Mesh Mod Enabler v1.04
This is a REFramework script that enables the successful modding of character meshes in Dragons Dogma 2. It will likely be required that you install this script before installing any character mesh mods.
Detailed Explanation:
Dragon’s Dogma 2 has easily the most complex system of character meshes in any RE Engine game, with a massive hardcoded database of upper body outifts (tops), character body parts, pants, helms, mantles and more. The problem with modding character meshes in this game is that almost all armor, pants, mantle and helm meshes use Capcom’s “GpuCloth” cloth physics system.
When a modded mesh is used with an unmodded cloth physics file, the game either crashes or the modded mesh explodes into an enormous paper ball of vertices in every direction. GpuCloth files cannot be deactivated by editing them, or at least no one knows how to touch them without crashing the game. So they must be precisely deactivated in the aforementioned massive database, which is exactly what this script does using REFramework’s amazing capabilities. Additionally, helms must have their “Wrap Deformer” files deactivated or they will also explode, and this script handles that as well.
Currently Supports:
– Tops (upper body armor)
– Helms
– Pants
– Mantles
Support for monsters is coming soon. Support for Head and Body meshes is being investigated, but may take a while. Techniques such as morphing may allow successful body and head modding.
Installation
– Get REFRamework and put its dinput8.dll into your game folder
– Get Fluffy Mod Manager from Here
– Place the mod download file in your Fluffy Mod Manager mods folder for this game
– Install the mod from Fluffy Mod Manager
– Make sure that REFramework’s “LooseFilesLoader” module is activated in the REFramework menu (press Insert to open the menu), or use Fluffy Mod Manager to install your mesh mods
– or –
– Get REFRamework and put its dinput8.dll into your game folder
– Extract the “reframework” folder from this mod’s download RAR and place it in your game folder, overwriting as needed
– Make sure that REFramework’s “LooseFilesLoader” module is activated in the REFramework menu (press Insert to open the menu), or use Fluffy Mod Manager to install your mesh mods
How it works
This script scans through the “natives” folder in the Dragons Dogma 2 game directory for .mesh files and uses their filenames to identify where in DD2’s character mesh database that it needs to deactivate GpuCloths. Therefore the mesh mod filenames cannot be custom and must be named exactly as the meshes they are replacing.
As Capcom has unfortunately deemed it necessary to disable loose files loading in Dragon’s Dogma 2 (the first game that they have done this), it is required to use REFramework to load files from the natives folder. Loose files mods are copied into the natives folder using the same folder structure as they are found compressed in the game’s “pak” archive files.
For Modders
If you are creating a mod and your game is crashing or your mesh is exploding, check to see that your character object is being handled by the script. You can do this by opening the debug console, which you can spawn under REFramework’s “ScriptRunner” section. Click “Reset Scripts” after opening the console to get a detailed list of the objects that Mesh Mod Enabler is handling.
Be aware that the enabler is not responsible for anything more than disabling cloth physics and preventing the crashes / mesh explosions they cause, so if you have geometry errors or crashes even though the script says its disabled your gpucloth, it is likely not the fault of Mesh Mod Enabler.
You can mod Dragon’s Dogma 2 meshes using the new Blender Suite.
The mod features a json file system that allows you to enable ears and hair on helms that have those things disabled. An example json file is included with the download. You can have one mesh file described per json file. Through other json files in the Json Style Database, you can configure what meshes are seen on any outfit, and with the prefab json files you can add new components such as chain physics to meshes, or make entirely new meshes with custom files.
If you have concerns about the script not working for your mesh, you can contact me on Modding Haven Discord using the link at the bottom of this page.
Json Style Database
In ‘Optional Files’, there is a download for the Json Style Database. This archive contains a collection of json files that can be used to make Mesh Mod Enabler make changes to the outfits in the game. These changes include adding new meshes, hiding meshes, enabling meshes, and more. Check the txt file readmes included with the download for more information.
UPDATE: If using the Json Style Database, be sure you are using at least v1.02 of the database and have a REFramework version from April 7th 2024 or newer
Prefabs
As of version 1.03, MME is able to add new objects to a style through a system of json files in its “prefabs” folder. This means you can make meshes that are entirely unique to a style and which use custom filepaths for their files. This also means that you can add chain physics to the meshes you modify, which are a good substitute for the GpuCloth physics that had to be disabled for the mod to work. Check out the example mod under Optional Files and read the readme.txt inside it for more information.
Credits
Thanks to praydog for creating REFramework and for adding the LooseFilesLoader feature to it
