Body Skeleton Replacers

[Allannaa]

First, if this has been asked and answered, just point me to the existing links and I'll be happy.

 

Second -- I am NOT asking about texture replacers of any kind, just to be clear.

 

I'm confused as to which body/skeleton mods work well with vanilla clothes and armor.  I don't much care about boobs or penises.  I just want nice looking characters and NPCs who don't have elongated heads and creepy scrawny bodies.  I DEFINITELY do not want anything "anime-ish".  I know some folks like that look, but it's not for me.

 

I wouldn't rule out a replacer which *also* tweaks vanilla clothes and armor, or which recommends a separate mod to do that.

 

I've read about "Roberts" mods, and about HG or HGEC? or "Exnem" (possibly the same mod with different names?) mods, but I'm lost, confused, and getting frustrated.  So I came here for opinions and explanations because I learned a long time ago, Ne*us forums get brutal, and off-topic.  I mean, not that ours don't too, but at least here, we usually answer each other's questions, lol

 

If anyone has any suggestions, or even just opinions, I'd appreciate hearing! (well, reading.  You know.)

[Melamkish]

If you are using any Lovers mods, you only need the one that comes with LAPF. It is the only one I use and you want to make sure it overides any other skeleton.

 

Using that skeleton with HGEC and Robert’s Male work fine. Same with vanilla clothes. What happens is if you use HGEC, it will change the body of the PC, and any NPC that has HGEC enabled clothing. If you don’t “trade” clothing with an NPC, the vanilla clothing fits like vanilla. The same idea for Robert’s Male. Robert’s clothing, Robert’s body. Vanilla clothing, vanilla body. One additional note, Robert’s mod does come with modified vanilla clothing, so using the mod will change male npc bodies to use Robert's clothing. With HGEC you generally need mods to change vanilla clothing to HGEC.

 

Another thing to note, If you "trade" clothes, either a mod with a trade function or otherwise, if the clothes are separate top and bottoms, and one is HGEC, the other vanilla, you will see a mismatch in the body where the upper and lower body come together. If an NPC has no clothing, then the body will be either HGEC or Robert.

 

I used to use Growlf's Universal Skeleton in my earlier use of Lovers mods, but at some point a mod update caused severe body deformation, and after uninstalling it, found the LAPF skeleton worked fine.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Melamkish
format

[fejeena]

2 hours ago, Allannaa said:

..  body/skeleton mods work well with vanilla clothes and armor.

 Only the vanilla Body !  But you can use any other skeleton.   Too much bones in the skeleton is not a problem, even if the body does not have these bones.  But if you have body with breast bones and penis bones, or no vanilla bodies with wings, no vanilla hair with pony bones, . . .  and the skeleton does not have these bones, then the part of the body for which there are no bones distorts/stretches.

 

Vanilla bodies use 4 vanilla textures: hand, upper body, lower body , foot.  in male and a female version.

Visible body parts in vanilla armor clothes meshes/nif use the same textures.

 

So if you use vanilla armor and clothes you need the vanilla body AND the textures.

 

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Body replacer:

Male Roberts:  the body only use one texture for a 4 body parts. Only the footmale texture.  And if you install the Mod the vanilla footmale texture will be overwritten.

But iy you still use the vanilla armor-clothes your foot textures is wrong. e.g. Sandals have visible skin, but vanilla sandals with Roberts footmale texure looks like shit.

So you have to install a Roberts male armor-clothes repalacer. Now body and armor-clothes use the same (and right)  textures.

 

Thw feame HGEC Body use 2 textures. The upper, lower and foot mesh use the footfemale textures.  The hand mesh use the Handfemale texures (it's like vanilla).

So the vanilla footfemale texture is overwritten with this mod.

If you install HGEC  but still use vanilla armor clothes all visible skin is wrong ( Only hands look OK)

So you have to install a HGEC armor clothes repalcer.

 

------------

If you change a  body system  you also have to change the body textures . And the new body need a armor-clothes replacer. Do not mix two body/armor/clothes systems.

And there is no body replacer that use the vanilla textures ! You always change meshes AND textures.

 

With Roberts male and female HGEC:

If the cup size is not exactly right, or the male body is not quite as muscular as the armor clothes replacer's body, that is not so serious.

 

All Roberts male bodies use the same textures and you can use slim or bodybuilder bodies.

 

The same with HGEC, they all use the same texures with AA cup boobs or with boobs that can't fit through a door.

 

So there is no good or bad body.

 

If you want armors that look almost like vanilla use Roberts male armor body replacer that you can download  where you also download the body Mod.

