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Characters App

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digdat0 edited this page Oct 30, 2026 · 4 revisions

Characters, in the MKDD-NX Tools app, turns custom character mods, downloaded for the MKDD Patcher, into characters MKDD-NX loads from the SD card. They show on extra pages of the character select screen. Your disc image and saves are never changed.

Download

From the latest release:

Computer File
Windows MKDD-NX-Tools.exe
Mac, Apple Silicon (M1 and later) MKDD-NX-Tools-arm64.dmg
Mac, Intel MKDD-NX-Tools-x86_64.dmg

Nothing else needs installing. It's one app for all of MKDD-NX's tools, each in its own tab: click the Export MKDD Characters tab (or Open on its card on the Start tab). You can switch tabs at any time; each tool keeps what you were doing.

  • Windows: if it says "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.
  • Mac: open the .dmg and drag the app to Applications. The app isn't signed by Apple, so the first time, right-click it and choose Open. On newer macOS, if that isn't offered, try to open it once, then go to System Settings > Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

Get characters

Download them and unzip them. Most come as a folder with a modinfo.ini and a files folder. You can keep many in one folder and add them all at once.

Use the app

  1. Add mod or folder of mods…: pick one character mod, or a folder holding many. On Windows you can also drop folders on the window. Each character in them is listed. A mod the game can't use is rejected, with the reason: no model, a broken model, a skeleton no character has, or one already in the list.
  2. Disc image (optional): your own .iso or .gcm. Each model is then checked against the character it replaces: its skeleton and its textures. The disc is only read.
  3. Click a character to check or change it:
    • Name: the name shown in the game.
    • On: the character it plays as. It takes that character's weight, stats and special item, and its voice unless the mod has its own (below).
    • Cell: where it shows on the select screen. Automatic lets the game place it.
    • Author and Source link are kept with the character, so its creator stays credited.
  4. Remove takes one out of the list. Check again rechecks them all, after you pick a disc image for example.
  5. Output folder: pick switch/MKDD-NX/mods/characters/ on the SD card (create the folders if needed), or a folder on your computer to copy there later.
  6. Export… writes one folder per character, each with a character.ini. If some have errors, it asks before writing them.
sdmc:/switch/MKDD-NX/mods/characters/
    shyguy/
        character.ini
        driver.bmd
        face.bti, map.bti, name.bti   (optional; a face is rendered from the model when the mod has none)
        selectanm/                    (optional: its own select screen poses)
        names/                        (optional: its name tag in the other languages)
        item/, kart/                  (a one-character mod's special item and karts: kept, not used yet)
        voice/Voice/264.wav ...       (optional: its own voice)

GameCube (MKDD Patcher)

Format: GameCube (MKDD Patcher mods) writes the characters for a real GameCube instead: one MKDD Patcher mod per character, as a zip or a folder, to patch into your own disc image and play on a GameCube or in Dolphin. Each replaces the character it plays as (its model, faces, name and, with a disc image picked, its voice). Two characters on the same one can't be patched together.

In the game

  • On the character select screen, X and Y turn the pages; the page number and the buttons show in the title banner. Page 1 is the game's own 20.
  • With custom characters the screen has a third row: 30 characters a page. Move down from the second row into it.
  • A cell with no character on that page is empty, and the cursors skip it.
  • A custom character and the character it plays as can race together, as can two custom characters of the same one. Each keeps its own model, face on the HUD, map icon and voice.
  • Random (L + R) can land on any character from any page.
  • Up to 256 characters.
  • A missing face is rendered from the model; a missing map icon or name tag is made from the face and the name.
  • A mod's own select screen poses (selectanm/) are used when they're for its model.

Voices

Some mods come with their own voice. Most (Shy Guy, Kirby) have an audio_waves folder next to files, with Voice, SelectVoice and CommendationVoice folders of numbered .wav files; each replaces the game's sound with that number. Older ones (Sonic) ship whole rebuilt sound files in files/AudioRes: the app finds the sounds that differ from your disc's. Either way the app writes them into the character's voice folder, and in the game the character uses them:

  • Voice: in races and battles.
  • SelectVoice: when it's picked on the select screen.
  • CommendationVoice: at the awards.

Sounds it doesn't have stay those of the character it plays as. Pick the disc image before exporting: the app then makes each sound fit the one it replaces, as the MKDD Patcher and MKDD Plus do. It's mixed to mono, lowered to that sound's sample rate if higher, and cut to its length; the game's sound tables are made for the original lengths. Without the disc image the game still cuts long sounds, but a mod with rebuilt sound files can't be read at all. The app warns about files the game can't play: anything but 16- or 8-bit PCM .wav, or a number the game doesn't have.

A pack with several characters has no voice of its own: the game can't tell whose sounds they are.

Without the app

Copy a pack's files folder (the one the MKDD Patcher uses) into mods/characters/<pack name>/. Every driver model in it becomes a character. To name them, put a names.txt next to files with one line per character, for example nokonoko=SHY GUY.

sdmc:/switch/MKDD-NX/mods/characters/
    Some Pack/
        files/MRAM.arc/mram/driver/nokonoko/driver.bmd ...
        names.txt      (optional)
        audio_waves/   (optional: the voice of a pack with one character)

Command line

The tool is tools/charpack.py in the repository (Python 3 with Pillow):

py -3 tools/charpack.py                                         the window
py -3 tools/charpack.py --cli --iso GAME.iso --out OUT MOD [MOD ...]   check and export
py -3 tools/charpack.py --cli --gc [--folder] --iso GAME.iso --out OUT MOD [MOD ...]   MKDD Patcher mods

Problems

What you see What to do
The character drives the game's kart Mods that come with their own kart say so ("kart: ... not used yet"). Custom karts aren't supported yet: the character is used, on the game's kart.
A mod is rejected The reason is shown. Usually it has no driver model, or it isn't a character mod (a kart or a course).
Status says error Click it for the details. Exporting it anyway may crash or show it wrongly.
The character moves oddly Its model was made on another character's skeleton. It moves with that character's animations: set On to that character.
It doesn't show in the game Check the folders are in switch/MKDD-NX/mods/characters/, one folder per character.

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