rcpz-tools 1.3.0 - PZ Icon Maker and PZ Survivor Studio

This release splits the project into two separate desktop apps. Download whichever you want, or both. Each is a self-contained zip: unzip and run the exe, nothing to install.

PZ Icon Maker

PZ-Icon-Maker-1.3.0-win-x64.zip

The original tool. Point it at a mod and it renders each item's 3D model into a correctly named Item_*.png inventory icon at the game's isometric camera, on a transparent background. Live preview, per-icon tuning, weapon attachments, and a headless CLI for batch runs. No Project Zomboid instance, no Blender, no Python.

PZ Survivor Studio

PZ-Survivor-Studio-1.3.0-win-x64.zip

The desktop version of survivor.rcpz.tools, at full parity with the browser app. Build and dress a full survivor, equip weapons, play any of the game's animation clips, and export a still, sprite sheet, or looping GIF. The character and animation viewer that used to live inside the Icon Maker now lives here.

Because it is a native desktop app, it reads mods from anywhere, including installs under C:\Program Files, without the browser file-access restrictions. Optional sign-in and cloud sharing work the same as on the web.

Also in this release

• Item names now show their in-game display names from the game's translation files (vanilla and modded), with a per-item-name language picker.
• Mod discovery is layout-agnostic: point the mod source at Zomboid/mods, Zomboid/Workshop, or the Steam 108600 folder and each picks up its mods.
• The repository was renamed from pz-icon-maker to rcpz-tools.

pz-icon-maker 1.2.0 - modded animations & clothing

What's new in 1.2.0

Modded animations and clothing in the character viewer

• Custom .glb animations exported from Blender or Max now play upright and at the
  right scale instead of tipping over and blowing up. A mod's own .glb clip retargets
  onto the body like the vanilla clips do.
• Modded clothing rigs -- chainmail, plate armour, helms, and other exported meshes --
  now sit on the body and follow the animation. A rig whose root bones were renamed on
  export is matched back up automatically.
• Texture-only clothing -- wool pants, leather gloves and shoes, tunics, shirts, and
  anything else painted onto the body rather than modelled -- now shows up. Higher-resolution
  mod textures (512/1024/2048) no longer fail to composite onto the smaller vanilla skin.

Icon maker (contributed by jiizzy)

• Food-state icon variants -- automatically generate the Cooked, Burnt, and Rotten
  inventory icons for a food item from its IsCookable / DaysFresh, resolving a matching
  model or texture variant.
• Shared-mesh settings -- set framing and lighting once for every item that uses the
  same mesh, instead of per icon.
• Reworked preview -- an icon navigator panel, copy/paste settings between icons, "apply
  to mesh" and "apply framing to all", a flip-Y texture toggle, and a details panel.

Download

Grab pz-icon-maker-1.2.0-win-x64.zip below, unzip, and run pz-icon-maker.exe. Nothing
to install. Click Game folder… once and point it at your Project Zomboid install so it
can resolve the vanilla assets mods reuse.

pz-icon-maker 1.1.0 - character & animation viewer

What's new in 1.1.0

Character and animation viewer

A new mode, opened with the Character… button in the icon window, renders a full
Project Zomboid character you can dress, arm, and animate:

• Build the character -- gender, skin tone, hair, beard, clothing (meshed, composite,
  and static hats), and weapons or items held in either hand.
• Animate -- browse the game's ~1,800 human and zombie clips in a searchable grid,
  grouped into categories (Aim, Attack, Reload, Walk, Sneak, Sit, and more) and by actor
  (player, Kate, zombie). Hover a thumbnail to preview, click to play, then scrub, loop,
  and change speed.
• Pose the shot -- orbit freely or snap to the game's isometric camera, turn the
  character to any facing, and tune the lighting (ambient, key brightness and direction),
  each slider with a one-click reset.
• Export -- a transparent still, a sprite sheet, or a looping GIF of the current clip
  (512px, auto-optimised to stay under 1 MB).

It uses the same asset resolution as the icon maker, so it renders the vanilla body,
clothing, and weapons your mod reuses, plus anything the mod adds.

Also in this release

• Held items follow the hand's prop bone and use the engine's own attachment logic, so a
  weapon sits and swings the way the game holds it.
• Per-slider lighting reset in the icon maker as well.

Download

Grab pz-icon-maker-1.1.0-win-x64.zip below, unzip, and run pz-icon-maker.exe. Nothing
to install. Click Game folder… once and point it at your Project Zomboid install so it
can resolve the vanilla assets mods reuse.

pz-icon-maker 1.0.1

Fixes mod folder resolution.

Point the tool at the mod folder — the one holding common/ and the version directories
(42.13/). It now reads both, exactly as the game does: the highest version directory wins,
with common/ underneath it. Assets living in common/ were previously invisible.

• A version directory (MyMod/42.13) still works, and now also picks up its sibling common/.

• Item and model scripts are read from every root; version definitions override common/.

• Only common/ and version-named directories are considered, so a stray media/ folder or a
  symlink to a game install is never pulled in.

• defaults.extraRoots gets the same treatment, so a cross-mod part resolves by pointing at that
  mod's top-level folder:

  { "defaults": { "extraRoots": ["C:/mods/HorseMod"] } }

• list now prints the version directory and common/ it chose.

Install

Download pz-icon-maker-1.0.1-win-x64.zip below, unzip, run pz-icon-maker.exe.
pz-icon-maker-cli.cmd in the same folder is the headless CLI.

Full feature list: see the 1.0.0 release.

pz-icon-maker 1.0.0

Render Project Zomboid 3D item models into inventory icons that look like they belong in
the game. Standalone: no Project Zomboid instance, no Blender, no Python.

Install

1. Download pz-icon-maker-1.0.0-win-x64.zip below and unzip it.
2. Run pz-icon-maker.exe, pick a mod folder.
3. Click Game folder… once and point it at your Project Zomboid install, so vanilla
   assets that mods reuse can resolve.

pz-icon-maker-cli.cmd in the same folder is the headless CLI.

What it does

• Matches the game's look — the isometric icon camera, the item shader (flat ambient +
  one key light, alpha cutout, no shadows), and the left-handed mesh convention are all
  reproduced offline.
• Resolves assets by path, from the mod's own item/model scripts, exactly as the game
  does. Mods can use any subfolders; nothing is matched by filename.
• Weapon attachments — render an item fully assembled, e.g. a bicycle with wheels,
  chain, pedals, basket and crate, or a sidecar with an animal in it.
• Live preview at 32/64/128/256/512, all at true 1:1, over an adjustable backdrop.
  Tune angle, framing and lighting; overrides save to the mod's icons.config.json.
• Batch generate one icon or a whole mod, at any sizes, into the mod as
  Item_<icon>.png or into any folder as <icon>_<size>.png for posters and promo art.
• .x meshes are converted automatically via a bundled assimp.

Notes

• Windows x64. Rendering uses the GPU through a hidden window, so it needs a desktop
  session; it is "headless" in the sense of no game and no visible UI, not a display-less
  server.
• Cross-mod parts (a part whose texture lives in another mod) resolve by adding that mod's
  folder to defaults.extraRoots in icons.config.json.
• Unsigned binary, so Windows SmartScreen will warn on first run.

GPL-3.0-or-later. Unofficial fan tool, not affiliated with The Indie Stone. Ships no game assets.