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Troubleshooting & Logs

Two log files and a handful of console commands answer almost everything.

Where the logs are

Both live under Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\:

Log Path What it tells you
SLO VE script log Logs\Script\User\SLOVE.0.log Script and dependency errors: a missing mod, an unresolvable spell, a sound that didn't play. Written by SLO VE itself — not the general Papyrus log, and it needs no INI changes.
AudioUtil log SKSE\AudioUtil.log Everything audio: which slot an actor resolved to, which category resolved to which folder, TOML parse errors and overlay warnings. This is the file for any voice problem.

Mod Organizer 2 users

Logs go to the real Documents\My Games\... folder, not into MO2's virtual file system or the Overwrite folder.

For more detail, raise AudioUtil's verbosity in the base AudioUtil.toml:

[general]
log_level = "debug"     # trace | debug | info | warn | error

and turn on the live console play-by-play with printdebug = 1 in the relevant SLOVE.toml section ([director], [voice], [expressions], [sfx]).

Enabling Papyrus logging

Papyrus logging is off by default (it adds a little overhead, so it ships disabled). Turn it on only while diagnosing a problem, then turn it back off.

Edit Skyrim.ini (in the My Games folder above) and add or update this section:

[Papyrus]
bEnableLogging=1
bEnableTrace=1
bLoadDebugInformation=1
  • bEnableLogging — writes the Papyrus.0.log file at all.
  • bEnableTrace — includes Debug.Trace lines (what BF and most mods log).
  • bLoadDebugInformation — adds script/line names to errors so they are actually readable.

Console diagnostics

These commands need ConsoleUtil Extended

The console commands below are provided by ConsoleUtil Extended, an optional dependency. SLO VE itself runs fine without it — CUE is only needed to run these diagnostics.

SLOVE_Test DumpAnim                        ; dump the current scene: tags, labels, slot, likely voice/SFX
SLOVE_Test DumpState                       ; config flags, the player's slot, esp loaded?
SLOVE_Test AuditVoicePack F1             ; which categories a slot resolves / is MISSING
SLOVE_Test SampleCategory F1 Orgasm    ; play one clip now (handle=0 means nothing resolved)
SLOVE_Test Milk                            ; force one [milk] nipple squirt on the player (add 1 for intense)
SLOVE_Config Reload                        ; re-read SLOVE.toml
au reload                     ; re-read the AudioUtil TOMLs and rescan folders

Every SLOVE_Test / SLOVE_Config command also has a short alias (slovetest anim, slovetest dump, slovetest audit F1, slovetest sample F1 Orgasm, slovetest facefix, slovetest milk, sloveconfig reload); lipsync has its own slovelip enable 0 / slovelip gain 0.8.

DumpAnim (alias slovetest anim) is the fastest way to see why a given animation sounds the way it does. For the player's live scene it prints the active SexLab scene tags, the SFX tag, and — per actor, the player marked * — their sex, role, resolved AudioUtil slot, all five labels (stim/penis/oral/pen/end) and the voice branch those labels select. Every line goes to both the console and SLOVE.0.log, so you can run it mid-scene and read it back afterwards. The voice line is the label-derived branch (the live engine also applies gag/orgasm/timing overrides), so pair it with SampleCategory to confirm a folder actually resolves.

AuditVoicePack picks the female or male category list from the slot id's first letter (F… → female, otherwise male). With AudioUtil 0.9.4+ it also attributes every resolving category to the slot that actually supplies it — <- backfill from F0 lines plus an (n in-pack, m backfilled) summary — so a pack that only appears healthy because everything backfills from the stock moans is visible at a glance.

Nothing happens at all

  1. Is SLOVE.esp enabled? SLOVE_Test DumpState prints esp loaded=. If it's False, the plugin isn't active.
  2. Is AudioUtil installed and loading? If SKSE\AudioUtil.log doesn't exist, the DLL never loaded — check skse64.log for why (usually a game-version or Address Library mismatch). SLO VE fails open: without the DLL every setting falls back to its default and nothing plays.
  3. Are you launching through SKSE?
  4. Did the quest start? SLO VE's quest is start-game-enabled and ships Seq\SLOVE.seq. On an existing save give it a few seconds after load. If the SEQ file is missing from your install, the quest won't auto-start.
  5. Is full Hentairim p+ driving at the same time? SLO VE is a standalone port of Hentairim's voice/face system, so letting both drive at once makes them fight over the same actors. You don't have to uninstall Hentairim, though — keep it for its animation tag database with its IVDT / expression / SFX / resistance modules switched off, and let SLO VE take over. See Using with Hentairim & PPA.
  6. Is it an NPC-only scene that never got adopted? NPC-only scenes are processed since 0.5.x (enablenpcscenes = 1, the default). But an NPC scene is still skipped if it's farther than npcscenedistance (≈2048 units) from the player, if maxnpcscenes concurrent NPC scenes are already running, or if enablenpcscenes = 0. See NPC-only scenes.

