(WIP) TCRA - Modular custom race and companion creation

[Trykz]

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

 

Yes.

 

But that's not to say that the same couldn't be done for ANY standalone race mod.

 

For instance:

 

I could:

take the Lovergirls race, convert it's Race.esp to ESM

create new folders holding a different body type/textures

load the Race.esm into the CK

redirect the arma/armo to the new body parts/textures I added

 

Presto.

 

Lovergirl race with an alternative body.

 

My reasoning for creating TCRA is more for my own means and ultimate goal for Skyrim:

 

To give all of my races (current and future) a common database of parts to draw from to conserve space in the Data folder and reduce the need for texture sets for each mod (except for Moonshadow Elves and Demoness which both use custom tattoo textures), and to expand Skyrim's populous to include all of my races throughout Tamriel.

 

Which is why TCRA will be available to anyone wishing to use it to build a custom race or follower.

 

On another side note:

 

since Bethesda is essentially finished with Skyrim and will no longer be creating DLC content for it, I'm also looking into expanding the map borders to include ALL of the Tamriel worldspace from the entire ES series. But that's still a loooooong way off

 

Trykz

[Mistle]

that, would be EPIC!.. I would love to see that and it's a shame Beth wont do anymore DLC :/

[Trykz]

that, would be EPIC!.. I would love to see that and it's a shame Beth wont do anymore DLC :/

 

For sure......

 

I figure I'd be looking at least a one year time frame. At the minimum. It's something I've been interested in doing since I started modding Skyrim. I know a lot of people have seen the White Gold tower in the distance from the southern-most border of Skyrim. I can only assume that this is only a LOD view which cannot actually be approached, since I know that no world-space heightmaps exist beyond a certain distance from the borders of the game. I know this because I opened the borders for a mod I was working on (and scrapped) a while back. I walked for a long way (at least 5 minutes of running beyond the border), when my character began to fall through the world. Not to mention that tree and ground textures began to look horrendous since they were all LOD textures.

 

Which means the entirety of the new world-space will need to be manually created.

 

Anyhow, I'm leaving for New York on business from tomorrow until Saturday. I plan to take the laptop with me so I can at least get a few things done in whatever free time I can manage.

 

Trykz

[NexusCron]

Hey Trykz, Any updates?

[medic975]

Sounds Impressive. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you churn out here.

[Trykz]

Sounds Impressive. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you churn out here.

 

I'm pretty anxious to get this out, as well as getting to work rebuilding my custom races. Unfortunately (for my Skyrim modding at least ), I'm getting pretty hammered with work this past few weeks. Haven't seen work come in like this in quite a while.

 

But rest assured, I'm slowly plugging away at it every chance I get. This mod HAS to be complete AND right for release, as ALL of my race mods will use it as a resource. I also want it loaded with as many custom assets as is feasible, so others can use it for their own custom races and NPCs

 

Trykz

[PsychoMachina]

Hello Trykz

 

My Elin race uses a similar system, but instead of including multiple folders containing various body/textures, it uses 3:

1. Folder 1 contains the files for the summon Elins.
2. Folder 2 contains the base files for the playable race.
3. Folder 3 is used for the CBBE and UNP body replacers.

I'm curious as to how your TCRA works compared to what the Elin race uses.  I'm working on a multi-race mod that features 4 races.  I assume it's not all that difficult to create one master file containing all 4 races.

[Trykz]

Hello Trykz

 

My Elin race uses a similar system, but instead of including multiple folders containing various body/textures, it uses 3:

1. Folder 1 contains the files for the summon Elins.
2. Folder 2 contains the base files for the playable race.
3. Folder 3 is used for the CBBE and UNP body replacers.

I'm curious as to how your TCRA works compared to what the Elin race uses.  I'm working on a multi-race mod that features 4 races.  I assume it's not all that difficult to create one master file containing all 4 races.

