I installed better looking redguards mod and keep getting purple for body skin on females. FORMID does not show anything missing. I read the mod decsription that installing EVE equipment replacer can fix it, and it did. But this creates unsightly contrast with the head textures, might as well leave it at vanilla.

I have installed HGEC and even tried without, same result.

So am I doing something wrong? Is there another fix which dos not involve installing EVE equipment replacer?

I like the mod because it makes Redguards look better so would really like to use it if I can solve the problem.

I've seen pink arms with that mod last night in my game. But that was for the first time and must have been about the 100th Redguard I met in game. This one was a female bandit dressed in fur... I ran formID finder on her, but I was not really learning much from it. I'm not investigating it further at this point because it's the only case so far.

I have the Roberts female body (see sig.). Better Looking Redguards says it doesn't work with anything but HGEC, but this I have not experienced except in that one single case. Sorry I cannot offer you any real help on that. But you are not alone! Maybe that helps? Hahaa::

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d191/haegint/Oblivion/_Oblivion2010-11-1821-44-08-04.jpg

By the way when I strip the cuirass from her, her upper body is perfectly perfect, including the arms. They are pink only when dressed in that fur cuirass. So problem must be related to that somehow.

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d191/haegint/Oblivion/_Oblivion2010-11-1919-40-11-45.jpg Looks like nothing special to me.

My first bet is that this has to do with how mods are installed and something getting installed that overwrites the body mods being used.

Best to BAIN.

Ok, but then why this was the ONLY case (so far) that showed pink arms when clad in fur cuirass? Playing OOO, in that cave Belchor Folly 3rd level, (sp?) near Kvatch there were many other female bandits with fur cuirasses on... so I just wonder. :unsure2: That's another reason why I'm not particularly into tracking this down for the moment. I pray it was a glitch (I know it was probably not).

Better Looking Redguards is a mod already picked up and sorted by BOSS. I always "boss" my load list. That's the Boss Log output for BLR:

Better Looking Redguards.esp
. Bashed Patch tag suggestion: {{BASH:Body-M,Body-F,R.Ears,R.Head,Hair}}

I made sure the mod is Bash-tagged with these and rebuilt the patch. I installed the mod with BAIN. The download .zip file is very simple: choice among several esp's, to be picked only 1, plus a few textures and meshes mainly for hairstyles, hands and feet. Doesn't seem very "exotic"... but my knowledge of these things is really limited (as you know.... ) BAIN says in that upper right pane that 31 files were configured of which 30 are "fitting" and one is "conflicting". But when I open the "Conflicts" tab it is actually empty. But there is one file listed in the "Not fitting" tab that is just to the left of "Conflicts". (I use the german translation of WB which maybe is a bad idea. Maybe there is an error/mess-up there with the translation.) Anyway I cannot see how any of this could create a problem with a fur cuirass??

Hi Tommy_H:

This is exactly the same situation I have except is happens to all Redguard females. Your pink is my purple (I am not implying anything BTW )

I also BAIN and this is the only body mod installed, no other mods add anything to do with this (well, maybe OOO?) My problem is with the Redguard owner of Fighting chance (she has steel armor and it shows fine) and Brenwen in the arena (her top and pant are OK but skin is purple). And yes, stripping the armor show a normal redguard body.

So I assume the upper body and lower body armor/clothing must have the exposed skin texture which shows purple with this mod, but now without. So something is perhaps changing the video color? Oh heck, I have no clue.

The armors are from oblivion.esm so the body is looking at the oblivion - textures.bsa to get these purple skins. If I install EVE replacer it uses that and the skin is no longer pink (just for you Tommy_H!) but it does not look too good. But that maybe the only answer.

I think your EVE replacer is my Roberts body replacer, we both do not go back to the vanilla .bsa but the custom replacer textures/meshes - so I would think. I once did have a purple (just for you ) issue with another mod and there, some path was wrong. The mod was looking "there" instead of "over there". I think I repaired that in TES4Edit but I am not sure at all. I hope I can find my old records, board discussions back from that case....

I'll check out Brenwen in the Arena, see how she looks in my game. Haven't seen her yet in my game. Will report.

Tes4edit, hmmmm, you Argonian, assume too much about this Imperial's intelligence, but maybe I can check that too.

Ok, so Arena Branwen looked alright in my game, no purple parts on her. That is with OOO though and with the Roberts body.

