Custom models

In Pikmin 2, the model files are .BMD. These files can easily be viewed using J3DModelViewer or any other Nintendo 3D model viewer. For Area models cave units, the collision is separate from the visual model and comes in the form of grid.bin and mapcode.bin.

Area Models Guide

Tools

First you'll need the appropriate tools in order to create your custom area models. For the model:

• Lunaboy's RARC Tools[1] (or other Nintendo archive tools similar to it)
• SuperBMD[2]
• Blender[3] or 3ds Max [4] (register as a student for a free licence)
• J3DModelViewer[5] (other model viewers will not display anything or crash when you try to load your custom model)

For the collision:

• Lunaboy's RARC Tools(linked above)
• obj2grid[6]
• Python 3.6 or later [7]
• 3D modelling program that can export .OBJ (Blender or 3ds Max are fine, no need for multiple programs)

Process

1. Extract the area model from the arc.szs using ArcExtract (located in tutorial, forest, yakushima or last - ignore anything in zukan). Make sure that you keep the .BTK and delete the .BMD, remembering the name (model.bmd).
2. Open up your modeling program and create/import your model.
3. Once you're satisfied with your model, you want to add textures. Make sure your textures' dimensions are to the power of 2 (64x64 works). Keep in mind that the textures you use will affect file size, anything around six megabytes or more will probably crash.
4. (3ds Max) Add editable poly to your model once you have attached all parts together, select the vertex option, select ALL points (Ctrl + A) and click the connect button to triangulate the faces.

   (Blender) In edit mode, select the whole model with the A key and press Ctrl + T to triangulate all selected faces.

5. Now we want to make sure that our pivot is centered, and so is the model (In Blender, this can be done by selecting the model in object mode, and applying transforms with Ctrl + A -> All Transforms). After you've done that, you will want to export your model as .OBJ (title it something simple like modelcol.obj) and export to wherever is easiest, it'll create multiple files but all we care about is the .OBJ.
6. (3ds Max) Now back to 3ds Max, click the rotate tool (or right-click your model and click rotate). In the top-right, set your view to right (click and drag to change your view, and click the face on the cube that says 'RIGHT') and then you want to rotate the object -90 degrees on the x-axis. Then go to the utilities tab on the right, click X-form, and then 'x-form selected'. Go ahead and export the model again as a .DAE file and simply title it model.dae.

   (Blender) Select the whole model again in object mode and rotate it -90 degrees on the X axis (Press R key, then X key, then type -90, and hit enter). Once more, apply transforms (Ctrl + A -> All Transforms) and export the model as .FBX.

7. To create your BMD model, open the SuperBMD folder and look for a .bat file named superbmd_pikmin2_simpleshading.bat (This gives it the proper in-game shading). If you did everything right, a simple drag and drop of your .DAE or .FBX file should export a .BMD (model.bmd) in the same location as the .DAE or .FBX. Now to quickly check your model to make sure everything worked, open up J3DModelViewer, and drag your .BMD file right onto the preview. Hold right-click and WASD to move around, if it looks good then you can just close J3D. To import your model, go back to an area folder or wherever in your Pikmin 2 files, find the arc folder and put back the model.bmd file.
8. To create the collision of your model, you'll need to download obj2grid by Yoshi2 which converts a .OBJ into grid.bin and mapcode.bin files which are necessary for custom area map collision. You'll also need to install Python 3.6+.
9. Drag and drop your modelcol.OBJ file onto make_collision.bat and it will create your grid.bin and mapcode.bin.
10. Repeat what you did for the model (replace the grid.bin and mapcode.bin files in the texts folder) IF your grid.bin file does NOT exceed about 1,300KB. The largest official in-game grid.bin is only 650kb, however as I've tested around 1,300 still works, any higher will crash the game.
11. Use Lunaboy's RARC Tools to create your arc.arc and texts.arc files, and then just rename the extension to .szs as opposed to .arc. Now run main.dol (or rebuild the ISO with GC-Rebuilder) and test it!