The Midden - Expanded. FaceGen issues? Question to people that played this mod.

[belegost]

The Midden - Expanded is an excellent mod greatly expanding on the area and perhaps the best example of environmental storytelling I've seen in all of Skyrim modding. It's been a staple in my load order for a long time, even on non-magic characters.

 

However it seems like either something in my setup messes all the NPCs added by this mod, or the mod itself is missing FaceGen files. All the NPCs added by it (various acolytes, apprentices, two named antagonists, etc.) have brown face bug and had been like that since version 1.05 long ago. The latest update, 1.07 still retains this issue. I do use several NPC overhauls but those are for vanilla actors and I've made several custom patches myself, so they all look fine. TME actors are so far the only ones with this issue and from what I can tell, they all use vanilla assets. From my examination of .esp file they are not being overwritten by anything else, they are all unique to this mod.

 

While I can reasonably well do xEdit stuff, I know next to nothing about CK or FaceGen files. My question is: can another user of TME confirm if they also have this issue? If so, did you solve it and how? If not, how do I make these guys look alright?

(Please do not recommend any of the multitude of the black face bug fix mods from Nexus, they are all garbage and do not really fix the underlying issues).

 

Edited September 9, 2023 by belegost

[Tlam99]

35 minutes ago, belegost said:

have brown face bug

Even if you fix the nif or add the missing nif, this persists.

Other than discolor or black, this one is backed into save.

To fix and test you need to purge this actor (Ref ID) every time with resaver.

[belegost]

1 hour ago, Tlam99 said:

Even if you fix the nif or add the missing nif, this persists.

Other than discolor or black, this one is backed into save.

To fix and test you need to purge this actor (Ref ID) every time with resaver.

I downloaded CK and after much hassle manged to export FaceGen data. It was indeed missing.

 

HOWEVER!

First, any tutorial on this matter I found assumed that whoever was doing exporting, already knew how CK worked. Well, no, give me a fucking breakdown of steps on how to do it, not just "yeah it's simple, just press this and this, you're done!". I don't even know how you got to this screen and this menu in the first place.

 

Second, CK is garbage! I don't know how people can work with that program for extended periods of time and not go crazy. After mere half an hour of struggling with this shit, if I had any hair left I would've pulled them out of frustration. This thing is nightmare.

 

Third,  BACK UP your .ini file before installing CK! Nobody ever mentioned this anywhere,  but the damn thing purged my Skyrim.ini and reverted it to vanilla without warning. Fuck you, Todd. Thanks for ruining 2 years of my tweaks, most of which I can't even remember at this point.

Edited September 9, 2023 by belegost

[belegost]

And just so I'm not talking out of my ass, and to spare the same frustration to any poor souls who might be looking for solution in the future, here's a FaceGen data I managed to generate. Install with your mod manager of choice and "it just works" (tm).

middenexpandedSSE facegen data.zip

Edited September 9, 2023 by belegost

[traison]

The CK is usable once you learn where it crashes. For instance, learning to close the dialogues after making changes saves you a lot of trouble. The quest dialogue will crash very easily for instance, but if you just name your new quest, close the dialogue and open it again you can avoid that. Can't find quest aliases you just added? Reopen the quest dialogue.

 

But yes, it is hilariously amateurish. I do as much as I can in xEdit. It's not only faster, it's just all around better. I don't compile scripts in the CK either. I made my own UI for that and invoke the compiler exe directly.

Edited September 9, 2023 by traison
CK almost as bad as my spelling.

[anjenthedog]

I apologize for interjecting, but quick hijack for @traison. How do you compile scripts directly (without CK)? Does it require a custom UI, or can it be done by more conventional windows or DOS level commands?

[belegost]

19 minutes ago, traison said:

CK is usable once you learn

 

I have no intention of learning anything about it. Just that brief encounter made me want to stay away from it as far as possible. I'm still very salty about that .ini file. Why did it even do that is beyond my comprehension.

Edited September 9, 2023 by belegost

[traison]

12 minutes ago, anjenthedog said:

I apologize for interjecting, but quick hijack for @traison. How do you compile scripts directly (without CK)? Does it require a custom UI, or can it be done by more conventional windows or DOS level commands?

 

The compiler is:

...\Skyrim Special Edition\Papyrus Compiler\PapyrusCompiler.exe

 

Usage:

Spoiler

Papyrus Compiler$ .\PapyrusCompiler.exe /?
Usage:
PapyrusCompiler <object or folder> [<arguments>]

  object     Specifies the object to compile. (-all is not specified)
  folder     Specifies the folder to compile. (-all is specified)
  arguments  One or more of the following:
   -debug|d
    Turns on compiler debugging, outputting dev information to the screen.
   -optimize|op
    Turns on optimization of scripts.
   -output|o=<string>
    Sets the compiler's output directory.
   -import|i=<string>
    Sets the compiler's import directories, separated by semicolons.
   -flags|f=<string>
    Sets the file to use for user-defined flags.
   -all|a
    Invokes the compiler against all psc files in the specified directory
    (interprets object as the folder).
   -quiet|q
    Does not report progress or success (only failures).
   -noasm
    Does not generate an assembly file and does not run the assembler.
   -keepasm
    Keeps the assembly file after running the assembler.
   -asmonly
    Generates an assembly file but does not run the assembler.
   -?
    Prints usage information.

 

My compiler UI essentially passes these args to it:

Spoiler

            var args = new string[] {
                Script.SourceFile.FullName,
                "-f=" + FlagsName,
                "-o=" + Output.FullName,
                "-i=" + string.Join(";", Imports)
            };

 

Edit: If you can't figure out some of these arguments, you can probably get the command line that the CK passes to the compiler using Process Monitor from Sysinternals (Microsoft). Set it to record process activity, while you compile a script.

Edited September 9, 2023 by traison

[pinky6225]

42 minutes ago, anjenthedog said:

I apologize for interjecting, but quick hijack for @traison. How do you compile scripts directly (without CK)? Does it require a custom UI, or can it be done by more conventional windows or DOS level commands?

 

You can do it from notepad++ and i'd think you could also do it from the command line if you wanted by amending ScriptCompile.bat in \Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Papyrus Compiler

 

my .bat file is

 

"C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Papyrus Compiler\PapyrusCompiler.exe" %1 -f="TESV_Papyrus_Flags.flg" -i="C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Data\Source\Scripts" -o="C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim Special Edition\Data\Scripts"
pause

 

If you google for papyrus with notepad++ there is a creation kit wiki page about, believe it applies to LE but the only real difference is the input/output folder destinations

[anjenthedog]

Thank you @trasion & @pinky6225.  Info copied and archived.  Far more than I expected. Many Kudos.

 

And yes Pinky, I have notepad++ (since it was first released into the wild idk 20 years ago?)

 

And yes, I can understand the arguments @traison. I'm rusty (very), but what you provided is pretty straightforward in terms of my comprehension.