A question for experienced modders

[WalkAbout391]

Hello everyone. I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, please let me know if I need to move the topic elsewhere.

 

I will preface this question with the fact that I've never made a mod before. I've been futzing around with Blender and various video tutorials I have found online for a few days to familiarize myself with the software, some of which makes sense to me, much that I'm still wrapping my head around.

 

My question is this; If I wanted to add something to a pal model, such as a horse phallus to Frostallion for example, would I be attempting to A) model the addition and joining it to the existing model? or B) manipulating the original mesh directly to make such an addition?

 

Thank you for any help you might be willing to share.

[Innersight]

As far as the game is concerned you're replacing one model with another model. the manner of which you build it is all up to the preferences of the creator.

 

Though in my experience things that are built out of the model (as opposed to an attachment) come out looking smoother. Attachment-like mods are optional for things that have creases that can cover the "attachment line" - like clothing, squashed breasts, scrotums, etc - but if you want to make things that flow with the body smoothly - like female genitals, breasts, hips, etc - you'll need to edit the model to a new shape.

[WalkAbout391]

That makes sense. My concern was a few of the tutorials made it seem like manipulating an existing mesh could break other parts of the overall project such as textures and physics. I haven't even started looking at those "down the road" items though, so I suppose I'll leave those concerns for another day.

 

Thanks for the insight.

[zileteh]

Most the issue is that right now, modifying a mesh is fairly easy, modifying the skeleton isn't because the animations are connected to the original in such a way that they break easy. It is indeed possible - a lot of the pal replacers with jiggle do it. It's just not as simple as a game like skyrim. Skyrim let you like, model a penis, and bolt it on later. Unreal doesn't like this, and it would have to be molded in and backed as one single model. A male and female _pal name_ both inhabit the same slot, so instead of having a framework that takes <base model> and adds the bits you instead need to make 2 entirely different models and use a framework like OK framework to pull some trickery to load one or the other. 

[WalkAbout391]

I've only given the OK mod the most cursory of glances truthfully, its well over my head at the moment. Case in point, the follow up question below.

 

I downloaded Umodel based on a few tutorials, but it seems it does not work with UE5. I tried Fmodel based on another tutorial, and was able to at least see the models, but when I extracted what I thought I needed it seemed to be the skeletal model rather than the mesh for editing when I tried importing it to Blender.

 

In short, what am I missing to be able to extract the mesh I want to edit the bits and bobs onto?