XI Model Viewer, XI Tools, XI Zone Editor

(I'm not good with names)

Hello! Thought I'd post some projects I've been working on with the aim to help others get into making tools, learning about XI and getting a head start on all your ideas for XI dat modding!

These are all fully open source so you can do whatever you like with them. They're setup to help AI assistants get a good understanding very quickly and not have to waste tokens. While I've been in this scene for 15+ years all 3 are heavily AI Dev assisted for constant trial and error, data discovery and prototyping. I am more of a UI guy at this point. (And yelling at Claude that it forgot about XI's weird AXIS!)

XI Model Viewer

- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny9pHf0sA60
- Github: https://github.com/vekien/xi-model-viewer

Features:

- View Zones (with Weather, day/night, fog, sounds), Gear, Animations, NPCs, Effects, Images
- Listen to music, sound effects
- DAT Data Struct which lists all dat contents like file explorer, making it easier to see under the hood. Many of the DAT pieces are individually viewable (skeletons, ui data, fx data, images, bump maps, meshes, etc)
- Export models, animations, audio, including batch exporting
- Edit UI elements and make notes
- HD & Pivot Support
- View NavMesh + Collision
- Database Viewer
- Create cinematics and scenes with actors for content
- (Experimental) View character creation models
- Open straight on a zone from another tool (--zone), for level editors and shortcuts
- One standalone exe, no installer — Windows, macOS and Linux
- Free and open source!

And probably some more small things I can't think off. Not everything will be perfect so feel free to let me know or make a PR!







XI Tools

- Github: https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools
- Docs for AI: https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools/tree/main/docs

Features:

There is sooo much to write here so I'll stick to the main highlights I think are cool. One of the main take-aways from xi-tools is a huge centralised knowledgebase of how to dat edit. You can give it to your AI of choice and start throwing together tools incredibly quickly.

- Batch export all types of content: Models, Gear, Animations, Zones, Music, Sound, UI, Images, Effects, JSON Data, Struct Data
- Import and replace animations or create completely new schedules, including bone blending, layered animations, blend times, etc. (Allows you to animate just a few bones and layer it on top of another animation like idl or an attack)
- Import new models at new id ranges, un-mirroring, multi-object attachments, custom skeletons and animation rigs
- Import or edit zones, add/remove collision, change weather, object placement modifications, templating, fx modification. Import completely new 3D models from FBX or GLB
- FFXIMain docs and editing, eg: patch inventory to 120 slots, patch gear to 4096, models to 65k, giving private servers more flexibility
- Mount inject including key item, descriptions and UI support
- Modify UI elements including custom title screen support
- Create custom cutscenes, dialogs, events, custom NPCs
- Bake server-compatible navmeshes (.nav) straight from a zone's collision mesh
- Decompile any retail event to readable JSON and compile it back byte-exact
- Texture import/export with DDS to PNG, HD textures, and sprite sheets kept in sync
- Package a custom zone or a whole DAT project into one reproducible, deployable build
- Replay a text or markdown file of xi commands as a repeatable job

And a whole ton more, it'd be better to have your Claude/Grok/GPT summarise it for your own projects!



Examples
Fully custom cutscene + mesh + unmirroring + custom anim example:
- https://streamable.com/zmycbm
- https://streamable.com/hvl94c

120 slot inventory patch example:
- https://streamable.com/imxfcy

Fixing dev/prototype zones to work in-game:
- https://streamable.com/vfy8fd
- https://streamable.com/gj5tph

Zones:
- https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools/blob/main/examples/1.png (Dev Zone)
- https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools/blob/main/examples/2.png (Character creation zone)
- https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools/blob/main/examples/5.png (my own first test)

Start Screen:
- https://github.com/vekien/xi-tools/blob/main/examples/4.png (HD images, moved UI, removed Create character button, removed gobby bags)

XI Zone Editor

- Github: https://github.com/vekien/xi-zone-editor
- Example: Custom Mog House - https://youtu.be/hc9Fp7aFUWE?si=tWUY2nPPf5yDtp4C
- Example: Custom zone from scratch (early dev) - https://youtu.be/PXmo16c4vYg?si=4s3r8VmhACp1cbml

Note: This is still very in-dev, experimental, I do not recommend using on Retail. Use on your own local server or with private server permission. I am saying this so you don't go deleting some collision and forgetting about it!!! This tool was built to be a editor first, it doesn't represent visually how a zone looks in game as it's more about showing placement of objects, cutscene objects, house meshes, and other hidden stuff. The model viewer is more closer to "how it looks" and both can work in tandem.

