LNZ

LNZ is the subsection of a .dog or .cat file that dictates how a breed file looks and moves. Most hexing occurs here. All breeds have two LNZ files, an adult version and a puppy/kitten version. Alley Cats and Poodles have two sets prefixed with "RAW_", which I'm not sure why they do. Bunnyz have three extra unused LNZ profiles, "BUNNYALBINO," "BUNNYBROWN," and "BUNNYPINK."

A very non-visual but very in-depth source of LNZ information is Carolyn Horn's "Vital LNZ Info!!!" collection of guides, which I heavily reference here and encourage you to read for deeper understanding of the way they work. These sections will not be quite as in-depth as her guide but should serve just fine as a basic all-on-one-page reference.

[Little One]
Links to the breed's puppy/kitten LNZ. Removing the "pup"/"kit" from the file path will make the puppy or kitten appear as a fully-grown adult. This is useful while hexing so you don't have to bother with aging up the dog or cat to see how the hexie will appear as an adult.

[Sounds]
Links to the .txt file that organizes the breed's sounds. Let's put something in here about sound-stripping, because I don't understand it.

[Breed Name]
The breed's Adoption Center name. Changing it in a hexed breed requires changing the AC image as well; more info on that here.

[256 Eyelid Color]
The eyelid color. Can be linked to variations.

[Head Enlargement]
Controls how large or small the head ball gets as the pet ages. The minimum is 85, the maximum is 150.

[Face Extension]
Dictates how long or short the snout gets as the pet ages. The minimum is -40, the maximum is 30.

[Body Extension]
Determines how long or short the pet's body extends as it ages. The minimum is -40, the maximum is 30.

[Leg Extension]
Controls how long The minimum is -20, the maximum is 20.

[Feet Enlargement]
Dictates how large or small the paws (feet, hands, and all toe ballz) grow as the pet ages. The minimum is 75, the maximum is 150.

[Ear Extension]
Determines how far away from the head ball the ear balls and their connected addballz grow on a growing pet. The minimum is -10, the maximum is 300.

[Move]
This is the section to define how a base ball (not an addball) is positioned on the XYZ axis.

[Project Ball]
Used to specify how far apart ballz are from each other.

[Omissions]
Adding a ball to omissions makes it visually disappear from a pet, but does not delete the ball itself in the LNZ (which is not recommended, as it will cause issues). It's often used to give Petz a bob-tailed look.

[Default Scales]
This section controls how big the pet will grow, as well as how big the actual ballz that make up the pet will get. For instance, a small pet scale with a large ball scale will give you a small, chunky pet.

The minimum ball size here is 75, the maximum is 160.

[Whiskers]
Having this section present but empty will remove the whiskers from a cat.

[Paint Ballz]
Paintballz are used for paw pads as well as surface-level markings like Dalmatian spots and Mutt patches. They can be made to mutate, but I have no idea how.

Paintballz need to be anchored after being placed with Petz Workshop. Hexpedia has a tutorial for doing so with LNZ Pro.

[Thin/Fat]
Determines how large/small ballz get when a Pet is at maximum/minimum weight.

[Head Shot]
This determines what a breed's Pick-A-Pet picture will look like. The frame number specification takes an animation frame from the basic cat or dog animations and uses that as the pose. There is no definitive way to view all the animations or frame numbers, but they can be viewed in Petz Workshop; there's also a website out there that cataloged a few but I don't remember what it was. A sample of Catz frames can be viewed at VPZ Research Center.

[Ballz Info]
This dictates what all the standard ballz look like.

Changing the group number to -1 makes

[Add Clothing]
Used to make petz wear clothing right out of the Adoption Center. Unlike [Flat Clothing], this is for clothes like Chinchilla Persians' bows that are "separate" from the pet's body/made of their own ballz.

Clothing varieties that belong in this section: Tail,Hat,Hat2,EarringL,EarringR,NoseThing,NoseThing2,Glasses

[Adjust Clothing]
This is used to tweak the appearance of ballz-based clothing (such as hats or glasses) on certain breeds by shifting its XYZ position or size when worn.

[Ball Size Override]
Used to make different-sized variations within a breed, such as Poodles coming in standard and toy sizes.

[Color Info Override]
Used for ballz color variations (like determining if a Siamese is cream or gold).

[Flat Clothing]
This section is used instead of [Add Clothing] for ballz-covering clothing like Scotties' sweaters.

Clothing varieties that belong in this section: Shirt,Pant,Sock_FrontL,Sock_FrontR,Sock_BackL,Sock_BackR

[Force To Female] and [Force To Male]
Can be used to force variations (i.e. clothing styles, as in Chinchilla Persians' bows) to only appear as one gender. Calicos use this to make Adoption Center Calicos predominantly female by adding four variations within it, three female and one male.

[Fur Color Areas]
This section is used to control which paintballs paint together.

Accidentally deleting this section in hexed breeds will cause all offspring to be born solid white. This can be fixed by adding the following beneath the [Ballz] section: [Fur Color Areas] (1-4, 5 - jowls) FurColorTrait	ballWithBaseColor	colorAreas 1	48	0, 1, 2, 3, 4

[Fur Markings]
Even after reading Carolyn's guide, I'm not sure what this is used for, exactly.

[Fur Pattern Balls]
This area is used to control addballs that are part of a breed's markings as separate from their base fur color, like a Tabby's tail-stripe addballs. This keeps features like the Tabby stripes separate from the rest of the tail balls for breeds that use addballs to lengthen their tail and appear/behave (i.e. mutating, painting) as one complete solid-colored appendage, like a Great Dane's tail.

[Fuzz Override]
Used to add variations in ballz outline fuzz.

[Outline Color Override]
This is where outline color variations (including eye color variations, being variations on the Iris ballz outlines) belong.

[Marking Factor]
Does not appear to be used.

[Spot Factor]
Does not appear to be used.