Cosmetic Vampire Overhaul mod for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Introduction:

Cos·met·ic (Vampire Overhaul)

adjective:
1. involving or relating to treatment intended to restore or improve a Vampires appearance

noun:
1. a product applied to Vampires, especially the face, to improve its appearance

Its no secret that using Dawnguard turns vampires into goblins. Some like the goblin thing in which case you can stop reading this as it is not for you. For everyone else though its been a real struggle battling the ugly that was injected with the DLC

In removing the goblin look for NPC all changes were done in CK with vanilla sliders/settings to ensure the new faces look good for all users and not detract for those that make few or no changes to the faces of other NPC in their game

Required:

Legendary

Skyrim with all DLC (Legendary) with Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch

Special Edition

Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch

Suggested SKSE ini setting
[Display]
iTintTextureResolution = 1024

General Changes:

Would you like a little face with your ketchup? Vampires will no longer use the silly over the top vampire face textures. This change was made in a way that will work by default with any replacer skin textures you may be using for either sex

Vampires drink blood...not soil - No more mud faced Vampire NPC

Vampires will no longer have deformed facial structure. Sunken distorted face shape changes when vampire removed

Vampires are creatures of the sun? - No, they are not supposed to be out during the day and should look like it. All have been set to now use the lightest skin tone preset for their race

Make up not Make down - Default makeup gave them a look like they slept in a coffin filled with soot

Vampirism is not bodist - One of the reasons vampire encounters felt similar even with additional NPC added by DLC is that 90% of them could fit in size zero or under. This has been changed so there is now more variation in body size for both sexes. Bustier vampire lovers rejoice although thats not why I did it but your welcome anyways. Unique named were not changed as if you met them already would create a neck gap if I did which is never fun to deal with

Eyes:

These are the defining feature for vampires and why this mod has 3 different options at install

The game has 2 vampire eyes which are now distributed evenly for NPC

A is for use with original DLC eyes

B replaces them with new Normal eyes in red and blue

C replaces them with new Glowing eyes in red and blue

You can safely hot swap between the 3 at any time

For those that like them you may also use the optional eye customizer file here for B and C if you wish to have all of one color or reversed to change the color your player gets when vampire

The color you will have as player is listed below. If using A note that (Red is Yellow, Blue is Orange)

Breton Male = Red
Breton Female = Blue
Dark Elf Male = Red
Dark Elf Female = Red
High Elf Male = Red
High Elf Female = Red
Imperial Male = Red
Imperial Female = Blue
Nord Male = Blue
Nord Female = Blue
Orc Male = Blue
Orc Female = Blue
Redguard Male = Red
Redguard Female = Blue
Wood Elf Male = Red
Wood Elf Female = Red

FYI I did not actually change which vampire eye is default (assigned to player) as that is in your race record of which this mod does not edit. Listed so you know what you will get with default race settings

The vampire eyes for the game are determined by 4 files

meshes\actors\character\character assets\eyesmalevampire
meshes\actors\character\character assets\eyesfemalevampire
textures\actors\character\eyes\eyevampire_01
textures\actors\character\eyes\eyevampire_02

If you want to use original DLC eyes for A or the new eyes in B or C look for those 4 files and delete any you find in your data folder as they may have been installed as loose files from another mod

You are not limited or restricted for eyes and there are many other fun replacer vampire eyes that may be used. If others are used choose the version that will work best with it

A works well with replacers that retain the original color and style of DLC

B will work with any and is the best choice for normal eye replacers

C works well for glowing eyes that also use a glow map. For best results copy its glow map and rename it CVO_g then place in
textures\actors\character\eyes\

For users that do not get switched to vampire eyes when you are vampire and they are still human then you are likely using a mod which is either using pre-dlc race settings, removed the eyes from overlay or removed the overlay flag in your vampire race record

CVO is also available on XBOX

Custom Races:

As a general rule when playing in a custom race mod you would be primarily using CVO for changes to NPC but as far as your player goes all bets are off and what you get to use and look when vampire will be determined by the creator of your new race. So if your ugly when vampire take it up with them and not me

Compatibility & Load Order:

This mod edits NPC flagged as Vampire and also Serana-Harkon-Valerica-Alva. CVO does not edit child, elder or any new vampire added from another mod

Player Overhauls such as Better Vampires, Sacrosanct etc should be compatible so long as they do not make conflicting cosmetic changes or edit NPC as this does not edit your vampire race, abilities or scripts

