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WIP Companion Neck Seam Issue


Pokestar

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Hello everyone,

Very recently you've been very helpful to me fixing errors in my companion mod and thus making it portable to Skyrim Special Edition. :)

Being eager to continue development on my mod, there's one very last issue about my companion's appearance I haven't been able to fix myself so far, but I'd very much like to eliminate it first before moving forward. Therefore, I thought that I might find some more help with my troubles here again.

As it says in the title, this one is about some rather strange neckseam issue I'm having with my companion on both old Skyrim and Skyrim Special Edition. I've already cut on this issue in my previous thread, though I thought it was reasonable to open a new one dedicated more to the point, since my initial issues in the last thread were entirely solved there already: Please understand I'm new to this site and I don't mean to spam or misuse this site's functions.

Please take a look at the screenshots I've attached here, do you see this very slight seam? The first guess obviosuly is that the skin textures do not quite match, though I can assure that they do, and I've encountered this neckseam with several other skin mods installed on my companion. I was also told that this might be caused by normals on the body meshes being set to "yes" in NifSkope, so I went ahead and fixed that, with the same outcome. My best guess right now is that the warning the Creation Kit for Skyrim Special Edition threw might be related to this issue somehow, but if so I have absolutely no idea how to fix this. This is what it gave me when I loaded my plugin from old Skyrim and saved it for the very first time in Special Edition format:

Quote

Should have been converted offline
Should have been converted offline
femalehead.nif : FemaleHead is missing a facegen tint map
femalehead.nif : FemaleHead is missing a facegen detail map
Should have been converted offline
Should have been converted offline

Maybe anyone would be willing to take a closer look at my mod, help identifying the problem and find a solution for it? :huh:

My mod is attached to this post for both versions of Skyrim for you to get, there's also a third, "unfixed" version of it for old Skyrim from the time before I touched on the errors with my mod reported to me in this thread.

Any help to wrap things up about her appearance by solving this issue would be greatly appreciated!

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That appears to be caused by a mismatch between the head normal map and the body normal map. You will need to find matching normal maps between the head and body, or modding tools to blend the right neck normals.

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Are you sure, did you check the entire mod? Don't get me wrong, it's just that I've tried to eliminate this issue by using different skin textures several times already with no success really. I'm going to try it again, though. :fear:

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No, that can't be the cause. At least for me, when I install 100% matching textures on her, I've just tried both CBBE SE textures and Fair Skin Complexion, I still get neck seam. :huh:

@MadCat221The problem has to go deeper - you might want to take a closer look at her custom race called "FJS01NordicHighHalfElfRace" in Creation Kit. I could imagine that some settings with it might cause this, though I'm not experienced enough to figure out what it is. :shrug:

Otherwise, a screenshot from you with her having no neck seam would be cool to ensure only I'm constantly having this issue with her for some reason.

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MadCat is right. The normal maps don't match up. In the files you posted (In oldrim version at least) the diffuse textures don't match up either. You need to use compatible body and head textures.

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4 hours ago, Pokestar said:

 I've just tried both CBBE SE textures and Fair Skin Complexion, I still get neck seam.

 

Wait a minute .... in the other thread you said the body was UNP. You cannot use CBBE textures on a UNP body mesh.

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@KisukeI'm going to post some more screenshots later, with different skin mods installed.

@HanaPlease excuse me if my imprecision lead to any confusion. Thing is, the version for old Skyrim uses UNP Skinny while the one for Special Edition uses CBBE SE. I also did make sure to only install CBBE textures on the CBBE body, UNP textures on the UNP body.

@JayCraneNo, Enhanced Character Edit was used to create her head.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/12951

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Two of thesse are related to Fallout New Vegas, the first one is about the most trivial form of neck seam. I'm afraid none of these are quite helpfull ...

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Quite a few of you seem to be very certain that my neck seam issue is a very simple one about normal maps.

Maybe you're right, and my game is corrupted somehow. To ensure that, though, a few screenshots from you taken in-game yourself with my companion having no neck seam would be really cool. :shrug:

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45 minutes ago, Pokestar said:

Quite a few of you seem to be very certain that my neck seam issue is a very simple one about normal maps.

