[Suggestion] Virtually merging Bedrock models

[Cub0use]

This is definitively a more advanced feature not everyone would use, but I think it would be extremely useful.

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Problem:

In Minecraft Bedrock, you can list multiple Render Controllers per entity, allowing you to layer different geometries, with different textures or materials. Some Vanilla entities make use of that, like the slime or the charged creeper.

It is however not possible to preview such a result in Blockbench, you can only open one model per tab. Actually merging models together adds a bunch of steps on import, and even more if you need to split them up after you are done texturing/animating.

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Solution:

What I'm proposing is to reproduce in Blockbench what's possible in Minecraft Bedrock, in a flexible and non-destructive way:

Being able to overlap two or more models in the same tab, with their respective textures (even animated textures), but keeping their geometry and texture files separate.

The most convenient and clear way I can imagine how this would work goes as follows:

• open in different tabs all the models you intend to preview together

• Virtually import in one of them the other model(s) you want to overlap, binding them together

color code the tab titles, or make some sort of parent group

closing a tab that is part of a group could prompt some kind of warning message

depending on the exact system, you could have to use one master tab which would be the only tab where you can visualize the models overlapping; or you could be able to import, unbind and preview in any of the shared tabs. Either works for me.

• In each tab, the geometry of all other bond models would appear down in the outliner (The root bone of each geometry would be on the same level)

the geometries from other tabs could be greyed out and locked, but you can still collapse the hierarchy and hide individual bones/cuboids.

or maybe you could edit and paint any virtually merged models in any tab, similar to how it works in Java format already with cuboids using different UVs. Either works for me. I think how the outliner scrolls automatically to go to the selected cuboid/bone could make that clear enough.

• In the animate tab, the virtually imported models would be animated if their bone names match the keyframes'

here virtually imported models would display their bones in the outliner (same way as bones + cuboids display in the outliner in Edit mode). With this, and also by clicking on the 3d cuboids directly, you could create and edit keyframes for bones normally not present in an individual model.

• Unbind one or all models if you wish to edit them individually once again