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Workflows for Iterating on RE Engine Mods
🕑 Added 2020-12-26 21:01:40 +0000 UTCHere is a list of workflows people can use for modding assets in any RE Engine game (as of this writing, that would be RE2, RE3, RE7, and DMC5). I'll be using DMC5 as an example for all the info here, but this is applicable to any RE Engine game (some paths would be slightly different).
If you're new to RE Engine modding, the first step is to extract the PAK files from the game so you get access to the files you want to edit. You can use REtool for that.
And when it comes to installing mods, there are 2 different ways you can have Fluffy Manager read mods. As a directory or the contents of that directory packaged into a RAR file:
- As a folder, it would look something like this: [ModManagerPath]\Games\DMC5\[ModName]\natives\x64\[Modded Assets]
- As a RAR file, it would be similar but "natives" and everything in it would be stored in a RAR file: [ModManagerPath]\Games\DMC5\[ModName.RAR]->natives\x64\[Modded Assets]
Ideally, you'll want a modinfo.ini in the mod's "root directory" with information about the mod which Fluffy Manager reads from (just download any mod via Fluffy Manager for an idea how those are structured).
Workflow 1 - Normal install via Fluffy Manager
This is pretty straightforward. Put all the modded assets into a folder or RAR file as described above, and then install the mod, boot up the game and test the changes, quit the game, uninstall the mod, update mod assets, and then repeat the entire process.
The advantage with this workflow is that your files are structured in the same way you'll be releasing them in the final version of your mod. The downside is that you'll have to keep restarting the game in order to test changes. However, there's a trick to getting around that.
Newer versions of Fluffy Manager (v2.243, which is a WIP build as of this writing) let you turn on an option which lets you re-copy the files of an installed mod while the game is running (go into "Options->Advanced Options" to enable this behaviour). This kind of "installing an installed mod" works by copying files over and nothing else. It skips the PAK editing phase of a mod install which is what is impossible to do while the game is running.
Restarting a mission or loading a save should generally be a good way to make the game reload assets if you are using this method for copying updated assets while the game is running.
Workflow 2 - Modify assets installed via Fluffy Manager
This is similar to the above workflow, but after installing the mod and booting up the game, you go to the game directory and edit the assets which were installed by Fluffy Manager. This lets you edit files while the game is running.
You'll have to remember to copy the updated files back somewhere when you're happy with the changes. In order to make it harder to accidentally uninstall the mod in Fluffy Manager (and thus lose any modding progress if you forgot to copy over the updated files somewhere), you can turn on a prompt for mod uninstalls by checking this toggle: Options->Advanced options->Uninstall prompts.
Workflow 3 - Extract all assets into game directory
This allows for more freeform editing where you can change virtually anything while the game is running, but it has some rather big downsides. The idea is that you extract everything from all PAK files and then alter those PAK files so the game loads all the extracted files.
First of all, make sure you have a new version of REtool (you'll need v0.209 or newer). Download a good file list for the game. Download this batch file: https://fluffyquack.com/tools/additional-files/DMC5-extract-paks-and-invalidate.bat (this batch file is configured to be used with DMC5. Let me know if you want a similar batch file for RE2 or RE3). Then put all of that into the game directory. Make sure you have zero mods installed and run the batch file. It will take some minutes in order to extract all the assets and edit the PAK files.
Once that is done, you can go into "natives" and edit whatever.
You can also combine this with Fluffy Manager. Just make sure to click on "re-read game archives" after you've run the above batch file, and then any mod can be installed like normal. Note that this will start building up a "backup" directory within Fluffy Manager in order revert to unmodified assets as you uninstall mods. You can delete this directory (it's in [ModManagerPath]\Games\DMC5\Backup) if you ever stop using this type of workflow. I haven't tested this thoroughly, but can try adding "CheckIfGameIsRunningForModInstalls: 0" to the config file for Fluffy Manager and then you can install/uninstall mods while the game is running (which should be fine as it doesn't have to deal with PAK files anymore).
While this workflow is good for editing virtually anything while the game is running, it has some downsides:
- Since we don't have 100% complete filelists for any RE Engine game, the PAK files aren't actually fully unpacked and the game will still read them for obscure assets.
- This leads to the game getting slower loading times. Reading compressed assets and decompressing them in memory is can actually be faster than reading uncompressed assets.
- You'll need a lot of extra harddrive space on the same drive the game is installed. In the case of DMC5, extracted assets take around 58gb.
- If the game gets patched, then GG, you have little idea how the PAK files ended up being changed, so you'll need to set everything up again.
- It can be hard to keep track of which specific files you've edited (unless you always make sure to install modded files via Fluffy Manager).
- There's no easy undo for this kind of setup. If you want to revert to a normal file structure, you'll need to reinstall the game. I suggest these steps: uninstall any mods via Fluffy Manager, uninstall game in Steam, delete the game directory, delete the backup directory in Fluffy Manager, install the game, and then finally click on "re-read game archives" in Fluffy Manager.
