MHM

This file explains the MHM (MakeHuman Model) file format.

Purpose

An MHM file is a saved human character created in MakeHuman. It stores all the information needed to reconstruct a character: body shape modifiers, attached body parts (eyes, hair, etc.), clothes, skeleton choice, and skin material. When loaded in MPFB, the file is parsed and the character is rebuilt from available assets.

Structure

An MHM file is a plain-text format. Each line is either a directive or ignored. Lines are processed in order. There are no comment markers defined in the format; unrecognized lines are silently skipped.

The first line is typically a version declaration. The remaining lines each start with a keyword followed by space-separated values.

Version

version v1.2.0

Declares the MHM format version. This line is not actively validated by MPFB's parser but is expected by MakeHuman.

Name

name <character_name>

Sets the character name. If no name line is present, MPFB derives the name from the filename (without the .mhm extension).

Camera

camera <x> <y> <z> <rx> <ry> <rz>

Stores the MakeHuman viewport camera position and rotation. This line is not used by MPFB.

Modifier Lines

modifier <category>/<target_name> <weight>

Modifier lines define body shape. Each line starts with the keyword modifier followed by a category path, a target name, and a floating-point weight. There are two kinds of modifiers:

Macro modifiers

Macro modifiers control high-level body parameters. The category prefixes (macrodetails/, macrodetails-universal/, macrodetails-height/, macrodetails-proportions/, breast/) are stripped during parsing, and the target name is matched against a set of known macros:

Target Name	Parsed As	Typical Range
Gender	phenotype gender	0.0 (female) - 1.0 (male)
Age	phenotype age	0.0 (young) - 1.0 (old)
Muscle	phenotype muscle	0.0 - 1.0
Weight	phenotype weight	0.0 - 1.0
Height	phenotype height	0.0 - 1.0
BodyProportions	phenotype proportions	0.0 - 1.0
African	phenotype race african	0.0 - 1.0
Asian	phenotype race asian	0.0 - 1.0
Caucasian	phenotype race caucasian	0.0 - 1.0
BreastSize	phenotype cupsize	0.0 - 1.0
BreastFirmness	phenotype firmness	0.0 - 1.0

Detail modifiers

Any modifier line that does not match a known macro is treated as a detail morph target. The category/target path is translated into a target fragment reference with the weight. Opposing target pairs (e.g., decr|incr) are resolved based on the sign of the weight: negative values select the first term, positive values select the second.

Body Part Lines

<bodypart_type> <asset_name> [<uuid>]

Body part lines assign assets to specific body slots. Recognized body part types are:

• eyes - Eye mesh
• eyelashes - Eyelash mesh
• eyebrows - Eyebrow mesh
• teeth - Teeth mesh
• tongue - Tongue mesh
• hair - Hair mesh
• proxy - Proxy mesh (alternative body topology)

Each line contains the body part type, the asset name, and an optional UUID. MPFB resolves the asset by searching available MHCLO files, matching first by both name and UUID, then falling back to UUID-only or name-only matching.

Clothes Lines

clothes <asset_name> [<uuid>]

Each clothes line adds a clothing item to the character. Multiple clothes lines can appear. The asset name and optional UUID are matched against available MHCLO files in the clothes asset directories, using the same matching strategy as body parts (name + UUID first, then UUID-only, then name-only).

Note: Lines starting with clothesHideFaces are not clothes lines. They control face-hiding behavior and are handled separately.

Skeleton

skeleton <skeleton_file>.mhskel

Specifies which skeleton rig to use. MPFB maps the skeleton filename to an internal rig name:

Filename Contains	Rig Name
default	default
toes	default_no_toes
game	game_engine
cmu	cmu_mb

If no skeleton line is present, the default rig is used.

Skin Material

skinMaterial [skins/]<material_path>

Specifies the skin material MHMAT file. The skins/ prefix is stripped if present.

Other Lines

clothesHideFaces <boolean>
subdivide <boolean>

These lines store MakeHuman settings. clothesHideFaces controls whether clothing hides underlying body faces. subdivide controls subdivision surface application. These are stored in the file but are not directly parsed into the human info dictionary by MPFB.

Parsing Order

MPFB processes the MHM file in two passes:

1. First pass: All lines are processed for modifiers, body parts, skeleton, skin material, and name.
2. Second pass: Only clothes lines (excluding clothesHideFaces) are processed.

This two-pass approach ensures that body configuration is fully established before clothes are resolved.

Example Content

version v1.2.0
name testchar
camera 15.0 49.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0
modifier head/head-square 0.422000
modifier breast/BreastSize 0.500000
modifier breast/BreastFirmness 0.500000
modifier macrodetails/Gender 1.000000
modifier macrodetails/Age 0.500000
modifier macrodetails/African 0.000000
modifier macrodetails/Asian 0.000000
modifier macrodetails/Caucasian 1.000000
modifier macrodetails-universal/Muscle 0.721000
modifier macrodetails-universal/Weight 0.361000
modifier macrodetails-height/Height 0.500000
modifier macrodetails-proportions/BodyProportions 0.653000
eyes High-poly 361c783e-0e8a-4a6e-a4e0-b3ef6cf7bbfd
eyelashes Eyelashes01 49b6efab-7c46-4a7f-b7a6-49743a39e2a0
skeleton default.mhskel
skinMaterial skins/young_caucasian_female/young_caucasian_female.mhmat
clothes female_casualsuit01 8d0a6e81-4195-47fa-b235-0323e9cc862c
clothes Sneakers02 0c11e4cb-5cb2-4951-ad2f-916e08fa9e27
clothesHideFaces True
subdivide False