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Borderlands 3 Hotfixes

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CJ Kucera edited this page Jun 16, 2021 · 29 revisions

This page intends to document what we know about the hotfix system in use by Borderlands 3. If you're interested in tracking changes to the hotfixes that GBX provides for Borderlands 3, a github repo was set up which checks for hotfixes hourly and uploads new versions where appropriate. Feel free to check it out over here: https://github.com/BLCM/bl3hotfixes

The official GBX hotfixes have been getting uploaded to a Google Sheet, which makes analyzing some of their structure a bit more easily. This has been getting updated pretty regularly, though make sure you check the last-updated date in the document title: BL3 Hotfixes on Google Sheets.

Hotfix Keys/Operations

BL3 currently has had five hotfix operations which have been used in official hotfixes:

  • SparkPatchEntry - Globally-applicable hotfixes which get applied at the main menu, when hotfixes are loaded. This hotfix type should be all right for most objects which already exist at the main menu. Unlike in BL2/TPS, most Player Character related objects can make use of this type.
  • SparkLevelPatchEntry - Hotfixes which activate on level load. This hotfix type requires specifying a level name, but you can also use MatchAll to apply to all levels. (MatchAll is equivalent to the BL2/TPS method of leaving the level name blank.)
  • SparkEarlyLevelPatchEntry - This is similar to SparkLevelPatchEntry, but kicks off earlier in the level-loading sequence. This is required for some kinds of map-related edits, such as altering container contents and the like. It's also needed for some Mayhem Modifier changes. In general, though, this hotfix type isn't necessary, and a SparkLevelPatchEntry would be sufficient.
  • SparkCharacterLoadedEntry - Hotfixes which activate when a BPChar loads, primarily used for enemy modifications. Enemies tend to get loaded dynamically as the engine requires them, so hotfixes to enemy data often can't use patch or level-based hotfixes.
  • SparkSaveGameEntry - Used to tweak incorrect values in savegames. This syntax hasn't really been fully investigated, since it's of more use to GBX than ourselves.

Additionally, there appear to be two other kinds of hotfix operations which have not been seen yet, so it's a bit difficult to know exactly how they would be used:

  • SparkPostLoadedEntry
  • SparkStreamedPackageEntry

Hotfix Values

The hotfixes used in BL3 are at least slightly different from the ones used in both BL2 and TPS, though the general syntax is still the same. Here's an example of a very simple hotfix:

(1,1,1,Crypt_P),/Game/Cinematics/_Design/NPCs/BPCine_Actor_Typhon.BPCine_Actor_Typhon_C:SkeletalMesh_GEN_VARIABLE,bEnableUpdateRateOptimizations,4,True,False

Two things will be obvious to folks already familiar with BL2/TPS hotfixes: the "package" field has been expanded, and there's an extra number inbetween the attribute and the "old" value. For clarity's sake, here's the fields split out:

  1. (1,1,1,Crypt_P)
  2. /Game/Cinematics/_Design/NPCs/BPCine_Actor_Typhon.BPCine_Actor_Typhon_C:SkeletalMesh_GEN_VARIABLE
  3. bEnableUpdateRateOptimizations
  4. 4
  5. True
  6. False

The extra number field (field 4 in the list above) is easy enough to explain: it's simply the string length of the "old" value. The string True has four characters, so the number is 4. This was presumably added in because that way it's easy to include old values which contain commas, without having to worry about quoting the values properly, etc. If the game knows the string length, it can just read that many bytes and then proceed to process the rest of the hotfix. To construct a hotfix which doesn't check for existing values (ie: a set rather than set_cmp, in BLCMM parlance), set the "from" length to zero and leave the next field blank, as usual.

The package field has been expanded to include quite a bit more information. I've been calling it a "package tuple".

The first of the numbers is always 1, and the game will reject a hotfix which has any other value.

The second of the numbers determines the type of hotfix, and so far we've seen a few values for that: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 11. This number can have a big effect on anything looking to process hotfixes, and can alter the number of fields that show up in the rest of the hotfixes. I've been calling it a "type," though that term's unlikely to be what GBX calls it. See the next section for information on that.

The third number is technically a bitfield, though only bit 0 is being checked currently, so this value will always be 0 or 1 for the moment. It's used internally to specify whether the modified object should be notified when the hotfix is applied or removed. The circumstances under which you'd want to use one or the other remains fairly opaque. In practice, 0 seems to work most of the time, though there are plenty of GBX-provided hotfixes which use 1

The fourth field in there is the "target" of the hotfix operation, and is generally only seen in SparkLevelPatchEntry, SparkEarlyLevelPatchEntry, and SparkCharacterLoadedEntry hotfixes. This is where you specify the level in which to run the hotfix, or the character whose load will trigger the hotfix. Unlike in BL2/TPS, leaving this blank does not work as a wildcard, but you can instead use the special keyword MatchAll to have a hotfix operate on all level loads, or on all character loads.

