About Models

Models combine all sorts of data; here are the aspects you can expect to deal with frequently in FFXIV modding.

  1. Meshes, or objects, refer to separate individual sub-parts of models.
  2. Polygons, also called faces or tris(triangles), are the components that make up a model.
  3. UV mapping determines the way textures sit on a model.
  4. Materials are covered in more detail on the 2D guide pages. However, learning about how Blender uses materials can help you test items, or render your character for fun.
  5. Rigs, also commonly called Armatures or Skeletons for humanoid models (as they're comprised of "bones"), are used for puppetteering a model during animation.
  6. Weights control which parts of a model move with specific parts of a rig during animations. These require the use of Vertex Groups.
  7. Shape Keys are positional data for vertices, separate from rigging/animation data. They are used for various non-animation purposes in FFXIV.
  8. Metadata encompasses a variety of flags used by the game to activate different meshes and shape keys.
  9. Animation, generally mapped to the rig.
Blender's Outliner menu, showing the object hierarchy of a freshly exported face.
(1.) Average set of mesh parts that make up a face; faces typically use all 4 material slots.

Meshes

Mesh grouping is important to understand when accounting for metadata and items with multiple materials. FFXIV uses a specific naming hierarchy to organise meshes inside each individual item.

  1. The name of each mesh part ends in a number, the first of which determines which material it gets assigned in TexTools; part 0.0 and 0.1 share a texture, but part 1.1 and 0.1 do not. Each mesh can have different metadata assigned to it.
  2. Each mesh has a location, represented by a small orange dot, set to the world origin (0,0,0) or root bone position by default. To avoid problems from accidental offset of the origin, make sure you move any meshes in Edit Mode, or if you make a mistake, manually reset the origin.
  3. Your character is made up of many disparate mesh parts, not a pre-rendered whole. For example, when you put gloves on, your hands model is removed and replaced with a model of gloves.

Polygons

For more information on the anatomy of 3D models, please see Blender's Manual on Structure.

  1. Every polygon imported to FFXIV must be a triangle. Blender has a Triangulate Modifier to automate the process.
  2. Each face has a normal value that determines shading - this is separate from the Normal Map and less precise. Due to FFXIV's split meshes, you may want to download a plugin to help you edit face normals.
  3. Face normals also determine the, well, facing of each polygon, with each polygon having a "front" and "back". Backfaces are invisible on most (non-hair) models, though this can be changed in the material settings.
  4. Polygons are the "resolution" of your model - higher polygon counts mean a smoother model, with a tradeoff of larger filesize and slower loading.
  5. If you want smoother-looking models, past a certain point you'll get better results with HD textures.
  6. I heard the maximum poly count was 35,000 per mesh. I tried to test this, but TexTools just crashes each time.

UV mapping

For basic information on UVs, please check Blender's UV unwrapping guide.

  1. FFXIV uses UVs in a pretty standard way. Certain models have a second UV map used for small things like FC emblems, legacy tattoos, and face paint. The first map, "uv1", generally contains most of the relevant info for any given model.
  2. UV maps can be found in Object Data Properties in Blender, beneath the Vertex Groups.

Rigs

The rig is the "parent" to any meshes you edit, using Blender's armature modifier.

  1. When moving item targets or making mashup items you can set the Armature modifier, but I personally prefer the shortcut of merging meshes together, preserving weight data.
  2. The rig itself can't be edited while making things like gear mods, since it'll just revert once you take it in-game, so it should be treated as something of an immutable guideline. This includes renaming bones from their original Japanese names.
  3. By default, items will only export their relevant bones, but you can customise TexTools' options to "export complete skeletons". This is useful when you're replacing or making major size edits to an item.
  4. Using Pose Mode with your armature is a great way to test before importing your model to the game.
  5. A list of bones with translated names is available in FFXIV/TexTools Reference Information.

Weights

Weight painting, or skinning, is a process nobody in the modding community likes except me. Here's a quick overview of what weight painting does, and Blender Manual's weight painting section.

  1. There are many automated tools for weights that should give you a good starting point. Blender's automatic weights and weight transfer modifiers are very useful.
  2. I also recommend you study FFXIV's original weights and match them as well as you can on similarly-shaped items.

Shape Keys

Here's an intro to shape keys if you're unfamiliar. In FFXIV, shape keys are primarily used for 2 things: facial customisation data, and changing the shape of items when other items are equipped.

  1. When you pick a certain eye shape, jaw shape, or similar at character creation, this value is represented in the face mesh as a shape key.
  2. When you equip long gloves on top of a long-sleeve top, boots over baggy pants, or hats over hair, there's a shape key that "shrinks" the item to fit beneath the clothing.
  3. A Shape Reference Table can be found in FFXIV/TexTools Reference Information.

Metadata

Metadata is used to trigger shape keys, or hide meshes with matching attributes. It's possible to edit metadata easily in both Penumbra and Textools.

  1. Attributes flag meshes as a certain body part or area, and assigning the wrong attribute by mistake can cause unintional (and hilarious) visibility issues. For instance, the "scalp" (atr_kam) attribute refers to hair on the top of the head that goes under hats, and when activated will make that hair invisible when a hat is put on. If you assign this attribute to the wrong part of a hairstyle, you'll go completely bald when you wear a hat.
  2. Metadata is also used by many clothing items, for instance long gloves that hide sleeves, and high necklines that hide necklaces.
  3. An Attribute Reference Table can be found in FFXIV/TexTools Reference Information.
  4. Penumbra Metadata tutorial (wip)
  5. Textools Metadata tutorial (wip)

Animation

Hopefully, you know what animation is already. Your character is always animating in-game!

  1. 3D animation is made with "keyframes" that store rotational, positional, and scaling data of bones. The software then automatically interpolates between these keyframes to form the in-between frame animation data. Animators can select different interpolation algorithms and add more keyframes to fine-tune animation.
  2. Animation rigs are shared between multiple races for ease of animating every playable race. See the [[WIP]Penumbra/Textools Basics Guide] for more on racial sharing.
  3. "Physics", for example long skirts and jackets, are actually animated with the rest of the rig, which is computationally much less taxing.
  4. For more information on modding animations, see Linku's guide to XAT & Blender.