Convert a hair mod to hair CCXL mod
This guide will show the process of making a hair ccxl mod, by converting an already-done hair mod.
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This guide will show the process of making a hair ccxl mod, by converting an already-done hair mod.
Last updated
Was this helpful?
Published: Jan 29 2025 by
CCXL is a way of adding new slots into character customization menus. the benefit is that you won't have to change or replace the vanilla game files to do add your own! this guide is related to adding new hair slots from an already-done mod.
This guide is a simplification of the CCXL: Hairs page. Some parts of that page might be omitted from this guide to make the process simple, otherwise you can check the page for more detailed information.
This guide is for a normal hair replacer (direct mesh replace) mod and single-mesh UUH4V hair mods.
You have downloaded the hair CCXL modders' resource template for the V that you want from Nexus
You have the mod that you want to convert the hair from.
Wolvenkit to analyze mod, work on your mod, and pack mod.
ArchiveXL 1.20 or later is required for hair CCXL mods to work.
A Wolvenkit project will be required for this guide. if you don't know how to make one check out R&R: Your own WolvenKit project.
Steps will be demonstrated using the Female V template, but the process is exactly the same with the Male V template so you can follow along just fine!
1. Open the root folder of your WolvenKit project, this can be done by clicking on the yellow folder icon called "Open Root Folder" to open the project's folder in Explorer.
Now open the template that you've downloaded from Nexus. Click on "source" and drag the contents inside the zipped file into your WolvenKit project folder.
Your project should look like this, depending on what V hair CCXL template you've chosen.
Once you've verified the file structures, confirm that the template initially works by clicking on install and launch.
To make sure that the initial template mod works we'll need to install and see it in game:
In WolvenKit, click on the arrow next to "Install" and select "Install and Launch". click on "Install and Launch" to install and run the game
Go to "New Game" and reach the character customization screen, click back(A on keyboard or the Right button on the D-pad) on "Hair Styles". The hair style name should be your_first_hair_wa with Songbird's hair or your_first_hair_ma with Saul's hair, depending on the template you chose.
Now that's done you can exit the game and continue, otherwise update ArchiveXL.
To convert a hair mod we'll need the main hair .mesh file. This is the most important file as this whole mod . There are other files that we'll need, but if your mod doesn't have you can continue with the guide without any issues as the template has placeholders that you can use.
The files are:
Hair physics files (.rig and .animgraph)
Shadow hair mesh file (_shadow.mesh)
Custom hair texture files (.xbm)
Use unique names for your mod files before starting on the project, this prevent conflicts with any other mod out there.
For the sake of simplicity, the files in this guide will use the name myhair and will make appended variations of it, Do not use it in your project.
Start with putting the files in your project by:
Add the files aforementioned from your own hair mod archive to the project.
A detailed process of this step can be found in here. but the TL;DR is to flip the switch to asset browser to mod browser and add the files that is in there.
Move the files into their own appropriate locations. The table below will help
.mesh, .rig and .animgraph
your_modder_name\ccxl\your_first_addition\meshes
_shadow.mesh
your_modder_name\ccxl\your_first_addition\meshes\shadow_meshes
.xbm
your_modder_name\ccxl\your_first_addition\materials\textures
to something that you would follow with for the whole project.
At the end of this step you should have a file structure that looks like this.
We've successfully done our file structures. Now we'll do the Hair CCXL part of this guide.
This step will diverge into two paths, depending on if you have a custom hair mesh texture or not.
Your hair mod was done with a custom texture that you've brought along for the ride. If this applies the steps below are for you!
Open the your_first_hair_wa_long.mi file.
Edit the CKeyValuePair values of Flow, Strand_Alpha, Strand_Graident, and Strand_ID. This can be done by first right clicking on the fitting name (for flow you would select the file that ends with _flow), click copy relative path to game file (1), then click on the fitting CKeyValuePair value name then paste the path to the DepotPath of the CKeyValuePair.
(If you have Nightly version of WolvenKit you can skip right clicking by clicking on the orange button next to the files themselves)
At the end of this step your textures have been successfully pathed to the .mi that's in the template, the your_first_hair_wa_long.mi file should look like this. If so save, delete the template hair texture files, and move on ahead with the next step.
You've used the game's default hair textures to make your hair mod.
if you happen to use the _long .mi for your mod then good news!, you've used the textures that's in the template, so you don't have to do anything about the _long.mi file,
If you've used something else, . follow along this part:
Open your mesh and expand the externalMaterials item(1), then open one of the mi files that are not cap (2).
Add the mi'sbaseMaterial master .mi file to the project and move it to the materials folder.dd the file's
Keep an eye on what the appended name of the material instance, you will use it in the next step. I suggest that you keep the appended name in the mi file, So if the material instance name ends with __short then keep that name around, you will use it in the next step.
