RF Vehicle Tools v1.0.7

⚠️ Early development works for basic single-mesh single-LOD vehicle export and round-trips stock files cleanly, but not yet battle-tested. Bug reports welcome.

First public release. A Blender add-on for importing and exporting Red Faction V3M vehicles without 3ds Max requirement.

What's in the box

• Import / export stock and custom V3M vehicles, with prop points and collision spheres restored as parented empties
• 6 built-in templates (Jeep, APC, Fighter, Sub, Driller, Gun Attachment) that drop the standard prop points and collision spheres in the right places
• Auto bbox_offset computation so meshes built around any pivot align with their PPs and cspheres in-game
• Vehicle render flags 0x00518C41 applied automatically (matches stock, differs from the static mesh tool's value)
• Smart material/texture resolution from shader nodes it picks up image filenames from your Principled BSDF setup
• Apply Mesh Transforms (Keep Children) operator using Apply-to-Deltas under the hood, so empties don't snap to origin (Blender 5 friendly)
• Generate entity.tbl Snippet button to scaffold the vehicle definition for the game

Install

1. Download rf_vehicle_tools_v1_0_7.zip from this release
2. Blender → Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install... → pick the zip
3. Enable "RF Vehicle Tools"
4. Sidebar (N) → RF Vehicle tab

Tested on Blender 4.x and 5.x.

Quick start

1. Build your vehicle mesh oriented with -Y as forward (matches stock jeep import convention)
2. Apply Template → Jeep (or APC/Fighter/Sub/Driller depending on what you're making)
3. Adjust the prop point and csphere positions to fit your model
4. File > Export > Red Faction Vehicle V3M (.v3m)
5. Drop the V3M into your mod, use the Generate entity.tbl Snippet button to get a starting entity.tbl entry

Known limitations

• Single LOD only (LOD distances are managed in entity.tbl anyway, so this rarely matters)
• Single submesh only — stock vehicles are also single-submesh, so most cases are covered
• Animated parts (driller's spinning drill, etc.) not yet supported
• Templates other than Jeep use educated-guess positions; may need manual tweaking

Notes for jeep-flag vehicles

If you delete PP_interface_2 (the gunner seat) or CS_csphere04, the vehicle won't load when entity.tbl has the "jeep" flag set. Either keep those empties in the model (tucked inside the body is fine — they don't have to be visible) or remove the "jeep" flag from entity.tbl and clear the Allowed Weapons / Default Primary entries. PP_jeep_gun is optional and can be deleted freely.

What's next

This is a starting point, expect more iteration based on real-world use. Top priorities for follow-up releases:

• Better template positions for non-jeep vehicles
• Multi-submesh support
• LOD generation
• Corona orientation auto-fix

If a stock V3M imports incorrectly or your custom export crashes RED, file an issue with the .v3m attached.