Pallets & Assets

DigitalHeaven organizes everything into pallets — packages of related assets like avatars, materials, textures, and models.

Pallets

A pallet is a folder with a pallet.dh manifest and whatever assets it needs.

Pallet IDs

Pallets use reverse-DNS identifiers:

io.mltn.mltn-mayu
tech.azuki.mayu
com.example.my-avatar

This prevents naming conflicts and shows ownership. The ID also determines the folder path: io.mltn.mltn-mayu lives at Pallets/io.mltn/mltn-mayu/.

Manifest: `pallet.dh`

Every pallet needs a manifest:

{
  "id": "io.mltn.mltn-mayu",
  "name": "Mayu",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "author": "mltn",
  "dependencies": {
    "tech.azuki.mayu-base": "^2.0.0"
  }
}

Assets

An asset is any file inside a pallet — definition files (.dh-avatar, .dh-mat, etc.) or binary resources (.png, .glb, .wav).

Referencing Assets

Within the same pallet — just use the relative path:

{
  "texture": "textures/body-diffuse.png"
}

Across pallets — prefix with the pallet ID and a : separator:

{
  "baseMesh": "tech.azuki.mayu:models/body.glb"
}

This is called a barcode: pallet.id:path/to/asset.

Resolution Rules

No : in the path → local reference within the current pallet
Has : → everything before it is the pallet ID, everything after is the path
Paths are relative to the pallet root

Inheritance

Assets can inherit from other assets — even across pallets — and override specific properties.

{
  "inherits": "io.mltn.mltn-mayu:avatar.dh-avatar",
  "patches": [
    // Only the patches that differ
    {
      "$type": "dh.set-material",
      "target": "Body",
      "slot": 0,
      "path": "materials/custom-skin.dh-mat"
    }
  ]
}

Inheritance works at every level: avatars, objects, materials, rigs. You only define what’s different.

The compiler resolves all inheritance chains at build time — the compiled output has everything flattened, no unresolved references.

Platform Overrides

Platform-specific data lives in a platforms/ subdirectory alongside your universal definitions:

my-avatar/
├── avatar.dh-avatar              # Universal
├── materials/
│   └── skin.dh-mat               # Universal material
└── platforms/
    ├── vrchat/
    │   └── avatar-descriptor.jsonc
    ├── unity/
    │   └── materials/
    │       └── skin.dh-mat         # Unity-specific shader overrides
    └── resonite/
        └── avatar-metadata.jsonc

When building for a platform, the compiler loads the universal definition first, then applies any matching overrides from platforms/{platform}/.

Organizing Your Pallet

Shared assets go in type-based folders at the pallet root. Self-contained features (accessories, outfits) get their own subdirectory with everything co-located:

my-pallet/
├── pallet.dh
├── avatar.dh-avatar
├── textures/                     # Shared textures
│   ├── body-diffuse.png
│   ├── body-normal.png
│   └── body-orm.dh-tex
├── models/                       # Shared models
│   └── body.glb
├── rigs/                         # Shared rigs
│   └── humanoid.dh-rig
├── materials/                    # Shared materials
│   ├── skin.dh-mat
│   └── eyes.dh-mat
└── accessories/                  # Self-contained features
    ├── glasses/
    │   ├── glasses.dh-obj
    │   ├── model.glb
    │   ├── material.dh-mat
    │   └── lens.png
    └── piercing/
        ├── piercing.dh-obj
        ├── model.glb
        └── material.dh-mat

The rule: shared/base assets in type folders at root; self-contained features get their own directory with everything they need inside.

Version Control

Designed for Git:

Commit: Pallets/ (your source files)
Ignore: Build/ (generated output), .dh/ (cache)

The workspace init generates .gitignore and .gitattributes automatically. The .gitattributes file sets up Git LFS for binary assets (.glb, .fbx, .png, .jpg, etc.) — make sure you have Git LFS installed if you’re using those.