zEBD-NPC appearance customizer and randomizer

This is a zEdit patch that allows you to assign textures to NPCs either randomly or through rules, which can be as broad or specific as you want. Makes soldiers crumble, shopkeepers become more "padded", younger NPCs look younger, and older NPCs look more weathered. Everything is fully customizable - make your Skyrim characters look just how you like!

Why choose zEBD?

Picture this: you have all the modules installed, your ENB is nice and shiny, and you are ready to start your adventure. If you play games in VR, you'll be immersed like never before. You'll travel to Riverwood, where the interesting NPC Gorr gives a speech to Hjoromir. Your immersion knows no bounds...wait a minute, will Hjoromir have more wrinkles than Gorr? Why did Gore call him "Boy"? Maybe he is short-sighted? You keep pressing, but the immersion takes a hit. You arrive at Whiterun and stop for a drink at Bannered Mare. Ah, immersion again. This is Saadia from "Ordinary Women" talking to Bijin's Hulda. You settle comfortably into your chair...wait, did Saadia just call her "mom"? Who did she think she was kidding, they looked the same size! Maybe the hammer fell on her head? The immersion is broken and your anger withdraws in disgust. All these modifications and now you don't even want to play. Well, not anymore.

What's this

zEBD is a zEdit patch based on MongoMonk's Everybody's Different Redone Skyproc patch. It can assign assets (mainly textures, but possibly meshes as well) to NPCs. Two advantages of zEBD are:

• You can set rules to assign textures - limit muscle normal maps to warriors, limit older look skins to citizens, limit older look skins to players with younger voice types. If you can find it in xEdit, you can set the rules.

• zEBD itself does not come with any texture packs and does not need to be shared to do its job. Instead, it uses "configuration files" that allow you to easily install textures and distribute them to NPCs. Just download the required config files, download the textures from the official source (or elsewhere), install them into the correct folder (not through the Mod Manager), and run the patch. Configuration files are designed to make installation as easy as possible.

how to use it

1: Install everyone's different redo and give MongoMonk/TheBearMan the stamp of approval! SkyrimVR users must also download and install optional files. My fix is ​​pretty much just a front-end to tell EBD which textures to apply. The work of Skyrim itself is done by EBD. You don't need to run the EBD patch, just download and install the mod via your Mod Manager.

2: Install zEdit if it is not already installed

3: Download zEBD and install it to zEdit\modules

4: Download any configuration file you want to use and follow the (very simple) instruction text file included in the download. This pretty much consists of: selecting one or more *.json configuration files, placing them in zEdit\modules\zEBD\zEBD Assets\Asset Pack settings, downloading the actual texture pack, and extracting it to the specified location.

5: Start zEdit, customize the options as needed, and run the patch.

The zEBD download includes complete PDF documentation to guide you step-by-step on how to run the patch, how to customize the options, and (if you want to use a texture pack for which I have not provided a profile), how to make your own profile starting from one of the blank templates I provide.

compatibility

This is a zEdit patch, so it should be compatible with almost everything. The generated zEBD.esp should be near the end of the load order along with other zEdit patches. It should take into account any other NPC modifications.

So far I've found a few exceptions:

Erikur from "Winter Men" gets a stitch. I think it has something to do with the look on his face. Try to find out what the problem is. In my testing, the mod's other NPCs seemed fine.

NPCs with non-default head meshes look incorrect. For example, the new Refined Vokihars mod uses a "charm" that " …