Hello, I'm quite new to java and modding in minecraft so please be patient with me if I ask any stupid questions, but I'm currently working on a mod that incorporates the addition of several fantasy races (think Beastfolk, Mermaids, etc) and I've run into the dreaded coding wall I knew I'd run into eventually which is dynamically changing the players' models based on what race they select. I've got a few working models I've made but the thing is I don't have any idea on how to actually change the player's model, skin or perspective / POV. I've tried digging through source code of other mods to get an idea- and after a week I'm still completely lost on how to accomplish this.

So far, I know that I need to do a player render event, subscribe bus, all that- which never seems to work in the slightest. Even trying to add a basic tail or ears proves unsuccessful. Again, I'm quite new to java and minecraft modding in general, and I don't want to ask someone to write me their own code, I just want to understand it and implement it- however any examples I find on this topic are extremely advanced and complex- having custom code that calls other instances of java files in a web of functions.

Basically, what I need is for someone to kindly explain or just write some basic code on player rendering functions as dumbed down as possible for me. I'm very desperate at this point since every forum that asks about this is either never explained and left unanswered, or explained in a way that I can't wrap my head around. I've tried searching for tutorials on this, but just can't seem to find any.

It's sounds like a nice project, but also like a lot of work.

If you want to replace the player model you need to replace all animation, textures and poses as well to make sure that they are matching for 1st and 3rd view.

Maybe instead of replacing the player model, you can use additional render layer instead, like you already mentioned with the ears ?

My recommendation would be to try to add your player models as simple mobs to the world, to get familiar with all of these steps.

Basically the steps are similar for player models like:

• Defining the model / layer in java (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/model/DobutsuModel.java)
• Define a client renderer (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/renderer/companions/DobutsuRenderer.java)
• Register the client renderer for the model / layer (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/renderer/ClientRenderer.java)

You can also give your pseudo mobs items and armors to see if they are rendered correctly.

On 3/26/2022 at 1:39 PM, Kaworru said:

It's sounds like a nice project, but also like a lot of work.

If you want to replace the player model you need to replace all animation, textures and poses as well to make sure that they are matching for 1st and 3rd view.

Maybe instead of replacing the player model, you can use additional render layer instead, like you already mentioned with the ears ?

My recommendation would be to try to add your player models as simple mobs to the world, to get familiar with all of these steps.

Basically the steps are similar for player models like:

• Defining the model / layer in java (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/model/DobutsuModel.java)
• Define a client renderer (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/renderer/companions/DobutsuRenderer.java)
• Register the client renderer for the model / layer (e.g. https://github.com/MarkusBordihn/BOs-Player-Companions/blob/1.18.1/src/main/java/de/markusbordihn/playercompanions/client/renderer/ClientRenderer.java)

You can also give your pseudo mobs items and armors to see if they are rendered correctly.

This is quite helpful, but again, I need to see how to apply a render in-game once the player has decided on their race. So, essentially to do the render to a specific player when they actually choose.

1 hour ago, BadFox49 said:

This is quite helpful, but again, I need to see how to apply a render in-game once the player has decided on their race. So, essentially to do the render to a specific player when they actually choose.

If you already able to perform the above steps without any problems then the next steps would be:

• Storing the selected race as server data and sync them with all connected players (in range or in general), there are several ways to do this but you will very likely need define your our network packages. 
• Define your own Entity Renderer with a Render Manager which handles the different kind of models and assigned textures like: https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/client/render/RenderEntityAcquisition.java
• Enable / Disable the correct Renderer for the selected model based on the synced server data and disable the default one. This needs mostly to be done over a mixin like: https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/mixin/ModelRendererMixin.java and https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/mixin/PlayerRendererMixin.java

In general the Morph mod is a good example and includes everything which is needed in your case.

Keep in mind that the PlayerRenderer is only an instance of the LivingEntityRenderer, so everything which works with mobs models extending LivingEntityRenderer will also work with the player models to some extend.

That's the reason why I recommend to try this first with pseudo mobs, because it's easier to test / learn and includes basically the same steps.

Edited March 27, 20223 yr by Kaworru

20 hours ago, Kaworru said:

If you already able to perform the above steps without any problems then the next steps would be:

• Storing the selected race as server data and sync them with all connected players (in range or in general), there are several ways to do this but you will very likely need define your our network packages. 
• Define your own Entity Renderer with a Render Manager which handles the different kind of models and assigned textures like: https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/client/render/RenderEntityAcquisition.java
• Enable / Disable the correct Renderer for the selected model based on the synced server data and disable the default one. This needs mostly to be done over a mixin like: https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/mixin/ModelRendererMixin.java and https://github.com/iChun/Morph/blob/1.16/src/main/java/me/ichun/mods/morph/mixin/PlayerRendererMixin.java

In general the Morph mod is a good example and includes everything which is needed in your case.

Keep in mind that the PlayerRenderer is only an instance of the LivingEntityRenderer, so everything which works with mobs models extending LivingEntityRenderer will also work with the player models to some extend.

That's the reason why I recommend to try this first with pseudo mobs, because it's easier to test / learn and includes basically the same steps.

Listen, I'm grateful for all your help- however I'm just as lost as I was before, maybe now even moreso. I don't want to just give up on this. I doubt if I asked you to maybe do a code example you'd humor me, as for what I'm trying to do (set the player model to a specific model and skin I have in the mod directory) I can't seem to work off the Morph mod at all since it is fundamentally different and outdated (currently working with forge 1.18.2.

Besides that, every mod that does something similar either relies on too many custom complex systems for me to grasp, or is plain outdated.

I really really need help with this since it doesn't seem like anyone, save for a few people who incidentally don't leave comments in their code, knows how to do this.

 

Once again, I just want to know how to render the player to a certain model with custom ModelParts and the texture. I can't use most mods as examples or help since they aren't clearly documented and are calling on a million variables from their own code which is also not documented. It seems like you know what you're doing, or atleast sounds like it. I'm not gonna ask for you to write my code for me, but if you could just write a simple .java class to render a model onto the player first, it would be a huge help.

For reference, this is all I have so far, because I don't want to clutter things before I learn how to actually do what I want to do: https://github.com/BadFox49/Forge-DynamicRaces-1.18.2

Thanks for the feedback. But first of all it's sound simple what you want to do, but technically it's the most complicated things as mod, because you need to adjust mostly everything related to display the player and it includes a lot of sub parts.

My suggestion would be that you forget your current code and just start with a basic task like: "Hide the head of the player".

Just create something which disables the default player renderer (over mixin, render event, ...) and use something like "head.visibile = false" to render the player without a head.

Try this in single player mode, third party view and in multiplayer mod with another player.

If this works you can try the same for the other body parts and later replace the default renderer with your own.