Guide - Blender

This documentation is only intended for developers with prior knowledge of Blender. This documentation is not designed to teach you how to use Blender and you should not treat it as such.

This documentation was created with the help of Wytze, part of Wytze Modifications.

This documentation will show you how to break your vehicle down into different props, ready for the Smart Vehicle setup process. It will not teach you how to export a prop and setup textures, as we will assume you are already aware of how to do this as a developer. The documentation will show you how to measure the right rotation values for the data file. This document will show you how to collect all of these values in Blender.

Using Blender is a lot easier in comparison to ZModeler, which often requires the use of an in-game menu such as Menyoo to measure these values. Blender makes things quicker and better!

Information about this document

The documentation references props such as ladder_seat and ladder_base, which are part of our British Ladder Truck (available on our store). Smart Vehicle has expanded to have many more uses beyond just ladder trucks, but we'll be going through the British Ladder Truck here as part of the guide.

This document will also reference props such as outriggers and feet, which are part of the ladder truck. These may not be relevant to the vehicle you are trying to create, but helps you get an idea of how to set up your own vehicle and break it down into different props, which will then be controlled by Smart Vehicle.

This is how your vehicle may look when it has been imported originally. You should then break the vehicle down into different props, as seen in the Scene Collection > Props menu in the top right hand side of the screenshot above. To begin, we have broken the ladder down into ladder_base, ladder_seat and outrigger - with lots more props to also form part of this vehicle.

Assuming you have done this by now, we will begin with ladder_seat to demonstrate how we collect the offSet and rotation values which we will use in our vehicle data file later.

Ladder_seat: Firstly, import your first ladder or vehicle model into Blender and find your first prop, which is the ladder_seat on our British Ladder Truck.

Next, you will need to find the rotation point and attachment point where this prop (ladder_seat) will attach to the main vehicle and rotate round (if setup in this way in the vehicle data file).

The rotation point in this screenshot above is the black circle which has been selected, showing in orange in Blender. This is the point at which our ladder_seat will rotate round and also attach to the vehicle. As the ladder_seat will be exported as a prop later on, Smart Vehicle will attach ladder_seat to the vehicle and then when a player uses the setup keybinds, it will spin left/right around this anchor.

Next, we will hold Shift + S on Blender to open the circular menu with different options, after making sure that our rotation point has been selected - which is shown from the orange highlight. We don't want the ladder_seat to be selected at this point, instead the rotation point only.

We will select the Cursor to Selected option and then change back to Object Mode in the top left hand side of Blender. At this point, we will then zoom back out slightly and select the ladder_seat model with the left mouse, or another name for your own prop.

After selecting our prop (ladder_seat in our case), select the Object button in the top blender menu, before selecting Set Origin and Origin to 3D cursor, as shown in the photo below.

After selecting the Origin to 3D Cursor, you will see the Transform menu appear on the right hand side of your screen, as shown in the photo above. You should write down the X, Y and Z values in the Location section of this "Transform" menu - these will be used in the OffSet and Default OffSet section of our vehicle data file when we create it later.

If your prop was rotated originally, you can also collect the Rotation values here - under the "Transform" menu. These will be used in the Rotation and Default Rotation values later, when we create the vehicle data file.

These values will essentially tell Smart Vehicle where to spawn and attach the ladder_seat prop in relation to the black circle - which is setup as the turntable bone index on the vehicle. Otherwise, our resource would not know the exact offsets to spawn it in to - and Origin to 3D Cursor makes this easy.

In the vehicle data file later, you'll need to input these offSet and rotation values so Smart Vehicle knows how to spawn in the prop and also at what rotation (by default) before players start moving it. In the vehicle data file later, you can either tell Smart Vehicle to attach to the centre of the vehicle or a specific bone index such as turntable - it is completely up to you when you perform this setup process.

Exporting the ladder_seat (or any other prop)

As we have now finished collecting the default offSet and rotation values for our ladder_seat prop, it is now time to export the prop. To do this, we can hide all other props (and the vehicle) temporarily in Blender. Next, move the ladder_seat prop to 0,0,0 on the axis in Blender. As Smart Vehicle will have those offSet values from earlier in the vehicle data file, we can export it in the center and let Smart Vehicle do the rest when it attaches to the vehicle later.

