ZG SWTOR Tools Add on

WARNING: for Blender 4 compatibility, this Add-on depends on installing the latest, 4-compatible version of the .gr2 Importer Add-on.

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The ZeroGravitas (ZG) SWTOR Tools Add-on provides with a miscellanea of tools to use on Star Wars: The Old Republic's game assets, including a game Area Assembler, Player Character and NPC Assembler, and a SWTOR Materials Processor. It grows in features as new ideas come up.

(Quality of code-wise, "this is not a place of honor": It Just (Kinda) Works™ 😓)

This Add-on relies on foundational efforts by fellow slicers, such as the .gr2 Importer Addon, which is invoked under the hood in places, and the Slicers GUI Tool, which allows for extracting the game assets we play with, plus game information exported by tools in Jedipedia.net and TORCommunity.com.

(WARNING: some of the images and information in this wiki might be slightly out of date, as the Add-on is in a state of constant upgrades and revisions)

Check the changelog at the bottom of this page for bug corrections and new features.

Table of contents:

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INSTALLATION AND STATUS PANEL

• Add-on installation and Preferences settings.
• Status Information Panel.
  • Requisite elements section.
  • .gr2 Importer Add-on section.
  • If Blender is set to a language different to English, set it to English for now.

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AREA TOOLS

• Area Assembler.
  • Requirements.
  • Importing options.
  • Options for reducing Blender's lag when importing MASSIVE Areas.
  • How to use the Area Assembler tool.
    • Locating Area IDs, and Downloading Area .json files.
    • Processing the area .json files.
    • Adding Terrain.
    • How Automatic Lighting Works.
    • General information about Object Types and Empties.
    • Known Limitations.
    • To Do.
• Enable/Disable Collections.
• Group Areas in SubCollections.
  • Options.

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CHARACTER TOOLS

• Character Assembler.
  • Requirements.
  • Features.
  • Limitations.
  • Importing options.
  • About multiple importings in a same Blender project.
• Item Names Prefixer.
  • Requirements.
• Merge Physics Bones' Vertex Groups.
  • Requirements.
  • Features.

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MATERIALS TOOLS

• Set Backface Culling On/Off.
  • Requirements.
• Process Named Materials.
  • Requirements.
  • Introduction.
  • Limitations.
  • Options.
• Customizable SWTOR Shaders tools.
  • Introduction.
  • Convert to Custom Shaders.
    • Requirements.
    • Options.
      • About the included custom shaders.
      • Custom Shader Extras.
      • Make them your own.
  • Apply values to multiple Custom Shaders.
  • Character's Skin Settings "control panel" Nodegroup.
    • Requirements.
      • In the 3D Viewer.
      • In the Shader Editor.
      • Other Node Tools in the Shader Editor.
        • Link Matching Inputs/Outputs.
        • Copy Matching Inputs/Outputs' values.
• Deduplicate Scene's Materials and Nodegroups.
• Set all .dds to Non-Color.
  • Requirements.

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OBJECTS TOOLS

• Interactions with the new .gr2 Importer Add-on.
  • The .gr2 Importer's new features.
  • How they affect the ZG SWTOR Object Tools.
• Quickscaler.
  • Requirements.
  • Features.
• Merge Double Vertices.
• Modifiers Tools.
  • Requirements.
• Set Objects' Custom Properties Manually.
  • Requirements.

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POSE AND SCULPT TOOLS

• Armatures In Scene's Pose/Rest Position.
  • Requirements.
• Clear Bones' Translations.
  • Requirements.
• Mask Selected Vertices From Sculpting.
  • Requirements.

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BAKING TOOLS

• Convert to Legacy Materials.
  • Requirements.
• Correct Twi'lek Head's UVs.
• Export Baked Textures.

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Changelog:

2024-07:

• Compatibility with Blender 4.0.x (depends on the .gr2 Importer Add-on's own compatibility).
• The Add-on interacts with the .gr2 Importer Add-on's new features, exposing some of them in the Status Panel. Several Objects Tools use them (see Object Tools page's prologue).
• Area Assembler:
  • Corrects a bug in its instancer code (responsible for duplicating already imported objects to speed up assembling): now more objects ought to land in their correct places instead of ending up floating around at random.
  • Terrains no longer show fissures thanks to an improved SWTOR Terrain Extractor. Please download it and regenerate your terrains with it.
  • NEW: It assembles 64-bit SpeedTrees now, filling a Tython or a Dromund Kaas with trees.
  • Makes sure whole imported areas are consistently placed relative to the scene's origin. In theory, merging partial Area Assemblies into a final scene wwith everything fitting correctly ought to be possible.
• Group Areas in Subcollections: works far better and easier now.
• Character Assembler (in combination with improvements in the .gr2 Importer Add-on):
  • Solves an issue with NPCs' skin areas showing armor material instead of skin.
  • NEW: it applies DirectionMaps to hair and fur.
  • Corrects an issue with Twi'lek eyes' UVs that kept them from baking correctly.
  • NEW: it can separate the eyes into a different object, which some third party rigging systems prefer.
  • NEW: it can make each eye a separate object, adjusting their origins so that we can control them with both bones and conventional rotations at the same time.
• NEW: Merge Physics Bones' Vertex Groups: helps with Cloth Physics applications.
• NEW: Set Objects' Properties Manually: for management of .gr2 object properties (expected to be seldom used).
• NEW: Clear bone Translations: to solve imported animations and poses' distorted limbs.
• NEW: Correct Twi'lek eyes' UVs.: same as in the Character Assembler, but applicable to already imported models.