While there isn't a single "official" story for a portable preset, the narrative of using them often revolves around the community's desire to recreate iconic characters or keep their favorite creations across game updates and platform migrations. What is a COM3D2 Preset?
The Character Core: A preset acts as a "DNA" file for your maid, containing her facial structure, body proportions, hair styles, and often her specific outfits.
Portability: Modern plugins like PNGPreset allow these presets to be saved as simple PNG images. This "portable" format means you can drag and drop a single image file into your game's preset folder to instantly manifest a fully designed character. The Community Story of Sharing
The "story" behind these files is one of collaboration and creativity:
Character Re-creations: Many players use presets to bring characters from other media—like Nekopara or Oregairu—into their own club. For example, community members often share Nekopara presets so others can have familiar faces in their game world. com3d2 preset portable
The "Legacy" Maid: As players move from the original Custom Maid 3D2 to the newer Custom Order Maid 3D2 (and now COM3D2.5), portable presets serve as the bridge that ensures their favorite maids aren't left behind in older versions.
Selective Loading: Tools like ChoosyPreset further the "portable" story by allowing you to load only specific parts of a shared preset—like just the face or just the body—to mix and match with your own designs. How to Use a Portable Preset
Locate the Folder: Navigate to your game's root directory and find the Preset folder.
Drop the File: Place the shared preset file (often a .preset or a specially encoded .png) into this folder. While there isn't a single "official" story for
Load in Edit Mode: Open the Maid Edit menu in-game and select the preset from the list to apply it to your current maid. krypto5863/COM3D2.ChoosyPreset - GitHub
.preset File (Game Native)Located in COM3D2/UserData/Preset/, this file contains a maid’s personality, name, and basic stats. However, it is not fully portable on its own. It references model IDs, skin textures, and mod assets that may not exist on the target PC. If you load a .preset without the right mods, you get the infamous "Default White Dress and Short Brown Hair" placeholder.
If you have over 100 maids, manual exporting is tedious. Use a batch script (Windows .bat) in conjunction with the COM3D2.Tool.Console application.
Sample Script Logic:
@echo off
FOR %%F IN ("C:\COM3D2\UserData\preset\*.preset") DO (
COM3D2.Tool.Console.exe export --preset "%%F" --portable --output "C:\PortableBackup\%%~nF.zip"
)
echo All presets exported to portable format.
pause
Note: This assumes you have a command-line tool that supports portable exports. Check the COM3D2 modding Discord for updated CLI tools.
This script scans your preset folder, converts every single maid into a portable zip, and saves them externally. Run this weekly.
The portability of presets has fundamentally altered the game's social dynamics. It has democratized high-end character design. A novice user can download a portable preset of a complex character—say, a maid styled after a specific anime archetype—and instantly deconstruct how the proportions or shaders were achieved. This acts as an educational tool, teaching layering and parameter interplay without requiring weeks of trial and error.
Conversely, portability raises questions of ownership. In the COM3D2 modding community, there exists an unspoken etiquette: portable presets should include only original work or open-use assets. Distributing a portable preset that contains paid DLC models (e.g., from the "Personality Pack" or "Haramase Simulator") violates both copyright law and community norms. Thus, the portable preset has also fostered a culture of attribution lists, where creators meticulously credit every mod author whose work is bundled. This transforms the preset into a citation, an academic-like respect for digital labor. Note: This assumes you have a command-line tool