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Krackatoah

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Krackatoah

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About this mod

Replaces the 112 women you are most likely to encounter in Skyrim SE with versions that have an upgraded appearance, including 8K skin and 4K facetint textures suitable for extreme closeups on an large HD monitor (see screenshots.)

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Description


Faces of Skyrim replaces 112 of the most prominent women of Skyrim SE. For a list of all the NPCs replaced, see the screenshots, they are all there. The replacer uses high definition assets such as 8K skin and 4K facetint textures that will look great no matter how far you zoom in. You can also find HD screenshots, including work in progress here. I didn't use any screen archery to get the look in the screenshots, so if you use a good ENB, they will look just like the screenshot.

Faces Of Skyrim aims to replace the women you are most likely to encounter while questing, training, buying, and selling. The women it replaces include:
  • all housecarls,
  • all followers,
  • all prospective wives,
  • all trainer,
  • all of the dominant quest givers, including those in the companions, mages guild, thieves guild, and dark brotherhood
  • many of the shopkeepers, vendors, merchants, bar and inn owners, servers, and bards.

Each face started with the original geometry, hair, eyes and face parts of the vanilla Skyrim character. I then tweaked and adjusted from there, attempting to preserve at least some degree of the original character's flavor. As such, it is fairly lore friendly.

The mod comes in two versions, each with their own installer: a NeverNude installer and a full installer. The NeverNude installer installs only a CBBE Curvy NeverNude body that has permanent underwear similar to that in vanilla Skyrim. This version is intended for those who would rather not see fully naked corpses.

The full installer has many more options, including five different CBBE Curvy body types:
  • CBBE Body (without physics)
  • CBBE Body Physics
  • CBBE Body Special
  • CBBE Body NeverNude (without physics)
  • CBBE Body NeverNude Physics
  • CBBE 3BA body
  • CBBE SMP body

Note that the CBBE SMP. and CBBE 3BA bodies both detect and handle collisions between body parts when installed with their associated mods, CBBE SMP (3BBB) and CBBE 3BA (3BBB) respectively . The CBBE Special body can do so as well, but needs a physics file, such as SINful CBP to configure it properly. Because of this, having many women in game with that body is bound to have some impact on performance.

The full installer also includes a BodySlide configuration file by default, allowing you to customize the body style. More importantly, using BodySlide enables you to configure all NPCs and clothes in the game to use the same body shape so you don't get strange mismatches between bodies, armor, and clothes.

Because they tend to draw the eye away from the face, thus obscuring the beauty beneath, I chose not to include warpaint for most of the NPCs replaced. Warpaint is provided for on Aela, Ria, Njada, and Mjoll, because it is a distinctive part of their well-known look. However, you can also install versions of those characters with no warpaint. For similar reasons (and because I couldn't find many convincing scar textures,) I tended to avoid scars unless they were very subtle.

I have removed the opposite gender animations from all replaced woman. I mean come on, I don't know any guy who walks like that, much less any women. I also remove helmets and hoods from all the women replaced so you can see their new face and hair.

All the assets, including textures for skin, hair, eyes, brows, mouth, scars, and warpaint are bundled into the mod, minimizing the chance for conflicts. While I paid a great deal of attention to the choice of textures and how they worked together, the assets are also organized into their own separate directory, making it easy to modify or supply new ones.

Installation


You can use either of the Faces of Skyrim installers with the mod manager of your choice. However, it has some prerequisites which you must install first, and these vary depending on which install options you choose.

If you do not use any physics, the only mod that absolutely must be installed before Faces of Skyrim is:

If you install one of the bodies that incorporates support for physics, you will also need to install the mods that implement those physics or you will get strange behavior. The only physics mods tested with the current version are:

All physical mods have similar prerequisites, and some of those prerequisites have prerequisites. Faster HDT-SMP, HDT-SMP (Skinned Mesh Physics), and CBPC - Physics with Collisions for SSE and VR are all binary libraries run by SKSE SE. They require a skeleton with bones for the physics, extended idles, and some type of CBBE body. The complete list and install order for using any of the included physics bodies is: 


Note: You can't simply install SKSE with a mod manager. Some of the files have to be hand copied into your game directory. I highly recommend you follow the instructions given with it or find a video tutorial for your mod manager.

Likewise, it is not enough to simply install FNIS SE with a mod manager. The mod manager may need to be configured to run it and new idles must be compile after all mods are installed. Again, see the instructions that come with the mod.

HDT-SMP is a general physics engine and currently does not come with any XML files to configure body physics. You must have those (as listed above) before you will see any body physics. Follow the instructions for the physics body and mods you choose.

There are three physics bodies included in the full installer for those who want collisions with their physics. They support the mods:
  • A CBBE 3BA Body to support the mod ll CBBE 3BA (3BBB) by Acro748,
  • A CBBE SMP Body to support the mod CBBE SMP (3BBB) by ousnius and
  • A CBBE Special Body to support  CBPC - Physics with Collisions for SSE and VR and CBBE 3BA (3BBB) by Acro
     
    Collisions are CPU intensive. So one option it to install both Faster HDT-SMP, and CBPC - Physics with Collisions for SSE and VR at the same time. Both CBBE SMP (3BBB) and CBBE 3BA (3BBB) can take advantage of both to optimize performance.

    As a matter of physics preference, having tested them all, I think they all have their pluses and minuses. Some are overly exaggerated and some more realistic. Some are more complex and others more crude. If you have a minimal setup, I wouldn't overlook the idea of simply using  CBPC - Physics with Collisions for SSE and VR along with SINful CBP by 3aq. It is the easiest on the CPU and looks fairly decent. If you have the horsepower go for l CBBE 3BA (3BBB) by Acro748 it works very well and has lots of options to customize performance.

    As an additional note, even if you don't use physics, you will want everything to look its best, so you really should install:

    BodySlide will let you reconfigure all the NPCs, armor and clothing in the game to use the same body shape so armor and clothing match the body and you don't wind up with mismatched bodies and armor or clothing (which isn't deadly, just a tad inconsistent when the body shape changes with the clothes.)

    Compatibility


    Because all the assets used in all the NPCs are included, this mod is highly compatible with other body replacement mods. The last one in the load order should replace the looks of any prior mod. For example, I use it with Inhabitants of Skyrim - NPC Overhaul and it works great, overwriting all of the NPCs without problems. 

    This mod changes the facial features, head parts, skin color, and skin tinting (makeup) of all of of the NPC records for the NPC it replaces. Some mods such as Immersive Citizens - AI Overhaul SE change NPC records to alter behavior. The last one loaded will overwrite the others negating their effect. I have included patches for that mod, install it immediately after the latter of the two mods.

    Recommended Mods


    The character screenshots look the way they do because I had a good ENB and good lighting. Outdoor lighting comes from a weather mod. I used the following:

    Note: there are many good ENBs. I used Re-Engaged in large part because I tried making face screenshots with a lot of different ENBs and compared the results. In the end, it did the best indoors and outdoors. I started developing with Natural View Tamriel (NVT) ENB (also by firemanaf ,) but an update to ENBdev changed things, and after a bit of testing, I switched to Re-Engaged. Ultimately, I combined its subsurface scattering with that of an old version of Snapdragon and got decent results.

    Known Issues


    While I did remove hoods and helmets from all women, mods like Clothing and Armor Extension use scripts to change clothing and add more variety. In so doing, they may put them back.

    Credits