Missing MacKom-Like Heads for TR - OpenMW Compatibility Fix
🟡 Updated this year⚠️ Install Order · 2 steps
Install in this order, then this mod last — most mods fail to load without their framework and dependencies in place.
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📋 About This Mod
Removes detail maps used as fake normals to fix visual errors in OpenMW.
Description
This patch mod fixes a rendering bug in Dandion's Project HEADS - Missing MacKom-Like Heads for TR that appears in OpenMW in general, and additionally when in conjunction with PBR SSS Heads (Vanilla - TD - MacKoms - and Watercolor Patches).
56 of the 81 head meshes in the base mod hardcode their Detail texture slot to a filename ending in "_n.dds" -- the same suffix OpenMW's shader uses to auto-detect normal maps. That means the same file always gets sampled twice: once as the (auto-detected) normal map, once as a flat color Detail overlay.
Even without the PBR SSS pack, this double-sampling already happens with the base mod's own black-and-white texture -- since it's grayscale rather than a real tangent-space normal map, it renders overly sharp -- harsh, exaggerated fake-bump lighting, like cracks and wrinkles etched into the skin, rather than an obvious color glitch. With the PBR SSS pack installed, that same file gets replaced by a real normal map, and the double-sampling becomes an obvious purple/blue tint.
This patch disables only the broken Detail slots on the 56 affected meshes, so the real normal map provided in PBR SSS renders the way it's supposed to. The other 25 heads in the base mod also carry a Detail slot, but it points at an unrelated texture rather than their own "_n" file -- no collision, so they are left untouched.
Installation instructions
- Install the base mod and optionally the PBR SSS pack per their own instructions.
- Install this patch after the base mod, so its meshes win. This patch only ships NIFs, no textures, so its position relative to the Watercolor/SSS pack doesn't matter.
- No ESP/ESM -- meshes only, drop-in install.
Main features
- Fixes the overly sharp rendering and with PBR SSS the purple/blue skin tint on 56 affected heads, spanning every race and gender in the base mod.
- Minimal byte-level patch -- only the broken texture slots are disabled, nothing else touched.
- Every mesh is verified with OpenMW's own NIF parser (niftest) before release.
- No gameplay, script, or record changes of any kind.
- Leaves all 25 unaffected heads completely alone.
Requirements
- Dandion's Project HEADS - Missing MacKom-Like Heads for TR
For the assets and the meshes this patch overrides. Hard requirement.
- PBR SSS Heads (Vanilla - TD - MacKoms - and Watercolor Patches)
As a true normal map provider and more. Soft requireme
📊 Mod Details
- Game
- Morrowind Mods
- Author
- Roquentin
- Version
- 1.1
- Downloads
- 28
- Endorsements
- 1
- Category
- Patches
- Created
- 7/30/2026
- Updated
- 7/30/2026
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