As it's been just about 5 years since I released my Khajiit NPC overhaul, Project ja-Kha'jay, I'm ready to revisit it and come up with a new gameplan.
Basics
CotM will be built on Race Compatibility SKSE. This is so the custom furstocks can be correctly built as new races, while be recognized as Khajiit by the game. RCS has the added benefit of conflict-free armor addons, meaning you won't need to patch every custom race mod with CotM or have invisible bodies.
Heads
All heads will now be high poly and from unified sources. Bestial furstocks will all use the head meshes from Enhanced Khajiit (EK.) Humanoid furstocks will use High Poly Heads + EFM (and Ohmes-Raht will benefit from my Lunar Lattive Tweaks mods.)
High poly heads are *much* easier to sculpt, and Enhanced Khajiit has a really polished look. I formerly used Khajiit Overhaul for the majority of the Cathay, but the male heads had some very strange noses. The tiger/lionlike heads were lowpoly and VERY hard to sculpt, but EK has a dedicated slider for rounded ears that looks excellent.
Additionally, I'm gonna be making use of the excellent mod K.C.C.E. for its additional sliders.
Textures
Right now, my plan is to use EK for the base diffuse, as it is patternless, but also uses CoverKhajiit's details around the eyes (which is very much needed for the Serval/Tojay heads.)
For coat patterns, I will create a variety of patterns and overlay them over my base diffuse. This will make them more unified than PJKJ, which used a variety of textures from a few different authors, all with differing styles. Here's the start of the base fur (though I've since fixed the seam on the female's neck and head.)
I want to make a variety of coats, inspired by real cats, including:
Plain (lionlike)
Spotted (bobcat)
Rosettes (jaguar, leopard)
Tiger (striped, white belly)
Tabby (striped)
All types will get pawpads on their hands and feet.
Normal maps are a mix of EK (too smooth on it's own, but seamless) and CoverKhajiit (adds a bit more fur depth look when overlayed.)
Currently unclear if I can make the textures work with Vanilla bodies, as EK is CBBE/HIMBO only. Will try to blend textures with upscaled Vanilla ones for the bits that are different.
Ohmes-Raht will get a new texture as well, hopefully fixing all the seams (Lunar Lattice Tweaks retexture will also get updated.)
Eye textures are also a little more unified, with some pupil variation. See this post for details.
Height
Height will only be changed via race height: I'm no longer using custom skeletons for Cathay-Raht and Pahmar. The ones I used for PJKJ had lengthened arms that made animations clip.
Tails and Digitigrade Feet
I am planning on using fluffy tails, as it actually has some nice shell textuing (doesn't stick straight out) but with the physics removed. I plan on using a few different lengths and degrees of fluffiness. Also, the lion tail will be coming back, as will Ohmes-Raht's less fluffy tails. This post shows some of the work I've started on fluffy tails (though Tumblr refuses my appeal, there is nothing mature about the post 🙄)
I haven't decided which digitigrade feet I will be using, but this time around I will make sure they fit seamlessly with bodies. Also I will do Bodyslide files for CBBE and Himbo bodies.
Hairs and Accessories
I'll be experimenting with making some new hairstyles (as well as earrings, glasses, etc.) for both bestial and humanoid Khajiit, as I've learned a good deal about kitbashing.
I plan of using the face fluff I used for PJKJ for basically all designs, as well as new beards from EK. Also will be using ear fluff, brow whiskers, and some new ear tufts, as well as coming up with some new earrings (since I now know how to work with the animation files they require.)
How does one go from an ENB setup (with mods that use ENB light) to a Community Shaders one?
Do I need all the CS addons? What is the ENB light equivalent/can those mods be converted to it?
I want to try Rudy ENB preset with the release of Effects 11 to see if it performs better, but I'm daunted if there's gonna be a lot of work ahead of me...
