Please do not request another version of this mod!
If there's anything I did here that you don't like, go check out the other overhauls people have made for 3DNPC. Or heck, make your own, nothing's stoppin' ya!
I may add to this mod, and I'll fix technical issues if you report them, but I'm not redoing any of the dudes I already done did!
ALSO AVAILABLE: ZORA NATURAL SCAR PATCH
I had a request early on to give Zora's scar a more natural appearance, and I liked that suggestion. It is true that real-life burn scars, once they heal, are generally not bright red, and generally stand out more in terms of texture than color.
Zora's hand-print scar is present in her facetint file. I hand-painted a new facetint image with much subtler coloration. It still may not be 100% realistic, but I tried to strike a balance where it looked more like a real scar, but was still visible enough at a glance to justify Zora's dialogue about her marred face. This file can simply overwrite the original facetint file.
I also did some experimenting with a custom normal map that gives the burn scar actual 3D texture in the game, which I think looks pretty great. This was implemented by redirecting the texture path in her head mesh to a unique custom texture. The downside of this is that it might not be compatible with every custom texture out there. I based the normal map on the Fair Skin Complexion normal map just because it's the normal maps I use in my game. (It's also free to use as a resource, with credit to HHaleyy.) I recommend trying this version to see how it looks in your game. If you end up with a really visible neck seam as a result, you can uninstall the patch and try again with the "facetint only" install option.
Qwinn was nice enough to bundle these options in a FOMOD for you. Again, big thanks are due.
Here is a screenshot from Nifskope; see the image gallery for in-game images (old Skyrim) with and without ENB.
What you see in my screenshots is what you might get by using smoother skin textures and ENB graphics.
On the old Skyrim mod page you can find several screenshots contributed by TheLoreSeeker which show other characters. Maybe more importantly, they show what this mod looks like with something much closer to vanilla graphics. They're good for demonstrating the range of looks that are possible.
The skin textures I use are my own blend that I've built out of other mods, so that's not really possible to share. There are a lot of good options out there if you search. I tend to replace elf/orc face normal maps with ones meant for humans, because I find that look to be more realistic, but that's really a personal preference thing.
Very awesome mod just wanted to come in and ask if we can esl flag this ourselves? Also I was looking at your mod and in mo2 I have the RS Children Patch Compendium Interesting NPC's overwriting your mod though I thought your mod doesn't effect children
Zora's appearance is absolutely perfect for her. You can kind of see her beauty despite the facial scar marring her face. It's now my go to appearance for Zora.
I'm glad you like her. I agree she is a great character.
I have given some consideration to taking another pass at Zora. This mod was made 7 years ago, and I have learned a lot about designing NPCs since then. I could do a stand-alone replacer, with a high-poly head sculpted in RaceMenu, head-to-toe custom skin textures, a unique body, even unique armor, and put more work into the realistic burn scar. I know a lot of people don't like the dependency on outside hair mods, and for a single character it would be easy to package that in.
I'm not saying I will do this, I have very little free time these days, but it's on my "maybe" list if I get back into modding.
So is this overhaul compatible with the Interesting NPC's port that was uploaded to the nexus recently, or only the 3rd party one that was uploaded a while ago?
It was updated for compatibility with version 3.4.2 off the official Interesting NPC's website. The version on the Nexus was ported from the LE version on the Nexus. I have no idea what differences there might be. I would recommend going to the website and getting the one made by the actual mod author.
Either way there is always a risk of small incompatibilities with any mod updates. It's unusual for character records to be edited when this type of mod updates, so the version doesn't usually need to match exactly. You can just try it with whatever version you want to use and see if it works, because it probably will, or you can fire it up in SSEEdit and comb through the records looking for changes to carry over... whatever floats your boat.
No texture requirements? Some of them have black skin. EDIT: I see in one of the replies it's the face gen files needing to be installed. Is this a load order thing? EDIT AGAIN: Somehow fixed it, lol. Nice mod.
I really like all your mods and use a few of them. Immersive Laundry being the best IMO and until tonight never really thought of downloading 3DNPCs just yet because it is so involved and needs so many patches - I am unfortunately already running a mod heavy setup (or building up to the 255 Plugin limit with a only a few merges ) Test and then hopefully play through the whole game again. I might try and install this time around. Endorsed and kudos.
