Subtle neck seam - what am I doing wrong?

[Lugubrious0ne]

I just revamped my load order yet again, and am hyped to start playing with my new BEST MODLIST EVER. However...

 

I've noticed that across all races and complexions, there is a subtle texture mismatch for my character. I've attached a screenshot so you can see what I mean. All the texture files (FSC + Unslaad Pale) are consistent with one another. I'm using the reweighted UUNP special body from Naturalistic HDT. And yet...neck seam!

 

I don't have any idea what might be causing this at all, and don't think I've touched any of the files involved, except for a slight optimisation of the Unslaad textures with Ordenador. Might that be the problem?

 

It's far from game-breaking, but I thought I'd post here just in case some smart person sees the screenshot and knows exactly what noob error I've made this time.

 

Thanks friends!

 

[Lugubrious0ne]

First screenshot was terribad, uploaded another two for your perusal.

 

Had a thought - I've been using texblend to add certain...features to these skins. To me, it now looks like the problem is that the face texture is higher resolution/less blurred than the body. Might that be the issue?

[doshshod]

i had similar problem somewhat recently

 

i checked in mod organizer if there was a texture mismatch what was overwriting my textures and turned out there was, got rid of the overwriting file and its fine now

[Gameplayer]

Listen,

 

You have mismatched textures.

 

That's the issue in a nutshell.

 

So it comes down to this,

These are Skin Textures, and skin textures have 4 textures for the head, body, hands, and feet...That's 4 each for those 4 parts not 1 each.

These are the main color layer, the normal map often called the muscle layor, a specular layor and an alpha layer.

 

So around about 16 files total for the female body.

 

Now here's the thing if the author didn't match the color and the muscle map textures your always going to get neckseam, this is more common than you might think, happens way more than gamers realize in the products they pay money for and what your asking for isn't a simple process.

 

Next, don't make the assumption that you have matched textures...

You may have downloaded separate body texture and separate face texture....Happens all the time and there are plenty of people that suggest doing so is great!

 

There are even popular mods that change just the face texture for female races see SBF-All in One.  Its a female follower overhaul not packaged as a texture overhaul so its entirely possible to just mess up your texture seams just downloading a mod that doesn't state what its changing.

 

Now normally we would just download and install a texture replacer right over the top of the mistake and that would be it, problem solved textures matched end of story.

 

SBF-All in One, comes of course with its own ESP, that ESP redirects the associated texture folders for the female races in the default game...So now we have an issue that wont go away, and ordinarily we wouldn't know about the mod causing the issue cause chances are we don't know how to open an ESP file much less read it or know where things go wrong.

 

 

Now how in the world is all of that related to you!?

 

 

Well

 

1st your going to re-install your texture option for the female body.....That should fix it...

 

2nd if it didn't fix it you are going to have to assume that its possible that your selected texture choice may never have been matched in the first place so now you have to select and install a different texture option.

 

3rd if that didn't fix it, there is the outside chance the second selection of texture replacer is also FUBAR but its more likely that you have another file in your load order that has changed the texture pathing for either female head or the body...

 

 

The most common cause of mismatched head body is almost always the Normal Map aka muscle map not matched head to body. This then gets called by the community "Neck Seam"

 

[allsunday]

To be honest, I'd be completely fine with having the same neckseams you're having, it's not bad at all and really nothing to worry about.  

Often, when I get neckseams on a particular texture that I really like and I don't want to change it, and I've already checked that the normal maps and specular maps are good, then I actually open the face texture in GIMP and play with the colors around the neckline (using the dodge and burn tool and cloning tool).  Warning though, this doesn't always work, but when it does work the feeling is great, it's like beating an impossible race using a secret shortcut.

I don't get neckseams on my regular NPCs but any customized NPC always seams to have a slight neckseam of some sort.  What a headache.  It's really just part and parcel now with modding NPC appearances.  Unless it's actually noticeable from standing 5 feet away, then it's a non-issue I don't concern myself with.  It'll just drive you mad.

Since you're getting neckseams on your player character, I would first test a few texture packs to see what's going on. If those other texture packs are still giving you neckseams then you can deduce that there might be something wrong with your load order.
 

 

[RomeoZero]

There are 3 solutions to this issue.

1 - check if in your ENB game interface in a [FIX] tab "FixTintGamma=true"  switch it to false. 

2 - check if your diffuse and object space map textures are the same from the texture mod.  [femalehead\body.dds.] [femalehead\body_msn.dds]

3 - Check if you dont have in your male folder textures this file "blankdetailmap.dds" - better use vanilla from bsa archive or extract it to this folder. Some modded detail map textures [from texture mods] can have this color mismatch  issues ;   blankdetailmap.ddsfemaleheaddetail_age40,femaleheaddetail_frekles,etc. If in the Chargen> head menu> complexion tab - gives you a neck color mismatch then its a detail map problem.