[Guide] How-To: Muscle Texture Changer Mods

[guk]

How-To: Muscle Texture Changer Mods

 
This is a quick guide how to use Muscle Texture Changer Mods, and only aimed at users who understand the basics of Skyrim's file structure and know how to use mod managers.
I made this to complement the S.E.F.A.P. preset for Bodyslide, however everyone can apply the same procedure to any body replacer.
Users of Unified UNP should also definitely take a look.

 

numbers indicate breakpoints where the next normalmaps are loaded by the game, using the example preset in this guide with 8 different texture sets

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To get the increasing muscle definition effect like in the image above, we need a "Muscle Texture Changer" mod.
For this guide i am using the .ESPs from the full version of Muscular Women by Elmanouche. It only changes the normalmaps, which keeps the amount of RAM usage in acceptable amounts.
So let's get started with creating our own mod for this.

1.
Create a new folder for your mod, and extract the Muscular Women v3 archive to another temporary folder.
There are 2 basic options - "All Races" or "Nord and Orc" which change exactly what their name says.

All Races: \Options\Muscle Definition\MuscularWomen_Diesel_AR.esp
Nord and Orc: \Options\Muscle Definition\MuscularWomen_Diesel.esp

Pick the "AR" version and copy&paste it in the root of your new mod folder. The "Nord and Orc" version is a lot more difficult to set up, so we'll skip it for now.

The "Hardcore" option only adds a 12th texture set, while the "Smooth" option only works with textures that don't need their own hand textures. So stick with the "Diesel" option for now.
 
 
2.
Next we need textures. Create the usual directories in the root folder:
\Textures\Actors\Character\Female
 
For the Diesel option, we need 11 versions of the normalmaps for hands and body in there:

 
Now i am using Fair Skin Complexion - Slim - Uncompressed as base, which is compatible with standard CBBE v3.3 for the most part. Other textures will be more difficult to mix, but you can always blend your own sets and/or reduce the amount of texture sets used by the mod. More about this later.
 
For the image above i am using the following composition:
 

1-2 CBBE Monli Body + FSC hands
3-5 FSC
--6 Fitness Body - Less Abs
7-8 Fitness Body - Abs + Wide Abs
--9 BHB - CBBEV323Version (option for all BHB downloads: \ForCBBEStandardTextures\ )
-10 BHB - TigersansDiesel CBBEConversion
-11 BHB - TigersansDiesel CBBEConversion with HardcoreAbs

So all you need to do now is take the femalebody/hands_1_msn.dds from each mod, copy and rename them to the respective number from 2 to 11, and put them in the \female texture folder for your mod.
When you're done, it should look exactly like the picture above (22 files total).
 
Note that this is only an example, combine whatever you prefer


3.
Assuming we have all necessary files in the right folders, this is all we need for the basic mod.
Create a .7z or .zip archive from your folder, and add this as a mod in your mod manager.
Start Skyrim and test it.


4.
If you want to further customize the mod, for example to reduce the RAM usage or simply because you don't need 11 different textures, you can do this easily in TES5edit:

The numbers of the Texture Sets (left, marked in red) correspond to the "femalebody_X_msn.dds" files. If you delete any of them, Skyrim will not use them in the weight slider and the distribution will change accordingly. For example 4 texture sets would roughly go from 0-25, 26-50 and so on.
 
The FormID Lists don't matter, although you would have to add more if you for some crazy reason wanted - let's say - 20 texture sets.
You can also customize which races are affected, just examine what the "Nord and Orc" version does and you'll understand.

Update: In case you have any custom followers / races installed who are unintendedly affected by this mod, they have a "rogue" entry in their Armor Addon that you have to delete in tes5edit:

Custom follower with proper setup:


NPC Race Replacer with bad setup:


So you just select the entry under "NAM 3 - Female Skin Texture Swap List" and click on "remove", exit and save.
Right now i'm not aware of any negative effects from doing that.

