Incorrect Body Texture

[Pillsbody]

I've had my skyrim set up and running relatively fine for the past few months, recently though whenever I undress my character the body texture seems to change or bug out and it isn't properly lit. I've uninstalled body textures and skin mods but it doesn't go away. It also doesn't immediately happen when a new game starts, it usually happens after a bit of time passes. Going into racemenu fixes the textures, but as soon as I take off or switch my character's clothes the glitch happens again. I know that some people who have had similar issues say it is a memory problem but I am not sure. Any idea how I can begin to fix this?

 

Edit: The dots you see on the body are freckle overlays.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Grill_Master

[bnub345]

That definitely sounds like your system is running out of VRAM. The easiest solution is to lower the resolution of the body texture you are using. Try downloading a lower res version or lower it yourself using a texture editing program (GIMP, Photoshop, Paint.net, etc). Without knowing your system specs it is difficult to say, but generally if your GPU is in the range of 2-3 GB of VRAM you don't want to use any textures higher than 2K resolution. Some mod authors will make body textures with 8K+ resolution, which is both visually pointless and a huge resource hog. 

 

You can verify the problem by going into an area with minimal stress on your system, like Breezehome and see if you still get the same texture problems. If it only happens in larger areas with multiple NPCs it is definitely a memory limitation. 

 

EDIT: Disregard this, see my post below.

Edited April 22, 2023 by bnub345

[traison]

You got something adding a body overlay texture. Might be visible in RaceMenu, start there. Otherwise save your character as-is as a preset in RaceMenu, then inspect the json file in notepad as it will contain everything, including overlays. It may even have the source mod name too, can't remember.

 

Edit: Also, SlaveTats would be a place to check too, even if it uses RaceMenu internally.

Edited April 21, 2023 by traison

[bnub345]

When I glanced at the picture, I thought you were getting the little geometric black shapes over the body. It looks like you actually just have a freckle overlay. Disregard what I posted earlier about memory, that is different from your issue.

[Pillsbody]

8 hours ago, traison said:

You got something adding a body overlay texture. Might be visible in RaceMenu, start there. Otherwise save your character as-is as a preset in RaceMenu, then inspect the json file in notepad as it will contain everything, including overlays. It may even have the source mod name too, can't remember.

 

Edit: Also, SlaveTats would be a place to check too, even if it uses RaceMenu internally.

Are you referring to the freckles? The texture issue occurred on an older character without the freckles overlay. If you aren't talking about the freckles for the body overlay do you mean a different skin texture mod perhaps?

 

Last Question: Where can I find the json files for racemenu presets?

[Pillsbody]

1 hour ago, bnub345 said:

When I glanced at the picture, I thought you were getting the little geometric black shapes over the body. It looks like you actually just have a freckle overlay. Disregard what I posted earlier about memory, that is different from your issue.

Sorry about the confusion with that, only running one character so I couldn't demonstrate it with a more clear picture.

 

Would getting more VRAM potentially help though? This wasn't an issue before, it began after I went over 300+ mods for NMM so I am thinking that also might be the problem.

[traison]

12 hours ago, Grill_Master said:

the body texture seems to change or bug out and it isn't properly lit

 

This doesn't quite specify what the problem is, so yes I assumed the freckles were part of the issue. If the dark spots move around or otherwise change then it's not an overlay and I'd start by disabling enb and reshade. If that doesn't fix it, then it could be related to the 3 or so threads (here's one, here's one with a potential workaround) of people having weird light rendering on their character bodies I've seen in recent times. None of them had solutions as far as I can remember.

 

3 hours ago, Grill_Master said:

Where can I find the json files for racemenu presets?

 

SKSE\Plugins\CharGen\Presets

 

Edit: Overlays seem to appear under the overrides key/array:

Spoiler

"overrides" : [
  {
     "node" : "Body [Ovl2]",
     "values" : [
        {
           "data" : -972223955,
           "index" : -1,
           "key" : 7,
           "type" : 3
        },
        {
           "data" : 0.7764706015586853,
           "index" : -1,
           "key" : 8,
           "type" : 4
        },
        {
           "data" : "Actors\\Character\\Overlays\\Community Overlays\\CO 3\\70 Body F.dds",
           "index" : 0,
           "key" : 9,
           "type" : 2
        }
     ]
  },

...

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by traison

[Pillsbody]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:56 AM, traison said:

 

This doesn't quite specify what the problem is, so yes I assumed the freckles were part of the issue. If the dark spots move around or otherwise change then it's not an overlay and I'd start by disabling enb and reshade. If that doesn't fix it, then it could be related to the 3 or so threads (here's one, here's one with a potential workaround) of people having weird light rendering on their character bodies I've seen in recent times. None of them had solutions as far as I can remember.

