Furry Fallout 4

[Bad Dog]

Hey @Blaze69, have you played with the sliders you can create in the morphs, to the right of the morphs list under the "Preset" button (which I don't know what it does)?

 

Looks like it lets you apply more than one morph at a time by setting the morph that creates one extreme on the left and the other on the right, then the slider runs between them (underbite/overbite, for example). And it looks like you can create as many as you like. But on the human race they're just used for eyes and the overbite thing which makes me wonder how well they work. Also I don't know if they're really associated with the preset or if that was just handy real estate.

 

[Blaze69]

14 minutes ago, Bad Dog said:

have you played with the sliders you can create in the morphs, to the right of the morphs list under the "Preset" button (which I don't know what it does)?

I tried playing around with those because it sounded like good ol' Skyrim-style sliders but with way more flexibility and without having to do the "Type1" workaround or whatever, but as far as I can tell they don't really work so well and I haven't even been able to get them to be available for the player ingame, they only seem to show up on the CK's NPC editor itself (which makes them useless for the PC).

 

The way that whole thing is set up makes me believe Beth wanted to let you save a set of slider values as one of the presets on the left so the Player could access them too, but I haven't actually been able to do it, so it may simply be something that was never properly implemented (which I guess would explain why so few morphs are added that way in vanilla) or even something that was never planned at all and only looks like it due to the UI design on the CK (aka "handy real estate" as you say).

 

You want morphs to be available for the Player first and foremost, so I just wouldn't bother with those and I'd stick to the previous method which we know for sure does work on both PC and NPC.

Edited June 6, 2021 by Blaze69

[TheBottomhoodofSteel]

Small hint on the Presets in Fallout 4's face slider menu. Those function more like a complexion selector and are tied to the Chargen Tris. I believe you can blend the complexion in with other parts of the face, but I've never fully used them)

It's more or less used similarly to the complexion slider in Skyrim. 

Fallout 4 uses a mix of bone scaling & Chargen morphs to achieve the facial editor. If your head mesh isn't weighted properly to the face bones you won't get much out of it. 

[Bad Dog]

Yeah, and this is how spoiled I am by my new exporter: It's a hassle to deal with the facebones because I have to unparent the head mesh from the regular skeleton, and then reparent to the facebone skeleton. Sooo much work. I keep thinking there should be a way to export the regular file and facebones file in one step (because both sets of weights are on the same mesh). And the actual code to do it is trivial. If I could just think if a convenient UI to do it I would. (name for the facebones armature is the same as that for the regular armature with "_faceBones" added? Just pull the facebones out of my ass (aka from a reference skeleton) if those bone weights exist on the mesh?)

 

The whole complexion thing is interesting and maybe good for alternative face patterns like gazelle and zebra.

 

[Blaze69]

7 hours ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

Small hint on the Presets in Fallout 4's face slider menu. Those function more like a complexion selector and are tied to the Chargen Tris. I believe you can blend the complexion in with other parts of the face, but I've never fully used them)

AFAIK you have to set up a bunch of special "tintmasks" set to the "Face Regions" type or something like that in the tint data and then you can use them as masks to tell the game what areas of the face to apply the textures in. Then you add more morph groups + morphs (can use the DefaultFaceType0 if you don't want them to be associated with a shape morph and just want it to apply the textures) and then assign the texture and the mask.

 

7 hours ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

Fallout 4 uses a mix of bone scaling & Chargen morphs to achieve the facial editor. If your head mesh isn't weighted properly to the face bones you won't get much out of it. 

You can get chargen to work with TRI morphs alone and skipping facebones, that's how previous games did it and it's still doable in FO4 (though you have to go for a small "workaround" as outlined in my previous post). In fact it could be argued to be better than those previous games' due to there seemingly being no limit on the amount of morphs and "sliders" you can add.

 

7 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

I keep thinking there should be a way to export the regular file and facebones file in one step (because both sets of weights are on the same mesh). And the actual code to do it is trivial. If I could just think if a convenient UI to do it I would. (name for the facebones armature is the same as that for the regular armature with "_faceBones" added? Just pull the facebones out of my ass (aka from a reference skeleton) if those bone weights exist on the mesh?)

AFAIK there is a facebones skeleton somewhere in the files which includes all of the FB bones, so you could simply check for those specific bone names in the meshes' boneweights list. If you find any, "main" nif gets the FBs stripped and exported with normal bones (+ custom/physics ones, I guess), while another nif is exported in the same location with the _FaceBones suffix and the FB bones included.