5.
When you install exactly the mods i suggested above, there WILL be seams here and there.
You can however make your setup completely seamless by using Caliente's Texture Blender. In my example, you only need to edit the Fair Skin face- and body normalmaps with the CBBE neckseam options. Anything else marked as "CBBE v3.2 Standard" should be seamless, but you can still optimize with TexBlend if necessary.

Other known Texture Changer Mods:
Basvanbeu Muscle Changer Lite packaged with Navetsea's textures, also changes diffuse maps
Basvanbeus Mesh and Texture Changer Version 2 Original mod, also changes males and everything (most likely huge overkill)
 
 
 
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Thank you for your interest.
If there are any errors (or plain bullshit), let me know.

__________

Update 06-03-2015: Added info about Caliente's Texture Blender in section 5. The tool is very easy to use and understand, hopefully i'll get around to overhaul the whole guide at some point including a few pics how exactly it works.

[Standman]

Cool guide. As much as I'd like my Dovahkiin to be a special snowflake when it comes to being buff, I'm definitely considering giving Nords and Orcs the same gift. This won't affect any other changes made by, say, follower texture replacers? (Asking cause I'd ideally like to pick and choose which of my replaced followers will get what muscle type)

[guk]

Just tested to make sure - followers using their own race with separate bodies/textures are not affected.
Same goes for elder women, at least with the fixes for their race from CT77 remodeled armors, which forces them to use non-skimpy outfits and the proper hi-res wrinkly nude textures from CBBE.
 

[Supa Hot Fire]

Thank you for the guide. I also switched your Bodyslide preset after seeing this.

 

S.E.F.A.P is awesome.

[guk]

Cool guide. As much as I'd like my Dovahkiin to be a special snowflake when it comes to being buff, I'm definitely considering giving Nords and Orcs the same gift. This won't affect any other changes made by, say, follower texture replacers? (Asking cause I'd ideally like to pick and choose which of my replaced followers will get what muscle type)

 

Little update on this - as posted above, neither old people nor follower mods with custom bodies+textures are affected.

 

However, i've been informed that this can affect certain mods with a bad entry in their Armor Addon under "NAM 3 - Female Skin Texture Swap List".

Simply remove that entry and those followers/races will keep using their intended textures.

 

Also updated the guide with pictures under step #4.

 

 

Thank you for the guide. I also switched your Bodyslide preset after seeing this.

 

S.E.F.A.P is awesome.

 

[xGunner1]

Been trying to figure this out all day. Still stuck on step 2 on where you are supposed to get femalebody/hands_1_msn.dds from each mod and I can't seem to find enough of them to get 11 femalebody/hands_1_msn.dds files inside those mods that you listed. If you would could you please upload your muscle texture mod that already has been through the steps and been completed? Please do, having trouble figuring this out

[guk]

I already guessed that step would raise questions

For example "Fitness Body" already has both femalebody/hands_1_msn.dds in each of its option folders:


So you first create a copy of both files inside their download folders, then rename them to what you want to use them for, like femalebody/hands_5_msn.dds for the 5th increment of the texture changer.
Then cut & paste that into the mod folder you are working on.

If a mod only has the body- but not hand normalmap, it should be compatible with the base textures you have installed. Then you simply use the hand normalmap from the base textures (again copy it and rename).



And as you can see in the example setup, i also didn't use 11 completely different textures.
1+2 use the CBBE Monli texture, 3+4+5 the original Fair Skin, and so on.

If you want to use less increments, let's say 4 in total, look under step 4.
For 4 increments, you would delete texture sets 5 to 11 in tes5edit / CK and only install 4 different sets of normalmaps.


In case anything is still unclear, just ask again.

[xGunner1]

Got the results I wanted, thanks!

[RandomNPC]

Great guide and easy to understand.  I'm having an issue though where any time I set weight to maximum the body texture vanishes.

[guk]

Perhaps you're missing a texture set or two? Make sure it looks like in the pic under 2., if you're using the "Diesel"-.esp with 11 texture sets.

