CBBE vs Atomic Beauty (Thoughts, Discussion)

[Robin2486]

Hello everyone!

 

So I wanted to know what everyone thinks about this. I tried researching it and there's no real discussion on the advantages/disadvantages of the two main body types available for FO4 female bodies. 

 

Reason I'm starting this discussion is because I'm currently torn up on it. Long story short, I've been thinking of switching over from CBBE to AB because in reality I love muscular, built and athletic women (but not to the point of being like those steroid using Miss Olympia bodybuilders that look like men with breast implants  )

 

With CBBE its hard to achieve that look. I was only successful in achieving the look I wanted with my model so far because I've managed to find and download a few extra CBBE-compatible Bodyslide sliders on Nexus. I'm realing debating taking the plunge and going with AB, but I have literally DOZENS of clothing and armour mods, all for CBBE unfortunately, that I'd have to convert or download pre-made conversions for and that would be long, tedious and pretty much a day's work, which with a wife, kid and job, is not so simple a feat.

 

Here are some pros and cons I can think of for both CBBE and AB. Please add to the discussion (in fact its encouraged!) because I want to know what everyone thinks. 

 

CBBE

Pros:

• Much, much more support in the way of clothing and armor mods. Most mod authors on Nexus make the outfit for CBBE from the get-go 
• Good for more anatomically correct and natural looking female models
• Tons of skin textures available again because of CBBE's popularity. I can think of Nuclear Nude (my fav), ONI, Silky Smooth and Valkyr Face and Body to name a few
• Tons of sliders in CBBE bodyslide to customize your female's body

Cons:

• No sliders in Bodyslide available for muscle definition. Makes it really hard to achieve that lean but 'chiseled/ripped' look without adding custom sliders built by other mod authors. This makes guys like me who like 6-pack abs on girls sad
• Muscularity in Bodyslide is lacking. You can have your girl look like an Olympic Power Lifter, a voluptuous curvy girl with plenty of T&A and a tiny waist like Kim Kardashian or a thin waif-like school girl, but not an average girl with a hard athletic body
• Weird clipping/skeletons warping issues around the shoulders. Mostly only noticeable when you move dead NPC bodies around (don't ask lol...) or when the body is in certain poses

AB

Pros:

• Very easy to adjust muscle definition, muscle size and proportions. Good bodies for guys into heavily muscular women, women with ripped abs and Amazons. Overall a much better body and slider options for athletic girls
• Bodies, when done right and not over-exaggerated, look amazing and generally better than those made with CBBE
• Support for AB clothing/armor mod-wise is growing and the number of available conversions is growing

Cons:

• While mod-support for AB is growing, its still very much lacking compared to CBBE
• Very easy to create exaggerated and anatomically incorrect or even grotesque looking models (you have to admit, some of the girls made with AB just look...scary)
• Did some extensive research, while weighing my options before I switch bodies, on Nexus and the overall consensus is that AB tends to get a lot of clipping issues with clothes/armor that require more editing in Outfit Studio to correct

 

This is what I came up with. What do you guys think? Maybe your opinions will help me decide to take the plunge and switch to AB or stick with CBBE for now

[VonHelton]

A woman's knees are messed up......That is something that DEFINITELY needs fixed!!

 

         

 

 

[Robin2486]

A woman's knees are messed up......That is something that DEFINITELY needs fixed!!

 

Are you talking about CBBE or AB?

[Vuulgar]

Pretty much everything is made for CBBE, outfits and mods except for some way to get more muscle definition or at least I havent found it. AB looks good to me at less bulky weight settings and outfit numbers are increasing but no pregnancy belly for AB means no Family Planning belly. If there was a way to add more hard body to CBBE its the easy choice so if your not looking for the muscle definition then CBBE is your choice imo.

[LexRage77]

I went with AB instead for the reasons mentionned here. I wanted a female character with strong, visible abs and some big, round curves ( still oversized without being stupidly oversized). I'm a guy completely obsessed with round asses, and I find sweaty, well defined abs incredibly hot on a woman. Simple.

Apart from that,

I don't really care about armor mods to be honest. I tend to use one, maybe two (Scoop Digger and Vault-Tec Slave Suit), since I don't want to break my immersion too much ( everything about ultra high-tech armor, japan-like french maids or schoolgirls and other stuff like this doesn't make it for me ).

I don't have any complain about AB since that's exactly what I want(ed). Of course I wouldn't mind more content for AB. More choice is always a good thing.   

I've been using CBBE only before moving to AB, and I'll not "spit" on it, that's a really good option. I think it just depends on what you want/like and what kind of player you are.

[VonHelton]

 

A woman's knees are messed up......That is something that DEFINITELY needs fixed!!

