Moveset Lab

The Moveset Lab is an in-game editor for existing moves. You pick a weapon subtype (or one weapon), watch a move on a live fighter with its hitting parts drawn in red and a victim playing the hit reaction, change its values, and save the result as an ordinary mod. You don’t need Lua or a text editor. The Lab writes a moveset file that you can share, edit by hand, or combine with other mods.

The Lab tunes existing moves, changes their inputs, adds new moves based on existing ones, and imports your own animation clips. It does not create animations or define moves from scratch; use sf2.moves.register for moves built entirely from your own data.

Open the Lab

Either:

• open Multiplayer on the title screen and choose MOVESET LAB (or press M); or
• open Mods on the title screen and choose Moveset Lab.

The screen

Area	What it does
Top bar	MOD is the mod you are editing; NEW starts another. FIGHTERS chooses the scope: Shared (moves every fighter has, like most kicks), Unarmed, or a weapon subtype such as Katana. WEAPON narrows it to one weapon of that subtype (its subtype moves plus moves made only for that weapon; shared moves stay under Shared), or Every Katana. + WEAPON makes a weapon. On the right are UNDO, REDO, APPLY, TEST, EXPORT and CLOSE. Unapplied edits means the fighters still show the last applied version.
Left	The moves fighters in this scope use. family of 3 means three subtypes share the move; shared means every fighter has it; a gold dot marks moves you changed. Search filters by name; EDITED shows only moves you changed. + NEW MOVE adds a new move; new moves are listed under the move they are based on, marked new move.
Centre, stage	Left: the attacker wearing the chosen weapon. Right: the victim, a training dummy that plays the hit reaction when an attack lands.
Centre, transport	|< < PLAY > >| jump to the first frame, step one keyframe back, play or pause, step one keyframe forward, and jump to the last frame. RESTART plays from the start, LOOP repeats the move, 0.1x–1x slow the preview down, VICTIM turns the reaction preview on or off, and GHOST draws the base-game move faintly behind your edit. The readout shows the current keyframe (the frame number that attacks and windows use) and the game tick.
Centre, timeline	One lane per attack and frame window: red bars are attacks, blue-grey bars are windows such as Uninterrupt or Block, gold bars are windows you added. The gold line is the current keyframe. Click or drag along the ruler or an empty lane to scrub. Drag a bar to move it, or its left or right end to resize it; the change is one undo step when you let go. Click a bar to open it in the inspector.
Right	The inspector, one tab at a time: MOVE, ATTACK, WINDOWS and HITBOX.

Number fields have − and + buttons and a box you can type in: press Enter or click away to set the value. Hold Shift for ten steps at a time, or Ctrl for a tenth of a step on fractional values such as damage. A changed value shows a gold dot, its base-game value, and RESET.

Keys: Space play or pause, Left/Right one keyframe (Shift: five), Home/End first or last keyframe, Up/Down previous or next move, 1–4 inspector tabs, Ctrl+Z undo, Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z redo, Ctrl+F search, F5 apply, T test in training, Esc close a list or leave. Keys do nothing while you type in a field.

