The old method doesn't work for me anymore either. I export the face NIF from RaceMenu in SSE and the generated NIF from the SSE CK, convert them to oldrim, merge them in NifMerge, and convert back to SSE format. Game crashes as soon as I enter the cell with the actor in it.
I spent all day trying to find an up to date guide and there is none. this method and the oldrim method dont work since an Anniversary Edition update apparently. So there is no way to spawn an NPC in my game that matches the look of a character I design in 2025? Really bummed about this.
I have the anniversary edition and this tutorial worked for me on vanilla. Once you start adding mods it gets more complicated to get working though, especially mod hairs.
I'm a little lost. When I get to the section that says "Open the exported mesh in NifSkope. Here you can see which eye texture, brow and hair etc. you used," and "Make a new folder for them in Data\textures. I am putting mine underData\textures\Kalilies\NPC\”Name”. Put all the textures you need in there (except for the exported tintmask, I will address this later)." I don't know where to find these textures, especially considering that I'm using custom hair for my NPC. What do I do to find the textures?
Hopefully all of you have figured it out by now, but if not:
Q: "What textures do I NEED?" A: Any custom textures you're planning to use (not included with the game itself, added by a mod or yourself)
Q: "Where are they? / Where do I put them?" A: In your Data/Textures folder. If they are from a mod, find that mod's folder (mod must be installed and unpacked to view or use the loose files). If you are adding them yourself, put them in a new folder inside the Textures folder. (example: data/textures/my mod/eyes)
Q: SPECIFIALLY "Open the exported mesh in NifSkope. Here you can see which eye texture, brow and hair etc." A: In nifskope, click on the eyes (or whatever needs the texture). Under the nifskope's Block List, expand the NiTriShape(or whatever) that was highlighted by clicking the > to the left of it. Expand BSLightingShaderProperty, then click BSShaderTextureSet. Under nifskope's Block Details, expand Textures and scroll over to the right. HERE is where you will see the file path for the textures used, and what you will need to change to list your custom textures if they are not what is shown. (example: textures\actors\character\eyes\EyeBrown.dds could be changed to textures/my mod/eyes/EyePurple.dds)
AMAZING TUTORIAL!!! I watched so many but they all kept leading to the dreaded dark face bug and yours was the one that finally helped me! No nifmerge method is an absolutely godsend since I suspected that was what kept doing me in and it was! Thank you a million times!
Fantastic tutorial thank you so much! I have a slight issue when I try porting a Racemenu file. I followed all the steps, but for some reason the nose is the default width and doesn't keep the slider info I used to make it thin. Does anyone know how to fix this?
If you want to fix the goofy looking neck and hair stretching in Nifskope (as seen in your pictures), just copy and paste the Head and Spine 2 NiNode x, y and z transform values from the CK generated nif to the Racemenu export. You use standard windows ctrl-c (copy) and ctrl-v (paste) to do this. Another bug that expired needs to address...the values are set to 0 for some reason.
Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for this particular piece of information? 48 solid hours (not including sleep, eating, and talking to the wife). In all the various tutorials about the Non-Nifmerge method (and even in the Nifmerge tutorials) nobody has ever mentioned this. Thank you so much.
I'm really thankful that someone put the time to create a tutorial for something that I tried to do in the past but couldn't achieve. Unfortunately, I think some parts could be explained in more details so it could be used by more people.
For example, the "Open the exported mesh in NifSkope. Here you can see which eye texture, brow and hair etc. you used" step is probably obvious to more experienced users but all I can see are names like FemaleMouthHumanoidDefault, which aren't textures, now if I dig further in I can find BSSHaderTextureSet in BSLightingShaderProperty wich points to actual textures like MouthHuman.dds but the folder referenced is textures\actors\character\mouth\ wich doesn't exist in my Data folder. So what gives?
Needless to say it's hard to get to the next step wich tells us to create a folder and "Put all the textures you need in there" when you can't even find them in the first place, not to mention that I don't know wich textures I "need", do I need all of the textures that are in the TexturesSets? Only some of them?
So yeah, while you have all my respect and my love for going out of your way to create a guide for the community to use, some people like me will not be able to use it even though I really would like to, just because it's still too advanced.
UPDATE: I got it working in the end, I'm gonna practice over the weekend and I'll probably make a more comprehensive guide myself after that. I'll make sure to put you in the credits.