 

:( :( :(

Are you talking about CBBE or AB?

 

 

If they both use the same skeleton, it wouldn't matter.

[Lucy SubZero]

Yup. The lack of support is what keeps me from switching to AB...for now.

[Captain Cobra]

I use AB because I like the default shape of the body.  Just add some abs and start playing.  More armors for AB would always be better, but to be quite honest with you, nearly all of the armors that have been ported/created for CBBE have not interested me at all.  The only armor I really miss is the Deathclaw Hunter Armor, but even then, It's not too much of a loss, although I am surprised to see that no one has converted it.  Had to do my own ports just to get the stuff that I wanted.  Not meant as a bump to either body style though, as I blame it on the tepid attitude quite a few modders have towards Fallout 4.

[Aara Palefang]

Atomic Beauty needs sliders like CBBE and less muscles, I just personally don't like women with big muscles.

[Taskmaster]

Ideally we could have ALL THE SLIDERS(Jane, CBBE, AB, all in one).

 

Unfortunately, muscular bodies is relatively more niche of an audience, might be why Jane Bod has even less support than even AB.

 

Also, does AB even have all of the vanilla/DLC armors and clothing converted?

EDIT: looks like they do... hmm.

[Frel]

Ideally we could have ALL THE SLIDERS(Jane, CBBE, AB, all in one).

 

Unfortunately, muscular bodies is relatively more niche of an audience, might be why Jane Bod has even less support than even AB.

 

Also, does AB even have all of the vanilla/DLC armors and clothing converted?

EDIT: looks like they do... hmm.

author also started to introduce some (few so far) skimpier alternatives. I love his sens of details for example even the no-nude body shows that the bra is compressing the breast a little giving a subtle bump where the breast become free and you see those kind of details a lot on his outfits.

 

[Taskmaster]

 

Ideally we could have ALL THE SLIDERS(Jane, CBBE, AB, all in one).

 

Unfortunately, muscular bodies is relatively more niche of an audience, might be why Jane Bod has even less support than even AB.

 

Also, does AB even have all of the vanilla/DLC armors and clothing converted?

EDIT: looks like they do... hmm.

author also started to introduce some (few so far) skimpier alternatives. I love his sens of details for example even the no-nude body shows that the bra is compressing the breast a little giving a subtle bump where the breast become free and you see those kind of details a lot on his outfits.

 

 

You know what? 

 

I gave AB a try, and I think it's good and all, but I just don't like it as much as CBBE or Jane Bod.

 

AB warps the UV too much, just to try and get the proper anatomy I'm looking for. The warping of the UV completely destroys normal maps. 

 

Also I struggled heavily with getting the legs to not look like tubes, especially from behind - the thighs, knees, calves down to the ankles were too close in thickness in relation to each other, and there weren't enough sliders to properly compensate.

 

Which is another downer, not enough sliders. If the look of AB at the base is exactly what you're looking for, then nothing is better, but when you want to really change it to something from the base, that's when you run into the issues like the UV warping. AB is excellent if you're not using a muscular normal map, as the mesh itself can provide the muscular details, which is a great thing - also makes armors and clothing look amazing when you can get muscular detail popping through.

 

I still go back to what I initially said, I wish that we could have all the sliders unified, similar to what UUNP did for Skyrim at the time.

[SkeletonGunn]

I prefer cbbe, just waiting for a less extreme muscle normal map

[Ratel]

Well, I'm a sucker for a sexy pair of legs, and muscular legs just don't do it for me, so .... CBBE for me.

Most of the pics of AB I've seen are a little too muscular for my taste. A slightly ripped body is cool, but AB just seems a little too much. But then I haven't tried it out, so not sure how much you can do with sliders.

Also, as has been pointed out plenty, just the sheer number of armors for CBBE makes it hard to resist.

Although, funnily enough, I was never a fan of CBBE in Skyrim, but we're a bit limited in choice for F4 so far so I guess I'll be sticking with it.

[Lucy SubZero]

A question for AB users... Does it have the stupid top/rear head texture mismatch on vanilla npcs like CBBE does? I tried to use this fix: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12839/? ...but it doesn't seem to work. 

[ZatanicGC]

i'm still prefer to cbbe because i don't like muscular body but AB has really good breasts shape i like it but that thigh shape makes me scared lol.

 

[ExecutorDill]

On 10/30/2017 at 6:06 AM, LexRage77 said:

I went with AB instead for the reasons mentionned here. I wanted a female character with strong, visible abs and some big, round curves ( still oversized without being stupidly oversized). I'm a guy completely obsessed with round asses, and I find sweaty, well defined abs incredibly hot on a woman. Simple.

