it's not something I'd be interested in. I'm not really familiar enough with Papyrus to tackle something like that.

 

Wow as always, you're like a magician ^^

Will it fix the dawnguard's vampire problem?

 

Also will it be easy to convert an existing race to tcra, provided you have a basic understanding of the CK.

Last but not least, will it be easy to add resources (adding hairs or eyes) or do you have to mess a lot with the ck

I guess it still keep a bit of compatibility with the standard beauty mods...

 

Anyway thanks

 

Converting a race would be easy. I built two races from scratch in a couple of hours for testing purposes.

 

Most races are built using easily accessible and popular resources. Such as Ran's head meshes, Navetsea's textures,  a popular body type, etc.... that said, it's not likely that I'll include every resource used to build a particular race. But I'm reasonably certain that most of the base parts will there, thus eliminating a LOT of the work.

 

I'm rather surprised the base UNP body isn't already on the body type list considering you've hit all the other popular body types already and then some.  Would it be possible to add UNP Base to the body type selection?

 

Consider it done. It's only 6 meshes, and I'm not quite sure why I didn't think to include them LOL

 

Trykz

[Demonwise]

AKKK SO MUCH TEXT! IT'S LIKE READING AN EPIC! That being said this sounds fantastic.

[Demonwise]

 

 

140+ custom eyes

20 eyebrows

4 different female body types (with textures)

1 male body type (with textures) I'll be adding other types as well

10+ head meshes (hand picked to work with ECE eye and nose morphs) many by Ran46

20+ horn and ear types

3 different tails (2 animated)

2 wing types (and growing)

fully textured armored troll and dog (for creating summons spells or companion mods)

1 slave collar

 

 

ADEC

CBBE vanilla

CBBE-BBP

CBBE Teen Body (the one I made for Dovahteens)

CHSBHC

UNPB-BBP

UNP Teen Body (the alt Dovahteen body)

FavoredSouls Erect male body (I'll be adding more during the build)

 

o.0 OH MY GOD! MY MIND HAS NOW FULLY REACHED ENLIGHTENMENT!

 

EDIT: Ok so I don't even know if this would be useful advice or I am just inundating you will more and more things. 3D Sexvilla 2 has still to this day one of the most complicated and yet most cutomizable character building screens ever created for a game. Now if you don't have it, you can get it. While I don't condone the use of pirated software, this is research, so if your daring enough you can search somewhere like the pirate bay and search for The Klub 17 or something like that. Otherwise I could attach a bunch of screenshots but it would be pretty sizable in the amount of shot s that I would have to make to show you everything in there.

[Mistle]

Seriously can not wait for this to be done, as an ADEC user I will be happy as hell to sport your HAWT females in my games .

[LolGG]

When the heads are done,I will pass them on to you (FINALLY,HUMANOID RACES WITHOUT HUMAN EARS YEY).so that they can be added as resource

[Trykz]

When the heads are done,I will pass them on to you (FINALLY,HUMANOID RACES WITHOUT HUMAN EARS YEY).so that they can be added as resource

 

I look forward to seeing them

--------------------------------------------------

 

To give a brief explanation of how this currently works:

 

When the user sets out to create their race or follower mod, 3 things need to be loaded into the Creation Kit.....

 

Skyrim.esm

TCRA.esm

RaceCompatibility.esm (vanilla version, and only required for race mods. Not necessary for follower mods)

 

You then create the race/follower using an easily identified and extensive list of TCRA assets. (I'd advise using the vanilla body assets if you want to offer multiple body type versions)

 

Upon completion, you then convert the newly created Race.esp (Race being the name of your mod) to Race.esm by simply changing the last letter of the extension from p to m. (it's advisable to make a copy of the ESP before doing this, in the event you need/decide to change something later)

 

Then reload the following into the CK:

 

Skyrim.esm

TCRA.esm

RaceCompatibility.esm

Race.esm       <---- your new mod selected as the *active file*

 

When the CK finishes loading, simply save the file, close the CK, and you're done.

 

Conversion to ESM isn't actually required, but advisable as it will insure that your new race controller scripts are given priority at game load. And it makes your race a LOT more flexible for the user, as they can easily load it into the Creation Kit to create their own follower specific to your mods race. It also insures that multiple followers released by different authors (assuming you permit that) will all be built under the same unedited version of your race, and will all perform together without conflicts.