 

 

SKSE\Plugins\CharGen\Presets

 

Edit: Overlays seem to appear under the overrides key/array:

  Reveal hidden contents

"overrides" : [
  {
     "node" : "Body [Ovl2]",
     "values" : [
        {
           "data" : -972223955,
           "index" : -1,
           "key" : 7,
           "type" : 3
        },
        {
           "data" : 0.7764706015586853,
           "index" : -1,
           "key" : 8,
           "type" : 4
        },
        {
           "data" : "Actors\\Character\\Overlays\\Community Overlays\\CO 3\\70 Body F.dds",
           "index" : 0,
           "key" : 9,
           "type" : 2
        }
     ]
  },

...

 

This issue seems to be the light rendering issue you referenced, so I'll poke around those threads and see what I can do. Also I went to where the json files should be in SKSE\Plugins\CharGen\Presets but only found jslot files for my presets and I seemingly can't open them with notepad to inspect them. 

 

Is there a workaround for inspecting jslots? Or how can I make a json preset? 

[traison]

json is a format, jslot is the extension in this case; file content is still json. Also, notepad will open them without issues. Right click, open with, notepad; or failing that, open notepad first and drag-n-drop the jslot file onto notepad.

[Pillsbody]

22 hours ago, traison said:

json is a format, jslot is the extension in this case; file content is still json. Also, notepad will open them without issues. Right click, open with, notepad; or failing that, open notepad first and drag-n-drop the jslot file onto notepad.

I got the preset code/overlay stuff if you want to take a look, I don't know what exactly I am looking for or where to start. I was also digging through the old posts and saw that you referenced a "Softly_909 Blank" I search for it in my files and couldn't find it. I did however find the blank.dds in the SlaveTats folder. How should I proceed from here if I want to attempt a fix?

FrecklePreset.txt

Edited April 24, 2023 by Grill_Master

[traison]

Overlays in that preset:

textures\Actors\character\BlushWhenAroused\BWA_t7_p2.dds
\filthyfx0.dds
Actors\Character\Overlays\SFO\Freckles Body Thin CBBE.dds
Actors\Character\Overlays\SFO\Freckles Body Pattern 6.dds
textures\actors\character\overlays\default.dds
\SL Survival\spanky\spank_breasts_light.dds
\SL Survival\spanky\spank_ass_light.dds
\bloody0.dds

 

One of those is likely your issue.

 

Edit: The softly blank file is a download in that thread. The OP was convinced their default.dds file was "corrupted" and insisted I make a new blank dds, so I did, to prove a point. The quality of that thread is not what it should be. From a technical point of view, yes it it totally possible for the default.dds file to not be blank (obviously), however my reasoning there was based on likelihood: whats the chance a mod replaces that file with one that is slightly tinted black? I'd say astronomically small; unless you're one that downloads troll/joke mods but then it's your own fault.

Edited April 24, 2023 by traison

[Pillsbody]

26 minutes ago, traison said:

Overlays in that preset:

textures\Actors\character\BlushWhenAroused\BWA_t7_p2.dds
\filthyfx0.dds
Actors\Character\Overlays\SFO\Freckles Body Thin CBBE.dds
Actors\Character\Overlays\SFO\Freckles Body Pattern 6.dds
textures\actors\character\overlays\default.dds
\SL Survival\spanky\spank_breasts_light.dds
\SL Survival\spanky\spank_ass_light.dds
\bloody0.dds

 

One of those is likely your issue.

 

Edit: The softly blank file is a download in that thread. The OP was convinced their default.dds file was "corrupted" and insisted I make a new blank dds, so I did, to prove a point. The quality of that thread is not what it should be. From a technical point of view, yes it it totally possible for the default.dds file to not be blank (obviously), however my reasoning there was based on likelihood: whats the chance a mod replaces that file with one that is slightly tinted black? I'd say astronomically small; unless you're one that downloads troll/joke mods but then it's your own fault.

Thanks for going through all of that. How do I determine which one is the issue?

[traison]

You'd need something that can open dds files. Paint.NET is what most use I guess. I personally use Microsoft's own DDS utilities together with GIMP2.

[Overlord3]

Hello traison. Could you help me? I'm also experiencing the same issue:

 

I hope it's ok to post here. I tried the potential workaround you mentioned earlier but it didn't work and I can't find anything relevant in my character's jslot preset. What do I need to be looking for? Could I potentially send it your way to help? This body lighting issue has been so frustrating to solve!

[traison]

Upload the jslot file here, if we're lucky you 2 only have one texture that overlaps. Just remember to create the RaceMenu preset while your character has that texture isssue.

[Overlord3]

6 hours ago, traison said:

Just remember to create the RaceMenu preset while your character has that texture isssue.

When I enter showracemenu, the texture issue disappears and it seems to "fix" itself. I'll try to figure out a way for the glitch to stay active and generate a preset later today if possible and post it here.

[Overlord3]

Ok, what I did was type in showracemenu into the console, equip Glass Armor onto my character while the racemenu was up, and saved a preset. The jslot data is down in the attachments as a text file. Thank you for your assistance!

ondsaarmor.txt

[traison]

No overlays in that one. So its a proper rendering/shader issue then I guess. ENB, ReShade and/or display driver settings next suspects then perhaps?