 

There's also the question of whether _FaceBones nifs need the whole set of bones in them (in which case you'd have to fetch them from the ref skeleton and add them to your armature before exporting) or it can work with only whichever ones the mesh is rigged to, in which case that wouldn't be a problem and you could just export with whichever ones are included already.

 

7 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

The whole complexion thing is interesting and maybe good for alternative face patterns like gazelle and zebra.

If you create a mask that covers the whole head, that might effectively work as the "Complexion" slider from Skyrim indeed, and I guess there's also the option of doing separate face region masks like vanilla humans have so you can mix black zebra nose with gazelle markings around the eyes or some other sparkledog-y combination if you want, lol. ?

 

I do have to point out I don't think I've been able to get actual diffuses and speculars to load using that system, just normal maps (which would throw a wrench on your plans there). But I haven't really tinkered much with it so I may just have made a mistake somewhere.

[Bad Dog]

I think it's even possible to make a combined skeleton with all the bones. The only reason I haven't done that is there are so many it would be overwhelming. 

 

On export, only bones that are actually used get exported. I *think* that's fine for facebones files too.

 

I think I'm going to try: If your mesh is parented to either a facebones skeleton or regular FO4 skeleton, that file gets exported; if you *also* have an instance of the other skeleton selected, you'll get both. The export process doesn't actually need the mesh to be parented by the skeleton, tho the transforms may trip me up.

 

Right now I'm teaching the Furrifier how to handle bones and morphs. For the horses, some of the morphs are with chargen tris, some with bones, and a few use both mechanisms. 

[TheBottomhoodofSteel]

13 hours ago, Blaze69 said:

You can get chargen to work with TRI morphs alone and skipping facebones, that's how previous games did it and it's still doable in FO4 (though you have to go for a small "workaround" as outlined in my previous post). In fact it could be argued to be better than those previous games' due to there seemingly being no limit on the amount of morphs and "sliders" you can add.

Yes but in the context of Fallout 4 it's a step back and pointless to remove one of the steps of face customization. You may as well make use of the feature if it's there. IT is a bit problematic to weight and work with the FaceBones, but it is worth it. 

 

13 hours ago, Blaze69 said:

I do have to point out I don't think I've been able to get actual diffuses and speculars to load using that system, just normal maps (which would throw a wrench on your plans there). But I haven't really tinkered much with it so I may just have made a mistake somewhere.

If your face diffuse and Specular are Exactly the same as your Base diffuse/specular for all the types. it will only change normals. The human face textures actually do differentiate because they use different diffuses (With the same neck seam duh, so no extreme changes can be made here) Also make sure you're linking each of those options to unique textures. and your tint masking is set up properly. 

 

[Blaze69]

1 hour ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

Yes but in the context of Fallout 4 it's a step back and pointless to remove one of the steps of face customization. You may as well make use of the feature if it's there. IT is a bit problematic to weight and work with the FaceBones, but it is worth it. 

Fair enough. I simply had all of Skyrim's morphs just laying there unused and didn't want to wrap my head around that whole new system so finding a way to implement the TRI morphs was only logical.

 

I actually did copy the FaceBones weights from the Vulpine heads and duplicated the bone transform data for the Selachii and it's... not terrible, actually (despite how much I half-assed it), so I guess you do have a point there.

 

1 hour ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

If your face diffuse and Specular are Exactly the same as your Base diffuse/specular for all the types. it will only change normals. The human face textures actually do differentiate because they use different diffuses (With the same neck seam duh, so no extreme changes can be made here) Also make sure you're linking each of those options to unique textures. and your tint masking is set up properly.

...I looked into it again because of this conversation and I may actually have gone all smoothbrain there and forgotten to change the paths for diffuse and spec to the new ones because I originally wanted to test the separate normal alone and didn't edit it after making the other two. Derp. ?

[TheBottomhoodofSteel]

Keep in mind you won't be able to do things like layering out different markings (I would not 100% recommend that, I'd say using overlays or makeup is a better option) but maybe mixing different fur bases in would be what you might get most use out of. Keep in mind the skin tinting (If you're trying to go for it) isn't set up to handle multiple colours, so stripings would always be a problem if they're baked into the diffuse. 