Ok, a bit of a primer on NIFScope setup. Most resource files provided with Skyrim are packaged in .bsa files which reside under your Data folder, i.e. Skyrim - Textures0.bsa Thus, a default game file like textures/actors/character/eyes/eyeamber.dds is NOT going to be under your Data folder. Unless you got a mod that overloads that file, in which case you will have in that path, a file from the mod. Many larger mods also use bsa's for their resources rather than loose files. It is a good arrangement cause keeping track of what is game's original and what is from mods can become a royal nightmare.
How I set it up: I create an additional folder setup elsewhere, such as D:/Modding/Skyrim/Data Then I use Bethesda Archive Extractor (BSA), open all the various Skyrim bsa's and extract them to that other Data folder. For the larger mods from which you might also be using resources, which come with a .bsa, might also want to extract their bsa's to this secondary folder?
Then, in NifScope - Option menu - Settings - Resources, I set up primary path to be Data under Skyrim folder. And then secondary path is my D:/Modding/Skyrim/Data. Now, I get to see all the textures in NIFScope without making a mess of my game's Data folder.
95 comments
I only clicked this to find out why it was necessary in the first place. It really wasn't, unless you have no access to LE.
Q: "What textures do I NEED?"
A: Any custom textures you're planning to use (not included with the game itself, added by a mod or yourself)
Q: "Where are they? / Where do I put them?"
A: In your Data/Textures folder. If they are from a mod, find that mod's folder (mod must be installed and unpacked to view or use the loose files). If you are adding them yourself, put them in a new folder inside the Textures folder. (example: data/textures/my mod/eyes)
Q: SPECIFIALLY "Open the exported mesh in NifSkope. Here you can see which eye texture, brow and hair etc."
A: In nifskope, click on the eyes (or whatever needs the texture).
Under the nifskope's Block List, expand the NiTriShape(or whatever) that was highlighted by clicking the > to the left of it. Expand BSLightingShaderProperty, then click BSShaderTextureSet.
Under nifskope's Block Details, expand Textures and scroll over to the right. HERE is where you will see the file path for the textures used, and what you will need to change to list your custom textures if they are not what is shown. (example: textures\actors\character\eyes\EyeBrown.dds could be changed to textures/my mod/eyes/EyePurple.dds)
For example, the "Open the exported mesh in NifSkope. Here you can see which eye texture, brow and hair etc. you used" step is probably obvious to more experienced users but all I can see are names like FemaleMouthHumanoidDefault, which aren't textures, now if I dig further in I can find BSSHaderTextureSet in BSLightingShaderProperty wich points to actual textures like MouthHuman.dds but the folder referenced is textures\actors\character\mouth\ wich doesn't exist in my Data folder. So what gives?
Needless to say it's hard to get to the next step wich tells us to create a folder and "Put all the textures you need in there" when you can't even find them in the first place, not to mention that I don't know wich textures I "need", do I need all of the textures that are in the TexturesSets? Only some of them?
So yeah, while you have all my respect and my love for going out of your way to create a guide for the community to use, some people like me will not be able to use it even though I really would like to, just because it's still too advanced.
UPDATE: I got it working in the end, I'm gonna practice over the weekend and I'll probably make a more comprehensive guide myself after that. I'll make sure to put you in the credits.
I will try your tutorial "Kwen" thanks!!!
Most resource files provided with Skyrim are packaged in .bsa files which reside under your Data folder, i.e.
Skyrim - Textures0.bsa
Thus, a default game file like textures/actors/character/eyes/eyeamber.dds is NOT going to be under your Data folder.
Unless you got a mod that overloads that file, in which case you will have in that path, a file from the mod.
Many larger mods also use bsa's for their resources rather than loose files.
It is a good arrangement cause keeping track of what is game's original and what is from mods can become a royal nightmare.
How I set it up:
I create an additional folder setup elsewhere, such as D:/Modding/Skyrim/Data
Then I use Bethesda Archive Extractor (BSA), open all the various Skyrim bsa's and extract them to that other Data folder.
For the larger mods from which you might also be using resources, which come with a .bsa, might also want to extract their bsa's to this secondary folder?
Then, in NifScope - Option menu - Settings - Resources, I set up primary path to be Data under Skyrim folder.
And then secondary path is my D:/Modding/Skyrim/Data. Now, I get to see all the textures in NIFScope without making a mess of my game's Data folder.