Can I change the WEIGHT of a follower?

[chajapa]

I'm wondering how hard it is to change the weight of a follower. I know about doing it in-game with snpcw, but that almost always results in an ugly neck gap.

 

It seems a lot of followers at 100 weight have... well.... their boobs are too big. (yeah I know, but...)

 

I have creation kit and have used it to make my JUGs mod, but it's been a really long time since I messed with an NPC. 

I'm pretty sure it's something like... change weight... export the head? But I'm not sure of the procedure.

 

thanks

 

[bjornk]

Open the plugin in TES5Edit, find the NPC, change the weight and save, should be somewhere towards the bottom on the right pane.

 

If you want to change a vanilla follower, again load skyrim.esm in TES5Edit, find the NPC, right click on it and choose "copy as override", save it as a new file and edit the NPC weight in the new plugin file.

 

Using the CK for simple modifications like this is dangerous. You may ruin the plugin file.

[Guest]

Do you want to change the whole weight or alter just the breast size?

In the former case, editing the plugin is the better way (both TES5Edit or CK), but only for mods, not for vanilla ones.

Editing the weight in game (console or Papyrus) will produce the neck gap (except for very minor changes.)

 

If you want to change just the breast size (in game), then you can use the NiOverride functions (Racemenu offers this plugin.)

There is no neck gap in this case.

 

[chajapa]

This would be for custom follower, not vanilla. I didn't know I could change their weight in TES5Edit. 

 

I have never really figured out how to use RaceMenu on a follower. I can use it on my PC of course, but I've never seen it work on a follower.

 

 

So if I just change a custom follower's weight in TES5Edit... that works? And no neck gap that way?

[bjornk]

 

So if I just change a custom follower's weight in TES5Edit... that works? And no neck gap that way?

 

If the follower uses the same body mesh (and head mesh) as the player and the player has no neck gap with her current weight, then yes, it should fix the neck gap for the follower.

 

As for editing vanilla followers:

 

- If you have a plugin that already modifies the vanilla followers then edit their weight in that plugin. It's better than having an additional plugin.

- If you don't have such plugin, or you don't want to modify plugins like USKP then you'll have to create a new plugin. If you don't want to undo the changes made by the USKP etc. then you should override that specific plugin (e.g. USKP) rather than the vanilla plugins (e.g. skyrim.esm).

 

Again, don't use the CK for this. You might create dirty edits, or break something within the plugin. Just use TES5Edit for this kind of lightweight modding.

[Guest]

If it is a custom follower you made, then it is way quicker to change its weight in CK.

As soon as you save the body will be updated and the neck gap will disappear.

 

Question: the weight has to be stable in the game or do you want to alter it while playing?

[chajapa]

This would be for a custom follower NOT made by me. Let's say it's one I got from Nexus. 

 

If a follower uses their own body meshes and textures (in their own folders), I always change them. I have a custom UUNP preset that I use. I also change their textures (also custom) because I know that the textures and meshes work well together with no seams or gaps. I am probably a modder's nightmare for doing this, but... it works. I have 0 weight followers and 100 weight followers and a few in between like 50 or 80 weight and the meshes/textures work fine on all of them.

 

I just don't want so many at 100 weight. None of the mods that scale the breasts can be set so that a low weight character scales at THIS rate, and a high weight character scales at THIS OTHER rate. So you have to choose. And you have to choose a max size. A 0 weight character can scale to 2.2 and still look very good. But a 100 weight character might only scale to 1.6 or 1.8 and after that they look kinda bad. 

[yatol]

So if I just change a custom follower's weight in TES5Edit... that works? And no neck gap that way?

 

nope

 

load skyrim

showracemenu

set your weight to the one of original head

import the original head

set your weight to the new weight

export the head

copy paste the nitrishapedata from new head to old head (faster than renaming headparts)

 

once this is done, you can change his weight in tesedit

and of course, that won't do anything is the npc is already in the save, setnpcweight to update the body weight (then disable enable to reload the head)

 

If a follower uses their own body meshes and textures (in their own folders), I always change them. I have a custom UUNP preset that I use. I also change their textures (also custom) because I know that the textures and meshes work well together with no seams or gaps. I am probably a modder's nightmare for doing this, but... it works. I have 0 weight followers and 100 weight followers and a few in between like 50 or 80 weight and the meshes/textures work fine on all of them.

 

that's stupid

if your textures are 1 fps, by doing that, they will now cost you 2 fps (or more if there's more custom npc that are loading the same files from another folder)

 

load that npc esp in tesedit, and get rid of the custom body (to make that npc load your body and textures)

or edit the custom body nif and textures path if something need that thing

[chajapa]

 

So if I just change a custom follower's weight in TES5Edit... that works? And no neck gap that way?

