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Zonetool Basics

warning

This documentation has not been completely finished. Parts of this process are not well documented and you may run into issues. For further help, you can join our Discord and talk to modders in the community.

What is x64-zt?

x64-zt is a tool for reading and writing fastfiles and their assets for the next-generation classic Call of Duty games. You can download the tool here.

This tool is mainly for newer Call of Duty games like Ghosts, Advanced Warfare, Modern Warfare, Infinite Warfare, and Modern Warfare 2: Campaign Remastered. The codenames for each game represent the company who developed it, and what iteration of game it is. So Ghosts is IW6, IW's 6th game, while S1 (AW) and H1 (MWR) are Slegehammer & Halfmoon's first games. Anything listed in the conversion support table below is what is supported.

Where does a map/mod folder go?

The biggest confusion with zonetool is where it loads mods. Any type of zonetool made by rektinator/Joelrau will always load mods from a zonetool folder, which inside of there, contains all of your actual mod folders.

Mods

The following is a example of a custom mod folder that has a custom extinction asset from Ghosts converted to MWR, and a _gametypes.txt override to let the engine know about more gamemodes we want to load:

Modern Warfare Remastered
├── zonetool
│   ├── custom_gamemode
│   │   ├── override
|   |   |   ├── maps
|   |   |   |   ├── mp
|   |   |   |   |   ├── gametypes
|   |   |   |   |   |   └── _gametypes.txt
│   │   ├── weapons
│   │   |   ├── alienbomb_mp.json
└── h1-mod.exe

Maps

The following is a example of a custom map folder to show you simply where it goes. This is usually made up of 90% assets we never touch, so to save room, ... is shown:

Modern Warfare Remastered
├── zonetool
│   ├── mp_test_map
│   │   └── ...
└── h1-mod.exe

How to add assets to your mod (zone source)

The most important part of loading your custom assets for your map OR mod is making sure it has a zone source, so that zonetool knows where to find it. You can simply set this up by making a zone_source folder, and matching the .csv name to be just like your mod/map:

Modern Warfare Remastered
├── zonetool
│   ├── custom_gamemode
│   │   ├── override
│   │   ├── weapons
├── zone_source
│   ├── custom_gamemode.csv
└── h1-mod.exe

A example .csv can be found for a map right below:

// map assets (col_map_mp is first to fix possible crashes)
col_map_mp,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
com_map,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
gfx_map,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
fx_map,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
glass_map,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
map_ents,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp
phys_worldmap,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp

// use mp_vlobby_room aipaths and rename to your map, or use the waypoint editor for future.
// if you are porting a map, this will be uncommented for bots and AI to move
#aipaths,maps/mp/mp_template.d3dbsp

// netconstrings (DO NOT REMOVE)
netconststrings,ncs_lsr_level
netconststrings,ncs_lui_level
netconststrings,ncs_acl_level
netconststrings,ncs_fxt_level
netconststrings,ncs_anm_level
netconststrings,ncs_hnt_level
netconststrings,ncs_att_level
netconststrings,ncs_wep_level
netconststrings,ncs_sel_level
netconststrings,ncs_mic_level
netconststrings,ncs_nps_level
netconststrings,ncs_hic_level
netconststrings,ncs_tag_level
netconststrings,ncs_mnu_level
netconststrings,ncs_shk_level
netconststrings,ncs_snl_level
netconststrings,ncs_sbx_level
netconststrings,ncs_snd_level
netconststrings,ncs_loc_level
netconststrings,ncs_vfx_level
netconststrings,ncs_veh_level
netconststrings,ncs_rmb_level
netconststrings,ncs_mat_level
netconststrings,ncs_mdl_level

// rawfiles (refer to stock gsc dump for reference)
#rawfile,vision/mp_template.vision

#rawfile,maps/mp/mp_template.gsc
#rawfile,maps/mp/mp_template_fx.gsc
#rawfile,maps/mp/mp_template_precache.gsc

#rawfile,maps/createfx/mp_template_fx.gsc

#rawfile,maps/createart/mp_template_art.gsc
#rawfile,maps/createart/mp_template_fog.gsc
#rawfile,maps/createart/mp_template_fog_hdr.gsc

// compass image
material,compass_map_mp_template

// iterator
#iterate,xmodel
#iterate,xanim
#iterate,fx

Game conversion support

IW6S1H1H2IW7
IW6✔️❌⚠️⚠️❌
S1❌✔️✔️✔️❌
H1❌⚠️✔️✔️❌
H2❌❌✔️✔️❌
IW7❌❌❌❌✔️

Commands

  • loadzone <zone>: Loads a zone
  • unloadzones: Unloads zones
  • verifyzones <zone>: Lists assets in a zone
  • dumpzone <zone>: Dumps a zone
  • dumpzone <target game> <zone> <asset filter>: Dumps a zone converting assets for a specific game
  • dumpasset <type> <name>: Dumps a single assset
  • dumpmap <map>: Dumps all required assets for a map
  • dumpmap <target game> <map> <asset filter> <skip common>: Dumps and converts all required assets for a map

Definitions

  • asset filter: A filter specifying all the asset types that should be dumped, if not specified or empty it will dump all asset types.
    Asset types are separated by commas. Using _ indicates a empty filter.
    Examples:
    • dumpzone h1 mp_clowntown3 sound,material,techset,rawfile
    • dumpmap h1 mp_clowntown3 _ true
  • skip common: Skips common zones when dumping a map, can be true or false. Useful if you already converted source game common files for target game in zonetool_paths.
  • target game: The game to convert the assets to.

Asset listings

An asset listing is a dump of the fastfiles' CSVs, which contains data about what assets it contains. This is used to primarily locate specific assets you want, or to find data about a techset so you can dump the zone. The name of a .zone file will correlate to a real .ff fastfile you have in your game files.

You can download any .zip file you need to browse the zone files. You need a .zip extractor, like 7-Zip or Winrar, to extract the zip to disk as a folder. You can also use VSCode to search through all of the files in the folder at once.

Porting maps from old-gen to next-gen

You can learn how to port maps from older games into the next-generation games in this guide here.

Porting maps between next-gen

You can learn how to port maps between the next-generation games in this guide here.

Porting completely custom assets

You can create entirely new assets for Call of Duty and port them into any game you want, including next-gen games, by simply using the official CoD4 Mod Tools to build your own CoD4 fastfile. Once you build that fastfile, you can dump it using the x64 branch of zonetool provided above, and port it to a next-gen game. We won't give much help on this as it has been documented on YouTube and other websites since 2008.