You could also look into the Muscular Women installer archive and compare the file structure with your own built mod (under options -> Muscle Definition, where you also took the .esp from).
OR: temporary install the original Muscular Women with MO, the check what the FOMOD options are installing (.esp and amount of textures).




I'm probably gonna overhaul the guide, just been using TexBlend to fix any seams between Fair Skin and the muscle- and monli textures made for CBBEv3 (the neck seam of FSC is actually not CBBEv3.2 compatible).
The same procedure can then be used to make for example SG or Mature seamless with all this.

 

 

 

_______

 

edit: meant the pic under 2.), not post#7

Edited February 13, 2015 by guk

[greenquesadilla]

I followed the guide step by step, but it doesn't work.  I still encounter the same problem RandomNPC experienced.  I've tried installing the original version of MW like you suggested, but for some reason, no matter what options I choose, the file tree still shows up like this

Notice how it's using the wrong .esp and doesn't have the femalebody/hands_(1-11)_msn.dds files

Any idea as to what's wrong?

[guk]

You actually only need the "muscle definition" optional part of the mod (and nothing else).

 

Now even with the danger of making things worse, i have created this DUMMY MOD which only contains FAKE and BLANK FILES in the correct structure and naming:

NON-FUNCTIONAL-DUMMY-MOD.7z

 

The first hurdle will be to unpack a .7z archive. Probably half of all skyrim mods are packed in that format, so go and get 7-zip if you don't have it yet.

 

Then either use the dummy mod as reference to compare how your own mod should look like, or replace all the files in there with real files.

The amount of work will be similar, but you don't run into danger of leaving dummy files in there if you create everything from scratch.

 

 

Notice how it's using the wrong .esp

Oh yes if you use the installer, i think it always renames the .esp to the basic "MuscularWomen.esp" no matter which options you choose. Just create your own installer, should be easy with the dummy mod as reference.

[greenquesadilla]

I made the mod I built have the exact same structure as the dummy mod you uploaded, but I still get the same bug.  I'm totally lost now.  I use this body and I used the same normal maps you suggested.  Only thing it could be at this point is a mod conflict.  I can't figure out what would make it conflict.  I'll troubleshoot it more, tomorrow.  Until then, here's my load order

