Brown Face. Doubled Body, No Tattoos, and No Clue

[raveagainstthedark]

I need help.  I have a great many mods installed, but not many body or face mods.  I've tried trouble shooting to no avail, but think something might be overwriting CBBE.  I need help.  The issues are

 

- The brown face glitch is happening and it is on any save even if I roll it back to before I added new mods (well, re-added a bunch of AAF and sex mods).  It won't go away.

- My tattoos that I put on seem to be missing from my CBBE body (also using Glorious Female Nude Mod).  That mod seemed to be working fine because the face tattoos from that mod were visible (at least they were until the brown face started showing up).  It almost seems like there is another body on top of the other body.

- This seems to also be the case when I was in some of the Kziitd Fetish tool set restraints, and my arms and legs were in the right taped positions, but there was also another set of arms and legs that were just in a normal position as if I wasn't restrained.

 

I need help, I have no idea how to fix this...  -_.-

 

[Erebea]

Without your load order it's going to be difficult to troubleshoot.

 

Based off of what you've said though, the first two issues are probably caused by using a 4K body and face textures with a 1K or 2K tattoo mod, all the textures need to be of the same resolution in Fallout 4.

 

As for the third issues, that mod is for fusion girl and you're using a cbbe body. Unless you're already trying the cbbe alpha version.

[raveagainstthedark]

I can post my load order soon.  I use Vortex so it does auto sort.  I didn't think I had any face mods and I always try to pick 2k if there is an option (I have multiple 2k outfits but nothing that's really a body that I know of.

 

I do use the HiPoly face though, but when testing/troubleshooting and disabling it it just made me face disappear entirely.

 

And that's good to know about the Kziitd.  I didn't know that, though I did use it before and I'm pretty sure I didn't have this specific issue.  Maybe I should troubleshoot it specifically some more.

 

And by before I mean I had it and a bunch of mods installed a little less than a year ago, but I uninstalled a bunch because it was too much and haven't touched the game since.  I wanted to pick it back up recently, but when I booted it I noticed the tattoos weren't working right any more, so I've been trying to reinstall everything I had deleted hoping it would fix it, but nothing has.  I even went back to a save that was before I uninstalled things (and admittedly there are a few minor mods I cannot find but they don't seem related), and the tattoos were fine on the face, but not the body.  Now the face is just brown no matter what (not even changing skin tone in looks menu changes it) and the face tattoos, scars, freckles, etc. are missing too.

[Erebea]

Well, if you haven't played recently that could be another issue. Last April there was a next-gen update for Fallout 4, which broke many mods, so it is possible if you are using the next-gen version, you'll need to update your mods if there is a next-gen version, or get a downgrader from the nexus and revert to the pre-next-gen version.

[raveagainstthedark]

1 hour ago, Erebea said:

Well, if you haven't played recently that could be another issue. Last April there was a next-gen update for Fallout 4, which broke many mods, so it is possible if you are using the next-gen version, you'll need to update your mods if there is a next-gen version, or get a downgrader from the nexus and revert to the pre-next-gen version.

No, I stopped the it in Steam before it could update, so I am using the what I believe is .163.  Maybe some of my mods auto updated in Vortex?  Idk.   Is there a better way to get my load order than a bunch of screen shots?

[Erebea]

8 minutes ago, raveagainstthedark said:

No, I stopped the it in Steam before it could update, so I am using the what I believe is .163.  Maybe some of my mods auto updated in Vortex?  Idk.   Is there a better way to get my load order than a bunch of screen shots?

I don't use vortex, but this reddit thread has instructions on how to export your modlist.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMods/comments/16dusf3/f04_how_do_i_export_my_mod_list_so_i_can_ask_my/

[raveagainstthedark]

Here is the Load Order.  If there is a better way to do this, I'd love to know.  And if there is anything in there I should drop or change, any advice would be appreciated.  I've tried to make it more developed for my raider character and introducing consequences for if I get in trouble.  Admittedly, I'm not a noob at this, but I don't know a lot, I know just enough to cause myself problems

[raveagainstthedark]

1 minute ago, Erebea said:

I don't use vortex, but this reddit thread has instructions on how to export your modlist.

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/FalloutMods/comments/16dusf3/f04_how_do_i_export_my_mod_list_so_i_can_ask_my/

*facepalms*  I should have refreshed the page.  Here they are.  Any advice on fixing this or things that should be removed or changed would be welcome as well ^_^

plugins.txt loadorder.txt

[Erebea]

Other than neither of the txt files you've attached not matching the images in terms of load order, as I don't use wortex I don't know if that is an issue or not, I can't see anything wrong in particular. Could be worth downloading FO4edit and seeing what that tells you, and making any adjustments to the load order.

