Hair texture bug on KuroneFollowers mod [Solved]

[Rouha]

Problem solved. See below for the fix if you experience the same problem.

 

Hi. I'm using KuroneFollowers and all of the followers look fine in-game except one, Saya. Her hair is glowing as pictured below.

 

 

 

 

 

I looked into the relevant .nif using NifSkope and it looked like this.

 

 

I tried loading the textures manually in NifSkope just to be sure, and it seems like the normal map file is not loaded in-game. Anyway, the first picture is the initial state. Second pic is me manual-loading the base texture, and third pic is after loading the normal map. Third pic appears to be the intended look, with both texture files loaded properly.

 

I've tried playing with some values like glossiness and specural strength, but it didn't fix it. While the texture links seem incorrect in the nif, I think the .esp handles the replacing right? And it looks like the esp file linked the correct objects to the correct textures. I've also tried changing the hair to use texture files from a hairstyle that work properly, but it didn't change anything.

 

 

 

 

 

Gentiana.ddsArme_n.ddsGentiana.nif

Edited December 1, 2023 by Rouha
Solved

[Andy14]

Path information in the Nif is made relative to the Data.

The reason it doesn't show the textures in Nifskope is because you have to set up Nifskope first - where does Nifskope find your Skyrim.

 

The normal map is also completely fine as the shine disappears immediately.
The specular strength is defined by the alpha channel of the normal map.

I made minor adjustments in the Nif, but I don't think it has much effect.

Gentiana.nif

The textures were compressed incorrectly - BC3, instead of BC7.
Arme_n.ddsGentiana.dds

 

Back up the files beforehand.
If it doesn't work, check the follower's settings in the ESP (hair color).

[Rouha]

13 hours ago, Andy14 said:

Path information in the Nif is made relative to the Data.

The reason it doesn't show the textures in Nifskope is because you have to set up Nifskope first - where does Nifskope find your Skyrim.

Thanks for replying. Just to be sure, by Data you mean the mod's root folder right? Because I'm using Mod Organizer 2, and as far as I know it does the linking. I checked that the Skyrim's Data folder is still filled with native files. When I added the mod's root folder and edited the texture files to the correct path, like in your nif edit, it did render properly in Nifskope. But in-game it's still rendering like the normal map is missing (shiny black).

 

I have applied your edited nif and texture files but the issue still persists. I've also rechecked the ESP. The hair color in the NPC section also seems correct (HairColor11Black "Black" [CLFM:000A0434]), which is the same value as other black-haired followers. I attached the .esp in case you want to take a look at it yourself.

 

I'm also curious about why the hair didn't change at all when I edit various values in the .nif during my experiments. Is there a "recompiling" process I've been missing? I've been assuming that Skyrim reads nif files directly because I don't see any .obj files anywhere.

 

KuroneFollowers.esp

[Andy14]

2 hours ago, Rouha said:

Thanks for replying. Just to be sure, by Data you mean the mod's root folder right? Because I'm using Mod Organizer 2, and as far as I know it does the linking. I checked that the Skyrim's Data folder is still filled with native files. When I added the mod's root folder and edited the texture files to the correct path, like in your nif edit, it did render properly in Nifskope. But in-game it's still rendering like the normal map is missing (shiny black).

 

I have applied your edited nif and texture files but the issue still persists. I've also rechecked the ESP. The hair color in the NPC section also seems correct (HairColor11Black "Black" [CLFM:000A0434]), which is the same value as other black-haired followers. I attached the .esp in case you want to take a look at it yourself.

 

I'm also curious about why the hair didn't change at all when I edit various values in the .nif during my experiments. Is there a "recompiling" process I've been missing? I've been assuming that Skyrim reads nif files directly because I don't see any .obj files anywhere.

 

KuroneFollowers.esp 460.52 kB · 0 downloads

By Data I mean Skyrim\Data, not from Mod Manager.
Changes to the Nif don't do much because they are HairTint shaders. And they are defined by the ESP with the hair color.
If you want to edit a nif, then the nif of the NPC.
The nif should be located in the Modname.esp folder in the Data\Meshes\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom directory.
Name of the Nif is the ID of the NPC.>

PS: I can't use the Esp because I don't use SSE.

[ghastley]

Just to clarify what is happening here. The details of the follower’s hair are baked in when the face gen data is saved in the CK. Changes to the original .nif no longer affect the NPC.

 

You can make changes to the FaceGeom one, and those should affect the game. Or you fix the hair original file and use the CK to re-save the Face Gen data, at which point it picks up the fixed maps and uses them to replace the FaceGeom. 

[Rouha]

12 hours ago, Andy14 said:

The nif should be located in the Modname.esp folder in the Data\Meshes\actors\character\FaceGenData\FaceGeom directory.

Yeah the Gentiana.nif file is from such directory. All of the files I uploaded were from reading the file paths of relevant objects in the .esp.

