Is there a way to transfer one NPC mod's appearance to another?

[Mud]

So I like to play Skyrim with my character as part of a roving five-gal band of heroes, where I cart four followers around and I use ASIS to increase enemy spawns so battles are larger with more participants, but I'm getting bored of characters who only have the default follower lines, and would like to use one or two of the ones with custom dialogue... except the followers I like have all sorts of custom beauty mod assets that make them look a lot better than the ones who have actual personality.

 

 

I'd like to have my cake and eat it too, so if I were to use say, Vilja, is there some way to transfer over another follower's custom appearance assets so Vilja looks like them?

[Mud]

So... is this not a thing that can be done?

[Groovtama]

Yeah with TES5Edit and Nifscope you can do that but it's a little bit more tinkering around, redirecting paths and stuff.

[Mud]

Hrm... might you know what I'll need to read up on in order to learn how to do this?

[Groovtama]

You just need to know how the facegeom folder structure works, with subfolders and filenames.

 

Nifskope is for the pah correction after you copied over the facegeom files from one follower over to the other. How TextureSets in nifskope work is something you might read up, it's the most you have to do.

 

TES5Edit is needed to copy over the internal forms like face data/weight (<- important or the copied facegeom file may not work correctly) in the npc record and TextureSets for the body and for correction of the paths (if you want to use different paths). The stuff is really easy to get a basic TED5Edit tutorial may help but it's more like playing and trying around. How you get data from one esp to the other is the main part here (Comparing records, copy on override, compare to... dialog with two esps).

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes5Mod:Mod_File_Format/NPC these format infos may help if you don't know what something is.

[jbezorg]

In console (not sure if this still works)

[sourceRef].MatchFaceGeometry [targetRef] [0-100]

Match targetRef's face geometry to sourceRef's blending the targets face of original & source. i.e. With Muiri selected in console, the following will blend the player's face with Muiri's in equal proportions for the player.

 

MatchFaceGeometry player 50

 

 

This will allow you to save the players face to a file. 

SavePCFace [filename]

In the creation kit, You can then import the face to use on an actor.

 

[Mud]

Thanks Groovtama, I'll look into that stuff.

 

Jbezorg, does that import function work with followers with their own custom face shapes, though? Like, if a follower has their own eye, lip, and nose meshes. Because I know mucking with such a follower in the CK will cause their assets to change into the ones you actually have installed, rather than the ones given to them by the creator.

[jbezorg]

Thanks Groovtama, I'll look into that stuff.

 

Jbezorg, does that import function work with followers with their own custom face shapes, though? Like, if a follower has their own eye, lip, and nose meshes. Because I know mucking with such a follower in the CK will cause their assets to change into the ones you actually have installed, rather than the ones given to them by the creator.

 

It will use the geometry of the player. However you could make the face you want by creating a new character. Then in console set the race of the player to the same race as the companion. All the custom geometry would then apply to the player. Use showracemenu to customize / tweek futher. Then save it using spf (SavePCFace).

 

For step 6, open up the companion mod instead. Make sure you have any additional appearance mods checked as well then import that file.

 

For steps 8 - 14, you wouldn't be working with a preset but with the companion actor. Overwriting everything rather than creating a new preset.

 

Steps 17-22 can be skipped since you are not creating a preset.

 

Step 23 would be replaced with saving the changes to the companion mod.

 

Backup

• The original companion mod ESP. Just in case you don't like the results.
• Your modified companion mod ESP. Because if you reinstall, you'll lose your changes.
• Your face files created from spf. Because if the companion mod updates you'll have to do this again.

http://www.loverslab.com/blog/41/entry-284-creating-face-presets/

[GECK.O]

So I like to play Skyrim with my character as part of a roving five-gal band of heroes, where I cart four followers around and I use ASIS to increase enemy spawns so battles are larger with more participants, but I'm getting bored of characters who only have the default follower lines, and would like to use one or two of the ones with custom dialogue... except the followers I like have all sorts of custom beauty mod assets that make them look a lot better than the ones who have actual personality.

 

 

I'd like to have my cake and eat it too, so if I were to use say, Vilja, is there some way to transfer over another follower's custom appearance assets so Vilja looks like them?

 

YES, THEY ARE!

 

 

But this is a multiple step trick, rather than one step install solution.

