Importing bodies - Longi94/rl-loadout GitHub Wiki

This guide will walk you through the example of extracting a body from Rocket League and converting it into a format that's consumable by Rocket Loadout. We will extract and import the Fennec. This is only the way I do it, if you found a better way, feel free to reach out! Some of the models require extra attention like Tier 3 rocket pass cars having animated bits, those will not be covered here.

Requirements

• Bakkesmod (http://bakkesmod.com/)
• The newest version of UE Viewer (https://www.gildor.org/en/projects/umodel)
• Blender 2.80 or newer (https://www.blender.org/)
  • Blender PSK import addon (https://github.com/Befzz/blender3d_import_psk_psa)
  • Install the Blender addon in this repository (https://github.com/Longi94/rl-loadout/blob/master/tools/blender/rocket_loadout_blender.py)
• Paint.NET (https://www.getpaint.net/)
  • With this plugin pack: https://forums.getpaint.net/topic/16643-dpys-plugin-pack-2014-05-04/, Alpha to 255 is the most important one.
• (optional) RLUPKTool (https://github.com/AltimorTASDK/RLUPKTool)
• (optional) UE Explorer (https://eliotvu.com/portfolio/view/21/ue-explorer) with a custom DLL (https://www.dropbox.com/s/nub71g9b7qesykr/AssetExtraction.zip?dl=0), copy Eliot.UELib.dll to the UE explorer installation folder.
• (optional) Access to the admin page and the Google Cloud Storage bucket. Ping me on discord for those.

Extract

First, extract the files of the Fennec. Read more.

Blender

Start with an empty project (delete everything by pressing 'A' then 'Delete').

Importing

1. Import the main body mesh (UmodelExport\body_grain_SF\SkeletalMesh3\Body_Grain_SK.psk file) into blender File > Import > Skeleton Mesh (.psk).
   1. Some bodies have separate mesh files for parts of the car, you'll need to import those too.
2. Import the sockets (UmodelExport\body_grain_SF\SkeletalMesh3\Body_Grain_SK.uc file) into blender File > Import > Unreal Scripts Sockets. This creates a bunch of empty objects that can be used as sockets.
3. Import wheel mesh information:
   1. Press F3 and search for Import Wheel Settings
   2. Type in the product name, body_grain in case of the fennec
   3. This imports wheel and hitbox information from the spreadsheet.
   4. If you get an error, the body is missing from the and needs to be added manually.
   5. You should see the data in the scene properties.

Materials

There should be at least 2 materials on the model.

1. Set the shading to smooth (select object, right click, Shade smooth)
2. Material names are quite inconsistent. Make sure the chassis material name has chassis in its name. Similarly, make sure the body material has body in its name. This is how rl-loadout can identify materials, incasesensitive.
3. Make sure all the materials use the Principled BSDF node (Click on Use Nodes).

Windows materials

To save a bit preprocessing time, create a new material for the windows.

1. Create a new material named window_material.
2. Assign the appropriate faces to the material.
   1. While the model is selected, press Tab to switch to edit mode.
   2. Select the window meshes.
      1. The easiest way is to use the UV editor.
      2. Use the blank skin map (with the alpha set to 255) as the background.
      3. Select everything that's on the blue area.
      4. If you select some chassis stuff like that you can unselect those by selectin the chassis material in the material side menu and clicking on Deselect.
      5. Should look like this.
   3. Now select the window material and click on Assign.
3. Set these properties of the window material. These are arbitrary values, but good enough.
   • Base color: black (000000)
   • Roughness: 0.1
4. If you check Look Dev (top right, above the gimble), it should look like this.

Lens materials

Some cars can have glass materials for the lights. The glass meshes might be in a separate file, make sure you have that imported.

As a rule of thumb, glasses in the back are red, glasses in the front are white. So you'll need to create 2 materials similarly to the previous section for these two glass colors. With the lack of better support for glass materials, use Principled BSDF with the following properties:

• Base color: red (E70000) for back lights, white for front lights (E7E7E7)
• Base color alpha: 0.5
• Blend mode: Alpha Blend
• Shadow mode: None
• Show backface: false

Exporting

Export to GLTF: File > Export > GLTF 2.0 (.glb/.gltf). This will export to a .glb file. Make sure the following options are ticked:

• +Y Up
• Custom Properties
• Remember Export settings

Textures

Four textures are "usually" enough for rl-loadout.

• Body Diffuse: This is the base texture of the body that's first applied.
• Body Blank Skin: This is an RGB map that tells us which parts of the body to paint.
• Chassis Diffuse
• Chassis normal map

For some reason the blank skin has an alpha channel, even though it doesn't contain any information. To reduce file size, remove the alpha channel. You can do it in multiple ways, e.g. int paint.net Effects > Color > Alpha_to_255, and then when you save, make sure the bit depth is 24 bits. Though admittedly it would be easier if I wrote a script for it...

In case the Fennec, these are the files in the Texture2D folder.

• Body_Grain_BlankSkin.tga
• Body_Grain_D.tga
• Chassis_Grain_D.tga
• Chassis_Grain_N.tga

Wheel config

When new bodies are released the spreadsheet needs to be updated. If you want to do that, ask me for write access.

• Find the file
• Decrypt it using RLUPKTool (drag the file onto the exe)
• Open the decrypted upk file with UE Explorer
• Got to Objects, and select body_grain > body_grain
• There are a bunch of values, the most important ones are HandlingPreset, FrontAxle and BackAxle.
• Create a new row for the body and fill it in according to the columns. Leave default values empty.

Uploading

I will do this once I have a staging environment :)