Ladder_Base

We will now show you the process for the Ladder_Base, which is slightly different to Ladder_Seat as this will be attaching to another prop (Ladder_Seat) and not the vehicle itself - unlike the seat.

In the screenshot below, you can see the Ladder_Seat and Ladder_Base props. The ladder_seat is at 0,0,0 - it is important that the ladder_seat stays at this position as we will be collecting the offSet and rotation values of the Ladder_Base prop relative to it, so we need the ladder seat central.

This is the ladder_base prop that we will be setting up, as part of our British Ladder Truck. In Blender, you need to select the point of rotation where it will attach to the ladder_seat. This is the point at which Smart Vehicle will attach the two props together, so they are perfectly positioned.

As you can see, we have selected the point of origin (the orange circle with lines coming out of it). This is the point at which we will collect the offSet and rotation values shortly, relative to the ladder_seat prop which it will be attaching to.

In the background of these screenshots, you can also see Ladder_Seat, which we will use in a minute to get the offSet and rotation values.

Next, zoom in on your point of origin on ladder_base and use Shift + S (hold) to select Cursor to Selected. Next, switch back to Object Mode.

Next, select the Object button in the top blender menu, before selecting Set Origin and Origin to 3D cursor. Once you have done this, you should see the transform menu appear on the right hand side of the screen, showing the Location (offSet) and rotation values - as X, Y, Z.

It is at this point that you should now move the ladder_base into position ontop of/next to the ladder_seat, however you would like it to be attached. You can also rotate it at this point. During this whole process, your ladder_seat prop should remain at 0,0,0.

As you can see in the screenshot above, we have now moved the ladder_base ontop of the ladder_seat. As we have moved it, we can now see the offSet values have changed - it is these values that we should write down in order to add to the vehicle data file later, which Smart Vehicle will read and then use to attach the props in the right place (perfectly positioned) to the vehicle and other props later.

It is at this stage that you may also want to rotate your prop (ladder_base), if you wanted it to spawn in rotated by default relative to the ladder_seat prop - this may be useful for construction vehicles or something similar to our SWAT truck, available on our store (which has rotating platforms).

As you can see we have now rotated the ladder_base upwards relative to the ladder_seat. This has not changed the offSet values (as the position of it has not changed), but instead the X value on the rotation has now changed - you should write this down to add to the vehicle data file, instructing Smart Vehicle to spawn the props in at the right position and rotate them to the right angle (40.0, 0.0, 0.0) X, Y, Z.

Once you are finished with the placement, you need to remember to move the prop back to 0,0,0 - ready to either export out of Blender or to start setting up your next prop which will attach to it. If we were to continue creating this British Ladder Truck, we would move the ladder_base prop back to 0,0,0 and then open the ladder_end_piece and ladder_cage to start getting the offSet and rotation values to spawn them in.

Repeating this process

You should now repeat this process for the various different props which will be attached to either the ladder_base or other props on your vehicle. You now have the knowledge to setup props that attach to both the vehicle and also other props. Smart Vehicle can have lots of different props all attached to each other and the sky is your limit.

Remember to move the prop back to 0,0,0 ready for the next prop placement, allowing you to get the correct offSet and rotation values.

Exporting your props

Next, repeat this process for all of the different props associated with your Smart Vehicle and export them one by one. You should stream all of them in-game along with the Smart Vehicle. At this stage, you should now have all of the rotation and offSet values recorded for the various props, which you will use to create a vehicle data file which is explained in a further document within this developer section.

This document has shown you how to setup two types of props:

• Ladder_Seat - which we showed you how to attach a prop to a vehicle (and get the offSet / rotation values)

• Ladder_Base - which we showed you how to attach a prop to a prop (and get the offSet / rotation values - which was slightly different to attaching to a vehicle).

Good luck, the hard part is out of the way and the creation of the data file should be easy!