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WARNING: our tools fail on Blender 3.6.8, 3.6.9 and 4.0

Please stay on Blender 3.6.7 LTS or (not much) earlier until we review them and solve the issue 😞 (you can find it in this list).

• On 3.6.8 and 3.6.9, our SWTOR Shaders' controls disappear and the models show up as untextured black (even if the nodegroups and the textures are intact). We are investigating the issue.
• For 4.0 we have a beta that doesn't suffer from that, but it doesn't let us add SWTOR Shaders manually (they don't appear in the Shader Editor's Add menu).

(All that said, you can install 4.0 alongside 3.6.7: Blender keeps the preferences and add-ons of each version completely separate so that they can coexist without interfering with each other 🙂)

Welcome to the SWTOR Slicers wiki!

We are a group of swtor fans who enjoy messing with the game and pulling out models, textures, etc. This GitHub repository contains tools and guides to help you do so yourself, as well as some other things.

This Wiki is where we pool all the knowledge we are gathering on SWTOR's data and how to use it, be it to discover what BioWare is cooking (datamining), to enhance our SWTOR experience by changing the game's looks (modding), or to make art out of the game's assets and immortalize our player characters through other 3D apps or even 3D-printing (extracting). Bear with us: it's far easier that it seems 🙂.

We encourage you to join our Discord Server, where you will be able to interact with fellow hobbyists in a direct manner, find help if you get stuck, and even contribute if you feel like it.

(We do not condone the usage of our tools for malicious intent, including: exploits, harassment of others, or anything else that may violate EA/Bioware's EULA, TOS, DSA, Privacy Policy Copyrights, Trademarks, or anything else illegal. We will not be held accountable for your actions, and will act against you if it becomes necessary)

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Table of Contents

• Home.
• State of Play April 2024
• Getting Help:
  • Link to the SWTOR Slicers Discord Server.
  • TORCommunity and its online tools.
  • Jedipedia and its online tools.

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INTRODUCTION

IMPORTING SWTOR MODELS INTO BLENDER: A BRIEF OVERVIEW.
Check this intro first. Afterwards, you can jump directly to the guides on extracting PCs, NPCs and others.

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TOOLS

No need to read this section right now: each extracting/assembling guide explains its required tools anyway.

• Slicers GUI (Windows app).
• Blender 3D (multiplatform app):
  How to install our Blender Add-ons.
• SWTOR Objects Importer Add-on.
• SWTOR Character Assembler Add-on.
• SWTOR Area Assembler Add-on.
• ZeroGravitas SWTOR Tools Add-on.
• Jedipedia.net:
  • SWTOR Database.
  • File Reader.
  • World Viewer.
• TORCommunity.com:
  • SWTOR Database.
  • Character Designer.
  • NPC viewer's Exporter.
• EasyMYP (Windows app, deprecated).
• Noesis (Windows app, deprecated).

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THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO AUTO-EXTRACTING AND ASSEMBLING PLAYER CHARACTERS AND NPCs:

READ THE BROAD STROKES FIRST: YOU'LL SEE IT'S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!

• The steps:

  • Installing Slicers GUI and extracting SWTOR's game assets.
  • Using TORCommunity's Character Designer to export Player Characters.
    • IF ARMOR SELECTION SEARCH IS DOWN: workaround to manually specify Armor Sets.
  • Using TORCommunity's NPCs Database to export Non Playable Characters.
  • Using our Blender add-ons to auto-assemble the model.
  • Rigging the character for posing and animation
  • Applying SWTOR animations to the character.

• Extra steps that require manual work and some knowledge of SWTOR's assets:

  • Making capes and hair work, manually and through Cloth Simulation.

  • Locating weapons' assets manually.

  • Attaching weapons and other objects to a character.

  • Baking the models' textures and exporting to other apps:

    • Baking with Legacy SWTOR materials and modern ones.
    • Baking the multiple materials of an object into a single one.
    • Exporting to VRChat.
    • Exporting to Star Wars Battlefront II.
    • Exporting to Unreal Engine.
    • Exporting to Garry's Mod.
    • Exporting to Tabletop Simulator.

  • 3D Printing:

    • Baking Normals into real 3D detailing

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ASSEMBLING GAME LOCATIONS AUTOMATICALLY:

• Assembling SWTOR Game Areas with Jedipedia.net data and the SWTOR Area Assembler Addon.

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LOCATING AND ASSEMBLING ASSETS MANUALLY:

• Locating armor parts' assets
• Locating weapons' assets.
• Assigning materials and textures to environmental and architectural elements, furniture, props, ships, vehicles and weapons.
• Assembling multi-part assets (Decorations, Rooms, etc).
• Generic guide to importing objects and assigning materials (Legacy Add-on-based. Needs updating).

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OTHER GUIDES (WIP):

• Snippets.
• Improving and customizing our SWTOR models and materials.
  • List of tips and tricks to cover in the future.
  • Replacing body parts with gear vs. putting gear on top of body parts
  • Merge by Distance before applying Modifiers.
  • Enhancing SWTOR texture maps with Cupscale.
• Other Extracting Strategies (needs updating).
• SWTOR Materials recipes:
  • SWTOR’s holosigns: how to make them work in Blender.

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MODDING (to do)

• Overview.
• Tools.
• Other techniques:
  • Modding SWTOR textures with Special K (CAUTION).

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DATAMINING (to do)

• Overview.
• Tools.

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SWTOR TECHNICAL INFORMATION:

• File Formats
  • Overview.
  • gr2 Structure.
  • jba Structure.
  • clo Structure.
• A look at SWTOR's Materials and Texture Files.

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OTHER RESOURCES:

• Articles, lectures and talks about SWTOR's development.
• Playing SWTOR on macOS and Linux.