Help with xEdit (Fangs and Eyes - Serana)

[DevilFireSmile]

This mod offers versions of Harkon and Valerica that I like quite alot!

Though same can't be said about Serana, so I looked into this mod through xEdit, but don't know how to proceed.

Is there a clean way to somehow exclude any changes this mod does to Serana, but keep Harkon and Valerica?

 

Edit: Better yet, how do I copy head parameters for Valerica and make a patch based on them, ignoring all the rest from this mod (custom body sliders for example)?

 

That's regular Serana I currently have (through general Fangs and Eyes, CBBE and Demoniac textures).

[bnub345]

1 hour ago, DevilFireSmile said:

This mod offers versions of Harkon and Valerica that I like quite alot!

Though same can't be said about Serana, so I looked into this mod through xEdit, but don't know how to proceed.

Is there a clean way to somehow exclude any changes this mod does to Serana, but keep Harkon and Valerica?

 

Edit: Better yet, how do I copy head parameters for Valerica and make a patch based on them, ignoring all the rest from this mod (custom body sliders for example)?

 

 

 

There are 2 things that control what NPCs look like, the texture and mesh files in facegen. This is stored in folders corresponding to the plugin file and base id of the NPC. So Serana would have a mesh under meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\dawnguard.esm\00002b6c.nif, and a texture under

textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\dawnguard.esm\00002b6c.dds. You can use these assets to control what the NPCs look like. You also have to make sure the names of the head parts in the nif are exactly the same as the names of the head parts in the esp. It doesn't matter whether you edit the nif or the esp to do this, but the names must be the same or you will get the grey face.

[anjenthedog]

well... maybe not any dialogue changes, but in terms of visuals, push come shove you *might be able to manually swap the mods Serana meshes and textures for the old ones, presuming they're still installed.

 

Presuming it's a soft overwrite

1) locate her mesh and texture folders from the replacer mod (ie whatever it has installed that it's using to overwrite Serana's original content)

2) create "backup" folders in each where we'll copy-paste the mod's "original content" in case something doesn't work or otherwise goes wonky.

3) copy the associated mesh, tri file and skeleton (tri and skeleton content is mod dependent, some provide, some don't) and all associated texture files into the new folders respectively so you can fallback if needed later

4) locate her original-original mesh and texture content.

5) copy the content and replace the active meshes and textures in the mod's Serana folders respectively with the original-orignal content.

 

If it's a hard overwrite (ie file resources being literally replaced during installation), things probably get messier. I'd think you'd have to uninstall the mod, restore the original-original files, make copies of the needed content (drop them into a pair of appropriately named dummy folders somewhere for a moment), reinstall the mod, then perform the above process.

 

if her mod-added content is stuffed into a BSA or something, it's beyond my experience.

[DevilFireSmile]

1 hour ago, anjenthedog said:

well... maybe not any dialogue changes, but in terms of visuals, push come shove you *might be able to manually swap the mods Serana meshes and textures for the old ones, presuming they're still installed.

 

Presuming it's a soft overwrite

1) locate her mesh and texture folders from the replacer mod (ie whatever it has installed that it's using to overwrite Serana's original content)

2) create "backup" folders in each where we'll copy-paste the mod's "original content" in case something doesn't work or otherwise goes wonky.

3) copy the associated mesh, tri file and skeleton (tri and skeleton content is mod dependent, some provide, some don't) and all associated texture files into the new folders respectively so you can fallback if needed later

4) locate her original-original mesh and texture content.

5) copy the content and replace the active meshes and textures in the mod's Serana folders respectively with the original-orignal content.

 

If it's a hard overwrite (ie file resources being literally replaced during installation), things probably get messier. I'd think you'd have to uninstall the mod, restore the original-original files, make copies of the needed content (drop them into a pair of appropriately named dummy folders somewhere for a moment), reinstall the mod, then perform the above process.

 

if her mod-added content is stuffed into a BSA or something, it's beyond my experience.

Failed to mention that I'm using MO2, so I would think I don't have any hard overwrites.

But you are correct - this mod has all it's content in .BSA, - Textures.BSA and .ESP formats, so I had to dive in using xEdit (to which I'm new).

