Dark face children

[nuvoromo]

I've tried a lot of different things and can't get this fixed. All the children have the black face bug. Please help. 

[DoubleYou]

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/42133

[easyrider1988]

And here's an article how to fix this: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/1034

[nuvoromo]

8 hours ago, easyrider1988 said:

And here's an article how to fix this: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/1034

Thanks very much for a quick response, I greatly appreciate it! I'm not sure it applies since there aren't any NPC overhauls in the guide. I don't think I missed it, I went back and double checked. It looks like DoubleYou also replied with an idea so I'll pull on that thread. Any other ideas you might have would be appreciate. Thanks again.

[nuvoromo]

9 hours ago, easyrider1988 said:

And here's an article how to fix this: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/1034

Thanks so much for the quick reply, I greatly appreciate it. I ran the tool but not really sure how to use the data. I'll dig in more. A bit frustrating though. 

[easyrider1988]

There are Simple Children and TK Children in 08-Character Appearance section, maybe you missed them?

[nuvoromo]

1 hour ago, easyrider1988 said:

There are Simple Children and TK Children in 08-Character Appearance section, maybe you missed them?

Thanks for staying with me on this, I appreciate it! I double checked and they are there and I double checked the additional steps to delete the error and disable/hide the files. Totally stumped. 

[z929669]

15 minutes ago, nuvoromo said:

Thanks for staying with me on this, I appreciate it! I double checked and they are there and I double checked the additional steps to delete the error and disable/hide the files. Totally stumped. 

Does the dark face get corrected when disabling ENB via Shift+F12?

[ButchDiavolo]

NPC dark face is a notorious bug when playing Skyrim, especially when using NPC overhauls. STEP itself only uses the two kids mods, so if you stick to that there "shouldn't" be a problem. It is claimed that the dark face bug is caused by load order issues. In my experience this has rarely been the case though. And it certainly never happened to me with a "pure" STEP install. Or the kids replacements. Yet... here we are.

But, here are some things you could try (if you haven't already) to get the kids with normal faces:

1. Check and make sure nothing overwrites Simple Children. (except one file: eyeschild.nif by invisibility fix). Same with TK Children.
2. Start a new game to see if the dark face issues is consistent across different games.
3. Check if dark face is still present with the ENB disabled in game (Shift+F12) (as Z also suggested)
4. (not advised) regenerated the facegen files of Simple Children in Creation Kit
5. Accept (like I have) that Skyrim can be a mystery, throw up your hands in dismay and install Face Discoloration Fix and place it last above the temp and output files in the load order. This generates facegen dynamically, based on load order.

Hope this helps

 

[Mousetick]

The black face "bug" (it's not a bug) is caused by mismatch between NPC face configuration in plugins, and facegen meshes/textures. Facegen meshes/textures can't be simply replaced like other meshes/textures, as they're uniquely tied to their respective NPC record in plugins. For any given NPC record, matching facegen meshes/textures must be in sync with whichever plugin "wins" in the load order.

In practice, black faces are displayed in these cases or combination thereof:

• Missing or not enabled, or incorrectly sorted, or wrong plugin(s)
• Missing or not enabled, or incorrectly sorted, or wrong facegen meshes/textures
• Mix-up between plugins and facegen meshes/textures from different mods
• Facegen meshes/textures out-of-sync with modified plugin(s)

Facegen files are in

[...]/meshes/actors/character/facegendata/facegeom/<plugin-name>/<NPC-ID>.nif
[...]/textures/actors/character/facegendata/facetint/<plugin-name>/<NPC-ID>.dds

where

• <plugin-name> is the name of the plugin defining (as opposed to overriding) the NPC
• <NPC-ID> is the form ID of the NPC_ record in <plugin-name>

For a pure STEP guide installation, such mismatch shouldn't happen. If it does, it is necessarily caused by incorrect installation.

• Redo the installation of Simple Children and TK Children
• Make sure to remove/hide the TK Children plugins as instructed
• Make sure to remove/hide the TK Children meshes/textures folder as instructed
• Verify the only remaining files from TK Children are in meshes/actors/character/character assets
• Make sure the 2 Simple Children plugins are enabled
• Verify nothing overwrites the files from Simple Children
• If using any mod not part of the STEP guide, remove it completely
• Make sure the STEP CR patch is enabled
• Sort with LOOT

Face Discoloration Fix is not really a solution. It's a brute-force tool that won't correct wrong plugin sort order, for example. Yes, the NPCs will get a "real" face rather than a black face, but it might be the wrong face. It's overkill for STEP, like using a bulldozer to stomp on a fly.

[nuvoromo]

13 hours ago, Mousetick said:

The black face "bug" (it's not a bug) is caused by mismatch between NPC face configuration in plugins, and facegen meshes/textures. Facegen meshes/textures can't be simply replaced like other meshes/textures, as they're uniquely tied to their respective NPC record in plugins. For any given NPC record, matching facegen meshes/textures must be in sync with whichever plugin "wins" in the load order.

In practice, black faces are displayed in these cases or combination thereof:

• Missing or not enabled, or incorrectly sorted, or wrong plugin(s)
• Missing or not enabled, or incorrectly sorted, or wrong facegen meshes/textures
• Mix-up between plugins and facegen meshes/textures from different mods
• Facegen meshes/textures out-of-sync with modified plugin(s)

Facegen files are in

[...]/meshes/actors/character/facegendata/facegeom/<plugin-name>/<NPC-ID>.nif
[...]/textures/actors/character/facegendata/facetint/<plugin-name>/<NPC-ID>.dds

where

• <plugin-name> is the name of the plugin defining (as opposed to overriding) the NPC
• <NPC-ID> is the form ID of the NPC_ record in <plugin-name>

For a pure STEP guide installation, such mismatch shouldn't happen. If it does, it is necessarily caused by incorrect installation.

• Redo the installation of Simple Children and TK Children
• Make sure to remove/hide the TK Children plugins as instructed
• Make sure to remove/hide the TK Children meshes/textures folder as instructed
• Verify the only remaining files from TK Children are in meshes/actors/character/character assets
• Make sure the 2 Simple Children plugins are enabled
• Verify nothing overwrites the files from Simple Children
• If using any mod not part of the STEP guide, remove it completely
• Make sure the STEP CR patch is enabled
• Sort with LOOT

Face Discoloration Fix is not really a solution. It's a brute-force tool that won't correct wrong plugin sort order, for example. Yes, the NPCs will get a "real" face rather than a black face, but it might be the wrong face. It's overkill for STEP, like using a bulldozer to stomp on a fly.

This is really awesome, thanks so much for your detailed response. I'm sure it was an installation issue and I'll go back and follow these instructions. Thanks again.