Cheat Sheet: Head

Summary

Last documented edit: January 14 2024 by mana vortex

This page lists various properties of the player head. Use the Table of Contents or your browser's search (Hotkey: Ctrl+F) to quickly find what you're looking for.

You can find much additional information about the player head under NPV: Preparing the head in Blender

Wait, this isn't what I'm looking for!

• If you want to edit the player's head, you need meshes and morphtargets.

• If you want to make a custom NPC, check NPV - V as custom NPC

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Head file paths

female	.mesh	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_female_average\h0_000_pwa_c__basehead\
female	.morphtarget	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_female_average
male	.mesh	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_man_average\h0_000_pwa_c__basehead\
male	.morphtarget	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_man_average

The folders contain the entire player head. The minimum amount of meshes rendered is 3 (head, teeth, eyes), and can go up to 13 (fem V)/14 (masc V).

Head file prefixes

h0_	head (with ears)
hb_	male V only: beard
heb_	eyebrows
he_	eyes
ht_	teeth
hx_	applied on top of h0: cyberware makeup freckles pimples tattoos scars
l1_	ear ring (01-04)

Skin tones by index

1	01_ca_pale
2	01_ca_pale_00_warm_ivory
3	02_ca_limestone
4	02_ca_limestone_00_beige
5	03_ca_senna
6	03_ca_senna_00_amber
7	03_ca_senna_01_honey
8	03_ca_senna_02_band
9	04_ca_almond
10	04_ca_almond_00_umber
11	05_bl_espresso
12	06_bl_dark

List compiled by wolv

Complexions

Every complexion has its own associated texture file. These are sorted by body gender under

base\characters\head\wa\h0_001_wa_c__basehead\textures\h0_000_wa_c__basehead_d0X.xbm
base\characters\head\ma\h0_001_ma_c__basehead\textures\h0_000_ma_c__basehead_d0X.xbm

The files are ending in 01..05. Each complexion has its own appearance in the head mesh, e.g.:

03_ca_senna
03_ca_senna_d02
03_ca_senna_d03
03_ca_senna_d04
03_ca_senna_d05

Skin definitions

Skin materials are defined in the base head file:

female body gender	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_female_average\h0_000_pwa_c__basehead\h0_000_pwa_c__basehead.mesh
male body gender	base\characters\head\player_base_heads\player_man_average\h0_000_pma_c__basehead\h0_000_pma_c__basehead.mesh

You can find the definitions in the localMaterialBuffer. Each material overrides the following properties locally:

• Normal (bump/height map)

• Albedo (diffuse/complexion)

All other properties are pulled from a .mi file in the following folder:

female body gender	base\characters\common\skin\character_mat_instance\female\head\
male body gender	base\characters\common\skin\character_mat_instance\male\head\

Head: material instances

This section only lists .mi files used by the player head.

About half of these files are shared by NPCs. Editing or replacing these will affect all of Night City!

File name (use male_head for masc)	Shared with NPCs
female_head_01_ca_pale_00_warm_ivory.mi	❌
female_head_01_ca_pale.mi	✔
female_head_02_ca_limestone_00_beige.mi	❌
female_head_02_ca_limestone.mi	✔
female_head_03_ca_senna_00_amber.mi	❌
female_head_03_ca_senna_01_honey.mi	❌
female_head_03_ca_senna_02_band.mi	❌
female_head_03_ca_senna.mi	✔
female_head_04_ca_almond_00_umber.mi	❌
female_head_04_ca_almond.mi	✔
female_head_05_bl_espresso.mi	✔
female_head_06_bl_dark.mi	✔

Freckles / cheek make-up

For a list of freckles and make-up sorted by colour and skin type, see NoraLee's NPV guide.

Lipstick

For a mod fixing various mix-ups in the character creator, see here.

Lipstick colours and styles are sorted in (more or less) ascending order in the appearance list in the mesh.

Style order is Default - Glossy - Matte (no suffix, _02, _03)

Link: Reference images on imgur

Eyeliner and kohl

To be done. Are you bored (and potentially have OCD)? Please get in touch via Discord!