Cheat Sheet: Head

Summary

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

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

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`	✔

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

Eyebrows

Every eyebrow option has an associated texture file, normal map, and alpha map.

These files can be found in the following folder:

base/characters/common/character_customisation_items/eyebrows/textures/

Provided below is a table with the eyebrows and their associated texture files.

Eyebrow	Diffuse Texture
01	heb__base_d01.xbm
02	heb__base_d02.xbm
03	heb__base_d03.xbm
04	heb__base_d04.xbm
05	heb__base_d05.xbm
06	heb__base_d06.xbm
07	heb__base_d07.xbm
08	heb__base_d08.xbm

Eyebrow	Alpha mask
01	heb_wa__base_ds01.xbm
02	heb_wa__base_ds02.xbm
03	heb_wa__base_ds03.xbm
04	heb_wa__base_ds04.xbm
05	heb_wa__base_ds05.xbm
06	heb_wa__base_ds06.xbm
07	heb_wa__base_ds07.xbm
08	heb_wa__base_ds08.xbm

Eyeliner and kohl

PreviousAssets explained NextCheat Sheet: Hair

Last updated 15 days ago