Custom Follower Mod

[JRCosta]

This is frustrating... when the body/face is right, the tints are wrong; now it's the other way. 

 

The thing that is bothering me is that the files work immediately in my CK/Skyrim, no steam neck, no vanilla tints, nothing wrong. The only thing you should do was opening the CK and export the facegen to look exactly like your character assets files.

 

There is something missing here... do you have the files I have sent you where the face/body was right but the tints where vanilla (before I create the race for her)? 

[TheTeaWizard]

This is frustrating... when the body/face is right, the tints are wrong; now it's the other way. 

 

The thing that is bothering me is that the files work immediately in my CK/Skyrim, no steam neck, no vanilla tints, nothing wrong. The only thing you should do was opening the CK and export the facegen to look exactly like your character assets files.

 

There is something missing here... do you have the files I have sent you where the face/body was right but the tints where vanilla (before I create the race for her)? 

 yeah I have that esp

[Silver Wolf]

did you set texture path in her exported facegen NIF ?

[TheTeaWizard]

did you set texture path in her exported facegen NIF ?

 

Yup

[JRCosta]

 

This is frustrating... when the body/face is right, the tints are wrong; now it's the other way. 

 

The thing that is bothering me is that the files work immediately in my CK/Skyrim, no steam neck, no vanilla tints, nothing wrong. The only thing you should do was opening the CK and export the facegen to look exactly like your character assets files.

 

There is something missing here... do you have the files I have sent you where the face/body was right but the tints where vanilla (before I create the race for her)? 

 yeah I have that esp

 

 

Ok, do the following:

 

- Copy that esp to your data folder;

- Open CK without previously moving the tints files;

- In the CK, in the object window, select the actors branch then search Violet, but don't double click her;

- Do the CTRL-F4 until the Done message appears;

- Launch skyrim; what you should have is no Neck Seam or dark face, but the wrong mouth.

 

Doing this way, you are preventing CK to replace custom assets CK is unable to find with the vanilla ones (bad paths, empty tri files, missing textures...); what we can have here is a problem where my character assets are different from yours (I use 7B, you CBBE) and your NPC are using some files from the Character Assets directory - femalehead for instance.

 

For this NPC be truly standalone and look the same in every game, you must copy to the NPC folder the remain files (nif, tri and dds files) that are being taken from the character assets directory and tell the esp to grab them in the NPC folder. Otherwise, it will look differently in every game, according to the character assets of each configuration.

 

I hope I'm making myself clear. In CK, take note of the items that are getting the data from the character assets file, copy those files to the NPC folder then tell CK to use those instead.

[TheTeaWizard]

 

 

This is frustrating... when the body/face is right, the tints are wrong; now it's the other way. 

 

The thing that is bothering me is that the files work immediately in my CK/Skyrim, no steam neck, no vanilla tints, nothing wrong. The only thing you should do was opening the CK and export the facegen to look exactly like your character assets files.

 

There is something missing here... do you have the files I have sent you where the face/body was right but the tints where vanilla (before I create the race for her)? 

 yeah I have that esp

 

 

Ok, do the following:

 

- Copy that esp to your data folder;

- Open CK without previously moving the tints files;

- In the CK, in the object window, select the actors branch then search Violet, but don't double click her;

- Do the CTRL-F4 until the Done message appears;

- Launch skyrim; what you should have is no Neck Seam or dark face, but the wrong mouth.

 

Doing this way, you are preventing CK to replace custom assets CK is unable to find with the vanilla ones (bad paths, empty tri files, missing textures...); what we can have here is a problem where my character assets are different from yours (I use 7B, you CBBE) and your NPC are using some files from the Character Assets directory - femalehead for instance.

 

For this NPC be truly standalone and look the same in every game, you must copy to the NPC folder the remain files (nif, tri and dds files) that are being taken from the character assets directory and tell the esp to grab them in the NPC folder. Otherwise, it will look differently in every game, according to the character assets of each configuration.

 

I hope I'm making myself clear. In CK, take note of the items that are getting the data from the character assets file, copy those files to the NPC folder then tell CK to use those instead.

 

 

Ok so here's where we're at now - 

 

 

I haven't changed the lips and eyeliner and stuff yet, because I know I can fix the lips, but the eyeliner will go to vanilla.

 

As for what you said about making her standalone, I understand what you mean, but I have no idea how to do this in the CK?

[TheTeaWizard]

I feel like the reason the tintmasks are wrong is because the game doesn't know where to look for them.

 

I haven't told CK where the tintmasks are because I didn't see an option and the tutorial doesn't say it.

 

When I used nifskope and the facegendata to tell the game where the textures where coming from, there was no option for the tinmasks that I could find.

 

I think this is the issue, any way to fix it?

[Silver Wolf]

Actually making followers standalone has much less headache than making them not-stand-alone

 

For a basic one you can follow the guide here, but it's not very good because it not really show you how to make things from scratch

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25673/?

[TheTeaWizard]

Actually making followers standalone has much less headache than making them not-stand-alone

 

For a basic one you can follow the guide here, but it's not very good because it not really show you how to make things from scratch

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/25673/?

 

This is what I used, well I used a different but very similar one, and read through this one after and I did everything that this one did already ...

[JRCosta]

I feel like the reason the tintmasks are wrong is because the game doesn't know where to look for them.

 

I haven't told CK where the tintmasks are because I didn't see an option and the tutorial doesn't say it.

