Neck seam in clean, vanilla Skyrim.

[Slimane]

I started playing Skyrim again for the first time in many years, but I had an old installation and decided to try with it. Not long after I realized I had a subtle neck seam. I tried countless things and nothing worked.

So I completely deleted everything related to skyrim or it's mods. Including all folders and the mod manager itself. I then did a clean install of Skyrim on a new drive. I launch the game with a single mod (live another life so I can skip the intro) and I STILL have the same neck seam I had before I did a clean reinstall.

I haven't played Skyrim forever, is it normal that even vanilla skyrim has some neck seams? Or what the hell is going on?

https://prnt.sc/dcQBfGFVxdL7

[Alex]

Just use paint or something to cut out the relevant part of the picture.

So you do have RaceMenu. It's also a mod, you know. Not only that, it certainly affects textures. You should've mentioned it.

The first seam looked like the usual texture issue. This means that the head and body textures, their normalmaps or overlays (dirt, age, tattoos, etc.) do not match. In your case, its most likely an overlay. But, if everything's vanilla, this shouldn't happen. Therefore, something did manage to sneak in a different texture, or is distorting the existing ones.
1. It's a mod or just a remnant, maybe an overlay from the facetint folder.
2. ENB is acting up.
3. Hi-Res texture packs messed up during install.
4. (very rare) your graphic card driver acts up

The second and third ones are different. To me, they seem like an issue with RaceMenu. You see, it can add a number of problems.
1. You can place/change/modify the overlays freely.
2. It's even possible to switch the face archetype/complexion
3. There are two import features, preset and sculpt. Those can certainly mess up things:
-"Presets" sometimes come with their own textures. If those don't match the body ones, you'll get a seam.
-"Sculpt" reshapes the head mesh. It won't care for the body mesh or the weight setting, therefore, it can produce not just a seam, but an actual gap.

So, let's see:
1. Install a matching texture set for the body and face.
2. Check whether any of the RaceMenu presets you use come with texture files and if those match your textures. If you use head mesh import, make sure to match the weight settings.
3. Try to switch between the different overlays in RaceMenu (age, dirt, complexion, etc.) and see if this removes the seam.

[Slimane]

A seam is visible even when I have no mods at all. That same seam you see is visible with or without racemenu. I only started reinstalling some mods after I still had the seam on a clean reinstall because I was considering playing with the seam.

In the latest 3 screenshots I have provided, I'm using no body or skin mod. And when I do use a body/skin combo it's UNP and Fair skin which descriptions of both mods say that they should work perfectly together. Fair Skin even has a UNP version download.

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51602/?

As you can see the UNP is part of the installation requirements and there is also a specific file for UNP body.

I did download a preset, but the preset does not come with any textures as far as I know.
Here is the preset that I downloaded: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/104677

It did require High Poly Head. But as I said. The seam was visible with or without the mods including high poly head and the seam is still present after a full clean reinstall with or without high poly head.

The seam is present immediately when I switch from the default male face to the default female face, even without racemenu.

1. The modders themselves say those two should work together, so can you suggest two different ones you think might fix this.
2. I checked the files and as far as I know, it does not.
3. No effect.

[xxx]

I'm working on this...

Here's my setup

First I installed skse

my skse.ini has the following
....
you can adjust your skse.ini
or just download the following
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/51038

I used the following UNP all in one package
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/20884
last updated about a year ago

I only use one file from From the Fair Skin Mod Page
the BlankDetailMap.dds fix

that's it...I never had a problem

but if you have a problem Alex can tell you more

see also
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/65684?tab=description
and
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/46967/

[Alex]

1. Seams with no mods should be impossible. So there's something in there. Do you have ENB, by the way?
2. Can you upload the save file somewhere? I can check the head mesh.
3. That preset uses a head mesh sculpt file. If applied to a char with the wrong weight, it will cause a gap.
4. There are various textures for UNP, it needs to match the specific set.

Also, did you modify the ini files in some way?

[xxx]

Regarding that preset and my set up

That file actually contains two presets

1st.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1865069180890300411/EBC63BD8D768D6F4062D299A05B2E1C3E59414B2/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Comments: She's a wood elf preset. The colors between the head and the body are slightly off. One of eyes brows is messed up. But she doesn't have the same neck steam problem that was originally reported

2nd.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1865069180890298847/B15D07DCB2C47B300C19A086BF81A1AB6CAB5A97/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

Comments: Female wood elf. Eye Brow messed up. But she doesn't have the same neck steam issue that was originally reported

Publicado originalmente por Alex:

1. There are various textures for UNP, it needs to match the specific set.

you're absolutely right

Oh yeah...regarding my setup...I adjusted somethings to work with my male texture files...

[Alex]

Yeah, RaceMenu can add a lot of seam problems on top of the usual ones. Especially the import feature, as well as the "complexion" slider often need extensive troubleshooting.