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ZenGin directory structure

Modding is all about changing the game files. To achieve that, we have to know the directory (folder) structure of a Gothic game.

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β”œβ”€β”€ Data
β”‚Β Β  β”œβ”€β”€ $Templates$
β”‚Β Β  β”œβ”€β”€ modvdf
β”‚Β Β  └── Plugins
β”œβ”€β”€ Miles
β”œβ”€β”€ Saves
β”œβ”€β”€ System
β”‚Β Β  └── Autorun
└── _work
    └── DATA
        β”œβ”€β”€ Anims
        β”‚Β Β  └── _Compiled
        β”œβ”€β”€ Meshes
        β”‚Β Β  └── _Compiled
        β”œβ”€β”€ Music
        β”œβ”€β”€ Presets
        β”œβ”€β”€ Scripts
        β”‚Β Β  β”œβ”€β”€ _compiled
        β”‚Β Β  └── content
        β”‚Β Β      └── CUTSCENE
        β”œβ”€β”€ Sound
        β”œβ”€β”€ Textures
        β”œβ”€β”€ Video
        └── Worlds

Data

Data directory contains .vdf volumes of the game. These contain anims.vdf - animations, speech.vdf - dubbing, worlds.vdf - world ZEN files.

Saves

Contains saved games.

System

The system directory contains the game executable, GothicStarter.exe, GothicStarter_mod.exe, configuration .ini files, mod .ini files and mod icons and description .rtf files.

system/Autorun is a Union specific directory, it serves as a default search directory for Daedalus injection scripts with zParserExtender and Union plugins.

_work/DATA

This is where the magic happens:

  • Anims - contains animations and animated models.
    • _compiled - contains compiled animations.
  • Meshes - contains meshes source and compiled files.
    • _compiled - contains compiled meshes.
  • Music - contains music files.
  • Presets - contains basic presets.
  • Scripts
    • _compiled - contains compiled scripts - .dat files.
    • Content - contains scripts that make up the content of the game.
    • System - contains scripts that make up the menu.
  • Sound - contains sound effects .wav or .ogg format (Union only).
  • Video - contains videos in .bik format.