Project Modman

A Rust modding utility for Project Wingman (PW) — inspired by Project Sicario.

Contents

• Status
• V1 Scope — 1:1 parity with the Project Sicario merger
• Parity status
  • Beyond parity
• Merging mods without metadata (combine)
  • Web UI — no install needed
  • Downloading & first run
• Translation mods (.locres)
• Documentation
• Building
• Usage
• Project Structure
• License

Status

v1 (Sicario-merger parity) is essentially complete and byte-verified against the C# merger. Working today:

• PAK I/O (info, list, unpack, pack, scan)
• .dtm/.dtp patch parsing, Fragment DSL, every Sicario patch type
• Template rendering (Fluid-compatible: vars/inputs + the full Sicario filter set)
• Verified DataTable engine (byte-exact walker + same-size splice + length-changing rowops)
• HexPatch engine (filePatches) with the C# stream-walk semantics and the .uexp length auto-correct
• Merge pipeline: component model (embeddedPresets → loosePresets → sicarioRequests), engine-major phases, .uexp/.uasset sidecar handling
• build writes a real merged SicarioMerge_P.pak; preset-pack builds standalone preset packs with the preset embedded at Content/sicario/; --report writes the C#-identical merge report
• combine merges conflicting override mods that carry no Sicario metadata (the common case for 2024+ mods) — three-way, field-level, with a full conflict report

In-game acceptance passed (SPEAR Unlock + Improved Chimera verified in Project Wingman 2.1.1A).

V1 Scope — 1:1 parity with the Project Sicario merger

The v1 goal is 1:1 parity with the Sicario merger — no less.

A drop-in replacement for the Sicario merger (SicarioPatch.Loader) against Project Wingman 2.1.1A / UE 4.27 / Pak V11:

• Inputs: identical .dtm/.dtp WingmanMod JSON, with _vars/_inputs templating.
• Patch semantics: every Sicario fragment type, every Sicario patch type, identical matching and value behavior.
• Merge semantics: identical multi-mod merging to Sicario's engine.
• Output: a Pak V3 mod pack (mount ../../../) for the game's ~mods/ directory — same as the merger.
• Zero .NET dependency — single native binary.

Parity status

Verified against the C# merger at byte level (oracle harness in ~/modding/project-wingman/sicario-oracle):

Surface	Status
DataTable patches (propertyValue, modify, array, text, duplicate*, delete)	✅ byte-exact (uassets identical; uexps modulo random FText keys)
filePatches hex engine (all types, windows, filters, length fix-up)	✅ byte-exact, including the destructive absent-value path
objectRef (import-table writes) + customSkins PSM slot merging	✅ byte-exact + in-game verified (AJS-37 skin slot live)
Multi-mod merge order + conflict semantics	✅ oracle-verified
Components, parameters/inputs, engine-version gate, GetLabel	✅
Merge report (--report)	✅ byte-identical
preset-pack	✅ byte-identical output pak
In-game acceptance	✅

All known v1 parity gaps are closed. customSkins skin-slot merging works with real PSM skin paks (ProjectWingman/Content/Assets/Skins/<aircraft-row>/…), live-verified in-game.

Beyond parity

• Self-contained merges (default): the merged pak embeds detected skin files, so one pak installs everything (--no-embed-skins restores the strict C# output).
• No-metadata merging (combine): three-way, field-level datatable merging for plain override mods, with import carrying and conflict reports.
• End-of-merge reports for both build and combine: merge order, field-level conflicts (which mod overwrote which value), and warnings.

Merging mods without metadata (combine)

Project Sicario's merge metadata (.dtp presets, embedded requests) was never updated for Project Wingman 2.0 / UE 4.27, so most 2024+ mods are plain file overrides — and when two of them edit the same uasset, the game loads only one. modman combine merges them anyway:

modman combine <pak-or-dir...> --install-path <game> --output <dir>

• DataTables are merged three-way (vanilla + each mod's delta, later mods win) at field level — different fields of the same row all survive; genuine same-field clashes resolve later-wins and are reported.
• Mods that add object references (textures, materials) keep working: import-table entries are carried with all FName and package-index references remapped.
• Non-datatable files (maps, models, textures) pass through single-winner, with a warning when two mods fight over one — those file types genuinely cannot be combined.
• Every run ends with a merge report: the order, every conflict (with mod names and values), and warnings.

