SF6 Color Editing Writeup

Since color editing seems to be a constant issue over in the modding discords, I'll briefly share the way I've been doing it.

(Click on the images to enlarge so they're actually readable, lol).

Special thanks to AlphaZOmega who makes a lot of the tools and keeps them updated when he has time, and also did the first tutorial for live-color editing in this game. This is based off of that method, plus a few modifications from my end.

If you prefer video, Fishboy was gracious enough to make a tutorial video (my method is a little different though), found here:

There a lot of steps at the beginning and the constant updates to game means you will have to update files sometimes. But once you have it down it's not that bad.

Things you will need:

Fluffy Mod Manager (AKA Fluffy Manager 5000) : (Found here:)

REF Framework (Found here:)

EMV Engine (Found here:)

Current RE.RSZ json file for SF6 (Found here, you want the rszsf6.json)

(For the github stuff if you don't see a 'release' tab, click the green 'code' tab at the top and tab down to download ZIP). 

First Natives: (Found here, you want firstnatives.rar)

Current CMDs (color palette files for SF6).

Check here, or check the pins in Modding Haven Discord:

Server invite to Modding Haven link: https://discord.gg/9Vr2SJ3

Steps:

There are several steps at the beginning that are annoying, good news is we only have to do most of these once and after that it's fairly simple, lol. So step 0 is don't panic.

1.) Install REF Framework. Follow instructions per the site (go to the releases tab, get the one labeled SF6) and install REF Framework (the dinput8.dll file) into your SF6 game install directory. If you need to turn it off for any reason (maybe a game update breaks it), rename the dinput8.dll to anything else. I usually put underscore '_OFF' at the end of the file path if I have to, but anything will work.

2.) DL& Install Fluffy Mod Manager, set it up. Take note of the mods directory which should be under Games > SF6 inside the modmanager folder unless you change it.

3.) Download and install EMV Engine by unzipping it and adding the new folders to your mods directory for SF6 within FMM.

FMM can support both mods in folders w/loose files in them and .zips (or .rar's) of said folders, in this case I would unzip EMV Engine (open the zip and drag all mod folders inside into your mods directory) since we're going to need to update files within it.

Also make sure the original zip isn't in the mods folder so there aren't two versions there to confuse you.

4.) Download the updated rszsf6.json file from here. Add it to your mods folder for RE Engine Resource Editor  that you should've unzipped along with EMV, under reframework > data > rsz. Be advised you may have to do this again if a large character update breaks the current json.

5.) With that done, install EMV Engine, tab into it and ALSO install RE Engine Resource Editor and Console. This step is mandatory, or you will not be able to save your edits.

6.) Download First Natives from the link above, add that your mod directory and install that via FMM as well. (Will be under the 'code injectors' tab). 

Briefly, First Natives is a mod that tells the game to load all loose files found in the 'natives' folder in your SF6 game directory (NOT your Mods folder within FMM). The big advantage to this is you can install/uninstall things without rebooting the game.

HOWEVER, the mod is unstable and may cause several problems. Modes and Characters will load MUCH slower, big levels in World Tour will make your game crash, other stuff will randomly make your game crash, etc. etc.

This seems useful specifically for modders in the middle of mod creation who need to check on their work over and over. If you're playing online at all always turn this off.

But while we're working on colors being able to save and move on to the next w/o a full reboot of the game and mod reinstall will save you a lot of time.

7.) Get the current CMD files for the game. These are data tables organized by character that control the colors and each one represents one color slot per character. 

I'm not hosting these because they're updated constantly (new DLC characters, EX Colors, Master rank colors, etc.) and I'm not going to respond to people asking for updated versions over and over forever, lol.

Check the pins in the SF6 modding section in the Modding Haven discord, I believe in Fishboy's tutorial there is also a link with CMDs.

8.) Once you find your CMDs, copy/paste the ones you need manually to your natives folder within the SF6 game directory for the character you're working on. (again, NOT your mods folder). 

They should all start with esf followed by a number. Here are the character codes for the main cast so far:

We're going to use Marisa's default costume for the tutorial, so that's esf017. 

Typically they come organized the same way the game folders are, so maintain that folder format structure, see the image below. It should be natives > stm > product > model > esf (main characters) > esf###  (character number) > 00# (costume number).  

Once that's done, FINALY we are ready to boot SF6.

9.) Boot SF6, go into training mode, go to character select, lock in the character/color you want to edit, allow player 2 selection to hang. We'll use Marisa as an example.

10.) From here, boot REF/EMV  (use the 'Insert' key to make it visible/invisible), go down to the Script Generated UI tab, and hit spawn console to  make the console window appear. I would check Use Child Window here as well.

11.) In the console window, type '/esf' (without the quotes!), hit enter. You'll see a small entry under the History tab now that says /esf, click the tab/triangle next to it to open everthing up.

A LOT of stuff will pop up here, do not panic. We're ignoring almost all of it. 

Scroll down until you see esf[character number}v00_00, v00_01, and v00_02 these are what we need. in this case, esf017v00_00 is Marisa's body, 01 is her head, 02 is her hair. If you don't know what something is you can click the left checkmark to turn it off to make it visible/invisible, that will point out what you've selected.

12. Tab open esf017_v00 (or whichever one you're editing) then in the new boxes that pop up tab through "Game Object", then "via.render.Mesh", then "Materials".

