WIP Companion Neck Seam Issue

[Pokestar]

@lmstearnYes, I'm glad I'm not the only one who sees the issue ... 

[RabidGears]

Could you provide links to the exact mods that you're using in both the SLE and SSE versions of your mod?

[Hana]

Good, so we agree we're dealing with two different things here.

Right, ok, I looked at the LE version in game, this is what I found;

Front view;

You have to get in very very close to see the seam, but yes, there is a seam (front of neck). The other thing I noticed is the "bulging neck" at the back. Not to mention the blocky shadows.

Back view;

This is so much worse. Again, bulging neck (blue), plus there's part of the skin coming through the hair when she moves a certain way (red). That's either a hair mesh weighting problem or, more what I'm starting to suspect with all these issues - a problem with the head mesh.

You say you created the head with ECE?  What process did you use to get the head onto your follower? Seems to be something here that didn't quite turn out right. Is there a reason you want to use ECE? What changes did you make?

Until you get this perfect in LE it's never going to be right in SE.

 

[Pokestar]

You're probably right - I guess there will be no way around grabing all my files together once again and regenerate FaceGen. What a tedious undertaking ...  Let's see if that might fix the issue, I'll explain to you what I initially did to get her head how it is either way - and hopefully what the solution to this issue was.

Enhanced Character Edit was used to design Thalia's face, it's essential really. 

[Pokestar]

@KisukeResources used for the head:

Enhanced Character Edit

Realistic Teeth

Female Facial Animation

Female Facial Animation for Realistic Teeth

Invisibility and Eyes Mesh Fix

Brows

Women of Skyrim Female Textures

Unmasked Faces

Realistic Haircolors

SG Hair Pack 350

@HanaNo such luck apparently - I've regenerated FaceGenData several times now, but nothing changes about the neckseam.

I even recreated my mod with the NPC and its head, I left the body and race out entirely for now. My process was the following:

Quote

 

- Have a clean install of Skyrim

- Install all the mods above (Enhanced Character Edit - Female Facial Animation for Realistic Teeth in the same order as above!) to see if the face would work fine on the player character as intended

- Go in the game, load the face slot in the race menu, finish character creation and resave the face slot (necessary for later step)

- Create NPC in Creation Kit: Thalia, a female Nord

- Implement all HeadParts (Head, Mouth, Eyes, Brows, Hair, Hairline 1, Hairline 2) with vanilla Nord HeadParts as templates:

• Relink only .nif and .tri file, leave race and chargen morph as well as valid races drop-down as they are
• Mouth HeadPart is extra part of Head HeadPart
• Hairline 1 and 2 HeadParts are extra part of Hair HeadPart

- Save to plugin file

- Reload mod plugin as active file, alongside with CharacterMakingExtender.esp and Realistic Haircolors.esp as plugin files

- Put HeadParts on Thalia NPC in CharGenParts Tab

- Set hair and skin colour

- Go to CharGenMorphs Tab, reset all and set nose to NoseType 32 (with CharacterMakingExtender.esp loaded, this is going to load the last-saved face slot's shape for FaceGenData export)

- Press Ctrl + F4, generate FaceGenData

- Save plugin file

What I haven't mentioned in my steps is that I actually overwrote Enhanced Character Edit's meshes directly after installation on old Skyrim with the ones from the Special Edition version of Enhanced Character Edit - whose meshes are in old Skyrim's .nif format. I did this in order to have the improvements the author did to the look of the eye type my companion is using. To ensure this can't be the problem, though, I also once tried generating FaceGenData with merley the files from Enhanced Character Edit for old Skyrim installed.

This time, I'm going to provide you with absolutely everything: The new, very clean setup of my mod for old Skyrim and my ECE face slot preset. Maybe someone of you would possibly try to generate FaceGenData theirselves and see if they might not get neckseam in result? 

Ignore smaller oddities like pink teeth and things like that for now.

Due to the custom body not being implemented yet, make sure to copy Thalia's body and head textures to textures\actors\character\female when testing for neckseam.

The .slot file belongs under Documents\My Games\Skyrim\CME_Save and can be loaded in-game via slider.

Edited January 13, 2018 by Pokestar
Mod listed that wasn't actually used at the time

[Hana]

Quote

- Go in the game, load the face slot in the race menu, finish character creation and resave the face slot (necessary for later step)

- Go to CharGenMorphs Tab, reset all and set nose to NoseType 32 (with CharacterMakingExtender.esp loaded, this is going to load the last-saved face slot's shape for FaceGenData export)

Are you sure you're not missing some steps? At what point did you export the .npc file and import it into the CK?

I don't use ECE so flying blind here on advice, but a quick google search found this very detailed tutorial you might find helpful. It'll also help you create the NPC without using a new Race.

[Pokestar]

I imported the .npc file, created by typing "SPF Thalia" (name of player character) into the console after character creation, right before setting the NoseType to 32. I just noticed I removed MarksFemaleHumanoid00NoGash under "Additional Head Parts", though, let me see if regenerating FaceGen keeping that one makes any difference.

As for the tutorial, it covers a lot more than just basic ECE made character implementation, and all the steps listed for that have properly been completed. Looking at it, though, I didn't actually implement and apply any TextureSets to my HeadParts, but instead linked each texture individually on the models in NifSkope beforehand ... Another thing to try out I guess.

I didn't create a custom race for Thalia in order to get the ECE made made head on her, but because I wanted her to actually be abother race, a Nord-High Elf-hybrid. On the recreated version of her I've attached on my last post I didn't even implement a custom race and just left her a Nord, which didn't change anything about the neck seam I'm afraid. 

Alright, going straight with what the .npc file gives me and applying TextureSets to everything before regenerating FaceGenData is next. I'm going to report back. 

[Pokestar]

This here pretty much fixed the neck. A really great mod which improves the issue a lot, I definitely do recommend it to anyone usually noticing the tiniest details, like me. 

By this time, I'm pretty sure the neck is as perfect as can be in Skyrim. Considering and rechecking things, it is also slightly there with vanilla NPCs, and maybe I didn't just notice it all that much before I started building my own personal NPC really. Take a look! 

Appearance - done!