Bodyslide & Outfit Studio - is it just me, or...

[nymphaspect]

is it completely baffling? Despite all the tutorial videos and documents I've watched, I'm still completely lost when it comes to using it. The trouble is, I *want* to use it. I spent hours this morning and finally managed to get the body I wanted (essentially the CBBE Slim HDT body with a a few tweaks) - though I'm certain the way I got it work is not the recommended path.

 

Perhaps some of the confusion comes from my use of Mod Organizer, and the strange way it uses it's own file structure.

 

So, I guess I had some success, at least with the body.

 

Now - the outfit. I downloaded the Princess of the Woods armor, the CBBE conversion, and finally the HDT conversion (apparently I needed all three mods to have one outfit).

 

So, I had my body preset open in Outfit Studio and I clicked Save As... which allowed me to save my preset under my own name. I used CustomPreset as the file name. The saved preset ended up in my Mod Organizer overwrite folder. Okay, whatever. I clicked Outfit Studio, then I clicked New Project in the Outfit Studio. I was presented with some options on whether to use the standard CBBE preset (From Template), or to use From File. I selected to pick my own preset, so I navigated to it and selected it. Then, it asked me to pick an outfit to use. So, after some digging, I found the PotWPrincessBodiceHDT.nif file and selected it. No idea where the textures for it are, so I left Automatically search for textures selected, and clicked Finish. I then got an error message:

 

Reference Error

Could not load slider set file 'E:\Games\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Mod Organizer\overwrite\CalienteTool\BodySlide\SliderPresets\CustomPreset.xml'!

 

And this is the sort of thing I've been running into. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, and none of the tutorials actually seem to help.

 

Perhaps there is a good step-by-step guide for people with Mod Organizer that want to use a custom body, and HDT, and...

 

But I haven't found one that reproduces the same kinds of problems that I encounter - particularly with the location of files. Because I use Mod Organizer, nothing is actually saved in the actual Skyrim data folder - it's all managed through Mod Organizer's file structure (which has also prevented me from using DynDoLOD because there is no Worldspace/Tamriel folder in my Skyrim directory, but that's for another time).

 

Surely I'm not the only one running into these problems - and if I am... well. Guess I'll go back to using regular plug n' play UNP mods, lol. 

 

 

 

 

[Anatriax]

When your preset is saved to the overwrite mod, you have to right click, and "create a mod" out of it... or it won't be loadable in BS / OS, because it won't be in the proper location.

if you need some help, phase 6 of my guide may provide some assistance.

[nymphaspect]

Thanks for your assistance!

 

I did as you suggested and created a mod out of it, but it still refuses to open.

[myuhinny]

Beat it with a stick sometimes that might help and make it work if not it'll make you feel better.

[BringtheNoise]

Well since it saved your preset in the overwrite folder I'm guessing you are running Bodyslide Thru MO... so plus for that.

You should not need to go into outfit studio.

 

Install the Princess of the woods into MO.

Copy the CBBE files for Princess of the woods into the MO folder that was created for the first one (overwrite the meshes mainly for the hands and feet if they are in there and not done by a bodyslide package).

Copy the Bodyslide HDT set into the Same Folder.

Enable folder in MO.

Fire up Bodyslide thru MO.

Select the body/outfit for cbbe, cbbe hdt, or what ever you use as the base body and select your Preset.

In the TOP MIDDLE area (group) click on the drop down and click select group. In the Pop up window select the group that the princess of the wood package came with (hopefully they created a group for that bodyslide package).

Click Batch build (bottom left corner).

If everything went well you should get new nif files to replace the princess of the woods nifs in your preset shape.

 

Note: Outfit Studio is more for customizing an outfit or to Build Bodyslide packages... you have already downloaded a bodyslide package that was created for the CBBE bodyslide body for the outfit... you don't need to do anything in outfit studio.

 

Note 2: once the group is chosen you should be able to get a list of the individual parts under the body/outfit dropdown (top left of bodyslide). As long as your custom preset was set to use the cbbe group your preset should show up when each part is selected (you can also use the preview option to see what it will look like in game from bodyslide with the outfit choose to see if it conforms the way you want it). Also Any Zap sliders (parts that are set to be removed) will only be available from bodyslide (they don't show in outfit studio when you load a package).

 

 

Lastly if you wanted to load your preset in Outfit Studio... You load the reference first then at the top of outfit studio under the slider section you choose "Load Preset"....and Outfit Studio may shit itself when trying to load a skyrim preset as it has both high and low shape -vs- Fallout4 which only has one shape (was introduced in Bodyslide 3 along with osp's -vs- xml's).

[nymphaspect]

I did all of that and it actually worked! Thank you! Unfortunately, the Princess of the Woods armor conversion was not done to accommodate "extremes" - which, to be fair, the mod author does state this. The body preset I crafted is essentially flat chested, and the bodyslide conversion just can't handle it.