What you can change

Tab	Field	Meaning
Move	Input	The keys that start the move. See change a move’s input.
Move	Speed	How fast the whole move plays, from 0.50× up to the clip’s limit (at most 2.00×), in steps of 0.05. Everything timed by frames (attacks, windows, sounds) moves with it. Looped and physics moves keep their speed.
Move	Priority	Which move wins when several match the same input. Higher wins.
Move	Clip	CHANGE CLIP… swaps the clip the move plays for another native clip or one of your own. See swap an animation.
Move	Trim	Starts at keyframe and Ends at keyframe set which part of the clip the move plays: start later to skip a wind-up, end earlier to cut a long recovery. Attacks and windows keep their keyframe numbers. UNDO TRIM goes back to the base game. Looped and physics moves cannot be trimmed.
Move	Combos	+ CAN FOLLOW… lets this move start out of another move in this view during a window of its keyframes, even where it normally cannot be interrupted. See link a combo.
Move	Move	Reset to base game drops your changes; Disable move makes it unselectable; Delete this copy removes a fork.
Attack	Starts / ends at frame	The keyframes during which the attack can hit. A move with several attacks shows one button per attack.
Attack	+ NEW ATTACK	Adds an attack to the move, two frames long at the playhead, with the next free id. It copies the selected attack’s damage, damage types, hitting parts, push and reaction (or plain defaults on a move without attacks), so you only change what differs. New attacks are marked new, edit like any other attack (timeline, damage, reaction, hitbox) and have DELETE ATTACK.
Attack	Base damage	The attack’s damage value, 0–16. Base-game hits mostly sit between 0.06 and 0.45; the fighters’ attributes, blocking and critical hits scale it.
Attack	Damage shifts	One row per damage type the attack already has (Weapon, Ranged, Magic, Unarmed): a number from −1000 to 1000 added to the attacker’s matching attribute before it is weighed against the defender’s defence. Damage types cannot be added or removed here.
Attack	Reaction	How the opponent reacts, such as High or SpinningHeavy. Only shown when the attack has one reaction; attacks with several are edited in Lua.
Attack	Victim plays	The victim moves that answer this reaction. The game picks among them by the victim’s state (blocking, critical hits and so on); < > browse them and PLAY shows the chosen one. Entries marked near wall play the same move with a wall behind the victim, set by Wall behind victim; if the victim reaches it during the move’s wall-hit window, the game turns the recoil into WallHit or WallHitFall. Otherwise the preview has no walls. This is a preview only and is not saved.
Attack	Push X / Y / Z	The push (impulse) given to the victim on hit.
Windows	Start / End	Each window’s frames, with REMOVE, RESTORE (for a removed window) or DELETE (for one you added). A window without an end lasts to the end of the move.
Windows	Add a window	Inserts a Block, Invulnerable, Invisible or Throwable window at the current keyframe, four frames long.
Hitbox	Hitting parts	The body or weapon parts that deal the attack’s hit. See edit a hitbox.

Change a move’s input

The INPUT section at the top of the MOVE tab shows the keys that start the move, for example Punch + hold Forward. It works for every move whose keys form one chord, or a set of alternative chords; a few moves mix their keys into other conditions, and the Lab says so instead.

• A chord is the keys pressed together. Each key has a press type: TAP (press once), HOLD (keep it held) or RELEASE (let it go). Click a key to choose another one and its press type to change how it is pressed. The same key tapped twice is a two-tap sequence.
• + KEY adds a key to the chord (up to 14); x removes one.
• + ALTERNATIVE adds another chord that also starts the move, such as a dash that starts on Up-Back or on Back tapped twice. Up to 8 alternatives.
• REMOVE INPUT leaves the move without keys, and ADD AN INPUT gives one to a move that has none. Moves without keys are started by the game itself (hit reactions, combo steps, AI actions), so both change when the move can happen; the Lab warns you.
• RESET returns to the base game’s input.

Directions are for a fighter facing right; the game mirrors them when it faces left. The input does not change what the move must follow: a combo step still needs the move before it. When two moves have the same input in the same situation, the higher Priority wins.

Make a new move

+ NEW MOVE (under the move list’s filters) adds a move based on an existing one:

1. Give it a name. It becomes the move’s ID in your mod, for example rising_slash.
2. Based on is the move it starts as a copy of: animation, attacks, frame windows, sounds and what it must follow. It defaults to the selected move; the list shows the moves in the current view first.
3. Who can use it: the same fighters as the original, only the current subtype (for example only Katana), or only the chosen weapon.
4. CREATE selects the new move. Give it its own input under INPUT; with the original’s input both moves compete and priority decides. Then edit it like any other move.

The original move is not changed. Combos written for the original’s exact name do not continue from the new move, but moves that follow a shared template still can. The preview plays the original until you APPLY. DELETE THIS MOVE on the MOVE tab removes a new move.

Edit a hitbox

The HITBOX tab edits the selected attack’s hitting parts (edges). The fighter shows every part you can pick: red parts hit, grey parts don’t, and the part under the pointer turns gold.

• Click a part on the fighter, or its button in the list, to add or remove it. At least one part must stay on.
• Parts are grouped as Weapon, Arm and Leg for each side, and Head and torso. Side 1 and side 2 are the game’s two limbs; a mirrored move swaps them. Hover a button to see which limb it is. On a mirrored move the fighter highlights the limb the attack really hits with, and the caption says mirrored pose: clicking a limb there picks the other side’s name, as the game does.
• MIRROR SIDES moves the hitbox to the other arm or leg; RESET HITBOX restores the base game’s parts.
• Extra letters after a part’s name, such as Hand S or Chest HD, mark extra edges that shape the body. Edges with no collision size are braces: they hold the rig’s shape and rarely make sense as hitting parts, so they are hidden until you press SHOW BRACES.
• Parts that belong to another weapon or rig are listed under Not on this fighter. They still hit when a fighter that has them uses the move.

