Creating An Outfit Mod - Kizari/Flagrum GitHub Wiki

This guide will cover the entire process of creating an outfit mod from start-to-finish. Since this is an introductory guide, it is tailored towards beginners and will not cover more advanced aspects like clothing physics. Because of this, it is highly recommended that you choose a simple outfit without any loose parts like coats or capes. For the purpose of this guide we will cover porting Prompto's Episode Prompto outfit onto Noctis to create a winter outfit for Noctis.

• Setting Up
• Importing the Models
• Preparing the Outfit
• Fitting the Outfit
• Rigging the Outfit
• Assigning Flagrum Materials
• Exporting the Model
• Creating the Mod

You will need:

• Full Installation of Final Fantasy XV
• Blender 3.0 (later versions may work but many are known to have issues)
• Flagrum
• Flagrum Blender Add-on

Once you have all the necessary tools installed, proceed to the next step.

First we must import the desired models into Blender so we can modify them.

For this project we are going to need two models.

1. Noctis' unreleased Summer Outfit (nh00_067), which we will use for his proportions and animations.
2. Prompto's Episode Prompto Outfit (nh02_041), which we will be transferring onto Noctis.

Start by importing both models into Blender.

If you are unsure on how to get these models out of the game files and into Blender, refer to this guide.

Do not move these models from the position they imported in, as they need to be overlapping for certain parts of this process. If you need to view them separately, click the Eye Icon next to the collection in the Scene Overview panel to hide the one you aren't working with.

You will notice the Summer Outfit does not have a head. This is because the head is loaded separately to the outfit in most cases (including for outfit mods). We don't need Prompto's head from the Winter Outfit, so we will remove that. Hide the collection with the Summer Outfit so we can see that the correct parts are being removed. Select EyeShape, FaceShape, HiarAShape, HiarBShape, and ToungShape, then delete them.

The hat won't work with Noctis either as his hair will clip through it. However, you will notice that you can't simply delete it because it is part of the main outfit mesh. Switch to Edit Mode and deselect all vertices. Select a vertex on the hat, hit Ctrl + L to select all linked vertices, then hit X > Vertices to delete them. There are three separate pieces to the hat, so repeat this again until the whole hat is gone. Switch back to Object Mode. You should now have the Winter Outfit with no head or hat.

Next we need to adjust the winter outfit to fit on Noctis' body.

For this example, we will only need to scale the outfit as Noctis and Prompto have similar enough proportions. However, if you are working with more different outfits, it is suggested you learn how to use "Proportional Editing" in Blender to shape the outfit closer to your target character.

Unhide the Summer Outfit collection now so you can see how things line up.

Hit Numpad 1 to switch to Front View (Orthographic). This will allow you to get a more accurate view on how things are lining up. The goal is to get as much of the model lined up as possible. A good measure for these models is that the hands are in the same position.

Select the armature from the Episode Prompto outfit, and hit S to start scaling. Move the mouse until the outfit and arms line up as closely as possible to Noctis' Summer Outfit, then click to stop scaling.

Since Noctis and Prompto have different armatures, we need to copy the rigging (vertex weights) from Noctis' Summer Outfit to the Episode Prompto outfit so that it will animate correctly when Noctis wears it.

We have chosen the Summer Outfit for this task as it is a very basic outfit with no physics to worry about and so will provide a clean and easy transfer. It is generally recommended to use the summer outfits for weight transfers as they provide a cleaner and more consistent result than other models from the game, however, there are exceptions to this rule.

NOTE: At this point in the process, if you are using your own outfit, you may want to assign blank materials to each mesh on that outfit so they can be separated again after the weight transfer. If you have imported the outfits from the guide, you won't need to do this as they will have materials assigned from Flagrum's importer.

Next we need to join the meshes together for each outfit so we can transfer the weights all at once. This will make sure the weights are consistent where they meet at the edge of each mesh. Select each mesh that is part of the Summer Outfit and hit Ctrl + J to join them. Deselect the Summer Outfit and then do the same to join the Winter Outfit.

Since we are rigging the Winter Outfit to Noctis' armature, we need to unparent it from Prompto's armature and reparent it to Noctis' armature. Select the Winter Outfit mesh and hit Alt + P > Clear Parent and Keep Transformations. It is important to keep the transformations, otherwise the scaling we did in the "Fitting the Outfit" section will be undone.

To make sure none of Prompto's original rigging interferes with the new mod, we need to do some cleanup. Go to the Modifier Properties tab, click the dropdown arrow to the right of the Armature Modifier, and click Apply.

Go to the Object Data Properties tab, click the dropdown next to the Vertex Groups list, and select Delete all Groups. The Winter Outfit is now cleared of any armature data and rigging data from the original. We no longer need Prompto's armature, so delete it.

Now to reparent the Winter Outfit to Noctis' armature, first select the Winter Outfit mesh, then hold Ctrl and select Noctis' armature so both are selected at the same time. Hit Ctrl + P > Armature Deform. We use the armature deform setting as moving the bones will deform the mesh to produce the movements of the character.

Drag the Winter Outfit mesh up to the same collection as the Summer Outfit and delete the leftover empty collection. This is purely organisational, but will make it easier to work with things as we go.