Yo! I have two things to say here: first one, is that when I was talking to the Redguard in Morthal from 3DNPC, his facial hair didn't move with his mouth, which looked really weird. I'm going to try to re-export the facegendata in the Creation Kit and see how that works, so I'll edit this post with an update. (I can't remember his name ATM.) Edit: His name is Al'Hassan, and apparently he's not edited by your mod. Sorry. Second, I want to try out the "healed" scar face texture for Zora, but I'm pretty attached to my current body texture, and I would appreciate not having a neck seam. So, I thought, "what if I gave Zora a separate body texture and give her the Fair Skin Complexion skin, so she uses the normalmaps from that?" But none of the tutorials I'm seeing give me any idea of what I would have to do to edit a pre-existing NPC to use a unique skin texture. I'll probably make a Reddit post about this later but if you have any idea of what to do, I would appreciate it.
First of all I'd recommend testing it out with no changes before going to the trouble; a lot of different skin textures have normal maps that do line up at the neck.
To use a unique skin texture from the neck down: Copy the texture sets for body and hands, assign all your preferred textures Copy the armor addons for body, feet and hands and assign the new texture sets to them Copy the naked skin armor and replace all the armor addon parts with your new body/feet/hands Assign your new armor item in the NPC's skin drop-down (1st tab)
You can reassign the head textures directly from the head mesh in Nifskope OR repeat the above steps with the headparts instead of armor, assign the head to the NPC, and re-export facegen. (Nifskope is the easy way.)
97 comments
If there's anything I did here that you don't like, go check out the other overhauls people have made for 3DNPC. Or heck, make your own, nothing's stoppin' ya!
I may add to this mod, and I'll fix technical issues if you report them, but I'm not redoing any of the dudes I already done did!
ALSO AVAILABLE: ZORA NATURAL SCAR PATCH
I had a request early on to give Zora's scar a more natural appearance, and I liked that suggestion. It is true that real-life burn scars, once they heal, are generally not bright red, and generally stand out more in terms of texture than color.
Zora's hand-print scar is present in her facetint file. I hand-painted a new facetint image with much subtler coloration. It still may not be 100% realistic, but I tried to strike a balance where it looked more like a real scar, but was still visible enough at a glance to justify Zora's dialogue about her marred face. This file can simply overwrite the original facetint file.
I also did some experimenting with a custom normal map that gives the burn scar actual 3D texture in the game, which I think looks pretty great. This was implemented by redirecting the texture path in her head mesh to a unique custom texture. The downside of this is that it might not be compatible with every custom texture out there. I based the normal map on the Fair Skin Complexion normal map just because it's the normal maps I use in my game. (It's also free to use as a resource, with credit to HHaleyy.) I recommend trying this version to see how it looks in your game. If you end up with a really visible neck seam as a result, you can uninstall the patch and try again with the "facetint only" install option.
Qwinn was nice enough to bundle these options in a FOMOD for you. Again, big thanks are due.
Here is a screenshot from Nifskope; see the image gallery for in-game images (old Skyrim) with and without ENB.
What you see in my screenshots is what you might get by using smoother skin textures and ENB graphics.
On the old Skyrim mod page you can find several screenshots contributed by TheLoreSeeker which show other characters. Maybe more importantly, they show what this mod looks like with something much closer to vanilla graphics. They're good for demonstrating the range of looks that are possible.
The skin textures I use are my own blend that I've built out of other mods, so that's not really possible to share. There are a lot of good options out there if you search. I tend to replace elf/orc face normal maps with ones meant for humans, because I find that look to be more realistic, but that's really a personal preference thing.
She's my favorite companion too.
I have given some consideration to taking another pass at Zora. This mod was made 7 years ago, and I have learned a lot about designing NPCs since then. I could do a stand-alone replacer, with a high-poly head sculpted in RaceMenu, head-to-toe custom skin textures, a unique body, even unique armor, and put more work into the realistic burn scar. I know a lot of people don't like the dependency on outside hair mods, and for a single character it would be easy to package that in.
I'm not saying I will do this, I have very little free time these days, but it's on my "maybe" list if I get back into modding.
Either way there is always a risk of small incompatibilities with any mod updates. It's unusual for character records to be edited when this type of mod updates, so the version doesn't usually need to match exactly. You can just try it with whatever version you want to use and see if it works, because it probably will, or you can fire it up in SSEEdit and comb through the records looking for changes to carry over... whatever floats your boat.
EDIT: I see in one of the replies it's the face gen files needing to be installed. Is this a load order thing?
EDIT AGAIN: Somehow fixed it, lol. Nice mod.
To use a unique skin texture from the neck down:
Copy the texture sets for body and hands, assign all your preferred textures
Copy the armor addons for body, feet and hands and assign the new texture sets to them
Copy the naked skin armor and replace all the armor addon parts with your new body/feet/hands
Assign your new armor item in the NPC's skin drop-down (1st tab)
You can reassign the head textures directly from the head mesh in Nifskope OR repeat the above steps with the headparts instead of armor, assign the head to the NPC, and re-export facegen. (Nifskope is the easy way.)