[DevilFireSmile]

1 hour ago, bnub345 said:

 

There are 2 things that control what NPCs look like, the texture and mesh files in facegen. This is stored in folders corresponding to the plugin file and base id of the NPC. So Serana would have a mesh under meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\dawnguard.esm\00002b6c.nif, and a texture under

textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\dawnguard.esm\00002b6c.dds. You can use these assets to control what the NPCs look like. You also have to make sure the names of the head parts in the nif are exactly the same as the names of the head parts in the esp. It doesn't matter whether you edit the nif or the esp to do this, but the names must be the same or you will get the grey face.

If all I want is to..

Leave untouched:

- Changes to Valerica's head;

- Overall changes to Harkon;

 

Disregard:

- Changes to Valerica's body;

- All changes to Serana;

 

..how would I go about it in xEdit? 

 

Hope you don't mind me asking, I'm very new to modding, particularly in xEdit.

[bnub345]

26 minutes ago, DevilFireSmile said:

Failed to mention that I'm using MO2, so I would think I don't have any hard overwrites.

But you are correct - this mod has all it's content in .BSA, - Textures.BSA and .ESP formats, so I had to dive in using xEdit (to which I'm new).

 

If you want to use the look for Valerica from this mod, you will need to extract the facegen files from the BSA. You need both the texture and mesh, if they are in different BSAs. Bethesda Archive Extractor on the nexus works if you don't know how to extract assets from a BSA. 

 

Just saw your new post. You want to delete the Serana actor entry under the NPC header from this mod. Because this mods uses a BSA, if you have any other mods with loose files for Serana, they will overwrite this mod. Removing the Serana assets from the BSA is a little trickier. If the mod makes Valerica use a custom body, there should be an entry under WNAM - Worn Armor. Deleting this entry should make her use a default body again.

[DevilFireSmile]

30 minutes ago, bnub345 said:

 

If you want to use the look for Valerica from this mod, you will need to extract the facegen files from the BSA. You need both the texture and mesh, if they are in different BSAs. Bethesda Archive Extractor on the nexus works if you don't know how to extract assets from a BSA. 

 

Just saw your new post. You want to delete the Serana actor entry under the NPC header from this mod. Because this mods uses a BSA, if you have any other mods with loose files for Serana, they will overwrite this mod. Removing the Serana assets from the BSA is a little trickier. If the mod makes Valerica use a custom body, there should be an entry under WNAM - Worn Armor. Deleting this entry should make her use a default body again.

Success! Partial..

By deleting naked armor under WNAM I was able to keep Valerica's original (not from this mod) body.

 

I'll try to work on Serana and update on progress - so far got her brown head 

[DevilFireSmile]

UPDATE:

Situation became more complicated - third player on the field. Since I was using "Deadlier Serana" with patch for BVEF, now I have to juggle edits in 2 mods (one echoes the other).

 

Current results:

1. Valerica's new features and previous body preserved with removal of entry in WNAM field.

 

but.. If I remove Serana from NPC header, Valerica's face goes dark (canon, right?).

 

Also, removing Serana's data from NPC header is not an option, since "Deadlier Serana" has entires there for her new weapon and spells.

Therefore, I had to edit Serana, not just remove from .esp

2. I've dragged over Serana's original values and linked assets to the column corresponding to both mods (Deadlier Serana and BVEF) - got dark face. (though managed to get features I wanted)

 

I've attached the screenshot demonstrating edited fields - what could be done wrong?

Would appreciate any help.

 

Spoiler

 

UPDATE 2:

I've rolled back to backups and started over.

This time I tried to:

1. Remove WNAM's from Valerica and Serana (Success here)

2. Only Change Serana's features by copying over her original morph values, and not changing anything else (FAIL)

While her face didn't become dark, copying original face morph haven't changed anything in-game - same face from "Fangs and Eyes - Serana".

Here's the columns I played with - copied values from Dawnguard.esm to corrresponding fields to the right.

Spoiler

 

[bnub345]

20 minutes ago, DevilFireSmile said:

UPDATE:

Situation became more complicated - third player on the field. Since I was using "Deadlier Serana" with patch for BVEF, now I have to juggle edits in 2 mods (one echoes the other).

 

Current results:

1. Valerica's new features and previous body preserved with removal of entry in WNAM field.

 

but.. If I remove Serana from NPC header, Valerica's face goes dark (canon, right?).

 

Also, removing Serana's data from NPC header is not an option, since "Deadlier Serana" has entires there for her new weapon and spells.

