[TUTORIAL] How to edit in-game text strings

[4 Life]

Hi folks, so I just wrote this out on someone else's thread, and while there are quite a few of you that'll already know how to do this, a lot of people still don't. So, I figured I'd post what I wrote as a  tutorial and expand on more here for the benefit of the community. This can be used to change superstar names, arena names... pretty much any text in the game can be changed through editing the string.pac file.

@pozzum already created a great tutorial on creating your own text strings here, which you can create and then link to in your pofo to change your superstar's names and I'd advise you to fimiliarise yourself with that video first. However, this tutorial will focus on straight-up replacing text in the game, focusing in this example on replacing all instances of a superstar name so it's changed in the Creation Suite as well as elsewhere

NOTE: Once you edit your string.pac, downloading any future proof string files will then overwrite your current one. However, once you know how to create/edit strings you will no longer require any updates as you can add stuff in yourself (not to show any disrespect, in any way, shape or form, to the guys working on the future proof strings as they're doing amazing work, and some international users may still require these updates).

To edit text strings, you'd firstly need to have the future proof string installed, as this will show text strings rather than code like the original string file. Download HxD and open the string.pac file with it. Then do the following:

1) Click near the top of the document. Hit Ctrl+R to bring up the Replace menu. Set the Datatype to Hex-values and the Search direction to All. - NOTE: Alternately, if you're looking to replace a single string, you can hit Ctrl+F to search for that string, then type over it - refer to pozzum's video for this in more detail. NOTE: If the text you want to replace is the same amount of characters as the new text (say, DAMIEN SANDOW TO DAMIEN DAMIEN, random example but both 13 characters each) then you can just put your search for/replace Text-string instead. Otherwise, set to Hex-values and follow the next few steps.

2) Open this page - it's basically a text string to hex converter. Type in the text you want to replace in all caps (make sure it's accurate or HxD won't find it!). Hit Convert then hit Select, then hit Ctrl+C to copy the code. Paste it into the Search for box back in the HxD Replace menu.

3) Repeat step 3 to get the code for the text you want to replace it with and paste that code into the Replace with box HxD. NOTE: The text you want to replace it with can be no longer than the original text. It can be shorter or the same length, but not longer.

4) Once you paste that into the Replace with box, if the new text has fewer characters that the old text, then you're going to need to replace any missing characters with blocks of 00s. So, for example, if I wanted to replace DAMIEN SANDOW with BUTT MUNCH - the original text is 13 characters long whereas my new text is only 10 characters. So my text in the boxes would look like this:

    Search for: 44 41 4d 49 45 4e 20 53 41 4e 44 4f 57

Replace with: 42 55 54 54 20 4d 55 4e 43 48 00 00 00

5) When you're done there, hit Replace all and HxD will replace all instances of, in this example DAMIEN SANDOW in the file. That'd mean it'd be changed in the selection screen if that was his name there and also in the Creation Suite or wherever else it may appear. Hit save when you're done.

6) Navigate to your 2K16 installation directory and to the pac folder. Scroll down and you'll see a file named string.pac.bak - this is a backup file that HxD made before saving, so put this somewhere safe and if you need to back up then delete the .bak part from the name and then copy/paste it back over your string.pac file. NOTE: You'll need to move the .bak file to another folder as the game might still try and read it rather than your current string.pac file.

That's it, now try it in game You can edit all sorts of strings. If you look right at the start of this video you can see I've also edited my roster names, changing SUPERSTARS to WWF ROSTER and DOWNLOADED SUPERSTARS to WCW ROSTER. If you can find the text in the file, it can be modified!  Always remember, your replacement text must be, at maximum, as long as the original text string - no longer. As always, back up your files for future reference!

Edited July 4, 2016 by 4LifeBrother

[kim666]

Why do you convert the text to hex? Can't HxD search for text strings? I don't use HxD, but it would be a lousy hex editor if it can't search for text strings.

