Blender Addons: errors and how to fix them
When you export to .rw4 in Blender, a small dialog box will appear if the addon detects any error or something that might make the model not work as intended. The dialog will appear in your mouse position:
Below you will find suggested fixes for all the errors and warnings:
This message will appear if you scale, move, or rotate an object in Object Mode. To fix it, select the object and click on the menu Object -> Apply -> All Transforms:
Objects cannot be exported if they don't have a UV Map. The UV map decides how textures are applied to the model. We won't explain here how to create them, as there are many Blender tutorials out there.
All objects must have one material. Select the object [name] and in the Properties panel (usually in the right side) go to the Material tab. There will be a button New that let's you add a new material.
A single vertex can only be assigned to a maximum of four bones. You can either fix this manually or make Blender limit it.
- Select the object [name] and go to the Weight Paint mode.
- Click on the menu Weights -> Limit Total. A small panel will appear in the bottom of the editor, ensure the limit is set to 4:
- Click on the menu Weights -> Normalize All.
This will change how bones affect the model, so it's better if you ensure your animations still look as expected.
- Select the object [name] and go to the Weight Paint mode.
- Click on the menu Weights -> Normalize All:
This will change how bones affect the model, so it's better if you ensure your animations still look as expected.
As the error says, you have exceeded the vertex limit per object. The limit is around 65536 vertices, but depending on the UV mapping it might be less. You have to options to fix this:
- Make your model simpler. Having so many vertices will make Spore laggy.
- Split your object into multiple objects.
In an armature, a root bone is a bone that does not have any parent. When modeling for Spore, your armature must only have one root bone that must be placed at the origin of coordinates, (0, 0, 0). So in order to fix this you have two options:
- Reorganize your armature, building from just one root bone.
- Find all your root bones (except one) and assign a parent. To assign a parent, you can select two bones and press
Ctrl + P.
In an armature, a root bone is a bone that does not have any parent. When modeling for Spore, your armature must only have one root bone that must be placed at the origin of coordinates, (0, 0, 0). To fix this you have to move the root bone to that position. In order to be exact, select the bone and press N. This will show a panel where you an edit the Head position.
If your model is using shape keys (a.k.a. blend shapes) to animate, then you msut only have one mesh object. You can select all the mesh objects and join them by pressing Ctrl + J.
Next time, if you want to separate into multiple "objects", you can use different materials for different regions of a mesh object.
Select the mesh object and in the Properties panel (usually in the right side) go to the "Object Data" tab. There, scroll down to Shape Keys and ensure Relative is checked:
You can only have 1 armature object in a model. So you will have to remove any extra ones.
Go to the Dope Sheet, Action Editor, and ensure all actions have this button checked:
Check the materials of your models and ensure the textures in the RenderWare4 Material Config point to existing .dds files.
One of your textures is not a valid .dds texture. Export it again.
In the Properties panel (usually on the right side), go to the Transforms tab. There you can apply the transforms by pressing the Apply button on them. IMPORTANT: DO NOT APPLY THE ARMATURE TRANSFORM
