Replace a shipped armour set from a Blender export

Give a shipped armour set new geometry and colour while keeping its original body-part slots. This example replaces a PX Heavy torso and both legs with three skinned GLBs and one albedo source.

You need

• ContentTool installed and enabled, Blender, and three GLB exports with armatures, vertex groups and weights.
• The shipped torso, right-leg and left-leg mesh targets, plus their texture targets. Confirm exact names in your installation.
• Model Doctor to compare each export against the intended shipped slot before baking.

Folder layout

HeavyArmour\
  meta.json
  ppcontent.json
  Content\
    Meshes\
      CHR_PX_HVY_TS_M_V01.glb       <- torso export
      CHR_PX_HVY_RL_M_V01.glb       <- right-leg export
      CHR_PX_HVY_LL_M_V01.glb       <- left-leg export
      materials\
        armour_albedo.png           <- keep if GLB material sidecars refer to it
    Textures\
      armour_albedo.png             <- source for Replace texture rows

Steps

1. In the game console, list the target assets:

ct_list assets px_heavy_assets_all.bundle Mesh CHR_PX_HVY
ct_list assets px_heavy_assets_all.bundle Texture2D CHR_PX_HVY

Match the torso, right leg and left leg to their shipped slots. Preserve the exact case and spelling of the texture targets you select.

1. Open Model Doctor from a loaded geoscape with the Replace a model card. For each GLB, press Choose your model file (.glb)..., then Choose the game part it replaces... and type PX_HeavyStarting torso (then PX_HeavyStarting right leg, PX_HeavyStarting left leg) into Find. Pick the Phoenix Heavy torso, right-leg or left-leg result; its tooltip names Human_Torso_SlotDef, Human_RightLeg_SlotDef or Human_LeftLeg_SlotDef. Read the badge and every row in Details and log. Aim for BY NAME - your weights will be used, then inspect any SubmeshMaterials warning.

2. Fix the exports in Blender before baking. A torso with no armature cannot replace a rigged target. Added bones that the target does not have can cause NEAREST-BONE, which discards your authored weights. Remove extra bones or map the rig to the target’s bone names, then re-export and rerun Model Doctor.

Also inspect part and material order. A one-triangle first part can consume the body material and push the real torso onto the shoulder-pad material. Remove stray geometry with Mesh > Merge > By Distance, assign the intended material slots, or reorder parts to match the target. Re-export and check the Doctor again.

1. Create meta.json:

{
  "ID": "example.heavyarmour",
  "AssemblyName": "",
  "Version": "1.0.0",
  "Name": [{ "Key": "English", "Value": "Heavy armour replacement" }],
  "Dependencies": ["com.morgott.ContentTool"]
}

1. Create ppcontent.json. These five rows name shipped PX Heavy targets in px_heavy_assets_all.bundle; confirm them with step 1 before baking on your installation:

{
  "id": "example.heavyarmour",
  "bundle": "HeavyArmour.bundle",
  "replace": [
    { "bundle": "px_heavy_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "CHR_PX_HVY_TS_M_V01", "mesh": "CHR_PX_HVY_TS_M_V01" },
    { "bundle": "px_heavy_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "CHR_PX_HVY_RL_M_V01", "mesh": "CHR_PX_HVY_RL_M_V01" },
    { "bundle": "px_heavy_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "CHR_PX_HVY_LL_M_V01", "mesh": "CHR_PX_HVY_LL_M_V01" },
    { "bundle": "px_heavy_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "CHR_PX_HVY_TS_M_V01_Albedo", "texture": "armour_albedo" },
    { "bundle": "px_heavy_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "CHR_PX_HVY_Legs_M_V01_albedo", "texture": "armour_albedo" }
  ]
}

The two texture targets can use the same source image. The source must exist directly in Content\Textures; keep another copy in Content\Meshes\materials only if your material sidecars need it.

1. Bake, read every replacement and read-back line, then package only after a clean result:

ct_project HeavyArmour
ct_package HeavyArmour

Enable the mod and restart if the shipped bundle was already loaded.

Check it worked

Require three mesh patch lines, two texture patch lines and:

ct_project: ALL PASS - <path>

Inspect the served armour from front and back, including the legs and material boundaries. Check other variants that share the replaced texture targets. A Doctor preview checks a mesh against a slot; the in-game inspection checks what the enabled mod actually serves.

Common errors

What you see	Why	Fix
IMPORT REFUSED	A rigged target received an export without usable skinning.	Add an Armature modifier, vertex groups and weights, then export again.
NEAREST-BONE	The source bones cannot bind to the target by name.	Remove or correct added bones and rerun Model Doctor until it reports by-name binding.
SubmeshMaterials under WARNING or P4 WARN	The GLB parts may take the wrong shipped materials.	Remove stray shards or correct part and material order in Blender.
P1 REFUSED 'armour_albedo' is not a .png/.jpg under Content\Textures\	The image exists only beside the mesh or under materials.	Copy it directly into Content\Textures.
P1 REFUSED target '<asset>' is not a Texture2D	The row names a source image or the wrong shipped target.	Use the exact target from ct_list assets; keep the source stem in texture.

See messages for more diagnostics.

Example

This is a generic PX Heavy example derived from a Blender export workflow. Use Model Doctor with your own GLBs and verify each target on your installed game.