 

1. Use CopyFace spell from RaceMenu (http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29624/?), to copy the NPC face you want (ex: Vilja) to the PC. CopyFace spell is an addon/optional under the Mimic Plugin title. Use console command: equipspell xxxx left (xxxx = spell id, use console command: help copyface to find the spell id. Left = equip the spell to the left hand, right is to the right hand)

 

2. Then export the PC face using console command: SPF xxxx

(xxxx = file name, you can put whatever name there, like ViljaFace for example. It will exported to ViljaFace.npc file)

 

3. Open your follower *.esp using Creation Kit.

 

4. Open the follower character window, click import face button and load the face you want to import, example: ViljaFace.npc above.

(*.npc file located at C:\....\Bethesda Softworks\The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim)

 

5. Close and save it. Don't forget the Ctrl+F4.

[Mud]

Gecko, that sounds like the same thing Jbezorg suggested, except with using a mod to copy the face to the player instead of the console?

 

 

So Jbezorg, are you saying that by setting the player race to the same race as the companion with the desired face, I'll be able to copy their unique face assets without having the mods those assets came from installed? Or will it still revert to my actual installed assets, and all I'm doing is making adjustments to try and get it to a state I like? At this stage I'm wondering if it may simply be a better idea to create a new face I like myself rather than stealing an NPC's face, if I won't be able to copy their exact face without using the other method posted with TES5Edit and Nifskope.

[finalx31]

ghetto way but I used alternate actors mod and spf-ed the face into a npc file. from there i just access it from the creation kit and put the face on whoever i want.

[Mud]

You just need to know how the facegeom folder structure works, with subfolders and filenames.

 

Nifskope is for the pah correction after you copied over the facegeom files from one follower over to the other. How TextureSets in nifskope work is something you might read up, it's the most you have to do.

 

TES5Edit is needed to copy over the internal forms like face data/weight (<- important or the copied facegeom file may not work correctly) in the npc record and TextureSets for the body and for correction of the paths (if you want to use different paths). The stuff is really easy to get a basic TED5Edit tutorial may help but it's more like playing and trying around. How you get data from one esp to the other is the main part here (Comparing records, copy on override, compare to... dialog with two esps).

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Tes5Mod:Mod_File_Format/NPC these format infos may help if you don't know what something is.

Okay, I decided to give this route a whack. I managed to copy a follower's head parts to Vilja, giving the follower's parts the FormIDs of Vilja's parts, and she's got that follower's hair, eyes, and face now, although the hair's still blonde instead of black, but that's a minor issue.

 

However, I can't figure out how to correct the paths to make her facetint correct. Trying to generate a new facetint file using the CK doesn't fix the brown face issue with this hackjob of mine.

[Groovtama]

Problem would be with the hair if you miss to give her the right hair color in TES5Edit or when you copied over the stuff in nifskope and forgot to change the hair tint to black in the lighting property of the hair.

 

Facetint: Copy the facetint file of the one to to replace to viljas folder and replace viljas file when you replace vilja face mesh with the one you want to replacer go on the head in the Texture set and replace the patch with the 8digithex.dds with the one for vilja. If you have the gray face bug but everything is working, try to regenerate her mesh in CK again, and replace just the facetint file again. 

[Mud]

Hmm... let me see if I have this straight.

 

I copied over the follower's facegeom nif and her facetint dds, overwriting Vilja's. Opening the nif in nifskope shows the follower's eyes, hair, and whatnot, so that seems to be okay.

 

So in nifskope, I click on the head NiTriShape, expand BSLightingShadeProperty to get to BSShaderTextureSet, and expand the Textures in Block Details. I confirm that the texture paths are pointing to the follower's textures, and change the texture pointing to the facetint dds in the follower's folder to point to the copy in Vilja's folder instead.

 

Her face is still brown, though, so I don't know what I missed.

[Groovtama]

Head's skin tint color of vilja in the BSLightingShadeProperty copied back from the old vilja facegeom, or maybe the head and body textures not matching, or gray face bug, like I said it's tinkering around^^

[Mud]

Hmm, come to think of it, I never copied over the follower's body texture set in TES5Edit, but that's because I found no FormID for Vilja's body texture for it to replace.

 

Hum... now that I take a closer look, she doesn't have the follower's custom nose and lip meshes, either. Well, damn.

[Groovtama]

Vilja has no custom body nor textures for it^^ Yep careful what you copy over and that you don't miss anything, look also at the race if the follower was made with ece or not all the faceparts will be generated correctly.