How are you supposed to install a skin texture?

[Dumbo Octopus]

Is it possible to do it mid-game, since your character's already created? I'm having trouble getting mine to work (I also have No More Block Faces which has some conflicting files).

[Dumbo Octopus]

For redguardfemale, imperialfemale, highelffemale, femaleorc, female, darkelffemale and bretonfemale, femalehead_msn.dds is conflicting between NMBF and Fair Skin Complexion.

[76561198034396398]

try removing no more blocky faces,after looking at the files if you install the main file first it should overwrite NMBF with it's own msn files,i'd try using NMM to install the main file,it'll say femalehead.msn is already installed overwrite ? say yes

[Dumbo Octopus]

I don't quite understand your instructions, if you could re-word them I would appreciate it. I sort of get what you're talking about but I don't want to mess anything up

[76561198034396398]

use Nexus mod manager to install Fair skin complextion it should overwrite no more blocky faces (sorry i had a few drinks)

[Dumbo Octopus]

Isn't it already overwriting NMBF? In MO there's a lightning symbol with a green plus and when the mod is selected, NMBF is highlighted in red. I believe this means Fair Skin Complexion is overwriting files in NMBF?

[76561198034396398]

i don't use Mod manager but that sounds correct actually i think i might know why your having a problem in the folder D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\Textures\actors\character\female theres a FemaleHead.msn file
in D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\Textures\actors\character\bretonfemale there's also the same file... they have to match

[Dumbo Octopus]

What do you mean "they have to match"?

[76561198034396398]

okay perhaps try a different approach open the archive for Fair Skin Complexion look in the folder named Skin_n_base\textures\actors\character now copy those files manually to D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Skyrim\Data\Textures\actors\character and overwrite the existing files

[Stoob]

For texture replacers, there is only one location so installing a further texture mod will overwrite the previous. I personally find it easiest to copy/paste body textures.

...\Skyrim\Data\textures\actors\character\female

Originally posted by Dididoo:

What do you mean "they have to match"?

The 'normals' (*_msn.dds), which imply shading, are designed to be seamless with each other - so if you're using Fair Skin Complexion for example all the normals should be from that mod. The normal for the Nord face is in the regular female folder as above, whereas the face normal for Breton, Orc, Imperial, etc are located in their own folders (\bretonfemale, \femaleorc, etc). If the normals in all these folders are not from the same mod's texture set, there will be seams and colour mis-matches.

The same applies to the diffuse textures and is more obvious when they mis-match, but the normals issues can be elusive if you don't know what you're looking for.