Making Some Changes Mid-Stream

[crudo]

Lately I've been thinking about giving Enhanced Character Edit a go.  Right now I use Race Menu with CharGen extensions.  The question I have before I experiment with a change is, will my current saved characters (3 of them) be retained or will it mess up those games?

 

If I'm reading the ECE page correctly I will have to uninstall Ethereal Elven Overhaul, no biggie really except I really like using Jenaessa and she looks so much better with the mod.  The other mods ECE recommends uninstalling are any SG textures like body renewal, I use body renewal and the eyebrows.  Again there are substitute mods that I think are acceptable replacements.

 

So after making those mod swaps will I be able to play my old saves?  It's not a big loss if no, I don't have any serious games going at the moment but I do like the characters and I've saved their profiles in Race Menu.

[Veladarius]

Since these are primarily just mesh and texture changes there should be no problem. I have changed bodies and textures mid game with no problems but you may have to adjust the face of your character with the change from RaceMenu to ECE.

[gvman3670]

If you go to Nexus and download Skyrim Beautiful Followers it will turn Jenassa into a smoking hottie, as it does other followers as well, all without using the elven overhaul.

 

 

And I've used SG textures, brows and hairs with ECE. There is also a mod called "Brows" on the Nexus that is a really good one as well, and that also fine with ECE.

[crudo]

Thanks, Veladarius, gvman.  When I get some extended time I think I will see if I like ECE better.  I do like RaceMenu just fine, my sliders are a little goofed as I loaded all the Chargen mods and it seems to repeat sliders, I may have three for nose height alone!

 

Good tip on the follower overhaul, I'll check it out.  I prefer my Jenassa without war paint but it's not so bad with.  I was looking at Bjiin Warmaidens too and a separate Jenassa too.

 

I'm curious to try the different sliders for shoulder and butt that ECE has.  I use UNPB with TBBP, the skeleton works well but according to ECE I need to update to another/improved XPMS skeleton for proper functionality.  It's crazy, I totally have mod creep going on right now with somewhere around 115 mods running.

 

Good stuff, thanks for the help.

 

 

[Veladarius]

Thanks, Veladarius, gvman.  When I get some extended time I think I will see if I like ECE better.  I do like RaceMenu just fine, my sliders are a little goofed as I loaded all the Chargen mods and it seems to repeat sliders, I may have three for nose height alone!

 

Good tip on the follower overhaul, I'll check it out.  I prefer my Jenassa without war paint but it's not so bad with.  I was looking at Bjiin Warmaidens too and a separate Jenassa too.

 

I'm curious to try the different sliders for shoulder and butt that ECE has.  I use UNPB with TBBP, the skeleton works well but according to ECE I need to update to another/improved XPMS skeleton for proper functionality.  It's crazy, I totally have mod creep going on right now with somewhere around 115 mods running.

 

Good stuff, thanks for the help.

 

The sliders allow you to change the scale of the entire upper or lower body and are useful when making taller or shorter characters. I used it when making a character that was about 20% taller than the normal nord and she just looked tall instead of scaled up.

 

 

I have room for about 4 mods before I hit the limit and have a number of mods that add better facial features, hairs and makeup. While I liked RaceMenu I switched to ECE originally when they added all the extra sliders, I tried going back to RaceMenu but I didn't like the layout for the extra sliders that they added.

[crudo]

I gave ECE a shot and I really liked the slider control for the body.  I did run into a few hiccups.  The face on my character was very distorted, especially around the cheeks and mouth.  It may have been due to the fact that I used the optional extended sliders but I didn't think I went too extreme with any of my changes.

 

I swapped out SG skin texture for mature skin and didn't really care for the mature skin texture.  It was okay, probably need to work with it a bit more or find an alternative.

 

I did run into CTD's once I loaded up ECE, I never had that happen with RaceMenu.  I did add one other sorta complex mod at the same time so I don't know if that attributed to the instability.  However, I went back to Race Menu and all is fine now.

 

I still am fixated on the body sliders and may give ECE another chance in the future, for now I'll stick with RaceMenu.

[crudo]

I would like to give ECE another shot but would like some skin texture recommendations.  Right now I'm using SG Texture Renewal with RaceMenu and I really like it.  Like I wrote earlier, ECE recommends not using that texture.  Any other skin texture recommendations??

[gvman3670]

I've used SG with ECE and can't even guess why there could be a problem (unless the different head in ECE is the issue, but it's never given me any problem). I've also used Fairskin, Milkdrinker, Barbarian and FSC Univision, which have all been fine as well. Univision is the "prettiest" of those. It's detailed enough (unless you want 4K texts) to look realistic, but it is smoother and has fewer blemishes than Real Girl, SG or Mature Skin.

 

I guess it also depends on what body type you're using. I have three characters now using SG, Univision and Barbarian, all on one UNP variant or another (UNP BBP, Top Model TBBP and Seven Base Bombshell respectively).

[Spyder Arachnid]

Swapping from RaceMenu to ECE in the middle of a game might cause issues. That seems like something you would only do when making a new game, seeing as they make some rather drastic changes to your game.

 

As for SG Textures, they work just fine with ECE. ECE complains that SG has it's own tri files that aren't compatible with ECE, but I have never had an issue with it. I use SG with ECE with no problems.

 

Skeleton wise, use the XP32 Skeleton here on LL. It's an extended version of the original and has support for everything, including ECE. Install it after ECE though (skeleton should always be installed last and overwrite any other skeletons any ways).

[crudo]

Thanks, gvman, Spyder.  I will give it another chance as I really liked the body customization.  I will stick with my sg textures on the first go, those are easy enough to swap.  I'll report back how it goes.