Therefore, I had to edit Serana, not just remove from .esp

2. I've dragged over Serana's original values and linked assets to the column corresponding to both mods (Deadlier Serana and BVEF) - got dark face. (though managed to get features I wanted)

 

I've attached the screenshot demonstrating edited fields - what could be done wrong?

Would appreciate any help.

 

 

Ok, you only need to delete NPC entries if you don't want to use the assets from that mod. Really it doesn't matter anyway because the lowest in the load order will overwrite all of the other ones. So whichever esp you want to use for Serana and Valerica, you have to make sure that the head part names are same as their nif files. You will need to open their facegen files in nifskope and change the name of each part until it matches what is in the esp. Here is Serana head I am using:

 

 

Here the brows are named SeranaBrowsHP, but you would want them to be named FemaleBrowsHuman07 as in the esp. You do this by right-clicking on the name category in the box on the left and selecting Edit String Index as in the picture.

[DevilFireSmile]

1 hour ago, bnub345 said:

 

Ok, you only need to delete NPC entries if you don't want to use the assets from that mod. Really it doesn't matter anyway because the lowest in the load order will overwrite all of the other ones. So whichever esp you want to use for Serana and Valerica, you have to make sure that the head part names are same as their nif files. You will need to open their facegen files in nifskope and change the name of each part until it matches what is in the esp. Here is Serana head I am using:

 

 

Here the brows are named SeranaBrowsHP, but you would want them to be named FemaleBrowsHuman07 as in the esp. You do this by right-clicking on the name category in the box on the left and selecting Edit String Index as in the picture.

Thank you, I'll do that and update on progress or lack of.

 

EDIT: Yes, I'd love to not use any Serana's assets from "F&E - Serana". but can't delete her since "Deadlier Serana" patched for that mod uses same assets along with Powers and Sword (which I need). So I have to tweak both mods.

 

So, in nifscope I should edit what in main game files, or extract what's in the mod and changed that and repackage afterwards? Do I need xEdit at all?

 

EDIT 2: Downloaded nifscope. Navigated to Skyrim Special Edition/Data/Meshes/actors/characters and stuck there - no folders like facegendata or anything like that. Do I need to unpack mod's or game's .esm's or esp's to access, let's say, 00002b6c.nif?  - Never mind, added nifscope to MO2, and when launched from there - all folders appeared.

 

EDIT 3: So I've found that /dawnguard.esm directory but no 00002b6c.nif is in there.. Tried to navigae nifscope to mod's folder and nothing there to open at all.

 

[bnub345]

1 hour ago, DevilFireSmile said:

EDIT 3: So I've found that /dawnguard.esm directory but no 00002b6c.nif is in there.. Tried to navigae nifscope to mod's folder and nothing there to open at all.

 

It might be that the assets are in a BSA, in which case you will need to extract them. You can use Bethesda Archive Extractor from the nexus for this.

[DevilFireSmile]

 

11 hours ago, bnub345 said:

 

It might be that the assets are in a BSA, in which case you will need to extract them. You can use Bethesda Archive Extractor from the nexus for this.

 

Downloaded extractor, extracted and opened Serana's .nif from "Eyes and Fangs - Serana" mod and here how it looks.

Spoiler

So what I need to do is to replace values like "BVFE" etc with whatever original .nif has in game's .bsa for Serana, save and then pack edited nif back into mod's .bsa, correct?

 

Edit: Did what described  above and that's what I've got and saved 

Spoiler

Now I have the file - where do I put it? Extractor won't let me put it back in .bsa.

 

Edit 2: Decided to leave modified .nif in mod's folder, edit .esm to have the same valued as in .nif (except head - after typing in "HeadFemaleNord" everything goes red, so I just removed the line) and tried launching the game - no changes were applied, and Serana has her "Fangs and Eyes - Serana" face I don't want.

Spoiler

 

 

[bnub345]

4 hours ago, DevilFireSmile said:

Edit 2: Decided to leave modified .nif in mod's folder, edit .esm to have the same valued as in .nif (except head - after typing in "HeadFemaleNord" everything goes red, so I just removed the line) and tried launching the game - no changes were applied, and Serana has her "Fangs and Eyes - Serana" face I don't want.

