FO4 Dark face

[Bargums]

When I load my saves my character has a dark face and I don't know how to fix it. I've tried killing myself, reinstalling my mods and even starting a fresh game but nothing seems to fix it. Does anyone know what mod causes this or how to fix this?

[steelpanther24]

2 minutes ago, Bargums said:

When I load my saves my character has a dark face and I don't know how to fix it. I've tried killing myself, reinstalling my mods and even starting a fresh game but nothing seems to fix it. Does anyone know what mod causes this or how to fix this?

 

 

This is a common problem which is caused by errors associated with using mod faces.  Essentially there was an error when loading the face.   One solution is keep one backup saved game where you know you do not have this issue.   This issue usually shows up on loading a game, so if you have the bug,  and you know you didn't have it before, reload until it goes away (has taken me at most three times).  

 

For  a dark face bug that is persistent, here is a more technical solution:

Check out this mod, which may help solve your issue.    https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3841

 

From that mod:

Spoiler

For everyone who has "dark face" bug: this bug appears, when resolution (or compression method) of some of face textures do not fit others. 

There are default resolutions for non-HD DLC game version:

_d: 1024 x 1024
_n: 1024 x 1024
_s: 512 x 512

There are default resolutions for HD DLC game version:

_d: 1024 x 1024
_n: 1024 x 1024
_s: 1024 x 1024

So, in case you have (for example) the game version with  HD DLC installed, and will download the mod version with 512 x 512 res scaler map, it will bring the dark face bug, as well as if you have some other face textures installed, like brows, face scars, tattoos, makeup and such - if the resolution of even one of them will not fit the default, you'll see "dark face" corrupted texture.

So double check what mod version you download, your game version, and what mods do you have installed.
 

 

 

 

[Bargums]

17 minutes ago, steelpanther24 said:

 

This is a common problem which is caused by errors associated with using mod faces.  Essentially there was an error when loading the face.   One solution is keep one backup saved game where you know you do not have this issue.   This issue usually shows up on loading a game, so if you have the bug,  and you know you didn't have it before, reload until it goes away (has taken me at most three times).  

 

For  a dark face bug that is persistent, here is a more technical solution:

Check out this mod, which may help solve your issue.    https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/3841

 

From that mod:

  Reveal hidden contents

For everyone who has "dark face" bug: this bug appears, when resolution (or compression method) of some of face textures do not fit others. 

There are default resolutions for non-HD DLC game version:

_d: 1024 x 1024
_n: 1024 x 1024
_s: 512 x 512

There are default resolutions for HD DLC game version:

_d: 1024 x 1024
_n: 1024 x 1024
_s: 1024 x 1024

So, in case you have (for example) the game version with  HD DLC installed, and will download the mod version with 512 x 512 res scaler map, it will bring the dark face bug, as well as if you have some other face textures installed, like brows, face scars, tattoos, makeup and such - if the resolution of even one of them will not fit the default, you'll see "dark face" corrupted texture.

So double check what mod version you download, your game version, and what mods do you have installed.
 

 

 

 

I installed the mod and it did fix the dark face, however when I tried to open the slm 14 command it caused my game to crash. Should I just try uninstalling the HD DLC to see if that works?

[steelpanther24]

8 minutes ago, Bargums said:

I installed the mod and it did fix the dark face, however when I tried to open the slm 14 command it caused my game to crash. Should I just try uninstalling the HD DLC to see if that works?

 

That is based on your pain level.   I opted to keep a back up saved game at all times.  I did not use that mod, as it is a "all or nothing" kind of mod meaning you will have change your texture mods to the HD compatible or dump the HD mod.    My way means losing some progress here and there, but I get to keep my current mod set that spans 6 years.

[Bargums]

1 minute ago, steelpanther24 said:

 

That is based on your pain level.   I opted to keep a back up saved game at all times.  I did not use that mod, as it is a "all or nothing" kind of mod meaning you will have change your texture mods to the HD compatible or dump the HD mod.    My way means losing some progress here and there, but I get to keep my current mod set that spans 6 years.

Ok, I'll try uninstalling it and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll just reinstall everything and start fresh. Thanks for your help

[Gameplayer]

29 minutes ago, Bargums said:

I installed the mod and it did fix the dark face, however when I tried to open the slm 14 command it caused my game to crash. Should I just try uninstalling the HD DLC to see if that works?

 

In my experience Fallout 4 HD Texture pack always leads to dark face and none of the provided solutions have worked.