Skyrim.esm

Update.esm
Unofficial Skyrim Patch.esp
Dawnguard.esm
Unofficial Dawnguard Patch.esp
HearthFires.esm
Unofficial Hearthfire Patch.esp
Dragonborn.esm
Unofficial Dragonborn Patch.esp
Wyrmstooth.esp
Skyrim Project Optimization - Full Version.esm
SexLab.esm
BeeingFemale.esm
SharedSeranaDialogue.esm
RSkyrimChildren.esm
Schlongs of Skyrim - Core.esm
SexLabAroused.esm
ZaZAnimationPack.esm
daymoyl.esm
HighResTexturePack01.esp
HighResTexturePack02.esp
HighResTexturePack03.esp
Unofficial High Resolution Patch.esp
BFA_BeastAddOn.esp
BHWarPaints.esp
MovementandStaminaOverhaul.esp
SkyUI.esp
chfshPlayerVoicesets.esp
KJ Tattoos 2K.esp
FantasySoundtrackProjectCombatMusic.esp
DYNAVISION Dynamic Depth of Field.esp
When Vampires Attack.esp
SexLab Vanilla Voices.esp
Character Creation Overhaul.esp
CCO - Dynamic Skill Progression.esp
CCO - Oblivion Carry Weights.esp
CCO - Diverse Races And Genders.esp
Convenient Horses.esp
DeadlyMonsters.esp
Dual Sheath Redux.esp
ImmersiveFP.esp
BS-TheHag_Overlays.esp
MoreNastyCritters.esp
Extended UI.esp
Bounty Gold.esp
Guard Dialogue Overhaul.esp
HDT Female Hairstyles.esp
HitStop.esp
Brawl Bugs CE.esp
SexLabStopCombat.esp
Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
Dragonborn HD Ultra.esp
KJ Lore Tattoos 2K.esp
MMI.esp
No_stretching.esp
RaceMenuPlugin.esp
Weapons & Armor Fixes_Remade.esp
CrimeDecay.esp
Dragon Combat Overhaul.esp
The Dance of Death - Ultimate Edition.esp
RaceMenuPluginXPMSE.esp
RaceMenu.esp
RaceMenuFreckleOverlays.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Interiors.esp
Horsemen Combat Enhancement.esp
RealisticHumanoidMovementSpeed.esp
SOS - VectorPlexus Muscular Addon.esp
SOSRaceMenu.esp
Schlongs of Skyrim.esp
HHairstyles.esp
SexLab Cumshot.esp
SL Deadly Drain.esp
SexLabNudeCreatures.esp
SexLabNudeCreaturesDG.esp
SexLab Sound FX Replacer.esp
SexLabNudeCreaturesDB.esp
TrueDeathBasic.esp
Skyrim Bigger Trees Full.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Major City Exteriors.esp
RBB - DLC Merge.esp
Civil War Overhaul.esp
Bring Out Your Dead.esp
ESFCompanions.esp
RSChildren - Complete.esp
RSChildren_PatchUSKP.esp
BoYD ESFCompanions Patch.esp
HDT Havok Object.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dungeons.esp
BeeingFemaleBasicAddOn.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Dawnguard Interiors.esp
Morrowloot_nwah.esp
ELE-Weathers.esp
GreenWaterFix_v2withDawnguard.esp
Better Vampires.esp
Cloaks - Dawnguard.esp
Lurking in the shadows.esp
WATER DB Waves.esp
BFT Ships and Carriages.esp
HentaiCreatures.esp
SDO Full-LOD - Waterfall Effects.esp
Inconsequential NPCs.esp
SkyrimSewers.esp
Cloaks.esp
TERAArmors_CBBE.esp
Thieves Guild Requirements.esp
vinis_crime_gold.esp
WATER DG.esp
WATER.esp
dD - Realistic Ragdoll Force - Realistic.esp
iHUD.esp
zdd.esp
HorrifiedFemalePrisons.esp
SMIM-Merged-All.esp
Realistic Lighting Overhaul - Minor Cities and Town Interiors.esp
Skyrim Shadow Striping Fix.esp
xazPrisonOverhaul.esp
Immersive Patrols II.esp
CCO - Permanent Birthsigns.esp
Chesko_Frostfall.esp
PerMa_Survivalism.esp
Horsemen.esp
daymoyl_DawnguardAddon.esp
PerkusMaximus_Master.esp
DeadlyDragons.esp
PerkusMaximus_Thief.esp
PerMa Expansion 1 - Wintermyst.esp
PerkusMaximus_Mage.esp
PerkusMaximus_Warrior.esp
Duel - Combat Realism.esp
Combat Evolved.esp
SkyRealism - Detection Durations.esp
LoversComfort.esp
FNISspells.esp
SexLabDefeat.esp
Imaginator BETA.esp
RBB - Row Boats - Hearthfire Hotfix.esp
Alternate Start - Live Another Life.esp
Pre PaMa WAFR Patch.esp
Bashed Patch, 0.esp
PatchusMaximus.esp
Dual Sheath Redux Patch.esp

 

[guk]

The Trepleen body is just regular CBBE textures, i don't see why it wouldn't work. You can test it with a real CBBE/BS2 body if you want.

 

What i just tested was to remove the last texture set from the mod folder, then the game simply loads no normalmap at all (but the rest still works). So we can exclude that.

 

 

I would suggest you take a bare minimum profile in MO and test your mod with that. And i mean "vanilla minimum", not "my 20 favorite sexlab mods"- minimum

Apparently several people could already produce their own mod just from the basic guide, so there's either a conflict or construction error on you guys' end.

 

__________

 

edit: just saw you added your load order, why not load everything into tes5edit and see which mods conflict with this.

For example Schlongs of Skyrim conflicts with the "all races" version under the "high elf" and "wood elf" entries, so you'd need to load SoS before MW (and preferrably add the same line to the MW.esp if you want to play those races).