[Blaze69]

5 hours ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

Keep in mind you won't be able to do things like layering out different markings (I would not 100% recommend that, I'd say using overlays or makeup is a better option)

Gotta be makeup, overlays suck donkey dick in FO4. Can't be tinted, can't be used on heads (has to be injected as makeup instead), weird z-fighting sometimes, I'm not even sure you can adjust opacity...

 

Which sucks, because customizability will be limited. Grayscale markings like zebra stripes can still be added, and Plan B is making a handful base body textures with built-in patterns and then making them all into alt LooksMenu skins, but it's still not ideal.

 

5 hours ago, TheBottomhoodofSteel said:

Keep in mind the skin tinting (If you're trying to go for it) isn't set up to handle multiple colours, so stripings would always be a problem if they're baked into the diffuse. 

Bethbryo has always sucked at tinting white textures on characters, so white underbellies should actually remain relatively un-tinted while the rest of the body does get the intended color. Other than that, yeah, multiple-color body patterns are not an option for that very reason.

[maddadicusrex]

21 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

I think it's even possible to make a combined skeleton with all the bones. The only reason I haven't done that is there are so many it would be overwhelming. 

 

On export, only bones that are actually used get exported. I *think* that's fine for facebones files too.

 

I think I'm going to try: If your mesh is parented to either a facebones skeleton or regular FO4 skeleton, that file gets exported; if you *also* have an instance of the other skeleton selected, you'll get both. The export process doesn't actually need the mesh to be parented by the skeleton, tho the transforms may trip me up.

 

Right now I'm teaching the Furrifier how to handle bones and morphs. For the horses, some of the morphs are with chargen tris, some with bones, and a few use both mechanisms. 

I am not a modder and quite frankly, I am enjoying the the collaboration between some very successful modders to create a special mod. BUT, would it not be easier to get the bodies, heads, and stable files, working? Do we really need all the customizing hand ringing for makeup, morphs, variants in shape and size? My gut feeling is most gamers would be more than satisfied with the basics of such a far reaching overhaul and not get lost in the "pretty" stuff. Just an opinion from a rank amateur. Thanks for your efforts to date..

[Bad Dog]

Knowing where to stop is the trick. I did a quick and dirty pass, now I'm cleaning things up. The races have to be good enough so I can go on to things like manniquins, mutants, synths etc without feeling like I have to come back to them. (Even tho I know I will.) Figuring out what the knobs and levers do is part of the fun.

 

Horses especially need face morphs. Tigers and cheetahs vary much less, but horses really want the range or they all look too much the same. 

[Bad Dog]

I spent some time today making sure all of the magazines and other art are in the game, which they now are. That stuff is really fabulous. Artists, we still need Grognak and the Unstoppables. I also sexed up a pip-boy background just for lulz. 

 

Horses are done done, both sexes, with face morphs for PC and NPCs. Now just 5 billion more race/sex options to go. Horses go erect using the morph key but I don't know if it actually works. I suppose I should load up that stuff and see. (Like, okay it's in the tri but how does it get into the game?) Thanks to Blaze for figuring out some truly arcane stuff there.

 

I also did the mannequins because they bugged me and they're freaking everywhere.

 

I'm thinking tigers and foxes should have actual fur for their face ruffs rather than the somewhat half-assed shapes they have now. I'm gonna spend some time looking at the beards to see if I can steal some ideas. 

 

Spoiler

 

[Blaze69]

6 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

Horses are done done, both sexes, with face morphs for PC and NPCs.

Ooh, really looking forward to seeing how those turned out.

 

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Now just 5 billion more race/sex options to go.

...that's the downside of having several new races available, lol. But once they are done, that should mean any further work shouldn't be particularly heavy unless it involves porting any other races or creating them from scratch (and even then I bet there'd be stuff that could be recycled from the current races all the same).

 

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Horses go erect using the morph key but I don't know if it actually works. I suppose I should load up that stuff and see. (Like, okay it's in the tri but how does it get into the game?)

You need to have a NiStringExtraData entry in the nif whose name is "BODYTRI" and whose string is the path to the corresponding TRI file. The path includes file name and extension but skips the "Meshes" part (just like standard mesh paths in the CK would).

 

So for example, the custom body used by my Deathclaw race (fist one I had laying around here ready to be checked) is placed in "Meshes\DeathClaw\RACE", and is named "FemaleBodyDeathClaw.nif", so the corresponding TRI would be "FemaleBodyDeathClaw.tri". Then the body nif has a NiStringExtraData with the name "BODYTRI" and the string reading "DeathClaw\RACE\FemaleBodyDeathClaw.tri".

