3DNPC v3.42 for Skyrim and SSE [Beta]

All right, here’s version 3.4(since updated to 3.4.2), for both the original Skyrim as well as a beta version for SSE.

3DNPC v3.4.2

SSE Beta Version 3.4.2

Hotfix update from 3.4

Hotfix 3.4.2 update for Oldrim

Hoftix 3.4.2 update for For SSE

Changelong 3.4.2

  • Fixed Terynne’s idle commentary to only fire once

Full Changelog from 3.3:

Spoiler:

Changelog 3.4.1:

  • Added map marker and fixed quest marker for Transformation, enabled when quest initiated
  • Removed Rueful Axe from Frost Peak Cave
  • Removed Meridia’s Bacon audio from SSE version

Changelog 3.4:

  • Added new quest Transformation. To start, find Terynne in the mage’s quarters of the Palace of the Kings, but only when Wuunferth isn’t present or is sleeping
  • Radiant Dark – Fixed issue where Olivia‘s crew at times wouldn’t turn hostile against the player. While they were added to an enemy faction, they weren’t removed from the College of Winterhold faction, so they were both friend and enemy. Frenemies, if you would. Point is they’ll be enemies only now.

Notes on SSE [Beta]:

Were you able to save the mod in the SSE CK?

Yes. After trying a few suggestions, I found one that worked. I basically used the technique mentioned by Sasha Kelley of removing the unknown characters from the vanilla QA Books, then restoring them via SSEdit.

Did being able to save fix everything?

Not necessarily. One thing I know for sure is, saving didn’t automatically fix the water issues caused by porting. For that, I ran Water Fix Script by azzendix and it seemed to have smoothed out the seams. Another thing people have mentioned is optimizing NIFs, but I ran the SSE NIF optimizer on the meshes and that just resulted in the game crashing on load. Someone mentioned bloodgrass specifically needed to be optimized, but I tested that in game and had no issues picking it up from the barrel. So I’m tabling that for now until I have a better idea of what I’m doing.

The larger point is, saving isn’t some porting panacea. At the same time, the only noticeable issue was the water, and that’s taken care of.

Why loose files?

Mostly because it works all the time. Whenever I pack it into a BSA, things that should work, don’t. Like NPCs losing voices. I talked to Olivia with her audio archived and she was a mute. When I used loose files, her voice came back. So, from my brief testing, it seems loose files are the best files.

47 thoughts on “3DNPC v3.42 for Skyrim and SSE [Beta]

    1. If it’s a manual install, you can honestly just copy and paste, overwrite previous files, but if you use a mod manager they might have a different protocol.

    2. Sorry, I’ve no idea. There aren’t any instructions unless I’m missing them? I’d assume they’d be on the main page but there’s just download links which don’t work on edge unless you right click and open in a new tab and no instructions.

  1. The new quest was ridiculously awesome. However, upon exiting Frost Peak Cave, my Load option under the System menu was disabled & my screen covered in flames. Please investigate if at all possible.

    1. Flames? If you’re being serious, there’s nothing in the mod that would affect the menu. Did you read the book? Maybe there’s something about ***spoilers*** (bringing up the ShowRaceMenu and changing the player character) that doesn’t jive with other mods, but I was able to exit just fine even after using it.

      Also, Skyrim or SSE?

      1. This occurred on the Oldrim version, not SSE. I was able to continue but only after saving, quitting to the main menu, then continuing from the save I had just made prior to quitting. I’ve had this issue happen with other mods as well. It’s a very rare graphics glitch & only seems to happen when playing modded content on rare occasions.

        1. Weird. I was on Oldrim as well, not sure if related, if it’s happened with other mods, could be induced simply by a cell being modded as opposed to anything inherently wrong with how the mod was set up.

          The mod is pretty large, but also fairly simple in what it does so usually there’s no game breaking weirdness.

          1. It’s a rare but well-known graphics glitch. Had it happen with Rigmor of Bruma, Sulfur & Fire – Trial of Mehrunes Dagon, & a few others. Yes, it’s weird.

  2. Hey, does Edwayne have a dark face for anyone else? Because the dark face bug fix for vampires I use also rolls the faces back to pre-dawnguard faces. This is on SSE on version 3.4.1.

