Editing a Model in Blender

This is the core workflow: send a model from the game to Blender, change it, and press one button to see it in game. You'll need Blender with the add-on installed (see Installation and setup).

Step by step

1. Get Blender ready

1. Start Blender. Any scene works: an empty one, or your usual body or devkit scene.
2. Press N in the 3D Viewport and click the IE - Instant Edit tab in the sidebar.
3. In game, open the plugin with /ie and check that the toolbar shows Blender: Online.

2. Check the import options in game (first time only)

Click the sliders button in the plugin's toolbar. Under Model import:

• Apply textures and materials gives the model preview materials in Blender, so it looks roughly like it does in game. They're only for preview purposes: editing them in Blender doesn't change anything in game.
• Exclude body and general materials leaves skin and similar common materials as plain coloured placeholders (or whatever is already configured for them in your devkit/scene).
• Remove imported armature and use existing skeleton: normally each model comes with its own armature (skeleton holding all necessary bones for this model). Tick this and set the name to an Armature object to attach models already in your scene instead.
• Apply racial scaling for model import: see Racial scaling.

3. Send the model

1. Open On Screen (or Mod Browser for a mod you aren't wearing, or Game Files for the game's own models).
2. Find the model. Hover it to see a thumbnail and make sure it's the right one.
3. Press the pencil button on its row (or right-click, Edit model in Blender).

The model appears in Blender a moment later, inside a new collection called Instant Edit [...]. That collection is the model's Context: it remembers which mod and which file the model came from.

Important: Leave the Instant Edit [...] collections alone until you've exported. Don't rename, move or delete them. Hiding one is fine (it hides that Context too), and deleting it when you're done removes the Context.

4. Edit

Edit the model the way you normally would: sculpt, move vertices, weight paint, add or remove meshes. A few rules to keep in mind:

• Meshes must be triangulated. An active Triangulate modifier also works and will automatically get applied to the output.
• Every vertex needs to be weighted to at least one bone on it's armature.
• Mesh names decide which mesh group and part a mesh belongs to, like 2.1 Collar. The Mesh Groups panel shows this and lets you reorder by dragging.

You don't have to check these yourself: the export panel lists anything that would block or weaken the export, and names the meshes to fix.

5. Export back to the game

1. In the Instant Edit panel, check the export target. The default, In Place, overwrites exactly the file you imported. For other choices (a new option, a new mod, a mashup) see Choosing where your export goes.
2. Press Quick Export.

Instant Edit writes the model into the mod, sets up Penumbra and redraws your character (and your minions, mounts and summons). If your character is wearing the model, you see the change in game right away.

Several models at once

You can send as many models as you like into the same scene.

• Each model gets its own Context. In the panel, the radio button picks which Context Quick Export writes back.
• The eye hides a Context.
• The ⋮ button shows where a Context came from: its mod, the imported file and where the export goes, with Open Mod Folder.

The gear next to Quick Export has the export options:

• Parts picks which meshes are exported: all visible meshes, all but one, or only the Context's own collection.
• Shortcut sets a keyboard shortcut for Quick Export.
• Create Penumbra Attribute Group also automatically sets up a Penumbra option group that toggles your parts' attributes (like atr_tv_a for part a of a top).

Editing a game file (no mod yet)

To edit a model that no mod replaces, tick Include vanilla in On Screen (or use Game Files). The first Quick Export puts it into a new mod, enabled in your collection.

Hair and hair skeletons

If you weight hair to one of the game's hair skeletons with Magic Fit's Hair Weights, the hair remembers that skeleton. Quick Export then sets it as the hair's EST entry (Penumbra's "Extra Skeleton Parameters") in every option of the mod that uses the model, for the race the skeleton belongs to. The export options show "Sets hair EST entry" when this happens.

The panel warns when the hair's parts name different skeletons, the skeleton is another race's, or the model isn't hair. Exporting without a skeleton only removes entries Quick Export set itself, never ones you set yourself.

Heels

To give shoes a SimpleHeels offset, give a mesh part the attribute heels_offset=0.15 with its + button in Mesh Groups, or turn on Options > Export > Calculate Heels Offset. The Heels quick action in the game plugin can automatically do the same afterwards for any model you equip that determines your height.

What next?

• Choosing where your export goes: new options, new mods, mashups.
• The Blender add-on: everything else in the sidebar.
• Backups and undo: turn on model backups before big changes.