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It's really difficult and time consuming to make a hat not clip with every hairstyle. (Just take a look at JTesmer's disclaimer for her hair mod in regards to hats and hair clipping!) If you want to make a specific hairstyle fit a specific hat you'll have to do a few things. It's actually really easy once you figure out how to do it, but like I said, it's time consuming.
First you need to extract the .nif files. These are the MESHES.
To find the .nif for the hat:
If it's a base game hat, you'll need to download B.A.E. (a .nif extracting tool on Nexus) and open it.
Click File->Open File... (top left corner) and go to your Fallout 4 \ Data folder.
This is usually accessed by going to steamapps->common->Fallout4->Data
Once you're there, click the Fallout4 - Meshes BA2 file.
When you open it in BAE, you'll see something like this:
You'll want to expand the "Meshes" category, and begin to search for a name that sounds like the Vanilla hat you're wanting to fit your hair into. At the moment, there's no way to search for specific keywords, so it's all a bit exploratory.
Your best bet is to probably search in the Clothes->Hats category. However, your hat could also be in Armor or elsewhere.
Once you've found the .nif (mesh) you think you're looking for, click SELECT NONE, and then select the .nif you're wanting to extract. Make SURE you SELECT NONE before you select the single .nif or else you will end up extracting many unnecessary files!
Click Extract when you've selected the .nif file you want to extract.
You will be prompted for a location to extract to. I like to put my extracted files into a specific working folder on my Desktop. Like "Hat Hair Project" or something similar.
You will use the same process above to extract a vanilla hair .nif
You can find vanilla hair .nif files under Meshes->Actors->Character->Hair.
If you want to extract a NON-VANILLA HAIR:
First you will need to download the file manually.
Once you've downloaded it, extract the files. You will want to go to the Meshes folder.
From there, find the name of your hairstyle. Copy and paste that file into your working directory (Hat Hair Project or something similar).
So now that you have your .nif files for your hat and your hairstyle, you will need to download Bodyslide and Outfit Studio and open it up.
First thing you want to do is select Outfit Studio in the bottom right corner.
It should look like this once you've opened up Outfit Studio:
You'll want to click File->Load Outfit.
You should be prompted with a window that looks like this:
The OUTFIT is going to be the thing you are editing. So in this case, the hairstyle. Load up the hairstyle as the OUTFIT by selecting the "FROM FILE" option, hitting BROWSE, and then going into your working directory and selecting the hairstyle .nif file that you extracted.
After you have loaded the outift, you'll want to load a reference by selecting File->Load Reference. You'll want to do the same thing as with the outfit. Select "FROM FILE", BROWSE, and then select the hat .nif file that you extracted.
The REFERENCE is the mesh that you will NOT be editing. It's just for reference!
It should look something like this once you've loaded everything in. (Your hairstyle and hat may vary!)
So as you can see, the hairstyle is clipping into the hat! This is our problem.
Notice the green text in the upper right hand side under "MESHES". You should have one line that corresponds to your hair (mine is called HEAD in this case) and one that corresponds to your hat (FCaptainsHat0). Make sure you have the one corresponding to your HAIRSTYLE selected. We don't want to be editing the hat's mesh.
So now that you have everything set up and ready to go, you're going to be editing that hair mesh. Don't worry, this will end up being a COPY of the original hairstyle. You won't lose the original hairstyle in this process.
First, (and again, make SURE YOU HAVE THE HAIRSTYLE GREEN TEXT SELECTED) select Tool->Current Tool->Transform. You can also hit the "F" key on your keyboard. I've found that this is the easiest way to edit the hairstyle to fit inside the hat, but it is NOT THE ONLY WAY. This is just the method we'll be using in this tutorial.
Your Outfit Studio should now look like this:
Some useful Outfit Studio tips:
Use right-mouse to rotate along all axes.
Use shift+right-mouse to move in 2D.
You can "mask" vertices on your mesh. This means that certain parts will not be affected by sliding, transforming, deflating, or inflating.
To "mask" vertices, select the circular icon with a dashed box over it. (Or simply hover over icons in the toolbar until you find the one that says something about masking vertices.) You can use ALT to unmask vertices and make them editable again.
Before you get started, ensure the following buttons in the toolbar are NOT SELECTED:
- Mirror edits across the X axis (you usually don't want this)
Transforming your hair:
Look closely at the multi-colored axis in the center of your meshes. Notice the tiny little colored boxes? Selecting these and dragging your mouse will shrink and expand your hair mesh in that axis.
Selecting the arrows and dragging your mouse will shift the mesh in that direction.
I use a combination of shrinking and sliding in order to fit the hairstyle within the mesh.
This takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, it's pretty simple.
Once it looks like your hairstyle fits within the hat, you're done. Be sure not to transform and slide your mesh TOO much, as you might start having bald spots on your character.
After transforming the hair, it's time to save the new .nif file!
After you're done editing your hairstyle, click File->Export->Export NIF. Again you'll have to select a location on your computer to save the file to. You'll probably want to select your working directory (Hat Hair Project). Name the NIF something like "Hat Hair".
Adding your NIF into the game:
Next, download FO4Edit and open it up. Right click and SELECT NONE.