Hotfix Types

The second number in the "package" field determines the type of the hotfix, which will alter how the hotfix looks.

Hotfix Type 1: Regular

This is the most familiar-looking hotfix, such as the example above. It alters the named attribuet which exists right in the object in question. The field list for this kind of hotfix is:

  1. Package Tuple
  2. Object Name
  3. Attribute Name
  4. "From" Length
  5. "From" Value
  6. "To" Value

Hotfix Type 2: DataTable

BL3 has a new data structure used in a variety of circumstances which is called a DataTable. These tables seem to have "rows" which can be referenced by name, and hotfix type 2 will let you specify which row to act on.

  1. Package Tuple
  2. Object Name
  3. Row Name
  4. Attribute Name
  5. "From" Length
  6. "From" Value
  7. "To" Value

For instance, here's one currently-active hotfix:

(1,2,0,),/Game/GameData/Modifiers/DataTable_Mayhem_CoreMods_Easy.DataTable_Mayhem_CoreMods_Easy,ExpGain_CombatOnly,MinValue,8,2.000000,0.100000
  1. Package: (1,2,0,)
  2. Object: /Game/GameData/Modifiers/DataTable_Mayhem_CoreMods_Easy.DataTable_Mayhem_CoreMods_Easy
  3. Row Name: ExpGain_CombatOnly
  4. Attribute: MinValue
  5. "From" Length: 8
  6. "From" Value: 2.000000
  7. "To" Value: 0.100000

Hotfix Type 3: CVar

No official GBX-provided hotfix has been seen which uses this yet, but this hotfix type could theoretically be used to set engine-level CVars to alter how the game does its stuff. The syntax is currently unknown.

Hotfix Type 4: Savegame MissionObjective

This type has only been seen inside SparkSaveGameEntry hotfixes so far, of which we've only seen two examples. The currently-active one looks like:

(1,4,0,),/Game/Missions/Plot/Mission_Ep02_Sacrifice.Mission_Ep02_Sacrifice_C,1,/Game/Missions/Plot/Mission_Ep02_Sacrifice.Set_WatchMouthpieceMovie_ObjectiveSet,(8,9),(1,0),(2,2)

As suggested by the MissionObjective name, this is used to alter saved mission objectives, to tweak values which might have been blocking progress or something. I haven't taken the time to try and figure out what most of those fields mean:

  1. Package
  2. Mission Object Name
  3. Unknown Number 1
  4. Objective Object Name
  5. Unknown two-digit tuple 1
  6. Unknown two-digit tuple 2 ("from" value?)
  7. Unknown two-digit tuple 3 ("to" value?)

This type is unlikely to be useful to modders anyway, of course.

Hotfix Type 5: Savegame MissionObjectiveSet

Like type 4, this has only been seen in conjunction with SparkSaveGameEntry hotfixes, so it's clearly something savegame-related, and additionally is also related to mission objectives. The currently-active one looks like:

(1,5,0,),/Game/Missions/Plot/Mission_Ep05_OvercomeHQBlockade.Mission_Ep05_OvercomeHQBlockade_C,1,/Game/Missions/Plot/Mission_Ep05_OvercomeHQBlockade.SET_ContactAtlas_RhysConversation_ObjectiveSet,53,1,/Game/Missions/Plot/Mission_Ep05_OvercomeHQBlockade.SET_TalkToLorelai_Monocycle_ObjectiveSet

I haven't taken the time to try and figure out what most of those fields mean:

  1. Package
  2. Mission Object Name
  3. Unknown Number 1
  4. ObjectiveSet Object Name
  5. Unknown Number 2
  6. Unknown Number 3
  7. Another ObjectiveSet Object Name

Hotfix Type 6: SpawnMesh

This hotfix type is used to alter some ingame mesh information, so these are altering level geometry in some ways. The values set will include a pipe-and-comma-delimited array of numbers. Here's one currently-active example:

(1,6,0,AtlasHQ_P),/Game/Maps/Zone_1/AtlasHQ,/Game/LevelArt/Environments/Promethea/AtlasHQ/Architecture/Pillars/Model/Meshes,SM_AtlasHQ_Pillar_V1,90,"-9392.000000,-2797.000000,928.000000|0.000000,0.000319,0.000000|1.500000,0.750000,1.500000",0
  1. Package
  2. Path to map where the hotfix will be applied, without the actual map object name
  3. Path to SpawnMesh object (without the actual mesh object name)
  4. Object name of the SpawnMesh object to add, without the path component
  5. Length of the next field
  6. Pipe-and-comma-delimited array of numbers. Format: Location x,y,z|Rotation pitch,yaw,roll|Scale x,y,z
  7. Opacity: 0 = visible, 1 = clear/see through.

