Recast - SKSE Runtime Visual NPC Replacement

Runtime NPC Visual Replacer for Skyrim AE, SE, and VR

Recast is an SKSE plugin that lets you replace the face and body of any NPC at runtime by writing a small TOML file. Drop the patch into a folder, launch the game, and the target NPC renders with the new look. No ESP overrides, no save baking, no FaceGen regeneration.

What Recast Does

Recast swaps the visual identity of an NPC. That means:

1. The face (head shape, eyes, hair, brows, tint layers)
2. The body model (the WORN armor field in xEdit terms)
3. Weight and height
4. Sex flag
5. Body tint color

The target NPC keeps everything else. Voice stays the same. Dialogue conditions still match. Faction memberships are untouched. Race ability spells from the original race are unchanged. The NPC's mechanical identity stays intact, which means quest dialogue, follower behavior, and stronghold logic all keep working correctly.

Key Features

Runtime only with no save baking. Recast never modifies your save file or the target NPC's record in any ESP. It works entirely in memory. That makes it safe to install, uninstall, or change at any point during a playthrough.

Compatible with everything. Because Recast does not override the target NPC's ESP record, mods like USSEP, AI Overhaul, and follower frameworks that share base NPCs all work alongside Recast cleanly. Recast layers on top of whatever the load order produced.

Body matches face by design. When Recast replaces a face, it also pulls the body from the same source NPC. The face the mod author designed comes with the body it was meant to pair with. No more mismatched looks from mixing a custom face with a vanilla body.

Cross-race friendly. Recast lets you replace any humanoid NPC's face with any other humanoid NPC's face. A Breton can wear a Nord face. A Redguard can wear an Imperial face. Recast logs a friendly note when the races differ so you can confirm the swap was intentional, but the replacement always applies.

Hot iterable. Edit a TOML file, relaunch Skyrim, see the change. No regenerating FaceGen. No rebuilding ESPs. No long MO2 setup. The cycle from "I want to try a different face" to "see the result in game" is one launch.

Steady state zero cost. Recast remembers what was applied last session in a tiny digest file. If nothing changed in your patches between launches, save loads do zero extra work. No flicker on already loaded NPCs, no actor refresh storms, no loading screen slowdown.

Simple file format. The TOML format is human readable and editable in any text editor. Most mod authors can pick it up in five minutes. Smart syntax detection means you can use EditorIDs (readable names) or FormIDs (precise hex codes) interchangeably in the same file.

FOMOD installer ready. Mod authors can ship one TOML per NPC face, so FOMOD installers can include or exclude individual faces at install time. Users get fine grained choice without the mod author having to ship multiple FOMOD options.

Recast and SkyPatcher

SkyPatcher and SPID are fantastic general-purpose patching frameworks that handle outfits, spells, perks, factions, keywords, stats, AI behavior, and much more. For all those tasks, SkyPatcher or SPID remain the right tool, and Recast is designed to coexist with them cleanly.

Recast was built specifically for swapping the face and body of an NPC. Here is what Recast brings to the table for that one focused task:

Fast loading. Recast's apply pipeline is around 250 lines of compact C++. The plugin parses and applies a 100-NPC library in 17 milliseconds on a modern CPU, measured end to end from "start parsing TOMLs" to "ready to render." The work is hidden behind the loading screen, but you do not have to give it any room.

Bug free by design. Recast uses an architecture called the faceNPC pivot. Instead of copying face data field by field, it points the target NPC's face slot at the source NPC and lets Skyrim's own rendering pipeline do the resolution. This is the same mechanism Skyrim itself uses internally for bandit and guard preset faces, so Recast is piggy backing on a path the engine already exercises every frame. The result is a clean, predictable application path with no shared heap state between target and source.

Clear logs. Recast writes one line per stage in a structured format. You can see exactly what got applied, what was skipped, and why. Error messages include the exact file and line number that caused the problem, so fixing a typo in a 100-entry TOML takes seconds.

Body and face stay coherent. When Recast replaces a vanilla NPC's face with a custom face NPC, the body also comes from the same custom NPC. The face the modder designed comes with the body it was meant to pair with. The result looks the way the modder intended without extra patch work.

Atomic per NPC. Every NPC mutation is snapshotted before any field is touched. The snapshot map enables future hot reload and undo features without requiring a game restart.

Steady state efficiency. Recast persists a per NPC digest hash across sessions. The next time you launch, if nothing changed in your patches, Recast does zero extra work. No actor refresh, no flicker, no loading screen impact.

Runs alongside SkyPatcher. or SPID Recast can be installed alongside SkyPatcher or SPID without conflict. Recast handles the face and body. SkyPatcher or SPID continue to handle outfits, spells, perks, factions, and everything else. They are designed to coexist.

Requirements

1. Skyrim Special Edition, Anniversary Edition, or VR
2. SKSE matching your runtime version
3. Address Library
4. Po3's Tweaks (optional, only needed if your patches use EditorID selectors instead of FormIDs)

Compatibility

1. Unified Plugin works on AE/SE/VR versions of Skyrim SE.
2. Compatible with USSEP, AI Overhaul, follower frameworks, and other mods that patch the same vanilla NPCs.
3. Compatible with SkyPatcher for non face replacement patches.
4. Compatible with any custom NPC mod (Foundation, Visions, Pantheon, third-party NPC packs).
5. Save game safe to install, uninstall, or update at any point in your playthrough.

Credits

Recast was developed by ColdSun.

The faceNPC pivot architecture borrows the same mechanism Skyrim itself uses for bandit and guard preset faces. Recast simply makes that mechanism available to mod authors for runtime face replacement.