Can I just use a follower's nif and copy it into vanilla to replace the look of an NPC?

[timstertimster]

I got a nice follower from nexus which has their own everything: skeleton, body meshes, face, outfit, the whole bit.

 

How to I turn an existing NPC (e.g. Arngeir) into this follower? 

 

Can I just copy the nif files and rename them so they overwrite? I'm guessing this is a bit more invovled. Preferably I'd like to do this in xEdit, not CK.

[Seijin8]

10 minutes ago, timstertimster said:

Can I just copy the nif files and rename them so they overwrite? I'm guessing this is a bit more invovled. Preferably I'd like to do this in xEdit, not CK.

Mostly, yes.  If you have already met the character in-game, they may or may not update correctly though.  At that point some more work would be needed.

 

So I'd say step 1 - make a mod with the files you want, renamed and placed into the correct directories to overwrite the existing nif (and textures).

 

Might work, might not, but fairly simple if it does.

 

Step 2 if 1 fails to work would be to open/create an esp and make sure the headparts from the new look are in the record for the NPC.  Sometimes you can get away with just deleting all of the headparts in the esp's NPC record from the NPC you are trying to change, and when the game loads and doesn't know what to do, it sometimes just puts your new nif in without issue.  Sometimes.

 

Sadly, the game is fairly inconsistent about its behavior here.

[timstertimster]

1 hour ago, Seijin8 said:

Sometimes you can get away with just deleting all of the headparts in the esp's NPC record from the NPC you are trying to change, and when the game loads and doesn't know what to do, it sometimes just puts your new nif in without issue.

is there a way I could manually set headparts in xEdit, so as to make sure the game actually has records to execute?

[Corsayr]

1 hour ago, timstertimster said:

I got a nice follower from nexus which has their own everything: skeleton, body meshes, face, outfit, the whole bit.

 

How to I turn an existing NPC (e.g. Arngeir) into this follower? 

 

Can I just copy the nif files and rename them so they overwrite? I'm guessing this is a bit more invovled. Preferably I'd like to do this in xEdit, not CK.

What kind of NPC? and what kind of follower?

 

It isn't very hard, but there are some steps and I can make you a tutorial, but it would be best to use the actual NPC and follower you want to make it easy to follow. 

[timstertimster]

17 minutes ago, Corsayr said:

What kind of NPC? and what kind of follower?

 

It isn't very hard, but there are some steps and I can make you a tutorial, but it would be best to use the actual NPC and follower you want to make it easy to follow. 

Thanks!

 

Arngeir is a vanilla NPC with quest lines. I want him to look like Nerida

 

Of course I'd be changing voice type / gender animation as well.

[Corsayr]

So lets say you want to make Elisif look like Elizabeth

 

Install Elizabeth and open TES5Edit

 

Spoiler

 

[Corsayr]

13 minutes ago, timstertimster said:

Of course I'd be changing voice type / gender animation as well.

This process should change all that

 

But your follower will not have his dialog lines... so it will be tricky

 

 

[timstertimster]

4 hours ago, Corsayr said:

This process should change all that

 

But your follower will not have his dialog lines... so it will be tricky

 

 

your elaborate tutorial was very helpful, thank you very much! What I understand is this:

 

I have to copy the vanilla NPC into the mod and then set the custom NPC as the template for the vanilla NPC. I had no idea "template" was a thing. So this would simply work for just biped model changes, right?

 

Couldn't I just change the voice type? I don't care about the follower dialog, I just want the vanilla NPC to be a different looking person.

[Corsayr]

47 minutes ago, timstertimster said:

 

Couldn't I just change the voice type? I don't care about the follower dialog, I just want the vanilla NPC to be a different looking person.

The voice type is going to change as part of the template change, however the NPC you selected has special quest dialog that is recorded in his voice, and that dialog will not be available in the followers voice... so I don't know what is going to happen there.

 

So you could change it to the NPCs original voice... but then that old dude voice will be coming from the girl NPC... so ya that could work... ?