 

Here's the example nif itself in case you want to just copy the NiStringExtraData to your own nifs and change the paths (strings):

FemaleBodyDeathClaw.nif

 

In any case, you'll want to make actual Bodyslide sets for those meshes so people can generate them with BS instead of the nifs being perma-stuck on the Zeroed Sliders shape and requiring ingame TRI morphs to change shape, so that's kind of a moot point because BS already adds the proper string and paths and generates the TRI when generating.

 

You already have the base nifs in the Zeroed Sliders shape as well as the slider data saved in the matching TRIs, so all that needs to be done is load the nif, import the slider data from the TRI, and then save it as a proper BS sliderset with the right names and paths for the output and stuff. I can take care of that for you if you want, just need to send me any body with a matching TRI in the right file paths and I'll send you back the BS sets.

 

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I also did the mannequins because they bugged me and they're freaking everywhere.

I also wonder how those turned out, lol.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Blaze69

[Bad Dog]

2 hours ago, Blaze69 said:

In any case, you'll want to make actual Bodyslide sets for those meshes so people can generate them with BS instead of the nifs being perma-stuck on the Zeroed Sliders shape and requiring ingame TRI morphs to change shape, so that's kind of a moot point because BS already adds the proper string and paths and generates the TRI when generating.

 

You already have the base nifs in the Zeroed Sliders shape as well as the slider data saved in the matching TRIs, so all that needs to be done is load the nif, import the slider data from the TRI, and then save it as a proper BS sliderset with the right names and paths for the output and stuff. I can take care of that for you if you want, just need to send me any body with a matching TRI in the right file paths and I'll send you back the BS sets.

Ya ok i understood approximately none of that. I thought the tris were the slider set, and that loading them in BS was how they got used. There's another step?

 

I'm generating BS style tris for all the bodies as I go so the whatever the process is, it's doable. I'm planning on shipping with all zeroed-out tris, thinking people could modify their bodies from there. I'll fire off the files to you, maybe once I get all the bodies done. I think I'll do cats next.

 

I checked the BodyTalk body and found the stringextradata you reference. It's making me think (more) that I want a way to capture these rando extra data blocks from a nif. One of the mannequins had a NiNode as a parent to some--not all--of the shapes and it had a transform on it which I didn't pick up so things came in out of place. What I'd have to do is figure out a Blender representation for "nif node" which would keep the type and the data, and I'd have to serialize the data somehow. (This is all something OS doesn't have to worry about because it can just keep this data in the nifly representation.) But since the exporter does the basic job, I'm not much motivated to expand it until this work is done.

[Blaze69]

2 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

Ya ok i understood approximately none of that. I thought the tris were the slider set, and that loading them in BS was how they got used. There's another step?

"Final" nifs + tris are the result or output of a Bodyslide sliderset, and not the other way around.

 

The basic idea of Bodyslide is, you have a base nif and a bunch of morph/slider data stored in an .OSD file (which I assume in the end is basically a TRI but meant to be loaded by the Bodyslide app instead of the game itself). You fire up Bodyslide (aka the external app), it loads the base nif and the slider data, you choose the slider values to get the shape you want, you hit "generate", it exports a nif file with the shape you want. The game loads that nif file for whatever it is meant to be used (outfits, nude bodies, whatever). That's it, the product is meant to be a "final" nif.

 

Then someone realized you can save the morph/slider data into a TRI file (so the game can read it) and then use NetImmerse/NiOverride functions to apply and modify them ingame on runtime, so you can have stuff like pregnancy mods applying the "PregnancyBelly" slider on runtime on characters that should get it while other (N)PCs retain the shape from the ingame nif, without having to make the "pregnant" body into separate nifs or whatever. That's where the TRIs come in.

 

You're supposed to build a BS sliderset first (with its base nif and its .OSD) and then use Bodyslide to generate a final NIF and a TRI from it, but you just have the final NIF and TRI and no BS sliderset. Fortunately for us, it is possible to recreate a BS sliderset from a "final" nif and the matching TRI (which is what you have) assuming the "final" nif actually has the base/zeroed sliders/no morphs applied shape (which, again, is what you have, AFAIK).

 

Quote

I'm generating BS style tris for all the bodies as I go so the whatever the process is, it's doable. I'm planning on shipping with all zeroed-out tris, thinking people could modify their bodies from there. I'll fire off the files to you, maybe once I get all the bodies done. I think I'll do cats next.