    1. Yeah, not sure why, I copied over the dawnguard meshes, maybe it’s a texture thing. Let me figure out how to load multiple masters and export again

        1. Awesome, let me know if there’s any other weirdness you encounter. Well, unintentional weirdness.

              1. No, i found the problem. After hours of mod incompatibility checking. It was an console command which saved the day. setnpcweight 35. i feel dumb right now. Just for conclusion.

  3. Great to see your still working on this Kris!

    Some comments:
    1. The reason you’re getting missing voices when packing this into a BSA is because the Archive.exe tool creates a corrupt file. You can check this by trying to unpack it using BAE (it’ll crash) or BSA Browser (it’ll finish with an error and +7000 files will be missing, mostly from the sound folder). The solution is to use the Create Archive function from within CK64. The CK will hang, complain and maybe crash, but I’ve been able to produce proper BSAs for both the previous alpha and this new beta. I know the BSAs I made are fine because after unpacking with BAE all files are present and identical to the originals. If you can’t get the CK to do its job, I can send you the 3.4.1 BSA I made (or just post the link here with your permission).

    2. I run the meshes through SSE NIF Optimizer using the default settings and did not get any crashes. No idea why it didn’t work for you but I can send you the fixed meshes if you wish.

    3. 3DNPC.esp overwrites many cell and worldspace fixes from the Unofficial SSE Patch. I imagine these are not critical but ideally they should be carried over with SSEEdit.

    1. Here is the link to the 3.4.1 BSA files I made (2.14gb download). It includes optimized meshes and the dg vampire facegen files posted above.
      https://mega.nz/#!oEJnVLyY!mwPpKzCxHQWPPhebwRUTDTlSpcgi9L5pcU-KnqU54Bg

      This one is just the optimized meshes as loose files (2mb). Made with SSE NIF Optimizer using the default settings. I processed everything except the facegen meshes as those are known to cause problems and should be exported with the CK64 instead (already done in this beta I believe).
      https://mega.nz/#!wMJXFIxJ!Ayq095J796ibksAW3E82GSwtlM72WpPxIOgBSuBUee8

      And this is the 3.4.1 esp with many USSEP fixes added back (sent to me by another modder).
      https://www.mediafire.com/file/8c91km4tm152f97/Interesting%20NPCs%203.4%20fixed%20esp.7z

      1. Unfortunately, using your BSA makes some of the voices not work, including Gnives in the Ragged Flagon. Once I deleted the .bsa files and restored the loose files, his voice started working again.

        1. You’re right, it has been reported to me and I’ve identified the problem, new file will be up in a few hours if all goes well.

        2. Yeah, hence my reluctance to use BSA. Of course, this doesn’t mean it’s impossible to pack it. I’ve been told via email some people have had success by splitting the BSAs into Voices, Textures, etc, and then editing the ini to recognize the new files.

          Eferas on Nexus, for example, sent me this link with these instructions:
          https://mega.nz/#!FKYDHQ6R!59S0JGk3mVi8S9deKGgx2wNw88fM5XJ8iywILrMo5C0

          In your skyrim.ini, search for “sResourceArchiveList2=” and add “3DNPC – Voices1.bsa, 3DNPC – Voices2.bsa” at the end of it. It must look like this:

          sResourceArchiveList2=Skyrim – Voices_en0.bsa, Skyrim – Textures0.bsa, Skyrim – Textures1.bsa, Skyrim – Textures2.bsa, Skyrim – Textures3.bsa, Skyrim – Textures4.bsa, Skyrim – Textures5.bsa, Skyrim – Textures6.bsa, Skyrim – Textures7.bsa, Skyrim – Textures8.bsa, Skyrim – Patch.bsa, 3DNPC – Voices1.bsa, 3DNPC – Voices2.bsa

          But again, even if someone tells you they packed it successfully, as the author I can’t really confirm that to be the case unless you verifiably tested every NPC and quest in the mod. So I don’t really know if the link above works either. It’s just really hard to test all the content because there’s so much of it. I just know loose files seem to be foolproof, so for now I’m going with that.