 

[greenquesadilla]

Tried it with a bare minimum load order (official DLCs and HD texture packs only) and the bug still happens.  I'm thinking the only way to fix it is to reinstall, but I don't care about this enough to do that, so I'll just give up.

[guk]

Just figured out what the problem is with missing bodies, the "Nord and Orc" version needs a different file path.

You need a full set of models and textures:

 

\textures\MW\female\ (all 12 standard female textures, plus the 20 additional normalmaps * )

\textures\MW\femaleorc\ (just the femaleheadorc_msn.dds)

\meshes\MW\Body\ (1stpersonbodyfemale_0/1.nif, femalebody, femalefeet)

 

*) each of femalebody/head/hands .dds, _msn.dds, _s.dds, _sk.dds

 

 

What you need to do to make this work:

• extract \Muscular Women 3_0-8873-3-0.7z\Muscular Women v3\Data\
• delete the MuscularWomen.esp and replace it with MuscularWomen_Diesel.esp from the folder \Options\Muscle Definition\
• replace all the textures and meshes with your basic female body/texture mods
• finally copy everything from your previous texture changer mod into the new nord&orc mod: <yourcustommod>\textures\actors\character\female\ ---> \textures\MW\female

[Deemer]

I've been trying to get this to work, but it seems to mess my game up so hard I ctd when I'm in racemenu changing bodyweights. This can also happen when looting bodies and removing armor off of them. Any idea why this is? I'm using a UNP body, which I can't imagine is the reason behind it. I've reduced the amount of normalmaps to 5, so I have 5 body and 5 hand-maps. Also edited the esp in TESVedit, so that there's only 4 entries per body and hand. There didn't seem to be a number 1 from before, so I assume that's default.

 

Reason I know it's this mod that somehow makes my game ctd is that everything is fine when I deactivate it.

 

 

I attached the file in case you have time to take a look at it

 

UNP normalmaps.rar

[guk]

Is that your edited .esp in the download?

 

You should simply delete the texturesets to the left so it looks like this:

Example pic is from my own version with 6 texturesets.

 

 

Also best to delete the connected formID lists then, otherwise there are errors in the .esp because it references to entries that no longer exist.

After that it should look like this:

 

 

I never had a CTD with the "All Races" version using CBBE Bodyslide, as you can see i made all the reference shots using RaceMenu just moving the slider up and down and rotating the camera.

 

Of course i'm not trying to say that the mod itself couldn't create crashes, but if you look at its structure you can see it simply adds a few entries to what the base game already does.

 

 

BTW are you having the CTDs with High- and Wood Elf races? Because there's a conflict with SoS which you can simply fix as shown in post#14 above.

Other than that, i remember from using older versions of UNP long ago where something could cause a CTD when looting bodies. No idea why or how that would happen, i assume you have up to date XPMSE skeletons and everything?

[Deemer]

Is that your edited .esp in the download?

 

You should simply delete the texturesets to the left so it looks like this:

MuscleChangerTES5EditTXST2.jpg

Example pic is from my own version with 6 texturesets.

 

 

Also best to delete the connected formID lists then, otherwise there are errors in the .esp because it references to entries that no longer exist.

After that it should look like this:

MuscleChangerTES5EditTXST3.jpgMuscleChangerTES5EditTXST4.jpg

 

 

I never had a CTD with the "All Races" version using CBBE Bodyslide, as you can see i made all the reference shots using RaceMenu just moving the slider up and down and rotating the camera.

 

Of course i'm not trying to say that the mod itself couldn't create crashes, but if you look at its structure you can see it simply adds a few entries to what the base game already does.

 

 

BTW are you having the CTDs with High- and Wood Elf races? Because there's a conflict with SoS which you can simply fix as shown in post#14 above.

Other than that, i remember from using older versions of UNP long ago where something could cause a CTD when looting bodies. No idea why or how that would happen, i assume you have up to date XPMSE skeletons and everything?

 

That's the mod I made following your guide yes

 

I'll try the stuff you mention here and get back to you!

