Model Swapping

An overview of how to swap 3D models/assets in this game. Use at your own risk!

Overview

This guide will outline how to swap models for Bayonetta (PC).

You can adopt this process and use it to create character, weapon and enemy replacements, similar to the one below:

(Mod download in video description)

Have fun messing around!

Important

This tutorial covers how to swap pre-existing game assets with each other (such as player, weapon & enemy models etc.) It does NOT cover how to edit models or create new assets.

Proceed at your own risk – altering your game files may cause bugs, crashes, or potentially loss/corruption of save data.

Tools

Download and install/extract the following tools.

.cpk decompiler

• CPK Tools[dbxvmods.freeforums.net]

Model viewer (preview .dat models)

• Noesis[richwhitehouse.com] (credits to RichWhiteHouse)
  
• Noesis plug-in for Bayonetta PC[github.com] (credits to Kerilk)

.dat decompiler/recomplier

• PlatinumDat.exe https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B87z--RxNuh4MUNUMHFxOF9mV0U/view (included in Bayonetta Audio Tools) (credits to Skyth and Mario Tainaka)

Directory/File Structure

.cpk files

This game's assets are stored in .cpk files. These .cpk files are located in your Bayonetta data folder:

\steamapps\common\Bayonetta\data

.cpk files are encrypted archives of the game's files, and once unpacked appear as a normal directory structure.

(NOTE: If you have enough hard drive space, it is highly recommended that you keep the unpacked files in a separate directory to access, without having to decompile them each time)

.dat files

Once unpacked, you will find that most of the files contained in these archives are .dat files.
Some of these .dat files contain model data, and can be previewed using Noesis + the Bayonetta PC plug-in. Not all .dat files contain model data, however, and will throw an error if you try to preview them.

.dat files can be decompiled using PlatinumDat.exe.

.wmb/.wtb files

Unpacked .dat files can result in many different files and filetypes, but the ones that we are primarily interested in for the sake of this tutorial are:

• .wmb files (contain model data)
  
• .wtb files (contain texture data)

By renaming and repacking these files into another .dat file, we can effectively swap model and texture data between characters, enemies, weapons, etc.

http://s1.zetaboards.com/InfernalWorks/topic/8098975/1/

Process

Unpacking .cpk files with CPKTools

1. Browse for the .cpk file(s) you wish to unpack

2. Select the output destination for the unpacked files (preferrably outside of your Steam folder to avoid confusion)

3. Click “Decompress” to start unpacking

Previewing .dat files with Noesis (optional)

1. Select Bayonetta PC Model (*.dat) from the filetype dropdown (if you can't see this option, make sure you have the bayonetta_pc.dll installed in the Noesis/plugins/ folder)

2. Navigate to the folder/sub-folder containing the unpacked .cpk contents

3. Double click the .dat file you wish to preview

If you get a message asking you to load motions, just click cancel:


If you see the following error message, that most likely means that the .dat file you're trying to preview does NOT contain model data.


(Refer to Creelien's file identification list for help finding a specific model)[s1.zetaboards.com]

4. Preview the .dat files using the Noesis viewport to find a model you wish to replace and the model you wish to replace it with

Decompiling and recompiling .dat files with PlatinumDat.exe

1. Separately, drag the .dat files you wish to model-swap onto PlatinumDat.exe (this will create 2 folders with the same name as the .dat files, within the same directory)


2. Within the REPLACEMENT MODEL'S FOLDER (i.e. the folder containing the models/textures we want to use), locate the .wmb and .wtb files:

(NOTE: Some .dat files contain multiple .wmb and .wtb files. In the case of player models, this is because each .dat file contains separate model files for the player outfit, shadow geometry, and little demons. If you're looking to replace just the player model, the name of the .wmb and .wtb files will match the name of the .dat file that you unpacked [e.g. pl0089.dat → pl0089.wmb, pl0089.wtb])

3. Copy the .wmb and .wtb files FROM THE REPLACEMENT MODEL'S FOLDER and paste them into the REPLACED MODEL'S FOLDER


4. Copy the filenames of the .wmb and .wtb files you wish to replace to a blank text document, and then delete these files


5. Rename the replacement .wmb and .wtb files to match the names of the (now deleted) replaced files


6. Drag this folder onto PlatinumDat.exe (this will create/overwrite the old .dat file you decompiled)

7. Copy this new .dat file to \steamapps\common\Bayonetta\data\********
(where ******** is the sub-folder that the .dat file belongs to [e.g. player models will fall directly under \steamapps\common\Bayonetta\data\pl\] create this folder if it does not yet exist)

Testing in-game

Time to open the game and test your model swap out!

If you don't see your changes in-game, open the new .dat file in Noesis to preview the .dat file. You should see the replacement models/textures. If not, something probably went wrong during one of the other steps.

If your game crashes, it could just be a bad model swap that the game struggles to cope with.
Let me know if you experience any issues you can't solve and I'll try to help.

Knowledge/Tips/Suggestions

• Model swapping using this method causes replacement models to inherit the animations of the base model. If there are significant differences between the skeleton of these models, then the game will automatically remap the replacement model to the base skeleton. This can result in some pretty significant warping/deformation. However, if you're doing a player model replacement, it's worth noting that different player costumes contain different skeletons (see the image below), and the automatic remapping can have some drastically different results.
  Experiment with replacing different player models for different results.

I'll try to update this guide as I get more information from the modding scene.

[inejylmirg]

dude i cant download platinumdat.exe at all

[xllANDRESllx]

I tried to swap little cereza model into default bayo, but my game crashes everytime, how do i solve it ?

[Kaznor]

Link for .dat decompiler/recompiler doesn't work, can you fix it, please?

[Shnitzy]

thanks for the guide! when i drag the .dat files over the PlatinumDat application, the folders are created but they're empty. any idea how to fix this?

[aero8524]

good

[RuV]

can we used model from other game?i mean not from bayonetta?

[DrNewcenstein]

Awesome.