 

The only thing I am somewhat certain about is that hipoly faces is the cause of the brown face issue. The mod page states that it has a 1K face and 4K body, maybe you went and downloaded the matching resolutions?

[raveagainstthedark]

Ok, I'm trying uninstalling all HiPoly mods, deleting the archive for them too, and reinstalling, I'll see if that works.

I've never used FO4edit before, will that show me conflicts and how to resolve them?

[raveagainstthedark]

22 minutes ago, Erebea said:

Other than neither of the txt files you've attached not matching the images in terms of load order, as I don't use wortex I don't know if that is an issue or not, I can't see anything wrong in particular. Could be worth downloading FO4edit and seeing what that tells you, and making any adjustments to the load order.

 

The only thing I am somewhat certain about is that hipoly faces is the cause of the brown face issue. The mod page states that it has a 1K face and 4K body, maybe you went and downloaded the matching resolutions?

I removed all of the HiPoly mods and now I have no face.  😧

 

Reinstalling didn't fix the brown face, and I even tried a save file that I hadn't checked with before too.

Edited March 1, 2025 by raveagainstthedark

[raveagainstthedark]

So after some more testing, and uninstalling several things to no success, I did find something interesting.  When using the looks menu I can switch to my only other preset character I've made.  Their face is fine.  Their body is fine, tattoos and all.  But when I switch back to the preset I saved for this character, the body changes-almost as if another body appears on it, and the face turns brown again.  Does that mean anything?

[Erebea]

7 minutes ago, raveagainstthedark said:

So after some more testing, and uninstalling several things to no success, I did find something interesting.  When using the looks menu I can switch to my only other preset character I've made.  Their face is fine.  Their body is fine, tattoos and all.  But when I switch back to the preset I saved for this character, the body changes-almost as if another body appears on it, and the face turns brown again.  Does that mean anything?

Is that a preset without anything from the  hipoly mod? If yes, then either hipoly is conflicting with another mod, or it is something about hipoly itself. I've not used that mod, as it just never seemed necessary.

 

FO4edit can show conflicts, but it has to be solved by yourself for the most part. Usually adjusting the load order should be enough, though sometimes you might want to make a patch, if for example you want elements from mutliple mods.

 

I use a mod for wireless power, as the cable management in Fallout 4 sucks in my opinion, but that doesn't always work with modded items that require power - so I make a patch for it with FO4edit.

[raveagainstthedark]

1 hour ago, Erebea said:

Is that a preset without anything from the  hipoly mod? If yes, then either hipoly is conflicting with another mod, or it is something about hipoly itself. I've not used that mod, as it just never seemed necessary.

 

FO4edit can show conflicts, but it has to be solved by yourself for the most part. Usually adjusting the load order should be enough, though sometimes you might want to make a patch, if for example you want elements from mutliple mods.

 

I use a mod for wireless power, as the cable management in Fallout 4 sucks in my opinion, but that doesn't always work with modded items that require power - so I make a patch for it with FO4edit.

That's neat that you can do that!  I have no idea what I'm looking for in FO4edit, but nothing is red, it isn't showing conflicts.

 

And I'm not sure.  Anytime I remove HiPoly my whole face disappears even if its an old save.  The other preset is another character I made and HiPoly was installed at the time working fine.  This preset is just my current character that I saved as a preset before trying to swap to the other preset to test.  It seems to be only this character and face too.  If I swap to any of the other preset faces, they aren't affected.  I did just uninstall HiPoly completely, and it didn't effect the other preset though my face still disappeared on my character with the brown face.  My face did reappear after swapping to the other preset and back, but, even without the HiPoly installed, it was still brown.  I can change the body's skin tones slightly by messing with the custom color, but nothing effects the face.

 

Could something have just corrupted this body and I need to start fresh/try to remake it?  And if so, is there any easy way to do that to keep my face the same feature wise?

[Erebea]

25 minutes ago, raveagainstthedark said:

That's neat that you can do that!  I have no idea what I'm looking for in FO4edit, but nothing is red, it isn't showing conflicts.

 

And I'm not sure.  Anytime I remove HiPoly my whole face disappears even if its an old save.  The other preset is another character I made and HiPoly was installed at the time working fine.  This preset is just my current character that I saved as a preset before trying to swap to the other preset to test.  It seems to be only this character and face too.  If I swap to any of the other preset faces, they aren't affected.  I did just uninstall HiPoly completely, and it didn't effect the other preset though my face still disappeared on my character with the brown face.  My face did reappear after swapping to the other preset and back, but, even without the HiPoly installed, it was still brown.  I can change the body's skin tones slightly by messing with the custom color, but nothing effects the face.

