As of the current version, the most glaring NPCs have been adjusted. But do let me know if you find one that still looks glaring enough!
Recommended mods to improve vanilla faces while keeping vanilla visual style: Lore Friendly Elves Eyesby me - Bringing back elves eyes design from other TES games. Oblivion Upscaled Textures by Kartoffels -Amazing upscaled vanilla characters texture, I recommend you to download the characters optional file (3.0) but ONLY copy the facemap textures (headhumanf10, headhumanm10, 20, 30, ...) from darkelf, imperial and orc folders. High Resolution Faces for Roberts Male and Female by Robert and improved by Foxroe - This face retexture is very close to the vanilla face texture which is a definitive improvement but still fitting with vanilla visual style. (ONLY the default diffuse face texture: headdarkelf.dds, headhuman.dds, headorc.dds)
Sorry if dumb question but can this work along side oco2 stuff? For instance, the main overhaul as well as the one that updates all npcs? It doesn't cover jorck the outcast and he looks horrendous
Great mod, especially when used in combination with your suggested textures. Perfect for vanilla plus playthroughs, or anyone looking for a simple and compatible character overhaul.
Me too! Now that I've pretty much finished most vanilla quests in my current playthrough, I can say that Cyrodiil is no longer the land of deformed potatoes! There might be a few that I missed but I'm very pleased with the current version of the mod.
Hey so out of curiousity. I saw you suggested High Resolution Faces for Roberts Male and Female, do you actually use Roberts bodies with it and if so what do you do for female underwear? I hate the underwear option for Roberts females, just wish you could choose vanilla underwear.
I don't use Robert bodies (they are still quality work nonetheless!) the face retexture works seamlessly with vanilla because Robert used vanilla face texture as base (same skin tone, same facial structure), so the result is a clearer face diffuse texture than vanilla and even upscaled vanilla texture.
I will share how to setup a definitive improved vanilla character textures, using vanilla bodies, here are the steps:
1. Download kart_OUT_characters_2x from Oblivion Upscaled Textures (I don't recommend using the full upscale pack as it hogs performance due to the outdated engine). Install it.
2. Remove all the normal maps (files end with_n), this is not necessary if you prefer even more clearer texture, but I've found ERSGAN don't upscale normal maps that well compared to diffuse.
3. Download the file kart_OUT_characters_optional also from Oblivion Upscaled Textures. But ONLY get the agemap textures (headhumanf10, headhumanm10, 20, 30,...) from darkelf, imperial, orc folders. Grab those and overwrite.
4. Download High Resolution Faces for Roberts. But ONLY get these 3 textures: headdarkelf.dds, headhuman.dds, headorc.dds. Overwrite.
This should get you the same vanilla look but high definition. I've been thinking of sharing this package since all those mods have open permission but I'm not so sure of the demand.
I think Countess Alessia's face could be tweaked just slightly, it's kind of stretched looking by default despite the fact she's specifically described as young and beautiful. And I'd say Rosentia Gallenus too, she has a very prominent jaw in vanilla. Rest of the face is fine, I'd just adjust that to make it smaller.
I think Alessia's face is fine the way it is, as for Rosentia Gallenus I've already lowered her mouth and reduce her jaw in the upcoming version. Stay tuned!
Thank you so much for caring for these poor wretches. Seriously, your commentary on the other beauty mods is on point. Vanilla faces may look like half caricatures but they have so much character I would not trade them for anything. This is perfect!
Want this mod so bad but don't have all the dlcs. :( Regardless, will be downloading to endorse and keeping an eye on development. This is a much needed mod for the community :)
You can easily remove DLCs dependence by using tes4edit to remove the NPCs from DLC. I did plan to eventually release a non-DLC version once I finish working on more NPCs.
I have the main dlcs, but my copy of Oblivion is from before the Deluxe edition was ever available, and I'm not going to buy the entire game and main dlcs all over again just for Vile Lair and Mehrunes Razor. :P Thanks for the note, G, I'll look into doing that with TESEdit :) No pressure for you to do extra work, though obviously if you ever did release a version without the micro-dlcs that would be pretty cool. Either way, this is still one of my top endorsed mods for the sheer beauty of how simple and unaggressive this mod is.
@GTheGenerous Hmm, Betto Plotius in Leyawiin comes to mind. I think Bethesda was going for a youthful, pudgy look with him but his face really could be a little less wide, just a slight tweak I'd say. And Gundalas, his jaw is far too boxy. Could still have it be gaunt but with a more natural shape. And Countess Valga in Chorrol, she's mostly fine everywhere except the mouth. Too elongated, shorten it just slightly in relation to her age and I think that would do fine.
I love the idea of this. The vanilla faces are what sticks out to me after all these years when I think of Oblivion, so I'm following this with excitement to see where it goes. Nice work, keep it up!
36 comments
Recommended mods to improve vanilla faces while keeping vanilla visual style:
Lore Friendly Elves Eyes by me - Bringing back elves eyes design from other TES games.
Oblivion Upscaled Textures by Kartoffels -Amazing upscaled vanilla characters texture, I recommend you to download the characters optional file (3.0) but ONLY copy the facemap textures (headhumanf10, headhumanm10, 20, 30, ...) from darkelf, imperial and orc folders.
High Resolution Faces for Roberts Male and Female by Robert and improved by Foxroe - This face retexture is very close to the vanilla face texture which is a definitive improvement but still fitting with vanilla visual style. (ONLY the default diffuse face texture: headdarkelf.dds, headhuman.dds, headorc.dds)
I will share how to setup a definitive improved vanilla character textures, using vanilla bodies, here are the steps:
1. Download kart_OUT_characters_2x from Oblivion Upscaled Textures (I don't recommend using the full upscale pack as it hogs performance due to the outdated engine). Install it.
2. Remove all the normal maps (files end with_n), this is not necessary if you prefer even more clearer texture, but I've found ERSGAN don't upscale normal maps that well compared to diffuse.
3. Download the file kart_OUT_characters_optional also from Oblivion Upscaled Textures. But ONLY get the agemap textures (headhumanf10, headhumanm10, 20, 30,...) from darkelf, imperial, orc folders. Grab those and overwrite.
4. Download High Resolution Faces for Roberts. But ONLY get these 3 textures: headdarkelf.dds, headhuman.dds, headorc.dds. Overwrite.
This should get you the same vanilla look but high definition. I've been thinking of sharing this package since all those mods have open permission but I'm not so sure of the demand.
Edit: Thank you for sharing!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QPkyq9FEqILn3wVdgGRxBNCvv6vn1aCL/view?usp=sharing
I think Countess Alessia's face could be tweaked just slightly, it's kind of stretched looking by default despite the fact she's specifically described as young and beautiful. And I'd say Rosentia Gallenus too, she has a very prominent jaw in vanilla. Rest of the face is fine, I'd just adjust that to make it smaller.
Thanks so much for implementing my suggestions! I'll keep a lookout for any other anomalies in-game. :)
I love the idea of this. The vanilla faces are what sticks out to me after all these years when I think of Oblivion, so I'm following this with excitement to see where it goes. Nice work, keep it up!