About Better Bodies

Better Bodies has been an ongoing project since February 2003 dedicated to replacing the original segmented models of Morrowind with fully deformable, continuous bodies. Our goal was to make a body mod that a modder could easily make clothing for, and that also looked more realistic than the models that come with the game.

Q. My old clothes don't fit me anymore without pieces sticking out where they shouldn't! Why not?
A. The way the old bodies were made, static pieces were used for all body parts except the hands and the chest. This had the advantage of making it easy to create clothing and armor for these bodies since static objects are easier to make, but it led to the bodies, clothing, and armor, not being very realistic. We replaced all of the static parts with deformable parts, and naturally they don't always line up right with all of the old armor and clothing. However, our models for version 2.1 are much better than the 1.0 models as far as lining up with original clothing and armor.

Q. The underwear in some early screenshots I saw looks really nice. Why isn't my character wearing it?
A. The textures in those screenshots are from the old 0.83 beta. We redid the model though, and those textures don't work on it anymore. The textures are available to anyone who wants to try making them into clothing though.

Q. Female characters look really strange. The models look ok, but the textures are all in the wrong place.
A. This is caused by a conflict with files installed by the old 0.83 beta. The easiest way to fix it is to do a search on your computer for files containing "bb_skinf" and then delete them all. Now reinstall BB 2.1.

Q. Does that mean you won't be making Better Clothes?
A. Of course we will. The original clothing still could use a lot of improvements, plus we have to make the clothes conform to our new slot standard. However, it won't be as urgent that we replace any of the clothes.

Q. Can I help with Better Clothes?
A. Better Clothes is open to anyone interested in making textures or meshes for it. We will be releasing the 3D Studio Max source files for Better Bodies in order to help make this easier.

Q. Do you plan to release any new versions of Better Bodies?
A. Probably not. Part of our goal was to get it right the first time so that modders wouldn't have to worry about changing meshes. However, we did change our meshes from version 2.0 in order to maintain more backwards compatibility with the older meshes. Now that we've done that, we have no more reason to change the mesh. If we do update Better Bodies, the meshes will probably not change, and if they do change will only change very little.

Q. How many versions of Better Bodies have there been?
A. Four so far. There was the beta, which had only females and could either be installed nude or with underwear. Then there was BB 1.0 which had naked models only, and didn't line up so well with existing models. BB 2.0 added improved textures and models as well as new first-person hands, and the models lined up much better with existing clothes. BB 2.1 is primarily a bug fix, although it does feature improved third-person hands.

Q. Is there any way that you can notify me when you release new mods?
A. We had a thing going a while back where if you registered at our forums, we'd email you when we released a new mod. However, we now have so many people registered that the spam preventer on our web server won't let us email them all.

Q. I'm interested in using your models for something besides a Morrowind mod.
A. That depends what you're going to use them for. Please let us know either by email or on our forums of your plans.

Q. My character portrait on my inventory screen looks strange now that I've installed Better Bodies. Is this a bug?
A. It is not a bug with our mod. This is a position hard-coded into Morrowind, and we cannot change it. If you want to see how your character looks, a much better way is to hold down the tab key and move the mouse. This way you can see your character from every angle.

Q. Which races are replaced?
A. The eight non-beast races are replaced. This includes every race except Argonians and Khajiit. Obviously, custom races are not replaced either.

Q. Are there any plans to replace the beast races?
A. Yes, in a separate mod entitled "Beastly Features." You can see details of this mod in the "Beastly Features" section of our forums. However, Zenorf hasn't done much with Beastly Features lately, and some other modders went ahead and made their own version of it, which can be found here.

Q. I want to be able to switch between nude and underwear versions, how do I do that?
A. The easiest way would be to keep the Better Bodies installation program on your computer. When you want to switch between model sets, just run the installer, select the model set you want, finish the installation, and the models in the game will reflect your last installation choice.

Q. I really like XX race mod. Can you redo it so it works with Better Bodies?
A. You'd be better off asking the creator of the mod. Humanoid races would not be difficult to redo the textures on.

Q. Can I put your mod up for download on my website?
A. Right now we have no shortage of bandwidth, so it would be best to just link directly to our download page so that people get the latest version when they download it. If you still want to put our mod up for download somewhere, we'd rather you ask us just so we know. If you try to contact us via our forums and email to ask us, and we still don't answer, then go ahead and do it.

Q. I'm making a mod and I want to include your bodies with it. Can I do that?
A. The bottom line is, if you are not going to make any real change to the bodies or if you're not going to make a total conversion, make your mod dependent on ours rather than using our models. There are three types of mods that I can envision needing to include our models.

Probably the most common type of mod that people would make that would use our models would add new clothing or armor or some other sort of equipment that fit over the new bodies rather than the old ones. If this is the type of mod you are making, DO NOT add our body meshes and textures in your mod. This will only lead to screwed up dependencies and dirty mods. Instead, make it so that our mod is required to be installed before yours is. To do this, open up the construction set and check Morrowind, Tribunal, and/or Bloodmoon depending on what expansions you want your mod to be dependent on. Then check our Better Bodies mod and your mod, making sure to set your mod as the active file. Save your mod and you're done. Feel free to link your users directly to our download page.

The second type of mod that would use our models is a new race mod or a unique NPC or monster in a mod. If this is the type of mod you are making, feel free to use our models, but please give Psychodog Studios credit for whatever you used of ours.

The third type of instance in which someone would want to use our models is in a total conversion. Again, you're free to use our models in your mod, but please give us credit where it's due. If you aren't sure how you should implement the new bodies, ask for help on our forums.

Q. Are there any other limits as to what I can do with the Better Bodies source files?
A. Yes. You aren't allowed to alter the shape of the meshes and then use them to make and release a mod that replaces the standard Morrowind races. You can make a custom race with altered meshes, and you can release textures packs that replace the textures of the standard Morrowind races. You can also use the altered meshes to make a creature. Just as long as you don't use our files to make a mesh that is different from ours, and then use that mesh in a mod that replaces the standard races, you're free to use the files we've released.