Character Creator Preset

The character creator saves it's presets in binairy files called FFXIV_CHARA_XX.dat where XX is the preset slot number. These files are located in the <..>\Documents\My Games\FINAL FANTASY XIV - A Realm Reborn\ folder.

Note: The investigation into this format has been made in a very cursory manner. There is no garantie of accuracy.

Binary format details

[Last updated: FFXIV 7.0 Benchmark]

The file is read in little endian format.

The file contains 4 sections:

• A 16 bytes header

• A 32 bytes data block

• A 40 bytes/characters comment section

• A 124 bytes of 0x00 at the end of the file

Here is a sample file, displayed in hexadecimal, from the 7.0 Benchmark Character Creator: The colors represent the data sections related to this other view: The mechanisms to understand this view are detailed in the next sections.

File header

The 16 bytes of file header are split into 4 sections:

• A 32 bits file header @0x00, in orange. Always 0x2013FF14.

• A 32 bits version ID @0x04. Only the LSB seems to be used. Here in green, 7(0x00000007).

• A 32 bits assumed checksum value @0x08. Here in red, 0x77225B1E.

• A 32 bits padding of 0x00000000 @0x0C, in purple.

Data

The actual preset data follows. Using ImHex's pattern syntax, here is the actual character data, in order. The full pattern parser file for imHex is available here and can be opened in any text editor or ImHex.

Knowing the following data sizes (See full pattern file for the full enum values):

Race = u8 enum;
Gender = u8 enum;
Age = u8 enum;
Subrace = u8 enum;
FFXIVid = u8;
FFXIVColor = u8;
FaceFeature = u8 bitfield;
EyeShape = u8;
LightDarkColor = u8;
FacePaint = u8;

Notes:

• FaceFeature is a bitfield where each bit is considered a boolean for a specific feature. For exemple bits 6 (0x40) and 5 (0x20) represent left and right tattoos for Hyur and will be 1 when the tattos is visible.

• EyeShape, LightDarkColor and FacePaint use the 7th bit (MSB, 0x08) of the u8 as a boolean to for exemple, switch between "light" or "dark" color, or "reversed" facepaint.

These are all of the data saved in the file:

    Race race;
    Gender gender;
    Age age;
    u8 height_pct;
    Subrace subrace;
    FFXIVid face_id;
    FFXIVid hair;
    match (race){
        (Race::Hrothgar): bool enable_fur_pattern;
        (_): bool enable_hair_highlights;
    }
    FFXIVColor skin_tone;
    FFXIVColor right_eye_color;
    FFXIVColor hair_color;
    match (race){
        (Race::Hrothgar): FFXIVColor pattern_fur_color;
        (_): FFXIVColor hair_highlights_color;
    }
    FaceFeatures facial_features;
    match (race){
        (Race::AuRa): FFXIVColor limbal_ring_color;
        (Subrace::Wildwood): FFXIVColor ear_clasp_color;
        (Subrace::Keepers_of_the_Moon & Gender::female): FFXIVColor ear_clasp_color;
        (_): FFXIVColor tattoo_color;
    }
    FFXIVid eyebrows;
    FFXIVColor left_eye_color;
    EyeShape eyes_shape;
    FFXIVid nose;
    FFXIVid jaw;
    FFXIVid mouth;
    match (race){
        (Race::Hrothgar): FFXIVid fur_pattern_id;
        (_): LightDarkColor lips_color;
    }
    match (race){
        (Race::Hyur | Race::Roegadyn): u8 muscle_tone_pct;
        (Race::Miquote | Race::AuRa | Race::Hrothgar): u8 tail_length_pct;
        (Race::Lalafell | Race::Elzen | Race::Viera): u8 ear_length_pct;
        (_): u8 _tbd;
    }
    FFXIVid tail_shape;
    u8 bust_pct;
    FacePaint face_paint;
    LightDarkColor face_paint_color;
    FFXIVid voice;
    u8 _space2;

Sections containing match (...){} are single bytes that take on different meanings depending on, usually, the character's Race.

Comment

From 0x3000 to 0x5008 included are the 40 characters (bytes) available as a comment when saving the preset.

Empty space

The rest of the file is empty space. No usage has been found yet for it.