Yeah, the process should be quick and pretty straightforward, all that's needed is the nif + tri themselves and the path they're supposed to be placed in. So just feel free to send the package my way once all bodies are done and I'll send back the BS slidersets themselves.

Edited June 12, 2021 by Blaze69

[Bad Dog]

I got AAF loaded up and the sex stuff seems to work reasonably well, including the horses getting hard when they're supposed to. Well, actually, it's a bit random--but since it works at all I'm blaming that on the underlying mechanism, not my stuff.

 

I did see one thing that worries me--some notifications in the log saying that AAF is checking the races. Like I say, things seem to be working anyway, but does anyone know what it's doing with races? I'm not sure what I might be missing if it's doing something like matching animations to races.

[Blaze69]

1 hour ago, Bad Dog said:

I got AAF loaded up and the sex stuff seems to work reasonably well, including the horses getting hard when they're supposed to. Well, actually, it's a bit random--but since it works at all I'm blaming that on the underlying mechanism, not my stuff.

Honestly I could never quite get AAF and the "erection system" to work completely right either and the issue seems to be very prevalent on users so I wouldn't fret about it as long as it works to some extent/most of the time.

 

Quote

I did see one thing that worries me--some notifications in the log saying that AAF is checking the races. Like I say, things seem to be working anyway, but does anyone know what it's doing with races? I'm not sure what I might be missing if it's doing something like matching animations to races.

AFAIK it checks the races to know what kind of anims should be available like them (kinda like SL checking creature races to see which anims they should use, but why AAF also does it for humanoid/playable races instead of IDing them as such right away without the need for patches like SL did is beyond me).

 

Anyhow, I've never actually needed any patches for playable races in any of my short forays into AAF and they've all played the human(oid) AAF anims just fine (I think Servitrons did need one, but that's not surprising since they're technically a robot from the Automatron DLC), but the base AAF download does include a patch for the Vulpine race so you could simply duplicate it and change the records to point to the FFO races instead if you want to be sure. It'd just be a bunch of 1 KB XMLs so you could just throw them into the main mod package without causing any size bloat or whatever (I did so myself for some of my own race mods).

Edited June 13, 2021 by Blaze69

[Bad Dog]

I know people are impatient for this next release, but just remember I'm putting off my own runthrough until it drops, so I am motivated. 

 

Got the horses worked up and now I'm doing tigers, which means working up a feline body:

 

Spoiler

 

That's based on the Bodytalk body so it has all the BT morphs available, plus a few extras like feet size. Also:

 

Spoiler

 

For those who like their junk a little higher and tighter I made a morph for that. This BS stuff is fun.

 

I still haven't a clue how to use it. I loaded up BS and it's like, yeah, where's the File/Open button. But maybe Blaze will take care of it.

 

One of the BT sliders is for ball size, so ofc that's implemented too:

 

Spoiler

 

LOL don't mind me, I just put dicks on things.

 

I've also been working Blender more than I used to. I don't know if it's the latest version that's better or if I just fell over the wall but I'm doing a bunch of my texture painting in there. I even found a function I've been wanting forever, which is to project a flat image onto the 3d model. And I've been making fur swatches and then painting those directly on to the model. There's still some work in photoshop but doing this painting in blender makes things go hella faster. 

 

[Bad Dog]

Putting the finishing touches on the male tigers.

 

Spoiler

 

 

I can't believe it took me until now to give tigers the correct noses.

 

There's something wonky with the whiskers, I think that they just aren't implementing the alpha properly. They shouldn't have that black line around them. But I cannot find the problem. I've got an alpha node in the nif, there's an alpha channel in the diffuse, the materials file has the alpha flags set. Gonna move on and if I can get a head with the alpha set properly I'll come back and fix things up.

[BafMeow]

Thank you so much for creating this mod! Bad Dog ❤

[Blaze69]

16 hours ago, Bad Dog said:

I've got an alpha node in the nif,

Alpha nodes in the nif don't actually do anything, the alpha properties need to be set in the material file itself.

 

Quote

there's an alpha channel in the diffuse, the materials file has the alpha flags set.

In that case, check the value for the Alpha Test Reference, you might have to edit it to get the transparency to work depending on the alpha value in the whisker texture.

