Looking to make character/NPC's look better without big performance hit.

[DerekUGA]

What mods are recommended to achieve this?  I will be using Equipping Overhaul so I need a good skeleton mod to go along with any body and face mods you suggest.  Please let me know which set of mods you would use, thanks.

 

I won't be using many armor mods outside of Immersive (unless you have a better suggestion), so it's pretty much left up to what is actually the best looking.  I'm not interested in making ridiculous looking characters with huge chests, just a very pleasing toon with a pretty face.

 

Here are the mods I have earmarked so far that I am interested in maybe using:

 

CoverEyes

Apachii Sky Hair(s)

Ethereal Elven Overhaul

XP32 Skeleton

The Coenaculi

Bijin Warmaidens

Favored Souls Angels in Skyrim

Coverwomen

Glowtastic

Player Voicesets

 

As you can see I value my character and want as many options as possible to really bring it to life, and I would love to make the NPC's look better (thus Bijin for starters).  I know some of these mods might be old and there are possibly better mods around that do the same thing, so I listed them here to get your input because I know this forum knows the most about this stuff. 

 

Thanks!

[Alpia]

So you want to play as male or female? well I just list the stuff that I think you may like.

 

-Race Menu or Enhanced character edit ECE

-CBBE (or UNP) there are also non nude versions since you said you don't want "ridiculous looking characters with huge chests"

-HDT with HDT high heel system and victoryas high heel walk animation

-Appachii sky hair

-Feminine running and dash animation

-SG Hair, SG Eyebrows and SG Skin textrue by hello santa

-Smile in HD with the whiter teeth optional file

-covereyes and the eyes of beauty

-this sit animation the standart is just so boring http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15674

-This followers http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40925/? his other files are also sweet

-Miguels houscarl beautys http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15808/? don't know your setup, but with realvision enb and my mod setup the followers look just beautiful.

-The Dance of death (a killmove mod really sweet killmoves are allways awesome )

-Ponytail for hdt physiks extension (really nice to see hair with physics)

-HDT Female Hairstyles

-http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/48283/? also a great follower mod

 

There is also a ton of mods to change the standart npc's, but thats a matter of taste and especially what your hardware can take.

 

I really wonder that you don't use a lot of armors I really would recommend the following armors nothing skimpy for you of course:

Royal Daedric armor http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3104/?

Yurica Slayer armor and Chevaleresse Armor also by yurica

Newmyla Armor http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57369/? (maybe allready to skimpy for you, but the quality of the armor is superb)

Ebony Blade http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52506/? looks really sweet

Tera Armors of course if you don't mind the lore thing too much http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29411/?

Weapons of the third era http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3871/?

Maybe too skimpy for you but it looks nice http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20415/?

 

 

 

[DerekUGA]

So you want to play as male or female? well I just list the stuff that I think you may like.

 

-Race Menu or Enhanced character edit ECE

-CBBE (or UNP) there are also non nude versions since you said you don't want "ridiculous looking characters with huge chests"

-HDT with HDT high heel system and victoryas high heel walk animation

-Appachii sky hair

-Feminine running and dash animation

-SG Hair, SG Eyebrows and SG Skin textrue by hello santa

-Smile in HD with the whiter teeth optional file

-covereyes and the eyes of beauty

-this sit animation the standart is just so boring http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15674

-This followers http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/40925/? his other files are also sweet

-Miguels houscarl beautys http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/15808/? don't know your setup, but with realvision enb and my mod setup the followers look just beautiful.

-The Dance of death (a killmove mod really sweet killmoves are allways awesome )

-Ponytail for hdt physiks extension (really nice to see hair with physics)

-HDT Female Hairstyles

-http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/48283/? also a great follower mod

 

There is also a ton of mods to change the standart npc's, but thats a matter of taste and especially what your hardware can take.

 

I really wonder that you don't use a lot of armors I really would recommend the following armors nothing skimpy for you of course:

Royal Daedric armor http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3104/?

Yurica Slayer armor and Chevaleresse Armor also by yurica

Newmyla Armor http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/57369/? (maybe allready to skimpy for you, but the quality of the armor is superb)

Ebony Blade http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/52506/? looks really sweet

Tera Armors of course if you don't mind the lore thing too much http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/29411/?

Weapons of the third era http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/3871/?

Maybe too skimpy for you but it looks nice http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20415/?

 

At this point it just makes more sense to play as a female, so many more good mods.  Thanks for responding btw, as I am in the middle of about a 2 hour session of digging through all of the body, tex, etc mods and downloading all of them so I can try them out and compare to decide what I want.  I do have some questions, though.

 

First and foremost, where can I get UNP Blessed Body UNPB - with optional BBP breast physics?  I need it to use one of the mods I downloaded, and I don't mind nudity (just not interested in ridiculously huge cocks and tits). 

 

Also, are Covereyes and EoB compatible?  Will any of the files overwrite?  Same question for ECE and RaceMenu, also. 

Thanks for the whiter teeth option recommendation, as I installed Teeth in HD with Mod Combiner and they don't look as crispy as I would like.  I am more into the high res fantasy look personally.  Lore is not an issue with me as I played this game through a few times on PS3, so I am looking for a broadened experience.  I even mulled over whether to download the DeathStar moon mod...lmao

 

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am going to get to downloading now.  Look forward to hearing from you again...

 

OHHH, one other thing.  About the NPC's, I have a pretty sturdy rig (3570k, 8gb ram, gtx660 2gb vram) so I would like to try to improve the NPC's looks as well.  I already have the children looking amazing thanks to SMC/RS Children, but any suggestions in that area would be apprecitated.

[Rayblue]

The best thing about SG Skin Texture is that it doesn't impact your performance and it's visually beautiful.

