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Fundamentals.md

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Fundamentals: Understanding what the app does

The app is essentially split into two concerns: The configuration and the modding part.

Configuration

The app loads the game's configuration from %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Fallout 76\*.ini

The *.ini file prefix is the same as the executable name (without the extension) of the game.
For the Steam version, that would be Fallout76 and for the Xbox version, that would be Project76.

The *.ini file suffixes are:

  • "" - Defaults?
  • "Prefs" - The in-game settings
  • "Custom" - The game engine reads this file but doesn't modify it. Whether or not the values in this file take precedence over the values in Fallout76Prefs.ini is hit or miss.

The keys in the *.ini files seem to follow the Hungarian Notation:

Prefix Type of value
b Boolean (0 for false, 1 for true)
c Character (?)
d Double-precision float (?)
f Floating-point number
i Integer
s String
u, ui Unsigned integer

Sometimes these prefixes are capitalized. (Seems random)

All recognized section and key names can be extracted from the game's executable.

Modding

Since Bethesda hasn't released the Creation Kit for Fallout 76 yet (and probably never will, I presume), the only mods that can be made are:

  • Mods that replace assets, such as textures, sfx, strings, etc.
  • Mods that extend the HUD / UI using Shockwave Flash.
  • Mods that inject code into the game's executable or it's libraries, thereby modifing or extending functionality (see SFE)

Replacing assets

Assets are packed into a proprietary archive format developed by BGS for their engine. Read more here: https://stepmodifications.org/wiki/Guide:Archive2

Fallout 4's Creation Kit includes a copy of Archive2, which can be used to pack archives that also work in Fallout 76.
These *.ba2 archives can then be placed into the game's directory, under the Data folder.
In order for the game to load these newly made *.ba2 archives and override any previously loaded asset, we have to modify Fallout76Prefs.ini, like so:

[Archive]
sResourceArchive2List=YourBA2FileHere,CommaSeparated

However, to the confusion of many users, there are multiple keys that are recognized by the game's engine:

  • sResourceIndexFileList (which this mod manager uses)
  • sResourceArchive2List (which a lot of people use)
  • sResourceArchiveMisc (apparently "can load any mod except for texture and animation mods")
  • and many more...

sResourceIndexFileList and sResourceArchive2List seem to work for most people, most of the time.

All that the mod manager does, is packing loose assets using Archive2 and adding these files to the list in the *.ini file. (As well as saving some meta data about the mod)

Types of assets

Asset type File type and extension Open with... Archive2 format Archive2 compression
Mesh NetImmerse File (*.nif) NifSkope General Default
Animation *.hkx General Default
Material *.bgsm, *.bgem General Default
Texture DirectDraw Surface (*.dds) DDS Default
HUD/UI Shockwave Flash (*.swf) JPEXS Free Flash Decompiler General None
SFX/Music XAudio2 file (*.xwm) Skyrim Audio Converter by JohnB General None
Voice *.fuz General None
Lip sync *.lip General None
Localization *.dlstrings, *.ilstrings, *.strings General None
Video BINK Video (*.bik) RAD Video Tools (Bink and Smacker) / /

*.ba2 file format

If you're interested in the structure of a *.ba2 file, see *.ba2 format.