Guide:Hair Mod File Setup
Tools
If wanting to add more than one hair to your mod you can use my mini tool linked above for adding new slots to CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals
If adding an existing hair from the game without wanting to do any edits you can remove the Generated folder from your copy of the template.
Following the Template
So if following my Template or just using it as a guide to copy parts from the game files you can follow along with this tutorial.
Localization/English/custom_name_here.loca.xml
Why is it named .loca.xml?
This is because if you package the Main folder also known as your workspace folder with multitool it will auto convert the .loca.xml to .loca
This way you don't have to manually do the conversions yourself. However if you prefer to do manual conversions change the extension to .xml only.
Change custom_name_here to a custom name. Best to add a prefix beforehand. For example I use my username Padme4000 but shorten it to P4
So for my viking braid my .loca.xml is called p4_viking_braid.loca.xml
So the first underscored (yellow) part labeled 1 is a handle. This is technically the same as a UUID except it has no - and instead has 3 extra random digits and adds a h at the beginning. So if you want you can use auto generated UUID's like you can make with notepad ++ or vscode and then remove the - and add a h at the beginning and add 3 more random digits.
For example:
644e4b68-7bdb-4b0a-98ff-9025ce6e20e6 turn this into h644e4b687bdb4b0a98ff9025ce6e20e6a4d
Now the second underscored (pink) part labelled 2 is where we write what we want the game to show when the handle is active. For example when it comes to character creation mods it is what shows up in character creation.
Using Multitool to Generate a Handle
Alternatively you can use multitool to generate a handle for you.
So once you have multitool open make sure to click the box next to Handle so it has a tick inside. Then you can click Generate for the tool to generate a new handle. Clicking on the box that has the handle inside will copy it to your clipboard so you can go to your file and paste it in.
Character Creation Folder
ModName/Public/ModShared/CharacterCreation is the file path for your CharacterCreation Shared/Appearance Visuals lsx files.
So as of full release we can finally use CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals.lsx again even if we are using autosnapping hairs.
What are autosnapping hairs?
Well autosnapping hairs are basically when you have an asset you want to work for more than one race/bodyshape/bodytype but don't want to make a mesh for every single variation. So when setup to be autosnapping you can apply one mesh to multiple races/bodyshapes/bodytypes. And we can apply them in CharacterCreationSharedVisuals.lsx or CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals.lsx
For non autosnapping use only CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals.lsx. Non autosnapping is when you have to create your hair mesh for each race/bodyshape/bodytype or rather the ones you want to create it for. For instance for personal use hairs you might decide you only want it for one character. Then non autosnapping might be the way to go.
You can use my mini tool to help create the CharacterCreationAppearanceVisuals.lsx file, as well as its slots. Or alternatively use the file in this template to do it manually.