Don't worry we got you
You'll be doing a combination of both steps in that you'll add your cap's .xbm textures into the project then edit the cap mi file which is your_first_hair_wa_cap.mi to include your cap textures inside them.
When you're finished from this step completely, rename your material instance file names to the one you chose before.
I recommend you to click on "Update in Project Files" as shown below, this helps with renaming paths in this whole guide and especially with the file thats in resources.
Here comes the interesting part of this guide , and I want you to follow with me step by step as you might encounter some problems with how the hair is shown if you skip a step.
In this step we'll remove all references of the old materials and their appearances before letting way of the new order of materials, much simplified way of having one appearance and letting ArchiveXL do the rest of them.
Open your mesh and the template mesh (which is hh_your_first_hair_wa.mesh), collapse all items open in your file, and put them side by side by dragging one of the tabs to the right. This helps to see the whole process for what we'll do.
It should look like this:
In your mesh, right click on appearances and click on "Reset Object", do the same step for externalMaterials, localMaterialBuffer, and materialEntries. After doing this you should see a number zero or a "[0]" next to the aforementioned items. This step removes all reference of materials that the mesh used before.
Now your mesh will be devoid of any reference of materials (for now..)
Select materialEntries in the template mesh file and right click on "Copy Array Contents", then right click on your mesh's materialEntries and click "Paste Selection into Arrary/Buffer". This makes it so that it copies over the needed entries of materials from the template mesh.
Expand the template mesh file's localMaterialBuffer and right click on materials, then click on "Copy Array Contents", go to your mesh, expand its localMaterialBuffer, and right click on materials and click on "Paste Selection into Arrary/Buffer". You should see @context, @long (or the name you've put), and @cap .
Expand @context then its values propety, click on LongBaseMaterialand paste the relative path of your main mesh material instance. Do the same process for the CapBaseMaterial.
If you've changed the materialEntries' name of @long you'll have to rename the LongBaseMaterial's key to the name that fits your renamed material entry, this can be found in ArchiveXL: Character Creator additions . So for example if you've had @short material entry you'll rename the key to ShortBaseMaterial .
Click on the second item named @long (or the name you've changed), in baseMaterial's DepotPath paste the relative path of the material instance that has the same name (so myhair_long.mi to the @long's DepotPath) and make sure that the Flags are set to soft, do the same process for the @cap item.
In the template mesh's appearancesitem,, right click on black_carbon and click on "Copy Array Content". RIght click on your appearances item and click "Paste into Array/Buffer". If you've changed the material entry name of @long then reflect that in the appeareance by expanding chunkMaterials and replace the long text to the material entry you've had. (So it becomes black_carbon@short ).
Now save your mesh file, rename it to the name that you want. Duplicate the mesh and add the _cyberware at the end of the name of the duplicated mesh.
While you're at it, rename the animgraph, rig, and the mesh in the shadow_meshes folder to the name you wanted. At the end of this step, your mesh folder structure should look something like this:
This step is about the name of your hair slot in the character menu, so make sure you pick a nice name for it :)
Rename theyour_first_hair_wa__local.json to your mod's name (preferably to something like myhair__local.json) and open it, click on the item that has the text UI-Customization-your_first_hair_wa .
In femaleVariant property, type the name that you want to be shown in the character creation menu (for example: my hair) then replace the your_first_hair_wa part of the with your unique mod name (myhair), do the same process for the _cyberware item below it.
For Male V you don't need to fill the maleVariant key, as the game defaults to using whatever value in femaleVariant if a male one doesn't exist.
In the end the items should be named UI-Customization-myhair and UI-Customization-myhair_cyberware,and your json file will look like this. Save the file but don't close it yet.
This step is about editing the .app file which is responsible for which mesh and physics file appear.
Open your_first_hair_wa.app file, and:
Expand components then click on hair_dangle , copy relative path of your .animgraph file and paste it into the graph 's DepotPath field on the right of the window, do the same step for rig 's DepotPathfield by copying relative path of .rig file.
Click on the hh_your_first_hair_wa item n and copy the relative path of your .mesh file and paste it in the mesh 's DepotPath field. Rename the name field to your mod's name.
Click on hh_your_first_hair_wa_shadow item, and copy ther relative path of the .mesh file in shadow_meshes folder and paste it in mesh 's DepotPath field.
Click on the resolvedDependencies property of the .app file and replace the index number 3's DepotPath field with the relative path of your .mesh file and index number 4's DepotPath's field with the relative path of your _shadow.mesh file
Once that's done you can save and close the file.
