# Assets explained

## What is an asset?

An asset is a specific, objectified concept in the game that can be highly detailed like a blade of grass, or larger like a building, or intangible like sound effects. Unity defines an asset as, "Shorthand for anything that goes into a video game – characters, objects, sound effects, maps, environments, etc."

Every asset is defined in a set of [normalized](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization) asset files that describe its relationship to the game, other assets, and itself.

## Visual Asset-Related File Formats

The following list contains file formats that are used to compose visual assets such as vehicles and weapons.

{% hint style="info" %}
The community-devloped tool **WolvenKit** can be used to browse game archives and extract game files.\
\
[Learn more](https://wiki.redmodding.org/wolvenkit/)
{% endhint %}

### MESH

3d models

### XBM (images and Textures)

2d textures mapped onto meshes, advertisements, or any other game asset that uses an image in the game.

### APP (appearance)

Sets up appearances for assets such as NPCs and vehicles referenced by [**entity files**](#ent-entity)

### BK2 (Videos)

[**Bink 2**](https://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm) file format (.bk2) that us used for any videos in game (Televsion, quest overlays, or some billboards)

### ENT (entity)

Parent file for most visual assets which is directly linked by the [**Tweak DB**](/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-creators-theory/tweaks/tweaks.md#what-is-the-tweak-db)

### HP (hair profile)

Color ramp data to set colors for meshes using the hair [**shader**](/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-creators-theory/materials/shaders.md)

### MI (material instance)

Instanced shaders for mesh materials

### MLMASK (multilayered mask)

Mask component of the [**Multilayer supershader**](/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-creators-theory/materials/multilayered.md)

### MLSETUP (multilayered setup)

Material setup component of the [**Multilayer supershader**](/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-creators-theory/materials/multilayered.md)

### MLTEMPLATE (multilayered template)

Pre-defined tiling surface component of the [**Multilayer supershader**](/cyberpunk-2077-modding/for-mod-creators-theory/materials/multilayered.md)

### MT (material template)

Base shader files for REDengine

***

## Visual Asset Graphs

#### Vehicles

![](/files/V3EQu7W4hxhTIjVB0Kly)


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