Is there a way to preview the model/textures of character hairs, faces, outfits, etc?

[Xaliber13]

I went to \characters\ and it's a bunch of *.mtl and *.chr files that I can't open. What are those files and how to open it?

 

The reason I ask is because I want to add some new survivors to the game.

[qmjs]

I never did much with the other file types. For the most part, I modified the cdf files (just simple text, notepad or any other editor will do), and you can mix and match pieces from most characters and build other combinations.

 

There are a few that don't work properly, such as the heavily armored swat characters, because some of their models occupy multiple positions (or actually, override the other positions.)

 

There are a number of people who did modify the mtl files, and hopefully they will see it and answer, but many of the older modders have moved on to other stuff and only show up once in a long while.

 

Look in the rts/characters.xml and find the cdf for a character:

<Character HairColor="Light Brown" HairType="Male04" HeadType="Male07" Model="characters/male/human/body/sweater/variant/v03.cdf" SkinColor="Base" VoicePitch="Low" VoiceRole="ED" PortraitHairColor="9" PortraitHairType="16" PortraitHeadType="39" PortraitSkinColor="1">

 

Copy and adjust the cdf as you want, and then make sure it goes in the right path. The rest of the entry in characters (PortraitHairColor="9" PortraitHairType="16" PortraitHeadType="39" PortraitSkinColor="1") only applies to their picture in the journal, and doesn't affect what the actual character looks like.

 

Anyway, the original question... you can get a good idea of what each cdf looks like from here: https://community.wemod.com/t/state-of-decay-character-model-images/2871

I think that is probably still up to date, as the base game hasn't changed much in years.

[Xaliber13]

I never did much with the other file types. For the most part, I modified the cdf files (just simple text, notepad or any other editor will do), and you can mix and match pieces from most characters and build other combinations.

 

There are a few that don't work properly, such as the heavily armored swat characters, because some of their models occupy multiple positions (or actually, override the other positions.)

 

There are a number of people who did modify the mtl files, and hopefully they will see it and answer, but many of the older modders have moved on to other stuff and only show up once in a long while.

 

Look in the rts/characters.xml and find the cdf for a character:

<Character HairColor="Light Brown" HairType="Male04" HeadType="Male07" Model="characters/male/human/body/sweater/variant/v03.cdf" SkinColor="Base" VoicePitch="Low" VoiceRole="ED" PortraitHairColor="9" PortraitHairType="16" PortraitHeadType="39" PortraitSkinColor="1">

 

Copy and adjust the cdf as you want, and then make sure it goes in the right path. The rest of the entry in characters (PortraitHairColor="9" PortraitHairType="16" PortraitHeadType="39" PortraitSkinColor="1") only applies to their picture in the journal, and doesn't affect what the actual character looks like.

 

Anyway, the original question... you can get a good idea of what each cdf looks like from here: https://community.wemod.com/t/state-of-decay-character-model-images/2871

I think that is probably still up to date, as the base game hasn't changed much in years.

 

Wow thanks for the super speedy reply qmjs! Really helpful. I'm on that page now.

 

Thanks for the note about .cdf, I didn't know it can be opened as text file; I thought it's some kind of image file.

 

Do you happen to know if there's a preview of the portraits as well (i.e. the hair type and head type mostly), and also the voice preview? Or do we have to it the harder way?

Edited December 28, 2022 by Xaliber13

[qmjs]

A few more notes.

 

MTL files are also text files. There are a lot of fields that can be adjusted, but I never really messed with them. It appears that the textures themselves are specified in there, and are TIF image files.

 

The heads for portraits are in \Game\libs\ui\class3_journal_i3.dds

Once you get there, you'll see that some already have hats. The others basically make a composite from the characters.xml entry. It is base head, skin color adjusted, then with a hair (or hat) and a color adjustment.

 

Voices are mp3 files under Game\dialog\class3\ and Game\beltway\game\dialog\dlc2\ for lifeline. (Each voice has its own directory.)