Web UI — no install needed

https://emberglazee.github.io/project-modman/ — the same merge engine, compiled to WebAssembly and running entirely in your browser:

• Drop your conflicting *_P.pak files, point at your game's pakchunk0-WindowsNoEditor.pak, hit merge, download the combined pak.
• Nothing is uploaded — the game pak is read in place (a few MB of it, even from a ~16 GB file) via the browser's File API; the page makes zero network requests after loading.
• Shows the same merge report (order + conflicts) with a friendly UI.

Downloading & first run

• Windows — double-clicking modman.exe shows a welcome screen (it pauses so you can read it) pointing at the browser option; the CLI itself takes arguments (modman --help in a terminal). Windows may show a SmartScreen prompt for a new unsigned binary: More info → Run anyway.
• macOS — the binaries are unsigned, so Gatekeeper blocks the first run: right-click → Open once, or xattr -d com.apple.quarantine modman.
• Linux — chmod +x modman and run it from a terminal.
• Or skip all of that: the web page, or the offline modman-merge.html (one file, double-click it — no install, no server, no network).

Translation mods (.locres)

The game's text lives in Unreal localization binaries at ProjectWingman/Content/Localization/ProjectWingman/<lang>/ProjectWingman.locres. modman reads and patches them with full structural fidelity — every namespace/key hash, entry order and string reference count is preserved, so in-game lookups never miss. (Verified: parse → write reproduces all nine shipped language files byte-for-byte.)

# 1) Pull the language file straight out of the game's pak
#    (finds the install automatically; --pak <file> to use another pak)
modman locres extract --lang en-US -o ProjectWingman.locres
#    ...or go straight to the spreadsheet: add --csv
#    ...or omit --lang to dump every language at once

# 2) Dump a locres to a translator-friendly CSV (key,source,Translation)
modman locres read ProjectWingman.locres -o translations.csv

# 3) Translate the third column — the CSV matches the UEExtractor format,
#    so the existing translator tooling and workflows apply as-is

# 4) Build a ready-to-install translation mod in one step
modman locres pak ProjectWingman.locres translations.csv --lang en-US -o MyTranslation_P.pak
#    (--dedup merges identical strings, matching other community tools — a
#    rebuild of an existing mod comes out byte-identical to it, verified
#    against the ":3" mod)

# Bonus: see exactly what a mod changes vs the game
modman locres diff Original.locres Mod.locres --csv changes.csv --limit 40

Drop the result into ~mods — done.

Documentation

In-depth guides live in docs/:

• Merging conflicting mods — the no-metadata merge, conflict semantics, what can and can't merge, reading the report.
• Translation mods — the full .locres workflow, the CSV format, tips, and binary format notes for tool authors.
• FAQ — install paths, first-run warnings (SmartScreen, Gatekeeper), merge conflicts, browser-page privacy.

Building

Requires Rust 2021 edition or later.

# Build all crates
cargo build --workspace

# Build the CLI only
cargo build -p modman

# Run tests
cargo test

Usage

modman --help
modman --version

# Merge mods/presets into a mod pak (like `ProjectSicario build`)
modman build <paths...> --install-path <game> --output <dir> --report merge-report.json

# Build standalone preset packs (preset embedded at Content/sicario/)
modman preset-pack <preset.dtp...> -n MyPack --install-path <game>

# Merge conflicting override mods — no metadata required
modman combine <pak-or-dir...> --install-path <game> --output <dir>

Project Structure

crates/
├── modman-core/       Data models, patch engine, merge pipeline, components,
│                      locres reader/writer
├── modman-uasset/     UE4 .uasset binary parser (standalone)
├── modman-pak/        PAK file operations (wraps repak)
├── modman-cli/        CLI binary
└── modman-wasm/       WebAssembly frontend (wasm-bindgen) powering the web UI

web/                   GitHub Pages site: hosted page + offline single-file build

License

MIT