Since you're probably a beginner to modding (which is what you're doing at this point!), it's probably a good idea to just inject your new hat hairstyle into an already existing hairstyle esp that you use. For my example, I'll be injecting my new hairstyle into the esp "Misc Hairstyles" (which is an awesome hairstyle mod that you should already be using).
So, select the Fallout4.esm at the top, and then the hairstyle mod you want to inject your hairstyle into. Then select "OK".
Your window should look similar to something like this:
Go ahead and expand the hairstyle esp you're injecting your hairstyle into.
You'll probably see a section called "Head Part". Expand that.
Once you've expanded that, you'll see many hairstyles from the hairstyle esp.
Go ahead and right click one of them, and select "Copy as New Record into..."
A warning will pop up asking you if you're sure you want to edit this esp. Since if anything goes wrong you can just redownload the esp, editing this should be fine. You don't want to start editing anything in Fallout4.esm or the like OR YOU RISK RUINING YOUR INSTALLATION.
But this is fine, so hit "Yes, I'm absolutely sure."
For the editorID, put something that will identify the hairstyle as your hat hair - like "HatHair".
It will prompt you to select an esp to put the new record into. Select the hairstyle esp that you are injecting your hairstyle into.
Minimize the HEAD PART section, and then expand it again. This will refresh the list of hairstyles.
At the very bottom of the list, you should see your new hairstyle!
We aren't finished yet though!
CREATE A NEW MESH FOLDER INSIDE OF FALLOUT4\DATA\MESHES:
This part is super simple!
Navigate to your Fallout4\Data\Meshes directory. Click "New Folder" and then rename the folder to something like "MyMeshes" - just something to identify that all meshes in that folder are meshes you have edited.
After the folder has been created, navigate to your working directory - "Hat Hair Project" - or whatever you named it. This is where you exported your NIF that you edited in NifSkope.
Copy your "Hat Hair" NIF (you're transformed mesh) and paste it into your "MyMeshes" folder that you created in Fallout4\Data\Meshes.
Changing the new record to make it your own:
Alright, so we have the new record, but it's still got all the old record's information! EASY.
Let's just replace all that information with our own.
Go back into FO4Edit and select the new record.
From here, you should see something like this:
From here, you can edit the name. You can rename it to something like "Hat Hair", or whatever. This is the name that will show up in-game.
You will want to right click the section that says "Extra Parts" and just remove them.
This is now the record for your hair. Under the MODL - Model Filename line, you'll want to right-click and edit it to be "MyMeshes\HatHair.nif".
Of course, you'll want to replace "MyMeshes" with whatever you called your new folder in Fallout4\Data\Meshes. And you'll want to replace "HatHair.nif" with whatever you called the NIF you exported in NifSkope (this is your transformed hairstyle mesh).
And that's it! To see if it worked, boot up Fallout 4, and go to a barber. See if you can find your hairstyle's name in the list.
Be sure that the ESP you injected your hairstyle into is enabled before you launch the game, or else the hairstyle won't show up!
If the hairstyle doesn't look right, or you have bald patches:
Whoops! That means you went a little too far with your transforming and sliding. It's cool though.
The only thing you need to do is repeat the NifSkope stuff (loading the outfit\reference etc.).
You can either load the outfit as your edited NIF from last time, or you can start over new by just using the original, un-transformed hairstyle.
Once you think you've gotten it, go ahead and export it again. This time, all you have to do is just copy\paste the transformed mesh into your "MyMeshes" folder. That's it!
Boot up the game again to see if it looks better. If it doesn't, rinse and repeat!
If you messed something up and NOW THE HAIRSTYLE ESP WON'T WORK:
Shh, bae. It's coo. Just re-download the ESP through Nexus Mod Manager or whatever. You'll have to repeat the tutorial again for the most part, but the ESP will be working.
Modding and editing meshes is a game of trial and error! Nothing you do in this tutorial should permanently break your game.
DISCLAIMER:
If everything went as planned, you now have a nifty hairstyle that fits inside your hat and looks FABULOUS.
Be aware that even though you have edited this mesh, IT IS NOT YOURS.
That means that unless you get permission FROM THE ORIGINAL MESH AUTHOR, you MAY NOT POST OR DISTRIBUTE THE MESH ANYWHERE! This new mesh is for your personal use only!
Hopefully this tutorial helped you out a bit. I'm by no means a "professional" at this stuff, but this is just the process that I use when I want to edit a hairstyle to fit within a hat.
While I hope everything goes smoothly for you (and you shouldn't encounter any real problems by following this tutorial) by modding your game in any way you are always taking a risk!
I take no responsibility for any damage that occurs! Always be sure to back up your save files before you begin to edit things.
Thanks, and good luck!
17 comments
So In thinking that I did a good job I fired up Fo4 to test it out and upon spawning in my hood and putting it on (I did "help 'Hunter's Hood' " prior to get the correct FormID) it shows up invisible... I'm at a loss and I've been working and troubleshooting on this simple thing for almost 20 hours now (I'm not kidding, help D': ) Am I overthinking this? is there an easier way? Any help is much appreciated.
Thank you kind stranger.
Any idea? Thanks in advance, and great tutorial!
EDIT: I figured this out, nevermind. However, the edited hair mesh isn't reactive to the hat. So if I make a hairstyle "smaller" to fit under a hat, it will clip through my character's head whenever they're not wearing a hat. How do I fix this? Do I need to use two separate meshes? How do I get it all to work?