Most import problems trace back to three settings that are wrong by default. Fix them once in a startup file and stop thinking about it.
Scale
XIV models export at a scale where one Blender unit reads as one metre, but the skeleton is authored much smaller. Import with Scale 1.0 and do not “fix” it by scaling the object — scale the scene instead, under Scene Properties → Units → Unit Scale.
Scaling the object bakes a transform that TexTools will reject on re-import with a non-uniform scale error.
Bone orientation
FBX import guesses bone roll, and the guess is usually wrong for XIV skeletons. In the FBX import panel:
- Automatic Bone Orientation: off
- Ignore Leaf Bones: on
Leaf bones are the small terminators FBX adds. If you leave them in, weight transfer tools will happily paint weight onto bones the game does not have.
Material naming
TexTools matches materials by name on the way back in. The name must survive the round trip exactly, including the leading slash:
/mt_c0201b0001_a.mtrl
Blender will silently append .001 if two materials share a name. Merge duplicates before exporting or you will get a mesh with a missing material slot and no error message explaining why.
Weight transfer
When you fit a garment to a modified body:
- Select the target mesh, then shift-select the reference body.
- Weight Paint → Weights → Transfer Weight Data.
- Set Source Layers to By Name, Destination to By Name, mapping to Nearest Face Interpolated.
Nearest Vertex is faster but produces visible tearing at seams. Interpolated is worth the wait.
Before you export
- Apply all modifiers except the armature.
- Triangulate. The game does not take n-gons, and letting the exporter do it produces worse topology than doing it yourself.
- Check for zero-weight vertices. They collapse to the origin in-game and produce the classic spike stretching across the map.