Building a Better Body

[crudo]

A little help here, please.  I just built my pc and started modding Skyrim for the first time.  I've added a few modest mods just to get my feet wet and now I would like to add a body replacer.  I've read through Nexus and here at LL trying to get good info before I start.  To the point, I've decided to try the UNPB body mod to start and here are a few questions I have before I attempt the install.

 

Do I need UNP as a base or can I simply download UNPB?

 

I was reading the UNPB page and I'm a bit confused.  Does it come with the XPMS (I thinkt that's the name) skeleton or do I need to download that separately?

 

After reading the thread, Making Beautiful Women, here on LL I noticed quite a few additional mods, Apachii hair, SG Texture Renewal, Eyes of the beauty, to name a few.  From a modding perspective, do I download the UNPB body mod and then the hair, skin, eyes?  Will the Nexus Mod Manager know where to put those files?

 

That's really about it for now.  I know these are real basic questions but I've only changed the UI, HD textures and some lighting mods at the moment, so this is all still quite new.

 

Thanks!  All help is appreciated.

[Thulas]

You simply can load UNPB.

 

I am not sure, but I think you need to download the skelleton separately.

 

The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you should install the HD-textures after the mod they affect, so first the body, then the textures. It doesn't matter in which order or when you install the eye/hair mods though.

[DespairSyndrome]

I only noticed this now, but the author of UNPBlessed is xp32, he is the author of XPMS skeleton as well, so my guess is that both are bundled together.

 

Hair, Skin, Eyes and Body meshes and textures are seperate from each other. There will be no overlap unless you use a mesh/texture that directly overlaps with each other i.e trying to use UNP and CBBE at the same time.

[crudo]

Thanks, Thulas and KTIII.  That is what was confusing me on the UNPB page, if you read through it the skeleton is mentioned.  I didn't know if it was the same one that is it's own download.  But according to the UNPB page you can add BBP during the install.  So it seems all I need to do is add extra textures if I want to customize the character even more.

 

In regard to the extra textures, hair, skin and whatnot, and this will sound really dumb, does the Mod Manager know where to place them or do I need to do that manually?  I haven't read the mod pages of each carefully, I suspect my answers may be there.  I'm not looking to do anything exotic, just pretty up the place a bit.

[gvman3670]

NMM will know where to put them. But if you're just starting a game I would strongly suggest forgetting NMM and getting Mod Organizer up and running instead. It is far. far superior in every single way. It does everything NMM does and sooooooo much more. The most important being that it keeps your Skyrim folder clean so you'll never need to reinstall and it lets you have multiple profiles for seperate characters/playthroughs and each profile can have it's own set of mods.

[Akzyra]

You need XPMS, check that it doesn't get overwritten. Bad things will happen.

I agree with gvman3670, use Mod Organizer. It leaves you Skyrim folder untouched using fancy virtual directorys(except SKSE, ENB and some other stuff that needs to be in the Skyrim folder)

 

For Textures, every UNP texture will work. Texture is face and skin.

Hair: Just install hair mods, like Apachii or SG Hair 268 (mod was removed; google it).

Install Enhanced Character Edit, more options to modify in Racemenu.

 

For more just ask.

[crudo]

Thanks for the tip about Mod Organizer.  I like the fact that you can set up different profiles per character, I can see where that would be very handy.  Do I need to start over with my modding to run Mod Organizer or can I simply switch from Nexus Mod Manager?

 

Akzyra, how would the skeleton get overwritten?  I mean, it is part of the UNPB pack as mentioned above, correct?

 

I was looking at ECE and it did seem the better character creator but I had read that it has more conflicts.  Plus, a mod I was interested in, Ethereal Elven Overhaul isn't compatible with it.  Besides, RaceMenu with the CharGen Extension will give me quite a few options I had never used before.

[gvman3670]

You can switch from NMM to MO. MO has an option for importing from NMM. If you have anything in your Skyrim/data/ folder that was manually installed you will probably want to remove it and install that with MO from a compressed archive instead (this way you still get to keep your clean Skryim directory).

 

ECE only seems to have conflicts with a couple custom races. It also doesn't have the tattoo overlays that RM has. But it makes it easier to make attractive characters by far. They just start out better looking before even starting to tweak them.

 

 

[Akzyra]

Thanks for the tip about Mod Organizer.  I like the fact that you can set up different profiles per character, I can see where that would be very handy.  Do I need to start over with my modding to run Mod Organizer or can I simply switch from Nexus Mod Manager?

 

Akzyra, how would the skeleton get overwritten?  I mean, it is part of the UNPB pack as mentioned above, correct?

 

I was looking at ECE and it did seem the better character creator but I had read that it has more conflicts.  Plus, a mod I was interested in, Ethereal Elven Overhaul isn't compatible with it.  Besides, RaceMenu with the CharGen Extension will give me quite a few options I had never used before.

Best is you start from scratch, new Skyrim folder.

There is the option to import all the downloaded mods. It copies the downloaded archives from NMM to MO. Or you select the archives manually.

Skeleton can be overwrtitten...

• in NMM if you install a mod with a skeleton after XPMS, thus overwriting it in Skyrim\Data
• in MO if you have a mod with a skeleton after XMPS in priority, thus virtually overwrting it when starting Skyrim. Double-click in XMPS in MO and select the "conflics" tab, you will see what is overwritten by what mod. The lower list should be empty for XPMS

 

Yeah, Racemenu is nice too, pick what you like.

 

Really, if you aren't a small tech freak, don't think about the virtual filesystem to much. Priority of mods is important!

Run SKSE, BOSS, etc..... all within Mod Organizer.

