Reference Templates - ousnius/BodySlide-and-Outfit-Studio GitHub Wiki

Reference templates are reusable shortcuts for loading a known slider set as a reference in Outfit Studio. They are not project files by themselves. A template only tells Outfit Studio which slider-set file, set name, and optionally which shape to load.

Templates are used by:

• The Load Reference dialog in Outfit Studio
• Conversion workflows such as Convert Body / Reference
• The Load Reference step in the Automation dialog, where choosing a template auto-fills the source file, set, shape, and Load all shapes option

Outfit Studio loads reference templates from both of these locations inside the BodySlide folder:

• RefTemplates.xml
• Every .xml file inside the RefTemplates folder

This lets mod authors ship extra template packs without forcing users to merge everything into one file.

Use the following structure:

<RefTemplates>
    <Template sourcefile="SliderSets/CBBE.osp" set="CBBE Body" shape="CBBE">CBBE Body</Template>
    <Template sourcefile="ConversionSets/VanillaToCBBE.osp" set="Vanilla To CBBE" loadAll="true">Vanilla To CBBE</Template>
</RefTemplates>

Each <Template> element supports these values:

• Text content is the display name shown in the template list.
• sourcefile points to the .osp file that contains the slider set. Relative paths are resolved from the BodySlide folder. Absolute paths also work, but relative paths are usually better for distributable template packs.
• set is the slider-set name inside that .osp file.
• shape is the shape that should become the reference when loading a single reference shape.
• loadAll changes the behavior from “load one reference shape” to “add all shapes from this slider set”. When loadAll="true", the shape attribute is ignored.

Use these when you want a known base/reference shape.

<Template sourcefile="SliderSets/CBBE.osp" set="CBBE Body" shape="CBBE">CBBE Body</Template>

If shape is omitted, Outfit Studio falls back to the first shape found in the referenced NIF. That can work, but explicitly naming the intended shape is safer.

Use these when the template should import every shape from the selected slider set instead of choosing one base shape.

<Template sourcefile="ConversionSets/VanillaToCBBE.osp" set="Vanilla To CBBE" loadAll="true">Vanilla To CBBE</Template>

This is useful for conversion sets and other multi-shape references.

• Templates can stay in the root RefTemplates.xml file, or you can split them across multiple XML files in the RefTemplates folder.
• Keeping mod-specific templates in separate files makes updates easier and avoids merge conflicts.
• The template name is just a display label, so use unique names to avoid confusing duplicate entries in the picker.

If you want a project to be available as a reference template in Outfit Studio but not show up as a normal BodySlide project, keep the referenced .osp outside the usual SliderSets lineup that end users browse directly. For example, conversion-only projects can live in a separate folder such as ConversionSets while still being referenced by template XML.

• Conversion references and using them
• Automation Dialog