What is considered an asset?

An asset is any file containing game data that is not code. Common examples include textures, models, audio files, and images.

Understanding the asset stack

DX uses a system known as the Asset Stack when building game assets. The asset stack allows you to safely override existing game assets without permanently modifying or deleting the original files.

To view the asset stack, open your project in Visual Studio Code and navigate to the assets directory. You will find these subdirectories:

assets/mod/ contains custom assets for your mod.
assets/dx/ contains assets required by DX.
assets/us/ contains assets extracted from your base ROM (us because the base ROM is the USA version).

How asset priority works

When building the game, DX looks for assets within these asset directories using the order defined by asset_stack in ver/us/splat.yaml. By default, the order will be:

First, it looks in assets/mod/
If the asset isn't found there, it checks assets/dx/
If still not found, it falls back to assets/us/

If an asset required by your modded game doesn't exist in any of these directories, DX will fail to build.

Choosing an asset directory for your mod

To add a new asset directory, you have two options:

Use the default mod directory:\ Place your mod's assets directly into the existing assets/mod/ directory.
Rename the default mod directory:\ Rename the assets/mod/ directory to a unique name for your mod (e.g., assets/master_quest/) and place your assets there. If you choose this approach, you must also modify the asset_stack entry in ver/us/splat.yaml. Find asset_stack with Ctrl+F and rename mod to match your asset directory name.

Never modify anything in assets/dx/ or assets/us/. Keeping your mod assets separate helps prevent conflicts between mods.

For example, for an innovative mod called *"Paper Master: Mario Quest,"* you could rename assets/mod/ to assets/master_quest/. Then, place all your assets into this newly named directory.

DX automatically prioritizes assets placed in your mod directory first, then falls back to assets/dx/, and finally to assets/us/. Avoid using spaces in directory or file names to ensure compatibility.

Overriding an asset

To override an asset, place a file with the same path in your asset directory as the asset you want to override.

For example, let's override the title screen background image! We can find this at assets/us/mapfs/bg/title_bg.png.

Copy that file. Then, create the directories assets/master_quest/mapfs/bg/ and paste the file there.

Then modify the pasted file in a pixel art editing program such as [Aseprite] (paid) or [LibreSprite] (free).

Finally, run the mod to see your changes.

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