As to Tes4edit, I'm really not sure if this was the tool I got it fixed with. So proceed carefully please. Maybe somebody more of an expert will come to our rescue.

I think I see what the issue is - I installed this and better looking dark elves but have not played enough to see issues.

I use the mergable version so when opening all mods in edit I have to set this to active otherwise I just see what it does in bash. Now a bit of background - I use EVE and Roberts male and Race Balancing Project. Since race mods often will have resources that are used to display the entire body race mods will then often conflict with body mods and this is why many race mods include body mod support.

For instance a year or so ago I got hip to the idea of merging roberts male and EVE into Race balancing Project and then several other beauty mods into RBP so that I have alternate esp with these beauty mods in the new merger plugins for RBP. This is easy to do as most of the esp were mergable themselves -
Slof's Better Beasts
Roberts Male v4
Morrowind Argonians
EVE Khajit Fix
Then also packaged in new argonian headsets (not mergable) and made sure to package the esp with the resources from that. ... this activity does not fix everything but reduces variables so that things are easier to track.

This issue is that this mod is as comprehensive as Roberts male or EVE in that the entire body is addressed. Open the mods in tes4edit with this active ... open the race category and scroll down to body data - my bet is you well see different file paths for this than other race or body mods.

The issue then comes with clothing replacers. Most armor and clothes for this game are not something that is put over the characters body but replaces the body. But if you have armor that does fit over the body - like a half shirt of short sleeve armor - then the game will look for the textures associated with the file paths this gives and the armor is set to have a different one. I think that is it or very close.

Said more simply the armor may be compatible with Roberts or EVE, but not better looking redguards.

I will be able to test further once I encounter the problem in my own game and can examine the armor in question out of the game in a nif viewer. If you can find a similarity in armors this happens with you may be able address it by altering the armor.

The answer most likely will have to be merging this into RBP for me - but I don't know what you use. And I will likely just transfer the face data over if working on making a bunch of armor compatible as that really is what needs work. I guess i have to see more in-game what it looks like before I decide.

Psymon:

Genius. And I only understood 5% of what you said, mainly the main part about the mod looking for different file paths. If you find anything that may help along the way, please post here if you remember. I am just starting my new character and hope to add this mod down the road when I reach higher level. For now it is dungeon crawling for me to level up over the next week.

Are you using any other race or body mods? List all.

oh and this has nothing to do with genius. this is just fact checker knuckle scrapping.

I use HGEC female and Robert male
I tried better looking redguards with these installed and without and in combination of one with the other. No other body mods used.

I guess I should have asked - are you using a bashed patch too?

I'll assume you are ... note that all these mods can be merged into bash. Mods that merge into bash still have a logic about how they are merged - so the order in which they are merged will determine the winning mod entries much like with the main load order with mods (the rule of one and the last mod loaded wins), so the last mod merged wins. What can be used to override that is bashed patch tags. If an earlier loading mod merges and has a tag and a later merging mod does not then the tag that addresses whatever entry (say eyes for instance or Male body) then the earlier one will win.

Also note that Roberts and HGEC/EVE both rely on changing the file paths, such that it redirects the game to look elsewhere for body meshes and textures and then provides those resources. Those mods also come with vanilla and many mod added clothing meshes such that it remolds those armors and clothes to match. From what I can tell this uses a different file path for body meshes and textures than HGEC/EVE. Even if the cuirass looks normal other mods may be adjusting it that FormID Finder may not see, but Refscope might.

In the picture Tommy posted - if you take her clothes what do you see? Is she then not purple or all purple? My bet is she is not and that is because that short sleeve cuirass may be adjusted (by those body mods) to use Roberts or HGEC textures but not the file path of better looking.

So take her clothes off and tell me what color you see - well when you see it in your game. Tommy can post about the one in the picture he posted.

Like Tommy_H, if I take her clothes off the body looks normal. It is only when wearing clothing/armor from oblivion.esm does the skin look purple. I am using a bashed patch and using the tags added by better looking redguards which comes pre-tagged.

Same purple problem with OOO added redguard amazons.

I have tried the mergable and non-mergable esp versions, both produce the same problem.

Refscope does not show any problem (using latest version).

The answer is all in the above posts then.

