Every day, there are fans out there discovering new and interesting facts about video games. One such person was a Twitter user named HEYimHeroic, who figured out a curious detail about how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild generates its NPCs. Apparently, the game uses a modified version of Nintendo's Mii format for its human characters, and through this and some "advanced" tweaking, you can inject your own custom Miis into Breath of the Wild. These files, called UMii's, use certain details from Mii characters, such as hair style, eye color, and facial hair, though not every detail gets transferred over. HEYimheroic reported that they'll be taking commissions to edit people's Miis into UMii files for use in modded versions of Breath of the Wild. with intent to share the method with the public once they understand more about the process.

So, do BotW NPCs use Miis? Both yes, and no.

Basically, they use an evolution of Miis, which the game's files call "UMii"s (which is what I'll be calling them from now on). UMiis have almost all the same parameters as Wii U/3DS Miis, with a few minor differences here and there, like moles no longer being supported.

However, BotW does not support every hairstyle Miis do. So, if you tried to load a hairstyle the game doesn't support, it instead calls a separate file, that essentially converts the unsupported hairstyle into a hair type that is supported and looks the most similar to the unsupported one, which is what happened with my personal Mii, Alice.

There's a lot more details I could go into, BUT I'd like to spread the word about this a bit more before other people start reposting my stuff, so I hope you don't mind. Thanks

Source

 

[64bitmodels]

Noice.

 

[Bladexdsl]

no surprise there everything in that game is cheap and half assed. just like it's big empty lifeless world filled with nothing to do except find shitty seeds

 

[64bitmodels]

no surprise there everything in that game is cheap and half assed. just like it's big empty lifeless world filled with nothing to do except find shitty seeds

wdym this is pretty cool

 

[DKB]

no surprise there everything in that game is cheap and half assed. just like it's big empty lifeless world filled with nothing to do except find shitty seeds

you're so toxic about everything lol calm the hell down

 

[jt_1258]

yup, saw this earlier today. glad to know I'm not insane cause it always seemed like some of them showed signs of looking like miis...not really sure how to describe why though...I will give them props though, it's a creative way to reuse tech and they fit in pretty dam well

 

[PaperTwinkies]

sans mii sans mii

 

[64bitmodels]

barret in mii form is perfection

 

[Silent_Gunner]

yup, saw this earlier today. glad to know I'm not insane cause it always seemed like some of them showed signs of looking like miis...not really sure how to describe why though...I will give them props though, it's a creative way to reuse tech and they fit in pretty dam well

Something tells me they wanted to make the Miis much more detailed than they used to be, but since the Switch doesn't use Miis as much as the Wii or WiiABU do, development on possibly using them was cancelled. Just me putting on my specs!

 

[jt_1258]

Something tells me they wanted to make the Miis much more detailed than they used to be, but since the Switch doesn't use Miis as much as the Wii or WiiABU do, development on possibly using them was cancelled. Just me putting on my specs!

ehh...that seems like an interesting theory but at the same time they also could have pulled back on the idea on the fact that it's a little easier to self insert that said mii is you when it's as simplistic as it is now rather then having the miis be more realistic and it being harder to just use your imagination...again, also just a theory. at least the miis did get some extra style options on the switch...my only issue is that the only way to get old miis into the dam thing you have to own an amiibo...can't we just have the qr code shenigans like animal crossing does?

 

[Hells Malice]

That's hilarious

you're so toxic about everything lol calm the hell down

Pretty sure if he stopped being toxic he'd just disappear

 

[64bitmodels]

hopefully in BOTW2 they can allow you to put your own miis into the game officially

 

[Xzi]

Dang that's actually really cool, I wonder what future applications Ninty might have in mind for it. I doubt they'll add a whole new suite of Mii stuff to Switch or anything, but it could open up the possibility of a "Zelda maker" or another user-friendly game builder like Dreams for PS4.

 

[Bedel]

no surprise there everything in that game is cheap and half assed. just like it's big empty lifeless world filled with nothing to do except find shitty seeds

I somewhat think like you about the game, but this is pretty cool. The game is not for you nor for me, but people do enjoy it, and this has nothing to do with that. It's an awesome technical discovery, and something people can enjoy at another level.

 

[MaxiBash]

matt will now beat the living shit out of you with a mace

 

[Jayro]

yup, saw this earlier today. glad to know I'm not insane cause it always seemed like some of them showed signs of looking like miis...not really sure how to describe why though...I will give them props though, it's a creative way to reuse tech and they fit in pretty dam well

Miis feel like the down-syndrome version of normal characters. Just look at the Mii costume fighters vs the real characters we could have had instead. They come off looking like they came from Wish.com or something.

 

[raxadian]

Will people ever get tired of hacking this game? What's next? Porting the DLC to the Wii U version?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hmm. Now I want to replace Link with my own Mii.

 

[Deleted User]

Will people ever get tired of hacking this game? What's next? Porting the DLC to the Wii U version?

the wii u version doesn't have the dlc?

 

[Lostbhoy]

I want to make EVERY npc a clone of myself. I'll rename the world Lostbhoyrule! It will be now be known as Bald of the Wild

the wii u version doesn't have the dlc?

There are few items I believe that are not available for the Wii u version such as the red Switch t shirt....the only thing I can remember at the moment!