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The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — XeNTaX Forum Knowledge

Extracted and organized from XeNTaX forum discussions (2015–2020). Covers the REDEngine file formats of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — the .cache/.bundle archives, .xbm textures, .w3strings localization, .w3speech voices, save files, and mesh/skeleton data — plus the tools (QuickBMS, Lua-utils-for-Witcher-3, Wolven-kit, Witcher 3 Modkit). Witcher 3 shares REDEngine with Cyberpunk 2077 (see the Cyberpunk knowledge doc).

1. Archives: .bundle and .cache​

The Witcher 3 packs data in .bundle and .cache files.

  • aluigi's official witcher3.bms QuickBMS script extracts .bundle files. (michalss, 2015-05-12, t=12835)
  • The same script does not handle .cache files directly. (ShivShubh, 2015-05-12, t=12835)
  • .cache files (e.g. texture.cache) hold the bulk of the textures; most .xbm files only contain a small preview image, the real textures live in content?\texture.cache. (hhrhhr, 2015-05-16, t=12835)
  • The .bundle files were initially not re-packable; repacking was a requested feature. (dubh, 2015-05-18, t=12835)
  • A witcher3.map file (for v1.0.2) was shared to help map archive contents. (Haoose, 2015-05-22, t=12835)

2. Textures: .xbm → DDS​

.xbm files are CR2W files (the REDEngine container) that wrap DDS texture data without a DDS header. (nerdyluke, 2016-06-23, t=14506)

XBM structure (as reverse-engineered on the forum)​

A .xbm header hexdump (shakotay2, 2015-05-12, t=12835) shows the CR2W magic CR2W followed by version and a string table that names the CBitmapTexture struct and its fields:

00000000h: 43 52 32 57 A2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 A0 F1 7D ; CR2W.....
000000a0h: 00 43 42 69 74 6D 61 70 54 65 78 74 75 72 65 00 ; .CBitmapTexture.
000000b0h: 77 69 64 74 68 00 55 69 6E 74 33 32 00 68 65 69 ; width.Uint32.hei
000000c0h: 67 68 74 00 63 6F 6D 70 72 65 73 73 69 6F 6E 00 ; ght.compression.
000000d0h: 45 54 65 78 74 75 72 65 43 6F 6D 70 72 65 73 73 ; ETextureCompress
000000e0h: 69 6F 6E 00 54 43 4D 5F 44 58 54 4E 6F 41 6C 70 ; ion.TCM_DXTNoAlp
000000f0h: 68 61 00 74 65 78 74 75 72 65 47 72 6F 75 70 00 ; ha.textureGroup.
00000100h: 43 4E 61 6D 65 00 43 68 61 72 61 63 74 65 72 44 ; CName.CharacterD
00000110h: 69 66 66 75 73 65 00 72 65 73 69 64 65 6E 74 4D ; iffuse.residentM
00000120h: 69 70 49 6E 64 65 78 00 55 69 6E 74 38 00 74 65 ; ipIndex.Uint8.te
00000130h: 78 74 75 72 65 43 61 63 68 65 4B 65 79 00 00 00 ; xtureCacheKey...
  • Conversion trick: just load the DXT1 data without a header (it's DDS without header), or strip the .xbm header and add a DDS one. (shakotay2, 2015-05-12, t=12835)
  • The CBitmapTexture fields are described by a string table: width (Uint32), height (Uint32), compression (ETextureCompression = TCM_DXTNoAlpha), textureGroup (CName e.g. CharacterDiffuse), residentMipIndex (Uint8), textureCacheKey (Uint32). (shakotay2, 2015-05-13, t=12835)
  • stalja observed the XBM as ~5 parts (Header, variable list, data1, data2, texture) but confirmed that was an oversimplification; the texture data is DDS-without-header and its length/offset logic was not fully nailed down. (stalja, 2015-05-13, t=12835)

Extraction tools for texture.cache​

hhrhhr's Lua-utils-for-Witcher-3 (github.com/hhrhhr/Lua-utils-for-Witcher-3) extracts textures from texture.cache. Requires Lua 5.3 and lua-zlib. (hhrhhr, 2015-05-16, t=12835)

lua unpack_textures.lua texture.cache output_dir
  • Needs Lua 5.3 specifically (uses goto, string.unpack); on 64-bit platforms use "<I4" instead of "<L" for 4-byte little-endian ints, or the script fails with '=' expected near 'skip' / bad argument #2 to 'unpack'. (hhrhhr, designgears, Alianin, 2015-05-19..07-06, t=12835)
  • The extracted files need DDS headers added via mod_dds_header.lua. (hhrhhr, 2015-05-19, t=12835)

Witcher 2 texture converter (reused for W3)​

The witcher2_texture_converter pack (w2_xbm2dds.bms, w2_dds2xbm.bms, plus nvcompress/nvdecompress) is often referenced for W3 .xbm work too. (srcs34k, 2018-04-17, t=13838)

3. Localization: .w3strings​

.w3strings files are the W3 localization string files (a new format vs the W2 .w2strings).

