This page contains general information on what techniques and tools one can choose when wanting to remove nodes
The terms Object and Node will be used interchangeably in most guides, Node is just the more general description of something that is part of the game world
It is extremely recommended to use Removal Editor or VS2077 (Depending on the job) to remove nodes from the world as it is easier to use, easier to update and maintain and faster than doing it manually.
Removal Editor (Documentations can be found on the GitHub page)
Best if you want to manually choose what to remove, but don't want to worry about any further steps (Such as creating a .xl file yourself)
Best if you want to delete everything (With filters) within a certain area / volume
Generating the .xl file via Blender, see #blender-and-archivexl
While it is not recommended anymore to use the manual method, it can be helpful to understand how the removing actually works, as no matter the tool and process, removing nodes uses the same underlying technique
How to remove items from the world with ArchiveXL
Created by @manavortex Published in October 2023 Last (documented) update: December 2023
This guide will show you how to remove items from the world via ArchiveXL.
Difficulty: You know how to read. Everything else will hopefully become clear !
ArchiveXL >= 1.8.0
If you want to do it in Blender: Wolvenkit Blender IO Suite >= 1.5.0
Otherwise: RedHotTools >= 0.5.2
This section will walk you through the process of creating an .xl file to remove objects from the game world.
This guide will feature the manual process, which can get tedious and is prone to errors.
It is highly recommended to use one of the Tool Assisted methods instead
Visual learners, celebrate: OUiJIXOU and Proxima Dust made video guides for this!
Find the node information in the Inspect tab of RedHotTools (see Finding Locationsfor a detailed guide)
Create an .xl file in your Wolvenkit Project's resources folder and name it after your world deletion (e.g. delete_pacifica_fast_travel_terminal.xl).
You can edit this file in Wolvenkit or in a text editor like Notepad++
We'll fill in the information in Step 3, this is how it will look:
Paste the following code into your .xl file:
Adjust the .xl file. Mind the leading spaces!
for path, put the full path to your world sector as seen in RedHotTools (1., yellow on screenshot - base\worlds\03_night_city_compiled\default\exterior_-35_-35_0_0.streamingsector)
for expectedNodes, put the number of nodes in this sector (2., pink, 503 in the screenshot)
For each node that you want to delete, add an entry under nodeDeletions:
- index (the - is important): the node index (3., violet in the screenshot)
type: the type of the node (4., turquoise in the screenshot)
Optional, but recommended: Run your XL file through yamllint
Save the .xl file
If everything worked, your object should now be gone.
Otherwise, check the Troubleshooting section.
If you have been working directly in your archive/pc/mod directory, do not right-click on your .xl file and pack it. You have to create the following folder structure and then pack the archive folder:
If you don't do that, you will drown in comments from confused users who don't know how to install your mod.
Hit up Editing locations in Blender and follow the instructions to import your sectors into Blender.
Optiona, but recommended: Save the blend file. There's no real way to undo stuff right now other than deleting them from the list by hand, and re-importing is tedious. If you save the file, you can use File -> Revert to undo all your changes.
Select and delete the objects that you want to get rid of.
Now it's time to get exporting.
This step will be made obsolete in a future update of the Wolvenkit Blender IO Suite (currently 1.5.0). The guide will tell you at which point you can skip ahead if that's the case.
In the Scene Collection (usually at the top right of your Blender viewport), select a sector collection.
Below the viewport in the right side panel, switch to the Collections tab and expand the Custom Properties header. You need a property with the name of expectedNodes (green box).
If you have one, you can proceed to Generating an .xl file.
If you don't have one, keep reading.
First, you need to find out the number of nodes in your sector. We will do that in Wolvenkit.
Find the correct sector file and open it in Wolvenkit. (You can copy the name from the filepath field in Custom Properties — the file should be in your project from your earlier export.)
In the CR2W editor, find the nodes property and look at the count. That number needs to go into your new property in Blender.
Click New to add a new property. It will be called prop and have a value of 1.000.
Click the gear and add the property's properties:
Type should be Integer
Property Name shoudld be expectedNodes
Default Value, Min, and Max should be the number of nodes from your sector file.
After you have made those changes, click OK.\
The value of your new property will probably still be 1 until you click in the field - then it will be updated with the only value possible.
Repeat this step for every sector file.
Switch to Blender's Scripting perspective and create a new file.
Open this link (mana's github) and copy the contents into Blender's editor.
Edit the value of output_filename — it has to be a valid path (and can even be your Cyberpunk mod directory).
