XF Studio
Source

Credits

Built on the modding community’s work

XF Studio stands on the work of the Cyberpunk 2077 modding community: the people who build its frameworks and tools, document the game’s inner workings, and share their mods and techniques. Much of what we know came from studying their work, and we are grateful to every one of them. This page summarises the community credits in the repository, which remain the authoritative list.

Acknowledgement is not endorsement, and credit is not permission. Listing someone here does not mean they endorse XF Studio, and it does not grant permission to reuse their work; where we use or depend on something, the entry says so. Neither this site nor the Studio distributes any of the mod or game assets named below. Where a mod’s files inform the private local preview, they come from the user’s own installation.

01Game and frameworks

The foundations

  • Cyberpunk 2077

    CD PROJEKT RED

    The game’s own resources, shaders, rigs, animation and materials are the ground truth for nearly everything we study. Their article “A World Full of Substance” explained the shared-surface and mask approach behind the game’s materials.

    Private local reference only; nothing redistributed

  • ArchiveXL

    psiberx and contributors

    Its source taught us how character-creator options register, how appearance templates clone and how dynamic material paths expand: the foundation of the single-selector preset export, which avoids a separate material for every combination.

    Learning · intended runtime dependency; no code includedRepository

  • Codeware and TweakXL

    psiberx and contributors

    Their published version and compatibility information helped us choose stable framework versions for runtime testing.

    LearningCodewareTweakXL

  • RED4ext and RED4ext SDK

    wopss and contributors

    RED4ext set our framework baseline, and the SDK’s resource-depot declarations clarified which parts of archive lookup order the game leaves unspecified.

    LearningRED4extSDK

  • redscript

    jac3km4 and contributors

    Helped set a stable framework baseline for runtime testing.

    LearningRepository

02Modding tools and documentation

Tools and shared knowledge

  • WolvenKit

    The WolvenKit team and contributors

    The backbone of our export pipeline: its command-line tools convert, serialise and pack resources, and its source taught us the game’s save, archive, mesh, morph, animation and appearance formats and informed our pre-pack path checks.

    External tool (GPL-3.0), downloaded from its official release with your consent; no code includedRepository

  • Cyberpunk Blender Add-on (IO Suite)

    Its authors and the RED Modding maintainers

    Its facial solver, run offline, gave the preview a working character-creator idle with blinks, gaze and mouth movement, and its eye material setup was a precedent for our preview shaders.

    External tool (GPL-3.0-or-later), unmodified; no code includedRepository

  • Mod Organizer 2

    The ModOrganizer2 contributors; the Cyberpunk plugin credits 6788 and Zash

    The plugin and its load-order guide taught us to separate MO2’s virtual file priority from the game’s own archive load order, which shaped how XF Studio discovers installed mods.

    LearningMO2Plugin

  • Cyberpunk 2077 Modding Wiki

    manavortex and the contributor community

    Special thanks to manavortex, who wrote much of the wiki and keeps it available to modders. Its guides and screenshots taught us the character resource chain, character-creator hair, eye and switcher setups, material families, decals, tattoos and load order. We are particularly grateful to guide authors and editors icxrus, redacted-c01, nutboy, Mx_OrcBoi, minnierylands, LadyLea, Yggnire, YoursTrulyBilly and Halk, and to the CyberCAT documentation for pointing us to external preset files.

    Documentation learningWikiSource

03Libraries, runtimes and general tools

What the Studio is built with

  • Three.js

    mrdoob and the three.js authors

    Renders the entire preview: skinned head, materials, camera controls, ray casting and the glitter studies. One isolated glitter study adapts its physical-lighting shader structure and carries the MIT notice.

    Dependency (MIT)Repository

  • Bun and SQLite

    The Bun contributors and the SQLite project

    Bun runs the local service, the SQLite library and our test suites, and hosts the desktop app’s main process. SQLite keeps the library of immutable look and collection versions.

    Runtime dependenciesBunSQLite

  • Electrobun and Hutch

    Blackboard Technologies Inc. and contributors

    The framework for the desktop app. Its documentation shaped our packaging, update, shutdown and uninstall design.

    Dependency (MIT)ElectrobunHutch

  • Microsoft platform tools and documentation

    Microsoft

    The DirectX shader compiler and DXIL reference let us read the game’s compiled shaders, and the WebView2 debugging documentation enabled automated testing of the desktop window. WebView2 is a platform dependency of the desktop app.

    Tools · platform dependencyDXILWebView2

  • Blender

    The Blender Foundation and contributors

    Offline mesh work, eye-plate clearance studies and diagnostic renders; its ray casting separates visible intersections from hidden ones.

    Tool useblender.org

  • NumPy, SciPy and Pillow

    The NumPy, SciPy and Pillow developers

    Eye-plate correction studies, image encoding and measurement, and rasterising the desktop icon.

    Research toolingNumPySciPyPillow

  • LZ4, Mermaid CLI and wgpu

    The LZ4, Mermaid and gfx-rs/wgpu contributors

    The LZ4 block specification behind the save reader’s independent decompression; Mermaid CLI for rendering and reviewing pipeline diagrams; and wgpu’s documentation for our assessment of rendering backends and ray-tracing support.

    Specification · tool use · learningLZ4 specMermaid CLIwgpu

04Mods

Mods and creators whose work we studied

Studied from local installations. “Private local reference” means a Studio user’s own installed copy is read by their local preview; it is never packaged or redistributed, and each mod’s own terms continue to apply.

