Environment Exporter - Kizari/Flagrum GitHub Wiki
Environment render by Katelynn Kittaly
As of Flagrum 1.1.9 and Flagrum Blender 1.0.9, environments can now be exported from Flagrum and imported into Blender.
While this does not currently have any applications for directly modding environments at this stage, it can be useful for exploring the world, seeing how it is put together, and creating renders.
A huge thanks to Katelynn Kittaly for her assistance with the shader setups, testing, and debugging of this tool.
Environments in FFXV are stored as EXML files. However, not all EXML files are environments. Generally, you will want to search for environments in the level or environment folders, but feel free to explore as not everything is currently known about the game files.
Start by launching Flagrum and going to the Asset Explorer tab. Navigate the game files to find an environment you would like to export. Right-click on the environment file, and select Export as Environment. Save this file wherever you like.
NOTE: Some environments will take a very long time to export (potentially minutes to hours) depending on the size. This is because Flagrum must process and export thousands of models, textures, and materials. Please simply wait until the export is complete. Also note that because not all EXML files are environments, you may end up with an empty environment file following this process.
Open Blender, and go to File > Import > Flagrum > Flagrum Environment. Select the FED file you exported in the previous step and click Import.
NOTE: Some environments will take a very long time to import (potentially minutes to hours) depending on the size. Blender will lock-up until the import is done, so please wait patiently for it to finish.
Can't see the environment after the import has finished?
Some environments may not import at the world origin. In the Scene Panel, select a mesh and hit numpad . to move the camera to the scene.
Want to see more of the environment?
Larger environments will be difficult to explore on default settings. In the 3D viewport, hit N to bring up the toolbar. Navigate to the View tab and increase the Clip End value to see more of the scene. For rendering, you may also want to increase the clipping distance on the camera itself.
Struggling to navigate around the world?
You may find it easier to use the fly navigation camera. Hit Shift + ~ to enable this mode, then you can steer with the mouse and move with W, A, S, and D.
Interactions with Modded Game
Certain environments may fail to export if your game files have been modded. This is because the environment exporter reads the ebex files as their original format (XMB2) while most mods that affect ebex files replace them with XML. It may also fail if any files have been removed after Flagrum was installed - to resolve this, go to the Asset Explorer, click the Cog Icon at the top of the folder list, and click Regenerate Index. This will cause Flagrum to rebuild its file index so it knows what files you have and where to find them.
Performance
Blender may really struggle with some of the larger environments, especially if materials are enabled. This will also depend on your hardware as to how much it can handle. If your performance is unusable, consider deleting some meshes, disabling materials, or exporting smaller chunks of the environment at a time.
Broken Shading (Normals)
Unfortunately there is an issue with Blender 3.1 where some objects in an environment will have broken shading. If this is an issue for you, you will need to use Blender 3.0 instead.
Terrain
While terrain features such as cliffs and rocks may appear in the environments, the terrain itself is not part of these files and is handled by a different system. See the tutorial for importing terrain into Blender.
Floating Entities
You may find random objects floating around the scene. This is simply how those objects are positioned in the ebex files. One such reason this may occur is because certain entities are loaded off-screen and later moved into position by the game when required. You will need to either move these objects where you want them, or remove them if they are unwanted.
Stacked Furniture at Rest Sites
You may find multiple sets of furniture stacked on top of each other in rest areas. This is because the game has multiple different configurations for the end-of-day cutscenes. These will be separated into collections so you can hide (or delete) the ones you don't want.
Missing Models
Certain models that you expect to be in a specific environment may not be there. This is most likely because it will be stored in a different ebex file that is not referenced in the hierarchy of the ebex you exported. You will need to find where the missing features are located and export those separately.