Husky mod background-Why I created it.

This mod has been done before a few different ways. This is just my way. The biggest difference is that mine removes the need for mostly wasted redundant textures and puts them to work. You get 2 color huskies without using any more VRAM.

The main problem is the way Bethesda did the original Huskies. They did 2 meshes, one with armor and one without. They did 5 textures, 3 for the armor and 2 for the huskies. The armored husky uses all 5 textures and 2 borrowed from the wolves.(almost as much VRAM as a 4K mountain)

One would think with 2 different models and two different textures you would have 2 diffent huskies, right?.............Wrong!!! The unarmored one uses the same ones as the armored one minus the 3 armor textures. Both meshes have husky.dds as the main body and husky2.dds as the small bits fur extensions around the neck wasting 98% of the texture. Why? I have no idea?!?!? 

Often when walking back to town to sell all my junk(yep I'm a in-game pack-rat), I run into Dawnguard patrols with a husky. Marveling at the beauty of these lovely creatures I noticed their armor was see-thru at certain angles. Very annoying, now I can never un-see it.

So I looked for a mod to fix these issues. SE only has one mod Husky Variants. It lets you have 3 different color huskies, but 2 of the new colors are limited to the unique huskies Bran and Sceolang. All the generic huskies will still be the same, good mod but not what I wanted.(more on this later)

On to LE mod pages, there is only one mod that does what I want Automatic Variants. It will apply any random husky texture you load into it's texture module. Cool!, but it is for LE, has scripts and an ESP., Not Cool. 

Looking at Husky 2k Variants-An Automatic Variants Package, I noticed there is 3 tones of grey and brown huskies each with blue and green eyes to provide 12 variations using 24 2K textures. I personally felt the black and dark brown one was too dark for my game and the light brown and alt gray was way too bright. The blue eyes looked better on the gray husky and the brown one looked better with green eyes. So really I only wanted 2 different textures from that mod..

Time to get out the caveman club and do some smashing. 

First thing I did was fix the see-thru armor by making it double sided. The mesh to close the hole in the back of the armor is only on the unarmored husky mesh. Why?!?!?just why.................

Next I sent the textures paths on the armored husky to husky.dds and unarmored husky to husky2.dds. Done Instant fix!!!! Well not really there is a few trade-offs beyond my control. It has to do with all the retexture for the huskies (i'm just not smart enough to fix, I tried). 

Some old retextures like Husky HD recolor have the proper alpha to make the edges of the fur around the neck rough but have overly bright whites and have holes in the textures.(see brown husky photo, I had to turn down the light source in nifscope 30% for the photo,it was blooming in there also)

The textures from Husky 2k Variants-An Automatic Variants Package fixes the holes in the body and the brightness issue but doesn't have the proper alpha for the fur around the neck, a consequence from fixing other problems.(see grey husky photo)

Either way you have to live with one of the problems. I personally feel Husky 2k Variants-An Automatic Variants Package is the easiest to live with.(used in Header photo)



Requirements-

None really this mod will work on a completely vanilla game(it will only fix the see-thru armor). 



Compatibility - 

Not compatible with any mod that changes the husky meshes.

It's loose file will override(take priority) any BSA that changes the huskies meshes.

It will follow load order rules for other mods with loose husky meshes(you will only get what the last mesh installed offers, see your mod managers conflict tab)



Installation - Mod Manager

Download the Main File with you favorite mod manager and check the box. You instantly get the armor fix.

Download the Texture Pack under optional files with you favorite mod manager and check the box. Merge with the Main File when asked.

If your using Husky Variants let this mod overwrite it, or place this mod below.

If you want to customize Bran and Sceolang, Install my optional mesh from the optional files and let them overwrite\place below.

That's it



Installation - Manual customizing for husky/wolf retextures

Manually download what ever wolf or husky retexture you want to use.

UnZip the file.

Find the texture you want and rename it to match the husky you want it on and place in the provided folder location. 

Data\textures\actors\dlc01\armoreddog

Dog Armor retextures goes in this folder also. 
They are armor_d.dds , armor_m.dds , armor_n.dds
All the major Dawnguard retextures missed this.