 

It's actually pretty easy. For instance, you could do this:

• Folder 1 contains the files for the summon Elins.
• Folder 2 contains the base files for the 4 playable races.
• Folder 3 is used for the CBBE body replacer.
• Folder 4 is used for the UNP body replacer.

Load up RaceCompatibility.esm.

Wrap the assets into a BSA archive, and create an ElinRaceAssets.esm with all 4 races AND the summonable Elins using vanilla body assets (the vanilla body assets are basically just placeholders).

Create an ElinRace(UNP).esp using the UNP body assets, and an ElinRace(CBBE).esp using the CBBE assets.

Convert both to ESMs.

 

This way, you can alter the summonable Elins inside the ElinRace(?body).esms for either body type, as well as leave the door open for users to create additional followers on separate ESPs, by loading the ElinRaceAssets.esm, the ElinRace(?body).esm, and RaceCompatibility.esm into the CK and creating a new plugin for either body type, regardless of the body type they use for their PC.

 

Trykz

[brokezor]

For starters, great work you're doing here. Much appreciated I'll definately use it.

 

 

My question though, Do you know if it's possible to change the player or npc's bodyparts in-game? If they're accessible in TCRA.ESM, could a mod be scripted that changes those textures? For instance a dynamic scarring? Or equiping an armor/clothing set that's based on a body with incompatible UV map of the body given to the race?

 

And would it be possible, even tho it defeats the point of TCRA some. To add more bodies to the list, for instance ones created with Bodyslide, without having to change TCRA.esm? 

[PsychoMachina]

I get the idea, but is there another way to accomplish the same, but with fewer master files.

I'll use the project I'm working on, which features 4 Tera races, as an example.

• All race info and assets are kept in one master file.
• The races are non-playable.
• Create plugins for each race that allows for the user to choose that race in game and is packaged with the base body/textures sets.  The user chooses and installs the race plugin then do the same with the body + textures (into a common folder).

I figure this approach will allow someone who wants to play only one race to also have npcs of all 4 races provided an npc replacer system is installed.

Of course an alternative is to  make all 4 races playable from the start.

 

Also, the Elins come with custom body packages for CBBE and UNP. 

• 3 main skeletons (normal height and 0.8 with and without scaling of weapons)
  - 4 varients of each (base, bow fix, DSpSoB, DSpSoB with bow fix)
• 11 CBBE Bodies + 3 base textures (shaven/bush/strip) with 13 varients (39 total).
• 3 UNP Bodies + 3 base textures with 12 varients (36 total)

The user installs the core folder/files/plugin then proceeds to choose a skeleton, body, and finally texture.

How can something like this be adapted to the TCRA system.

 

Thank you for your time.

 

 

[Monsto Brukes]

this is relevant to my interests. cant wait to use it. well done.

[Mistle]

Work is a lot more important so focus on that.. can't truly pay the bills modding (or can you o.O?).  Doing great things though and I look forward to seeing you're mod come to fruition .  Also I have never seen the tower of which you speak.. I shall look for that at some point, the only thing I can think of it is the tower in cyridil (Oblivion).

[Trykz]

For starters, great work you're doing here. Much appreciated I'll definately use it.

 

 

My question though, Do you know if it's possible to change the player or npc's bodyparts in-game? If they're accessible in TCRA.ESM, could a mod be scripted that changes those textures? For instance a dynamic scarring? Or equiping an armor/clothing set that's based on a body with incompatible UV map of the body given to the race?

 

And would it be possible, even tho it defeats the point of TCRA some. To add more bodies to the list, for instance ones created with Bodyslide, without having to change TCRA.esm? 

 

Perhaps when I'm a bit more proficient with Skyrim's papyrus scripting, I *might* be able to come up with something similar to Oblivion's SetBody mod.

 

I get the idea, but is there another way to accomplish the same, but with fewer master files.

