To start off we’re going to replace the Iron Helm with our own Custom Model with it’s own Textures Make sure you have the Mesh Mod Enabler and the DD2 Tools Suite both found in Requirements If you’d like to follow along exactly you can download the model we’re working with here or just use this as reference for your own model. Download it and make a new folder called Tutorial Helmet and place the PC Computer - Dark Souls III - Firelink Helm.zip that you downloaded inside of that folder
PC / Computer - Dark Souls III - Firelink Helm - The Models Resource
Extract PC Computer - Dark Souls III - Firelink Helm.zip and then place the Tutorial Helmet folder inside of your DD2 Modding folder where your tools are
Now we need to pick what model we’re replacing inside of Dragons Dogma 2 by looking through our extracted re_chunk_000 folder, I recommend making a shortcut for it in our DD2 Modding folder In this case we’re replacing the Iron Helm, you can find the ID for it here Armor ID’s (4/2/24), hit CTRL+F and type the name you’re looking for, in this case it tells me the id is 1 which would actually mean folder 001 Open your extracted re_chunk_000 folder and go to natives > stm > character > _kit > _equipment > helm > 001 and copy the address at the top if you’re looking for a different item you can find the Model Locations here
Now open blender and click Blender > File > Import > DD2 model files, if it isn’t then click this link ‣
Paste the address you copied earlier and in the address bar, or search for the folder from there. (Optional) Check import material, uncheck simplify materials
It should look like this, if it doesn’t make sure you delete anything that won’t be used, stuff like the default blender cube, camera, ****and light. Keep in mind not all meshes and materials are the same and some wont load
Now we can import the model you wanna put in-game, in this case it’s the Firelink Helm you downloaded earlier. This is where you would import your own models obviously
The model we downloaded offers a .DAE & .OBJ option, I pick .DAE so go to Blender > File > Import > .DAE
If you can’t figure out what type of file your model is Explorer > View > Show > File Name Extensions
This is where things actually begin, this isn’t a Blender beginners lesson and I can’t explain everything to you but I can link short Youtube videos along the way to help Lets organize by sorting our model and the original model from DD2 into separate folders, for cohesivity I’ll be using videos and images from this point on
You’ll notice the helmet we imported doesn’t look right, lets inspect the shading tab and see what’s wrong with out model, it turns out the textures didn’t import correctly so we have to fix this, You can learn what textures go where and what they are below
How To Fix Missing Textures In Blender - Blender For Beginners - A Comprehensive Guide
If there are parts that are supposed to be see-through or invisable make sure your Alpha is connected and enable Alpha Clip in the Materials settings, keep in mind this only affects your Blender view and not the In-Game model
Now we go back to your Layout tab and start trying to match our model up the best we can to the Model we’re replacing which again is Iron Helm 001 but that can be difficult depending on what you’re working with. So to save time we’re gonna import the base body 001 and the head 001 of the corresponding race/gender we’re working with, in this case it’s body_000_f.mesh and head_000_f. They can be found in the here EXTRACTED re_chunk_000\natives\stm\character\_kit\head EXTRACTED re_chunk_000\natives\stm\character\_kit\body
In the video below I just organized my files and used the head mesh to sculpt and shape my mesh around the head, Keep in mind that sculpting is technically considered destructive so either make backups before you do or even better, use Shape keys before sculpting. You can do this by going to the your Mesh > Data > Shape Keys > + (press it twice) > set Key 1’s value you to 100, this means that this key now holds remembers that shape so deleting that key will reset it back to it’s original shape
Use these two tutorials to learn everything you need to know about Weight Painting, Transferring, Sculpting & Mesh Data Transferring. I do things my own little way and you can follow along in my video if you like, but It won’t be directed
Transfer Mesh Data (or how to clothe your Avatar) Tutorial
Now that we have everything shaped where I need it to me, we can start Weight Painting. Once again, I cant give exact instructions so you can refer to the youtube videos from earlier or loosely follow along in my video, I’ll try to note what I did below First off I have to apply the changes I made during sculpt mode now that I’m happy with it, I do this by applying all my Shape Keys. Then I have to apply the changes I made to the bones (scaled the head bone) by duplicating the armature modifier and applying the original armature modifier, I have to do this on every affected mesh. Then I selected the armature and applied Pose as Rest-Pose. Luckily we’re only working with the head, that means really just 3 Bones so it was easy to Weight Paint but even better, sometimes you can just rename the imported armatures bones to match the DD2 original bones which means it’ll keep the original weights it came with when parenting it to the DD2 armature. ****Once that was all done all I had to do was Ctrl + P > Armature Deform to the original armature Armature for Helm_001 BUT you can actually use any DD2 Armature which is extremely useful for missing bones or lazy people like me. So what I always end up doing, is just parenting it to the Body_001 armature we imported named Armature_body_000_f.
Now we get it ready for export, this part is very important. You must follow the DD2 Suites Name Scheme for everything to export properly, LOD<number>_G<number>S<number><anything>. ****I recommend copying the names from the original DD2 Mesh but sometimes you might need to pick a different one if it doesn’t show in-game. You’ll notice I made a second Visor to match the original armors Visor. If you match the Visors original names you can actually open and close your helmet just like the original helmets in-game. This means you can technically name an entirely different mesh to match the lowered Visors mesh name and be able to swap them out in-game, like a new helmet or a different material.
Now we do the textures by editing the .MDF files, but first we must look at DD2’s Texture Formatting to prepare our textures for DD2, for this I use photoshop. Essentially I move the channels where they need to be, matchig the format chat below. When saving, always as a .TGA 32bit file. You can do this in photoshop by going to Save a Copy > Save as Type > Targa. In the video below I copy and paste the Roughness map into the Alpha channel of the Normal Map, then I copy and pasted the Metallic/Specular map into the Alpha channel of the ALBD/ALBM, don’t forget to invert the Metallic Map if your .MDF uses ALBD (shown in the second video) lastly because this mesh uses an Alpha map, we need an ATOC texture which tells the game what to hide on the mesh. Since our Alpha map is part of the (WOOPS I DONT KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY DO THIS YET, I JUST KNOW YOUR ALPHA GOES INTO THE RED CHANNEL OF YOUR ATOC TEXTURE, WILL UPDATE SOON)
https://vimeo.com/932759771?share=copy
| Texture | Channel | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ALBM | R | Albedo |
| G | Albedo | |
| B | Albedo | |
| A | Metalness (Dielectric) | |
| ALBD | R | Albedo |
| G | Albedo | |
| B | Albedo | |
| A | Metalness inverted (Dielectric) | |
| NRMR | R | Normal |
| G | Normal | |
| B | Normal | |
| A | Roughness | |
| ATOC | R | Alpha mask |
| (If not using channel, fill with white) | ||
| G | Translucency mask | |
| B | Occlusion | |
| A | Cavity mask | |
| WPMS | R | Enchantment mask |
| G | N/A (leave white) | |
| B | N/A (leave white) | |
| A | N/A (leave white) |