And  HGEC "vanilla" use EVE armor clothes replacer. ( it is mentioned in the link below. A HGEC replacer with C and E cup )

 

 

More about bodies and armor clothes repalcer ( and everything you need to know if you want to use Mods)  read

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/36443-oblivion-install-gametoolsbodiesbbb-load-order-sorting-espesm-cleaning-cs-cse-body-stretching/

With all the download links.  And you need  archive invalidate or SkyBSA to use vanilla replacers! Also in the Link.

 

And yes, I'm serious, having Oblivion installed incorrectly ( in  C : / program files ) can mess up the whole modded game.  So better read everything.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by fejeena

[LongDukDong]

If you are using Lovers with PK, you 'must' use the LAPF skeleton, lest you suffer the effects of buttocks, boobs and penis stretching.  Now, that's not saying Growlfs is not in use with Lovers.  And Growlf's universal  is great.  Only that after installing Growlfs, you install the LAPF skeleton atop of it to take care of the stretching issue.  It's part of the installation guide,  Thankfully, the link fejeena (above) presented includes links to Growlf's and the NoMaam's BBB animations  (For LAPF users: install Growlf's, then NoMaam's, THEN you install LAPF.).

 

But that's the skeleton and not the bodies.  And you had suggested Roberts, HGEC, and so on.

 

Now, if you want a variety of bodies, you could just use the SETBODY mod which allows you to have a variety of body meshes at hand and can be applied, whether it be HGEC, TGND, DMRA or so on.

 

However, clothes are usually 'set' to a particular body size/shape.  For example, you might have set your character to a petite and slim young maiden, but you chose to don the 'Love Armor No.9' armor from Crowning Isles (a LAPF mod).  Suddenly, you got a girl with a 42DD breast size, this because Love Armor No.9 includes both a clothing mesh of a particular shape and a body mesh to go with it.

 

The only other option for clothing to actually 'fit' the character's body regardless of the body size, shape or ... girth, would be this: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/37013  It allows a hella variety of body shapes, and the vanilla outfits it comes with will 'fit' appropriately.  HOWEVER, it hasn't been updated since 2012, the bethesdasoft links dead, no instructions for converting clothing meshes to fit.  HOWEVER, @sunhawken seems to know something about using MeshRigger to convert clothing... assuming the clothing you wish converted is compatible.

 

I have no experience with that one.

Edited June 27, 2022 by LongDukDong

[Allannaa]

Wow, those were some quick replies.  Thank you so much, all three of you.  Your responses cleared up a lot of my "WTF" whining.  I think I now understand enough to try out the replacers you all offered, and to follow your advice on installing and using them.  (Of course if I don't understand after all, you can bet I'll be back on here whining again, hehe)

 

I haven't really played Ob since the days when you bought a disk, shoved it onto the "cup holder", and played without being online or anything else.  I had done my own texutres back then, but whatever skeleton NIF I used seems to be long gone, and of course, in... what, thirteen years?... I've lost whatever skeleton I used back then.

 

So believe me, your answers and suggestions are much appreciated!

[Allannaa]

Okay, I'm back to whine....

 

I must be looking in the wrong places or something.  I tried the various mods everyone in this thread has mentioned (at least I think all of them).  But I really don't want BODY replacers.... I just want something to fix HEADS.  Where should I be looking for head replacers?  Or what do you folks recommend?

 

Thanks!

 

Oh -- EDIT -- A lot of what I see recommended says to download from TESNexus, but that site no longer loads (yeah, all ad-blockers turned off and all that) so... where does one get those files?

Edited August 24, 2022 by Allannaa

[fejeena]

Without Nexus....  I tried to google and check some other Mod pages. Only found Rens Beauty Pack . 

moddb.com, afkmods.com, worldofelderscrolls.de, pagan-tes-mods.com, ... no head Mods

Only elderscrollsportal.de   Cosmetic Compilation = hair, eyes, Rens Beauty Pack

There are maybe some small download pages or links ...  I don't know any ( they are all "die" )

 

And what do you want? 

new head meshes?

new head textures?

Both?

New NPC/race face settings? ( race/ NPC overhauls  like OCO )

Can't help because I don't use any overhauls.  Only some new head texures that better match the body textures ( HGEC and Roberts body replacer)

 

And at Nexus

OCO  ( Oblivion Character Overhaul)   https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/44676 you can only use the head meshes and textures
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/49406 OCO head replacer

https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35487   ( think that are head and textures)
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/9534    ( only textures ? )
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/12038    ( think only head meshes )
https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/20166   ( meshes and textures )
too much to list all ...  search "head"

There are single overhauls: a Orc overhaul https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/44728   

or better Khajiit and Argonain heads...