Ok, please explain the gray face bug and fixing it

[Nephenee13]

I've been googling around and its been incredibly useless, with most results being years old, and one of the top results starting out by talking about TESVSnip.

 

So what is the exact thing that causes this bug, and how precisely do I go about fixing it?

I'm pretty sure it is related to a mod changing a vanilla NPC somehow, but I'm not sure how to go from there.

[Pyrus]

This video covers it I believe.

[Duchess_Gummybuns]

If that video doesn't cut it, the grey face bug appears when a mod changes an NPC's Facegen data, or, rather, you change anything about an NPC... Urshi's Hot Male Housecarls trouble shooing section explains it well.

 

 

Q: I am heaving a "gray head bug", what have I done wrong?
A: As it's been stated in the Compatibilities and Incompatibilities section: This mod will conflict with any other Housecarl mods. And by Housecarl mods, I mean any kind of plugin file that attempts to modify anything about the housecarls in question. This is because there is no such thing as a plugin file that changes an NPC just a little bit. If NPC is changed in any way - ALL the NPC's data is stored inside every NPC data record. So, a mod that just changes an NPC's voice will will also include all the other vanilla data about that NPC and thus potentially create the grey head bug (and other bugs) when used with my mod.
Remember:
- Changing your body replacer, skin or face texture will not cause the grey head bug, although it could be responsible for slight variations in skin tone and/or wrist, ankle and neck seams.
- You will get the grey head bug if there is a previously installed housecarl mod in your game and it comes after my mod in the load order. Make sure to uninstall any other housecarl mods completely, before installing my mod and keep my mod's file at the end of your load order.
- You will still get the grey head bug if there was a previously installed housecarl mod and you did not tell NMM to overwrite files when you were installing mod. Make sure to tell NMM to OVERWRITE the files.
- You most probably will have a grey head bug if you ever used SetNpcWeight console command on your housecarls NPCs in your game before. If you used SetNPCWeight on an NPC and then saved your game - you gave your NPC the grey head bug and it is now in your game save as a form of corruption. Because you savegame now contains FaceGenData of the NPC you used these commands on. This facegendata can and WILL override facegendata from mods.

Remember: NEVER use SetNpcWeight and SetSkale console commands on your NPCs. It conflicts with a mod's ability to control what NPC is supposed to look like.

So, if your game saves already contain characters that you had used the console command, SetNPCWeight or SetSkale on, you have most probably corrupted your game saves and the NPCs will have the gray head bug, neck gap bug, wrong stance and other bugs as a result. You might not see it at first, but when you install another beautification mod for this NPC it will all come out.
To clean your saves from this type of corruption please refer to the "How to fix Neck GAP" cleaning method described above.

 

 

How to fix Neck GAP for the Housecarls you've had modified before by another mod or by console commands:

1. Take everything of value from your housecarl's inventory, dismiss your Housecarl.
2. Save the game and quit.
3. Download Save game script cleaner
4. Open your save wehere your housecarl is NOT following you in that tool.
5. At the bottom on the right you will find a little window for RefIDs. You must enter RefID and BaseID of your housecarl there and click Delete and save.
6.Load your cleaned saved game, open the console and entered PRID [refID of your Housecarl] and hit enter. The RefID should now be displayed at the top of your console window.
7. When you got the RefID of your housecarl displayed in console type ENABLE and hit ENTER.
8. Done. Go search for your housecarl, the neck gap problem should be fixed now.

 

Hope that helps!

 

P.S. The Save game script cleaner is a revolutionary too that will help give your heavily modded games a longer life by earasing orphaned scripts from old mods that like to linger and cause you heart ache.

 

ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR FILES!! ^~^

[Illustrious]

In Creation Kit, when I select an NPC in the object window and press Ctrl + F4 nothing happens. It supposed to pop up with a window to export the face data but nothing happens. I had it working briefly at one point but never since. I've no idea what I did differently.

I just did a fresh install of Skyrim and the Creation Kit with absolutely nothing else and it still doesn't work. Can anyone advise? I've seen other people echo this problem online but there's never a solution.

[Illustrious]

I'm dumb, should have read the Creation Kit tutorial more clearly. In case other people have missed the same thing I did:

 

http://www.creationkit.com/Dark_Face_Bug

 

"When selecting actors in the Object Window, make sure you navigate and highlight them via the Actors -> Actor sub tree, because the CTRL+F4 key binding will not work if the actors are selected through the *All category. For this method to work it is possible you have to "ESM-ify" your plugin first. See creating ESM files for details."

[Swissenergy]

Gray face bug is often cause by two things:

1. You are either missing or have incorrectly exported an NPCs facegendata.

2. You have a mod loading after the NPC altering mod that references the same NPC, including facial features/characteristics. 

 

If you're trying to alter NPCs from another users mod, often times you will run into problems. If you're simply trying to change a NPC on your own game for the first time, I highly recommend you create your own .esp file.

 

If you're trying to change something like the hairstyle, and using a .esm for the hair resources, I've written and attached a .txt file with step by step instructions for changing hairstyles that I've used when discussing this issue elsewhere. (Also, I originally wrote this for inexperienced trying to give ApachiiSkyHair to NPCs, so you'll see references to ApachiiHair as the hair mod to use, just ignore that if it's different for you)

 

The instructions are only for creating the .esp and have the NPCs features changed WITHOUT regards for incompatibility/conflict issues. Mod conflicts are something best sorted out in TES5Edit. Either, drag and drop changes from one mod to the other, or copy one mods change as an override into a new plugin then add features of another mod to your new plugin. I'll be happy to write another one if it would help you, if you already know how to do this then my apologies, I just don't know where you stand on this.

How to Change NPC Hair Tutorial.txt

[sethwarner08]

Not sure if you've found a solution here but the grey face bug gave me many a sleepless nights until one day i actually caught hold of one of the most famous modders out there and asked him to help me in real time, he did and ive now found a definitive way to eradicate the dreaded gray face bug within my game. You'll normally encounter this glitch if facetints fail to load as intended or IF they are sometimes misdirected in the mesh (.nif) file. They need to point to the right .dds file else no matter what you do the error will persist. Yes it is best to make your own ESP and once Creation Kit exports facegen data you can either replace those .nif and .dds files with a face you sculpted using racemenu or just make basic changes through CK if that suffices. It's actually even more profound than that, because if faceparts like "FemaleHeadNord3", "HairFemaleNord04" differ from what is originally set in CK (this happens when sculpting faces ingame for a more comprehensive overhaul) Facetints will not load and you will continue to stare at ugly grey faces. I did the CK CTRL + F4 thing by the book, didn't help me until i understood the actual mechanic, i still dont understand it comprehensively but with this modder's help i am now literally overhauling every female NPC in Skyrim and it's going great.

 

If you have more questions, ill try and help the best i can.