change race/appreance of npcs in-game

[Vaulterade]

This is a mod request/idea, so just skip over if you're not interested. (if I have the wrong section, sorry)

 

you can hit showplasticsurgeonmenu in console command to modify your own appearance, why not a similiar system for npcs to change their appearance without going through the problems with the geck? I've made a couple custom companions before, and one thing I've always had trouble with was getting their appearance just right. Is something like this feasible? Some of the best coders around are here and the guys at nexus are a bunch of dicks, so... anyone?

[Guest luthienanarion]

I'm one of the guys over at the Nexus, and I'm not a dick. Way to angst.

 

Editing NPC facial features in-game is not feasable. Trust me on this--I'm the guy who scripted a gun that lets you use the name-entry box to rename NPCs permanently, so I'm not afraid to think outside the box.

 

The only way top create an NPC's face using the in-game editor is to edit the player's face, extract the facegen data from the save, and copy the data to an NPC using FNVEdit.

[Vaulterade]

I'm on the nexus as well, and I was reffering to other major coders/modders and such who will essentially tear you apart for suggesting ideas that they know are unfeasible, but a simple gamer such as myself does not (speaking from experience here. I suggested a follower distance changer that makes them form a squad formation behind the PC and a guy ripped on me for the sheer difficulty of it) No offense to you friend.

[Guest luthienanarion]

Ironically, I don't think that the idea you just mentioned sounds that difficult. Just use some geometry and place some x-markers, then give the followers travel packages to them. Unfortunately, I fail hard at math.

 

Just last night, I replied to an idea someone had about changing specular maps on objects in-game when it was raining--a completely impossible-sounding idea, but theoreticaly possible in my opinion.

[astymma]

Well, the only way I can think of would involve a convoluted series like so:

 

;make two stages
int intStage
 
; three actors, a dummy to hold pc appearance, the player and a destination npc
ref refDummy
ref refPlayer
ref refDestination
 
;get refs
set refDummy to DummyNPCRef
set refPlayer to PlayerREF
set refDestination to DestinationNPCRef
 
if intStage == 0
    ;copy PC to Dummy
    refDummy.MatchRace refPlayer
    refDummy.MatchFaceGeometry refPlayer
 
    ;copy Destination to PC
    refPlayer.MatchRace refDestination
    refPlayer.MatchFaceGeometry refDestination
 
    ;advance stage and show editing menu
    set intStage to 1
    showplasticsurgeonmenu
elseif intStage == 1
    ;done editing, copy PC to Destination
    refDestination.MatchRace refPlayer
    refDestination.MatchFaceGeometry refPlayer
 
    ;copy Dummy back to PC
    refPlayer.MatchRace refDummy
    refPlayer.MatchFaceGeometry refDummy
 
    ;advance stage and show menu again to let player fix any weirdness introduced
    set intStage to 2
    showplasticsurgeonmenu
else
    ;do some cleanup here
endif

The above is somewhat pseudo code. You'll need an appropriate script block, likely some timers, something to freeze the NPC's in place while you're doing this, etc..

[Vaulterade]

Prime example of the awesome guys here at LL right there ^
You actually give some thought, insight, and calm, rational responses free of swears and name calling. Thank you. At least the idea is out there and there's a general idea of how difficult it would be.