 

Other than that, it might just be an engine bug. FO4 has issues with certain shader types/properties not being compatible with each other (e.g. can't have Environment Maps on Skin Tints or Glow Shaders), so maybe it just turns out alpha doesn't work on Facegen-tagged materials. In that case, I'd suggest splitting the whiskers from the head mesh, adding them as an extra head part in the head record, and pointing them to a material file that does not have the "Facegen" flag enabled; only downside I can think of is neither paints nor skin tint will apply to them, but then again I doubt we'd want those to apply to whiskers anyway.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Blaze69

[Bad Dog]

Could separate the whiskers out, could just not use alpha on them and let them be just shapes. 

[Bad Dog]

Okay, I'm having a terrible time getting my body parts to show up in CK and in game and I cannot figure out the problem. Blaze has been helping but we haven't nailed it down. So I'm going to do my usual thing of writing too much and see if that helps.

• Behavior is that the nif looks fine in nifskope and generally looks fine when you pick it in CK but when you preview a character the bodypart doesn't show, and it doesn't show in game.
• Once you've previewed a character and seen that the body part is missing, it will sometimes not show in the nif picker, but that's not consistent.
• I've walked through working and not-working nifs and I haven't been able to find a significant difference. In particular, segments and transforms (and raw vert positions) seem to be right.
• It might not be in the nif itself. I copied the vanilla female body to the FFO folder, pointed the female torso at it, and it doesn't show.
• Now the lykaios female torsos aren't showing up in CK. Last I checked they were showing up in game.
• Horse female bodies work. Switching them to the vanilla body, they don't show up. Switching back, they show up. So something about just copying the vanilla body nif from one folder to another messed things up.
• Changed the vanilla female body to reference the female horse body materials file. Maybe referencing a packaged materials file is a problem. CK doesn't pick up the change, even when I switch to a different body and switch back. FO4 CK is totally random about when it reloads external files.
• Rebooting CK picks up the materials file change but the body still doesn't show.
• Switched the horse female body back to the horse body nif, which has been working up till now. Now it doesn't work.
• Switched it to the male horse body. That does work.
• So it must be a problem in the ESP because I can switch nifs to a known good nif and still have the problem. But it has to be in the nifs, because the same record will show the problem or not depending on which nif I point at. But it has to be a CK glitch because sometimes a nif shows up and sometimes it doesn't, depending on what else I've done that session. But it has to be real, because things aren't showing up in game either.

I'm running with CK Fixes. I'm taking that out to see if behavior is any more consistent.

 

Edit: It's not.

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Bad Dog

[Bad Dog]

• Switching the tiger to my CanineFemaleBody works fine. But applying the tiger texture set to that body doesn't work. Suggests maybe a problem with the female texture set?
• I copied the shader from the CanineFemaleBody to the FelineFemaleBody. Same behavior. So it's not the shader tree in the nif. And it can't be the tiger female texture set because the feline nif is now pointing to the lykaios textures. 
• Rebooted CK and now the FelineFemaleBody with the Lykaios textures WORKS. First time I've seen this nif in the CK.
• Overrode the textures in the tiger armor addon to point to the tiger textures. No change in any of the previews because CK is a whiny bitch.
• Rebooted CK. The tiger textures are still not overriding the Lykaios textures because ??? !_#@_I))#@!
• For grins and giggles, point the tiger torso to the horse texture set. That works, the change shows up right away. Try hyena and lion, it doesn't. Decide CK is being a bitch again and reboot.
• Lion textures (which is what I saved with) still don't override the lykaios textures, which are the textures in the nif. Previewing the lion preset (lions use the vanilla body path still) shows human textures. 
  • I'm now thinking maybe there's something just enough wrong with the tiger textures so they don't load reliably. One thing I think I've noticed before is that when the CK gives wrong results it's often because there's actually some error and it doesn't report or fail outright, it just does bizarre stuff.
  • Now I'm remembering that I DON'T have the ZaZ skeleton in my base game folder, which is what CK is running out of. Fuck me with razor wire. (Doesn't explain why things didn't work in game, but still.)
• Switched the tiger texture set to point to the horse textures. That overrides the lykaios textures.
• Switched back to tiger, doesn't override, to lykaios, doesn't override, which it should if my guess that lykaios is okay is true. Rebooting.
• ...and freaking 'a, what I thought was the horse texture might not be at all. Goddamn. Still not sure why redirecting the texture sets is so squirrelly, or why the body is now showing up (tho it may be copying in the shaders from the lykaios nif).

 

I'm working up a new set of female tiger textures. I'm going to finish those up then come back to this with those new textures as my test.