Who gets a change

Many moves are shared: all kicks belong to every fighter, and a katana move may belong to the katana, the ninja sword and another subtype. The first time you change such a move, the Lab asks who should get the change:

• Whole family or Every fighter changes the move itself, for everyone who has it.
• Only Katana (copy) makes a copy of the move for that subtype. The original stays for the rest of the family.
• Only Golden Katana (copy) appears when a weapon is chosen. It makes a copy for that one weapon, including weapons added by other mods. The original stays for every other weapon.

Copies are called forks. They appear in the list under their own name (for example HighKick_weapon_golden_katana) and keep the original’s combos. Delete this copy on the MOVE tab removes one.

Swap an animation

CHANGE CLIP… on the MOVE tab turns the inspector into a clip list. Clips used by moves in the current view come first; type in the search box to find any of the game’s clips.

1. Click a clip. The fighter plays this move with that clip, and the panel shows how many keyframes the clip gives the move. Nothing is changed until you choose USE THIS CLIP; closing the list puts the move’s own clip back.
2. Read the checks under the clip name. The move keeps its own attacks, frame windows and sounds at the same keyframes, so a shorter clip can leave an attack after its last frame. The Lab lists each one, for example Attack 64 (16–18) ends after the clip's last keyframe 14. Move or remove those before you share the mod. A clip shorter than the move’s first keyframe cannot be used.
3. Press USE THIS CLIP. ORIGINAL goes back to the move’s own clip.

The new clip shows on the fighter after APPLY. After a swap, the frame limits for attacks and windows follow the new clip’s length.

A clip made for a different body or weapon can look wrong: the body and weapon parts named as the attack’s edges may not move where the new clip expects. Watch the red edges in the preview.

Import your own clip

IMPORT CLIP… in the clip list adds a clip file to the mod you are editing. Make the file with the character pipeline: a native .bytes clip, for example baked from Blender. Renaming another kind of file to .bytes does not work.

1. Press IMPORT CLIP… and choose the .bytes file. The Lab checks that it is a complete native clip and that it moves as many body nodes as this move’s fighter (67 for a normal fighter). A clip made for another rig is refused.
2. The clip joins the top of the list as animations/<name> (this mod). The name comes from the file name in lowercase, with other characters turned into _. A different file with the same name gets _2, _3, and so on.
3. Read the checks and press USE THIS CLIP, as for a game clip.
4. Press APPLY. The Lab writes the clip to Mods/<your mod>/assets/animations/<name>.bytes and the move plays it on the fighter.

Click your clip in the list to watch it on the fighter before you use it. Clips already in the mod’s assets/animations/ folder, including ones you copied there by hand, are listed too. In the moveset file the swap is saved as "animation": { "expected": "<original>.bytes", "value": { "asset": "animations/<name>" } }. Importing works on desktop. On Android, copy the file into the mod’s assets/animations/ folder.

Compare with the base game

GHOST in the transport bar draws the base-game version of the move, faint and blue, behind the fighter you are editing. Both start together and run tick for tick, so a faster speed, a trim or a swapped clip shows as the two drifting apart. The ghost ignores every mod’s changes, including your applied ones. A copy (fork) or new move is compared with the base-game move it was made from.

Link a combo

A combo link lets one move start out of another, on its own input, while the other is still playing:

1. Select the move that should come second.
2. On the MOVE tab, under COMBOS, press + CAN FOLLOW… and choose the move it follows.
3. Set Window from keyframe and Window to keyframe: the keyframes of the followed move during which the second move may start. The Lab starts with the second half of the followed move.
4. APPLY, then TEST in training: play the first move, then the second move’s input inside the window.

REMOVE LINK deletes a link. A move can follow up to 16 moves. The window does not change the followed move’s own timing, and the AI does not use the link on purpose. The link is saved as chains.

Make a weapon

+ WEAPON in the top bar adds a weapon to the mod you are editing. It starts as a copy of a game weapon: the same subtype (so the same moves) and the same model.

