In TNG version 4.0+ races are allowed to have a different lists of addons for each gender. This is achieved by the new race grouping of TNG 4.0. By default, if the race skeleton is supporting the genitalia (i.e. it has all necessary bones), TNG allows them to have a customization menu. However, if a race body meshes/textures are so different from vanilla, the available addons might not match the body very well. That's where race specific addons come into play.
If the race skeleton does not support genitalia (does not have all the necessary bones), the only option for them to have genitalia, would be a fixed addon. Refer to my fixed genitalia article.
Prerequisites
To continue with this guide, you need a higher level of understanding of SSEEdit, armor, armor addon and race records in Skyrim compared to my other guides.
You would also need an SOS compatible body mesh and texture for the custom race to start with, as well addon meshes/textures to use for the specific race.
Unfortunately I won't be able to help much with these, but there are many guides available online to familiarize yourself. If you have a very specific question about the guide, feel free to reach out to me on Discord @ModiLogist.
Terminology
In this article when I say "addon", we're talking about a genitalia addon, and when I say "AA" we're talking about armor addon. Just to avoid confusion.
I use the term "armor parent race" or sometimes "parent" for the RNAM field of race record called Armor race in SSEEdit. If you are not familiar with it, refer to Race Record and search RNAM for more info.
Let's get started.
Step 0: Understanding TNG race system
The core of this article for experienced modders is step 0! The rest of the article simply shows how to use what was explained in step 0.
TNG groups races into groups that have a unique armor parent race + skin combination in the following steps:
Does the race have an armor parent race?
- If no, then the race would be identified as the base race for a main group. All playable vanilla races and most of their vampire equivalents belong to this group.
- If yes, does the race with armor parent race, has the same skin as its armor parent race?
- If yes, then the race would be added as an additional member of it's armor parent race main group. An example of this is the 0xE88A: DLC1NordRace from Dawnguard which TNG would categorize as a member of Nord main group.
- If no, we have a race with armor parent race, but a different skin from its armor parent race. Here, TNG groups all races with the same armor parent race and skin together. TNG calls such a group as a secondary group. Afflicted race is an example of such races, that has Breton race as its armor parent race, but a different skin.
Afterwards, TNG, for each race group, examines each AA in each addon (keep in mind that each addon has multiple AAs):
- Race group is a main group:
- AA has a race belonging to secondary groups in its race + additional races: AA cannot be used for any main group. TNG checks the next AA from the addon.
- AA doesn't have the main race in its race + additional races: AA cannot be used for this specific main group. TNG checks the next AA from the addon.
- AA has the main race in its race + additional races: AA and addon are added as a valid option for that race group.
- Race group is a secondary group:
- AA does not have the armor parent race of the group in its race + additional races: AA cannot be used by this secondary group.
- AA has at least one of the races in the group as well as the armor parent race of the group in its race + additional races: AA and addon are added as a dedicated option for the race group.
- AA supports has the armor parent race but not of the races in the group among its race + additional races: AA and addon are added as a supported option for the race group.
The difference between a main group and a secondary group, is in the fact that secondary groups have an armor parent race. So, generally speaking, they are allowed to use addons from their parent race, while main groups don't have a parent race.
To clarify, imagine this example for an addon with 4 AAs:
- 1st has Nord race without any additional races.
- 2nd has Breton as the race, and Afflicted in additional races.
- 3rd has Khajiit as the race,
- 4th has Default race as the race.
- This addon will be added to the race group of Nord and can be used for all its member races.
- This addon cannot be used for the Breton race group, since it has a race belonging to a secondary group race in second AA.
- This addon will be added to the race group of Khajiit and can be used for all its member races.
- This addon will be added for Afflicted race, and any other race that has the afflicted skin and Breton armor race as a dedicated addon
- This addon will be added for any custom race that its armor parent race is Default, Nord or Khajiit, or Breton (those without afflicted skin, and not the main) as a supported addon.
Most custom races have armor addon races, to be able to use vanilla and modded armor/clothes. Usually exceptions for this, are races from major projects such as Saints and Seducers, which cannot equip many vanilla items and have their own specific armor, or races that change the body mesh so significantly that they need a different mesh for all their equipment. As such:
- If a race has a vanilla (Skyrim + main DLCs) armor parent race AND it uses the vanilla skin for that race, it would simply be grouped with its vanilla parent. Such a race won't require any patching. This is the case for races added by mods that don't wish a different visuals for their races.
