Texture location?

[MontyModMonster]

Indeed, it'd be interesting to find out if there's an override folder or not. I wrote a very quick and dirty python script to sort the files. The Lua utils' extraction isn't flawless (seems to be a fair number of broken .png's, for instance), but there're a lot of usable resources.

 

EDIT:: I'd upload the sorted files, but my internet is painfully slow!

 

Yes - some broken files don't surprise me, at this stage. They might be fixable by removing the .dds hex header which the lua script is prepending.

 

If you upload the python script for me, I'll sort and reupload to a better file host.

Edited June 3, 2015 by MontyModMonster

[diamok]

So I was in bed trying to go to sleep then started thinking about this whole override folder issue. It occurred to me, when I was poking around some of the settings files I may have seen something about the DLCs. So I got up, opened up the user.settings file located in the /Documents/The Witcher 3/ folder and sure enough, there is a section named [DLC] with code as such...DlcEnabled_dlc_004_001=1. I am assuming everything to the left of the equal sign sets which DLC is to be active, where as the number to the right of the equal sign sets whether or not the corresponding DLC is actually active.

 

So, assuming this DLC folder and it's contents sort of already acts as an override folder per se, my though is this and granted, it's a complete and utter hacky/crowbar way to do things, but what if a modder simply added to the DLC folder (located in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt folder in the install drive) and say made a folder called DLC999 (or whatever really), then plopped all the required files and folders into this new DLC folder. From there someone would need to create a script to add the line DlcEnabled_dlc_00999_001=1 (it may take some trial and error to find out exactly how to configure this line) to the user.settings file (without changing anything else in that file) for part of the install.

 

Again, I was in bed going to sleep when I thought of this...don't hate on me to much if it's a dumb and useless idea. Of course, if it works...I expect praise and cheers from you all, as well as hefty credit. lol :-P

 

I can think of one issue that could occur, if CD Projekt Red has already planned X number of DLCs for the game and hard coded that in.

 

Thoughts?

 

Take care and good night,

Edited June 4, 2015 by diamok

[MontyModMonster]

I like your thinking - this is an interesting idea. I'll have a look later on. One question will be whether the files in the DLC folders are loose, or whether they are also bundled up in cache archives, which would leave us with the same problem.

[BicameralAnt]

The DLCs are indeed bundled, not loose files.

 

EDIT:: And here's the .py. Like I said, it's extremely basic and very dirty. There's no error catching or anything like that. Be sure to enter valid paths only. Like "D:\MyStuff\Witcher\SortThisFolder\" (without the quotation marks!).

 

It simply looks for "#"'s in the names, creates folders based on those separators and lastly renames (moves) the files.

 

http://pastebin.com/NRm2bNvd

 

Also, it seems like many of the .png's are in fact .dds files. Bit strange. Some of the xml's reference straight up png's.

Edited June 4, 2015 by BicameralAnt

[MontyModMonster]

Thanks. The script saves me time faffing around trying to remember how to manipulate text strings and filenames.

[BicameralAnt]

No problem. Glad it can be of some use. Btw, I think you mentioned VirtualBox earlier in the thread? Thanks - saved me some major headache. Building libs on Win8, no fun at all...

[diamok]

As BicameralAnt stated, the files are for sure bundled, but if say the texture.cache file could be remade after editing/replacing a texture, the DLC folder could surely be used as a mod install location...yes? Heck, even the script oreiented mods that have been already released could be installed this way as well. Maybe?

 

I don't know, just trying to get around issues until we get the Kit to work with I guess. I'll keep brainstorming and see if something else emerges. :-)

 

Take care and good morning,

[MontyModMonster]

As BicameralAnt stated, the files are for sure bundled, but if say the texture.cache file could be remade after editing/replacing a texture, the DLC folder could surely be used as a mod install location...yes? Heck, even the script oreiented mods that have been already released could be installed this way as well. Maybe?

 

If we can succeed in importing edited xbm files back into the texture.cache files, then we have all sorts of options - the original cache archives in the content folders, or perhaps in the patch0 folder. However, I haven't suceeded in doing that yet, and AFAIK no-one else has.

 

The problem is that the QuickBMS reimport process relies on the way it renamed the files when it exported them. Unfortunately, QuickBMS has problems extracting the textures from the cache files, which is why I had to use those Lua scripts to get them out. So, because QuickBMS didn't extract them, it doesn't seem to know how to put them back.

 

Also, using QuickBMS to reimport back into the cache and bundle files is hacky, and has a major limitation - the modded file cannot be larger than the original. This isn't such an issue for mods that are just modifying strings in xml files, and that is already being done successfully. But for those of us looking at modding textures and models, it's a major drawback. An override mechanism is what we really need.

[MontyModMonster]

Hmm...

Looking at the folder \The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\content\content0

It seems that in addition to all the cache and bundle files, it also has folders for 'engine', 'levels', and 'movies'. These are also subfolders within the extracted texture.cache, which leads me to believe that they might be overrides. Need to experiment with modding some stuff, then just putting it in the proper subfolders under \content0.

[luddemann]

Love to see all the work being put into this! :) I've already started working on some retextures of a couple of armors. I would love to get my hands on some of the models as well, cause I want to make new normal maps in zbrush. Anybody know where they are?