  • Hair Color Profiles CCXL and Photoreal Eyes CCXL

    psiberx, co-credited with a creator who asked not to be named

    Shared material templates and dynamic material paths showed how far material duplication can shrink, and the hair profiles drive the preview’s saved-hair shading. That creator also generously explained a Substance glitter graph and reviewed our glitter preview; the lesson that facets need visibly varied tilts shaped every glitter model since.

    Private local reference · inspiration; graph not reusedHair profilesPhotoreal Eyes

  • Heterochromia Eyes and Soft Natural Eyelashes (CCXL)

    icxrus

    A clear example of independently selected components, and the lash geometry and material used in the preview, which showed how dynamic colour profiles bind to custom meshes.

    Private local referenceHeterochromiaEyelashes

  • Beautiful EYEBROWS II, Universal Skin Tone and Realistic Complexion III

    Arkhe

    How ArchiveXL copy and patch declarations assemble complete resources from vanilla geometry, and how the game combines two alpha maps with a colour gradient for brows. The skin mods provided alternative maps for render-fidelity comparisons.

    Private local referenceEyebrowsSkin toneComplexion

  • Natural Hair Tones

    Alliekat

    Supplies the saved character’s brow colour gradient, and taught us that an installed override need not change the visible colour.

    Private local referenceNexus Mods

  • PRC jewellery framework and packs

    eagul; the framework credits Auska and manavortex

    A working route to morph-compatible modular jewellery, informing future jewellery design. The pages require the author’s permission for reuse or modification.

    Private local referenceFrameworkCollectionMirrors

  • Kala’s Eyes Standalone V2

    Kala; source eye texture credited to Sarah Cartwright

    Supplies the saved character’s eye textures in the preview. The page’s credit, noncommercial and game-use conditions apply.

    Private local referenceNexus Mods

  • Unique Eyes to CCXL

    nutboy, crediting psiberx, icxrus, halvkyrie and another creator

    Resolves the saved character’s eye choice, and gave us a concrete case for reading character-creator option catalogues.

    Studied onlyNexus Mods

  • MELUMINARY Long Length Pak Vol. 3 #011

    Creator credits still being confirmed

    Supplies the saved character’s hair geometry for the optional hair preview; its maps taught us to check whether an apparently missing texture is genuinely constant.

    Private local referenceNexus Mods

  • -KS- UV Texture Framework

    The KnowSo team, crediting original authors Zosoab70 and AllKnowingLion

    Its skin template and seam-fix resources showed why each file’s effective load-order winner must be resolved before changing preview materials, and its player-only skin chain showed how overlay tattoos work and why only one can be active.

    Studied onlyNexus Mods

  • Morphtarget and AnimRig Additions; Facial Customisation Rig Fix

    NoraLee; xBaebsae

    Their alternative teeth and head-morph resources reinforced the need to resolve each file’s effective winner.

    Studied onlyNoraLeexBaebsae

  • Tattoo mods

    SEDTH (Sandevistan CCXL Tattoo, Photon Spine Cyberware, per their file names); other authors still being confirmed

    A tattoo added as its own character-creator row with decals fitted to each body, and a set of overlay tattoos that each replace the texture framework’s one overlay file, showed the additive and the replacing routes. A tattoo-shop location showed how getting a tattoo can be part of the world.

    Studied onlySandevistanPhoton SpineWatson Tattoo Shops

  • Hair-colour packs and Kwek EquipmentEx earrings

    Individual authors still being confirmed

    Four hair-colour packs showed how colour profiles are scoped and layered by data, and an inventory-worn earring mod provided a packaging precedent for jewellery design.

    Studied onlyMCH Pt 1Washed OutIllegally BlondePink

05Research and references

Ideas from further afield

These papers informed our thinking about filtering tiny glitter highlights; no algorithm from them was implemented.

  • Discrete Stochastic Microfacet Models

    Jakob, Hašan, Yan, Lawrence, Ramamoorthi and Marschner, 2014

    Framed the aliasing and temporal-coherence problem of tiny normal-mapped glitter.

    Conceptual learningPaper

  • Glint rendering on anisotropic grids

    Thomas Deliot and Laurent Belcour, 2023

    A lead on counting glints within a pixel’s footprint.

    Conceptual learningPaper

  • Real-time Image-based Lighting of Glints

    Kneiphof and Klein, 2025

    Showed that environment lighting is a separate filtering requirement.

    Conceptual learningPaper

  • Jewellery form and fit references

    The Association of Professional Piercers, with material by Elayne Angel and photographs credited to Paul King, Neometal and Industrial Strength Body Jewelry; product pages from Anatometal, Maria Tash, Stone and Strand and BVLA

    Taught us gauges, ring sizes, closures and connection patterns for jewellery design. Viewed as references only; no image or design was copied, and the APP jewellery brochure is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

    Reference onlyJewellery brochureProcedures brochure

06Open attributions

Community members we are still identifying

If you recognise your contribution here or anywhere in this project, please let us know so we can credit you properly.

  • The Discord community member who suggested shimmer as a makeup finish.
  • The modder who recommended ArchiveXL dynamic expansion, which set the direction of our export design.
  • The photographers and makeup artists behind the glitter makeup photographs, and the designers and photographers behind the earring photographs, used as visual references.