Replace default hair models??

[tayelion]

Is there a mod or is there an easy way to make a mod that replaces the default hair models/textures with other ones?

i.e. replace all default hair models and textures with models and textures of my own choice?

[Alpia]

better question why would you do that? if its about npc hairs there are plenty of npc replacer mods

[tayelion]

The default hairs are pretty boring, aren't they? I think so.

Plus with body mods and texture replacers it sure seems like a hair replacer would come along that doesn't just revamp the default hairs like some of them do.

Replacing certain npcs just to not have the default hair is a really weird and over the top solution that doesn't really even solve anything, since most of them change textures, body type, and facial structure and also only apply to a limited number of npcs.

[WraithSlayer]

I took a quick look at this in the CK, and it looks like you can simply overwrite the meshes and textures of vanilla hairs with ones from your mods.

[srayesmanll]

If you are looking to just improve the looks of the existing hairs, there is this mod ( http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36510/?).  Definitely improves the look of the original hairstyles.  If you are looking to replace existing hairs with others like from Apachii, KS, etc (or your own), Kendo2 had posted something like that here about how he does this... uses the apachii hair textures and meshes but using the ck to change the path to the apachii hairs.  Basically downloads the hairs mods but doesn't use the esms so saves on load order (may be incorrect on that, could find the actual post).  Or like WS said, rename the new hairs with existing hair names and overwrite the originals.

[tayelion]

If you are looking to just improve the looks of the existing hairs, there is this mod ( http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/36510/?).  Definitely improves the look of the original hairstyles.  If you are looking to replace existing hairs with others like from Apachii, KS, etc (or your own), Kendo2 had posted something like that here about how he does this... uses the apachii hair textures and meshes but using the ck to change the path to the apachii hairs.  Basically downloads the hairs mods but doesn't use the esms so saves on load order (may be incorrect on that, could find the actual post).  Or like WS said, rename the new hairs with existing hair names and overwrite the originals.

 

 

I took a quick look at this in the CK, and it looks like you can simply overwrite the meshes and textures of vanilla hairs with ones from your mods.

 

Yeah yeah this is exactly what I want to do. I want to overwrite the meshes and textures but i'm not really sure how to do that...

[WraithSlayer]

 

Yeah yeah this is exactly what I want to do. I want to overwrite the meshes and textures but i'm not really sure how to do that...

 

Well, I can help there.

 

You may have already tried to find the hair files in the Meshes folder, but not found anything. This is because Skyrim doesn't store hair meshes as loose files, but packs them in a BSA called Skyrim - Meshes.bsa

 

You have two options here. Choose whichever is most convenient:

 

• Unpack the meshes BSA, and look at how it's structured. Replicate the Meshes\Actors\Character\Character Assets\Hair\ directory in your Skyrim folder, adding new .NIF and .TRI files matching the filenames of vanilla hairs you want replaced. Loose files always take precedence over BSA content, so your modded hair files in the Skyrim folder are the ones the game will use.
• If you have the Creation Kit, you can load Skyrim.esm and look for hair* in the Object window. This will give you the full list of hair forms present in vanilla, double-click on any to get their NIF and TRI file-paths. Use this information to add modded NIF and TRI files to the intended location.

Note that you should replace ONLY the mesh files (that means the NIF file, and also TRI if the hair happens to use one), don't waste time replacing the textures. Any texture files from your hair mods should stay in their original location, because the directory paths are hard-coded inside the NIF mesh file.

[tayelion]

Ok, I've tried doing the first solution because it seemed the easiest, and I replaced femalehair01

It worked for the most part, but it's also transparent.

 

Does this have to do with the hairline files i've been seeing? And if so, how do I find out which hairlines correspond to which hairs? (Both in the base files and the mods I'm using)

[WraithSlayer]

Ok, I've tried doing the first solution because it seemed the easiest, and I replaced femalehair01

It worked for the most part, but it's also transparent.

 

Does this have to do with the hairline files i've been seeing? And if so, how do I find out which hairlines correspond to which hairs? (Both in the base files and the mods I'm using)

 

I looked at the CK, and there is in fact a section for Extra Parts, where you add HairLine bits and other things to the main hair. Not all hairs use this.

 

This makes what you're trying to do significantly more complex. You can only replace a vanilla hair if it has the same number of Extra Parts as the mod hair you want to use. For example, HairKhajiitFemale09 uses the model Actors\Character\Character Assets\Hair\Khajiit\Female\Hair01.nif and has the following extra parts:

 

HairlineKhajiitFemale01 - Actors\Character\Character Assets\Hair\Khajiit\Female\Hairline01.nif

KhajiitEarrings02 - Actors\Character\Character Assets\FaceParts\KhajiitEarrings02.nif

 

This means that if you wanted to give Khajiits a fancy hairstyle that replaces HairKhajiitFemale09, you'd need to find a hair that uses the base NIF and two extra parts. However, you'd still run into some problems: Extra Parts are shared resources used by multiple hair-styles, so if you start editing their mesh files, you're just going to break other hair-styles in the process.

 

The only way you can properly mod hairstyles without breaking anything, is by editing hairs via the CK instead of direct mesh replacement. By using the CK, you can target a specific hair-style and change NIF/TRI filepath to one from a mod hair, as well as have full editing control on what Extra Parts that hair uses.

[tayelion]

Oh, ok.
What you said makes it seem like the transparency isn't a result of the hairline stuff, but something else.

Do you know what it could be?

[WraithSlayer]

Oh, ok.

What you said makes it seem like the transparency isn't a result of the hairline stuff, but something else.

Do you know what it could be?

 

The modded hair is probably incomplete since you only replaced the base NIF. If it needs Extra Parts files too, the modded hair-style won't know where to get them since the hair entity in the CK is still pointing towards the vanilla Extra Parts, not the ones from your modded hair. As I said, you can try to replace the Extra Parts NIF files as well, but this will likely cause more problems than it solves, and the only proper solution is editing the hair entities in the CK to use both the correct base NIFs and the Extra Parts references.