 

To add additional body types for your race, simply reload the Race.esm into the CK, make the body/texture changes you want, then save as a new Race(Body).esp for easy distinction and for as many of the different body types as you like. IE:

 

Race(CBBE).esp

Race(UNPB).esp

 

...and so on. Once you familiarize yourself with where everything in the TCRA.bsa is located and how everything fits together, the process takes not much longer than however long it takes for your CK to load. I can do a full body mesh and texture swap in about 5 minutes.

 

It may sound a bit daunting at first glance, but rest assured it's very quick and easy once you get into it. I'll also be providing a full tutorial for it's use at release.

 

Trykz

[Mistle]

gotta admit, that does sound a little out of my league but I need to learn the damn CK anyway lol.

[LolGG]

The only thing I cannot grasp is how you can,for example,use CBBE as base body and then make a UNP plugin,while keeping the master files as they are (they are way too different after all).Unless it's just the way I made my race...

[Trykz]

The only thing I cannot grasp is how you can,for example,use CBBE as base body and then make a UNP plugin,while keeping the master files as they are (they are way too different after all).Unless it's just the way I made my race...

 

Simple.....

 

you create the race with the base body type you want to give it. Then convert the ESP to ESM, thus making that body type the ESMs default. You then reload the ESM into the CK, make the necessary body part arma/armo edits you want, and save them to a new plug-in, which will override the ESM and change the body for the entire race.

 

Voila!

 

Trykz

[Demonwise]

 

The only thing I cannot grasp is how you can,for example,use CBBE as base body and then make a UNP plugin,while keeping the master files as they are (they are way too different after all).Unless it's just the way I made my race...

 

Simple.....

 

you create the race with the base body type you want to give it. Then convert the ESP to ESM, thus making that body type the ESMs default. You then reload the ESM into the CK, make the necessary body part arma/armo edits you want, and save them to a new plug-in, which will override the ESM and change the body for the entire race.

 

Voila!

 

Trykz

 

That right there ladies and gentlemen is the closest thing you'll ever see to magic. To us humble folk who have no idea how the collective genius of the modders around here do what they do this is but a mere glimpse in to the arcane magical world that they live in!!!

[Mistle]

Sounds rather involved, I read that this wont be much of an issue but from a beginner stand point is this something people new to the CK will be able to do?

[LolGG]

 

The only thing I cannot grasp is how you can,for example,use CBBE as base body and then make a UNP plugin,while keeping the master files as they are (they are way too different after all).Unless it's just the way I made my race...

 

Simple.....

 

you create the race with the base body type you want to give it. Then convert the ESP to ESM, thus making that body type the ESMs default. You then reload the ESM into the CK, make the necessary body part arma/armo edits you want, and save them to a new plug-in, which will override the ESM and change the body for the entire race.

 

Voila!

 

Trykz

 

Oh,like the way Skyrim.esm functions with mods.So obvious... ^^'

Of course,if there are loose files,they do have to be in a different folder yeh?(I expect another obvious answer lol)

 

[Trykz]

Oh,like the way Skyrim.esm functions with mods.So obvious... ^^'

Of course,if there are loose files,they do have to be in a different folder yeh?(I expect another obvious answer lol)

 

 

Sort of, yes.

 

Except you're not adding anything. You're simply loading changes to the default parts set in the ESM by loading them from an ESP.

 

For example:

 

TCRA.esm uses the CBBE Vanilla body as the default body for all TCRA races (the races you'll duplicate to create a new race from).

 

In your Race.esp, you load the body type you want the new race to use (or leave the CBBE Vanilla body as default). You can then convert the Race.esp to Race.esm, to add additional body types by very easily and quickly creating a new ESP for each of the included body types.

 

In short:

 

create Race with CBBE vanilla body

convert race ESP to ESM

load Race.esm into the CK as a master

change the body type to UNP

save to new Race(UNP).esp

 

then:

 

reload Race.esm into CK

change body type to ADEC

save to new Race(ADEC).esp

 

.....and so on for whatever bodies you want to offer to users of your mod. Unless you're using custom parts I didn't include in TCRA (which is likely to happen for things like custom, race specific tattoo textures, etc.), then everything required to build a custom race is contained within the TCRA.bsa archive.

 

Once you know your way around the CK and the files in the TCRA.esm, creating additional body type ESPs takes mere minutes.

 

Trykz

[LolGG]

However,the mod user must have the TCRA in order to work that way?