Field	Meaning
Name	The name players see. The weapon’s ID is made from it, such as heavy_blade.
Based on	The game weapon to copy. Its subtype decides which moves the new weapon uses.
Model	The base weapon’s model, or IMPORT MODEL… for an Eclipse model file (.xml or .modelz geometry with a <Scene> root, such as one exported by the character tools). COPY BASE MODEL puts the base weapon’s model into the mod as assets/models/<id>.xml, ready for you to edit.
Hands	ONE WEAPON, or ONE IN EACH HAND to copy a one-hand model into the other hand, the way the game builds dual weapons such as daggers: each part ending _1 (or without a number) gets a _2 twin attached to the second hand, so WEAPON_KATANA-Blade becomes WEAPON_KATANA-Blade_1 and WEAPON_KATANA-Blade_2. A model that already holds two weapons is kept as it is. Base the weapon on a two-weapon class such as Daggers, Knives or Axes, so its moves swing both hands; the dialog warns when the class uses one hand.
Shop icon	IMPORT PNG… for the weapon shop picture. Optional.
Shop price	The price in coins.

The dialog checks an imported model’s edges against the parts the subtype’s moves hit with. Moves find a weapon’s hitting parts by name, such as WEAPON_KATANA-Blade, so a model missing them never lands those attacks. Name the model’s edges the same, or change those attacks’ hitting parts in the HITBOX tab.

CREATE writes weapons/weapons.json (see weapon files) and the model and icon files into the mod, and applies your unapplied move edits too. The Lab then loads the weapon into the running game and selects it under WEAPON, so the preview and TEST use it straight away; edits you make while it is selected can go to this weapon only. The Lab also loads its mod’s weapons each time it opens. The weapon joins the weapon shop, at level 1 for the price you set, the next time the game starts.

Choose or start a mod

The Lab saves into one mod at a time, shown as MOD in the top bar. The first time, that is Moveset Lab (local.moveset-lab).

• NEW asks for a name and makes the ID from it: “Heavy Katana” becomes local.heavy-katana. Nothing is written until APPLY, which creates Mods/local.heavy-katana/.
• The MOD list opens another data-only mod (one without a Lua entrypoint), including one you installed. (off) marks a mod switched off in Mods. Its saved edits load into the Lab, and APPLY writes back into that mod’s own folder, keeping its name, version and dependencies.

If you have unapplied changes, the first choice of another mod or NEW warns you and the second discards them. APPLY needs the mod switched on in Mods; a new mod is on until you switch it off.

Apply, test and share

Changes stay in the Lab until you press APPLY. Applying:

1. saves the mod you are editing to its folder, for example Mods/local.moveset-lab/ (mod.toml and movesets/moveset.json);
2. applies it, with every other enabled mod’s move edits, to the running game;
3. rebuilds the preview fighters, so forks and speed changes show at once.

TEST applies unsaved changes, then starts training with the Lab’s fighter. In the training menu (Esc), MOVESET LAB returns to the Lab.

Leaving the Lab with Esc puts the game back to the move edits it started with. If you have unapplied changes, the first Esc warns you and the second discards them. Your applied mod is enabled like any other mod. It loads normally from the next start, and you can switch it off under Mods.

To share your work, press EXPORT. It applies your changes, adds the Eclipse core version range to mod.toml if it is missing, and writes <mod id>-<version>.zip to an Eclipse mods folder on the desktop, ready to install on another game or upload to mod.io. Raise version in mod.toml before you upload an update. Start shared work with NEW and a distinctive name, so its ID does not clash with someone else’s mod. A mod you share as local.moveset-lab would replace the other player’s own Lab mod.

When a fork names a weapon from another mod, the Lab adds that mod to [[dependencies]], so the moveset loads only when the weapon does.

Limits

• The Lab edits data-only mods. Mods with a Lua entrypoint are not listed; use sf2.moves.patch in those instead.
• A mod’s version is not changed when you save. Raise version in mod.toml yourself before sharing an update.
• Only one mod can patch a given move. If another enabled mod already patches a move, APPLY reports the conflict.
• Every change is guarded against the base game’s value, so a game update that changes a move makes the mod refuse to load instead of applying a wrong edit.
• Online versus is unavailable while the Lab is open, and while any moveset mod is enabled.
• Edits are checked against the game data, not against gameplay. Test changed timings and hitboxes in a fight before you share them.
• Adding or removing damage types, attacks with several reactions, swapping in clips from a mod’s assets/ folder and editing a weapon’s subtype are not in the Lab yet. Use a moveset file or Lua for those.
• Scrubbing and stepping back replay the move from the fighter’s start position up to the chosen keyframe, so every pose is one normal playback reaches. Stepping forward stops at the move’s last keyframe. The victim’s reaction while scrubbing is an approximation: it is matched by keyframe count since the hit, not by exact game ticks.