Doubled voices, or the mouth twitching between two expressions

SLO VE silences SexLab's own moans for scene actors automatically (the director.suppresssexlabvoice toggle, on by default), so you should not hear two voices. If you still do — or the face jitters as both mods write an expression — two things can cause it:

  • SexLab's facial expressions are still on. SLO VE drives the face itself, so the two stack. In the SexLab MCM, disable SexLab's facial expressions. See Getting Started.
  • You turned moan suppression off (director.suppresssexlabvoice = 0), or SLO VE isn't adopting the scene (see Nothing happens at all above). Leave the toggle at 1, or disable SexLab's voices/moans in the SexLab MCM as a fallback.

Suppression is per-scene and self-restoring: SexLab's own moans return automatically in any scene SLO VE doesn't drive.

Nobody is talking

Work down the resolution chain:

  1. SLOVE_Test DumpState — does the player have a slot? An empty slot line means the routing config never loaded.
  2. Check the TOML conflict winner. The most common cause of an empty slot is AudioUtil's SFW-neutral AudioUtil.toml winning over SLO VE's. SLO VE must sit below AudioUtil in MO2's left pane. AudioUtil.log will show zero slots parsed.
  3. au reload then read AudioUtil.log — a parse error names the file and line. A file that fails to parse is skipped entirely.
  4. SLOVE_Test AuditVoicePack F1 — if everything is MISSING, the slot resolved but its audio didn't.
  5. Is voice.enablevoice/director.enablevoice on? DumpState prints them.
  6. Volume: voice.pcvolume / voice.partnervolume in SLOVE.toml, and [groups] startup levels.

No voices after updating an older install (IVDT → SLOVE folder rename)

Moved your own voice packs by hand? They need to move too.

In 0.4.0 SLO VE's bundled voice folder was renamed Data\Sound\fx\IVDT\… → Data\Sound\fx\SLOVE\…. The bundled audio and any NPC pack installed through its own FOMOD/overlay update themselves — but a pack you dropped in by hand under the old IVDT path is now orphaned. The usual casualty is the player pack at Sound\fx\IVDT\F1, which leaves the PC on the stock moans (AudioUtil.log shows Slot F1: 0 category folders…).

Fix: move your hand-placed folders from Data\Sound\fx\IVDT\… to the matching Data\Sound\fx\SLOVE\… — e.g. …\IVDT\F1 → …\SLOVE\F1, …\IVDT\M3 → …\SLOVE\M3. Then run au reload or restart. The empty Sound\fx\IVDT can be deleted afterwards.

A voice pack I installed isn't playing

First, read AudioUtil.log. Since AudioUtil 0.9.2 it reports the outcome of every pack slot on load — one line usually names the problem faster than the console commands can:

  • Slot F1: 27 category folders scanned under Data\Sound\fx\SLOVE\F1 — the pack was picked up. If the count looks low for the pack, some folders are mis-named and fall back to the stock moans one category at a time.
  • Slot F1: 0 category folders under … — folder exists but has no <Category> subfolders — the pack landed in the wrong place, so the slot silently falls back to the stock F0 moans (which is why audio still plays but the pack never does). Almost always an extra nesting level (…\F1\F1\… or …\F1\<PackName>\…), non-standard folder names, or BSA-packed audio a folder scan can't see.
  • Slot F2: has audio but nothing routes to it — the pack installed fine, but no actor can reach the slot. You dropped a follower pack into F2/F3/F4 and never routed anyone: pin an NPC in [npc_overrides] or map a voicetype in [voicetype_map] (see Give a follower her own voice).

If those lines look healthy and you still hear nothing, work the console commands:

  1. Are the WAVs loose — not inside a BSA? Folder scans cannot see into archives.
  2. Are they at exactly Data\Sound\fx\SLOVE\F1\<Category>\*.wav? A pack that installs one level too deep (…\F1\F1\…) scans as nothing.
  3. au reload — a fresh install needs a rescan (or a game restart).
  4. SLOVE_Test AuditVoicePack F1 — a healthy pack reports a high n/71, because missing categories backfill from the stock moans. All missing means the path is wrong. With AudioUtil 0.9.4+ the summary splits into (n in-pack, m backfilled) — 0 in-pack is the smoking gun for "audio plays but it's never the pack": the pack folders aren't being scanned (wrong path / nesting) or the slot lost its pack config (e.g. a Variation-B pack whose SLOVE_zpack_*.toml was deleted, so the B folder names never match).
  5. SLOVE_Test SampleCategory F1 Orgasm — handle=0 = nothing resolved for that category.
  6. Did an update overwrite your SLOVE_voices.toml edits? Move them into your own overlay.

