TeamVanilla NFSMW-ML lets mods live in a modloader folder beside the game. The game behaves as if their files had replaced the originals, but nothing on disk is changed: delete a mod's folder and it is gone. It follows the idea of LINK/2012's Mod Loader for San Andreas.
What a mod can be
- A texture, by its hash (
0x94D70856.dds) or its in-game name, in any bundle: the front end, the streamed city, and the compressed car textures alike. It must match the original's size; DXT1 and DXT5 are converted to whatever the slot uses. - A whole file: bundles, audio, vaults, missions, anything, either at the game's own path inside the mod folder or dropped at the mod's root by name. Size doesn't matter, the 500 MB world stream included.
- A model: an
.obj,.gltfor.glbnamed after the solid it replaces, spliced into a temporary copy of the bundle at launch. This is the quick loop for models edited in MWTools. - A plugin:
.asior.dllfiles inmodloader\plugins, which can also contribute their own file and texture patches through NFSMW-ML's plugin interface.
The daytime sky colour is a shader constant rather than a texture, so it has its own setting in modloader\sky.ini. A scanner writes a catalogue of every texture's name, hash, size and bundle, so a texture mod starts from the right numbers. A folder whose name starts with a dot is skipped, which is how a mod is switched off.