Appearances: change the looks
Changing an NPC's default appearances (and adding more via AMM)
Summary
Published December 27 2022 by @manavortex Last documented update: January 06 2024 by @manavortex
This guide will walk you through editing NPC appearances for Cyberpunk 2077.
You can find a more detailed guide under Altering Appearances within Wolvenkit - Full Workflow
It uses the following versions:
Cyberpunk 2077 game version >= 1.6
WolvenKit >= 8.15 (some of the UI elements will be missing in older versions)
(only if you want to add new appearances) AppearanceMenuMod >= 1.15
Wait, this isn't what I want!
For an overview of NPC files, check NPCs and their files
If you want to add custom NPCs to Cyberpunk 2077 with AMM, check AMM: Custom NPCs
If you want to add AMM appearances to existing NPCs, check AMM: Custom NPC appearances
If you want to add V as an NPC, check NPV - V as custom NPC
If you want a more basic guide that goes into more detail for the basic stuff (including Blender), see Altering Appearances within Wolvenkit - Full Workflow
If you're after hair colours, check Hair Profiles: .hp and follow the links from there.
Prerequisites
Links will give you additional context. If you can complete the guide without them, feel free to ignore them.
Finding the right files
This section will show you how to find an NPC's .app file, which you will add to your project. We do this by finding the NPC's .ent file, since it will be linked in there.
The .ent file
The NPC's root entity file is the entry point for the game. It defines an NPC's appearances, linking them to the actual definitions inside the corresponding .app file.
You don't need to add this file to your project (and if you do it by accident, you should delete it later). For details, see AMM: Custom NPC appearances.
You can try finding your NPC's .ent file on NPCs and their files. If you can't find your entry, the page has information how you can search for it — please add it to the page, this wiki is a community project!
The .app file
The array appearances will contain a list with every appearance that's defined for this NPC, matching the key appearanceName
in the .ent file.
Not all of these have been "published" (as in "hooked up to .ent files"). For an example of this, check base\characters\appearances\citizen\citizen__children_mc.app
The only thing you need to care about is the components
array (learn more about these here). This is where you add, remove, or modify parts of an NPC's appearance:
The names of components should be unique so you can manipulate them outside of the .app file. You should generally stick to CDPR's naming scheme, including the prefixes (why is this important?).
CDPR's style of unique naming allows us to find components and their usage across the game files, which will come on handy when we're trying to add items.
This is where the magic happens.
Changing and removing components
Change items by selecting a different appearance or a different mesh:
Remove items by deleting their entries from the list or by setting their chunkMasks to 0
:
(Safely) adding components
If you want to add a new item, first duplicate an existing one. After that, you can pretend that it is just another change:
And this might work.
Or it might end up leaving them standing in an exploded pixel cloud. In case of animated components, editing them will almost certainly break them (see Animations: if you can't avoid them, copy them as well!)
Anything of the type entGarmentSkinnedMeshComponent
is prone to breaking unless you copy everything it needs.
Let's do it…
Step by step: Putting Johnny in Scorpion's vest
You need to find the thing you want to add in the files, check where it is defined, and then copy all of its components.
Search for the mesh name of the vest that you want to use (e.g.
ma_vest__high_collar*.mesh
)
Animations: if you can't avoid them, copy them as well!
Anything of the type entAnimatedComponent
means that components are animated. That's mostly the case for physics-enabled stuff influenced by gravity, such as coats, jackets, or long hair.
Physics gave us the atomic bomb. (It also gave us computers, but this is besides the point right now.)
Animations are usually unique to meshes on a by-pixel basis and do not react kindly to edits or swaps. (Try splitting the obi from Saburo's kimono into its own submesh if you don't believe me).
If you copy an animated component (e.g. Johnny's vest), then you need to copy the corresponding entAnimatedComponent
as well, or the mesh won't move.
If you delete a physics-enabled component, you can safely delete the corresponding AnimatedComponent.
Adding items from mods
Getting the .mesh
Add the file(s) you want to your Wolvenkit project
Many ArchiveXL mods contain a number of meshes for different body mods and body genders. You only need one of them — the one for your body mod and body gender.
Look for w/m
to indicate gender, and base_body
to indicate the body mod.
Move them to a custom path (you don't want them to interfere with the original modded files)
Clean up the .mesh
Before adding the necessary dependencies, delete all appearances from the .mesh file that you don't want:
From the
Clean up
menu, useDelete unused Materials
Save the file
From the
Materials
menu, useadd material dependencies
Wolvenkit will now run a scan of all your mods. This may take a moment!
You will now see a
textures
folder with all files for your materials.If there isn't one, the mesh only uses base game materials and textures. There's no need to custompath those — if you want to do it anyway, hold the
shift
key while selecting the option.
Optional: If any of the files in your texture folders are
.mi,
.mltemplate,
or.mlsetup
files, open them and runadd material dependencies
again (your mesh will have a weird purple hue if any of those are missing)You can now save your .mesh!
Adding the .mesh to the appearance
This works for simple components. Anything more complicated with physics (.anim or .rig), you should stealcopy from an .ent
file inside the mod (see the previous section, (Safely) adding components)
Open your NPC's .app file
find the appearance that you want to change
duplicate an existing
entSkinnedMeshComponent
:
Select the new component. In the panel on the right, change the following properties:
mesh
->DepotPath
: relative path to your meshtutorial\npv\your_female_character\feet\s1_converse\s1__pwa__converse.mesh
You can right-click on the .mesh file in the project browser and selectcopy relative path
mesh
->meshAppearance
: the appearance that you did not delete during cleanup e.g.black
You find this in theappearances
array inside the.mesh
filename
: a unique name that identifies your component. You should get into the habit of using garment prefixes, as they come in handy for clothing items.chunkMask
: Extend the dropdown and make sure that the submeshes you want are visible (just check the boxes for 0-11 if you're not sure)
That's it! Save and test!
Adding new appearances
Adding new appearances to an existing NPC requires you to overwrite that NPC's .ent file (see AMM: Custom NPC appearances). For that matter, it's recommended that you create a new entity instead. You can find a guide for this under AMM: Custom NPCs.
Troubleshooting
My new component won't move at all!
You may have forgotten to copy the animation file. Look for an entAnimatedComponent inside the .app — they're usually called something like xxx_dangle(s)
or collar.
(See here)
If it's a clothing item not moving, check the skinning array for the component and make sure the bindName
is set to root
. If you swapped out a component for something else, you also might need to update its matching entry in AppearanceVisualController -> appearanceDependency
. But don't do that unless necessary.
I added an appearance, but a random one is showing when I select it
That's what happens when the game can't find the appearance you picked. You're probably trying to add an AMM appearance. Check the spelling between your lua file with the appearance name, the mapping entry inside the .ent, and the appearance's name in the .app file.
For further troubleshooting steps, see here.
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