13. Once you make it to the materials menu you're FINALLY ready to edit colors. tab open one of the materials, let's do esf_Costume00 for Marisa. 

Again, you can click the checkmark next to each one to make them invisible to see which is which. Costume00 is her top.

Scroll down to the boxes that say Customize Color next to them and click on the colors to the right to make your edits. (Anything editable via CMD will have a gold 'CMD' next to it.) If it doesn't have a CMD next to it you'll have to edit via MDF which is a whole other thing.

 

For our example I'm going to make the top bright blue.

14. When you're done it's time to save your edits. 

Normally, when the game sees your CMDs correctly you will see a 'SAVE CMD' at to the top of the Materials tab if EMV can find them. As of the Mai update that's currently not working (EMV Engine needs to be updated I believe). 

If that's not working, we can simply type in the empty CMD path in the CMD window and the button will appear ONLY IF the CMDs are in the correct location in your natives folder in the game directory.

Easiest way to do that, copy paste the path from the mdf file window (directly above the CMD one).

Delete back to the first number after your character code. (in this case that's esf017 (Marisa) /001 (costume 01). 

Then type (or copy paste the FULL file name of CMD number, this one will be 001 since this is Marisa color #1). If you've done all steps up until now correctly, the fabled 'SAVE CMD button will appear!).

It has a few save methods that create backups, but for our example, right click the Save CMD button, hit overwrite. You should see a 'saved to blah blah' message pop up. To do other costume color slots, change the _001 at the end of the CMD path to the desired costume slot. (Also ignore cmd_000, it's a dummy slot. CMDs start at 001 for modding purposes).

15. Now moment of truth. Tab OUT of training mode, return all the way to Fighting Ground, then go back into training Reselect your desired costume/color slot that you've edited. If your color edits were successful and you saved correctly, they should show up correctly on character select, no rebooting of the game required!

Rinse/repeat until you're done with your edits, they will refresh each time you save and exit/re-enter character select.

HOWEVER, once you boot into training mode, edits will not refresh (EDIT: yes they will actually, just quit out to main menu first). You can still make color changes from training and save them if you want but you will need to quit the game completely and reboot it to confirm that the changes updated and saved correctly.

16. Once you're done with your changes, they've saved and you're happy, the final steps are to add them into a mod folder and install it via FMM (this way we can turn off FirstNatives, so it won't cause problems and the game goes back to loading at normal speeds).

Quit the game, disable FirstNatives via FMM. You may want to reboot the game and confirm it's off and your colors returned to normal for safety.

In your mods directory, add a new folder, we'll call this one Marisa C1 Color Test.

Create the folders to match the ones from the game file path as shown here: 

So natives > stm > product > model > esf > esfxxx [your character's number] > costume slot number[001, 002, 003, etc depending on the costume slot, 001 in this case since it's the default].

Now copy paste your edited cmd.user.2 file from the game directory to the new folder we've made and that's it.

17. From here, quit/reopen FMM. Tab to your character, there should be a mod slot now matching the folder you made. 

Enable that and you're good to go!

17 B.) If you're going to upload it the nexus or something you can also turn your colors into a zip file, tab into the mod folder and zip from there so your first folder zipped is 'natives' (or it will not work.) Then rename the resulting zip and put it back into the mods folder.

Thanks for reading and happy modding!

Let me know if there's any questions and reply with your finished edits if it worked out for you!

-Additional notes:

When you hit save for the CMD over the v00 (body), 01 (head), or 02 (hair), EMV editor is only overwriting that specific section of the CMD. So if you're editing body, head and hair all at once, you need to go to each section and save there again SEPERATELY or your changes will not stick.

If you've made a bunch of color changes and you want to do a new color using your first edit as a base, you can duplicate the edited CMD and just change the CMD_00x at the end to put it over a different costume slot. So copy/paste it to the same folder then change the CMD_001 to whichever slot you want. This can be a major timesaver if you've done skin/hair/makeup edits you're happy with and  don't want to deal with again. 

-In addition to the 'customizecolor' boxes you're going to use normally to edit colors, several characters also use colored lights for the shadows or highlights on their clothes and hair. Keep an eye out for clothaniso boxes (or any boxes that end in color) that are colored if you edit a color and it doesn't look right. Also do NOT edit the base color box on any of the characters, this will not save in your CMDs. 

Some characters have weapon specific CMDs that aren't going to be under v00, 01, or 02. Lily has this, so does Mai. Check/uncheck things from the console to turn them invisible and search them out.

You can technically do your edits, save, and have them refresh w/o a full game reboot from character select, or online mode character/color select, or the model preview from the costume shop (you can use the purchase costume preview option for C2 and C3, or purchase color for all the C1 colors past the first two, even if you own them already) . In my experience editing off the costume shop makes it too easy to tab off of the character/color slot and if you do you will lose work and have to quit out and start over. I prefer training mode character select w/P1 locked in as the most idiot proof option. 

Training mode will also work and you may want to boot into that in combination with Lua Freecam to check and finetune your work, (other tutorials have recommended this, and it is good for detail work) though this requires game reboots to refresh each time you save your color work.

(EDIT: Upon further testing it looks like edits refresh even from training mode as long as you quit all the way back out to the Fighting Ground main menu, so you can do edits from there too if you want).