LNZ

LNZ is the subsection of a  or   file that dictates how a breed file looks and moves. Visual hexing occurs here.

All breeds have two LNZ files, an adult version and a Puppy or Kitten version. Alley Cats and Poodles have two sets prefixed with "RAW_". 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 is heavily referenced here; hexers are encouraged to read these 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 Pet will appear as an adult.

[Sounds]
Links to the  file that organizes the breed's sounds.

In the late '90s to mid-'00s, hexed breeds were sometimes sound-stripped, meaning their internal sounds were removed to give them a smaller downloadable file size; their  sections were set to use separately-downloaded sounds placed in the player's   folders.

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

[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.

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

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

A sample of Catz frames can be viewed at VPZ Research Center.

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

[Add Clothing]
Used to make Petz wear clothes right out of the Adoption Center. Unlike, this is for clothes like Chinchilla Persians' bows that are made of their own ballz independent from the Petz's body.

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  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 paint ballz 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  section: [Fur Color Areas] (1-4, 5 - jowls) FurColorTrait	ballWithBaseColor	colorAreas 1	48	0, 1, 2, 3, 4

[Fur Pattern Balls]
This area is used to control addballz that are part of a breed's markings as separate from their base fur color, like a Tabby's tail-stripe addballz. This keeps features like the Tabby stripes separate from the rest of the tail ballz for breeds that use addballz 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  ballz outlines) belong.

[Marking Factor]
Does not appear to be used.

[Spot Factor]
Does not appear to be used.

LNZ in Dogz and Catz
Prior to Petz II, breed files were stored in the game's  folder and not in any dedicated subdirectory. They were not saved as  and   files but rather as   files, and as breeds were not standardized in these games, the file names are descriptive and do not match up with the in-game breed name; for instance, Pouncer is called   and Bootz is called. Only  uses the correct in-game name.

Both games feature support for 16-bit color with a  section. 0blk, 1dkRed, 2dkGrn, 3dkYel, 4dkBlu, 5dkMag, 6dkCyan, 7dkGry, 8ltGry, 9Rd, 10Grn, 11Yel, 12Blu, 13Mag, 14Cyan, 15White

Dogz
Opening Dogz .LNZs in LNZ Pro shows a structure similar to later games' LNZ.

Rather than having separate LNZ subsections for adults and Puppyz, Dogz determines a Pet's growth with, " ." A Dog's Puppy and adult barks are determined under  by a set percentage of growth before " ," by default set to 40 in all breed files.

likely determines the color of speckling on some ballz such as Jowls' muzzle.

Dogz  files have a section called   that may determine a breed's behavior as they age. These factors, influenced by two columns of numbers, are: excitement naughty grab object clumsy groom ham bark sickness spray fear frustaiton [sic] age

Catz
Catz LNZ files are organized more similarly to those seen in Petz II and beyond, but they still feature the  section that Dogz LNZ files do as well as a unique   not seen in Dog breeds.

They establish Cat ages by introducing a separate  for Kittenz under the   section; these are denoted by   compared to   rather than being together in one combined   file. The  section is still utilized.

The  section uses three columns of numbers with no indication of what is being affected like the Dogz files do.