Choose Replace, Add or Build

Choose what the game should do with your content before making files. These routes can coexist in one project.

Goal	Route	What you declare	Typical source
Change content the game already uses	Replace	A shipped target and your replacement	Content\Textures, Content\Meshes, Content\Audio\Replace, or Content\Videos
Give the mod its own content	Add	A new model, texture, sound or video and, where needed, a key that uses it	Content\Models, Content\Textures, Content\Audio, or Content\Videos
Make a game object around new art	Build	A shipped donor definition and a creature or weapons declaration	Usually Content\Models, sometimes with a behaviour DLL

Replace

Choose Replace when an existing texture, material, mesh, animation clip, sound or video already has the job you want. For a bundle replacement, ContentTool makes a private patched copy from each player’s shipped bundle. Your release contains your declarations and source files, never that patched game bundle.

For a texture, the manifest’s asset is the shipped object’s exact, case-sensitive name. Its texture is your source file’s stem; put that file directly under Content\Textures\. Start with the quickstart.

Sound replacements have their own bake: Content\Audio\Replace → ct_sound bake <YourMod> → Dist\Sounds\<mediaId>.bnk. ct_project does not bake that folder.

Add

Choose Add when no shipped object should be overwritten. ContentTool bakes mod-owned textures, models and new sounds into Dist\<bundle>, where <bundle> is the manifest’s root bundle value. A video stays under Content\Videos\ and is served live when the mod is enabled; it is not baked into that bundle.

Added content still needs a way for the game to use it. A catalog key, definition change or your own DLL may supply that connection.

Added sounds

New sounds under Content\Audio bake and self-check, but ContentTool does not load their added bank when players run the mod. They are silent unless the mod’s own DLL loads that bank. Replacing an existing sound through Content\Audio\Replace works without a DLL. Streamed added sounds are not packaged. See known limitations.

Build

Choose Build when you need a creature or weapon definition around your content. The declaration names a shipped donor for the game-facing structure, then supplies your model and other changes. Follow a creature or weapon recipe instead of guessing the required fields.

A folder name alone does not select a route. In particular, Content\Meshes\materials is an old Resource Replacer layout; ContentTool does not scan it for texture sources. See project files for the accepted layout, then the lifecycle for the build and release sequence.