 

(BTW, and sorry if I sound like preaching, but if you're going to use a lot of overhaul mods and testing them out, Mod Organizer can help you take away the headache of trying to uninstall or deleting or cleaning up the Skyrim Data folder.)

[DerekUGA]

The best thing about SG Skin Texture is that it doesn't impact your performance and it's visually beautiful.

 

(BTW, and sorry if I sound like preaching, but if you're going to use a lot of overhaul mods and testing them out, Mod Organizer can help you take away the headache of trying to uninstall or deleting or cleaning up the Skyrim Data folder.)

 

Good to know, which body would you use with SG?

 

Don't worry, I wouldn't be doing all this if it weren't for the ease with which MO allows it to be done...haha

[gaz770]

If you're going to play for playing!(not just modding, then quit lol) *You Must Get* Frostfall & Realistic Needs and diseases  + optional: wet and cold, its the minimum for a new experience, its worth so good.

 

UNP/B good choice! never got good result with CBBE or other body mods.

 

Sharing my little experience 

[DerekUGA]

If you're going to play for playing!(not just modding, then quit lol) *You Must Get* Frostfall & Realistic Needs and diseases  + optional: wet and cold, its the minimum for a new experience, its worth so good.

 

UNP/B good choice! never got good result with CBBE or other body mods.

 

Sharing my little experience 

 

My only concern with FF is how stable it would be with an already heavily modified game.  I would think it is pretty solid given how popular and well known it is, but does it require a lot of extra patches and such?

 

Also, do you know where I could find the file I was asking about above?  UNP Blessed Body UNPB - with optional BBP breast physics

 

I downloaded a mod that requires it that I really want to try out.

[Alpia]

 

Also, are Covereyes and EoB compatible?  Will any of the files overwrite?  Same question for ECE and RaceMenu, also.

Yes like hairpacks eyepacks are compatible with each other you will just have a lot more eyes which makes the choice itself harder I really recommand the hdt hairs I posted I don't want so say its like a new game, but it just looks great when jumping around or in a fight your hair flys trough the air

 

ECE and RaceMenu are not compatible the good thing with race menu is that there are a lot of plugins for it especially the overlay plugin for tattoos and stuff as far as I know both have a working vertex edit now. I personally choose ECE all the follower mods I use have ECE preset saves I build my faces on because I'm lazy. I often tought about switching to race menu, but I think ece faces turn out better, but thats all a matter of taste.

 

 

OHHH, one other thing.  About the NPC's, I have a pretty sturdy rig (3570k, 8gb ram, gtx660 2gb vram) so I would like to try to improve the NPC's looks as well.  I already have the children looking amazing thanks to SMC/RS Children, but any suggestions in that area would be apprecitated.

sturdy rig is relative from the viewpoint, but you have a good rig good enough, but depending if you also use hd textrures and a enb you may get on your limit.

 

I personally like for a more living skyrim:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9201/? populated citys

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/31264/? organized bandits with the optional bandit patrols for me there can't be enough enemys

 

For the NPC looks I like:

http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/27427/? npcs of dibella

You may also take a look at http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35443/? improved npc overhaul

Also intresting is http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/8429/?

 

 

First and foremost, where can I get UNP Blessed Body UNPB - with optional BBP breast physics?  I need it to use one of the mods I downloaded, and I don't mind nudity (just not interested in ridiculously huge cocks and tits).

 

Thats good to know I skimpy armors are just great

 

UNPB you find it here http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/37900/? if you want a nice looking skin you should download the sg skin texture for unp here: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/35267/? I assume you can choose tbbp in the installer otherwise I don't know I use cbbe

Most likley the mods who require other mods have linked it in their description

 

So if you don't mind skimpy armors I recommend:

Aradia Kato or just everthing by aradia

Insanity servator mashup or just everthing by halofarm http://mod.dysintropi.me/ his stuff is just awesome.

Toads tera armors

HDT test skirts looks really great to have a skirt with physics

nsk has some really sweet armors http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/users/3373573/?tb=mods&pUp=1

 

Well I recommand what you allready did just take some time and scroll through every f*** page you find for me it was worth the time I always find something new.

Besides Loverslab I highly recommand this sites to scroll through:

http://mod.dysintropi.me/ Halofarm

http://skyrimghost.blog.fc2.com/ asian, but I'm not asian and get it done so should work for everyone.

http://mitinokuoblivion.blog118.fc2.com/ also asian

http://modtype.doorblog.jp/ asian

http://dragonporn.ldblog.jp/ asian, but really really nice the most mods link to nexus I just like this side because you just have so much better previews

well nexus itself, but due the sucky previews hard to find something nice.

 

Edit: put a screenshot on why I like hdt skirts

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Consider getting up to speed with texture optimisation - it's a dry subject as far as modding goes and not something you go blundering into unprepared, but it's most definitely worth the effort. Learning how to use DDSopt properly is what helped get my setup punching way above it's weight. 

[DerekUGA]

Well, I have managed to get FNIS, XP32 (grooves), a UNP body, and some hair and eyes in place; the only issue I have is that Wrye Bash keeps saying that USKP Patcher for RaceCompatibility.esm has a delinquent master.

 

Is this normal or did I mess up somewhere?

[Alpia]

Well if you see it in red in wyre bash your game will crash otherwise look it up with loot if you get any errors or tes5edit if you have knowledge of it. I dont know if its normal I don't use the skyrim patch maybe I'm blind, but I haven't seen a single bug in this game besides what is caused by mods

[DerekUGA]

Well if you see it in red in wyre bash your game will crash otherwise look it up with loot if you get any errors or tes5edit if you have knowledge of it. I dont know if its normal I don't use the skyrim patch maybe I'm blind, but I haven't seen a single bug in this game besides what is caused by mods

 

No worries, I just switched to RaceMenu and everything is fine now.