FModel for macOS 0.3.0

FModel for macOS 0.3.0 adds a navigation mesh viewer and backups, diffs and incremental exports from the command line, and big exports no longer run out of memory.

What's new

• Navigation meshes in the 3D viewer: UE's cooked navmesh data and Detour navmesh set .bin files (like Digimon Super Rumble's Data/NavMesh) open in the viewer, colored by area, with off-mesh links as arcs. The asset tab shows a summary of their parameters and tiles. Maps add their levels' navmeshes hidden, one item per agent, and a navmesh opened on its own lands at its place over the open map. Turn it off in Settings › Preview › Preview Navigation Meshes.
• Backups from the command line: fmodel backup saves the game's file list as a .fbkp, like Directory › Backup, and fmodel diff <backup|latest> lists what's new or modified since one, like the All (New) and All (Modified) loading modes.
• More ways to export from the command line:
  • --since <backup|latest> exports only what's new or modified since a backup (with no path, across the whole game).
  • --kind takes several kinds separated by commas, or all for every kind but raw data.
  • --mesh-format and --compression change the model format for one run without touching your settings.
• MCP server: new create_backup and compare_backup tools, and export_assets takes since and mesh_format.

Fixes

• Big exports no longer run out of memory. Exporting textures, models, animations or worlds from a large folder (Export Folder in the app, fmodel export or the MCP server) loaded every asset before writing the first file. On a game with ~100,000 packages that filled memory and swap. The Export Session now loads and exports assets in batches, so a whole game's textures export with memory staying flat.
• The same file now always comes from the same pak. In games whose paks share one priority (many pakchunkN files), a file present in several of them was read from whichever pak happened to load first, so it could change between launches. That made a diff against a fresh backup report dozens of false changes, and an export could pick another version of an asset. Ties are now broken as Unreal does.

Updating from 0.2.0

Click Update Available in the status bar (or Help › Releases), then Download Latest Release. Quit FModel, unzip the download and replace FModel.app in Applications. As with any new download, macOS asks once more: open FModel, then System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway (see the README).

Your profiles, settings and favorites are kept.

New install

Download FModel-v0.3.0-macos-arm64.zip below, unzip it, move FModel.app to Applications and follow Opening it the first time. Requires a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Full changes: v0.2.0...v0.3.0

FModel for macOS 0.2.0

FModel for macOS now tells you when there's a new version, like FModel does.

What's new

• Update check: at launch the app looks for a newer release of this port on GitHub. When there is one, an Update Available button shows up in the status bar and the Releases window opens.
• Help › Releases is now that window, instead of a link: Download Latest Release, Remind Me (now, in 3 days, next week, next month or never) and every release with its notes.
• Release notes after an update: the first launch of a new version opens its notes in a tab.

The check only reads GitHub's public list of releases; being offline is fine (it's just logged), and Remind Me › Never turns it off.

Updating from 0.1.0

0.1.0 doesn't have the update check, so this one update is manual:

1. Quit FModel.
2. Download FModel-v0.2.0-macos-arm64.zip below, unzip it and replace FModel.app in Applications.
3. As with any new download, macOS asks once more: open FModel, then System Settings › Privacy & Security › Open Anyway (see the README).

Your profiles, settings and favorites are kept. From now on the app lets you know about new versions.

New install

Download FModel-v0.2.0-macos-arm64.zip below, unzip it, move FModel.app to Applications and follow Opening it the first time. Requires a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Full changes: v0.1.0...v0.2.0

FModel for macOS 0.1.0

The first release of FModel for macOS: an unofficial native port of FModel for Apple Silicon Macs, built on CUE4Parse. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by the FModel authors or Epic Games; please report problems with this port here, not to the original FModel.

Install

1. Download FModel-v0.1.0-macos-arm64.zip below, unzip it and move FModel.app to Applications.

2. The app isn't notarized by Apple, so the first time macOS blocks it:

   • Open FModel and click Done (or OK) when macOS says it can't verify it, not Move to Trash.
   • Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down to Security and click Open Anyway.
   • Open FModel again and choose Open Anyway (macOS asks for your password or Touch ID).

   Or, in Terminal: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/FModel.app

Requires a Mac with Apple Silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Nothing else to install: .NET, vgmstream (audio) and unluac (Lua) are inside the app.

What's in it

• Explorer: Pak and IoStore archives (encrypted, compressed, unversioned with mappings); the Archives, Favorite Directories, Folders and Packages tabs; FModel's new asset explorer with thumbnails; search, references and metadata.
• Games: profiles (directory, UE version, AES keys, mappings, endpoints, language and favorite directories), AES and mappings endpoints with uedb.dev presets, versioning overrides, backups and comparison with FModel's online backups.
• Previews: properties as JSON, textures, decompiled Blueprints and Lua, localized texts, an audio player (Wwise, Bink, ADX/HCA, Opus… through vgmstream) and the image merger.
• 3D viewer (OpenGL): static and skeletal meshes with PBR materials, normal maps and transparency; maps and landscapes; orbit and fly cameras; animations, blend spaces and morph targets; a mesh's animations with their notifies (sounds in sync, an approximate preview of Niagara and Cascade effects); screenshots and video export (MP4/MOV with the notify sounds).
• Export: raw data, properties, textures, models (glTF, UEFormat…), animations, worlds and audio, per package or per folder, through the Export Session.
• Command line: fmodel lists, searches, reads and exports from the terminal with the app's profiles. Put it on your PATH with
  echo 'export PATH="/Applications/FModel.app/Contents/Resources/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zprofile, then try fmodel help.
• MCP server: fmodel mcp lets AI assistants browse a game, read packages, look at textures and export assets. For Claude Code:
  claude mcp add fmodel -- /Applications/FModel.app/Contents/MacOS/FModel mcp

Known limitations

• Apple Silicon only; there's no Intel build yet.
• Effects are a preview: Niagara and Cascade systems aren't simulated, so particles are approximated from their textures.
• The 3D viewer is this port's own (macOS stops at OpenGL 4.1, and FModel's Snooper needs 4.6), so it doesn't look exactly like FModel's.
• RAD Audio needs a radadec decoder built by you, as in FModel.
• CUE4Parse writes animations to USD, ActorX or UEFormat, not glTF, and worlds only to USD.

Credits

FModel by 4sval and contributors (GPL-3.0), whose features, interface and resources this port follows; if you find it useful, consider supporting FModel. CUE4Parse by FabianFG and contributors (Apache-2.0). Licensed under the GNU GPL v3.0; third-party licenses are in NOTICE and inside the app (Contents/Resources/Licenses).