Life is Strange (SPOILERS)

I don't think model swapping is possible with Unreal Engine unless we can create mods (similar to that of L4D2's mods)

There is a way to do it. I'll upload the tools I used a while ago when I was trying to swap models. I didn't swap models succesfully by then because I didn't have much time, but i'll try today.

Seems like we gotta decompress .upk files and then extract them, then hack our LIS.exe to make it read uncompressed .upks (we don't need to compress it again). In the uncompressed .upk we can replace all kind of models and stuff, but like I said, I haven't tried yet.

www.mediafire.com/download/vjfh99edirtt81d/UPKtools.rar there you go.There's some txt files that they will help you.

First swap of Cliff future is now completed,ik it looks like a episode 5 ending it isn't!

There you go ;d

Well, this tutorial is a bit tricky, because of one part. LET'S BEGIN.

First, tools:
www.mediafire.com/download/vjfh99edirtt81d/UPKtools.rar (Thanks to @betterchoice for the link!)

That file contains 2 applications, UPKunpacker and UPKrepacker.

1. Go to the path of the episode you want to modify.
EP1 = Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\CookedPCConsoleFinal

EP2 = Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\Build\PCConsole\DLC\Episode02\LifeIsStrangeGame\DLC\PCConsole\Episode02\CookedPCConsole

EP3 = Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\Build\PCConsole\DLC\Episode03\LifeIsStrangeGame\DLC\PCConsole\Episode03\CookedPCConsole

When you are there, find the file you want to modify. For now I just know how to modify files that start with E.

Filename explication


When you found the file you want to modify, copy it to UPKunpacker and repacker folder.
I'll mod E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk.

2. Drag it into UPKunpacker.exe. It'll return a folder of the file, but uncompressed.


3. Enter into that folder. You'll see a lot of folders inside. Let's say you want to swap Stella to Kate.

You'll first enter into Stella's folder (CH_S_Stella). Inside it, you'll find 3 more folders and 3 files. Enter into "Models" folder. Copy "CH_S_Stella01.SkeletalMesh" and paste it into CH_S_Kate\Models (Kate' model folder).

Now delete "CH_S_Kate01.SkeletalMesh", and rename "CH_S_Stella01.SkeletalMesh" to "CH_S_Kate01.SkeletalMesh".

4. You're ready to repack now. Go back to the folder where you have both UPK applications. Drag the "E1_2A_ArtClass_LD" folder into UPKrepack.exe.


The original E1_2A_ArtClass_LD file will be renamed to E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk.bak, and a new E1_2A_ArtClass_LD file will be created. Yay! We repacked it! Are we ready to use it ingame? Not yet.

5. Unreal Engine checks file sizes. If one of the file sizes don't match, the game will close with an error. Now, you may notice your new E1_2A_ArtClass_LD file's size is bigger than the original one. What we have to do, is go to

Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame if you're modding EP1
Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\Build\PCConsole\DLC\Episode02\LifeIsStrangeGame if EP2
Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\Build\PCConsole\DLC\Episode03\LifeIsStrangeGame if EP3

Then open the "PCConsoleFINALTOC.txt" file with Notepad. There you have to find the line that checks the size of the file you modded. I modded E1_2A_ArtClass_LD, so i'll just look for that file.

When you find it, you'll see that it says something like this:
12654769 0 ..\LifeIsStrangeGame\CookedPCConsoleFinal\E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk 0

The first number (12654769) says the filesize in Bytes. My file's size is 21,280 KBs. We have to convert my file size in KBs to Bytes. I used this converter:
www.t1shopper.com/tools/calculate/

The converter says that 21,790.625 is the size i'm looking for. I just copy that number and remove from it the comma and the dot. It's 21790625 now. I copy that number, and replace 12654769 in .txt file we were modifying.

12654769 0 ..\LifeIsStrangeGame\CookedPCConsoleFinal\E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk 0 <---- OLD LINE
21790625 0 ..\LifeIsStrangeGame\CookedPCConsoleFinal\E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk 0 <---- NEW LINE

Save the .txt file.

6. Now just move your new "E1_2A_ArtClass_LD.upk" from the UPKunpacker folder to the original folder of the file, which was in this case "Steam\SteamApps\common\Life Is Strange\LifeIsStrangeGame\CookedPCConsoleFinal". Replace the original file with this one, and DONE!