Edited July 4, 2016 by kim666

[4 Life]

Why do you convert the text to hex? Can't HxD search for text string? I don't use HxD, but it would be a lousy hex editor if it can't search for text string.

It certainly can, but if you want to replace a text string with a shorter one then you're going to have problems, because putting spaces after the shorter text string to replace the characters won't work. If they're of equal character length though then yeah, you can just search for a text string instead I'll add that in as a note actually!

[Dennis-Bieser]

Nice tutorial mate but why you don't make a video tutorial ?

I think most people want a video tutorial and it would be much easier for you because you don't have to write so much text

 

[4 Life]

Nice tutorial mate but why you don't make a video tutorial ?

I think most people want a video tutorial and it would be much easier for you because you don't have to write so much text

 

Might do at some point Like I said above though I already wrote it out so I just copy-pasted most of it here

[pozzum]

Why do you convert the text to hex? Can't HxD search for text string? I don't use HxD, but it would be a lousy hex editor if it can't search for text string.

It certainly can, but if you want to replace a text string with a shorter one then you're going to have problems, because putting spaces after the shorter text string to replace the characters won't work. If they're of equal character length though then yeah, you can just search for a text string instead I'll add that in as a note actually!

this is why I type in text and then go over to the hex side and type 00 00 00 00 in order to get the null text.

[4 Life]

Why do you convert the text to hex? Can't HxD search for text string? I don't use HxD, but it would be a lousy hex editor if it can't search for text string.

It certainly can, but if you want to replace a text string with a shorter one then you're going to have problems, because putting spaces after the shorter text string to replace the characters won't work. If they're of equal character length though then yeah, you can just search for a text string instead I'll add that in as a note actually!

this is why I type in text and then go over to the hex side and type 00 00 00 00 in order to get the null text.

Oh yeah, I do that normally when replacing a single string, but in the case of searching and replacing multiple instances with the Replace function you've either gotta choose text or hex, I believe.

Edited July 4, 2016 by 4LifeBrother

[TheJStale]

I successfully changed some Superstar's Twitter handles, so that's good

But When I changed both Diego's and Fernando's Twitter handles to @RealPrimoWWE and @WWEEpico respectively, and I tested it out, both came out with @WWEEpico as their Twitter handle. How do I fix this?

[4 Life]

I successfully changed some Superstar's Twitter handles, so that's good

But When I changed both Diego's and Fernando's Twitter handles to @RealPrimoWWE and @WWEEpico respectively, and I tested it out, both came out with @WWEEpico as their Twitter handle. How do I fix this?

You most likely need to edit the pofo with Data Editor to reassign the value to the correct one.

[TheJStale]

How do I do that? And where do I get Diego's (Primo) pofo?

[Cave Waverider]

How do I do that? And where do I get Diego's (Primo) pofo?

The Data Editor for WWE 2k16 (make sure to use the latest version) comes with "Templates" folders that contain unmodified .pofo, .moveset and .team_info s from the game that you can simply load into the Data Editor and use as a template. Alternatively, you can also export them directly from the game using the Export function of Custom Character Tools.
Check out the Data Editor Tutorials for more detailed information.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Cave Waverider

[TheJStale]

How do I know who the ones are the do not have a name with it? Like most of them have "Slot xxx"  and then the Superstar's name, but some do not, they just have the "Slot xxx". how do I know who these are?

[4 Life]

How do I know who the ones are the do not have a name with it? Like most of them have "Slot xxx"  and then the Superstar's name, but some do not, they just have the "Slot xxx". how do I know who these are?

Those are empty slots. You'll also see many that are assigned to superstars not in the game, so for example you'll see "301 [Syxx]" - this is for modders to refer to so they can release their mods as certain slots so their slots don't coincide with slots that other modders have already released their mods under, making it easier for people to download and install numerous mods.

[TheJStale]

Ah ok thanks.