 

Could something have just corrupted this body and I need to start fresh/try to remake it?  And if so, is there any easy way to do that to keep my face the same feature wise?

 

Not seeing red is a good thing, though sometimes you do have to keep expanding  each mod to check each element. I wouldn't worry about that right now, as I don't think FO4edit is going to help this time.

 

As long as you have your presets saved, there shouldn't be an issue. I would back them up (for both looksmenu and bodyslide) just to be on the safe side. Once you've done that, reinstall cbbe so it overwrites hipoly faces and leave hipoly faces disabled. Then see how your character looks ingame.

[deff.]

Why you need zaz skeleton and zex ingame sliders if you are not using BT3 or Fusion girl? Two skeletons - DFS and Zaz

 

Total mess...I suggest disable all face/body mods (leave only cbbe.esp) and see what happens. If everything is fine, add mods back one by one...

[subaverage]

Regarding skin tone: HiPoly Faces has two options to be applied to game characters. The "Looksmenu" option with a little changing in the preset files (what I use) or the FO4Edit method. In both cases uninstalling HiPoly faces would mean to revert these changings. If you didn't do this is probably the reason why you don't have faces after uninstall. But I doubt that HiPoly Faces is the reason for your problem. When one preset works and the other not it is in my eyes also no mismatch in skin resolutions. Something in the preset file itself doesn't seem to work or do you perhaps have something like an overlay or tattoo in one preset that you don't have in the other?

Also a preset may only have one line with "Weight". This is found at the end and represents the values of the triangle. If you have more than one line with "Weight" you should delete the others.

What you could try is to make a copy of the working preset, afterwards copy everthing that is related to the face geometrie that begins with "Morphs" and ends with the line beginning with "Values" of the not working one and overwrite this part of the before made preset copy. So you have everthing related to hairs, eyes, tattoos, overlays, etc. like in the working preset, but the geometrie of the not working one. Maybe this helps when loading the copy in game.

Regarding tattoos: I recently used a tattoo mod that did not work as long as it was packed in ba2 files. Only after I extracted it and used as loose files the tats showed up. This seemed to be a problem with several skin types and perhaps the next-gen update. Maybe you are running into similar problems.

The other question is the impression of a double body. As deff_lv says this might be a problem with wrong skeletons.

Edited March 2, 2025 by subaverage

[Andy14]

10 hours ago, raveagainstthedark said:

That's neat that you can do that!  I have no idea what I'm looking for in FO4edit, but nothing is red, it isn't showing conflicts.

 

And I'm not sure.  Anytime I remove HiPoly my whole face disappears even if its an old save.  The other preset is another character I made and HiPoly was installed at the time working fine.  This preset is just my current character that I saved as a preset before trying to swap to the other preset to test.  It seems to be only this character and face too.  If I swap to any of the other preset faces, they aren't affected.  I did just uninstall HiPoly completely, and it didn't effect the other preset though my face still disappeared on my character with the brown face.  My face did reappear after swapping to the other preset and back, but, even without the HiPoly installed, it was still brown.  I can change the body's skin tones slightly by messing with the custom color, but nothing effects the face.

 

Could something have just corrupted this body and I need to start fresh/try to remake it?  And if so, is there any easy way to do that to keep my face the same feature wise?

 

HiPoly are good and do not cause brown faces.
In 99% of all cases, the cause of brown faces is incorrect texture resolution and/or compression. It does not matter which texture - it can be makeup, tattoo, diffuse, specular, etc. So it is not advisable to use any textures from different sources if you do not know the resolution and compression.

(With Gimp or PaintDotNet you can save the textures with the right compression and in the right resolution)
 

If arms or other body parts are duplicated, then this is because of the corresponding set that you created with Bodyslide. I have found that there are mods that use the body mesh with the outfit, but have not set it in the ESM/ESP/ESL.
In this case, open the corresponding outfit in Outfit Studio and simply save the project without using the reference mesh.

[raveagainstthedark]

Hi all.

 

- Even after fully uninstalling HiPoly, my face was still missing until I swapped to the other preset and back.  When I did that, my face returned but was still brown.

 

- I only have the ZeX - ZaZ Extended Skeleton enabled (as far as I know)

 

- Unless I'm missing something HiPoly is the only face mod I have installed.  And CBBE is the only body mod I have installed, though I did have Dirty Player Body and Glorious Nude Body installed as well at one point, but have been troubleshooting and removed them.

