1 ) Open the target Creature_hero
2 ) Delete the 156 age effects in CHeroMorphDef
3 ) Delete the 6 bones in CHeroMorphDef
4 ) Delete the 25 skin effects in CCreatureDef
5 ) Delete the 4 expressions in CCreatureDef
6 ) Delete the AppearanceClothing entries in CAppearanceModifierDef for the various Object_Hero_Hair (3379, 3380 to 3387).
7 ) Delete the AppearanceClothing entries in CAppearanceModifierDef for (at a minimum) Object_Hero_Boots, Object_Hero_Trousers, Object_Hero_Shirt, and Object_Hero_Gloves
8 ) Open the source creature
9 ) Replace the hero's Model and Eye mesh ID numbers (along with the scale) with those from the source creature
10 ) Replace the hero's CEntitySoundDef with that of the source creature.
11 ) Export, the CAppearanceDef of both the hero and source creature.
12 ) Using Silverback's CAppearanceDefApp, overwrite the hero's animations with those that most closely fit from the source creature.
13 ) Import the editied CAppearanceDefApp into your hero (in fable explorer)
13a ) Download and import nosheaths.fmp (so weapons aren't floating in the middle of your character).
14 ) Save edits and run fable.

At a minimum go into your game folder [game]\data\CompiledDefs and put your original .bin files in a zip or 7z archive. I just named this backup.zip and left it in the same folder. For my edits, only game.bin changed.

I'm guessing you're going to want to package your character into an .fmp when you're all done editing. This is done with the menu entry "File - Create Fable Mod Package" which opens a window for you to drag entries into. The trick is understanding what entries go into this window. My rule of thumb is every window that opens has a "root" entry. When you double-click "creature_hero", single click "creature", scroll down to "graphic" (C8636B2E), and change the mesh for your hero by altering the "model id" you have altered the root entry for "creature_hero" and you'll need to drag this into the fmp creation window.

So what about those "Links to (GameBINEntryID)" underlined in blue such as "CCreatureDef"? Did it open a new window, if so then it has a "root" entry that is not actually contained in "creature_hero". Notice how "CCreatureDef" has a "CDefDataEntry" ID number of 10532, that's it's master ID. If you use the search feature in shadownet FE and look for "CCreatureDef" you'll find a large list of numbers. If you make changes to "10532 - (CCreatureDef)" you'll need to drag that into the fmp creation window as well.

That's the confusing part; I mean you're going along making edits in "creature_hero" and just because a new window opens you don't immediately think to yourself, "Hey, I'm editing something different", but you are. It's crucially important to jot those Name/ID numbers down every time a new window opens.

Steps 2 and 3 were editing "10535 - CHeroMorphDef", I just searched for and double clicked "1470 - Creature_Hero" then clicked the top "Creature" entry in the window that opened. I then scrolled the right pane down until I saw "CHeroMorpDef" with ID 10535 and clicked the "Links to (GameBINEntryID)" beneath it. In the window that opened, I clicked "CHeroMorphDef" and tapped that little "Del" button 156 times to get rid of the skin effects under heading DE9B0516. The six bone definitions for heading 4577F2CB follow immediately after and I deleted them as well, then hit "Apply Changes" and closed the window.


Steps 4 and 5 were editing "10532 - CCreatureDef". I found the entry in the right pane of "Creature_Hero" and clicked the link, then "CCreatureDef". I deleted the 25 skin effects under heading FFF38E28 along with the 4 expressions under heading F0F1CA81, hit "Apply Changes" and closed the window.


Steps 6 and 7 are related in that we will be altering the "CAppearanceModifierDef" for numerous objects. The breakdown is a follows:

"3379 - Oject_Hero_Hair", "11648 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3380 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Short_01", "11650 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3381 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Ponytail_01", "11653 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3382 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Young_01", "11656 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3383 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Mohawk_01", "11659 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3384 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Plats_01", "11662 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3385 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Basin_01", "11665 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3386 - Oject_Hero_Hair_Buzz_01", "11668 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3404 - Oject_Hero_Boots", "11712 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3426 - Oject_Hero_Trousers", "11788 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3451 - Oject_Hero_Shirt", "11876 - CAppearanceModifierDef"
"3477 - Oject_Hero_Gloves", "11967 - CAppearanceModifierDef"

For the hair I deleted the entries under "67019D5C - Appearance Clothing M"
For the clothes I deleted the entries under "69BE597A - Clipping Prevention" and "67019D5C - Appearance Clothing M". You should now have what I would call a baseline for character swaps; with no clothes, hair, bones, expressions, or skin/age effects to interfere with the new hero model.


Steps 8 through 14 are covered elsewhere by various talented individuals (see Resources).

