Warhammer 3 to Tabletop Simulator: Model + Animation export and import
The software used can be highly unreliable, its going to crash a lot for no good reason. I dont know what it is about the TotalWar modding community, but their software is just really buggy, I assume its because the way pack files work.
This tutorial shows you how to set up Unity with the proper version and scripts needed.
https://kb.tabletopsimulator.com/custom-content/custom-assetbundle/
Its pretty straight forward. and probably the easiest part of this whole adventure.
Exporting from Warhammer 3
QtRME: https://github.com/mr-phazer/RME_Release/releases/tag/0.4.9-unstable.alpha.1
AssetEditor: https://github.com/donkeyProgramming/TheAssetEditor/releases
Blender: https://www.blender.org/
Gimp: https://www.gimp.org/
QtRME Allows you to export models and animations from TotalWar packed files converted into a format useable by Unity.
Extract the folder from the downloaded file and then run '@QtRME_GUI'. Once its loaded up you'll need to open the settings tab at the top left and set the location of your warhammer games.You'll want to select the Data folder. Pack files are found in 'steam/steamapps/common/(TOTALWARGAME)/Data'.
Once you've set the path to the files you'll need to select the 'Select Game' option in the menu bar at the top, and set your game to WH3, You'll also need to set your 'Render Type' to WH3.
Once you've done all that, close and relaunch the application.
Instructions on use and export:
Hit the 'Open Pack Explorer' button to bring up all the Pack files in the Data folder. Every model for the game is in here somewhere, its a little poorly labeled. Assuming you're wanting unit models, you'll need to select the 'variantmeshes' folder and then 'wh_variantmodels'.
I'm not sure of the ordering of the folders after this, There's probably some logic to how they're ordered but its lost on me.
Each folder will have its contents seperated by faction 'chs' for chaos, 'emp' for empire, 'vmp' for vampire etc. Once you've found a unit you want you'll need to click its rigimodel file. This will open the model and a new window. In this new window you can hit the dropdown arrow next to the video play button to load any animation used by this model. Once you've found what you want you can export to FBX. This will export the model and animation currently loaded.
You can also hit the drop down arrow next to the FBX button to select which animations to export with. I like this as you can export all the animations of a given model at once and select from what you want later! You will need to select an animation as the models tend to be T-posed, even if you only want the first pose of the animation you'll need that animation selected.
Now that the rigidmodels are extracted as FBX files. Assuming you didnt pick a model with multiple parts all you will need now is the texture files of that model. For whatever reason it doesnt seem to export with those files. You can get these using AssetEditor. If the model comes in multiple parts you'll need to export each of those parts with their animations, and try to match them up later in Unity.
Using AssetEditor you can export all the files by folder. This program would be 100% perfect if it exported as FBX. But we'll be using it to grab texture files. Folders are laid out the in the same order as they are in QtRME.
Setting it up is pretty similar to QtRME, launch the application, click options in the menu bar, 'Settings' and set your Warhammer 3 directory to the Data folder in your steamapps folder again, setting your current game to Warhammer 3.
You can view the models here as well by clicking into their rigidmodel files. You can also view their animations here as well by clicking the bottom bar. What you'll want to do is export the texture files for the models you want. These files are generally in a folder called 'tex' in the models folder heirarchy. To export a file right click it in the menu bar and select 'Export to disk'. The dds file you want is 'modelname_base_colour.dds'.
Gimp is a pretty straight forward image editor. All you'll need it for is opening the *.dds file and exporting it as a '.PNG'. If you have another image editor you prefer, feel free to use that.
As with Gimp, the modelling software can be whatever you're comfortable with. What you'll want to do is import the exported FBX model you got from QtRME and export it again as another FBX. This seems redundant, but unity doesnt seem to like the QtRME exported FBX files.
If you are using Blender make sure to remove the light and camera from the scene, as unity has its own.
Setup: Follow instructions given by the linked tutorial to setup an instance of unity ready for tabletop simulator asset creation.
Now that you have an exported FBX file unity can read, create a folder in unity to store the files for ease of access. Import your FBX file and the PNG file you created earlier. You can drag the fbx file into your unity Scene. Right click the new item group and select 'Unpack prefab'.
In your folder right click > Create > Material and name this as themodelsname_Mat select this file and change rendering mode to Cutout. Drag your PNG texture file to the slot labeled 'Albedo'. I like to enable the emission check box and drag the PNG to the 'Color' option this enables, this allows you to brighten up the model a little. Clicking the box beside 'Color' allows you to change the emission colour and intensity, generally its just the intensity you want to alter.
Once your new material is setup drag it on top of the model in the scene. This will apply the proper texture to the model.
Next up is Collision, without which your new object is going to fall off into the void.
Select the object, press 'Add Component' and select 'Box Collider'. Press Edit collider to reshape the box. You can change your view to isometric by selecting the gizmo in the top right of the scene window, this just makes it a little easier to size up the box collider.
Once thats all done you're ready to make it into a Tabletop Sim object! Drag the object into your project view to save it as a prefab. And follow the Unity tutorial by TabletopSim to finish up.
If you got good use of this write up and managed to export models yourself please @ me on Bsky so I can check them out!
🦋 https://bsky.app/profile/bushcrank.bsky.social
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