I modded Smol Ame into Deep Rock Galactic

on

I modded Seafoamboi's Smol Ame 3D model into Deep Rock Galactic (DRG), my favorite co-op FPS game. It took a lot of trial-and-error to get this done using Unreal Engine and I am extremely satisfied with the result. Smol Ame replaces the spring dwarf bobblehead toy found at the Abyss Bar in the space rig. Just like the spring dwarf, the Smol Ame model can be played with by pressing "E" on your keyboard.

Download the mod here: https://drg.mod.io/smol-ame-spring-dwarf



Fig 1.1. I replaced the spring dwarf with Smol Ame


Fig 1.2. Smol Ame at the Abyss Bar with the bartender



There are many things that I did when modding Deep Rock Galactic. However I will distill them into bite-sized numbered lists.

The following is a numbered list of the steps I took to successfully get Smol Ame into Deep Rock Galactic.

  1. I followed Pacagma's written guides on replacing models and textures in Deep Rock Galactic which I found in the DRG Modding Discord server.
  2. I downloaded and installed a software called Unreal Engine Resource viewer or umodel to extract models from my Deep Rock Galactic directory into a new folder.
  3. I downloaded Seafoamboi's Smol Ame 3D model from sketchfab. I extracted the zip file which contained the .fbx file and two textures.
  4. I installed Unreal Engine 4.25.6 from the Epic Games launcher. 
  5. I imported the Smol Ame .fbx file as a static mesh and checked the option to create new materials.
  6. I created a new set of folders that are identical to the directory associated with the spring dwarf model: Art>Environments>SpaceRig>SpringDwarf 
  7. I moved the Smol Ame .fbx file and the textures to the SpringDwarf folder.
  8. I renamed the Smol Ame .fbx file to that of the spring dwarf: SM_SpringDwarf_004
  9. I replaced the base color of the materials associated with parts of Smol Ame (head, face, torso, outline) with the two textures that came with the zip file in the Smol Ame zip file.
  10. I adjusted the scale of Smol Ame to 0.3 using the import uniform scale parameter in the mesh editor.
  11. In project settings, I unchecked the option to "use pak file" in the packaging settings.
  12. In project settings. I unchecked the options "shared material native libraries" and "share material shader code".
  13. I packaged the project for Windows and exported it to a folder.
  14. In the content folder I deleted everything except the Art directory which contains the file associated with Smol Ame
  15. I downloaded and extracted the DRG Basic modding Tools posted by Raulikien in the DRG Modding Discord server
  16. I transferred the DRG packer software found in the extracted folder containing the modding tools to a new folder.
  17. I copy-pasted the content folder of the packaged Smol Ame project to the content folder found in the input folder of the DRG packer.
  18. I dragged the input folder to _Repack.bat. The folder was automatically packaged into a .pak file which I renamed to smol_ame_spring_dwarf_v1_P.pak
  19. I tested the mod locally by copy-pasting it to the mods folder found in my Deep Rock Galactic game directory.
  20. The mod worked in Sandbox mode so I uploaded it to mod.io.
  21. I tested the model using the mod.io mod manager in-game and it worked perfectly in my normal save.
  22. I created a presentation video using OBS, Blender, and Handbrake.


The following is a numbered list of the mistakes I made along the way, new things about modding I learned, and initial plans I had for the mod.

  1. I wanted to replace the aquarq crystal and space ball with Smol Gura and Smol Ame respectively. However it didn't work. Replacing complex meshes and meshes with armatures requires Unreal Engine 4.25x which can only be built manually from files found on Github. I kept getting EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION errors and CTDs (crash to desktop). Using Unreal Engine 4.25.4 only works with simple meshes with the prefix SM_.
  2. When I first tested the mod, it did not work. I learned later on that you need to add the suffix _P to your final .pak file and add it to either the mods folder ot the paks folder found in the FSD folder of your Deep Rock Galactic directory.
  3. I wanted to replace the barrels that you can kick and move around in the space rig (barrel_A) with Smol Ame.  This did not work. Based on what I did, I infer that the number of materials your model has  should be equal to or greater than the number of materials of the model you want to replace. The barrel_A model only has two materials. I was able to replace barrel_B found near the Abyss Bar with Smol Ame although it only has three materials. I was also able to replace the spring dwarf with Smol Ame.
  4. Scaling the model in Blender or Unreal Engine 4 is important. I imported Smol Ame into DRG with a scale of 1 and the model was big. I scaled down the model to 0.3 and got better results. I got a cache error when dragging the final .pak file to the _Repack.bat file of the DRGPacker. To fix this I simply moved the DRGPacker folder out of the DRG Modding Tools folder it was originally found in.

