Modding wiki connector

No, not as a normal mod. In KCD (the first game), shaders live in Engine/shaders.pak, and mods in the Mods folder can only override things under Data/. A shader mod has to ship replacement .pak files that users copy into their Engine/ folder by hand, overwriting the originals.

Building it (needs the official modding tools installed in the game root):

1. Put your edited shaders into Engine/shaders.pak.
2. Back up system.cfg from the KCD root.
3. Copy Tools/shadercachegen/system.cfg to the KCD root.
4. Delete or rename (any extension except .pak) these files:
   • Engine/shadercache.pak
   • Engine/shadercachestartup.pak
   • Engine/shadersbin.pak
5. Run Tools/shadercachegen/ShaderCacheGen.cmd. This takes about 30 minutes. You can watch shadercachegen.log, which ends up around 110,000 lines when it's done.
6. Run Tools/PakShaders.bat from the root directory. It creates new shadercache.pak, shadercachestartup.pak and shadersbin.pak files in Engine/ that include your shaders.
7. Put your original system.cfg back.

What to ship: your shaders.pak plus the rebuilt cache paks, with instructions to put them in Engine/ and back up the originals first, since this overwrites vanilla files. The tools' license says any mod made with them must include a copy of modding_eula.txt.

These steps apply only to the first game. KCD2 uses a different setup, so check its own documentation if you're targeting that.

Sources:

• Replacing Shaders (KCD)
• Modding Tools Overview (KCD)

Short answer: no, not as a normal mod. The Mods folder only loads .pak files from Mods/<YourMod>/Data/. Shaders sit outside the game's Data folder. The official KCD modding wiki says that mods changing files outside data/, and it names shader paks as an example, "will not work out of the box and require manual setup, which should be provided by the mod author" (KCD2 mod docs: Installing mods). That page is for KCD2, but both games use the same CryEngine-based mod loader.

So you'll need to:

• Ship your edited shader pak as a manual install, with clear steps for where it goes and what it replaces.
• Tell users to back up the original files first so they can uninstall.
• If you also ship a normal Mods-folder part, users can check kcd.log in the game's root folder and search for [Mod] to confirm it loaded.

Rebuilding the shader cache: I couldn't find a documented procedure for KCD, and I won't guess at file names or console variables. The only related thing I found was an old batch-file mod that cleared the shader cache. It's now deprecated because official patches fixed the problem it worked around (Nexus mod 258). The KCD modding Discord or Warhorse's modding forum are the best places to get a confirmed answer.

Also, KCD runs on CryEngine, not a Bethesda engine. Advice for Skyrim or Fallout shaders and caches doesn't apply here.

Sources:

• KCD2 mod docs – Installing mods
• Nexus Mods – KCD mod 258
• Steam discussion on Mods folder layout
• Warhorse forum – Mods not working

The Creator Kit Troubleshooting page on the Nexus Mods wiki covers both of these.

1. Solid background instead of transparency

The creator kit doesn't turn on alpha support for rendered images by default. To enable it:

1. Go to Edit > Project Settings.
2. In the search bar, type Enable alpha channel support in post processing.
3. Change it from Disabled to Linear color space only.
4. Restart the creator kit. The setting won't apply until you do.
5. Re-render your icons.

2. White speckles on icons

The wiki says this can come from GPU or driver errors. The only fix it lists is resetting the kit's local app data folder:

1. Close the creator kit.
2. Press Win + R, type %localappdata%, and press Enter.
3. Find the HogwartsLegacyCreatorKit folder and delete it.
4. Start the creator kit again. It will recreate the folder, and the icons should render cleanly.

A few things to keep in mind:

• I'd rename that folder (for example to HogwartsLegacyCreatorKit.bak) instead of deleting it. That way you can restore it if anything goes wrong, and you can delete it once the renders look right.
• It's a good idea to fix the transparency first and then reset the folder. Check afterward that the alpha setting is still enabled. Your project settings should be in the project, not in that folder, but checking only takes a few seconds.
• The wiki blames GPU and driver problems. If the speckles come back, try updating your graphics driver. I don't have a confirmed fix beyond the folder reset.

The same page also explains how to set the output folder for rendered icons, because the Gear Icon Creator doesn't set one automatically. Go to Content > Editors > GearIconMaker > Blueprints, open MPMC_GearIcons, change Output, and click Save.

Sources:

• Hogwarts Legacy Creator Kit – Troubleshooting (modding.wiki)

I found two documented fixes in CurseForge's official creator guide. One thing to know first: the guide doesn't mention "white speckles" by name. It does say to change the alpha and compression settings when the alpha looks wrong, and that's where I'd start.