 

Today I found out that the glowing hair issue doesn't seem to be tied to that particular mesh/texture. I changed the follower's race to another follower's race, so that she would use a different hair, and the problem still persisted. Despite wearing the same hairstyle as another follower, only her hair glows. I also copied the tint values from the other follower and it didn't work. I even went as far as removing any perks, skills, outfit and changing her fighting style, but still nothing. I even started a new game just to be sure. I'm currently out of ideas.

 

It's unfortunate that you don't use SSE. With your knowledge perhaps you could spot the culprit in the esp.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Rouha

[Rouha]

53 minutes ago, ghastley said:

Just to clarify what is happening here. The details of the follower’s hair are baked in when the face gen data is saved in the CK. Changes to the original .nif no longer affect the NPC.

 

You can make changes to the FaceGeom one, and those should affect the game. Or you fix the hair original file and use the CK to re-save the Face Gen data, at which point it picks up the fixed maps and uses them to replace the FaceGeom. 

Wow that fixed the hair issue! Thanks!

 

But now the follower's face looks vanilla. Could you teach me how to do it properly please? I want to keep her pretty.

[Schweini]

9 hours ago, Rouha said:

Wow that fixed the hair issue! Thanks!

 

But now the follower's face looks vanilla. Could you teach me how to do it properly please? I want to keep her pretty.

Maybe you changed the face skin texture path without knowing that.

[Schweini]

9 hours ago, Rouha said:

Wow that fixed the hair issue! Thanks!

 

But now the follower's face looks vanilla. Could you teach me how to do it properly please? I want to keep her pretty.

Can you show me exactly how you fix the hair issue? I'm facing the same problem here! 

https://imgur.com/a/d8ykgCT

[Rouha]

5 hours ago, Schweini said:

Maybe you changed the face skin texture path without knowing that.

No. The .esp has the correct texture paths from the start. Only the .nif files had incorrect paths, and even if I fixed them in the nif, the issue still persisted. That's why I was confused. Turns out the reason was because I had to regenerate the facegen in the Creation Kit.

 

5 hours ago, Schweini said:

Can you show me exactly how you fix the hair issue? I'm facing the same problem here! 

Mine was a follower issue, so I opened the follower mod in Creation Kit, clicked on the bugged follower (Actor), then pressed CTR+F4 to regenerate the facegen. Done. The hair is fixed, but it ruined her face. She looks like a potato now. I'm still trying to find ways to do it without breaking the face sculpt.

[Andy14]

7 hours ago, Rouha said:

No. The .esp has the correct texture paths from the start. Only the .nif files had incorrect paths, and even if I fixed them in the nif, the issue still persisted. That's why I was confused. Turns out the reason was because I had to regenerate the facegen in the Creation Kit.

 

Mine was a follower issue, so I opened the follower mod in Creation Kit, clicked on the bugged follower (Actor), then pressed CTR+F4 to regenerate the facegen. Done. The hair is fixed, but it ruined her face. She looks like a potato now. I'm still trying to find ways to do it without breaking the face sculpt.

CK only supports facetints up to a resolution of 256x256 (actually only 128x128).

If you use 1024x1024 facetints (as an example) and export the faces with CK (with CTRL+F4), only 256x256 facetints are created (not scaled).
That's why the lipstick is on the forehead etc.
This can be prevented if you rename the folder name of the facetints before opening CK, then export the face with CTRL+F4. This only creates facetints with vanilla resolution, but without errors. Before you start Skyrim, simply rename the folder correctly

PS: For Skyrim LE I use NPC Editor to create high resolution factints for NPC.
Maybe there is a similar tool for SSE.

Edited November 30, 2023 by Andy14

[Rouha]

2 hours ago, Andy14 said:

That's why the lipstick is on the forehead etc.

Oh I didn't get texture issue with the Creation Kit. When I said she looks like a potato, I meant something like this.

 

Original:

 

 

 

 

 

After regenerating the facegen.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2023 by Rouha

[Andy14]

14 hours ago, Rouha said:

Oh I didn't get texture issue with the Creation Kit. When I said she looks like a potato, I meant something like this.

 

Original:

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

After regenerating the facegen.

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

This is Skyrim's standard ugly potato.
So no morphs were applied at all.
But now that the hair is right: Build a new Nif in Nifskope from the original.nif and your potato.nif. Face from Mod, hair from Potato.

[Rouha]

7 hours ago, Andy14 said:

This is Skyrim's standard ugly potato.
So no morphs were applied at all.
But now that the hair is right: Build a new Nif in Nifskope from the original.nif and your potato.nif. Face from Mod, hair from Potato.

I got it! I finally got it!

 

For some reason my rotting meatsack of a brain kept missing the FaceGenData folder in the meshes folder. Despite me opening this mod's folders countless times over while trying to fix this bug. Oh my God.

 

The fix was very easy! Just open the FaceGen nif for the NPC with NifSkope, and fix the normal map paths on the relevant nodes. Turns out the mod author did write the wrong normal map paths. Here's the fixed FaceGen file for anyone who might need it in the future. Paste this to meshes/actors/character/FaceGen/KuroneFollowers.esp/00000891.NIF.

 

00000891.NIF

 

Thank you for the help, everyone!