Select the Winter Outfit mesh and navigate to the Modifier Properties tab. You'll notice there's an armature modifier here again now. This has come from parenting to Noctis' armature, you can leave this as-is. Click Add Modifier > Data Transfer. Set the Source in this new modifier to the Summer Outfit, as that's the mesh we're transferring the weights from. Check the Vertex Data checkbox, then click the Vertex Groups button beneath it. All the weight information (rigging) is stored in the vertex groups, which is why that's what we are transferring. Finally, click Generate Data Layers to complete the transfer. After this, you must apply the Data Transfer modifier as you did with the armature modifier.

It is important to check at this point that the weight transfer was successful to save a lot of time finding out later once your mod is in-game. First, hide the Summer Outfit mesh as we are only interested in checking the Winter Outfit. Next, select the armature, then switch to Pose Mode. You want to rotate one of the core bones to check that the body moves in the way you would expect. You are looking to make sure that the Winter Outfit is now moving correctly when you move Noctis' armature. A good example would be to select L_UpperLeg (you can use the search box at the top of the Scene Panel to locate this easier), and then hit R to rotate it. The whole leg should move around with your mouse. Right-click to cancel this as we do NOT want to alter the pose.

You will notice in the above image that part of the left leg is being left behind when the left leg extends. Unfortunately, weight transfers are imperfect and will occasionally have small errors like this. FFXV models are particularly prone to issues around the legs due to the legs being so close together in the rest pose. To fix this problem, you need to find the vertex weights that are causing the issue and correct them.

First select the Winter Outfit mesh. Switch to Weight Paint mode. Back under the Object Data Properties tab on the right, you will see a list of Vertex Groups. You need to click through the ones related to legs to identify the issues. For example, the vertex groups that may affect this area are L_UpperLeg, L_FemorisA, L_FemorisB, L_FemorisC and R_UpperLeg, R_FemorisA, R_FemorisB, R_FemorisC. Occasionally other nearby bones like L_Hip and R_Hip may spread into these regions a little as well, so check those as well if you are still having issues.

For example, you can see a hole in L_FemorisA in the left-hand image above which could potentially cause for that part of the leg to be left behind. For issues like this, select the Sample Weight tool at the left side of the screen and click on the green near the hole. Then select the Draw Tool, make sure it is set to the Draw brush with a Strength of 1, then colour in the hole.

In this example, you can see that some of the weighting from R_FemorisA has spilt over onto the left leg. For issues like this, select the Draw Tool on the left, set the Brush to Subtract, set the Weight and Strength to 1, and now you can run this brush over the extra weights to erase them.

Once you have corrected the issues, be sure to check them over again in Pose Mode to make sure everything is now moving as you would expect.

With the proportions done and the weights transferred, the Summer Outfit mesh is no longer needed, so delete it.

Next we need to assign the Flagrum Materials that will be used to apply textures and shaders to the mod once it is put into the game.

Start by separating the Winter Outfit back into its original meshes. To do this, select the Winter Outfit, switch to Edit Mode, hit P > By Material. We want the meshes separate as they will need different material setups for the game.

Select the main outfit piece, then navigate to the Material Properties tab. Under the Flagrum heading, change the Material to Named Human Outfit. For other outfits, the material should be selected based on what is most appropriate for the selected mesh. For example, a mesh that was just exposed bare arms would use Named Human Skin.

Flagrum sets sensible defaults for all of the material values, so we only need to fill out the texture slots. Because this outfit was imported with Flagrum, we can check which textures the meshes use by looking at the Blender materials. Go to the Shading tab along the top menu. You will need to spread the nodes out yourself to see them all. The orange nodes are the texture nodes, and you can see each of the textures written on the header of each of these nodes. Take note of these, then go back to the Layout tab.

Fill out each of the texture slots that we have textures for. The textures were exported automatically when exporting the model from Flagrum. Prefer textures from the highimages folder, as these are higher resolution versions of the same textures. Likewise, prefer textures with the _$h suffix as they are higher resolution than those without the suffix. For the Winter Outfit, none of the outfit pieces have any highimages textures, so all of the textures will come from the sourceimages folder.

Putting this all together, you would set:

• BaseColor0_Texture to nh02_040_cloth_10_b_$h.png
• Occlusion0_Texture to nh02_041_cloth_10_o_$h.png
• MRS0_Texture to nh02_040_cloth_10_mrs_$h.png
• Normal0_Texture to nh02_040_cloth_10_n_$h.png

As there is no OpacityMask0_Texture for this mesh, we will leave the texture slot empty.

Repeat this process for the other mesh. You will notice that it has an extra texture that the first mesh didn't (nh02_040_cloth_01_a_$h). This is the opacity mask and provides the transparency for the fur effect. Make sure to set this in the OpacityMask0_Texture slot.

For a more in-depth guide on setting up materials and textures for custom projects, check out this guide.

With the model now complete, we need to export it to the Flagrum Model Data format (FMD) so Flagrum can build a mod from it.

Simply go to File > Export > Flagrum (.fmd) and save this wherever you like.

The final step is to create the mod itself.

1. Launch Flagrum, which will open to the Mod Manager tab by default.

2. Switch to the Workshop Mods tab on the left-hand menu.

3. Click the New Mod card.

4. Leave the TYPE as Outfit, and change the TARGET to Noctis

5. Select the FMD file you exported in the previous section.

6. Fill out the form to your liking.

7. Optionally, select a preview image (Change Image button) if you don't want to use the default.

8. Click Save at the top of the screen.

The mod is now created and automatically applied to the game. You will find it in the gear menu for Noctis next time you launch the game.