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Material BIN — Community Knowledge (Discord)

Signal extracted from raw Discord dumps (WD1 / WD2 / WDL channels). Cross-references: material-bin-format.md (the 010-template spec), material-hex-editing.md.

WD1 — selMaterialOverridesId and material lookup (2022-12-07)​

Problem: a model part (e.g. jacket) has a graphickitpartPart BinHex name (BA710830) but the material line needs a selMaterialOverridesId Enum value (1132120660).

Workflow (The Silver):

  1. In the model part's material list, take the Name field's binhex value.
  2. Convert it from Byte Order Intel to unsigned long using BConv32.exe (57.55 KB, attachment) — binhex in graphickit_parts, enum in graphickit_models.
  3. Use the result as selMaterialOverridesId.

BConv32.exe: hex-value converter (binhex ↔ enum ↔ decimal).

WD1 — editing material.bin directly (2022-12-08)​

  • The material filename for a part comes from field 9301DFBD; find it in graphics/_materials after unpacking windy_city.
  • Editing options: hex edit (painful), ZModeler (export problems), or convert to XML and edit (round-trip not guaranteed). Best bet: convert to XML via the Disrupt Editor material tool.
  • Materials control texture choice and coloring (per-part: jacket color, inner-shirt color, etc.).

ZModeler import/export gotchas (WD1, 2025-04)​

  • 0 kb file: export failed — one or more mesh parts (in any LOD) lack a proper material and use "Default Material".
  • Out of Memory: importing an already-exported (broken) model. Avoid importing a model you exported as xbg in ZModeler.
  • Model deformed in viewer: enter polygon-editing mode (unknown why it fixes it, but it does).
  • Missing physics: when importing, check the model's original path and find its unknown files A–C. Not all models have them, but they must be in your export path.
  • Materials not loading: import settings off, or missing materials in windy_city_unpack. ZModeler has two paths: Root = directory of your windy_city_unpack (e.g. C:\Modding\bin\windy_city_unpack), Mod folder = the folder windy_city_unpack resides in (e.g. C:\Modding\bin).

Weapon reskins — custom addon weapons (2025-04-24)​

  • Renaming a weapon's material.bin (e.g. m468 → assault_hk416) works, but you must also rename the .xbt files to names that exist in your patch — otherwise you get reflective black guns.
  • Reason: Reborn 2's custom addon weapons work because their depload/weapon entries ship in the patch. Without those entries, replace with an already-existing in-game gun.
  • Note: text in the XML photo shows the referenced filenames.

WDL — tools for recolors (2021-12-12)​

  • ZModeler does not work with WDL.
  • For recolors you need a fan-made Disrupt Editor (originally made for WD1; no public link; unofficial — not the ~300 GB official editor, which was only ever shared as a private archive and is not linked here).
  • The fan-made editor has a material converter that works for all three WD games. It can view the WD1 map, export layers to XML and import (WD1 only), audio (SPK) conversion, material editor, and xbg2xml (WD1 only, and reverse).
  • Cobra modified the source version to make layer import work for WD2 (experimental support existed in DE; source no longer public).
  • You must find the material of the clothing you want to edit — that alone is the painful part.

Converted-material instability (2020-05-31)​

  • Editing only 2 materials caused crashes (sometimes on first load, sometimes on reload). Suspected cause: incomplete tools, not the game.
  • Round-trip (material → XML → material) of a vanilla unedited material produces a different file — a few bytes differ at the end (same for zcancer). The Disrupt material editor does not pack identically; using it to edit certain materials results in crashes.
  • ZModeler can remove settings on export — not to be trusted for this.