 

- I currently only have CBBE and HiPoly installed, but uninstalling HiPoly does not seem to be fixing the issue.

 

- The Kziitd double body thing seems to be only relevant to one item or so with them, as I have tested with one or two other items from that mod and had no issues.

 

- I don't have any other textures for faces except "Asian Face v1.3" but turning it off didn't help.

 

- I've just tested with disabling HiPoly, CBBE, Asian Face, even my skeleton, and nothing.

 

- I did have HiPoly installed previously and it worked fine.

 

- Skin tone on the other preset isn't working.

 

- Captive Tattoos isn't working even on the other preset or any of the built in ones.

 

I'm so confused, it was all fine last April/May when I played.  Now it's not.

 

 

[Erebea]

37 minutes ago, raveagainstthedark said:

I'm so confused, it was all fine last April/May when I played.  Now it's not.

 

 

 

You're 100 percent sure you are still on version 1.10.163, which is the version before the next-gen update - and not 1.10.984 - the next-gen version?

 

CBBE has both face/head and body textures, which is why I said to reinstall it.

 

When you say the skin tone isn't working, how exactly isn't it working?

 

If captive tattoos isn't working at all, then the issue could be with either looksmenu or f4se, as those are the only two requirements.

 

While I don't usually suggest this, as I consider it extreme but, might be worth considering starting over with the mods, adding mods in small batches, troubleshooting as you go.

 

 

[Andy14]

1 hour ago, raveagainstthedark said:

Hi all.

 

- Even after fully uninstalling HiPoly, my face was still missing until I swapped to the other preset and back.  When I did that, my face returned but was still brown.

 

- I only have the ZeX - ZaZ Extended Skeleton enabled (as far as I know)

 

- Unless I'm missing something HiPoly is the only face mod I have installed.  And CBBE is the only body mod I have installed, though I did have Dirty Player Body and Glorious Nude Body installed as well at one point, but have been troubleshooting and removed them.

 

- I currently only have CBBE and HiPoly installed, but uninstalling HiPoly does not seem to be fixing the issue.

 

- The Kziitd double body thing seems to be only relevant to one item or so with them, as I have tested with one or two other items from that mod and had no issues.

 

- I don't have any other textures for faces except "Asian Face v1.3" but turning it off didn't help.

 

- I've just tested with disabling HiPoly, CBBE, Asian Face, even my skeleton, and nothing.

 

- I did have HiPoly installed previously and it worked fine.

 

- Skin tone on the other preset isn't working.

 

- Captive Tattoos isn't working even on the other preset or any of the built in ones.

 

I'm so confused, it was all fine last April/May when I played.  Now it's not.

 

 

As I said, it's not because of Hipoly or any other mesh. Creation Engine can only deal with different texture resolutions and incorrect compression to a limited extent. It is not limited to skin textures. Even textures of eyes, eyebrows, tattoos, etc. play a role here. If you save a preset and can no longer use it properly later, it is usually because texture x was different at the time of creation than texture x is today.
Hipoly should definitely be reactivated, as you can switch between meshes at any time with MCM - which can be necessary for different presets.

[subaverage]

Checking the game version could make sense, but I would believe that you realy are on 163, because otherwise a F4SE dependent game would more or lesse not work anymore as long as the script extender and mods aren't updated. I also would higly recommend the reinstall HiPoly Faces and make sure that it is applied to game characters correctly.*

Afterwards you could uninstall every skin mod you have. Then go into:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Textures\actors\character\basehumanfemale (in case of Steam and for females) and delete every .dds file within this folder. Afterwards download CBBE (for pre next-gen) version 2.6.3 to your drive. Then open the file with an unpacker and go to 00Required\textures\actors\character\basehumanfemale and copy/extract all files from there to the a.m Fallout 4 folder. This reverts the skins back to CBBE (CBBE has to be installed). Or you can simply reinstall CBBE completely. In case you have "Unique Player (and Followers)" and changed the skin there you need to delete .dds files for "PlayerHumanFemale" and every other character you applied a skin type to. If you use the "CBBE Head Rear Fix"** this might also need to be reinstalled. Afterwards start a new playthrough, start the character creation scene see whether the skin looks ok. If so, you could create a new preset without any tattoo and/ or overlay and save it. Afterwards you could check whether this preset works in your current playthrough. If nothing helps a complete clean new install of Fallout 4 (possibly with downgrade afterwards) might become necessary.

 

*I use the Looksmenu method. That means:

Go to your presets in your F4 installation under...Data\F4SE\Plugins\F4EE\Presets
Open the presets with a text editor and make the following changes:
    
For Female characters:
Change "Fallout4.esm|0CFB3F" to "HiPolyFaces.esp|000800"

 

For me the FO4edit method is too complicated.

