No more duplicate NPCs

No more duplicate

Dynamically replace duplicate NPCs

Mod detects and swaps duplicate NPC looks. What to change the duplicative appearance? There are two strategies that you can configure:

• Creating a unique appearance: Fashion creates a unique NPC appearance by randomizing the appearance of every thing on an NPC (including the color of skin, hair, clothing, and other accessories). A typical NPC has 5-10 such "clothing components", each of which has an average of 5-10+ looks, which actually makes tens of thousands of visually different combinations.
• Replacing existing looks: The mod changes the NPC to an alternate look already defined in the base game. This will be the look you've probably seen before, but it won't be duplicated among the generated NPCs.
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The two strategies can be mixed and used simultaneously in different proportions and controlled using the frequency slider in the Fashion Settings.

The creation of unique looks is possible only thanks to Codeware. From time to time, she creates interesting NPC looks.

In theory, when creating unique looks, you should always see new unique NPCs for replaced NPCs. Note: the NPCs themselves do not change completely, but only their outfit/skin color, so that the faces can be the same if you look very closely.

"WOW - what's the catch?"

Creating unique looks requires a lot of GPU/CPU. Substituting existing faces is not.

Unique Appearance Creation cannot be used on cheap PCs (especially those that do not support RT) and will cause stutter/freeze. So in this case, you only need to use Existing Appearance Swap. I am not sure what the exact threshold is, but some VRAM is required.

The first time you install a mod, it will automatically detect your graphics settings and set a conservative swap strategy.

Both strategies work independently of each other, whether you choose one or not, or decide to choose a mixture between them - either way you'll see the removal of duplicates, so it's basically a matter of preference. You can adjust the frequency as you like, depending on the state of your PC and whether or not there are performance issues.

How the slider works

Use the slider to control how often "Create a unique appearance" versus "Exchange an existing appearance" is used as a strategy to avoid duplicating the NPC.

INCREASE the value of this slider to increase the frequency of creating a unique appearance. Thus, the higher the value of the slider, the higher the proportion of unique NPC appearances and the higher the cost of the GPU.

Conversely, decrease the slider to increase the replacement frequency of existing faces.

For low-level PCs, the slider will be automatically set to 0% when first set. This means that no unique look will be used, only the existing look strategy. (0% does not mean that the mod does not work. It simply means that only the existing appearance is used).

Questions and Answers

Is that a magic bullet? Does he solve all the problems?

No. Maud is trying his best, and there is no 100% guarantee that you will never see duplicates, although it should be close to that. There are a variety of opt-out options, including basic game bugs, the quirks of implementing crowds in the base game, and other things that interfere with the work.

Maude also tries to solve the problem of "Have I not seen this NPC elsewhere before?". - however, this cannot be fully resolved due to the mob's implementation in the game. But it is trying to reverse the appearance of new NPCs as much as possible.

Does it change the looks of gangs, cops, etc.?

No. Only NPCs from the crowd change places.

Gangs, NCPDs, armed NPCs, and quest NPCs do not change. Dead NPCs or NPCs driving a vehicle are also not affected.

How to Report Problems

If you notice problems or a large number of duplicate NPCs even after installation, please use the "Debug Overlay" in the Fashion Settings and take a screenshot of the duplicate NPC/in the game with the visible Debug Overlay.

You can enable debugging overlay to see real-time fashion performance. It will update the statistics as well as apply a yellow backlight on the NPC with the changed looks. Attach a screenshot of the debug overlay when sending an error message.

Compatibility

Fashions on NPC appearance ✅

Should be compatible with any other mods that add new faces to the crowd.

The mod includes some archival changes, but is designed to avoid conflicts with other mods that make archival changes.

However - the results may vary depending on the mod for the appearance of the crowd. If you are still seeing a lot of duplicates after installation, try removing mods that add appearance and see if this will change the situation. Use debug overlays to compare the value of "% processed" before and after installation.

Fashions for crowd density NPC ✅

Mod does not replace the "entities" of NPC, so it does not change the behavior of the spawn - the mod only reads and changes the appearance of the NPCs. Therefore, it must be compatible with any mods that change crowd density, including Nova Crowds and Psycho Crowds.