The wrong actor has the wrong voice

  • [npc_overrides] beats voicetype and race — check nothing is pinning them.
  • For an ESL-flagged plugin the form-id key uses the last 3 hex digits, not the 8 digits the console shows.
  • [race_map] is substring-matched, longest hint first — a broad hint can swallow a narrow one you expected to match.
  • pc_female_slot/pc_male_slot are reserved: no NPC can ever resolve to them. If you routed an NPC to F1, that's why she isn't using it.
  • Set log_level = "debug" and read the resolution lines in AudioUtil.log.

Mouths don't move

  • Lipsync needs a loose PCM wav. BSA-packed and compressed audio plays without mouth movement — this is expected for creature slots.
  • Mfg Fix NG is a hard requirement for every face write.
  • The category may be in [lipsync] block_categories — Orgasm and the two blowjob-action categories deliberately don't move the mouth.
  • A gagged actor has lipsync suppressed by design (the device owns the mouth).
  • While the climax/ahegao face owns the mouth, lines play without lipsync so they can't fight the expression.
  • SexLab Survival's ahegao takes the mouth over while it's active.

Faces don't move

  • Mfg Fix NG (MfgConsoleFunc/Ext) must be installed and winning its file conflicts.
  • Check director.enableexpressions plus the per-class gates (enablepcexpression, enablemalenpcexpression, enablefemalenpcexpression).
  • Creatures without facegen are skipped.
  • A mask covering the face is detected and respected (Masks.json).

Faces stuck open, deformed, or a tongue through a closed mouth

A face that stays disfigured after a scene — a mouth that won't close, teeth pushing through the lips, a tongue poking out of a closed chin — is stuck facial state, not a broken mesh.

Quick repair: slovetest facefix (needs ConsoleUtil Extended). It stops lipsync, resets MFG/MFEE and removes any leftover tongue armor, for the player and the actor under the crosshair — aim at the NPC before opening the console. A save + load also clears stuck phonemes, but not a still-worn tongue armor.

Causes, most common first:

  1. Mfg Fix NG missing, outdated, or losing its file conflicts. Every SLO VE face write and the scene-end reset go through it. The nastiest case is the old (non-NG) Mfg Fix: mouths still move (AudioUtil's lipsync is native), but faces are never driven or reset, so every scene leaves residue. SLO VE probes this on every game load — look for the Mfg Fix NG line in SLOVE.0.log, and a one-time console warning at the first scene.
  2. SexLab's own facial expressions still enabled. SLO VE drives the face itself; both together stack and deform (see Doubled voices). Disable facial expressions in the SexLab MCM.
  3. A leftover tongue armor. Check the actor's inventory for a "Tongue" item (console: click them, showinventory). NPC-only scenes used to leak the tongue into NPC inventories, where the outfit AI would re-equip it later with a closed mouth — fixed in 0.6.12; on any version slovetest facefix removes it.
  4. Another face/ahegao mod owns the same channels. SexLab Survival's ahegao is meant to persist past the scene end (SLS clears it itself, on its own schedule). For mods that signal ahegao by a worn item or a StorageUtil key there are yields — ahegaoitems / ahegaostoragekeys — but two writers with no yield between them will fight and deform.

SFX are wrong or missing

  • sfx.enable = 1? sfx.volume above zero?
  • Thrust-synced sounds need velocity data from SLPP interactions — with none, the engine falls back to label pacing. sfx.printdebug = 1 shows what it's getting.
  • Don't reach for useadaptivevelocity first; it's the heaviest path in the mod and needs timestosearch > 0 as well.
  • Gape one-shots need the Accurate Penetration bridge. The four gape* thresholds are unitless — calibrate them from the printdebug pull-out line in your own scenes.

Reporting a problem

Attach both logs:

  • Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Logs\Script\User\SLOVE.0.log
  • Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\AudioUtil.log

plus your load order and the output of SLOVE_Test DumpState. If it's a voice-resolution problem, set log_level = "debug", reproduce, and send the AudioUtil.log from that run.