NPV - Tutorial - Part 2


Part 2 Overview - Importing the Head

At present, you posess the shaped head components that will soon help to make your NPV look like your specific character, however, they are not yet in a format that is usable by the game. The next part of the tutorial deals with converting the .fbx or .glb format files from Part 1 into the .mesh files that will be used in your NPV mod.

This portion of the process differs somewhat significantly depending on whether you have chosen to use the Noesis or WolvenKit mesh-handling workflow. You do not need to complete both "Importing with..." sections below. Select the section that matches your chosen workflow and follow the steps in that section only before progressing to Part 3 of the tutorial.



Performing the Import

Importing with Noesis

Before you attempt to import your files using Noesis, be sure that you have followed the installation instructions as they are printed in Part 0 of the NPV tutorial. Failing to install Noesis correctly, or failing to use the 64-bit version of Noesis will result in improperly imported and unusable files.

Note: I will continue to refer to this process as 'importing', however, several Noesis windows and prompts will refer to exporting. In this particular scenario, we are referring to the same process.

  1. Download the vanilla source meshes which match your NPV's physical frame from the NPV Resources page.
  2. Unzip the compressed archive of vanilla source meshes.
  3. Open Noesis.
  4. In the left file-navigation panel, navigate to and click on the folder that you created in Part 1.
    • This folder should contain all of the shaped head components in .fbx format.
  5. In the middle panel, locate the file that begins with h0 and double-click it.
    • This should open a preview of the head model in the right file-preview panel.
  6. In the middle panel, locate the file that begins with h0 and right-click it. Select Export.
  7. In the Export Media pop-up, change the 'Main output type:' dropdown to use the '.mesh - CyberPunk 2077 mesh [PC]' option.
  8. At the bottom of the Export Media pop-up, click the Export button.
  9. In the secondary Export Over .Mesh pop-up, click the Browse button.
  10. In the file selection window, navigate to the location with the vanilla source meshes.
  11. Select the vanilla source mesh which matches the full name of the .fbx file you are importing and click the Open button.
    • For example, if I was working with h0_000_pwa_c__basehead.fbx I would select and open the h0_000_pwa_c__basehead.mesh file.
  12. In the Export Over .Mesh pop-up, click OK.
  13. In the Export Complete pop-up, click OK.
  14. Close the Export Media pop-up.
  15. Using your file browser, open the folder where the .blend and shaped .fbx files are stored.
  16. Check that this folder does not contain any .buffer files.
    • This folder is the default save location for the .mesh files created during the Noesis import process. If .buffer files have been generated during the import process, they will appear here. The presence of .buffer files indicates an incorrect Noesis installation.
    • If there are .buffer files present in the folder, you will need to delete them, as well as the new .mesh file, close Noesis, and fix your Noesis installation, then repeat the above process from step 2 onward.
  17. Repeat steps 6 through 14 for each of the shaped head component .fbx files.
  18. Using your file browser, open the folder where the .blend and shaped .fbx files are stored.
  19. Rename each new .mesh file to remove the 'out' that was appended to the end of the file name during import.

Importing with WolvenKit

This particular WolvenKit project will only be used for handling the .mesh file imports. For the sake of preserving files in case of future mistakes or issues, further work in WolvenKit will be done in a separate project.

  1. Open the WolvenKit app.
  2. On the right hand side of the initial screen, select the 'Create a New Project' option.
  3. Type a Project Name in the first text input.
  4. Select a Creation Location, a destination for your project folder to be saved.
  5. Click the Create button.
  6. In the Project Explorer panel on the left side of the screen, right-click the raw folder.
  7. Select Open in File Explorer.
  8. Using your file browser, open the folder where the .blend and shaped .glb files are stored.
  9. Copy the shaped .glb files to your project's raw folder.
  10. In WolvenKit, in the Project Explorer panel on the left side of the screen, right-click the archive folder.
  11. Select Open in File Explorer.
  12. Download the vanilla source meshes which match your NPV's physical frame from the NPV Resources page.
  13. Unzip the compressed archive of vanilla source meshes.
  14. For each .glb file that you shaped, copy the matching .mesh file from the vanilla source meshes into your project's archive folder.
    • Do not copy a .mesh file to your project's archive folder for which you do not have a matching shaped .glb file.
    • For example, if you did not shape any of the earring .glb files for your NPV, do not copy any of the earring .mesh files into the project's archive folder.
  15. In WolvenKit, in the top menu bar select Tools > Import Tool.
  16. In the Import Tool pop-up window, click Import All.
    • Your NPV's shaped head components have now been imported 'over' the vanilla .mesh files in your project's archive folder, replacing them.