Entity skins

✅ Available

TiedUp!‘s NPCs (kidnappers, damsels, maids, guards…) pick their appearance from a pool of data-driven skins. A skin is two files: a tiny JSON describing it, plus the texture PNG it points at. Add a JSON + PNG pair to your addon pack and the matching NPC type starts rolling your skin into its random pool — no Java, no model work.

You extend existing NPC types — you cannot add new ones

Skins attach to a fixed list of ten NPC types (see below). You can add as many skins as you like to those types, but you cannot register a new entity type from data — there is no folder that creates one. Drop a JSON into a folder name that isn’t on the list and nothing scans it.

Where the files go

A skin is the JSON (under data/) plus its texture (under assets/) — both live in your one addon pack. See Packaging for the full folder layout; within it, your two files go here:

data/<namespace>/skins/<entity-type>/<skin-id>.json    ← the definition
assets/tiedup/textures/entity/<…>/<skin-id>.png        ← the texture

You only add files — you never edit a shipped one. The <skin-id> part of the filename is conventional; the actual id comes from the JSON’s id field (see the schema).

The JSON schema

Only id is required; everything else has a default.

Field	Type	Default	Notes
id	string	—	Required. The skin id. Also the PNG filename (<id>.png) and the registry key. Must be unique within the type.
hasSlimArms	bool	false	true = Alex (3px) arms, false = Steve (4px) arms. Matches how you authored the texture.
defaultName	string	"NPC"	Display name shown for an NPC wearing this skin.
gender	string	"female"	"male" or "female" (case-insensitive). Anything else falls back to female. Drives model/voice/text selection.
texture	string (resource location)	derived	Optional. Explicit texture under any namespace, e.g. "mypack:textures/entity/damsel/foo.png". Used verbatim when present; omit it to auto-derive tiedup:textures/entity/<type>/<id>.png.

Where the texture is looked up

By default the texture path is derived from the entity type and id in the tiedup namespace (see the type table): a skin in data/mypack/skins/damsel/foo.json looks for assets/tiedup/textures/entity/damsel/foo.png — name the PNG exactly <id>.png. To ship the texture under your own namespace instead, add an explicit texture field — a full resource location, e.g. "texture": "mypack:textures/entity/damsel/foo.png" — used verbatim when present. A missing PNG renders the purple/black missing-texture. The chosen texture travels to every client and survives world reloads, so an own-namespace texture renders in multiplayer as long as that client has the PNG.

Minimal skin

The smallest valid definition — id only (gets Steve arms, name "NPC", female):

{
  "id": "anastasia"
}

Typical skin

What the shipped skins actually look like:

{
  "id": "anastasia",
  "hasSlimArms": true,
  "defaultName": "Anastasia"
}

A male kidnapper with classic arms:

{
  "id": "dean",
  "hasSlimArms": false,
  "defaultName": "Dean",
  "gender": "male"
}

The fixed NPC types

These are the only ten folder names that are scanned. The folder is the entity type; the texture sub-path is auto-mapped (note several differ from the folder name).

skins/ folder (entity type)	NPC	Texture folder → assets/tiedup/textures/entity/…
kidnapper	Kidnapper	kidnapper/
kidnapper_elite	Elite kidnapper	kidnapper/elite/
kidnapper_archer	Archer kidnapper	kidnapper/archer/
kidnapper_merchant	Merchant kidnapper	kidnapper/merchant/
maid	Maid	kidnapper/maid/
slave_trader	Trader	kidnapper/trader/
labor_guard	Guard	guard/
master	Master	master/
damsel	Damsel	damsel/
damsel_shiny	Shiny damsel	damsel/shiny/

So a skin id: "athena" placed in data/<ns>/skins/kidnapper_elite/ looks for its texture at assets/tiedup/textures/entity/kidnapper/elite/athena.png — the JSON folder and the PNG folder are not the same string for the special-cased types in the table above.

Your additions merge into the pool

Your skins are merged into a type’s existing pool, never replacing it — so you only ever add variety.

Loading & selection behaviour

1. After a /reload (or restart) your skins are rescanned. An NPC of that type then picks a random skin from the pool at spawn — more JSON files mean more variety.
2. Pick a unique id per type: a second skin with an already-used id is dropped, not merged.
3. A JSON that fails to parse (e.g. missing id) is skipped and the rest still load — if a skin doesn’t appear, you’ll see a warning in the log.

NPC names

An NPC’s display name comes from its skin’s defaultName — except numbered “mob” skins (ids like dam_mob_1, knp_mob_1, …), which get a random name from a gender-matched pool.

Those pools are data-driven too. Add names by dropping JSON in data/<namespace>/tiedup_npc_names/:

data/mypack/tiedup_npc_names/female_extra.json

{ "gender": "female", "names": ["Mireille", "Soraya", "Bao"] }

Field	Notes
gender	"female" or "male". A name is only drawn from the pool matching the NPC’s gender.
names	array of strings; blank entries are ignored.

Your file merges into the pool (it never replaces the built-in names), so you only add. The picked name travels to clients with the entity, so a name pool installed on the server only works in multiplayer — no client copy needed. Male NPCs draw from the male pool (a small male pool ships by default); if a gender’s pool is empty, names fall back to the other gender, then to a built-in shortlist.

Worked example: add a new damsel skin

1. Author the texture as a 64×64 player skin PNG. Decide Steve vs. Alex arms.
2. Save it to assets/tiedup/textures/entity/damsel/rosalind.png (the tiedup namespace, the damsel/ folder from the type table, filename = your id).
3. Write the definition to data/<your-ns>/skins/damsel/rosalind.json:

   {
     "id": "rosalind",
     "hasSlimArms": true,
     "defaultName": "Rosalind",
     "gender": "female"
   }

4. /reload (or restart). Your skin joins the damsel pool, and new damsels can roll it.

Adding a male kidnapper

Same flow, different type: PNG at assets/tiedup/textures/entity/kidnapper/<id>.png, JSON at data/<ns>/skins/kidnapper/<id>.json with "gender": "male".

See also

Overview & content pipeline

Where datapack (data/) vs. resourcepack (assets/) files live, and how a combined pack is laid out. → Overview

Packaging

Bundling your skins (and items, meshes, animations) into a shippable pack. → Packaging