Modding

Requirements
This article contains information about modding the game. It assumes that: - you are already familiar with the directory layout. If not, see Game layout. - you have extracted the original game data. If not, see Extracting game data.

Modding in general
In general, modding a game means following this waterfall model: - to extract the original files, - picking the right file(s) to modify, - modifying the files, - testing, - documentation - packaging, - publishing.

The Witcher is no different - the same model can be applied.

The nature of the beast
Modding the Witcher seems to be easy and limited.

Easy meaning that it is very easy to replace game files with modified ones.

Limited meaning that adding new content is not very straightforward since the game has been built to tell one story. This will hopefully change with future patches and publishing official modding tools.

For this reason, this article covers only the modification of game files for now.

Modding a single file
To pick the file you want to modify, take a look at the File Formats. You will also find the tools there to modify the files. Once you are done with your modification, you need to make sure that the game loads it. If you have modified a resource in a BIF file, just drop it in the \DATA directory (or, in any directory under it), If you have modified a file, unfortunately you need to overwrite the original, so be sure to make a backup before you do so. Once the modified file is in the right place, start The Witcher and see your modifications in action.

Conflicts
The Witcher reads data from the entire \DATA directory. First, it loads resources from the KEY/BIF files, and then it looks for resources from the other files in all sub-directories recursively. This means that if you place a new texture for example to \DATA\newtexture.dds and another in \DATA\TEST\newtexture.dds, you can't be sure which one will be loaded. So, if you are wondering why is it that you don't see the changes you have made, you should make sure that there is only one file with that name under the entire \DATA directory and its sub-dirs.