        3. My mistake was trusting a filesize comparison was enough to prove the files were identical before and after packing. I underestimated just how bad Bethesda’s Archive tool is, as it somehow manages to produce files which have the exact same filesize as the originals but are totally corrupt. I also thought that since packing through the CK produced BSAs that could be unpacked without errors and all files were present, then the problem was using the Archive tool by itself (or using it with the wrong settings). But that was only a part of the problem. The main issue is with the sheer number of audio files in this mod.

          I began using CRC to compare files before and after packing, and the “Sound\Voice\3DNPC.esp” folder must be split into two, even by itself its too large and leads to corruption. I’m doing some extra checks and I will being uploading the new files soon.

        4. Here’s the link to the new BSA files:
          https://mega.nz/#!RFJyRQAL!giW8Hkz6HuUlQ3-y9x_nBH_uV8yZXiJyW3oEvtp21O8

          Optimized meshes and vampire facegen included like before. I used dummy ESPs to load the extra BSAs but they’re optional, adding them to Skyrim.ini works just as well. I did a CRC after unpacking and all files match the originals. Kris or anyone else can easily check this as well, with my BSAs or those made by Eferas. The integrity of the BSAs and the files they contain, and whether NPCs/quests work properly or not, are two different matters. That said, this is indeed untested. It was reported to me that Rinori was voiceless with my previous files, she is voiced now, that’s it. Someone finds a different problem using my files, I’ll look into it.

          52k loose files lead to crazy load times in my setup, so for me BSA is the only option.

  4. I am so happy you are working on this – and hopefully publishing it soon. Interesting NPCs is, IMHO, one of those absolutely essential mods I wouldn’t want to miss!

  5. For SE version, should I still download the optional Dawnguard vampire face files or are they included? Since , well, Rinori‘s face and skin is … odd after updating.

    Thank you for updating! Still loving this mooood~

    // JUST READ THE ABOVE COMMENTS ignore this v.v Sorry, I should take my eyes to my hands sometimes and look.

  6. Hey Kris,

    Great job on the mod, reading through the comments I did not see a definite answer. Is the mod ready for use in a long term game or does it have to many instabilities to use right now?

    Thanks for all the great work you are doing.

  7. First, want to say the small bits of this mod I’ve experienced while putting together and testing my first SSE mod list have all been wonderful. Heard a lot of great reviews from Oldrim users, and it seems to be holding up. Can’t wait to see it all in roleplay.
    One probably I can’t figure out, with my admittedly amateur modding knowledge, the children added by this mod, or at least Olette and the girl the ex-dark brotherhood guy watches (can’t remember her name at the moment) have weird faces. I’m not sure its the infamous ‘black-face’ bug, since I’ve avoided facegen texture/mesh issues thus far. Its strange, they both look like little African girls from the neck up. Didn’t even notice it until ex-db guy commented on her supposedly having fair skin like his.
    I am using RSchildren, thus completely overhauling the vanilla children I think this mod was originally designed with. Is this the issue? If not, any suggestions?
    I’ve tried looking through comments and other discussions here and elsewhere, so I hope I haven’t missed an obvious answer.
    Any help appreciated, thanks much, both for the mod and any help with this!

    1. I actually found a patch for this on nexus. Not sure if I’m allowed to link it here? Not a big forum user, don’t know all the rules. But I got the problem sorted out. They now use vanilla assets and look a little chunky compared to RSchildren, but its better than before. If possible, could this be incorporated into the next update of this mod? Maybe with support for RSchildren, if it works that way?

  8. Is there a instruction how i can install this mod? Need i just put the things from the mod “data” folder in the skyrimSE Data Folder? Because how can i reinstall it then if it dont work right?

    1. You can add the downloaded file into the NMM and install or uninstall it as if you’ve downloaded it from the Nexus. Just use the green plus button. Since it is loose files it should install just fine. Then add, and install the SSE 3.42 hotfix file as usual. You can of course just do everything manually and drop the files into the data folder in this order.

  9. Thanks for the Special Edition port!

    I have a question that I’m hoping someone here may know something about. I’ve manually ported Hott Interesting NPCs from Oldrim. For some reason, even though the base IDs are the same, SSEEdit is not recognizing the conflict between the NPC records in 3DNPC.esp and Hott Interesting NPCs.esp. Instead, it’s treating the Hott Interesting NPCs as new records. The result is the 3DNPC version is loaded by the esps, but the facegendata is from Hott Interesting NPCs. Was anything changed for this version that might be causing this error? I can’t figure out why Hott Interesting NPCs.esp isn’t just overwriting the data from 3DNPC.esp. SSEEdit thinks both esps are conflict free, when there should be conflicts everywhere.

