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Watch Dogs 2 — Community Tools & References

Curated community findings and modding references. Sources: Discord logs, research notes.

Anti-tamper: WD2 uses Denuvo — see Denuvo analysis.

Gun Sounds (Mel Breezy, Pesky Fly)​

Gun sounds are NOT in patch, patch2, common, or sound.dat. They live in san_francisco archive in bnk format.

Mod workflow: Open weapons.lib → find weapon sound IDs → load bnk with FusionTools → export hidrc → find sound IDs (wem/bnk).

Custom Music Radio (Nevon)​

Custom radio stations are possible but need native audio integration. Nevon's approach:

  1. Swap OverrideBus to native one with FusionTools
  2. Import 6 hierarchies from donor .bnk (4 attenuation, 2 settings props, actor mixer)
  3. Now has proper ducking with dialogues
  4. Switch & Layer containers, at least 1 more SoundSFX, 4 FXCustom and FXShareSet

Tutorial: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448173007 (uses Wwise 2015.1.9 — higher versions cause silence).

Police Mod (Yorpie)​

Nearly complete FBI faction overhaul. Key findings:

  • DRL vs flasher conflict: Setting lights as flashers stops them working as DRLs
  • Pursuit difficulty: Only easy and medium used in free roam
  • Elite/Mayhem: Max 4 enforcers spawn, unlimited in pursuits/gangs/ops

Unused Vehicles (Pesky Fly)​

Unused or barely used in traffic:

  • Agile.04.04_Reward.ForCarOnDemand
  • Agile.04.Mint
  • Air.Helicopter_01 (civilian)
  • Bike.01.01_AuntiShyBoys
  • Bicycle.Bicycle_02 (electric — added to university area)
  • Convoy (completely unused before Yorpie added it)
  • Magnate, Blume/Proviblue armored trucks

Model Scaling (Pesky Fly)​

vectorNonUniformScale on graphickit_parts: (height, width_side, width_front)

  • 5, 1, 1 — super tall
  • 1, 5, 1 — super wide from side (back to front)
  • 1, 1, 5 — super wide from front (left to right)

Reticle Fix​

uihudelementcontextsdbobject.lib controls reticle visibility. Delete from patch3 to get reticle back when unarmed.

.rml Files​

Have an additional header before the NBCF format — must be removed before ConvertBinaryObject can open them. Content is often gibberish anyway.

Cut Content​

  • Blume Security truck model is WD1, not WD2 (commonly confused)
  • "The Future Is Blume" mission has two guard models (normal + fat) — possibly removed
  • Loot truck event spawn pool can't be randomized between Proviblue/Greystrom/Blume
  • S01_M2_CA_Park_n_Play_Intro_TS: Cut intro dialogue — extended Wrench/Sitara intro
  • S01_M2_CE_MP1_HackerSpotted_TS: Unused dialogue
  • S01_M2_NewClothes: Cutscene with Sitara commenting on Marcus's new outfit
  • Post-white-room cutscene: Josh telling a joke, was to play after tutorials
  • Prime Eight Raid (TeamSpeakPrime8): Cut UI section with Prime Eight channel controls
  • s03 = Cyberdriver DLC, s05 = not in first-release base files, s06 = DedSec XXX (not in leak)
  • First patch.dat/patch.fat preserved by SlyCooperReloadCoded (119 MB) — Horatio dialogue changes visible

WatchBox (Cut Scene Authoring System)​

In the leak at data/WatchBox/. Cutscene/sequence authoring and remote playback system — NOT a level editor.

  • 284 scene files for san_francisco (every mission cutscene s01–s18, drone/street/yacht races, E3 demos, turntables)
  • 59 in gym_mabelleau (greenscreens, PGV/SOI/WS pre-renders, foreshadowing)
  • Connects to running game via TCP (localhost:7913, PS4, X1, Xbox 360)
  • Plans orchestrate event chains: SetEnvironment → SetScriptedTimeOfDay → TeleportPlayer → LoadMissionLayer → DominoStartSequence → WaitForQualitiesLoaded
  • Video capture pipeline: screenshots → ffmpeg (libx264, 1280×720, CRF 20) → .mp4
  • 123 thumbnail JPGs, 34 tags (S01–S18, Cinematics, E3, CUT, FPScenes, GreenScreens, Stolen Footage, The-Wrench, Turntable), 21 markers, 46 events

Album Art & UI Texture Paths (Cali Sav)​

  • Album art: dlc_ultra_textures\common\ui\fire\sources\textures\ingame\apps\mediaplayer\albumart — 140×140 DXT5 .xbt
  • Car on demand decals: common\ui\fire\sources\textures\ingame\apps\carondemand\sourcepattern
  • Weapon paintjobs: common\ui\fire\sources\textures\ingame\shops\menu_weapons\weapon_paintjobs
  • 3D Printer weapon icons: common\ui\fire\sources\textures\ingame\shops\menu_weapons
  • RC drone paintjobs: ...menu_weapons\rc_drone_paintjobs
  • RC jumper paintjobs: ...menu_weapons\rc_jumper_paintjobs
  • Map icons: common\ui\textures\icons
  • Weapon decal texture maps: installpackage\graphics\weapons\weapon_decal

Radio Station Hashes (exp0t/yotta_imoto)​

Full JSON at exp0t/wd2-radio-hashes (77 songs, 5 stations). Schema: {artist_id, artist_name, song_id, song_title, song_hash} (decimal FNV1a32).

StationSongsGenre
Bay City Pop KBY-FM15Pop
Rock The Bridge K66-FM18Rock
DedSec Pirate Radio17Electronic/Hip-Hop
Radio Bay Nation KBNT19Country
Las Ondas De La Ria KODR8Latin

Spawn Distance​

Spawned archetypes despawn when player is ~250 meters away.

WD2 Audio File Conversion​

WD2 audio packages contain .Unknown files that are actually WEM (Ogg Vorbis) audio.

Conversion Pipeline​

  1. Unpack audio package: WD2Extract.exe on sound.dat/sound.fat
  2. Rename: .Unknown → .wem (they are WEM files with wrong extension)
  3. Convert: Drag .wem files into UnktoWem.bat → .wem files with correct headers
  4. Play/Extract: Use wem→ogg conversion tool to get playable .ogg audio

Notes​

  • The .Unknown extension is a quirk of the WD2 extraction tools — the underlying format is standard WEM (Ogg Vorbis).
  • Multiple audio packages may exist (sound.dat, sound_english.dat, etc.).