This tool lets you build completely new zones or edit custom zones, you can bring in 3d models from Blender or anywhere (supporting GLB) and can copy assets across zones, fancy that Rabao tents in Jeuno? go for it! Want some snowy mountains in your mog house? Bring a blanket.

Features
- Desktop level editor for FFXI zones: load a zone DAT, edit it in a 3D viewport, publish back into the game files
- Projects and change-sets: every edit is a saved change-set per zone, with full undo/redo, autosave and version history you can restore from
- Move, rotate and scale placements on a gizmo with snapping, in local or world space
- Copy/paste/delete objects, the clipboard survives zone switches so you can paste objects, vfx, sounds and markers across zones
- Import GLB models as new placements, plus editable text-plane signs that bake into meshes on publish
- Play the zone's own object animations such as windmills and the like spin as they do in-game, and copies keep their animation
- Edit collision: author boxes, planes or meshes with wall/floor and terrain types, strip or reset the baked mesh, or replace it wholesale from an OBJ
- Navmesh generation from collision, with an in-viewport overlay
- Sound and music: emitters with in-editor playback, wav/ogg import, BGM slot assignment with preview, borrowed footstep sounds
- Cutscene authoring with a camera sequencer and keyframes, plus an event actor and dialogue inspector
- Create new zones from templates
- Publish to Standard and HD DATs with a live log. Project packaging for distribution.
- Asset Browser of bundled objects, music, sound effects and monsters, all drag-to-viewport
- Multiple view modes: Edit, read-only View, Live Standard, Live HD and the pristine Backup Base
- The app fetches xi-tools and Python on first run and walks you through setup

And that's all I've got, hopefully some of this is useful for your own dat modding needs, Huge thanks to Aamace as honestly none of this would be possible without XIM. I primarily post in the FFXI Modding discord, so feel free to drop in/DM me.

This needs to be stickied. The YouTube videos are sick and the possibilities now are tremendous.

I take it you can edit existing zone dat areas and make brand new zones for XI?

This thread needs more attention. This is amazing.

Yep, it has a templating system so you could open up something like Kazham, delete everything, and then template it. Allowing you keep things like the weather for that zone.

I have some templates already with blank event/dialog/cutscene, I wanna try improve that and ship them with it.

So yeah, you can edit existing zones or create brand new ones, at brand new zone ids with your own cutscenes, your own npcs, your own dialog, etc. Ofc only useful on a private server or your own server!

Playing around with zone mods using AI tools turned out to be quick and easy, but building a full Blender pipeline has been a completely different beast.
I have accidentally learned an absurd amount about 3D design along the way, to the point where doing it by hand might have actually been faster than deciphering whatever kept confusing my automated attempts.
The biggest headache has been weight painting and rigging against the Elvaan skeleton. The proportions are always just slightly off, and my collection of cursed test renders is both staggering and hilarious. Most of the chaos centers right on the neck, reliably creating bizarre hunchback scenarios.
The strangest part is how jumping between completely different concepts somehow solves earlier roadblocks. I spent way too long trying to make a Tron outfit someone suggested, constantly fighting broken seams. Frustrated, I took a detour to see if it could handle a Goku skin instead. At first, it color mapped Goku almost perfectly onto the track suit design, but when I pivoted to an imported Goku model, the legs matched cleanly while the torso turned into pure structural chaos.
Yet, when I jumped back to the Tron project, all my seam issues vanished and it rendered an awesome reflective helmet, though I still did not feel the final result was quality enough to post.
I'm pretty sure something in my rule book is poisoning the pipeline

This tool is incredibly fast and performant. Everything loads instantly and it's just easy to use. A few observations:

Some DATs are labelled MAPs but are NPCs.
Can we get a way to toggle/flip/rotate? I ask because all zones are basically upside down and I can't figure out how to flip it. :(

Excellent work! Can't wait to add this to my tool belt.

Is that when you export and load into blender or in the model viewer? I haven't experienced that, they should be correct


I've been there!! I would have your AI run through all my tools and docs to build a knowledge base. If you setup something like Hindsight local with a cheap modal (grok or haiku) it'll remember thousands of params on every session.

Try to view a zone in the model viewer. You'll see the zone upside down. There isn't a way to flip the zone so we can see it right-side up.

I'm just not seeing that? I made my youtube video using this tool and you can see my screenshots above that everything is the correct way up. I've not experienced this in the months I've been building it.

Can you share a screenshot?