  10. You are probably aware of this, but on Special Edition a lot of the modded interiors result in buggy saves that do not appear under your character’s save file. I’ve gone around this so far by just simply not saving inside the modded interiors, because I’ve been lazy/scared to open the CK (never used it before). I read that it has something to do with the cell name having an “_” underscore and should be easy to fix just by removing the underscore from the name.

    I’m not sure if all interiors have had this issue but at least these ones I can remember off the top of my head:
    Rothvine manor
    The cave for “Transformation” quest.
    Wanderer’s rest.

    In the past I also had issues with some of the interiors for “Blood of Kings” questline but I have yet to try that one on the new version.

    Sorry if you already knew all of this. Thanks for the great mod, it is still my favorite. <3

    -Rimpeli

    (Hope it didn't post this a million times, since I had issues with it saying "Captcha didn't verify", while it didn't even give me a Captcha.)

  11. Seems the alternate locations patch for use with alternate start: live another life doesn’t work with the se version of the mod. Is there an alternative to this patch that will work, or am I just doing something wrong?

  12. I love the mod. I am still having darkface issues. I am pretty certain it is other mod related to be honest. Is there a best location for this mod in my mod order. Should it go before or after mods such as ApacheSkyHair?

  13. Hi Kris! I just made an account here to tell how I managed to pack the SSE version 3.4.2 in bsa format. I used zilav’s BSArch utility. The hurdle is that bsa’s, reportedly, shouldn’t be over 2GB even if the archiver allows it. I can’t be categoric but I also packed DynDOLOD and had crashes on load permanently until I split those assets through bsa’s that were all under 2Gb, the simplest explanation being that assets weren’t being loaded from the bigger bsa, which cause the CTD.

    Another complication is that sound files need to be uncompressed in bsa and, since this mod has over 2,4GB of voice files alone, it makes it impossible to archive them together in a bsa that’s under 2Gb. Fortunately, you don’t need to pack them all together, as long as you pack them all and make sure that all archives are loaded.

    So, I made one bsa with only sounds, as many as I could: all voice files from folder “bardvoice” to folder “zorafairchildvoice”, considered alphabetically. Named that bsa 3dNPC_Dummy.bsa and I created an empty plugin with Wrye Bash and named it 3dNPC_Dummy.esp. Then I packed all of the other files (remaining voice files, along with meshes, music, scripts, seq and textures) in another uncompressed bsa (because it also contained sounds) and named it 3dNPC.bsa. I set up a custom LOOT rule to make 3dNPC_Dummy.esp load after 3dNPC.esp – just to keep them close together, but not really necessary as long as all the assets in those bsa’s are unique.

    I know dummy plugins are not very popular with some people but I’ve realised, from my recent experience, that packing as much as I can of my loaded assets into bsa’s yields a performance and stability gain, relative to having them as loose files. Not to mention that the game loads much faster.

    Thank you very much for your great mod.

  14. Thanks for updating this for SSE, your mod is essential for every skyrim playthrough. I have a question about the frequency of “idle commentary” for superfollowers (these are the comments you hear when you’re just traveling around skyrim, not the ones with specific location/quest triggers).

    Are these lines supposed to be repeatable? I’ve noticed that when I first recruit an NPC, they say something once every 2 hours, but as time goes on, the frequency of these comments taper off. I actually like hearing from my superfollowers as I go about my travels, even if some of these lines are repeated – but it seems like they only play once. Is there a way to reset these comments (short of using the resetquest dialoguefollower3dnpc command)?

  15. Hey,

    Great mod! I installed it mid play through on a Skyrim SE run and it worked fine, went through all of Zora‘s quest line.

    Tried to start a fresh game with limited mods, the moment I install this one the game crashes after 5 mins of in game time O.o

    I spent 5 hours narrowing it down so I know its this one causing the issue, I used the Beta plus the hotfix so I don’t know why its crashing :(

    Does it have any dependencies at all that I might have missed (I couldn’t see any)?

    Cheers

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