Running the script will overwrite existing files. That's not a problem, but you need to take care of backups yourself.
When you're done, click the ▶ button in the toolbar to run the script.
You now have an .xl file. If you put it into archive/pc/mod, the game should load it. Otherwise, check the Troubleshooting section of this guide.
This step is optional, but recommended, as the script might add nodes to the deletion list that you want to keep.
This is also how you can edit other people's sector presets. Want to keep your candles? Search for "candle" and remove them from the deletion list!
Open the generated .xl file in a text editor such as Notepad++.
Search for worldEntityNode
&#xNAN;Keyboard shortcuts to find all in document in Notepad++: Ctrl+F - Alt+D
Check the comment on top of a block to find out what it is.
If you want to keep something, remove the entire block from the .xl file (see screenshot).
Put the .xl file into archive/pc/mod and start the game. (Don't put your Wolvenkit project, you don't need all that sector garbage!)
That's it! You changed the world - literally! Happy modding, choomba!
Do not pack the Wolvenkit project you used for Blender import - you don't need an .archive file
To add the .xl file to a Wolvenkit project, simply put it into the source/resources folder and pack. Your mod will include only text files and be really tiny - ArchiveXL does all the heavy lifting.
If your zip for Nexus contains an .archive file, you've done something wrong here!
You can convert node removal scripts from ArchiveXL 1.8 format to 1.9 format by running this Python script on the file.
You need:
a Wolvenkit project with the sectors exported to .json
an .xl file
Change the following lines in the script:
While you can write directly to your output file, you really should not.
After running the conversion script, search your new .xl file for INVALID_NODE to filter out any entries that could not be resolved.
Check the ArchiveXL log (you can find it in Cyberpunk 2077\red4ext\plugins\ArchiveXL\ArchiveXL.log). For every block in your .xl file, you should see an entry like this:
Make sure that your file
has the extension .xl
is located in archive/pc/mod or loaded as part of a REDmod (why are you doing this to yourself? You're testing. Put it in archive/pc/mod!)
Check if the syntax is valid by running it through yamllint
Make sure that ArchiveXL is up-to-date and working
Check the expectedNodes entry inside your .xl file against the sector files inside Wolvenkit as per Adjust the sector collections' properties.
Although you can also work directly in your archive/pc/mod directory, you should , so that you can easily pack your mod for Nexus deployment.
and launch the game.
If you have been a good bean and stuck to the instructions, you only need to and can skip the rest of this section.
Author: spirit
Last update: September 24th 2024
If you ever tried to build a structure outside of the usual game bounds and encountered textures popping in and out seemingly at random you have encountered occlusion mesh nodes. This article will explain how to find and remove them, touch on their purpose and provide starting points for optimization.
Occlusion Mesh Example:
Navigate to the location where you want to remove the occlusion mesh nodes
Open the CET Menu and find World Inspector
Switch to the Scan Tab
Click on Scan world nodes
Make sure the Group is set to All, Distance to 50m or more depending on your area, and Filter to "Occl"
Expand each item in the list to reveal the detailed information
[!NOTE] World Inspector cannot find all occlusion mesh nodes, so trying to remove them using Removal Editor will not remove all actual occlusion mesh nodes from the area.
Create and open a new project in Wolvenkit
Search and Right Click > Add selected items to project for each world sector you found in the World Inspector to your project in Wolvenkit
Click on Tools > Script Manager at the top
Find the "RemoveOcclusionFromSectors" script and run it
An .xl file that removes the occlusion mesh nodes has now been created in your "resources" folder in Wolvenkit
Open the resources directory in file explorer
Move the file to {GameDirectory}\archive\pc\mod
In the "Hot Reload" tool go to the Archives tab and click on reload extensions, now you need load a game save and the occlusion mesh nodes should be removed.
If you followed the steps but not all of the occlusion has been removed you can try:
restarting your game fully
increasing the "Distance" in "World Inspector" and redo the steps from that point on
adding world sectors that World Inspector doesn't find occlusion mesh nodes in
Lastly, if none of these worked you can join the Discord where we can troubleshoot the issue together.
[!NOTE] This section, but especially the optimization part needs further testing and documentation.
They are a performance optimization method that selectively blocks geometry that is behind it from being rendered, therefore improving fps. But since most other objects also do that the performance loss from removing them in a select few world sectors is almost negligible (assuming there are no holes in the world or they are filled with other props).
The simple approach to optimize performance is to add each world sector separately and test which ones remove only the occlusion that is in your way. Another more advanced option is to add new occlusion mesh nodes that consider your structure.
