SCRAMBLED APPEARENCE AND ATTRIBUTES FIXES FOR PROTEUS 3.3.1

PLEASE READ THE DESCRIPTION IN THE ORIGINAL PROTEUS MOD PAGE AS WELL AS THE STICKY COMMENT!

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL GUIDE AND MERELY MY UNDERSTANDING OF IT AFTER SOME EXTENSIVE TESTING!


PLEASE BACKUP YOUR FILES BEFORE PLAYING AROUND WITH THIS!

Proteus files: \Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\JCUser\Proteus
RaceMenu Presets: \SKSE\Plugins\CharGen (check overwrite folder if using Mo2)

EXPLAINING PRESET FILES:
I've done some extensive testing to see how Proteus reads and handles appearences. I am going to explain the things I have found out and some methods that work for me in this guide in regards to character appearences getting scrambled. How I am able to prevent appearence "mixing" and how I do to start new games. As well as some other minor potential bug fixes.

In the Proteus folder there are files that are generated. Be advise that you will be able to move and edit these files while Skyrim is running. We will use the name "Prisoner" as our dummy character in this guide.
You will notice that Proteus has certain files that end with _ and a number. For example "Proteus_NPC_List_1" what this means is that this NPC belongs to the world _1 according to Proteus. I can't tell you for certain how it detects or assigns that world file but if you empty the folder and start a new game, and save your first character it should assign the files as "_1" (It's possible if you already have a save world and you start a new game, it will assign it to _2 but it requires further testing and isn't that important, I personally never play with more than one world at a time). The numbers at the end have to match for Proteus to recognize them as being in the same world. It's important to note that when you create a character and finish its creation in RaceMenu, RaceMenu saves the RaceMenu preset automatically under the same name as the character name, this has nothing to do with Proteus. In other words creating "Prisoner" in RaceMenu automatically creates the preset "Prisoner". Further, when you save a character with Proteus, it also automatically saves the preset.

NOTE: You can also "savepieceme" only the appearence of a character with Proteus and name it something else but I have not done enough testing to understand how this works exactly. As long as you use `savepieceme` and save the appearence under the same name as the character's name, all it should do is overwrite the preset files in RaceMenu's CharGen folder, just like if you would save a preset in RaceMenu manually (default F5) under the same name as the character OR if you simply finish creating and naming your character. Also note that using 'savepieceme appearence' under a different name than your character name, and saving a preset in RaceMenu under a different name than your character is NOT the same thing so don't play with this if you don't know what you're doing.

Now let's take a look at some JSON files that are saved and what they mean.

File: "Proteus_Character_PresetsLoaded_1" (This is a list of all the presets that are currently loaded in "world _1")

File: "Proteus_Character_PresetsLoaded_Prisoner_1" (These are all the presets loaded for the character "Prisoner" in "world _1". Normally it will just have a single line such as: "0_ProteusPlayerPreset_Prisoner": "Prisoner" and that's it, all my characters have a 0 at the beginning in this line, this probably is related to savepieceme under other names with that character but at this point I haven't tested that to be able to tell you what it means for certain. In any case I would personally never delete this file, only change the _1 if I had to.)

File: "ProteusPresetsLoadedGV_Prisoner_1" (This is a very important file. This file links the two files above together. Inside of it you will see GV1 and GV2. I don't know what GV2 is, but for me GV1 is what assigns the preset slot of Prisoner in world _1. So if the PresetsLoaded_1 sets the character Prisoner as 2_ProteusPlayerPreset_Prisoner": "Prisoner" with a 2 at the start, GV1 MUST be set to "2". The 0 here is NOT the same as the 0 in the beginning of the line in the file above.
So to make it less confusing, match all files with _1 to make them all in the world _1, then match the number in the GV files with the PresetsLoaded number for that character.

File: "Proteus_NPC_List_1" (The NPC list of "world _1", I've not done enough testing on this yet to know how to edit this properly if you delete a single character in this list so back it up)

File: "Proteus_Character_PresetLoaded_1" (This is NOT the same as the first file in this list. This is the Preset CURRENTLY loaded for "world_1", so think about that if you want to go back to an old save file with another character. It doesn't always actually load this preset on game start even if the box is checked in MCM, so make sure this file is correct just in case! The best thing is to load pieceme appearence once you load that old save, or edit this file before you do.)

HOW TO FIX SCRAMBLED ATTIRBUTES

This is not really a Proteus bug, this happens because you opened RaceMenu and you changed the race of your character. If you load pieceme attributes only it will restore your attributes and you're fine. Normally Skyrim would reset all your progress if you did this, with Proteus the only difference is it scrambles the attributes.

HOW TO SAFELY EDIT CHARACTER APPEARENCE

If everything is correct in the files above you should be able to simply open the RaceMenu through Proteus and edit your character without problems. However, if you encounter a bug where upon opening RaceMenu through Proteus, the face/skeleton is glitched, I will show you a workaround for this:

Exit your game, restart Skyrim. Start a new game. Select the race and sex of the character you wish to edit. Load preset the preset in RaceMenu, edit the appearence and then save the preset in RaceMenu (F5/F9). Finish character creation and name it anything, Prisoner for example. Then save pieceme appearence as the character name of who you actually want to change. Then exit. Now delete all contents of Prisoner or your dummy character in the folder and all excess files that came from that save, which should end with _2. Reload skyrim, load your character and if you didn't enable autoload preset on game start in the Proteus MCM then just use load pieceme appearence and type in the name of your character, and that should load your new appearence.

HOW TO START A NEW SAVE

Move everything outside of your Proteus folder into another folder temporarily, multiple backups never hurt even if you've done this many times. Now your Proteus folder is empty. Next clean the temporary folder by removing all GV files, NPC list, PresetLoaded and PresetsLoaded, in my case it will always have _1 in the end. Do not delete anything that has your character name in it unless it's a dummy file.

If you want to actually create a new character in this new world all you do is start a new game, create a character and save it, then move your files from the temporary folder back into Proteus. You can import the characters by typing the name manually, after that they appear on the NPC list.

Now, if you don't want to create a new character but still start a new game, you do everything the same except at the end of it you import any of your characters manually, switch into it, then delete the dummy character with the Proteus wheel (to make sure it's removed ingame) and then delete the dummy character's files from your Proteus folder as well as the NPC list_1 and the PresetsLoaded_1 and all GV_ files and by that I mean the GV file that was generated for the character you imported and switched into (you don't need to exit Skyrim while doing this), after that you just go back into Skyrim and save your character. And there you go, this will start a new game for you as if you started it with one of your characters you already had, cutting out the dummy character in the beginning.

EXTRA: Immersive Equipment Display has previously caused a CTD when importing a character that has had a torch favorited (this happened pre 3.3.1).

EXTRA: CTD on character switch? Load the save and switch again!

Comments are DISABLED on this modpage so to not divert and split the comment section from the original Proteus mod page, which favors the comment section as bug reporting which I believe to be the smart thing to do. If phenderix prefers I will enable the comment section on this modpage. Further phenderix is obviously free to edit or use this guide if and when he wants or has time to do so. I will be updating this guide as my knowledge of these things expand.

Finally, I just want to thank phenderix for creating in my opinion the best mod in any Bethesda game ever. Letting you not only back up your characters and move them between saves, which is incredibly useful in and of itself, but to experience the world of Skyrim through the eyes of multiple characters all in the same world, or even multiple worlds. I have had some incredible moments with this mod, and I never have to lose my character progress even when when starting new playthroughs for the sake of adding or removing mods. This mod has, for all intends and purposes, changed the way I play Skyrim forever.