Apart from that,

I don't really care about armor mods to be honest. I tend to use one, maybe two (Scoop Digger and Vault-Tec Slave Suit), since I don't want to break my immersion too much ( everything about ultra high-tech armor, japan-like french maids or schoolgirls and other stuff like this doesn't make it for me ).

I don't have any complain about AB since that's exactly what I want(ed). Of course I wouldn't mind more content for AB. More choice is always a good thing.   

I've been using CBBE only before moving to AB, and I'll not "spit" on it, that's a really good option. I think it just depends on what you want/like and what kind of player you are.

 

This is pretty much how I feel about the situation. AB hits all the right notes for me as far as body shape and muscle tone are concerned, so I use it pretty much exclusively now.

Like some others have said, I kinda wish there was some kind of body like UUNP for FO4 that makes it possible to create CBBE-like or AB-like bodies while still maintaining a huge range of clothing/armor.

[Guest O.Cobblepot]

Can't imagine my character without CBBE,there are sooo many nice outfit mods,just love them,also skin textures,Oni was my favorite one,now FSM body textures is absolutely the best,will never throw this away for AB.

NEVER saw even 1 picture with nice,sexy AB body.

[DarkLordofOverkill1]

there is an AB mimic preset for cbbe on the nexus...or at least there was

 

mods come and go kind of quickly at times

 

[The Pig]

I personally love AB and love everyone porting armours too it, Wish I could help port them but I can't seem to find a tutorial or guide for it.

 

EDIT:Found a guide, Wish me luck!

[Lucy SubZero]

11 hours ago, Dark Sun Rose said:

I personally love AB and love everyone porting armours too it, Wish I could help port them but I can't seem to find a tutorial or guide for it.

 

EDIT:Found a guide, Wish me luck!

Could you post a link to that tutorial, please? I might try some porting myself as well.

[The Pig]

On 11/25/2017 at 1:06 PM, Mr. Trigun said:

Could you post a link to that tutorial, please? I might try some porting myself as well.

https://www.loverslab.com/topic/76581-need-help-with-atomic-beauty-conversion/?do=findComment&comment=1874042

[Gameplayer]

The trouble that AB faces is that literally most people using Bodyslide still don't understand how to move sliders around and/or how to even look up a preset to use for their character.

 

Basically they just download, install, and use the default version...They then formulate their opinion off that.

But don't fool yourself they do the same thing with CBBE, they just download and install "Curvey" or "Slim" they don't play with sliders or any of that stuff.

People that actually use sliders are rarer than you think.

 

For 90% that do, playing with sliders ends with Showlooksmenu or Racemenu for Skyrim.

 

On my mod Book of UUNP, all the time there are people that say stupid shit like uh its bodyslide don't know how to use that so I'll just stick with UNP, CBBE, Sevenbase....Take your pick.

Devious Devices faces that issue too now that its CBBE/UUNP people don't understand how to actually find the darn program in their folders, its just too hard and involves extra work.

 

There are just way more hordes of people that want to just download a specific shape and have no extra work or anything....Just gimme standard shape and let me play...

So since AB starting shape isn't really desirable it doesn't matter if you can play with the sliders get a better shape and a better looking body due to polygons and extra care...It just doesn't matter cause with CBBE you can install a basic ready to go package in 1 of 3 popular sizes and just play.

 

AB stuff is actually better by leagues and with the available sliders yes I can make bodies that look great....The trouble for AB is that its not packaged for stupid people.

[QuietPippin]

I wish there was some way to combine the two

 

maybe something that encompasses all the bodies (CBBE, Atomic Beauty, a few sliders from Jane)       something like UUNP but for Fallout 4.

 

Fallout 4 community seems to be more splintered for anything like that to happen   ..... small number of eastern modders as well

 

with Atomic Beauty .... I installed it like 4 or 5 times after seeing some great screenshots on the nexus and on here. But everytime I try to make the perfect shape and test it in game...  I don't know. It just does not look right. Looks really really artificial if that makes any sense. The chest, back, breasts shapes look great but man everything below the butt is god damn terrible. No matter how you smooth it in bodyslide ... use values over 100/-100. It does make up for those shitty legs, calves Atomic beauty has.

 

Perfect shape would be the Atomic beauty chest, back, shoulders, breast roundness, with CBBE butt, legs, calves  ..... throw in Jane Muscles definition sliders.

[Gameplayer]

CBBE or Atomic B?

 

Yes that is a Vanilla mesh with a different texture but you should be familiar enough with Raider Outfits to know if that is CBBE or AB ass.

 

See the settler on the right, look at how you cannot count out how many polygons that breast is.

 

 

CBBE or AB?

Notice that the coat isn't hugging the in between area of the breasts which is actually how coats and most shirts actually lay over a pair of breasts.