 

Reason I believe it's this mod is because I always crash to desktop while in racemenu switching bodyweight, and when I disable the mod everything is fine. The profile in MO which I've tested it on doesn't have SOS, so it shouldnt' be a conflict with that mod, and frankly I ctd with all the different races.

 

Edit: I thought for a second this fixed it, but as soon as I dared to think so I got another CTD. I opened the .esp in TESVedit and deleted the FormID's that gave errors. I honestly have no idea why it does this as I have tons of hairmods and other mods that should put a way harder load on the cashe if it's a showracemenu_precachekiller problem. Some times it crashes as soon as I start moving the bodyweight slider, sometimes I can move the slider from top to bottom 3-4 times before I ctd.

 

[guarra]

Hi guk, first of all, i love your SEFAP preset, thank you very much for the preset and this guide. I managed to follow your guidelines for the muscle changer and it all works except my characters show an empty gap in the texture at waist lvl (btw I use the Nord and Orc version), I thought of blending the normal maps of the texture i use and the muscular women with texblend, but all it does is paste the whole normal texture on the muscular one, so i don't think i can fix the gap problem like this, any suggestion?

[guk]

The gap at the waist is usually from using an UNP texture/normalmap on a CBBE body. Make sure you are using the CBBEv3 Standard versions of the mods like Battle Hardened Body.


edit: and not sure if this has been mentioned at all, but the original "muscular women" mod uses its own custom body (probably based on vanilla) so none of its assets are compatible with either CBBE or UNP. The only thing you can use from it are the .esps from the "/optional/muscle definition" folder.

 

The "Diesel" and "Hardcore" maps however are converted to UNP and CBBE in the "Battle Hardened Body" mod.

[guarra]

Cheers man, fixed it

 

[guk]

Microscopic update in section 5 - added a hint to use Caliente's Texture Blender in order to fix any possible neck seams from mixing normalmaps like CBBE-FSC and CBBE-Standard.

 

Overhauling the whole guide is still on my to-do list. Important additions can be found in the thread:

• Schlongs of Skyrim conflict & resolution (post #14)
• Nord and Orc version causing invisible body & how to fix it (post #16)

[Deemer]

Okay, so a small update to the entire ctd issue. Using Mod Organizer I moved the mod closer to the bottom in the left window so that it overwrote all other mods doing similar thing (still learning how to use this program). This seemed to fix the ctd. Atleast in the game itself, haven't tested in racemenu yet, but I think the problem in racemenu might be related to the different normal maps putting a strain on the game and the magical 512 mb limit is reached in record speed (coupled with all the other mods that is).

 

I did however run into a new problem now. Trying to make this mod work alongside Bijin Warmaidens. All the edited npc's come with their own normal maps and textures, but this mod seems to overwrite that no matter what my loadorder is both in left and right pane (data and plugin loadorder if you don't use MO), meaning they get horrible texture seams, and for some reason won't use the custom bodytextures either. Until I can figure this one out I'll have to put this mod back on the shelf

[guk]

Well if you already have memory problems, using a mod like Bijin which adds a full set of textures to all affected NPCs is not a good idea

And you might want to read up on STEP how to configure ENBoost, i'm using 9GB+ of VRAM right now without any problems.

 

When you just use a custom race like the Ningheim, easiest way is to use the same body and textures you have installed as vanilla replacer - best to patch the race so it uses those by default.

And you probably should do the same with NPC replacers like Bijin because as mentioned they are massive performance killers.

 

Also you can try to delete the "texture swap list" entry for the affected races/NPCs (explained above). Worked fine for me to remove the effect from RS Children for example, although i only made a very brief test and can't say if there are possible drawbacks from doing that.

 

 

 

If you don't want or can't mod the things above yourself, then you have to decide:

Do you want the variety and quality for everyone that a texture changer mod provides? Or is it more important to have a couple of NPCs with 10 different textures?

 

Just saying, that practically all other NPC overhauls do not have this issue, because they use vanilla texture paths in the first place.