help Need help with making a custom race with unique body parts, and custom RaceMenu body sliders

[boyo_wonder]

I've been trying to create a custom race with unique body parts and custom RaceMenu body sliders, but I'm stuck on how to get the new sliders into RaceMenu (they are set up, appearing, and fully functional in Outfit Studio and BodySlide).

 

I've gotten far enough to know it's possible, so I'll explain my process so far, and where I'm stuck.

 

I have a model in Blender that I split into parts akin to a Skyrim character model (head, body, hands, feet, etc). For now, I am just testing with the head and the body as once I figure those out, the rest should fall into place. I am using the Pynifly addon for Blender (imports and exports .nifs and .tris in and out of Blender) to get the models into the game.

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/52319

 

For the head, I created shape keys in Blender that match the names of the expression morphs in Skyrim. As per the Pynifly wiki instructions, these automatically are exported and recognised in programs like Outfit Studio without any extra work, since the names match the Skyrim standards. I verified that was the case by opening the head in Outfit Studio and BodySlide, and the sliders appear and are fully functional for the head.

 

For the body, I wanted to try making custom slider morphs. The model already had shape keys for morphing the body shape, so as per the wiki, I renamed each shape key to have a "_" at the start of the name. This makes Blender export a .nif for each shape key.

 

I then load the .nif for my base body (i.e what you see when the sliders are at 0), and followed a tutorial for adding sliders in Outfit Studio. I assigned each one of the .nifs exported from the Blender shape keys to a slider of the same name. The sliders are working perfectly in Outfit Studio. I saved the project, opened it in BodySlide, and confirmed the sliders are appearing and working as expected there.

 

I then go into Creation Kit and went through the standard process of setting up a custom race, make it use my body and head, etc.

 

Loading into game, and the body and head are loading correctly with the models looking as expected and the textures loading correctly. The eye sockets even blink for a second when switching over to the custom race.

 

However, I have two issues:

• After the initial blink, the head does not emote at all, nor does changing the Expression sliders in RaceMenu have an affect on it.
• The custom body sliders I can see in OS and BS are not appearing in-game in the RaceMenu.

 

The best lead I can find is on the RaceMenu mod's main description page on it's Nexus page, in the "making a plugin" section. However, once I get to the step that says "Type RaceMenuLoad into the filter and click OK", despite have downloaded and installed the Modder's Package for RaceMenu and loading the plugin in CK, RaceMenuLoad is not showing up in my list of scripts. I confirmed the script file is in the correct directory (it should be loaded through Mod Organizer anyway), and I tried putting it in my Overwrite folder as well, but no matter what I do, it never shows up.

 

I also found this guide with a different method:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/4505

 

But I've frankly been struggling to understand exactly what I need to do, I tried following along with it but couldn't get it to work.

 

Any help would be appreciated, I've come far enough with this that I feel like it's possible, but I am just missing some steps or something.