Custompathing assets

How to stop influencing game or mod files by making your own copy (with blackjack and hookers)

Published: January 16 2024 by @madmaximusjb Last documented edit: April 2026 by mana vortex

This guide will teach you how to set game assets as new files. Don't worry, it's really simple!

Why do I need this?

The game identifies files by their paths. For example, base\characters\main_npc\silverhand\a0_001_ma_arms__silverhand.mesh is Johnny's signature arm. The game will read that file whenever it spawns everyone's favourite terrorist — any changes you make will affect him.

If you want to use your own copy of that arm (for a custom NPC), the solution is custompathing.

By moving the arm to e.g. your_modder_name\npcs\johnnys_evil_halfbrother\a0_001_ma_arms__silverhand.mesh , you can change whatever you want, and the original won't be affected.

Wolvenkit's File Validation can help you find broken reference paths in your project, and the full scan to log view will check for many common issues.

An exercise

You need a Wolvenkit Project with at least one file in it. If you don't have one yet, let's use Johnny's arm:

base\characters\main_npc\silverhand\a0_001_ma_arms__silverhand.mesh
base\characters\main_npc\silverhand\textures\ml_a0_001_ma_arms__silverhand.mlsetup

Step 1: Renaming to target

The easiest (and recommended) way to do this is Wolvenkit's Rename dialogue.

With a file or folder selected in the project browser, click "Rename" in the context menu (or press f2):

In the box, put the full name of where you want your file/folder to go. In our example, that'll be your_modder_name\npcs\johnnys_evil_halfbrother\ .

Make sure to check the box so that Wolvenkit can update all references across your project!

Now, click "Finish".

Step 2: Success!

You now have your very own copy of Johnny's arm, with its own .mlsetup file. You can recolour the arm without the original being affected.

The blue text tells you which references have been updated:

Until next time, chooms!