Modding The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an easy way to customize your experience with the game. The game has "official" mod support through MODkit, though CDPR doesn't provide actual support for modded installs or modders. While limited in scope to The Witcher 2's REDkit, there is a broad range of modding options, with the community adding additional tools and functionalities to modify additional parts of the game.
Installing Mods
Generally, mods are installed in the "mods" folder in your Witcher 3 game directory. Mods may include additional steps to the installation process, such as:
- adding keybinds to
input.settingsin the"My Documents\The Witcher 3\"folder - adding/modding a menu in the
"\bin\config\r4game\user_config_matrix\pc\"folder - etc.
Because of limitations of the mod support, you will probably have to use a utility called Script Merger to merge conflicting parts of multiple mods. This is generally very painless, but sometimes includes some additional thought.
Creating Your Own Mods
If you want to create a mod for the Witcher 3, welcome! A list of helpful articles to get you started is below.
Unpacking The Game
To unpack the game (where for example xml files where are) you need to use MODkit. Uncooking The Witcher 3
Script Modding
The game scripts, written in Witcher Script, control how the game acts; how the player moves and attacks, how stamina works, how signs work, etc.
Adding/Modding Menus
Essential to easily configuring mods, menus are defined in XML with localization text through .w3strings. Their values are generally read through script and modify how that script works.
Adding/Modding Keybinds
Keybinds are exactly how the player tells the game what they want to do, they are defined in input.settings, are configured through the input.xml menu, and the actions that they call are defined in script.
Modding XML Data
The majority of the games data is stored in XML, this is where item price and loot is controlled, where skill costs and abilities are defined, where weapons and armor get their values.
Modding Models/Textures
Replacing models and textures is one of the easiest ways of changing how the game looks.
Modding the UI
The Witcher 3 uses Scaleform GFx for it's UI, which is Flash-based and it's data is stored in .redswf files. Embedded Action Script controls many of the functionality of the UI.
Adding Additional Content
While adding new content instead of modifying what already exists is difficult, it is possible. Community-based tools allow you to add your own DLC to the game.