 

Yes, but it requires scripting everything into a single master. Which will also require building every race with all of it's variant parts in the same master file. As you said, you could then set ALL of the races to non-playable in the ESM, and use individual ESPs to make each one playable with the body/skeleton/textures options pulling from the assets on the ESM. The difference in what you're building that makes TCRA pretty useless for you, is the 7 specialty races.

 

TCRA is essentially a framework of the most popular body meshes and textures, with pre-duplicated, non-playable vanilla races to build off of, using a plethora of included custom assets like tails, ears, eyes, war paints, scars, etc., with pre-made arma/armo files already matched to multiple texture sets, and all packed neatly into a BSA, eliminating hours of work (I'd venture to say shaving nearly a full day off build time). There's nothing pulling from the ESM until a race or follower is built on a separate ESP which determines what assets are used.

 

When it's all said and done, TCRA will be only 2 files:

 

TCRA.bsa

TCRA.esm

 

These 2 files will be required to use any of my rebuilt races. And some will include additional files (such as custom tattoo textures) to be installed in special TCRA replacer folders (to override the textures in the BSA). Moonshadow Elves and The Demoness are prime examples. But all of my race mods will be in ESM format, mainly to overcome the race controller script lag issue that occurs when multiple races are loaded simultaneously. But being in ESM format also facilitates the user in creating their own special custom followers.

 

The other mod I'm working on (Valley of the Broken), also includes dozens of new NPCs to populate the new land I created for the race. I'm looking into making some serious changes in how the player starts their play through with this race. I'm looking at eliminating the vanilla start when the race is selected, so the player actually starts IN Broken Valley. Very similar to the Live Another Life mod, but without the choices for starting elsewhere in the Skyrim universe. I've been looking in the LAL mod to try and replicate the Helgen ordeal once character creation is complete.

 

We'll see.

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

Just when I think I got this just about ready to release, the CHSBHC body throws a wrench in the works......

 

Every texture set I test has at least one glaring issue or another. I've literally tried 30 or more texture sets over the past few days, mixing and matching body textures and normal maps to no avail. Either the normals break at the hips, or the hands display horrid gaps at the wrist or are a complete mismatch.

 

None of the body, hand, feet, or head meshes use any particular set (they were all removed in Nifskope), and get reassigned in the CK when a race/follower is built.

 

Solution?

 

Body removed.

 

Everything else is working fine. The ADEC, CBBE, and UNP body types ALL work without any glaring issues, and their textures sets all match very nicely. Perhaps when CHSBHC is more updated, I may add it back in. But for now, it's just too horribly problematic to include.

 

I have a variety of texture sets yet to assemble, but I should be able to put this out for download by Friday night or early Saturday, although it will likely be another few days before I get the usage tutorial out. Veteran CK users shouldn't have any issues jumping right in though.

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

A little preview of TCRA's capabilities:

 

 

 

 

This new race will accompany TCRA's release

 

Trykz

[Monsto Brukes]

Nice job. And well done with a more classic-looking elven race. 

[Trykz]

Nice job. And well done with a more classic-looking elven race. 

 

Thanks.....

 

I wanted to create something worthwhile using TCRA's assets, just to more or less showcase it's capabilities, and this is what I came up with.

 

If you look closely, you'll notice that the ears are substantially longer than vanilla elf ears. The effect was produced by starting with a head mesh which already had elf ears, and then using the woodelf morph files on top of it. I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

 

Trykz

[Trykz]

Meeeooooow........

 

 

 

 

 

Trykz

[Aramyr]

Looking forward to seeing you churn out some more quality stuff, Trykz! One of the characters I played the longest before my former ssd died on me was a moonshadow elf right after you'd released it. Too many races I want to play around as, never enough time..humm..

[Monsto Brukes]

Meeeooooow........

 

 

Kerran001.jpg

 

 

 

Trykz

 

That's a shit-ton of underboob there HEH

[medic975]

Meeeooooow........

 

 

Kerran001.jpg

 

 

 

Trykz

 

Very Nice! I want this for a Khajit replacer!