Probably the most demanding part is the editing of CAppearanceDef, which contains the animations for our hero. My understanding is that the animations are written for the bone morph of a given character. To get a hero swap to look and move correctly we need to swap the animations from the source creature to our hero. To understand this let's use my example swap of Creature_bs_villager_female:

I exported both her and the hero's CAppearanceDef then opened them in CAppearanceDefApp. When compared side by side, she has only a small fraction of the hero's animations. This is why it's not a very good idea to simply swap the CAppearanceDef IDs from one creature to another as you're going to be missing a huge number of animations.

The better method is to copy the individual anims from the source CAppearanceDef over the target. I can't tell you the best way to do this but, for my villager, most of the animations had some sort of cross-over. Walk, Run, Jog, Strafe, and Sit typically had a few entries in my villager and dozens of entries in the Hero.

Using the walk animation as an example; our hero has numerous entries that say walk but are followed by a weapon (sword, bow, crossbow, etc.). My villager doesn't have these specific walk animations so I chose the animation ID for the most generic walk the villager did possess and copied it over EACH of the hero's walk animations.

In this manner I went through and tried to replace all of the hero animation IDs with something that seemed similar from the villager. This blanket, replace all, proceedure probably wasn't the best but it was all I could come up with.

When I tried to swap just the CAppearanceDef from my source creature to the hero, my character couldn't walk but could run. My swapped character had a "scrunched" face until I edited the CAppearanceDef.

Fable explorer .fmp "mods" lack granularity and, as a result, may not stack well. To understand this consider a simple change to "creature_hero" "C013C26E - IsIndestructible". Let's say I change this value from 0 to 1 so my hero can't be hurt. I then package the change into an .fmp. This mod contains not only my, very minor, change but every other value for the "creature" including all the CDefs entries. Although I only intended to make a simple cheat mod, if I try to load it after my hero swap fmp, it will change my hero back to his normal appearance, minus the changes I made to any other root entities such as clothes, bones, hair, etc.

I didn't include pictures because I'd need to make a HUGE pdf, doc, or something similar to show it all. Besides, I created my puzzle from the pieces that are readily available on various forums (created by the hard work of others); it seems best to leave that as it is.

This is not meant to be an all inclusive guide. Feel free to correct me or show me how I could have accomplished my hero swap better. This post is the result of about 3 days of trolling the forums and I certainly don't pretend to know anything more than the basics.

These hero swaps are only designed to replace the adult Hero. Using them on the child hero will have unexpected results.

oldboy, New to modding Fable?, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&goto=55308& amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; amp; (the pinnacle resource)
droded, You can be your favourite Rival Hero!, http://projectego.net/forums/threads/you-can-be-your-favouri te-rival-hero.2014/
silverback, Miscellaneous Applications, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=1666& ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;start=0&
morerunes, How To Mod Fable, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=4483& ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;start=0& (attachment)
TJ - Grozat, Never go bald, even if evil!, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=2716& ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;start=0& (I used the tutorial in reverse to make sure I was always bald and applied the same concept to remove clothes.)
Myst, Easy Old Age Effect removal., http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=1372& ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;start=0&
Black Demon, Easy Make Muscle Size Perfect+Scar/Bruise Removing, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=6693& ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;amp ;start=0&
morerunes/JohnDoe, No sheaths, http://fabletlcmod.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&&th=316 8&goto=57257#msg_57257

herotemplate.fmp 0.3 beta
femaleanims.fmp 0.3 beta
femalehero.fmp 0.2 beta
myHeroines.7z 0.3 beta

Anims will probably be updated over time. I've replaced the bulk of standard movement and the remaining animations have no real cross-over.

These are stack-able modular fmps. Herotemplate.fmp removes clothes, hair, bones, expressions, and skin/age effects, femalehero.fmp replaces just the mesh IDs to change the hero into a generic female, and femaleanims.fmp has just the animations.

Using this technique it's easy to mix and match features. Consider that most female characters have similar animations so one could use herotemplate.fmp, add in the Mesh IDs for Briar Rose, then use femaleanims.fmp to get a (mostly) working character. In this same manner others could improve the animation and just attach that piece, or just the mesh change piece as an fmp for community use.

herotemplate.fmp contains:
10535 - CHeroMorphDef
10532 - CCreatureDef
11648 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11650 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11653 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11656 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11659 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11662 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11665 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11668 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11712 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11788 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11876 - CAppearanceModifierDef
11967 - CAppearanceModifierDef

femalehero.fmp contains:
1470 - Creature_Hero

femaleanims.fmp contains:
10533 - CAppearanceDef

myHeroines.7z contains:
femaleanims.fmp - female animations
herotemplate.fmp - removes clothes, hair, bones, expressions, and skin/age effects
briarhero.fmp - Briar Rose
dominatrixhero.fmp - Dominatrix
exotichero.fmp - Exotic Prostitute
femalehero.fmp - Female villager
ladygreyhero.fmp - Lady Grey
sisterhero.fmp - Sister
whisperhero.fmp - Whisper (not wearing hood)
undohero.fmp - restores defaults for everything I edited

If you just want to try my female hero replacement then download and install all 3 fmps or get myHeroines.7z and mix and match.