 

You can just leave the nif in the folder, it should overwrite the BSA. It's important that every part matches the esp, so you have to include the head. Unfortunately the head isn't listed in xEdit, so you will need to check it against the other nif or in the Creation Kit.

 

Also you may have some difficulties if the nif has multiple hair parts, as it looks like you have a hairline part and a hair part in the nif but only the hair part in the esp. You can add a new headpart in xEdit by right-clicking on an existing headpart, selecting copy as new record, renaming it, then selecting the same esp from the menu. Here I just called it Hairline. Now you can add this to the actor entry like so

 

Spoiler

 

This will add a Null Reference, which you can copy and paste the Hairline headpart into.

[DevilFireSmile]

26 minutes ago, bnub345 said:

 

You can just leave the nif in the folder, it should overwrite the BSA. It's important that every part matches the esp, so you have to include the head. Unfortunately the head isn't listed in xEdit, so you will need to check it against the other nif or in the Creation Kit.

 

Also you may have some difficulties if the nif has multiple hair parts, as it looks like you have a hairline part and a hair part in the nif but only the hair part in the esp. You can add a new headpart in xEdit by right-clicking on an existing headpart, selecting copy as new record, renaming it, then selecting the same esp from the menu. Here I just called it Hairline. Now you can add this to the actor entry like so

 

  Hide contents

 

This will add a Null Reference, which you can copy and paste the Hairline headpart into.

 

Yeah, I checked original Serana's nif and upon trying to rename head part to match the original I've got somehting like "incorrect value" , and and everything highlighted in red the second time. but I'll give it another go.

[DevilFireSmile]

Created copy from head part in the mod and named it like in original .nif. Then whentried to add line in the right fields got the error.

Same happened when tried to add hairline.

Spoiler

 

[bnub345]

22 hours ago, DevilFireSmile said:

Created copy from head part in the mod and named it like in original .nif. Then whentried to add line in the right fields got the error.

Same happened when tried to add hairline.

 

If the copy/paste doesn't work you can double click on the head parts under the NPC header and select the part you want from a drop-down list.

[DevilFireSmile]

On 2/2/2022 at 9:32 PM, bnub345 said:

 

If the copy/paste doesn't work you can double click on the head parts under the NPC header and select the part you want from a drop-down list.

So I did as you suggested, but was still having string highlighted with red until I copied "FemaleHeadNord" and "DLC1HairLineSerana" to Dawnguard.esm column - no erros that way.

Still - no change appeared in-game, and Serana has her modded face.

 

We must be missing something here. It's as if despite me editing mods .nif and typing in names of vanilla head parts and adding same line in xEdit, the mod persistantly defaults to it's assets.

 

Spoiler

 

EDIT: What value is responsible for vampire fangs?

 

[bnub345]

34 minutes ago, DevilFireSmile said:

We must be missing something here. It's as if despite me editing mods .nif and typing in names of vanilla head parts and adding same line in xEdit, the mod persistantly defaults to it's assets.

 

• I don't know where you are getting this error from changing the string names, but you shouldn't need to modify the DLC files to change an NPC face. Not sure how to fix that one.
• Make sure the facegen files you want to use are extracted and in the same folder structure as they would be in the BSA, and loaded after the BSAs.

[DevilFireSmile]

39 minutes ago, bnub345 said:

 

• I don't know where you are getting this error from changing the string names, but you shouldn't need to modify the DLC files to change an NPC face. Not sure how to fix that one.
• Make sure the facegen files you want to use are extracted and in the same folder structure as they would be in the BSA, and loaded after the BSAs.

 

Already figured that out.

But now she doesn't have her fangs which "Fangs and Eyes - Combat blue" (stand alone mod) gave all vampires in the game (including Serana).

Where do I tweak her teeth?

Spoiler

 

[bnub345]

1 hour ago, DevilFireSmile said:

Where do I tweak her teeth?

 

Probably you want to copy the mouth part from the fangs nif onto the one you are using.

[DevilFireSmile]

18 hours ago, bnub345 said:

 

Probably you want to copy the mouth part from the fangs nif onto the one you are using.

There only .nif files for eyes (different color versions) and mouthhumanchargen.tri and mouthhumanfchargen.tri - how do I sure .tri in Serana's .nif or .esp?

 

EDIT: NVM, solved it. Copied mouth branch from 00002b6c.nif from the mod to 00002b6c.nif I use.