 

nope

 

load skyrim

showracemenu

set your weight to the one of original head

import the original head

set your weight to the new weight

export the head

copy paste the nitrishapedata from new head to old head (faster than renaming headparts)

 

once this is done, you can change his weight in tesedit

and of course, that won't do anything is the npc is already in the save, setnpcweight to update the body weight (then disable enable to reload the head)

 

If a follower uses their own body meshes and textures (in their own folders), I always change them. I have a custom UUNP preset that I use. I also change their textures (also custom) because I know that the textures and meshes work well together with no seams or gaps. I am probably a modder's nightmare for doing this, but... it works. I have 0 weight followers and 100 weight followers and a few in between like 50 or 80 weight and the meshes/textures work fine on all of them.

 

that's stupid

if your textures are 1 fps, by doing that, they will now cost you 2 fps (or more if there's more custom npc that are loading the same files from another folder)

 

load that npc esp in tesedit, and get rid of the custom body (to make that npc load your body and textures)

or edit the custom body nif and textures path if something need that thing

 

 

So if they load textures from the same location then it only costs me... whatever (VRAM or fps or whatever is used to measure) one instance of the texture costs me.... but if I put the textures in each follower then it costs me textureCost x NumberOfFollowers?

 

I thought the texture "cost" was based on how many NPCs in the area are using that texture.

For example.... if I make Fairskin my default texture (for all female NPCs) and go into Whiterun Market area when it's busy. Let's say there are 6 females (vanilla NPCs) so they all have Fairskin textures. If they're all drawing from the default texture location it only costs me 1 x textureCost?

 

Not 6 x textureCost?

 

But if I have 6 followers and I've copied the textures into each follower's own folder structure, then it costs me 6 x textureCost?

 

If the above is true, then I've been SERIOUSLY taxing my poor little computer!

[Guest]

Skyrim is using the Dx9 behavior.

Each texture will use a renderBuffer. Pretty much some VRAM.

The RenderBuffer can be reused if the same object model (the mesh to simplify) is used. But if two different render object (meshes) will require the texture to be reloaded.

This changed in Dx11. (And we hope FO4 will use at least the Dx11 model.)

 

So:

Different NPCs: multiple time the texture is loaded.

Same static object rendered many times in a location: same texture re-used.

 

I don't know how "shares" (Skyrim shaders, not Dx shaders) are implemented. So in this case I don't know if the texture is loaded more than once.

 

 

[chajapa]

So if all VANILLA NPCs are using the same body mesh (default location) and texture (default location), then .... texture loaded once? Or is each one loads the texture again?

[Guest]

First: every time the cell changes, the full framebuffer is reinitialized and all textures are reloaded.

Second: I have no idea if "all vanilla NPCs" are actually rendered with the same render object. Personally I don't think so.

Plants, trees, statics, are. NPCs? Not sure.

 

[yatol]

But if two different render object (meshes) will require the texture to be reloaded.

 

 

bad guess

the thing on the left is what you have in skyrim bsa

dozen of meshes that load the same texture, it's stupid, it's a waste of time, but a dumbass did it like that (maybe to make you waste your time^^)

but no, you aren't loading dozen of time that texture

 

the crap on the right, same texture, bigger uv map, no difference in performance (didn't feel like editing dozen of mesh, and that don't even work)

->

left uv map no longer match right uv map, and you get a seam on a seamless texture

 

of course it's the same for npc

armor, building, body, that's don't change anything, a nif is a nif

 

if something need textures\dungeons\mines\minerockwall03.dds, game load it

if something else need it, why would the game reload it?

[Guest]

Hi.

The problem is not really at NIF levels. These are the mesh objects used by the Gamebyro.

But to actually render them, then have to be passed to the Direct3D engine of the DirextX.

And this one is the "render object" (that is part of the DirectX, not part of Skyrim.)

 

While I was debugging one of my mods that adds a pretty huge cell, I was using the DX9 SDK to track the textures that were loaded in the game.

And for the statics (the walls in my cell, that are about 600 items), pretty much always the same NIF and texture, the texture was loaded only once.

 

I did not check for the NPCs textures.

And keep in mind that the DX9 shaders (not the Skyrim ones.) may have an impact on the rendering, also if they use exactly the same NIF and textures.

 

[Mookeylama]

i'm confused as hell...

so if i have 4 custom followers, all with their own meshes and textures, then whenever i enter a new cell with them, it will take longer to load that vell then if all followers used the same nifs,dds'? and is this a cost that happens only when loading a new cell, or do i loose constant FPS during the entire gameplay?

example;

4 followers w/ unique folders= 50ish fps during entire gameplay

 

4 followers sharing default nifs dds with all npcs= 60fps

 

that how it works?

[Mookeylama]

anyone know before i make i new topic

[billypnats]

theres an easier way in game

use the setnpcweight option eg. setnpcweight 100
then itll change weight but there will be neckgaps
so you disable the companion then enable again