  • They are not simply XOR'd — early analysis found "almost clean text (UTF16 with some html tags)" inside, but decoding required more than a fixed XOR. aluigi noted it "looks like a XOR with a long sequence of bytes" but couldn't confirm fixed-key vs increment-key. (hhrhhr, slayer983, 2015-05-19..23, t=12835/t=12869)
  • hhrhhr: "unpacker is quite simple, but the decoder - not yet; strings are not just xored." (hhrhhr, 2015-05-21, t=12835)
  • Haoose released an unpacker/repacker for .w3strings (hosted on zenhax, t=964). (Haoose, 2015-05-26, t=12869)

4. Voices: .w3speech​

  • The voice audio is NOT in the .cache files — it lives in enpc.w3speech files (per-language, e.g. enpc = English). (mikaelN7, 2015-05-19, t=12861)
  • The .w3speech format differs entirely from the W2 .w2speech; extraction was a repeated request. (mikaelN7, 2015-05-19, t=12861)
  • Note: the Witcher 3 .w3speech tools are not the same as the W2 .w2speech tools (see the Witcher 2 doc). (micTronic, 2021-12-06)

5. Save Files (.sav)​

Witcher 3 save files are a REDEngine save format. (Harime Nui, RedEyeX32, 2015-10..11, t=13435)

  • A save is not an archive of multiple files — it is one file split into 1,048,576-byte (0x100000) parts, each part LZ4-compressed (LZ4 r131 worked for both compress and decompress on default settings). (Harime Nui, 2015-11-01, t=13435)
  • The header's apparent "checksum" was actually just the uncompressed file length in bytes. (Harime Nui, 2015-10-31, t=13435)
  • Unpacking/repacking works, but editing breaks the game easily. (Harime Nui, 2015-10-31, t=13435)
  • The decompressed payload resembles binary XML. (Harime Nui, 2015-11-12, t=13435)
  • Tools: W3SavegameEditor (github.com/Atvaark/W3SavegameEditor) supports unpacking; W2 save-format references: Gibbed.RED (github.com/yole/Gibbed.RED/tree/.../Formats/Save) and 13xforever's Witcher-2 SaveFormat. (ner0, 2016-01-02, t=13435)

6. Meshes, Bones & Skeletons​

  • W3 meshes are CR2W files (like W2), .w2mesh → .w2mesh lineage; the W3 .w2mesh/.w2cutscene/.w2scene cannot be loaded by the W2 REDkit — it reports "Version 162 is not supported" (highest supported is 115); faking the version from 0xA2 to 0x59/0x73 just crashes REDkit. (shakotay2, 2015-05-12, t=12835)
  • The mesh tools convert meshes with bones and weights, but bone parenting data does not export with the meshes (or doesn't exist) — assembling the skeleton manually was needed. (ssringo, 2015-08-17, t=12835)
  • Bone data analysis (48 bytes/bone): a researcher parsing CSkeleton found ~48 bytes per bone (16 bytes each for position/rotation/scale as 32-bit floats), but the floats were all between -1 and 1 (with tiny values like 2.0e-12), so they need extra processing — not usable as-is. Vertex data is stored in half-floats needing division by 65535 plus a scale/offset. CSkeleton only exposes bone names + parent indices; the scale/offset (cookedData) lives on CMesh. (digitalutopia1, 2018-11-04, t=19016)

Noesis / model conversion tools​

  • fmt_TW3_to_XPS.py — an old Noesis plugin for W3 models (links now dead). (Mirrorman95, 2020-02-14, t=21755)
  • RedTools by JLouis-B — converts W3 (and CP2077) models, with source available. (reh, 2020-02-16, t=21755)
  • Wolven-kit (github.com/Traderain/Wolven-kit) — the CDPR modding toolkit with releases supporting W3 (and later CP2077). (reh, 2020-02-16, t=21755)
  • The Witcher 3D Model Converter (JLouis-B) — the common tool, but it did not export skeletons, which prompted custom work. (digitalutopia1, 2018-11-04, t=19016)
  • AMD GPU PerfStudio / texture rippers — ripping textures (e.g. foliage) was possible, but the "smudging" around foliage/hair textures is just alpha bleed-prevention, not a data problem. (NuclearTester, ssringo, stiffy360, 2015-06..06, t=12835)

7. Official Modkit​

  • CD Projekt RED released Witcher 3 Modkit (mod support, announced 2015-08-14). (Haoose, 2015-08-14, t=12835)

8. Tools Reference​

ToolPurposeNotes
QuickBMS + witcher3.bmsExtract .bundle filesaluigi; does not handle .cache directly
Lua-utils-for-Witcher-3Extract texture.cache textureshhrhhr; needs Lua 5.3 + lua-zlib; unpack_textures.lua
witcher2_texture_converter.xbm ⇄ .dds/.tgaw2_xbm2dds.bms, w2_dds2xbm.bms; reused for W3
Haoose .w3strings unpacker/repackerW3 localizationhosted on zenhax t=964
W3SavegameEditorSave unpack/editgithub.com/Atvaark/W3SavegameEditor
Wolven-kitCDPR modding toolkitgithub.com/Traderain/Wolven-kit; W3 + CP2077
RedTools (JLouis-B)Model conversiongithub.com/JLouis-B/RedTools
Witcher 3 ModkitOfficial modding toolsCDPR, 2015-08-14
Witcher 3D Model ConverterModel conversionNo skeleton export

*Source: XeNTaX forum threads t=12835 (Witcher 3 *.cache .bundle), t=12861 (voices .w3speech), t=12869 (.w3strings), t=13435 (W3 save files), t=13838 (Unpacking XBM files? W2/W3), t=14506 (.xbm files), t=14591 (.redcloth as mesh), t=19016 (W3 Bone Data), t=21755 (W3 Noesis Plugin? / model tools).