This mod (Better Looking Redguards) is not just a face replacer it is a body replacer and as such it is a replacement for other body mods (can't use both). Those other body mods are more advanced though in that they offer not only vanilla clothing patches but mod added ones. This does not offer either.

The reason you are not seeing it on all armors is as I wrote above that most armors are a replacement for the body - you put the armor on there is no body underneath. Mods like OOO/FCOM add things like bikini armor and short sleeve armor and as such these armors must have matching skin information. Believe it or not meshes have textures they are married to - so no esp edit, refscope will show that.

Your options are to then:
Least thorough - Maybe try merging this earlier than all other body mods and race mods. If boss has this loading after any of them move it up. Make sure that Robert and HGEC only have body tags and not face tags - that may result in this importing only face information (the result will be heads from here and bodies from the body mods). And may mean mismatched heads, but hopefully no more pink bodies.

Most complete answer - redirect the paths in this esp to match those used by Roberts and HGEC and then place the files from this mod into those file paths then repackage and install. This may require adjusting the armors too - in fact probably just doing that will fix everything .... but that is over my head and requires knowledge working with nifs.

Complex answer - merge the changes you want into the other mods or merge the changes from them into this mod. This must be done by hand though.

Lazy answer - bug someone to make an OOO/FCOM patch. (don't ask me).

Well at least I have options some of which I think I am capable of trying. Appreciate your help Psymon.

I found on EVE thead that the neckline issue is known and will possibly be fixed in the future. It is not too bad with vanilla textures but if you go to 2048 or 4096 is is too noticable to really enjoy. So I have to make a compromise.

Psymon, thanks so much for taking the time to look into this.

FWIW, BOSS places BLRedguards way later than for example Roberts Female Body. But it is tagged with quite many Bash Tags. I am using the non-mergeable version. I will change that to the mergeable one, see if it helps.

So I understand that the problem arises with short-sleeved clothes/armor. Well I do use OOO, I don't know however if the Fur Cuirass in my picture is short sleeved for the girls in OOO only or if it was like this in Vanilla already. As to the possible remedies you cite, referring to yours:



Why do you think this may require adjusting the armors too? I think I could give the workover of the files paths a try, but working with NIF's is definitely way beyond my capabilities.... :unsure:

I just installed EVEs Replacers and just live with the head/body mismatch. After a few hours I got used to it, just don't look too closely. It is a shame that there are so few Redguard mods, the vanila Redguards look terrible.

While I understand the desire for some to think of Redguards as of being like African descent - this is after all fantasy game where there is no Africa. They are another fantasy race in a fantasy world - I don't see people posting about how High elves don't have the right glimmer to their gold or dark elves just aren't realistic looking enough.

But I get the desire to see representation and Bethesda did use African-American actors for that race (well I'm assuming they are American).

Why not make requests from the author for FCOM/Mods patches?

Yes, you are absolutely correct. Nevertheless when I find some time and did some relearning of TES4Edit, I will take a look at the various file paths as you suggested and see if it helps. If nothing helps, I can always go back to Better Redguards which I understand is only facial cosmetics, not a full body mod like BLR. :shrug:

I'm using EVE HGEC with the armor mesh replacers and if I add Better Looking Redguards I get the same issue as above, i.e. missing textures on the upper body of female redguards when they're using armor that show skin. Is there an easy solution to this? I'm pretty sure I've seen both used in several load orders. BLR looks nice as well besides this issue so I would like to be able to use it.

Yeah as explained above the mod is not the same as the more popular face mod for redgaurds - it is instead a body replacer (not just a face replacer).

And as such it would conflict with eve or any other body mod as they both are touching the same thing.

Mods like eve and roberts have mesh patches for vanilla and mod added (FCOM for instance) armors, but I don't think this does. At least it didn't when I checked. So if a mod added armor is showing bare arms or midrift then it will show as missing.

I'd imagine the reason that eve is not picking up the slack has either to do with load order, merge order, or completely different file paths between this and eve.

I do think an EVE/BLR hybrid could be attained, but that would require a lot of file path redirections in one or the other esp.

Guessed so. A pity. Perhaps EVE could be made to have an optional BLR compatibility feature? I'll ask Corepc about it.

The version I use (of Better Redguards - 2.1, I believe) covers body and face. With options for different body types, too. :shrug:


edit: This is actually the first time I've even heard of "Better Looking Redguards" (the mod).