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The Blender Add on
Everything the add-on does lives in the IE - Instant Edit tab of the 3D Viewport's sidebar. Press N to open the sidebar. The add-on also works on its own, without the game, to import and export MDL, FBX and glTF files.
The top panel is where models from the game arrive and go back. See Editing a model in Blender for the full walkthrough.
- Contexts: one row per model sent from the game. The radio button picks the one Quick Export writes back, the eye hides it, and ⋮ shows its source mod and paths.
- Export target: where the model goes. See Choosing where your export goes.
- Problems list: anything that blocks or weakens the export, such as untriangulated meshes or missing weights.
- Quick Export writes the model, sets up Penumbra and redraws your character. The gear next to it holds the export options: which Parts to export, a keyboard Shortcut, and Create Penumbra Attribute Group.
- The link icon in the panel header shows whether Blender is listening for the plugin. The globe opens the author's pages.
FFXIV models are split into mesh groups, each with one material, and each group into parts. This panel shows them the way the game will see them.
- One box per group, with its parts, their attributes, the material and the vertex count. The count warns as it gets close to the game's limit of 65,536 vertices per group.
- Below the groups: the triangle count of the model and of your selection.
- Click a part's name to select it. Shift-click adds it to or removes it from the selection.
- + adds an attribute to a part. Click an attribute to remove it.
- The material button sets the group's material. The materials of the model's other groups are one click away.
- To reorder: click a part's or group's grip, move the mouse, and click again to drop it. Parts whose material doesn't match their new group turn red.
- Right-click a part's name for Generate Duplicate with Backfaces or Remove Hidden Vertices.
A mesh's name decides where it goes: group.part Name, for example 2.1 Collar is group 2, part 1. If your meshes
come from TexTools with names like Collar 2.1, use Tools > Move Mesh IDs to Front to convert them.
Pose shows an armature in any of its actions at the current timeline frame, or in its rest pose. Use it to check clipping in a pose or to weight paint while posed. Animations sent from the plugin arrive here as actions (see Animations in Blender).
Exports always use the rest pose, so posing never changes what goes back into the game.
Reads and writes MDL, FBX and glTF files directly, without the game or the plugin. Useful for files you have on disk, or for exporting a copy somewhere else.
Tick the box in the Backups header to keep a copy of a model before an export replaces it. The panel lists the backups of the current target, with buttons to import one into the scene or restore it over the current file. See Backups and undo.
- Vertex Data (like TexTools' "Modify Model Vertices"), on the selected meshes: clear UV2 or copy UV1 into it, clear vertex colours or their alpha, clear hair flow.
- Remove Hidden Vertices deletes what no camera angle can see, such as skin under a top. Its redo panel (bottom left, after running it) chooses whether other visible meshes can hide vertices, and how many rings of hidden vertices to keep at the edges so nothing peeks through when moving.
- Combine Armatures merges several armatures into one.
- Mesh naming helpers, such as Move Mesh IDs to Front.
- Clear All Contexts, and buttons to open the cache and diagnostics folders.
Quick Export and the rest pose toggle can have keyboard shortcuts. They start without a key: set one in the Quick Export options, the Pose panel or the add-on's preferences.
- Imported models come with the game's skeleton as their armature: your race's rest pose and bone hierarchy, including your skeleton mods and the hair, face, headgear or top skeleton the model uses. Bones point the same way as in TexTools FBX exports and devkits.
- Material previews are only for looking at. Quick Export doesn't write them.
- Blender listens for the plugin on local port 42424. If another program (such as a second Blender) uses it, Blender retries every few seconds. You can change the port in the add-on preferences, and must then change it in the plugin's Settings too.