Using mods that have HD face often claim that having so much as 1 texture for a face part that is not appropriate size will result in the issue of the whole going dark or bugging out....Which makes hunting down texture overhauls for the face amoung many mods quite a pain because these are not properly labeled according to their actual size catagory across all mods.

 

Since the community is not making it easy to find a whole face overhaul pack or at least I have not found one well I tend to avoid face texture overhauls for Fo4 cause my time is better spent on other things like making armor conversions.

 

Now as far as textures in general.

HD Texture pack sucks, its not enough gain for its cost....The texture size is huge but still looks like crap and there are people out there that make better stuff at smaller format sizes...Go figure smaller definition stuff that looks better than the HD.  Seems to not only happen with the stuff provided by Beth but also some of the popular packs you will find on websites.

The thing is that there are not many complete overhauls for textures done for Fo4 last I looked that do a good job or greatly improve on the game across a significant amount of the game.  Go over to Skyrim, OMG everyone has a complete game overhaul for all the textures ever done in the game, heck there are close to 50 tomatoe retextures and about 12 for cabbages alone.

 

So what is the easiest solution for actually making Fo4 look really great without having to fall into so many trap mods that claim to have HD Textures?

 

Use and ENB Preset,

ENB is a lighting overhaul system that ends up greatly improving on the visuals of the game and even enriches the color of the things your looking at which means that in the end it might not have mattered how amazing your texture packs were because a lot of them may not have shown their full luster anyway with certain ENB Presets as it is.

 

Basically ENB Preset is your best route to make the whole game look better and avoid the whole I have to find best textures or deal with issues of textures.

 

 

Bottom line,

You will be happier if you ditch the idea of hunting down texture packs and just hunt down an ENB Solution that works for you, game overall will look much better with even just a fairly basic vanilla style one but there are plenty of extreme ones that also look nice for some peoples tastes.

 

IT ends up taking care of the lighting situation greatly improves on it, improves shadows which has a big impact on the game, removes a lot of that haze, and some ENB's remove that washed out color look and restore the quality of the color so the game does not look so grey.

[Bargums]

4 minutes ago, Gameplayer said:

 

In my experience Fallout 4 HD Texture pack always leads to dark face and none of the provided solutions have worked.

Using mods that have HD face often claim that having so much as 1 texture for a face part that is not appropriate size will result in the issue of the whole going dark or bugging out....Which makes hunting down texture overhauls for the face amoung many mods quite a pain because these are not properly labeled according to their actual size catagory across all mods.

 

Since the community is not making it easy to find a whole face overhaul pack or at least I have not found one well I tend to avoid face texture overhauls for Fo4 cause my time is better spent on other things like making armor conversions.

 

Now as far as textures in general.

HD Texture pack sucks, its not enough gain for its cost....The texture size is huge but still looks like crap and there are people out there that make better stuff at smaller format sizes...Go figure smaller definition stuff that looks better than the HD.  Seems to not only happen with the stuff provided by Beth but also some of the popular packs you will find on websites.

The thing is that there are not many complete overhauls for textures done for Fo4 last I looked that do a good job or greatly improve on the game across a significant amount of the game.  Go over to Skyrim, OMG everyone has a complete game overhaul for all the textures ever done in the game, heck there are close to 50 tomatoe retextures and about 12 for cabbages alone.

 

So what is the easiest solution for actually making Fo4 look really great without having to fall into so many trap mods that claim to have HD Textures?

 

Use and ENB Preset,

ENB is a lighting overhaul system that ends up greatly improving on the visuals of the game and even enriches the color of the things your looking at which means that in the end it might not have mattered how amazing your texture packs were because a lot of them may not have shown their full luster anyway with certain ENB Presets as it is.

 

Basically ENB Preset is your best route to make the whole game look better and avoid the whole I have to find best textures or deal with issues of textures.

 

 

I'll check that out, thanks!

[MrNicoras]

@Bargums - I couldn't help but notice that your gal has no eyebrows.  Or any other facial markings or makeup.  Are you by chance using Hi-Poly Faces Redux Hi-Poly Faces Redux Seamless?  I had the same problem.  I make the face in looksmenu, and then I go in and tick the seamless feature and boom.  Brown face, no eyebrows.   Try using the character without the seamless setting.   I managed to undo the brown a couple of times by going into face sculpting and making one minor tweak to something (doesn't matter what).  As soon as I did, the brown face went away and I could undo the tweak I'd just made.  All my makeup and markings were still there.  Highly recommend you make a save of your character's preset in Looksmenu, because the "face sculpt undo" doesn't always work.  I don't know the cause of the problem, but my guess is there's some kind of texture conflict with the face texture and the seamless texture.