[Overlord3]

Update, it has to be something with Racemenu. I recently disabled it and the visual glitch was completely gone when I went back into my game, equipping and unequipping armor did nothing strange. Reenabling it would cause the glitch again. I just wish I knew what it was in Racemenu that was causing it!

 

I guess, for now, disabling Racemenu while playing as this specific character can be a temporary fix...

 

As for ENB and ReShade, I use neither of those in my game and I don't think I have any crazy display driver settings active.

[libertyordeath]

Hi guys, just posted about this as well:

 

 

 

Here's what i found out thus far:

1. It is not a RAM/VRAM issue. In my case i got 16 GB RAM of which 8GB are used while playing (value incl OS and MO2 - man is the later memory hungry - 500MB). Likewise i have 6GB VRAM, and usage is between 3-4GB while playing.

2. It's neither slavetats nor any cum-overlay mod. I've excluded those already in testing.

3. It's not related to overlay-settings in skee.ini either. Neither does disabling the new optimizations (GPU-copy, etc) make a difference.

4. You can forget SKSE-plugins like soakingwet, pregnancy autonormal map, etc as well. Already tested without those.

5. I have not updated drivers or windows for... you don't wanna know. I hate system updates and aliens phoning home.

 

What i have not tested yet:

1. NFF. Since it only seems to affect followers - nobody else - well....

 

2. ENB received a major performance update just a week ago, and everyone rushed to get it, myself included. However, since people without ENB are reporting this bug as well, i guess we can excluded it now.

 

3. Anything in the current racemenu version that is unrelated to layercounts or optimizations.

[traison]

How about something like bEnableOverlays=0 in skee64.ini? ...or just in general, going to town on the ini with a sledgehammer; disable everything that isn't nailed down.

 

Remember to create backups.

[Overlord3]

1 hour ago, traison said:

How about something like bEnableOverlays=0 in skee64.ini? ...or just in general, going to town on the ini with a sledgehammer; disable everything that isn't nailed down.

 

Remember to create backups.

Good idea, sometimes brute force will do it. I'll give this a try later today and let you guys know if it works or not.

[libertyordeath]

My savecount is at 920 and i keep about every 50th's one. I'm not worried about immediate corruption, silent longterm stuff on the other hand...

 

Anyways: Disabling the masterswitch for overlays and faceoverlays made no difference here. Fast-travel from my castle to whiterun - instant follower shader-glitch. Every single time.

 

Unsurprisingly then, the "workaround" described elsewhere (alphaflag and -threshold) made no difference either.

 

I'll test just ripping out racemenu altogether on a throwaway save next

 

Perhaps relevant: I'm one of the few hundred people for whom the 3BA morphsliders do not work, unless i disable the alt malloc in enginefixes and disable racemenuplugin.esp. I'm also one of those who can barely raise overlay counts from the defaults (8,3,3,4 is stable here - anything more results in missing overlays). So basically racemenu hasn't been working well in my setup to begin with.

Edited April 26, 2023 by libertyordeath

[libertyordeath]

UPDATE: It is racemenu! Or at least connected to it.

 

I just saved my LO and then ripped out racemenu and all plugins depending on it. Loaded a save, hired a follower and then travelled 3 times back and forth (6 fast-travels total) between my home and whiterun. Everything worked. No more glitch.

 

WARNING: I do not recommend anyone doing this to an ongoing game! I just loaded a save for testing and never saved it for that reason.

 

So anyways, what does this mean? Just that we now have two confirmations that it only happens if racemenu is present. We also know it started being reported in late 2022. That's the releasedate of racemenu 0.4.19.14. So it cannot be specific to the GOG version, since that was only released this year, and simply a recompile of the same source (same version: 0.4.19.14). 

 

Of course it also means there's no way to rollback and test earlier versions - at least not without also rolling back skyrim and hundreds of mods. Not happening.

 

Waiting for the racemenu devs to fix it could take a long time, so the best we can hope for is, somebody finds a workaround that actually works for most people affected. 

 

EDIT: I just read some earlier posts trying to find a stuck overlay that's not displayed in the racemenu GUI. So even though the bug isn't happening to my own char, out of curiousity i exported my char in racemenu and looked at the file. To my surprise i found references to overlays that should be long gone, including cum layers from both SCOE and SCO. Suffice to say i removed both of those mods only after executing the cleaning fuction. And from bugreports in other threads, i can say there's precedent of SCOE leaving zombie-layers. 

 

I'll try to find a way to clean those refs from one of my followers and then test with her. If it works, the next step will be finding out how to undo the damage in bulk, and then we can start the blame-game. But i'm getting ahead of myself. Verification first.

 

Edited April 26, 2023 by libertyordeath

[traison]

Well, the source code for racemenu does not exist, at least not any of the relevant versions. Still waiting for someone to stab the ini file to see if it can be made worse/better that way.