R&R: Your own Wolvenkit project
Summary
Created & Published: September 30 2023 by @manavortex
This page is a part of the Recolours and Refits guide and will walk you through the process of creating your own Wolvenkit project. Here, we will:
create our project
solve load order via project name
get the files from the mod that we want to change
Time to complete:
~30 minutes for the tutorial
once you know how it works: < 5 minutes to create a project and add the correct files from a mod
Skipping and skimming
his guide contains the minimal amount of fluff and will link background information rather than giving it. Any links will tell you which parts you're supposed to read — if they don't, you're free to ignore them.
For that reason, you shouldn't skip or skim unless the section tells you that it's optional.
The principles you learn here are universal. Once you have understood how this works, you can recolour and refit any Cyberpunk item.
If you are editing modded items, you should seek permission first. For your personal use, you can (legally) do what you want, but making mods takes time and effort.
Please respect mod creators' wishes in that regard.
You can check find the standard permissions on a mod's Nexus page, Description
tab, under the Permissions and Credit header right next to the requirements.
Prerequisites
The checklist below will make sure that you're ready to go for the tutorial. The links in the description will tell you how to complete each step if you can't do it on your own yet.
Why do I want a Wolvenkit project?
To edit an appearance, you need to make a mod. For that, you need a Wolvenkit project.
Normally, you get an example project to download — but you already have all the necessary files, since you downloaded them from Nexus.
This guide will teach you how to change stuff without the original creator's help. It's easy!
Once you have a Wolvenkit project, you can install your mod and see any changes you made become active right away.
There are two ways you can go about the process: do either a full repack of my mod, or create a compatibility archive. This section will explain the differences, the next one will walk you through the process of setting things up for either of those options.
Full Repack | Compatibility Archive | |
---|---|---|
Needs original mod? | no, is a full replacement | yes |
Can update original mod? | no — doing that will nuke your changes | yes |
Needs load order? | No, replaces original mod | yes, needs to load before original mod |
Once you've made your decision, you can proceed to the next section and create your Wolvenkit project. If you aren't certain yet, you can keep reading to find the pros and cons listed more clearly.
A full repack
Your mod completely overwrites the original mod, creating your own local copy.
I do this with mods for my own personal use — I don't care if the original mod is updated, my character will only ever wear that one custom variant.
Pros:
Anything I do to the mod in the future won't affect you
Cons:
Anything I do to the mod in the future won't affect you
If you update or reinstall the original mod, you will overwrite your changes
If you're anything like me, you'll lose track of which files you have or haven't modified
A patch
You'll create a compatibility mod that will exist together with the original.
I do this with mods where I only want to change little things, e.g. removing a submesh. When the original mod updates, I can update my compatibility mod in <5 minutes.
Pros:
You can still update and reinstall the original without overwriting your changes
Your mod has only exactly those files that you've actually changed
Cons:
You have to keep the original installed
Only works together with the original
Updates on the original mod might necessitate an update on your part
Your mod has to load before the original, so you need to fix load order. (This guide will tell you how)
This is where you decide for one of those options.
Creating your Wolvenkit project
The .archive that Wolvenkit packs for you will have the same name as your project. Stick to the recommendations in Step 4, or read the expandable box to learn more.
From Wolvenkit's menu bar, select File -> New Project
Fill the fields in the dialogue:
Creation Location
: This is where your loose files are going to live. From here, Wkit can pack it as a mod and install it to your game directory. Select any folder outside of your game directory.Project Name
: The name of your project, and subsequently, the name of your .archive file.If you want to overwrite: Name it the same as the original mod's
.archive
(_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_Variants
)If you want to patch: To maintain Archive files Load Order, your project needs to come before the original in ascii sort order. Pick any of the following:
_00_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_Variants
_ArchiveXL_00_Netrunner_Refit
_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_00_Variants
My personal preference is 2 and 3, as that will put the files next to the original mod.
Add files from the mod to your project
This part will show you how to add files to your project (you can't change them if you don't).
Prerequisites
You have installed the mod from Nexus.
Why are we doing this?
Skip to How to export files if you don't care.
To alter an existing item, you need to create a mod that will overwrite the original resource. This mod must modify that file first - which is where the load order comes in.
Do not move or rename any of those files, they need to be exactly where Wolvenkit puts them.
The section
describes the process of How to export files
tells you which files to use it on for Selected files: Recolour Selected files: Refit
For the general documentation on adding files to your project, see here.
How to export files
In Wolvenkit, open the Asset Browser (pinned at the right-hand side by default), and toggle the switch to "Mod Browser".
Find
_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_Variants
, then click on it. It will be near the bottom of the list, together with your other mods starting with_
You can now browse the archive, or use Wolvenkit's search bar (next to the big red toggle button) to find files inside the archive by searching for
archive:ArchiveXL_Netrunner
.
Selected files: full repack
If you want to overwrite the complete mod, run this query in Wolvenkit's Mod Browser:
Add all files to the project — everything.
Now, switch the Project Explorer to
Resources
. It will be empty; you have to create the following folder structure:
Find and copy the following files from your game directory into the subfolders of resources
(there'll be a screenshot in a minute)
_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_variants.yaml
From: Cyberpunk 2077\r6\tweaks\manavortex
To: resources\manavortex
ArchiveXL_Netrunner_variants_atelier.reds
From: Cyberpunk 2077\r6\scripts\manavortex
To: resources\r6\scripts\manavortex
_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_variants.archive.xl
From: either
vanilla install: Cyberpunk 2077\archive\pc\mod
REDmod: Cyberpunk 2077\mods\RANDOMNUMBER_ArchiveXL_Netrunner_variants\archives
To: resources
Selected files: Emissive
TL;DR: via search browser query
Add all those files to your project, then skip the rest of this page and go to R&R: Emissive
Selected files: Recolour
All material colour definitions are stored in .mlsetup
files, which we'll be editing in R&R: Colour Editing.
If you want to edit a file that is not part of High Fashion Netrunning Suits, you need to find it first.
If it is part of a different mod, see Analysing other mods and use that archive. You just need to adjust your search queries below.
If you want to modify base game items, you need to find their mesh (check Spawn Codes (BaseIDs/Hashes)). Once you have that, you can use "find used files" from the Asset Browser's context menu to find all .mlsetups, or you open the mesh in Wolvenkit to follow the material definition chain.
TL;DR: via search browser query
File structure explained
All material definitions in this mod are in the folder
manavortex\torso\netrunning_suit\textures
The first level subfolders group the
.mlsetup
files by material (e.g.nylon
,snake
,other
)The texture files inside the folders are named like
material_baseColor_accentColor
. Base colour and accent colour should correspond with the in-game suit name.If there is a subfolder inside the material folder, the
mlsetup
s inside are using the secondarymlmask
. That's not going to mean anything to you, but we'll get back to it on R&R: Colour Editing.
If the names aren't clear enough or if you can't guess which file you have to take, you can open netrunner_recolours_translation.json
in Wolvenkit:
Expand the root
node and then the entries
node. By selecting a node, you can see the translation text. The field for secondaryKey
contains the colour variant, which corresponds to the mlsetup file name:
Selected files: Refit
For a refit, you only need two files (one if you don't care about the emissive properties):
female body gender
mesh | path in files |
---|---|
suit |
|
emissive |
|
male body gender
mesh | path in files |
---|---|
suit |
|
emissive |
|
Simply add both files to your project, then hit up the R&R: Refitting (step by step) section to get them fixed.
OK, what now?
Depending on which files you added, you now proceed to the next guide:
R&R: Colour Editing / R&R: Emissive
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