1. Solid background instead of transparent

Make sure the source PNG has real transparency. The guide says an imported PNG shows a black background by default if it has no alpha channel. Gear icons should be 256×256 .png files. Remove the background in an image editor and save the PNG with alpha before you import it. A Snipping Tool screenshot won't have alpha.

If the icon is shown through a material, open the material and:

• Set Blend Mode to AlphaComposite.
• Connect the texture's A (alpha) pin to Opacity.
• Apply and save.

2. Speckles and alpha artifacts

Open the UI_T_... texture asset and set these:

1. Compression → Compression Settings: BC7 (DX11, optional A). This keeps both the color and the alpha at good quality. Other compression formats tend to cause blocky or speckled edges.
2. Level of Detail → Texture Group: 4kReadyUI.
3. Min Alpha: 1. The guide recommends this for alpha artifacts specifically.
4. Save. Then check the icon again in game or in the Creator Kit.

Other notes

• If you're using the built-in Icon Editor (Enter Icon Edit Mode), it renders skin tone as transparent. A preset that shows skin will have see-through patches. It works best for hair, gear, and flat color swatches.
• Name the texture UI_T_YourName. Then add a row named YourName (no UI_T_ prefix) to DT_IconNewGearMod or your mod's IconInfo table, and set its Icon field to the texture. An icon that isn't registered shows a red-triangle "!" error icon, which is a different problem from speckles.

If the speckles are still there after BC7 and Min Alpha = 1, look at the PNG itself. Leftover semi-transparent pixels from background removal would explain it. Beyond that, I didn't find documentation on this exact issue. The Hogwarts Legacy modding Discord or forums would be the next place to ask.

Sources:

• Hogwarts Legacy creators – Customizations & Assets (CurseForge support)
• Icon Bug Fix – Nexus Mods
• Hogwarts Legacy Creator Kit – Epic Games Store

A mod only appears in the update checker if its config file has a NexusID setting. If the author didn't add one, you can add it yourself.

1. Find the mod's Nexus ID. It's the number at the end of the mod's Nexus page URL. For example, https://www.nexusmods.com/dinkum/mods/83 has the ID 83.

2. Find the mod's config file. Look in Dinkum/BepInEx/config. The file has the same name as the plugin.

• If the mod doesn't have a config file: open the dev.TinyResort.TRTools config file in that folder and set CreateEmptyConfigFiles to true. Start the game once. TR Tools will then create an empty config file for every plugin that doesn't already have one.

3. Add the ID. Open the mod's config file in a text editor like Notepad and add this line, using the ID you found:

NexusID=83
      

It can go in any section of the file.

4. Restart the game. The mod should now be listed on the MODS screen (bottom left of the title screen). Clicking its entry opens its Nexus files page. Mods with updates are listed first, then up-to-date mods, then mods that can't be checked. After you install an update, restart the game again, because the new version doesn't load until you do.

If the author changes the config file in a later update, your added line might be removed. If the mod disappears from the list again, check that the line is still there.

Sources:

• Dinkum TR Tools – Mod Manager
• Dinkum TR Tools – Nexus ID

The mods screen is part of TR Tools, a Dinkum modding framework. It isn't built into the game. It can only check a mod for updates if that mod's configuration file has a NexusID setting, and the mod's author adds that setting through the TR Tools API. So usually only the author can fix this. Here's what you can try as a player:

1. Check whether the mod is missing or just not checking. The screen sorts mods into three groups: updates available first, then up to date, then mods not set up to check for updates. If your mod is at the bottom, TR Tools can see it but it has no NexusID. If it isn't in the list at all, it probably doesn't use TR Tools, so the screen can't see it.

2. Look in the mod's config file. Dinkum mods use BepInEx, so config files are usually in BepInEx/config/ and named after the mod. If the mod's file has a NexusID entry that's empty or set to 0, try entering the number from the mod's Nexus page URL (nexusmods.com/dinkum/mods/<this number>). Then restart the game. I couldn't confirm that the checker reads a value you add yourself, so treat this as an experiment. Typing a NexusID line into a file that doesn't already have one probably won't do anything, because the mod has to register that setting itself.

3. Ask the author. If neither of those works, post on the mod's Nexus page or bug tracker and ask them to add a NexusID through the TR Tools API. Until they do, you'll need to check for updates yourself: track the mod on Nexus and you'll get a notification when it updates.

After updating any mod, restart the game so the new version loads.

I also couldn't confirm the exact setting name or file layout. The wiki page for the mod manager didn't return any content when I fetched it, so the TR Tools documentation or the mod's own page is the place to confirm.

Sources:

• modding.wiki – TR Tools Mod Manager
• Nexus Mods – Dinkum top mods