Model Exporting¶

Note

Exporting requires basic knowledge of how to use Blender.

Blender Add-on¶

Make sure you have the GBFR Blender Tools Add-on installed.

Exporting¶

Warning

Exporting still has some issues and you are likely to encounter many issues.

Make sure you create a folder to export to, and place a copy of the model's original .minfo in that folder.
- Do not place any of the other .skeleton or .mmesh files in this folder, they will be overridden!
Ensure your model is set up according to the Exporting Checklist.
Go to File Export Granblue Fantasy Relink (.mmesh)
Name the model to the same name as the .minfo (i.e. Should be pl1400.mmesh for pl1400.minfo)
Press the Export button and wait.
Done! Your exported model's generated .minfo, .mmesh, and .skeleton files can be found in the _Exported_Minfo folder created where you exported to.

Info

To check for errors in the export you can re-import the exported file.

Materials¶

Editing materials are done by editing the Material Set (.mmat) file, located in model/<model_prefix>/<model_id>/vars/<number>.mmat (each number represents a different material variation, used for color packs).

Get FlatBuffers / flatc, which you should already have if you already imported models. Extract it.
Get the FlatBuffer MMat schema. Schemas are used to tell flatc how to read and write the material files.
Run the following command to convert the .mmat file into a human readable .json file:

flatc --json --strict-json --raw-binary MMat_ModelMaterial.fbs -- <path to .json file>

Tip

<path_to_mmat_file> should be the path to the .mmat file.

You should now have a .json file next to the original .mmat file. Open it in a text editor (preferably something like Notepad++).

To convert your material .json file back into .mmat, run this command (note: it will overwrite if it already exists):

flatc -b MMat_ModelMaterial.fbs <path_to_json_file>

Transparency¶

This is mostly down to trial and error. To get transparency to play well, refer to the following steps:

Ensure that your material has the following shader parameter, as it ensures to process the alpha channel

{
  "param_hash": "g_53F49792_EnableAlpha_GUESSED",
  "value_or_offset": 1,
  "value_type": "U8"
},

Set ignore_alpha to false. This ensures that the alpha will blend, otherwise the edges of your texture will have artifacts
Set shadow_type to ShadowEnable_AlphaBlend. This ensures the alpha properly propagates to the shadow aswell.

Warning

Double-sided (backface culling) with transparent meshes haven't been figured out yet, a way to get around it is to make a thin mesh that covers both sides.
A partially transparent texture may still have some noise while moving the camera around. How to get around this is unknown (TAA artifact or masking?)

Exporting Textures¶

To export textures, you must edit the materials to make sure that they do not use Granite.

Scroll down to granite_params. Remove the entire section. This will force the game not to use texture streaming and use local files instead.

Example section to remove

"granite_params": {
    "page_file": [
      "f46ebc1f33247b5ba4448a428b107edcdc0f4b0451f06b3701615823a41c94e9"
    ],
    "layer_to_shader_map_name_hash": [
      "g_AlbedoMap",
      "g_NormalMap",
      "g_Mask1",
      "g_Mask2"
    ],
    "unk4": 4,
    "unk5": 1,
    "tile_set_number": 1
},

Now, inside the texture_maps section, you will see all the textures associated to each material map. As you've removed the granite section, your textures will need to be put in the following folders (if they aren't already there):

4k: texture/4k/{name}.texture (Graphics texture quality = Ultra)
2k: texture/2k/{name}.texture (Graphics texture quality = Standard)

These textures files are simply .wtb files with a different extension. Follow this simple guide to create .wtb files. Change your .wtb extension to .texture once that's done.

Note

DDS files are required to convert into .wtb/.texture.
Try to respect the user's graphics settings and do provide differing texture resolutions rather than copy 4k into 2k!
Switching between 4k and 2k using the game options requires a game restart.

Exporting Checklist¶

This list is subject to change as model exporting changes and is more fully understood.

The model must have an armature and a mesh.
The model can only have 1 Mesh object, you must join all meshes together.
Each material must be assigned a material index using the addon's Tool Shelf Panel. These indices correspond with the materials list found in the model's .mmat files.
The mesh cannot have any vertices with zero vertex group weights assigned to it. Use the Select Zero Weights button in the GBFR tool shelf panel to select them. It is up to you to deal with them via weight painting, deleting, etc.
The armature's bone names must match to the GBFR Bone Index names if they are to be animated. Use an original game model to see the naming scheme of humanoid bones (TODO: Create viewable bone name list).
The armature must be pointed upwards on the Z-Axis. Remember to CTRL+A > All Transforms to apply all transforms on the Armature.
Models can only have 1 UV Map.
The GBFR Model format has a limit of 65535 total vertex group weights. Your model should have a reasonable amount of bones to accomodate this, if not merge the bones down.
Bone collection/group names can only contain alphanumeric characters, no special characters (i.e. Japanese characters)

Other¶

Known Export Issues, Requirements, and Fixes

Issues & Fixes¶

Parts of the model are invisible in game:
- Each material must be assigned a material index using the addon's Tool Shelf Panel. These indices correspond with the materials list found in the model's .mmat files.
Parts of the model are transparent in game:
- Your mesh's normals are there are inverted, flip / recalculate your normals for affected areas.

Old issues that should now be fixed automatically¶

Model's Geometry Explodes:
- This is caused due to having any loose vertices/edges. To fix this, select the mesh and press the Delete Loose Verts & Edges button in the GBFR panel.
UVs look weird/distorted:
- You must split the geometry along all outer Edges of the UV islands. Press the Split Vertices: Along UV Islands.
Model is rotated 90 degrees forward:
- Exported All Transforms for the model and Armature must be applied before export. Select all objects and press CTRL+A > All Transforms to do this.
Parts of the mesh are stretching and not really following the bones:
- You need to limit your total Vertex Group weights to 3, then Normalize All your weights your weights.
  - This is automatically applied by the exporter on export. If it didn't work, parts of your mesh are missing weights, you can't have any geometry with 0 weight.

Other¶

You can add bones to the armatures, but there is no guaruntee they will animate properly.