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Watch Dogs Material Hex Editing — Community Tips

Source: guru3D Forums thread "Watch_Dogs Material Hex Editing" (mlleemiles, 2017-10-23) + Discord logs from WD1 modding community (2020-2026). For the authoritative binary layout, type codes, and editing workflow, see material-bin-format.md. Cross-reference: Material descriptors (85 XML files) → materialdescriptors/index.md; XeNTaX material section → XeNTaX Watch Dogs knowledge §8–9

Tools Required​

  • Razor's Data Conversion Utility (1drv.ms link) — String ↔ CRC32 ↔ BinHex conversion
  • Hex Editor (Hex Workshop recommended) — for raw .material.bin editing
  • Disrupt Editor Material Tool (fan-made, WD1 origin) — XML ↔ .material.bin converter (works for WD1/WD2/WDL)
  • ZModeler3 — import/export with material support (Oleg's plugin)

For the full editing workflow using ConvertMaterials.exe, see material-bin-format.md § Authoritative Editing Workflow.

Known Issues & Workarounds​

Disrupt Editor Material Converter Bug (fixed in later builds)​

Problem: Older ConvertMaterials.exe writes wrong header offset values on XML→BIN round-trip, causing random in-game crashes. Discovered by みる97 (2020-05-31); fixed by qstlijku in later converter builds. See material-bin-format.md § Crash Bug for the technical details.

Workarounds (if stuck on an old converter build):

  1. Hex edit directly — keep original, export edited, diff bytes, port only changed values back
  2. Manual process (Crank Beige, 2020-05-31):
  • Get original material
  • Export to XML, convert back to bin, compare bytes
  • Assign new diffuse textures in XML
  • Compare edited XML→bin vs original
  • Port only diffuse changes to original binary
  1. Run res/material_sizefixer.1sc from the converter's own directory to fix the header values after the fact

ZModeler3 Material Issues​

  • Sometimes cuts \graphics\materials → raphics\materials in material group name
  • Invisible models in-game = material path truncated
  • Check materials tab before export

WD2 Character Heads (volfin, 2017)​

  • 5-6 MB each, stored differently from regular meshes
  • Likely high-rez cutscene heads with facial expression data
  • Standard importers don't handle them correctly

ZOLA Textures (volfin, 2017-01-30)​

  • Not standard image format
  • Likely GPU compute data (CUDA) from Nvidia dimensionality reduction research
  • Have c/ high/ med/ prefixes but probably not image data
  • Do not attempt to convert with standard tools

Per-Vertex Color (Oleg, 2014)​

NOT mesh color — it's effects masking:

  • Wetness areas masked via vertex color channel (R on some shaders, G on others)
  • Used for weathering, wetness, damage effects

Material Naming Matters (Oleg, ZModeler forum)​

  • Material named VehicleName_CarPaint_01 → auto-applies game's variative paint color scheme
  • Settings in material XML are ignored when name matches paint scheme pattern

Damage Property (ZModeler forum)​

  • User property Damage = comma-separated object names
  • Position = damage-part index (,,,TireFront_L → L=#4, R=#5)
  • Indices coded in collision .hkx — retain original indices or damage maps wrong

Cross-Game Notes​

GameMaterial ConverterNotes
WD1Disrupt Editor (fan)Works
WD2Disrupt Editor (fan)Works (Cobra modified source)
WDLDisrupt Editor (fan)Material converter works for all 3

The fan-made Disrupt Editor material converter originated for WD1 but works across all three games.