 

**

In this case you have a folder "CBBE" in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Textures\actors\character

 

Edited March 3, 2025 by subaverage

[raveagainstthedark]

- I am sure it is 1.10.163

- I am running CBBE 2.6.3.  I have also fully uninstalled and reinstalled it, same with HiPoly

- I am running F4SE 0.6.23

- I am running Looks Menu 1.6.20, with the Customization Compendium that is v10, and Looks Menu Customization Compendium Fix INI patch v 0.0.04

- I also have Looks Menu Body Tattoos for CBBE v1.3.2

- I am running HiPoly 1.00

- I am running Captive Tattoos 3.3.7z

- I am also running TattooAfterRape 1.1.2

 

- The body/face that is the issue was having this issue before I made it into a preset, as I only saved it as a preset when I was going to test by switching to the only other preset I had saved.

- By skin tone not working, I mean if I use the other preset and change the skin color, both the body and face change.  If I do it with the body and face that has the issue, neither the face or body changes colors.

 

- I will try the suggestions by subaverage and see what happens.

Edited March 3, 2025 by raveagainstthedark

[raveagainstthedark]

7 hours ago, subaverage said:

Checking the game version could make sense, but I would believe that you realy are on 163, because otherwise a F4SE dependent game would more or lesse not work anymore as long as the script extender and mods aren't updated. I also would higly recommend the reinstall HiPoly Faces and make sure that it is applied to game characters correctly.*

Afterwards you could uninstall every skin mod you have. Then go into:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Textures\actors\character\basehumanfemale (in case of Steam and for females) and delete every .dds file within this folder. Afterwards download CBBE (for pre next-gen) version 2.6.3 to your drive. Then open the file with an unpacker and go to 00Required\textures\actors\character\basehumanfemale and copy/extract all files from there to the a.m Fallout 4 folder. This reverts the skins back to CBBE (CBBE has to be installed). Or you can simply reinstall CBBE completely. In case you have "Unique Player (and Followers)" and changed the skin there you need to delete .dds files for "PlayerHumanFemale" and every other character you applied a skin type to. If you use the "CBBE Head Rear Fix"** this might also need to be reinstalled. Afterwards start a new playthrough, start the character creation scene see whether the skin looks ok. If so, you could create a new preset without any tattoo and/ or overlay and save it. Afterwards you could check whether this preset works in your current playthrough. If nothing helps a complete clean new install of Fallout 4 (possibly with downgrade afterwards) might become necessary.

 

*I use the Looksmenu method. That means:

Go to your presets in your F4 installation under...Data\F4SE\Plugins\F4EE\Presets
Open the presets with a text editor and make the following changes:
    
For Female characters:
Change "Fallout4.esm|0CFB3F" to "HiPolyFaces.esp|000800"

 

For me the FO4edit method is too complicated.

 

**

In this case you have a folder "CBBE" in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Fallout 4\Data\Textures\actors\character

 

On the non-brown faced preset, I have this under head parts:
"HeadParts" : [
      "KSHairdos.esp|00091A",
      "Fallout4.esm|1E55C3",
      "Fallout4.esm|04D0E9",
      "Fallout4.esm|0CFB4E",
      "HiPolyFaces.esp|000800",
      "Fallout4.esm|11CCBC"

And for the brown face one that has the problems:

"HeadParts" : [
      "The Eyes Of Beauty.esp|002349",
      "Fallout4.esm|1E6789",
      "Fallout4.esm|04D0E9",
      "Fallout4.esm|0CFB4E",
      "HiPolyFaces.esp|000800",
      "Fallout4.esm|11CCBC"

If it helps, here are the two presets. 

- "1" is the one that works fine except for not showing any new tattoos applied to the body or face. 

- "2" is the one with the brown face that has no tattoos on the body, no skin tones change when changing colors, etc.  There were tattoos on the body before, but the text file doesn't even list them anymore.

1.json 2.json

Edited March 3, 2025 by raveagainstthedark

[subaverage]

Both presets work for me. The first one has a darker skin tone than the other. Both have matching skin tones for face and body. My combination is 8k realistic skin for body and 1k Unfair Skin for the face. Maybe I don't have every tattoo or overlay mod that you use and that may cause the problems. I then copied the geometrie of preset 2 into preset 1 and saved it under a new name. So you would get the face of preset 2, but with the skin tone of preset 1. Changing the skin color worked for me as it should. Maybe this helps.

1_Test_LL_new.json

Edited March 3, 2025 by subaverage