Overview
How to use the portrait editor to change the appearance of characters.
Introduction
This is a guide on how to edit the characters in Crusader Kings 3 using the portrait editor. Debug mode is required. A text editor is required.
Let’s go!
Finding DNA to work with.
Go to your document folder.
Open folder named “Paradox Games”
Open folder named “Crusader Kings III”
Open folder named “save games”
Find the file with the extension .ck3 where the character you wish to edit is.
Copy the file somewhere safe.
Right click the file and unpack it. You can unpack the file using 7zip, Winrar or Winzip, whichever you prefer. Right click the file and select “Extract here” or “Extract files”
Open the gamestate file in a text editor.
CTRL+F the unique ID of your character or find the character by name.
Protip: to find the character by its ID search for <ID=>. For example, if the character id is 102583 search for 102583=
Copy the string in dna= and boot up the game to begin editing.
Working with the DNA
Go into Crusader Kings 3
Open the console
Select “Portrait editor“, first row 3rd column
Click paste DNA string without quotation marks
Play around with the genes
Protip: the portrait changes only when you touch sliders or buttons.
Alternatively, select 3D view and observe character from there. Left click rotates the camera, right click moves the camera.
Once done editing, add clothes to your character so that it is not naked in the main menu.
If you are editing your heir, spouse or your player character, also copy the persistent DNA.
Paste these temporarily in an empty text file so you don’t lose your hours of work, you dummy.
Applying DNA
Save the game and exit it.
Navigate to your folder with the saved games.
Copy the save file to a safe place and unpack it.
Open the gamestate file with a text editor.
Find the character by ID whose DNA you wish to edit.
Replace the character’s DNA with your own edited DNA. Remember to preserve the quotation marks.
If you are editing your heir, spouse or playable character you might need to paste the persistent DNA as well.
Go to the top of the gamestate file
Find the meta_ portrait you need.
Copy and replace the genes dictionary. Do not replace anything else unless you know what you’re doing.
Save the gamestate file and add the extension .ck3. If you do not know how to change file extensions, Google it.
Rename the file so that you preserve the original in the save folder.
Place the edited .ck3 file back into your save folder.
Start the game
The portrait in the main menu may not be updated. Wait until you enter the game to check whether you’ve made a good edit.
Conclusion
If you have any questions or problems ask them politely and I will help you as much as I can. Unless you ask something that you can Google.
If you’ve enjoyed this guide or found it useful, gimme a nice 🌟 and/or share this with your friends who need a hot waifu.