Open your_first_hair_wa_cyberware.app and replicate the same steps above with the only difference is to copy relative path of the your .mesh file that ends with _cyberware instead of the normal .mesh file in both hh_your_first_hair_wa_cyberware item and the resolvedDependenciesproperty. Save and close the file.
Open your_first_hair_wa_fpp.app and expand components to select the only item in there which is called hh_your_first_hair_wa_shadow , copy the _shadow.mesh file's relative path to the mesh's DepotPath's field, then in resolvedDependencies property , paste the same path in its DepotPath's field. Save and close the file.
Once you're done from all the steps above rename the files and keep their appended name (_fpp and _cyberware) intact.
You've almost reached the finish line! next step is the last file that you'll have to (somewhat) meticulously edit and put paths in, pay attention as it has bit more than the last step.
TL;DR: Keep the names consistent across the .inkcc file.
The .inkcc, short for .inkcharcustomization file is the link between what we've done so far and the character customization menu. In this file we'll link our .app file and put the name of the .json file we've had opened two steps ago.
This file has two main items: headCustomizationGroups and headGroups.headCustomizationGroups is mainly split into two parts:
The empty item and the hairstyle_cyberware item at items numbered 0 and 1.
These two files are responsible for getting the name that will be displayed in the in-game slot, and to get the item names below it. Below is a visual demonstration of what needs to be done in this section.
The your_first_hair_wa, your_first_hair_wa_cyberware, and your_first_hair_wa_fppitems numbered 2, 3, and 4.
These three items takes the relative paths of their respective .app files names.
Finally, the headGroups main items will have the names that we'll assign for the items numbered 2,3, and 4.
Open _pwa.inkcharcustomization (or _pma) and do the following:
Expand headCustomizationOptions , in there you will see five items . Now:
Expand the no-name item that has number 0 to the left of it, expand its options property and expand its item as well.
Go to the .json file and copy the first item'ssecondaryKey property value and paste it in the localizedName field. So the localizedName field now has the valueUI-Customization-myhair This tells the hair slot file that we'll use the name set in the .json file as its display name in-game.
Now expand the names property and rename both your_first_hair_wa and your_first_hair_wa_fpp to a name that you would use, like myhair and myhair_fpp.
Do the same steps for the second item which is named hairstyle_cyberware, with the only difference being to rename your_first_hair_wa_cyberware to myhair_cyberware and the names values to myhair_cyberware and myhair_fpp.
Click on the third item named your_first_hair_wa, and:
On the right of the view's guide , rename the name field to the name you've put in the names fields of the previous items , then copy the appropriate .app file's relative path into resource's DepotPath's field.
Do the same steps but for your_first_hair_wa_cyberware , and your_first_hair_wa_fpp.
Now expand headGroups, and expand each item in there, then replace the names in there with the names of headCustomizationOptions's items.
In the end, the name consistency should look like this (hairstyle_cyberware handle collapsed for view)
Now that's done, save the file and close it.
We've reached at the custom pathing and .archive.xl file editing part. This step doesn't have anything complex in it, just simple path rename here and there, and aligning the .archive.xl file to complete this whole setup together neatly.
Since we've been renaming the files since the start of step 3, that means we won't get deeper into all files and do renaming and pathing for every file
Right click on the folder named your_first_addition and click rename, then replace your_modder_nameand your_first_addition with a name unique to you and to your files.
When you're finished check the "Update in project files?" box then click Finish.
As a good measure, check WolvenKit's Log for any issues regarding project file rename update.
Sometimes you might face an issue auto-updating with a file or two. If that happens go back to the problematic file and fix the paths within it.
Now open the your_first_hair_wa_ccxl_mod.archive.xl file in any edtior program like Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code,
This is the file that will tell ArchiveXL on what to do for the hair mod as a whole.
Now we'll need to copy relative paths of files to the needed locations in the .xl file. The visual guide below can help you in knowing which file relative path goes to where.
Make sure there's a leading space when putting the paths in the .archive.xl file.
When you're done save the .archive.xl file and rename it according to your project mod name, which can be found in the "Project" button in the toolbar, then "Project Configuration" , then check Mod Name's field.
Make sure that everything is connected correctly click on "Project" on WolvenKit's toolbar and click "Scan project for broken file references" to check if there are incorrect paths in files. If there's only the .mi file and has a file path that starts with archivexl\ that means you're good to go.
Finally, delete the temporary files by going to "Project" then click on "Delete empty files".
Confirm that work and mod works by clicking on the down arrow next to the "Launch" button and select "Install and launch", then click "Install and launch".
If the mod works you should see it in the character creation screen by going a step back on the hair style slots in the game.
This is due to improper pathing in the localMaterialBuffer item in your .mesh file, go back to step 4 and check in the localMaterialBuffer part of the guide.