Maybe you're right, and my game is corrupted somehow. To ensure that, though, a few screenshots from you taken in-game yourself with my companion having no neck seam would be really cool. :shrug:

Nobody is saying that your game is corrupted. We're saying that the issue is with the assets. Now, I took another look at it and I was partially wrong. The textures seem to match up, but there's some setting in the nif that's causing a different appearance between the two meshes. Looking at them in nifskope, I couldn't figure out what it was, though. And I'm not sure which mesh has the problem. Maybe someone else can find it.

If you can't find whatever it is, then it can probably still be fixed by importing into Blender 2.49 and re-exporting it.

Edit: Again, my tests were with the Oldrim version. I don't know if the issue is the same with the meshes/textures you're using for the SSE version.

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First image: Skyrim Special Edition, CBBE SE Textures

Secound image: Old Skyrim, Mature Skin UNP

Third image: Old Skyrim, Fair Skin Complexion UNP

Fourth image: Skyrim Special Edition, Fair Skin Complexion CBBE

This issue is definitely not due to the normal maps mismatching. Hmm ... :peer:

 

 

 

 

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@KisukeWould you be willing to try and see if exporting anything with Blender might fix the issue? I can't do it I'm afraid. :shrug:

The problem has to be with the FaceGen mesh then by the way, the body meshes are definitely fine.

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Why are you using all these different body and texture combinations? You should pick one and go with that for both SLE and SSE.

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All these different combinations? :huh:

I'm using the same skin texture mod for both the version for old Skyrim and Special Edition, only the meshes are different ones: CBBE for Special Edition, UNP Skinny for old Skyrim.

I posted the screenshots with Fair Skin Complexion and Mature Skin merely to demonstrate that the neck seam occurs no matter which skin textures are installed on my companion.

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You can't use the same skin texture mod for both body meshes. If it's for CBBE, then it can only be used for CBBE.

The UNP mesh topology also doesn't match up with the topology of the head (extra polys), which I would imagine isn't helping the seam issue. Unless you have a really good reason not to do so, you should be using CBBE for both the SLE and SSE versions of your mod.

TBH In those screenshots, the seam isn't very noticable.

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The skin mod comes with a CBBE and a UNP version, the proper version has been used for each version of my mod.

Will try CBBE for old Skyrim on her right now, but if CBBE shouldn't cause any issues, why do I still have thesame neck seam with in in Skyrim Special Edition? :peer:

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Im getting seriously more confused with each post. Why did I spend 2 days helping you convert her to SE when you're not even using the same body? :peer: Apples and oranges, my friend.

Out of those 4 pictures above, the 2 for Oldrim with UNP look perfectly fine to me, I don't even see a neck seam. So let's put Oldrim to bed.

So, SE + CBBE. That last picture you posted I don't see a neck seam either. And I assume when you say CBBE textures you used both body and face textures.

I'm not sure what it is you think you're seeing that's not as close to perfect as the game will be?

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Some pics from a Vanila SSE install:

Thaliafront.jpg.db172c3ad2e81d9aa2953d7eef264389.jpg

 

Thaliaback.jpg.9c0a08be7ca623b879a388096f93e13e.jpg

Front doesn't look so bad, but there's definitely an issue in the second.

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Apples and oranges, correct. UNP Skinny is what I originally envisioned for my companion, but CBBE is getting further updates and support on Special Edition, which is why I decided to go with that body for the Special Edition version. Consider it reasonable or not, this is how I've decided to handle it. :|

The thing is that it simply isn't as perfect as the game could be in neither old Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition. See the version for old Skyrim in-game, the seam is very obvious. With Fair Skin Complexion and Mature Skin installed it becomes only slightly less noticable, but is still there when observed closely.

Watch the last picture very closely, there is a line on the neck and beyond it the head colour doesn't quite match the body. Neither old Skyrim or Skyrim Special Edition can be put to bed, check the version for old Skyrim yourself in-game, it comes with the intended skin textures the neck seam is the most visible with.

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