Another Creation Kit question...

[Guest NeonFirefly]

Now that I've gotten past my little save issue, I seem to have run headlong into another problem.

 

Lemme cut to the chase: How do you make custom followers whose appearance was made with Enhanced Character Edit and/or RaceMenu show up properly in-game?

 

I'm trying to make my main character into a follower. Normally, she looks like this...

 

 

 

 

So I remade her as an NPC in the Creation Kit, following this guide as closely as possible.

 

Now she looks like this.

 

 

 

Eek!

 

Now, let me point out that all the right textures and meshes are present and correct. Literally the only difference (but oh, what a difference it makes) is that her features are in a vanilla layout, rather than the much more refined and comprehensive ECE, and she also lacks her RaceMenu warpaint.

 

So what's the secret to converting ECE/RaceMenu features and appearances to Creation Kit NPCs?

[Emberheart]

There's only one right way to import character heads. Someone code-savy once came forward with the CTRL+F4 method, which while workable, creates huge problems for quite a few people.

 

Here's an alternative, step-by-step method I use instead. It largely automates the process and literally copies over all the sliders from the character, by dumping them in a NPC file.

 

Here's how:

 

1) Go ingame, load a save with the character you that want to turn into a follower.

2) Make sure that your character looks the way you want them to look.

3) Press the tilde ( ~ ) button to open the command console. You should see a prompt where you can type.

4) Type the following: SavePCFace NeonFirefly

(ofcourse any other name instead of NeonFirefly will also do.)

5) Close Skyrim and start the Creation Kit.

6) Load the ESM's and ESP's you'll need to create your follower, often Skyrim.esm alone will do.

7) Go to the actors tab and create a new NPC. Fill in the stats, skills and so on as you normally would.

 

Now we'll create a head the proper way.

 

8) While still editing the NPC, go to the tab named Character Gen Parts.

9) In the top right is a button, next to Hair Color which says [ Import ], click it.

10) Go to your Skyrim folder if the browsing window did not already, select NeonFirefly.npc

11) Your character's head is now properly copied over! And best of all, creation kit takes care of any seams and discolourations.

12) Don't forget to click OK when you're done editing your character, save the file and try it out.

 

I hope this helps! Good luck and like if you like.

 

13) Unlucky thirteen. There is the small possibility that Creation Kit cannot and will not comprehend ECE and RaceMenu. If that is the case, some features may never copy over. The best way around this is to fiddle with the .NPC file. Try to find the coded names of all the sliders ECE or RaceMenu use. Add these lines to the .NPC file. There is a remote chance the game will understand this on import.

[Guest NeonFirefly]

Yeah, my problem seems to be that unlucky thirteen. I imported my character's head exactly like you specified (with three different .npc files) and not a single one of them translated correctly into the Creation Kit. Does this mean my CK will just never comprehend ECE? Or should I expect to get different results with different .npc files?

 

So how exactly do you fiddle with an .npc file or find the coded names of ECE sliders? I'm completely in the dark on that count.

[Emberheart]

Yeah, my problem seems to be that unlucky thirteen. I imported my character's head exactly like you specified (with three different .npc files) and not a single one of them translated correctly into the Creation Kit. Does this mean my CK will just never comprehend ECE? Or should I expect to get different results with different .npc files?

 

So how exactly do you fiddle with an .npc file or find the coded names of ECE sliders? I'm completely in the dark on that count.

 

With a program like Notepad++ (google it). And a very inquisitive nature. If I don't know how things work, I bite down in it and try to figure it out. Usually after trial and error it works. I saw the .NPC files have slider names and values. So there's probably ECE names for their custom sliders you could add in.