 

When I used nifskope and the facegendata to tell the game where the textures where coming from, there was no option for the tinmasks that I could find.

 

I think this is the issue, any way to fix it?

 

That is why I have created a race for her. In the race window  (you can check nordrace to check how tintmask files work) you can say to CK where he gets the tintmask files. But changing that, ALL the NPC with that race could change too if they have tintmasks enable (value above 0 in the color opacity).

 

But again, doing that in my game then send it to you was no solution, we have different character assets and the CK is looking for that. So you have to create the race on your own

 

Check here and give it a try, just make at your own pace, backup the esp and save often!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFIGY-Ro1n8

 

As SilverWolf said, it is better using a custom race so you have more control and to grant that the final result is exactly the same for every user, as long as all your character assets are linked to the NPC folder.

 

I am very sorry that my help wasn't good enough, but I'm confident that with this tutorial the follower will be less buggy and you're be happier with the output.

 

Try it and don't be afraid to drop questions here. You are very close.

[TheTeaWizard]

 

I feel like the reason the tintmasks are wrong is because the game doesn't know where to look for them.

 

I haven't told CK where the tintmasks are because I didn't see an option and the tutorial doesn't say it.

 

When I used nifskope and the facegendata to tell the game where the textures where coming from, there was no option for the tinmasks that I could find.

 

I think this is the issue, any way to fix it?

 

That is why I have created a race for her. In the race window  (you can check nordrace to check how tintmask files work) you can say to CK where he gets the tintmask files. But changing that, ALL the NPC with that race could change too if they have tintmasks enable (value above 0 in the color opacity).

 

But again, doing that in my game then send it to you was no solution, we have different character assets and the CK is looking for that. So you have to create the race on your own

 

Check here and give it a try, just make at your own pace, backup the esp and save often!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFIGY-Ro1n8

 

As SilverWolf said, it is better using a custom race so you have more control and to grant that the final result is exactly the same for every user, as long as all your character assets are linked to the NPC folder.

 

I am very sorry that my help wasn't good enough, but I'm confident that with this tutorial the follower will be less buggy and you're be happier with the output.

 

Try it and don't be afraid to drop questions here. You are very close.

 

 

Ok, I'll give it a shot later, thanks!

[TheTeaWizard]

Good News Everyone!

 

Well mainly you JRCosta

 

I have made progress, sorry have been inactive for a while, things got in the way (playing skyrim XD)

 

Anyway here's what's she's looking like now! 
 

 

This however is what she looks like on a completely un-modded game - 

 

 

No textures for the hair it seems, now I was thinking as you said I might not be able to upload her onto the nexus with assets of SG Hairs anyways, 

of switching to a hair from ApachiiSkyHairs, as theres a hairstyle I've got my eye on, rekon this is a good idea? let me know!

[TheTeaWizard]

Bump

 

[JRCosta]

So the hair is the only problem?

 

Use Apachii hair (the one you like it) or check numenume hairs http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11173/?, the if the textureless mesh persists, just tell me, I know a workaround (edit the hair and hairline nifs and point the BSLightning to your NPC folder instead of the Hair MOD folder).

 

And congratulations for making her, worth it

[TheTeaWizard]

So the hair is the only problem?

 

Use Apachii hair (the one you like it) or check numenume hairs http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/11173/?, the if the textureless mesh persists, just tell me, I know a workaround (edit the hair and hairline nifs and point the BSLightning to your NPC folder instead of the Hair MOD folder).

 

And congratulations for making her, worth it

 

Ok will get started tommorow.

 

it seems in a game where the textures are not there, she looks correct, but in my main modded game, she has vanilla eyeliner, hopefully this is not the same for other people.

[TheTeaWizard]

Not going well now, she's got a neckseam in a non modded game, her hair is wrong for some reason, and it's kinda see through, I have the textures for the hair, but I'm not sure how to add them to the hair? Any Ideas?

[JRCosta]

For the neck seam, make sure you have included in the zip/rar pack the esp Facegendata, both in textures and meshes; it's easy to forget.

 

About the hair, open the hair and the hairline nifs in nifskope, search for the branch in the screenshot and change the textures path as seen in the picture below in BOTH files:

 

 

Then open the CK to adjust the hair color, and again export the facegendata.

 

[TheTeaWizard]

For the neck seam, make sure you have included in the zip/rar pack the esp Facegendata, both in textures and meshes; it's easy to forget.

 

About the hair, open the hair and the hairline nifs in nifskope, search for the branch in the screenshot and change the textures path as seen in the picture below in BOTH files:

 

hairnifpath.jpg

 

Then open the CK to adjust the hair color, and again export the facegendata.

 

Not working, I fixed the hair problem by just having apachiiskyhair installed, which may need me to have it as a dependency.

 

Neck seam is still there, and she looks kinda weird, not really sure why.

 

Maybe it's better to start again using a better guide?

 

Nothing we try seems to be working, and I might use a different character as a base for this new one.

 

What say you?

[JRCosta]

I really don't know how can I help anymore... the files work fine here as you already know and see, but the small details are up to you.

 

I've only created an handful of custom NPC\followers and never had big issues, neck seam/dark face easily solved with height and Facegen export. Everything you need to create her standalone (i.e. no MOD master files required) is explained is the tutorials and in this thread discussions, so I can't tell you nothing new.

 

But don't give up on her yet. Probably is better start from scratch, just move/backup the esp and start a new one in CK.