Follower Problem

[Grey Cloud]

I've been converting my follower mods from esp to esl. One follower's head goes wrong whatever I try. 

The follower:

Bryn

 

Nothing wrong with her if I don't convert. I used her in LE days.

As far as I can see her head is vanilla not HPH or whatever. The conversion always makes her head go to the dreaded potato head.

She looks fine in nifskope.

This is her with just the esl conversion. I've not touched the esl or the esp in XEdit. I've tried the conversion in XEdit and the CK.

I should also mention that her esp version was not loaded before this so she doesn't exist in the save.

 

 

 

 

 

This was her in 2020 (LE) for comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

It's possible I've missed something but I've been through the esp and the esl editing and not editing. I can get her how I want her no problem but as soon as I convert her head goes and so does mine.

Edited February 23 by Grey Cloud

[traison]

Forgot to change the path and file name of the facegen mesh and texture?

[Vortec]

5 hours ago, Grey Cloud said:

I've been converting my follower mods from esp to esl. One follower's head goes wrong whatever I try. 

The follower:

Bryn

 

Nothing wrong with her if I don't convert. I used her in LE days.

As far as I can see her head is vanilla not HPH or whatever. The conversion always makes her head go to the dreaded potato head.

She looks fine in nifskope.

This is her with just the esl conversion. I've not touched the esl or the esp in XEdit. I've tried the conversion in XEdit and the CK.

I should also mention that her esp version was not loaded before this so she doesn't exist in the save.

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

This was her in 2020 (LE) for comparison.

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

It's possible I've missed something but I've been through the esp and the esl editing and not editing. I can get her how I want her no problem but as soon as I convert her head goes and so does mine.

     Could be loading from a baked save of the original face. I think you have to go through creation kit to update the face maybe. Another possibility is that the original face was sculpted in ECE and not in racemenu, I have had bad facegens converting to HPH and figured out that the original face was created in ECE which doesn't work.

[Grey Cloud]

39 minutes ago, Vortec said:

Could be loading from a baked save of the original face.

It is the original face which is lacking. She hadn't been saved at this point.

 

39 minutes ago, Vortec said:

I think you have to go through creation kit to update the face maybe.

It was the CK which screwed the head. If you are referring to the CTRL + F4 trick that would only export the borked head, it wouldn't fix anything.

 

39 minutes ago, Vortec said:

Another possibility is that the original face was sculpted in ECE and not in racemenu,

That may be the case but the problem does not involve converting to or from HPH.

 

As I stated in the OP the problem is with converting the plug-in from an esp to an esl. I can edit her plug-in to my hearts content and produce the the follower I want but I cannot convert the plug-in either edited or unedited without the head getting screwed up.

Edited February 23 by Grey Cloud

[Swe-DivX]

I have a esl version of her, but i cant send it to you. The drop field is missing in the message box.

[Grey Cloud]

On 2/25/2026 at 1:34 PM, Swe-DivX said:

I have a esl version of her, but i cant send it to you. The drop field is missing in the message box.

Thanks.

Do you mean the PM message box? That problem cropped up a few years back but I forgot about it. Can you post it here in this thread? (Maybe wait until Ashal has finished with the maintenance?)

Edited February 26 by Grey Cloud

[Grey Cloud]

@traison Thanks very much.

 

Myself and twelve followers are currently west of Falkreath but I hit the wrong button and instead of pulling Bryn to me I parachuted myself and the followers into the Drunken Huntsman. Jenessa got a shock as most of them descended in her little alcove. 😲

[\spoiler]

[traison]

The problem here was most likely just the wrong path and/or file name for the facegen mesh. There was no magic involved in my ESL conversion.

 

Edit: For future Googlers, if you're having the same potatoface issue, do a sanity check:

1. Start the game after the plugin has been ESL-ified.
2. At the main menu, open the console.
3. help <follower name> 4 NPC_
4. Note down the last 3 numbers of the form id.
5. Change the facegen nif file name to "00000" + form id.

 

i.e.:

help bryn 4 npc_
Bryn FE010800

 

00000800.nif

 

This is obviously easier to do in xEdit since you already got it open for the ESL-ification, but getting a second opinion is good sometimes, makes it easier to sleep at night.

 

Edit: Fixed math.

 

FE010800 (absolute address, 32 bits in total)

 

FE010800 AND FF000000 = FE000000 (light plugin address space, 8 bits)

FE010800 AND FFF000 = 00010000 (light plugin load order index, 12 bits)

FE010800 AND FFF = 00000800 (relative form id, 12 bits)

 

Look up bitwise operators if "AND" makes no sense to you here.

Edited March 5 by traison

[Grey Cloud]

You only need the last three characters of the FormID but the fifth character needs to be zero.

You also have to make the path to the head textures point to the new facetint.

 

The power of zero.

 

Eva

 

 

 

 

[\spoiler]

 

 

Edited March 5 by Grey Cloud

[Grey Cloud]

Because this forum software wont let me pot two spoilers in one post.

 

Kalisha

 

 

 

[\spoiler]