Replace a hair mod's slot

Edit hair mods to replace different slots

Summary

Created: Sep 22 2024 by Silverlags Last documented update: Sep 22 2024 by Silverlags

This guide will walk through the basic steps of how to change a hair mod to correspond to a different slot, showing you how to change a hair mod from slot 01 to a different slot for female V.

Requirements:

• Hair mod to replace

• Wolvenkit to analyze mods, replace names, and pack mod

You will need a Wolvenkit Project to search and edit files. If you don't know how to make one check out R&R: Your own Wolvenkit project

Step 0: Get the modded files

TL;DR: You need to add all files from the hair mod to your project. If you don't know how to do that, check Analysing other mods, or keep reading.

1. Switch the Asset Browser to the Mod Browser by flipping the switch (2) on the image below

2. Locate your hair mod

You can find files by mod by searching for archive:hairmod_slot_1, or by finding the mod in the mod browser's list.

1. Add all files inside the mod to your project. These files will be called "your hair" in the rest of this guide.

Adding files to project

Which files does your hair have?

Does your hair have any files with the extension .app under the following path?

base\characters\head\player_base_heads\appearances\hairs

• Yes (left): Proceed to Files: With an .app file

• No (right): Proceed to Files: Without an .app file

• Everything is in the root, and you have no idea which is which:Files: A bunch of borked files in your project's root

Files: A bunch of borked files in your project's root

Happens when a mod has been packed with incompatible Wolvenkit versions.

1. Delete all files - we'll start over

2. Starting with Wolvenkit 8.15, you can find a scan button in the Asset Browser. If you do not have it, install a Nightly.

3. Click the scna button and try adding these files again.

4. If the file names do not resolve themselves, you will have to mix and match. Read on with Case 2.

Files: Without an .app file

The modder has taken and overwritten original game assets, and you'll have to do the same.

My hair mesh brings em all to the yard

In this section, we'll do the following things:

• Find a compatible hair in the files

• Move your hair to overwrite that one instead

Let's get started:

1. Open Cheat Sheet: Hair -> Name of meshes by index

2. Find the mesh file for the slot that you want to replace. We now need to check if it is compatible.

Can I use this hair?

1. Switch the Mod browser back to the Project Browser

2. Use the Wolvenkit search with its full name, for example, hair mesh 34: hh_151_wa__judy_variation02_common.mesh

3. Select Browse to Asset Folder from the context menu:

1. You will see the hair meshes from the cheat sheet, among with a bunch of other files:

1. This hair has .rig and .animgraph files, which means that it has physics. Does your hair have those files included?

   • Yes: You can use this hair. Continue to #5

   • No: You can't use this hair. Go back to the previous section and pick a different hair slot from the list.

For this guide, we will fall back to 04, hh_089_wa__thompson_common.mesh

1. If your hair has more submeshes than the hair you are replacing, you can't use it either (not without Files: With an .app file). Go back to 1 and pick a hair with more submeshes, such as one of the braids or the sumo hair.

2. OK, so you can use the hair. Add it to your project.

   • If it has a _cyberware_01.mesh and your mesh does not, you can simply create a copy (hold ctrl while dragging)

Re-slotting the hair

You will reassign the hair to a different slot by overwriting different game files. We do this as follows:

1. Right-click on a mesh and click on rename (can be done using shortcut key F2) and type the desired slot's mesh name along with its cyberware version

Type your desired mesh name in your mesh!

1. Repeat this with all files for your hair.

2. Your project browser will now look like this:

1. Drag each of the files to the new mesh's folder (hh_089_ma_thompson)

2. You will see a dialogue asking you to overwrite. Select "Yes":

1. Delete the now empty folder hh_033_wa_player. We don't need it anymore.

You're done here! Proceed to Pack 'n' go

Files: With an .app file

The modder has overwritten the hair's control files. It should look like this (subfolder names can vary):

This is good news, because it's the easy case. You only need to do two things:

• Pick a new hair slot

• Move your .app files to overwrite the ones from that hair.

Let's get started.

1. Open Cheat Sheet: Hair -> Hair: Control files by index

2. Pick any hair by slot - we will use slot 04 and search for all its .app files: hh_003_pwa__hairs_89 > .app

3. Add all these files to your project:

Now, we need to overwrite all these files with the ones from our other mod.

1. Select the first .app and press f2, or select "rename" from the context menu

2. Change its number from 059 to 89

3. You will get a file overwrite confirmation. Select "yes"!

Wait, we're missing a file!

1. Your mod didn't have hh_003_pwa__hairs_89_cyberware_01.app.

2. Optional: Take a moment to curse these incompetent guide writers, or yell very loud.

3. Select hh_003_pwa__hairs_89.app in the mod browser

4. Hold the ctrl key down and drag it on itself

5. You will get a file overwrite confirmation. Select "no" to create a copy.

6. Overwrite cyberware_01.app with your copy.

You're done here! Proceed to Pack 'n' go

Pack 'n' go

Now that you've done replacing the mesh files, confirm that your mod worked by clicking on "Install and launch game":

You can also click on the down arrow next to install and set to "Install and Launch" to do these two steps for you!

Life is so fun when you have something like WolvenKit!

The quickest way to check if your hair slot change has worked is by making a new game and see the changes in hair style selection.

That's it! You can now test your new hair mod.

Troubleshooting

You are missing a file

An .app file

Go up to Files: With an .app file -> You are missing a file

A .mesh file

If your mod does not have any .app files, you have the following options:

• Overwrite it with a duplicate: just duplicate one of the existing files, and add it a second time. This may cause clipping.

• You can overwrite it with a shadow mesh:

  • Search for base\characters\common\hair\shadow_meshes\hh_ > wa (> ma for a masc V)

  • Find something that looks vaguely similar

  • overwrite

• You can find a different hair to overwrite

A .rig or .anim file

You need to find a different hair to overwrite.