3D models

Partly built. Rigid weapon models work in game. Skinned models, worn looks and animations cook from glTF and run on a test server, but aren’t yet confirmed in the game. Retargeted animations (new in 0.2.0-dev.16) are tested offline and on a lab server, and not yet seen drawn in the game.

Model in Blender (or anything that writes glTF 2.0). A recipe, assets/cook.json, turns it into the game’s format on the player’s machine. Start with kiln new model MyWeapons.

Ship sources and a recipe, never game data

Anything from the game (a model’s base fields, material references) is named by GUID in the recipe and made on the player’s machine.

MyWeapons/
  kiln.mod.json            side "both", clients "mod"
  MyWeapons.dll
  content/swords.json      the items, pointing at the models
  assets/
    assets.json            names the cooked files
    cook.json              the recipe
    src/frost_sword.gltf   your model
    cooked/                made on the player's machine; add to .gitignore

kiln cook reads the game read-only, writes assets/cooked/, and checks the result: valid ranges, materials that exist, the base model’s vertex format. Later the launcher will cook at install time.

A new item with its own model

1. In cook.json, add a model with a new, fixed GUID, and a visual template copied from the base item.
2. Define the item in a data pack (New items) and point its references at those GUIDs.
3. Render an icon with Kiln’s render-icon.py.

The ModelSample mod has a Bronze Sword made of cubes and a Tower Sword with its own model.

Modelling weapons

Units	metres; the origin is the hand grip
Axes in Blender	blade up (+Z), crossguard along ±Y, flat of the blade facing ±X
Size	the one-handed Bronze Sword is about 1.1 m long, tip 0.94 m above the grip
Export	glTF with Blender’s defaults, +Y up, transforms applied
Geometry	triangles, one primitive per material, up to 65,535 vertices each; no bones (a weapon is rigid)
UVs	with the base model’s material, your UVs sample its textures

Skinned models and animations

Built, game test pending. The same cook.json cooks:

• a skinned model: a glTF with a skin, on a skeleton made from its armature or on one of the game’s skeletons. Bind it in the rest pose; joints are matched by name.
• animations: clips from the glTF, new or replacing one of the game’s, and a state machine that plays them, with blend spaces, layers, root motion and events on the timeline (a sound, a footstep).
• worn looks: a model on the body for armour and vanity pieces, skinned or on one joint, with an optional female shape.

A test server’s animation engine plays cooked clips on their authored curves, and skinned vertices land within a few millimetres of Blender’s. Drawing in the game isn’t confirmed yet. Building blocks use them for creatures with bodies of their own, and for armour and cosmetics.

Your own creature

kiln new body MyGolem makes a creature from your own files: a skinned glTF (models/creature.glb; replace it with your Blender export) as its body and animations, and blocks that give it an AI and an attack. kiln build cooks the skeleton, clips, state machine and model on your machine. In game, /my-golem (admins) spawns one next to you. Players need the mod (clients: mod).

From Blender: File > Export > glTF 2.0, +Y up, the armature at rest, each animation an action. Name the actions as the blocks name the clips.

Animations from another rig

New in 0.2.0-dev.16. Animation packs and other tools rarely use your skeleton’s joint names or proportions. A clips step (or an animation block) with retarget plays them anyway: name the skeleton they should play on, and pair the joints.

"animations": { "golem-moves": { "clips": "models/anim-pack.glb", "skeleton": "golem",
    "retarget": { "map": { "mixamorig:Hips": "pelvis", "mixamorig:Spine": "spine", "mixamorig:Head": "head" } },
    "idle": "Idle", "walk": "Walking" } }

• Joints with the same name pair by themselves; "retarget": {} pairs by name alone. Joints with no pair keep their rest pose.
• Bone lengths and rest orientations may differ. The two rest poses must show the same posture (T-pose for T-pose), or reference names a frame of the pack that does.
• The hips’ travel is scaled by the rigs’ heights.
• It works onto a skeleton of your own and onto one of the game’s (joints named j<index>). Without retarget, a clips file must use the skeleton’s own joint names and rest pose.

Tested offline (the sample’s clips on rigs with other names, turned rest frames and other sizes; 55 of the game’s clips moved to another rig and back) and on a lab server, where a creature plays retargeted clips as authored. Not yet seen drawn in the game. Not done: foot IK after a retarget (feet can slide when leg lengths differ), and mirroring left onto right.