Armored Husky - Found on patrol with the Dawnguard - now uses and need it's single texture to be renamed to husky.dds
Unarmored husky - Sometimes found accompanying the Vigilants of Stendarr - now uses and need it's single texture to be renamed to husky2.dds

Note: The folder provided is empty and will not conflict with anything, it is a vanilla folder in a loose format. 
It is simply providing a new location lower in your load order, to put textures so you can overwrite/override other mods you may have.
Mod managers ignore empty file, until you put something in them. (reloading your mod manager may be required for it to recognize and load the texture)

For Husky Variant users -

Put the texture you want for Bran in the provided folder with the other huskies renamed to huskybran.dds
Put the texture you want for Sceolang in the provided folder with the other huskies renamed to huskysceolang.dds
If you turn Bran and Sceolang into Hybrids, I recommend using the armored meshes for them(from the optional files).
Not required, but the armor can helps you distinguish them from wolves.

NOTE: For people having Bran and Sceolang go invisible in game when installing HV, you have to remove an extra folder, that was hiding the meshes in older versions of the mod. It has been corrected in the current version of the mod.

Older file: Data\meshes\actors\dlc01\armoreddog\bran.nif
                                                  ^
                                     remove this folder

Should be : Data\meshes\dlc01\armoreddog\bran.nif



Uninstallation- 

Just unckeck the little box and remove mod. This will remove the provided folder and all your renamed wolf/husky retextures.

Only contains meshes , safe to install and uninstall at any time.


Recommended mods - for huskies.

Husky Variants by Devestational - can give Bran and Sceolang each a unique color.
Husky HD Recolor by Aenkill - bright with holes in the textures. proper alpha around the neck.
Husky 2k Variants by PlaugeHush - fixed holes and brightness. improper alpha around the neck. 
EOTW The Dawnguard by EcthelionOtW - good dog armor retexture.


Recommended mods - for wolves/hybrid mixes.

True Wolves of Skyrim by KrittaKitty - beautiful wolves and the huskies benefit from the improved normal maps. Use it's texture to make matching Hybrids.
Savage Wolves by Rougeshot - Adjusted proportions from a new wolf skeleton.


If your not a crazy purest(that's the way Bethesda made the game, blah, blah......why are you trying to change it) or a lore Nazi who think talking lizards and cats came to earth through a magical portal to steal our fancy house pets so the Dawnguard could use them to sniff out and fight Imaginary Vampires or you simply want to get the most out if this mod ........................well continue reading!


What I use and Why?

KrittaKitty makes the best 2k textures for horses, wolves and werewolves I know about , rivaling some of the newer 4k retextures. Time spent on quality textures rather than just throwing more pixels at the problem , without any regards to weather or not they actually add anything to image space.

For me it started with Realistic Horse Breeds, I couldn't believe I was only looking at 2k textures on an animal as big as a horse. Than I found out they also made True Wolves of Skyrim and those two have been in my loadorder ever since.

If your like me and believe there wouldn't be huskies in Skyrim, they would have domesticated local wolves, Install True Wolves of Skyrim.

I highly recommend this. It will make the vanilla wolves look better than any Husky/wolf retexture I have found. Installed alone it only does the wolves(nothing to do with the huskies). The huskies do share normal maps with the wolves so they do benefit from the better normal maps.(See photos) It also provided a tiny blank SK map that all the canines use slightly reducing VRAM a bit. It is the same technique used in many of the top body mods and retextures.

To turn the huskies into Domesticated wolf hybrids you have to rename True Wolves of Skyrim textures and put them in the Husky folder I provided. 

It is recommended to use KrittaKitty's V2 textures (from the main file of True Wolves of Skyrim)on the husky meshes. The older ones don't have the teeth in the right spot on the texture so the lips and gums run down onto the teeth. If you want to use an older texture for some reason the fix is pretty easy, just let me know.

I have only found 2 drawback with this combination.
- you can't swap out the eye color on the hybrids, like you can with the wolves(uses the eye baked into the texture)
- the wolves look so dam cute!! you hate killing them.(this problem randomly fixes itself somewhere around the 10,000th wolf killed)


That's it! 
You can have just the armor fix - main file.
The armor fix with 2 different huskies - main file + texture pack.
The Armor fix with 4 different huskies - Husky Variants  + main file + texture pack.
The armor fix and 7 of the 9 different KrittaKitty's wolf textures in the same game at once and can easily swap them out at any time - True Wolves of Skyrim +
 Husky Variants  + main file + renamed wolf textures.

Tools Used-

3 Brain cells I have left.
2 sausage fingers to press keys one by one.
Mod Organizer 2 because it has an idiot light and tells me what I did wrong.
Paint.net because MO2 auto installed it.
7-zip because it turns one boring file into alot of little exciting files and put everything back.
BAE because those BSA files are a hard thing to crack.
NifSkope because I see it listed in all the good modders, mod pages.
My caveman club to smash stuff that upsets me.
Lots of Coca-cola ( not sponsored, but hit your boy up )!