(damn, writing books again, but hell, I AM HELPING lol)

[wayra]

Agreed with Akzyra, start anew (reinstall skyrim and everything) and use MO. I wouldn't recommend to import your mods, you don't want to import any errors. it's best to start with a clean counscious. That way you know the source of your problems.

 

About the body mods, maybe I am aesthetically challenged, but I could never distinguish between the different body types. So I just stick with basic UNP (by dimonied99), and use the SG textures renewal (load this after UNP), and xp32 skeleton extended( hosted on loverslab, not on nexus, xp32 hosted here).

[crudo]

Thanks for the tips, everyone.  I've got just under 30 mods installed already, a bunch of them are utility, ui, performance mods and then a handful of lighting mods and enhancers already.  I guess what I'm saying is that I'm going to run with NMM for now and after a bit of a run I will start over witn MO.  I do run BOSS and have also learned to make some manual changes that seem to have a positive impact so all that is good.  However, all of that is another discussion.

 

I'm going to download the body mod today.  I installed RaceMenu and CharGen Extenstion last night and created a beastly mutant!    My other save, with the vanilla character creator actually looks gorgeous by comparison.  I did run into a strange hiccup with RaceMenu, with the CharGen Extensions I seem to have duplicated sliders.  It kind of messes up the work flow so I may decide to take it out and try ECE afterall, especially if it is more streamlined.  RaceMenu is a bit clunky.

 

Thanks for the tips on the body types.  I would prefer regular UNP but there doesn't seem to be a lot of clothes/armor with BBP which is something I want to give a go.

 

Also, I noticed a mod a few days ago, I can't remember the name but apparently it randomizes the NPC's attributes within set parameters.  That sounds like something I would really like.  If I can find the mod I will post here and ask if anyone has used it and what they think about it.

 

Off to modding!

[Akzyra]

Thanks for the tips, everyone.  I've got just under 30 mods installed already, a bunch of them are utility, ui, performance mods and then a handful of lighting mods and enhancers already.  I guess what I'm saying is that I'm going to run with NMM for now and after a bit of a run I will start over witn MO.  I do run BOSS and have also learned to make some manual changes that seem to have a positive impact so all that is good.  However, all of that is another discussion.

 

I'm going to download the body mod today.  I installed RaceMenu and CharGen Extenstion last night and created a beastly mutant!    My other save, with the vanilla character creator actually looks gorgeous by comparison.  I did run into a strange hiccup with RaceMenu, with the CharGen Extensions I seem to have duplicated sliders.  It kind of messes up the work flow so I may decide to take it out and try ECE afterall, especially if it is more streamlined.  RaceMenu is a bit clunky.

 

Thanks for the tips on the body types.  I would prefer regular UNP but there doesn't seem to be a lot of clothes/armor with BBP which is something I want to give a go.

 

Also, I noticed a mod a few days ago, I can't remember the name but apparently it randomizes the NPC's attributes within set parameters.  That sounds like something I would really like.  If I can find the mod I will post here and ask if anyone has used it and what they think about it.

 

Off to modding!

 

I used Racemenu only because of the multiple warpaint stuff. Now back to ECE. With a lot of power comes a lot of responsibility, don't make mutants (unless you plan to play one).

 

As for importing mods, it imports the downloaded archives, no extraced or installed files. Can still create errors if conflicting mods etc. But best is to redownload the mods/manually add the to MO by selecting archives (and maybe add a structure to it).

 

Example:

Not needed. To create seperators i used an zip with only a textures folder in it. The folder prevents the no game data messege.

 

Have fun

[crudo]

Here she is.  Not so bad.  Much easier to edit once I had better textures.

[Mord Sif]

Nice character!

 

Not sure if you still need body/texture/install-order advice, but I use UNPB myself and installed stuff in this order:

 

XPMS

Some animation mods

UNPB (chose the "have my own skeleton" - or similar - option in the installer)

SG Female Textures Renewal

Better Freckles (adds a freckle complexion)

No More Ugly Bronze Shine

Then Eyes Of Beauty, Hair packs, SG Female Eyebrows

 

NMM will tell you when one overwrites another during the install, though I also made the switch to MO recently, and haven't looked back! 

 

(I did also have the base UNP body installed before UNPB when I was using NMM. I just left it in when I switched bodies. I installed it again in MO, because I knew the order worked, but it told me the UNP mod was redundant, so I uninstalled it. No problem.)

[crudo]

Thanks, Mord.  I still welcome advice on character building and modding in general.  I'm only a few days into this, plus learning Windows (I'm a lifetime Mac user) so there has been lots to absorb.

 

This is what I used:

 

UNPB and the skeleton that is packed with it.

SG Female Textures Renewal

Cover Eyes

Apachii SkyHair

SG Eyebrows.

 

I'll check out the freckles mod, I may like that.  I had read about No More Ugly Bronze Shine but I haven't had a problem yet so I bypassed the mod.

 

Built it all in RaceMenu + Chargen.  I haven't looked into it but I hope RaceMenu let's you save presets for characters.  I'm just testing my mods right now to see if they work together, haven't tried a game yet but I like how this one turned out and would consider a fresh start.

 

By the way, really like your character, Sif, I've been looking over the counterpart thread for ideas and she really caught my eye.

[crudo]

I do have one more question on this topic.  When installing the UNPB body I am given a few options.  The one that confuses me is the choice between BBP and TBBP, I've tried both but I've noticed no difference.  Does it really matter which of these two get used?

[Karin]

bbp=bouncing boobs

tbbp=+bouncing butt

 

if i understand good

[gvman3670]

BBP only bounces up and down and TBBP bounces up/down and left/right because there are more bones in the breasts. You should get butt jiggle with either one.