- If the race has different aesthetics compared to vanilla, and a vanilla armor parent race, all TNG addons that support their armor addon race will appear as supported addons in their customization menu. If you want to see how to add dedicated addons, read the rest of article.
- If a race does not have a vanilla armor parent race, normally they would have no genitalia and would be excluded from the TNG system. To change that read the rest of article.
Step 1: Force the race to use a mesh and texture that allows addons
If the race uses vanilla mesh, then you can simply use TNG mesh for them, or any other SOS compatible mesh, such as HIMBO. If the race, has its own custom mesh, then you need to customize the mesh so that it can have genitalia. Here you are on your own and we cannot help much with that. If options don't exist for them, a simple solution would be to exclude them.
Next you would need textures matching the mesh UV. You would be able to overwrite the original textures files in your patch or replace the skin textures in the esp of your patch.
Now you have a mesh that can accept genitalia!
Step 2: Create your addons AAs for the race!
Now we want to create an ARMO record for the addon. But before that we need the AAs for the addon. You can copy one from TNG and adjust it, or create it from scratch. We need to have one AA per race group that you want to support. In this AA:
- Put the specific race that you want to support as the AA race field, and add the armor parent race (if it exists) to the additional races of the AA.
- The male/female model of the AA should refer to the meshes for your addon,
- If the addon has multiple texture sets, the texture should refer to the one used by the race this addon is intended for.
- The AA body slot (BODT - Body Template, First Person Flags) should be set to 52, which should be the same as the mesh.
- Set the priority to zero for both male and female.
- Enable weight slider for both genders.
You can check TNG original AAs for examples.
Note: Previously (before version 4.0) TNG was not happy with one AA supporting multiple races, specially for men, but that has changed. So long as the races belong to different main groups, or different secondary groups, you can combine them in one AA. But you cannot combine main and secondary groups in one AA.
So for example, if an addon is designed for vanilla races, you can combine all non-beast playable races and their vampire equivalents together in one AA. Then one for Khajiit, one for Saxhleel (Argonian), one for Afflicted, and one for Snow Elves.
Now that you have the AAs for custom races that this addon is going to support.
Step 3: Create the addon ARMO record
Create an ARMO record or copy one from TNG.
- Set the race to default race [0x19]
- Add all the AAs that belong to this addon in armature section.
- Set the body slot to 52
- Name your addon.
- Add proper keywords from TNG (TNG_AddonMale/TNG_AddonFemale), and then if female and a penis (TNG_SkinWithPenis). (Used in adult animation mods)
Save your patch, run TNG. If you done it right, set your TNG log level to debug in the advanced tab, and restart your game. After your game is launched, you would see something like this in TheNewGentleman.log:
The addon <FormID> from file <YourPatchName> fully supports (wo)men in the race group <TheNameOfTheRaceGroup>!
You're done!
Troubleshooting
To check if you did it right, you need debug level log. To generate it, follow the steps below:
- Enable debug level log in the advanced tab,
- Check location of the log also there,
- Close to desktop,
- Launch game again, after the main menu of the game is fully loaded (you can load a game), minimize/exit.
See what the log says about the race in question. If you did it write, it should say something like:
Trying to add race [yourRace] ...
Depending on the race and how you did it, it can be followed three different ways:
Option 1: Existing race group:
The race [yourRace] was recognized as a member of existing group [aGroupName].
Option 2: New race group without addons:
The race [yourRace] was recognized as a new primary/secondary group [aGroupName].
Option 3: New race group with list of compatible addons:
The addon [blah blah] from file [blah blah] fully supports (wo)men in the race group [aGroupName]!
.
[some more addons]
.
The race [yourRace] was recognized as a new primary/secondary group [aGroupName].
Now what each of these mean:
Option 3: You did a good job, it should appear in the MCM as a new race, if it does not, make a bug report with the race mod ID (where I can get it), the report, and if possible your patch.
Option 1: You might have done a good job! Check for the aGroupName in the same file. Does it exists? Are there addons that "fully support it" or "can support it"? If yes, you did a good job. Otherwise you need to make sure that the main race of that group is also patched. The main race is the race that appears in the "new race group" message.
Option 2: You made the race compatible with TNG, but none of the addons can be used for the race, you need to make them compatible too.
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