Replace the art on a shipped weapon

Change the mesh and textures of an existing weapon. Its WeaponDef, inventory identity and gameplay stats stay the shipped weapon’s.

You need

• ContentTool installed and enabled.
• A fitted GLB or OBJ for the shipped mesh, and PNG, JPG or JPEG replacement textures.
• The exact shipped bundle, Mesh name and Texture2D names. Find content explains the lookup.

Folder layout

WeaponReplace\
  meta.json
  ppcontent.json
  Content\
    Meshes\
      rifle.glb                  <- replacement geometry
    Textures\
      rifle_albedo.png           <- replacement images
      rifle_normal_flat.png
      rifle_metallic_flat.png
      rifle_occlusion_white.png
      rifle_emissive_off.png

Steps

1. In the game console, list the shipped targets:

ct_list assets px_equipment_assets_all.bundle Mesh WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle
ct_list assets px_equipment_assets_all.bundle Texture2D WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle

Copy exact asset names from your installation. Put your source files directly in the folders shown above.

1. Create meta.json:

{
  "ID": "example.weaponreplace",
  "AssemblyName": "",
  "Version": "1.0.0",
  "Name": [{ "Key": "English", "Value": "Weapon replacement" }],
  "Dependencies": ["com.morgott.ContentTool"]
}

1. Create ppcontent.json. Each asset is a shipped target; each mesh or texture is one of your source file stems:

{
  "id": "example.weaponreplace",
  "bundle": "WeaponReplace.bundle",
  "replace": [
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01", "mesh": "rifle" },
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_albedo", "texture": "rifle_albedo" },
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_normal", "texture": "rifle_normal_flat" },
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_metallic", "texture": "rifle_metallic_flat" },
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_occlusion", "texture": "rifle_occlusion_white" },
    { "bundle": "px_equipment_assets_all.bundle", "asset": "WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_emissive", "texture": "rifle_emissive_off" }
  ]
}

1. Bake and read every patch and read-back line:

ct_project WeaponReplace

Enable the mod in the mod manager. ContentTool redirects its private patched copy; it does not overwrite the shipped bundle. Restart if the game already loaded that bundle. Package after a clean bake:

ct_package WeaponReplace

Check it worked

Look for a mesh patch, texture patches and the terminal success line:

patch px_equipment_assets_all.bundle: mesh 'WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01' <- rifle <geometry-and-binding-report>
patch px_equipment_assets_all.bundle: 'WPN_PX_RG_Assault_Rifle_T01_V01_albedo' <- rifle_albedo <width>x<height>
ct_project: ALL PASS - <path>

Equip the shipped weapon and inspect its model and texture in game. This content-only recipe changes the world model; changing its inventory icon needs separate DLL code, as the demo shows.

Common errors

What you see	Why	Fix
P4 REFUSED 'rifle' is not a .obj or .glb under Content\Meshes\	The mesh stem has no source in the expected folder.	Move the GLB or OBJ directly into Content\Meshes, or correct the stem.
P1 REFUSED '<name>' is not a .png/.jpg under Content\Textures\	A texture source is missing or placed elsewhere.	Put it directly in Content\Textures and use its stem.
P4 REFUSED target '<asset>' is not a Mesh	The target name or bundle is wrong.	Copy an exact Mesh name from ct_list assets.
P1 REFUSED target '<asset>' is not a Texture2D	The texture target name or bundle is wrong.	Copy an exact Texture2D name from ct_list assets.

See messages for more diagnostics.

Example

WeaponMesh replaces one shipped rifle mesh and five textures. Its separate DLL also changes the inventory icon.