Go to Edit Mode for each of the melons, then make sure they all use the same material in Blender if they're supposed to use the same one in Source.

Originally posted by Taco:

Oh I completely forgot you could do that, but the corrector flexes then would still have to be triggered manually right? -

Again, if by "corrector flexes" you mean what's more commonly called "corrective flexes", you can use math to have them be applied automatically, as such:This loads shape keys A, B, C, A_B, A_C, B_C, and A_B_C from FlexFileName.vta, and creates flex controllers/sliders named A, B, and C.

When using flex slider A and B, shape keys A, B, and A_B are applied. (As you can see, the A_B shape key is set up to be applied with a scale of the A slider multiplied by the B slider.)

If by "corrector" shapes, you mean something like using flex sliders A, B, and C applies shape keys A, B, C, A_B, A_C, B_C, and A_B_C, VTA fully supports that.The above code should yield the same flex result with VTA as having shape keys with the left names in a "simple" flex format DMX export.

But I would guess that the VTA export is actually what's wrong here, because if it looks broken in Blender, it's supposed to look broken in exports too, as exports are supposed to look the same as in Blender. Which means that Blender itself is probably the "wrong" thing here, not the DMX export. You may want to see if it's possible to supply manual custom normals per shape key in Blender. If it is, I'd imagine that that would allow the DMX export to look as you want it to, too, but I don't know if that's possible in Blender.

In Blender, are the vertices of the mesh connected? (Before you do the export?) And how many vertices does Blender say the mesh has before you export?

It sounds like you're thinking that the object with lots of little dots/vertices is the VTA object. This is wrong.



When you import a VTA file using the Blender Source Tools, it will try to match the VTA file's "reference" vertice positions to the mesh object you have selected or such. Then any of the "reference" vertices that are close enough to vertices of the mesh object will affect those vertices for the flexes.

But if any "reference" vertices are not close enough to vertices of the mesh object, the Blender Source Tools will create an object with vertices in the "reference" vertice positions, for no purpose other than to help you manually identify where any unaffected vertices of the mesh object are supposed to be for the flex(es) to be imported correctly.

Again, the vertice-only object has nothing to do with exporting VTA files, only being able to identify where vertices should be for importing a VTA file properly.



As for exporting VTA files, this happens automatically when you export an SMD file with an object that has shape keys in Blender (which should be the mesh object that has polygons everywhere, not a vertice-only object).



It might be worth considering using DMX instead of SMD, as then the flexes will be embedded within the DMX mesh export while not requiring you to do any flex-related stuff in the QC file, as opposed to being in a VTA flex export, requiring flex-related stuff in QCs, separate from an SMD mesh object.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

the model has 36 materials -

Then you may need to follow the instructions I gave above about combining textures into single textures and appropriately adjusting UV coordinates to match, but keep in mind that you won't need to do that with every texture, just enough for it to be at most 32 separate textures and thus 32 separate materials.

If you can't figure it out, try looking up "Blender Combine textures" or something like that on YouTube, which may show you video guides on either what I explained or something else that might be equally good or such.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

Can you please walk me through this in chat -

No.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

Can u pls ublock me so i can comment.

No.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

Also why did you block me?

If I did, you probably tried to add me as a friend on Steam without commenting on my profile about why you wanted to have me as a Steam friend first.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

Im just following a playermodel creation tutorial, so no, not much experience.

In that case, I would suggest taking a look at something like this:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=245723825 Yes, it's specifically for Source Filmmaker, not Garry's Mod, but I'm sure it contains some information about materials and how they work somewhere, which is useful for Garry's Mod too.

Originally posted by Basswav3:

So as long as it exports and the tectures are applied where they belong with changed texture slot name, it should be fine, correct?

That depends on what you mean by "applied where they belong".

Originally posted by Basswav3:

So if i have a texture named body and a slot named body it will look for that file when assigning?

That depends on what you mean by "assigning".


How much experience do you have with making models for the Source engine?