The following are images related to my modding workflow.



Fig 2.1. SM_barrel_A only has two materials.


Fig 2.2. SM_barrel_B has three materials.


Fig 2.3. The cache issue I had with DRG Packer


Fig 2.4. The many attempts I had at creating .pak files with DRG Packer


Fig 2.5. The EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION error I kept experiencing when replacing models that did not start with a SM_ prefix. Unreal Engine 4.25+ is required to replace more complex models and models with armatures.


Fig 2.6. I followed Pacagma's guide to extract models from my Deep Rock Galactic directory using umodel.


Fig 2.7. Extracting DRG models with umodel (2)


Fig 2.8. Extracting DRG models with umodel (3)


Fig 2.9. This is my final attempt at creating a .pak file for my Smol Ame mod using DRG packer.


Fig 2.10. The Smol Ame static mash with a scale of 1.0


Fig 2.11. The Smol Ame static mesh with a scale of 0.1. I was planning on changing it to 0.5 as indicated by the blue highlight.


Fig 2.12. The Smol Ame static mesh with a scale of 0.3


Fig 2.13. SM_SpringDwarf_004 has many materials.


Fig 2.14. I replaced the base color with textures found in Seafoamboi's Sketchfab zip file containing Smol Ame


Fig 2.15. Preparing the files in Unreal Engine 4.25.4 for packaging 


Fig 2.16. Testing the spring dwarf Smol Ame replacement locally


Fig 2.17. My Smol Ame mod on Mod.io which I set to private at the time I tested the mod


Fig 2.18. Testing the mod using Mod.io ingame


Fig 2.19. How I learned that some models specifically with the SM_ prefix can be modded with Unreal Engine 4.25.6


Fig 2.20. Pacagma's model and texture replacement guide for DRG


Fig 2.21. Raulikien's basic modding guide and modding tools

The following images  are my attempts at importing Smol Ame into Deep Rock Galactic:



Fig 3. My first import was a disaster. The model was not scaled correctly and the textures were not appearing. Smol Ame replaced SM_barrel_A in this image.


Fig 3.1. There were some changes in my second import. The materials were applied correctly but there were only two colors: dark grey and white.


Fig 3.2. I replaced SM_barrel_B with Smol Ame. I was surprised that the model was imported correctly with the materials and textures. Although the scale was off; the model was too big.


Fig 3.3. I replaced SM_SpringDwarf_004 with Smol Ame. I did not delete the Smol Ame that replaced SM_barrel_B yet. As you can see the scale was still off with the spring dwarf replacement.


Fig 3.4. I scaled down the Smol Ame spring dwarf replacement to 0.1 but the model looked too small.


Fig 3.5. I scaled up Smol Ame to 0.3 and I was happy with the result.

Modding Deep Rock Galactic was challenging to learn at the beginning but in the end I am happy with what I was able to accomplish and contribute to the Deep Rock Galactic modding scene. I learned a lot through experimenting and reading discussions on the DRG Modding Discord server. 

It is possible that Ghost Ship Games might update the Unreal Engine version of Deep Rock Galactic from 4.25 to 4.27 and most likely to UE5 in the near future. I hope to update the mod when they do so.


Resources I used and discussions that helped me:


Note: I rarely use Discord and my username is different from those listed in my blog. I only use it to ask for tech help and to get updates on games.

Comments

Post a Comment