How to create a reference asset in UE5.

Demo Video on YouTube

Pre-requisites

• Fully set up and working custom UE engine and project
• Fmodel setup and working
• FBX formatted mesh properly rigged to a Tekken 8 armature with material slots assigned to it.
• Tekken 8 (PC)

Overview

When we mod we are redirecting the game to go to find and load assets. These assets could be already in the game or new ones we bring into the game.

When we want to re-use an asset from in-game we will typically try to reference it. Referencing allows us to tell the game where to get and load an asset without having to recreate it ourselves.

For example, we made some changes to a mesh in the game but we want to keep all the same materials that are on the mesh originally. We create a reference of the materials and load those to our mesh in UE. When the mod is read by the game it sees our references and grabs the materials to load them on our mesh. Done.

Another common example is when we want to swap items. Say we want to load a different upper body item to a different character. We create an IP asset and 3 reference assets. The references will be put into the IP asset and point to the items we want to be loaded. The IP will redirect the game to load the assets we specified.

Important Things to Understand

When creating an asset there are three very important things you need to understand.

1. The name of the asset must match the original item, any deviation, and the game won't know what it's looking for.
2. The asset must be in the same place in your UE project as it is in the game. If you mess up the name of a folder or don't include it the game will get lost looking for it.
3. The reference asset is never included in your mod.

Creating a reference asset (Material Instance)

Let's use an example of Azucena. We have pulled out her mesh and made some changes and we have brought it back into blender. We don't want to change any of the materials from how they were originally setup.

1. Find the name of the material you want to reference and look for it in Fmodel.
2. Look at the file structure and make sure that your folder structure matches what is in Fmodel. (e.g. Content/Character/Item/cat/bdf/materials/MI_CH_cat_street_bralet). If not then make the necessary folders.
3. In UE, go to the folder where the material asset should be and R-Click an opens section of the content browser. Go to the Materials section (not the Material asset), and look for Material Instance (MI) and select it.
4. Rename the MI to match what it is supposed to be in-game.
5. Open you Skeletal Mesh (SK) and apply the material to the material slot where it belongs. You can use isolate or highlight to identify what slot applies to what portion of the mesh.
6. The material instance will not show you anything in the editor however what he have done is set a reference in you SK to the material that is in-game that we want to use when the mod is loaded.
7. Package the mod but do not include the referenced MI(s), only the SK that you have changed. Done.