🦴Boe6's vehicles: Rigging

The .rig file ("armature" or "skeleton") is what makes your mesh move in the game. You can find more information about that on the Meshes and Armatures: Rigging page.

Parts that require a .rig file will not import the same. For example, the bumper’s 3D models are not positioned in-line with the body_01 object in blender. Bumpers are centered around the origin of the 3D space. The part is then lined up correctly with the .rig file, which is linked in the .ent file.

To model the front bumper, we’ll first export the base game bumper as .glb, and import into our blender project. As you can see, the game model is positioned around the origin, unlike the custom bumper.

Move it with the move tool, so the corner of the bumper is at the origin and apply all transforms.

If you do not have the rig file already, you can now add it to the project. Open your vehicle’s .ent file and open this path: RDTDataViewModel > components > deformation_rig > rig

Add the file to the project, and rename/move it. Example: “boe6\mini_cooper\boe6_mini_cooper.rig”

Update the .ent rig path with the new file:

You can also update the .rig path in your vehicle’s .anims file, as well as the rig references here:

.ent file > RDTDataViewModel > resolvedDependencies > 0 > .anims file path
.ent file > RDTDataViewModel > components > vehicle_rig > animations > gameplay > 0 > animSet
.ent file > RDTDataViewModel > components > deformation_rig > animations > gameplay > 0 > animSet

Add it to your project, rename and move it as usual. Then in the .anims file, set the rig path to the new one we just created:

Additionally update these paths to your .anims file.

Open the .rig file and notice these 3 arrays:

These map all the position data of each .mesh file. boneNames tells you which index value is each item, boneParentIndex tells you what each bone’s parent is (example; wheel_back_left is a child of suspension_back_left. If you change suspension position, wheel will move with it.), and boneTransforms is the positional and rotational values for each bone.

For a reference of where the bones are in a model, you can export the vehicle’s .anims file to .glb and import it into blender. You can select each bone to see their name and properties. Example:

Your 0,0,0 position should be in the center of the vehicle. Here is the translation data for each of the suspension wheels of a vanilla car (porsche):

These are frontLeft, frontRight, backLeft, and backRight respectively. The Translation values are XYZ values:

(-) x = left of car, driver side
(+) x = right of car, passenger side
(-) y = back of car
(+) y = front of car
(-) z = bottom of car
(+) z = top of car.

It may help to visualize the car as if from a top-down ariel view, left is -x, right is +x, up is +y, down is -y.

You’ll need to update the .mlmask and .mlsetup files in these .mesh files as well, however they may show up at a different location. If they are not listed under “localMaterialBuffer”, check under the “preloadLocalMaterialInstances” array. The masks set should be in there instead.

Modify the existing X Y Z values for the bumper, changing one value at a time to see the amount changed. I suggest starting with a value of +/- 0.1.

For moving parts, such as hoods and doors, we start by replacing the 3D model. Notice the rotation point in-game is a pivot along the origin in 3d space:

In my case, I have my hood aligned forward, as the axis should be further behind in the real vehicle.

Your part will not align at first. If it is a large distance, try to adjust the 3D model first. Keep in mind the pivot will be the origin, so only adjust in the axis you can edit without messing with how the part will move(left/right for hood/trunk, up/down for doors). Once it’s close, you can adjust the .rig file as well to get it positioned correctly:

Swap the .mesh’s .mlmask and .mlsetup to the same as your body_01 has set. (or to whatever other file you need)

You can also change how components are connected in the vehicle rig.

For components that don’t have their own movement or bones, they are attached to another component that does. This can be changed to attach a model to another model’s movement.
.app file “RDTDataViewModel > appearances > 0 > components > entPhysicalMeshComponent > parentTransform > bindName” Example:

Components that do have their own bones are set to the bindName “vehicle_slots”, and their slotName is set to a boneName value in the .rig file. Example of body_01 in .app:

If a component is linked to another component, we cannot use the .rig file to move it. Instead, in the .app file is each component’s localTransform. This can be used to change the position and orientation relative to the parent component. Example:

Notice that the x,y,z position is saved as Bits, instead of as a float. To edit the positon data here, we need to convert from a float value to a fixed bit value.

The latest release of Wolvenkit nightly seems to do the conversion automatically for you now.

The code for this conversion was written by Loomy(Loomy#3375) on the modding discord, here.

This can be run in a python console:

int( ( n * pow(2,32) ) ) >> 15

Where “n” is a float value.

If you do not have python installed, you can try an online console, such as here. (paste the command into the “shell” side on the right, and hit enter)

Rigging wheels requires a 2nd .rig file that is used for vehicle handling. It is referenced here:

.ent file > RDTDataViewModel > components > vehicle_rig > rig (path to wheelbase rig)

You can add this new rig to your project and rename/move it.

Notice that the new rig file only has wheel related bones:

This is the rig file that is referenced for vehicle wheel handling. It controls where the wheels/suspension are located. This file overwrites the values in the deformation_rig created earlier.

To update the wheels, generally you want to modify the suspension bones. Since the wheel_front_left, wingarm_front_left, and break_front_left are all parented to suspension_front_left, updating the location for suspension also keeps the brakes and swingarms in the correct position relative to the wheel.

If the suspension values are updated/changed in the vehicle_rig, the deformation_rig may cause issues in some cases. To avoid this, rename the boneNames in the deformation_rig that are the same as the vehicle_rig. This ensures that the vehicle only uses the vehicle_rig values. Do not rename front wheel suspension in the deformation_rig, as it will break wheel turning.

For the Mini Cooper, I edited all 4 suspension positions in the vehicle_rig to update wheel positions, so I renamed the 2 front in the deformation_rig (excluding the front, as described above):

To change the size of the wheel, you need to change both the 3D models and the rig files. You can update the wheels by first replacing all the wheel and tire meshes with ones to match your vehicle. This is similar to how the doors, windows, and hood work. Make sure to have the center of the wheel as the mesh’s origin. Example:

Once the wheel model is updated, you need to update the .rig files.

In both the deformation_rig and vehicle_rig, find the wheel bones (wheel_back_left, wheel_front_right, etc.) and update the Scale values. Example: