Since there seems to be a lot of confusion getting body morphs installed and working in Skyrim, I thought it would be good to make a general guide for you lot.
First, I’m assuming whoever is reading this already knows the basics of installing mods, has their preferred mod manager installed and setup, and has the Skyrim Script Extender, or SKSE installed. If you don’t know how to do any of that, look up some beginner modding guides.
Second, there are two versions of Skyrim; Legendary Edition, or LE, which came out back in 2011, and Special Edition, or SE, which came out in 2016. I’ll be linking to LE and SE versions of all the mods I’ll be covering, so you can install this on whichever version of the game you prefer.
Starting off, you will need to download the following mods:
- RaceMenu [LE,SE]
- BodySlide and Outfit Studio [LE,SE]
- XP32 Skeleton [LE,SE]
- Body Physics Engine [HDT Physics for LE, CBP Physics for SE]
- Body, Armor, and Clothing with BodySlide Meshes (To Get Started Use: CBBE Body, Outfits for LE; CBBE Body and Outfits for SE)
Optional Mods to Use Morphs In-Game:
- RaceMenu CBBE Morphs [Included in BodySlide in LE, and CBBE in SE]: Allows you to change the morphs of your player character in the character creation menu.
- Weight Morphs [LE, SE]: Simplistic weight gain mod. Player character gains weight by eating food, and loses it by running, walking, sprinting, and jumping.
I also have made several mods that have weight gain or expansion elements in them. You can find them all here.
Once you have installed the above mods, you should have a lot of files in the Data/CalienteTools/Bodyslide folder. In there you will have the BodySlide.exe and BodySlide x64.exe, as well as the SliderSets and ShapeData folders, among some other stuff.
You will need to run one of the two BodySlide tools (either, depending on your Operating System) to build the outfits meshes so they can have morphs enabled. Depending on your mod organizer, you may need to run BodySlide through it for it to properly run. Just look up “Setting Up Bodyslide in [Your Mod Manager]”.
Once you have it set up, you will need to open it, select the outfits you want to build in the Outfit/Body drop down, select a preset in Presets drop down, and check the Build Morphs box in the bottom left, then select Build in the bottom center. IF YOU DON’T SELECT THAT CHECKBOX, MORPHS WON’T WORK. You will need to do this for every outfit you intend to use in game. If any of this is unclear, you should be able to find some video tutorials on how to use BodySlide out there.
Some outfit mods come with pre-built bodyslide meshes included in the mod. If you see files ending with .tri included in the outfit mod, you might be able to skip this step for that outfit. If the outfit looks like it changes your character’s body when you put it on, you should come back here and re-build that outfit using the instructions above.
Once you’ve built all the meshes, they will either be in the Data/Meshes folder of your Skyrim Directory, or they will be in an output section of your mod manager. You will want to move these meshes to their own mod in your mod organizer, and ensure they overwrite all conflicting meshes. This process is slightly different for each mod manager, so you should look up “Adding a mod manually for [Your Mod Manager]” if you are unsure how to do this.
If you managed to install all of this correctly you will be able to change your character’s body shape, and cause them to gain weight using the optional mods listed above.
A good way to test if morphs are working is to use the RaceMenu CBBE Morphs mod, and open the character creation menu using the game console (press the tilde (~) key, then type “showracemenu” into the console), then move to the CBBE tab and try messing around with the sliders.
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