Tutorial 2: Shadow Generations character mod¶

Welcome to the second beginner tutorial for Shadow Generations modding!

Here you will learn the basics of how to modify and create your own character mod (changing the model of Shadow).

Attention

This is a continuation of the first beginners tutorial. While that one focusses on stage modding, it teaches all the essentials of working with HEIO!

Also this tutorial expects you know how to work with armature weights!

Part 1: Preparing the files¶

Once again, lets create our mod and prepare the files first.

Create a new mod, i’ll call mine “HEIO Tutorial 2”.

Next, we need to unpack and copy the files for Shadows character model. The archive we are looking for is /image/x64/raw/character/shadow.pac.

Part 2: Importing the files into blender¶

The file we want to import is chr_shadow.model. Before importing, don’t forgot to make sure your blender project scene has the correct target game of Shadow Generations!

Also toggle the system console to see the import progress.

Now open the .model importer:

../_images/asset_importing_model.png — Where to find the model importer¶

After importing Shadow should be t-posing in all his glory:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_import_model.png — The imported Shadow model¶

One thing you should notice is that the model is split up into 2 different meshes:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_import_meshes.png — The different meshes that got imported¶

This is because the eyelids belong to a mesh group called Mesh_Eyelid_vis, which the game uses to hide the eyelids when not needed. We’ll go over the details of that later, let’s focus on the model itself for now.

Part 3: Replacing the model¶

At it’s core, making a character mod is very simple: All we need to do is exchange the model(s) attached to the armature. I won’t go over the process of weight painting in this tutorial, as that is a fairly standard procedure in blender and has numerous tutorials available online.

As such, which model you use is up to you. I will be using Mario from Mario 64 for it’s simplicity, which i got from The Models Resource.

Armature Bones¶

Now, one thing to keep in mind is that you should not move the bones. While you certainly _can_ do it, it’s better not to, as the games animations are absolute and will move the bones back to the same positions as they were before, which is gonna stretch and deform your model in ways that you may not want to.

In other words, make the model fit the armature, not the other way around.

Eyelids¶

As mentioned before, eyelids are a special case. If you end up adding eyelids to your character mod, you must make sure to assign it to the correct mesh group!

You can either have the eyelids be part of the rest of the model, or be seperate, both works.

To assign the mesh group, open the HEIO Mesh Properties panel in the Mesh Properties:

../_images/mesh_groups_initial.png — The mesh groups panel¶

Unless you used a mesh that HEIO imported with mesh groups, you should see a button saying “Initialize mesh info”. Press that button. Now you should be able to edit the list.

If the eyelid is on a seperate mesh all by itself, just rename the already existing mesh group to Mesh_Eyelid_vis.

If the eyelids are part of the same mesh as the rest of the character, add a new mesh group and name that to Mesh_Eyelid_vis. Now enter edit mode; This should add three new, yet familiar buttons:

../_images/mesh_groups_editing.png — The edit operators for mesh groups¶

Now, just like for materials, select the mesh group for eyelids, then select all polygons that belong to the eyelids and press the assign Assign button below the mesh groups list. That’s it!

Materials¶

When creating materials, it’s best to look at imported materials for reference. You may notice a pattern with some materials, like how characters usually use ChrAlbedoFalloff for regular character materials.

For my mario model, i simply used a ChrAlbedoFalloff_dpn shader for the clothes, and a ChrSkinCDRF_dpncf shader for the face (only place showing skin).

You’ll need to experiment a bit with the falloff parameters to get them how you like.

Some useful resources for learning how to work with materials:

Attention

As of writing this, not all shaders have material templates and will look inaccurate in blender! For those, you will need to verify that they look good ingame.

Part 4: Exporting & ingame testing¶

Once your model is prepared, it’s time to bring it ingame!

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_prepared_assets.png — The model i prepared (armature is hidden)¶

To do so, let’s set up a collection operator again! Put the armature and it’s children in a new collection, then add a .model exporter to it that exports to a dummy.model file in your mods shadow directory:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_exporter.png — The exporter setup¶

Now press export, then convert your mods shadow directory to a .pac file and hop ingame; Your model should now replace Shadow:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_ingame.png — Lanky Mario in all his glory¶

Part 5: Insufficient Aura¶

While playing, you might notice that the chaos control aura model is still a silhouette of Shadow:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_aura.png — The broken aura¶

This is because it’s stored in a different model file: chr_shadow_aura.model. Let’s import it into our project and see what we can do!

After importing, we can see it’s just a model of shadow, but “thicker”:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_import_model_aura.png — The imported aura model¶

The aura armature is very similar, but still different in many parts. Many bones from the regular model are absent, and some are transformed very differently.

Yet, these bones missing is actually not a problem! We can copy paste our regular armature and mesh, rename the chr_shadow bone to chr_shadow_aura and the mesh bone to L_mesh and it will work perfectly fine!

Attention

VERY IMPORTANT: Rename the duplicated armature data from chr_shadow.001 to chr_shadow_aura, as this is what determines the exported file name!

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_aura_name.png — Where to change the armature data name¶

Now just make the model “thicker” and swap out the materials with the imported aura material chr_shadow_aurabody and the model is ready for the game.

Hint

You can make a model “thicker” using the “Shrink/Flatten operator (ALT + S)

Now you just need to add the armature and duplicated model to the export collection, export and convert the directory again. The regular and aura models should have gotten exported to separate files, and should now both be ingame:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_export_aura.png — The exported aura model¶

Okay, that is still not looking right. That is because we have to invert the normals of the model!

Simply enter edit mode of the aura model, select all polygons and flip the normals:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_flip_normals.png — Where to find the flip normals operator¶

You can check whether they are flipped by enabling Face Orientation in the viewport overlay. Blue means outward (“correct”), while red means inward (“flipped”):

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_face_orientation.png — Where to find the face orientation viewport setting¶

Now: export, convert to .pac and boot up the game; The aura should no longer hide your model:

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_aura_fixed.png — The flipped aura ingame¶

Note

This works because the aura material has backface culling enabled. If it were not enabled, then the aura would still look “solid”, even when flipped.

Part 6: So longe’ bowser!¶

That’s it, now your character mod should be done! Congrats!

../_images/shadow_gens_chr_mod_result.png — The finished Mario model, posing on the results screen¶

This knowledge does not just apply to character models, but to all kinds of models in every hedgehog engine game!

Generally, when it comes to making model mods its important to know your way with materials. The better your material game, the better your mods! Go wild experimenting with different shaders and parameters! You can learn more about shaders, textures and related topics in the game documentation

If you want to learn more about how HEIO works, check out the Guides section!

With that said, i hope you found this tutorial helpful (again)! If you still have questions you can join the Hedgehog Engine Modding Discord Server.