Custom Texture Replacer

Runtime mod for TCG Card Shop Simulator that lets you replace textures on the fly, customise card metadata, and export the original data set for reference. No restart required — drop files in, press a key, and the game refreshes itself.

Features

• Live texture swapping – watches every CustomTextures folder under BepInEx/plugins/ (including sibling mods) and reloads PNGs without restarting the game.
• Persistent sprite overrides – icons dropped into CustomTextures stay applied across atlas reloads and UI updates (store thumbnails, card icons, etc.).
• Live mesh and material swapping – point MeshOverrides.json at Unity asset bundles to override meshes, skinned meshes, colliders, and renderer materials at runtime.
• Mesh-specific texture support – register extra texture folders for your meshes, or specify per-material texture files that the plugin loads and assigns at runtime.
• Card metadata overrides – optional CardOverrides.json lets you change card names, flavour text, stats, etc. per monster ID.
• Hot reloads and watchers – edits to textures, mesh overrides, or the card override JSON are picked up immediately, no refresh button required.
• Diagnostics – writes activity to CustomTextureReplacer.debug.log, including capture events, alias mapping, UI override hits, and dump status.
• Data export helpers – F8 rebuilds the texture and sprite dumps; F9 emits a CardOverrides.original.json snapshot of the card data you have viewed.

Installing / Updating

1. Copy CustomTextureReplacer.dll to BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextureReplacer/ (or the r2modman profile equivalent .../plugins/Duckieray-CustomTextureReplacer/).
2. Ensure the companion MiniJson.cs is bundled into your build — dotnet build already produces the correct DLL.
3. Launch the game once to let the plugin create its working files:
   • BepInEx/plugins/TexturesList.txt
   • BepInEx/plugins/SpritesList.txt
   • BepInEx/plugins/MeshesList.txt
   • BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextureReplacer.debug.log

Tip: Close the game before copying over the DLL. If the file is "locked by a user-mapped section", Windows still has the old binary loaded.

Replacing Textures

1. Inspect BepInEx/plugins/TexturesList.txt to find the texture name and resolution.
2. Drop a PNG with the exact texture name (case-insensitive) into any watched CustomTextures folder. The default is BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextures/.
3. The mod automatically reloads the file. Use CustomTextures.refresh.now (empty file) or press F8 if you want to force a mass refresh, but normal icon/atlas swaps no longer require it.

PNG names support a rename suffix when the UseReplacementNames config flag is enabled:

OriginalName-New_Display_Name.png

The portion after the first hyphen becomes the fallback display name (underscores are turned into spaces) when no explicit card override is supplied.

Replacing Meshes

Mesh swapping uses Unity asset bundles (built for the same Unity version as the game) plus a MeshOverrides.json descriptor. The file can live beside your textures in any watched CustomTextures folder, or directly under BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextureReplacer/.

{
  "overrides": [
    {
      "target": "PiggyA_Mesh",
      "bundle": "dark_knight_armored.bundle"
    }
  ]
}

The loader picks the most complex mesh in the bundle and assigns enough materials to cover its sub-mesh count. Add optional hints when a bundle contains multiple candidates:

{
  "overrides": [
    {
      "target": "PiggyA_Mesh",
      "bundle": "dark_knight_armored.bundle",
      "meshHint": "Armored",
      "materialHints": ["Body", "Head", "Pack"],
      "card": {
        "displayName": "Armored Batman Statue",
        "aliases": ["Pigni Plushie"]
      }
    }
  ]
}

meshHint narrows the auto mesh selection by name (case-insensitive). materialHints prioritises materials whose names contain each hint. If the loader still cannot determine a unique mesh or enough materials, it logs a warning so you can fall back to explicit names.

Editing Card Metadata

Create a CardOverrides.json with the following structure:

{
  "entries": [
    {
      "Id": "PiggyA",
      "Aliases": ["Pigni"],
      "DisplayName": "Green Lantern",
      "CardNumber": "01",
      "Subtitle": "Emerald Guardian",
      "Description": "Wielder of willpower.\nDefends Sector 2814.",
      "EvolvesFrom": "Piglet",
      "Artist": "Hal Jordan",
      "Stat1": "150",
      "Stat2": "120",
      "Stat3": "90",
      "Stat4": "80",
      "Rarity": "Legendary",
      "Fame": "Justice League"
    }
  ]
}

Supported Properties

Place CardOverrides.json in any watched CustomTextures directory. The loader searches in this order:

1. Every discovered .../CustomTextures/CardOverrides.json
2. BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextureReplacer/CardOverrides.json
3. BepInEx/plugins/CardOverrides.json

The first file found wins, and the watcher keeps it in sync with on-disk edits.

Built-in Dumps and Key Bindings

Card data capture

While you browse the game, each rendered CardUI is captured and stored in an in-memory snapshot. The F9 dump serialises that snapshot. If you press F9 before visiting any cards, the dump will be empty — open the album or packs first to populate the cache.

Each capture is logged in CustomTextureReplacer.debug.log as:

[time] Captured baseline card data for 'PiggyA'.

Debugging and Logs

• BepInEx/plugins/CustomTextureReplacer.debug.log keeps a detailed trace: texture discoveries, mesh reloads, override hits, card capture events, alias mappings, and dump status.
• Use the log to confirm overrides are loading:
  • CardOverrides JSON length: ...
  • CardOverrides added entry for ...
  • MeshOverrides load complete: ...

Persistent Sprite / Icon Overrides

• Drop icon PNGs (for example Icon_PiggyA.png) into any watched CustomTextures folder.
• The plugin records the atlas region and replacement texture the first time it sees the icon. After that, every atlas or UI assignment (shop thumbnails, UI Image/RawImage, sprite renderers) is automatically overridden via Harmony hooks—no manual refresh or file touch needed.
• Successful swaps log entries such as UI Image override applied (hook): Icon_PiggyA -> Icon_PiggyA_Custom in CustomTextureReplacer.debug.log.

Troubleshooting

Building from Source

# build
cd CustomTextureReplacer
 dotnet build

# deploy (example r2modman profile)
copy build\CustomTextureReplacer.dll "C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Roaming\r2modmanPlus-local\TCGCardShopSimulator\profiles\Default\BepInEx\plugins\Duckieray-CustomTextureReplacer\"

Ensure Card Shop Simulator_Data/Managed is accessible so the build references Unity assemblies correctly.

Credits

• Plugin author: Duckieray
• Enhancements and maintenance: community contributors
• Powered by BepInEx 5 + Harmony 2