1. Run SSEEdit (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/164) - The instructions that follow here are based on the interface of v4.0.0
NB: if at any time you made a mistake while following the next steps, immediately close SSEEdit, and if you get a window that pops up with "Unique Character.esp" or any other mods in that list make sure you UNTICK ALL OF THEM before pressing "OK" or you could safe changes to the files that could potentially break the selected mods. Solving that, however, is as simple as reinstalling the mods affect, but then you'd have to copy all the textures and meshes over again.
2. Right-click on the mod list and choose "Select None"
3. In the "Filter" bar at the top left of the mod list, type in "unique character" to quickly track it down in your load order
4. Tick "Unique Character.esp" and click on "OK" at the bottom right of the mod list (make sure no other mods are ticked for the best experience).
5. SSEEdit will now begin to load mods and build references. It will say "Background Loader: finished" in the bottom left of the SSEedit window when it is done. Once you see that message, click on the "+" next to "Unique Character.esp" to bring up a list of all the sub options underneath (the forms it edits, if my terminology is correct)
6. Click on the "+" next to Unique Character's "Head Parts" sub option (form). This should bring up a list of various race heads, in female and male variants. More importantly, these entries should also have a yellow background. If you do not see a yellow background, SSEEdit is probably still loading mods or building references.
7. Click on the first entry in the list (mine starts with "FemaleHeadKhajit"), and you should now see a number of lines in the main window. Most of these lines will have a green background, but a few will have a yellow background - we're interested in the yellow ones.
8. Right-click on any of the lines in the main window with a colored background and click on "Hide no conflict and empty rows" - now the lines with the green background should disappear and we're left with just the yellow ones, which is perfect.
9. On the "FemaleHeadKhajit" entry, you'll see we only have "Model" > "MODL - Model Filename" that conflicts. Next to it is a column under "Skyrim.esm" and "Unique Character.esp", both listing a file path that starts with "actor\". Click on the file path of Skyrim.esm with the left mouse button, keep holding the button down and drag it over to the "actors\character" path in the "Unique Characters.esp" column. This will replace the mod's path with the vanilla, which is exactly what we need to fix the problem. You will get a prompt from SSEEdit with the options "Hmm...let me think about it some more" and "Yes I'm absolutely sure". The "Yes" option will probably be grayed out - wait for the 3s timer to run out, and once you can see the green button with the white arrow on it, click on "Yes I'm absolutely sure". You'll note the line disappears and there's only a blank white page in the main window, which is perfect. It means the entries are now the same and that you've done it perfectly. Well done if that's what you see! If anything else happens, please refer to point 1 at the start of this list, the NB message below it and start over.
10. Repeat the drag and drop file path changes to all the remaining heads.
11. On most of the head entries there will also be some "Parts" > "Part" > "NAME1 - Filename" lines, and the exact same drop and drag principle applies to them. Left click on the "Actors\character..." path in the Skyrim.esm column, and drag it over to the same line in the "Unique Character.esp" column. These are the most important entries as they govern the RaceMenu sliders. DO NOT TOUCH "TNAM - Texture Set" ENTRIES OR YOU CAN BREAK THE CUSTOM FACE TEXTURE FUNCTIONALITY! Something I noticed with male characters was that if I didn't also replace the MODL path for the head.nif, that it would mess up some of the sliders' functionality, which is why I suggest changing both.
I'm not a modder, but I couldn't think of a reason why the heads would need seperate, unique .tri files or unique head .nif's if they were exactly the same as the vanilla ones, so I tried this out and it solves the sliders on my side. If your RaceMenu sliders work perfectly without the Unique Character mod enabled, then this will most likely fix your problem as well, as it makes the sliders work exactly like they did before you installed this mod.
I've only done some very limited testing, but this seems to have fixed everything for me. I hope it helps others as well.
Thanks a bunch to Rusey for porting the mod and making it available to us on Skyrim SE!
Okay, so I tried to install this again. Not sure why my player's body does not change from the vanilla underwear body. Bodyslide build only works for the clothes I made them for, but not the player body.
It's much better to use Unique Player 3.0 as it is more user friendly and compatible with Expressive Facial Animations/Morphs mod. Go to the comment section to see how to fix any issues. You'll get less issues with that mod than this one.
Changed my response. After trying UC again, I don't see how it's easier. I admit, I'm fairly new to modding, but I was able to learn to use SSEEdit and Nifskope to apply the necessary fixes for Unique Player 3.0 to work. I'm sure this mod can work really well, but there just needs to be more documentation about how to make this mod work. This is one of those mods that really needs a guide. Maybe you can be the first to do so. There's enough resources for how to set up Unique Player 3.0 that a new modder like myself was able to utilize that this mod unfortunately doesn't have. I'm really curious to know your method that makes Unique Character easier to set up.
i spent four hours trying to figure out how to use this mod and i think i am literally giving up modding skyrim because of this, absolutely incomprehensible to normal people
This mod has been a staple of my load order for years (I don't know how I'd play the game without it). However, recently I noticed that my game would hard lock (requiring a force close) when entering specific modded cells (like some of Schlitzohr's towns and one of JJerem's orc keeps), as well as a few specific vanilla cells (like morthalexterior03). These freezes were repeatable. Repeatable hard locks without CTD is usually caused by bad facegen files.
