Skip to content

Model Workflow

Note

This page only provided for modding purposes, not ripping purposes.

This page may be missing information. It was written by someone only familiar with the tools, not 3D Modeling.

Requirements:

It may be worthwhile to check out the dedicated Model format page to get an understanding of what is in there.

Models

.mdl to .gltf

Drag any .mdl file into the executable for it to create a folder containing .gltf files for all 8 LODs.

The format has no mesh names therefore they're taken from the material that they reference.

Armature

There will be no armature in the case of rigged models. The skeleton is stored in a separate file, contained in a separate pack per model.

Example: chara/c1001/c1001.pac -> animation/chara/c1001/skeleton/<body/face/hair/>/<body/face/hair/>.skl

The tool supports this, provide the path to model aswell as the pac file and run this in a command prompt and run: 

MdlConverter.exe <path to .mdl file> <path to .pac file>

Skeleton files are stored in a Havok format (version 2020_2_0_r1). Currently the tool supports up to 2018, so some models may not convert successfully due to additional unsupported data added in 2020.

Note: Custom Attributes (click to expand)

There may be per-vertex custom data. The tool currently puts them in custom GLTF attributes starting with _.

You can access these by selecting a mesh in Blender, heading to the Data tab on the right side, and Attributes. From there you can head into Vertex Paint mode.

The _COLOR_0 is not put inside COLOR_0 as it uses the alpha channel that Blender 4.1 drops. It appears to be used as wrinkles data in the case of face models.

.gltf to .mdl

Blender Export Settings

Make sure the following options are enabled, very important!

  • Data
    • Mesh
      • Tangents
      • Attributes
    • Vertex Colors
      • Use Vertex Color (Active)
      • Export All Vertex Colors

Strongly recommended to leave this as default for FFXVI.

Converting

To convert back to .mdl, you need the original folder, aswell as the original file.

The tool will use the original .mdl as a base for all the data, such as the joints, vfx data, etc.

Upon building, the tool will clear ALL of the following:

  • LODs
  • Meshes
  • Vertex/Index buffers
  • Vertex layout Attributes

Everything else will be preserved from the original model specified.

Animations

Continue on to the Animations page.