Skip to main content

Watch Dogs 2 — Vehicle Handling Modding

Source: Community tutorial (rootCBR, Discord). Documents the full pipeline for editing .handling.bin vehicle parameters.

Pipeline​

1. Unpack Game Archives​

Use WD2Extract.exe (or Gibbed.Disrupt tools) to extract .fat archives:

WD2Extract.exe common.dat common.fat

Vehicle handling files live in:

common/drive/car/bin/<vehicle>.handling.bin
common/drive/bike/bin/<vehicle>.handling.bin

2. Convert .handling.bin → XML​

Use DriveConverter.exe (rootCBR, GitHub) to convert binary handling files to XML:

DriveConverter.exe <vehicle>.handling.bin

This produces <vehicle>.handling.xml with editable parameters.

3. Edit XML Values​

XML structure:

<Parameter Key="16" Name="Yaw" Type="float" Value="5337.107421875" />

Rules:

  • Only edit Value attributes (floats)
  • Never touch Key, Name, or Type attributes
  • Keep XML structure intact

4. Repack XML → .handling.bin​

DriveConverter converts XML back to binary:

DriveConverter.exe <vehicle>.handling.xml

5. Pack into Patch Archive​

Use WD2Pack.exe to pack modified files into patch3.fat/patch3.dat:

WD2Pack.exe patch3.fat patch3.dat <modified_folder>

Or use the provided batch scripts:

  • pack.bat — WD2Pack.exe wrapper
  • unpack.bat — WD2Extract.exe wrapper

6. Install​

Place patch3.fat and patch3.dat into data_win64/ in your WD2 installation.

Key Differences from WD1​

FeatureWD1WD2
Patch archivepatch.fat/patch.datpatch3.fat/patch3.dat
Pack toolGibbed.Disrupt.PackWD2Pack.exe
Extract toolGibbed.WatchDogs.UnpackWD2Extract.exe

Notes​

  • WD2's handling system is more complex than WD1 — more parameters per vehicle
  • Batch editing across multiple vehicles is possible with scripts
  • DriveConverter handles the binary↔XML conversion automatically
  • The patch3 naming convention is WD2-specific; WD1 uses patch