I set out to figure out what was causing it, and it turns out this mod was the culprit. Fortunately, the fix is easy, in case anyone else runs into the issue:
1. Open Unique Character.esp inside xEdit. 2. Scroll down to "Head Part". 3. Delete all coloured records that aren't related to the race and gender you are currently playing. 4. Scroll down to "Texture Set". 5. Delete all coloured records that aren't related to the race and gender you are currently playing.
Make sure you ONLY delete the coloured records. Leave the white ones alone.
For example, if you are playing a female dark elf, you would leave ONLY the following coloured records:
Head Part: FemaleHeadDarkElf
Texture Set: SkinHeadFemaleDarkElf
That's it. No more freezing. If you play a different race in the future, just reinstall the mod, and do the same thing again, leaving only the records for the new race/gender combination you're going to be playing instead.
Alternatively, you can delete the mesh files from the mod folder that aren't related to your race/gender. But I find the xEdit method simpler.
I suspect the included mesh files conflict with HPH/EFM somehow, which causes the game to freeze in those specific cells.
This mod's functionality is good but man is it tough to use if you are new to modding. All I wanted was to make only myself a muscle mommy and not everyone else as well. I guess one good thing that came out of trying to use this is that I learned a lot about meshes and textures, and how to fix neck seams. And one bad thing is that it took me a full week. Another thing is that body replacer mods cannot see this mod at all so its all manual copy-pasting.
You can't rely on the mod manager or mod's FOMOD for this mod, you have to open up the mod .rar file and then take the maps off it and paste it wherever the unique folder has their maps. Texture mods go in the Data\textures\actors\character\unique ... and bodyslide-generated meshes go inData\meshes\actors\character\unique . Make sure you are placing the mod files in the right places, you can easily ensure this by looking at the name of the existing files in the \unique folder before you copy from the mod folder and replace it by pasting over the existing file.
Hopefully this helps anyone else trying to use this mod. Please correct me if I am mistaken
I'm having a problem I can't seem to resolve after a couple of hours of experimenting. My unique bodyslide meshes do not work for anything but my character's nude body, 3ba specifically. Meanwhile my unique skin textures work just fine and the nude meshes for all other NPCs' is as it should be.
For experimentation's sake I decided to try loading Unique Character after my Bodyslide meshes which did lead to the correct meshes for my character, but it also applied the meshes to NPCs as well.
Has anyone experienced anything similar or have a solution?
So to get a custom body, I would batch build in bodyslide and transfer all clothing meshes to the 'unique' folder? Sorry, I'm just a bit confused on this.
be careful to follow this mod structure for female and race folders, head feet body. Not the structure of the body/skin you want to use as unique. I was able to leave UNP all NPCs and make my char CBBE (and now 3BA) with no problems, even physics work
Hi is there a way to make the mod use only some textures e.g. (body textures) and use all other assets that are installed without moving every other thing in the folders? (p.s. i use heavy modlist and i can't find what mod is replacing what.)
906 comments
1. Run SSEEdit (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/164) - The instructions that follow here are based on the interface of v4.0.0
NB: if at any time you made a mistake while following the next steps, immediately close SSEEdit, and if you get a window that pops up with "Unique Character.esp" or any other mods in that list make sure you UNTICK ALL OF THEM before pressing "OK" or you could safe changes to the files that could potentially break the selected mods. Solving that, however, is as simple as reinstalling the mods affect, but then you'd have to copy all the textures and meshes over again.
2. Right-click on the mod list and choose "Select None"
3. In the "Filter" bar at the top left of the mod list, type in "unique character" to quickly track it down in your load order
4. Tick "Unique Character.esp" and click on "OK" at the bottom right of the mod list (make sure no other mods are ticked for the best experience).
5. SSEEdit will now begin to load mods and build references. It will say "Background Loader: finished" in the bottom left of the SSEedit window when it is done. Once you see that message, click on the "+" next to "Unique Character.esp" to bring up a list of all the sub options underneath (the forms it edits, if my terminology is correct)
6. Click on the "+" next to Unique Character's "Head Parts" sub option (form). This should bring up a list of various race heads, in female and male variants. More importantly, these entries should also have a yellow background. If you do not see a yellow background, SSEEdit is probably still loading mods or building references.
7. Click on the first entry in the list (mine starts with "FemaleHeadKhajit"), and you should now see a number of lines in the main window. Most of these lines will have a green background, but a few will have a yellow background - we're interested in the yellow ones.
8. Right-click on any of the lines in the main window with a colored background and click on "Hide no conflict and empty rows" - now the lines with the green background should disappear and we're left with just the yellow ones, which is perfect.
