[Skyrim] Smoother & cleaner character faces
You may have noticed that characters in Skyrim have unusually jagged noses, chins, ears, etc. You may also have noticed that they have what appears to be low-resolution textures and a layer of filth.
This is largely because Bethesda seems to have been utterly inept when it comes to creating "normal maps" for faces. Normal maps are an invisible 2D texture, placed atop the real texture for a model, which are interpreted by the game as additional detail that interacts with the game's lighting system. Normal maps are a great way to add additional detail, and the illusion of 3D depth, without actually adding more polygons to a game.
The normal maps that ship with Skyrim are blocky, pixelated, and just poorly done in general. This mod will resolve that issue, giving every character in the game a more natural and human appearance.
To see what I mean, see this screenshot. On the left, you'll notice obvious blockiness around the chin, nose and mouth, all of which cause the lighting engine in Skyrim to treat these as surfaces to bounce light off of. As a result, characters end up looking like they were crudely chiseled from a block of wood, rather than made of flesh and blood.
To install this mod, grab the recent versions of both "No More Blocky Faces" and "Less Ugly Elven Faces" from this site. Both files should come as zips containing a DATA folder, which you must install to your Skyrim folder. When prompted, overwrite any information.
This is largely because Bethesda seems to have been utterly inept when it comes to creating "normal maps" for faces. Normal maps are an invisible 2D texture, placed atop the real texture for a model, which are interpreted by the game as additional detail that interacts with the game's lighting system. Normal maps are a great way to add additional detail, and the illusion of 3D depth, without actually adding more polygons to a game.
The normal maps that ship with Skyrim are blocky, pixelated, and just poorly done in general. This mod will resolve that issue, giving every character in the game a more natural and human appearance.
To see what I mean, see this screenshot. On the left, you'll notice obvious blockiness around the chin, nose and mouth, all of which cause the lighting engine in Skyrim to treat these as surfaces to bounce light off of. As a result, characters end up looking like they were crudely chiseled from a block of wood, rather than made of flesh and blood.
To install this mod, grab the recent versions of both "No More Blocky Faces" and "Less Ugly Elven Faces" from this site. Both files should come as zips containing a DATA folder, which you must install to your Skyrim folder. When prompted, overwrite any information.
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Comments
Thanks for this, Thrax. I'm glad Bethesda finally learned how to make characters not look like decaying cadavers, but they still fail in the attractiveness department.
Yeah, I learned something but whatever.
I was going to ask that too, but I figured the obvious answer was "nobody".