For the rotation values, positive X is considered "forward," so pitch will rotate around the Y axis, yaw will rotate around the Z axis, and roll will rotate around the X axis. Many (though not all) StaticMeshes visually "look" like they're facing positive X, which is a help.

Note that using these hotfixes, you can only use meshes which are already loaded by the level, so you can't pull in entirely arbitrary meshes using only this hotfix type. If you can cause some new meshes to be referenced by other objects, though, before this hotfix is read, you can pull in arbitrary meshes. The bl3hotfixmod hotfix-writing helper library now includes a method to do this transparently in the background.

Hotfix Type 7: Blueprint Bytecode

This type apparently alters the bytecodes which are generated as the result of Unreal Engine Blueprint compilation. So far, the few examples we have of these have been editing some objects which are related to player character abilities (including one which relates to guardian rank). Here's an example:

(1,7,0,),/Game/PlayerCharacters/Beastmaster/_Shared/_Design/Passives/Ranged1/Passive_Beastmaster_Ranged1.Passive_Beastmaster_Ranged1_C,0,1,ExecuteUbergraph_Passive_Beastmaster_Ranged1,1,312,8:0.100000,3:2.0

The actual format does actually seem to diverge depending on a later value in the hotfix. They all start off with the following syntax:

  1. Package
  2. Object Name
  3. Unknown Number 1 - always 0 so far
  4. Unknown Number 2 - always 1 so far
  5. Export/sub-object in which to apply the hotfix
  6. Hotfix sub-type - Seen 1 or 2 so far.

Hotfix sub-type 1 is the most common, and the fields after that number will be:

  1. Unknown Number 4 - bytecode offset, perhaps?
  2. "From" Value, prefixed with the length of the "From" string by use of a colon
  3. "To" Value, prefixed with the length of the "To" string by use of a colon

Hotfix sub-type 2 will indicate there's an extra (similarly unknown) number there:

  1. Unknown Number 4
  2. Unknown Number 5 (one of these numbers is probably an offset of some sort)
  3. "From" Value, prefixed with the length of the "From" string by use of a colon
  4. "To" Value, prefixed with the length of the "To" string by use of a colon

The single example of a subtype-2 hotfix is currently:

(1,7,0,),/Game/PatchDLC/Dandelion/Gear/Weapon/_Unique/IonLaser/BPWepFireBeam_IonLaser.BPWepFireBeam_IonLaser_C,0,1,ExecuteUbergraph_BPWepFireBeam_IonLaser,2,665,1249,1:6,1:8

Presumably, to use this hotfix type effectively, you'd need to be able to parse the existing blueprint bytecodes to figure out what exactly to change.

Hotfix Type 8: MaterialInterface

This type of hotfix was first seen on the June 11, 2020 hotfix update (which added the Guardian Takedown). Its exact fields aren't known, but there aren't too many fields in there. There's an example:

(1,8,1,GuardianTakedown_P),/Game/PatchDLC/Takedown2/Maps/GuardianTakedown_Temple.GuardianTakedown_Temple:PersistentLevel.IO_CryptPillar_2.StaticMesh1,0,/GbxSharedBlockoutAssets/_Shared/Model/Materials/Grayscale/MI_GrayScale_10.MI_GrayScale_10,MI_Eridian_Wall_Atlas_V2
  1. Package
  2. Object Name
  3. Unknown Number 1
  4. Material Interface Path
  5. material Interface Name

Hotfix Type 9: Unknown

Nothing much to say about this. We don't even have a label for them, let alone examples.

Hotfix Type 10: Unknown

Nothing much to say about this. We don't even have a label for them, let alone examples.

Hotfix Type: 11: Stream Blueprint

This type was introduced with the 2019-11-21 patch, which in addition to the Maliwan Takedown added a "Hotfixes Applied" sign on the main menu, and so far the two type-11 hotfixes are related to that sign. These are pretty clearly closely related to types 6 and 7 as well, though the exact syntax hasn't really been worked out yet. Here's the first example:

(1,11,0,MenuMap_P),/Game/Maps/MenuMap,/Game/Patch/MicropatchApplied,IO_MainMenu_HotfixIndicator,80,"0.000000,0.000000,0.000000|0.000000,0.000000,0.000000|1.000000,1.000000,1.000000"
  1. Package
  2. Map reference?
  3. Variable status check?
  4. Interactive object?
  5. Unknown Number 1
  6. Pipe-and-comma-delimited array of numbers

Conclusion

That's it, so far! As more hotfixes get rolled out, some of the mysteries here could get cleared up. Some mysteries would probably be cleared up by just taking a closer look at the GBX-provided changelogs and matching them up to the downloaded hotfixes. One other thing that would probably help would be to have a good set of dumped data from the game, though BL3 makes that rather more complicated than the easier situation we had with BL2/TPS.

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