9. On the "FemaleHeadKhajit" entry, you'll see we only have "Model" > "MODL - Model Filename" that conflicts. Next to it is a column under "Skyrim.esm" and
"Unique Character.esp", both listing a file path that starts with "actor\". Click on the file path of Skyrim.esm with the left mouse button, keep holding the button down and drag it over to the "actors\character" path in the "Unique Characters.esp" column. This will replace the mod's path with the vanilla, which is exactly what we need to fix the problem. You will get a prompt from SSEEdit with the options "Hmm...let me think about it some more" and "Yes I'm absolutely sure". The "Yes" option will probably be grayed out - wait for the 3s timer to run out, and once you can see the green button with the white arrow on it, click on "Yes I'm absolutely sure". You'll note the line disappears and there's only a blank white page in the main window, which is perfect. It means the entries are now the same and that you've done it perfectly. Well done if that's what you see! If anything else happens, please refer to point 1 at the start of this list, the NB message below it and start over.
10. Repeat the drag and drop file path changes to all the remaining heads.
11. On most of the head entries there will also be some "Parts" > "Part" > "NAME1 - Filename" lines, and the exact same drop and drag principle applies to them. Left click on the "Actors\character..." path in the Skyrim.esm column, and drag it over to the same line in the "Unique Character.esp" column. These are the most important entries as they govern the RaceMenu sliders. DO NOT TOUCH "TNAM - Texture Set" ENTRIES OR YOU CAN BREAK THE CUSTOM FACE TEXTURE FUNCTIONALITY! Something I noticed with male characters was that if I didn't also replace the MODL path for the head.nif, that it would mess up some of the sliders' functionality, which is why I suggest changing both.
I'm not a modder, but I couldn't think of a reason why the heads would need seperate, unique .tri files or unique head .nif's if they were exactly the same as the vanilla ones, so I tried this out and it solves the sliders on my side. If your RaceMenu sliders work perfectly without the Unique Character mod enabled, then this will most likely fix your problem as well, as it makes the sliders work exactly like they did before you installed this mod.
I've only done some very limited testing, but this seems to have fixed everything for me. I hope it helps others as well.
Thanks a bunch to Rusey for porting the mod and making it available to us on Skyrim SE!
Cheers
It's much better to use Unique Player 3.0 as it is more user friendly and compatible with Expressive Facial Animations/Morphs mod. Go to the comment section to see how to fix any issues. You'll get less issues with that mod than this one.
I'm sure this mod can work really well, but there just needs to be more documentation about how to make this mod work. This is one of those mods that really needs a guide. Maybe you can be the first to do so. There's enough resources for how to set up Unique Player 3.0 that a new modder like myself was able to utilize that this mod unfortunately doesn't have. I'm really curious to know your method that makes Unique Character easier to set up.
[https://drive.google.com/file/d/19uWrEo7mQrLGIwlnIyn6ebG-yly0UfBm/view?usp=drive_link]
Overwrite the files in Unique Character with these.
I set out to figure out what was causing it, and it turns out this mod was the culprit. Fortunately, the fix is easy, in case anyone else runs into the issue:
1. Open Unique Character.esp inside xEdit.
2. Scroll down to "Head Part".
3. Delete all coloured records that aren't related to the race and gender you are currently playing.
4. Scroll down to "Texture Set".
5. Delete all coloured records that aren't related to the race and gender you are currently playing.
Make sure you ONLY delete the coloured records. Leave the white ones alone.
For example, if you are playing a female dark elf, you would leave ONLY the following coloured records:
Head Part:
FemaleHeadDarkElf
Texture Set:
SkinHeadFemaleDarkElf
That's it. No more freezing. If you play a different race in the future, just reinstall the mod, and do the same thing again, leaving only the records for the new race/gender combination you're going to be playing instead.
Alternatively, you can delete the mesh files from the mod folder that aren't related to your race/gender. But I find the xEdit method simpler.
I suspect the included mesh files conflict with HPH/EFM somehow, which causes the game to freeze in those specific cells.
You can't rely on the mod manager or mod's FOMOD for this mod, you have to open up the mod .rar file and then take the maps off it and paste it wherever the unique folder has their maps. Texture mods go in the Data\textures\actors\character\unique ... and bodyslide-generated meshes go inData\meshes\actors\character\unique . Make sure you are placing the mod files in the right places, you can easily ensure this by looking at the name of the existing files in the \unique folder before you copy from the mod folder and replace it by pasting over the existing file.
Hopefully this helps anyone else trying to use this mod. Please correct me if I am mistaken
For experimentation's sake I decided to try loading Unique Character after my Bodyslide meshes which did lead to the correct meshes for my character, but it also applied the meshes to NPCs as well.
Has anyone experienced anything similar or have a solution?
So to get a custom body, I would batch build in bodyslide and transfer all clothing meshes to the 'unique' folder? Sorry, I'm just a bit confused on this.
All of my mods are stored in MO2 so none of the textures were in SSE/Data either.
I was able to leave UNP all NPCs and make my char CBBE (and now 3BA) with no problems, even physics work