My Mods

Vampire Facial Reclamation - No, already included in its entirety here so is not needed

More Vampire Eyes - Yes, does not conflict so load order does not matter

NL4 U NPC 2 - Yes, they do conflict for a few NPC so load order does matter but are compatible and I use them together loading NL4 after CVO

Others

Seranaholic - Yes, load after CVO

Pandorable's NPCs Dawnguard - Yes, load after CVO

Better Vampire NPCs - Yes, use NAC and load before CVO

High Poly Head - Partial compatibility as this will still work for NPC but not your player when vampire if using it. I made a special version of this that is fully compatible if using its alternate fix
CVO HD

The following mods should NOT be used with this as they are incompatible

Humanoid Vampires

Female Vampire Eye Fix

Normal Dawnguard Vampire Faces

Vampire Eyes Fix

Vampire Face Fixes

Vampire Skin Color Fix

Vampire Skin Tone Fix

For mods not listed which you find are incompatible you may report these in forum as a courtesy for others

General info to help you get PCR with conflicting mods

CVO may conflict with other mods you may wish to use alongside in your game. The following info is to help you eliminate or atleast greatly reduce issues that may arise from using this with other conflicting mods so you can spend more time playing and enjoying this and less ( Hopefully None ) trying to fix problems

The most common way to get a broken face for NPC is when the facegen files loaded in your game do not match the record changes from the last esp that modified them. This is caused from using conflicting mods which edit the same NPC without Proper Conflict Resolution ( PCR ) in your game. CVO contains full edits. Specifically for all NPC here new facegen (Nif and Texture) has been generated/exported/archived as BSA and they also have matching record changes in this esp. This will determine in general what can and cannot be used alongside this and in what order

If a mod edits NPC and includes BOTH facegen nif and texture files AND edits their actor record in the esp then that mod has FULL edits for that NPC. Any other change to NPC which does not include all 3 is PARTIAL edits

Mods which contain only conflicting record ( ESM, ESP etc) changes without facegen (Partial)

PCR: Ensure these load before CVO

Mods which contain any conflicting facegen archived in BSA without also changing them in the record (Partial)

PCR: Ensure these load before CVO

Mods which have full edits to any conflicting NPC with facegen from that mod archived in BSA (Full)

PCR: These mods can be loaded before or after CVO

Mods which have full edits to any conflicting NPC that installs facegen from that mod as loose files (Full)

PCR: Ensure these load after CVO

Mods that install conflicting facegen as loose files with no conflicting record changes for those NPC are not compatible (Partial)

Troubleshooting:

Check for Record conflicts and adjust load order/patch if needed
Use the tool Xedit aka TES5Edit (LE) SSEEdit (SE)

Since USLEP/USSEP is master this was made from changes it makes to the games vampire races. This may not work for you if you allow a race mod to load after USLEP/USSEP that reverts them

Removing conflicting facegen loose files with no conflicting record changes (Partial)

As stated above there is no PCR for this and they will always be incompatible. If you know or suspect you may have any they must be removed if you wish to use this

Using a BSA extractor of choice extract CVO somewhere outside your game directory as loose files. All facegen from here will be in the following 4 locations which you can now see with the correct path

meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\dawnguard.esm\
meshes\actors\character\facegendata\facegeom\skyrim.esm\
textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\dawnguard.esm\
textures\actors\character\facegendata\facetint\skyrim.esm\

Compare these to what is installed in your game currently. If any of these are present and you wish to remove them

Proceed to copy all of the loose facegen files from each of the 4 locations listed above from this extracted BSA and paste in the same location in your game directory allowing all overwrites then immediately after while they are all still selected delete. repeat this as needed for all files in any of the 4 paths listed above

Permission:

You may not upload this to other sites, if I want it there ill put it there myself

You may host a patched esp to get CVO compatible with mods that alter vampires non-appearance stats such as AI/Combat/lvls/outfits/class etc

FYI For patched plugins it does not matter which lettered option was chosen at install to make or use since they all share the same record changes ( esp )

Credits:

Better Vampire Fangs and Eyes by Aipex8
For mouth TRI files used to improve male and give female fangs

Fair Skin Complexion by HHaleyy
For the original eye texture used to make the new Red and Blue eyes for B and C

Eyes AO Clipping Fix by Artsick
Fix is included for all eyes

Enhanced Female Head Mesh by DomainWolf
Used as modders resource for NPC