Mounts, DLC packs and overlays

Mount data selects which copies of files participate in the world. Enumerating every physical archive includes superseded resources and does not describe a single playable map state. Observed

Data	Role	Confidence
dlclist.xml	Pack paths in list order	Observed
Each pack’s setup2.xml	Device name, content filename, order, minor order and change-set groups	Observed
Pack content XML	Data files, enabled state, overlay flag, change sets and execution conditions	Observed
extrafoldermount.xml	Additional folder mounts	Observed
extratitleupdatedata.meta	Device/path title-update mounts	Observed

PC platform substitutions use x64; records tagged for ps5 or xbsx can name files absent from the PC install. Observed

Order and state

The mount reconstruction supported by the inspected data starts with common.rpf, the x64*.rpf base images and update/update.rpf, then orders DLC packs by order, minorOrder and original list position. Enabled RPF_FILE records and startup change sets determine the mounted archives. Observed

GROUP_ON_DEMAND content depends on script requests. GROUP_MAP changes describe the Online map transition: all packs’ startup groups precede the map groups, which then run in pack order. Level conditions such as $level= restrict changes to the named level. Observed

Every GROUP_MAP change set that changes anything belongs to a multiplayer compatibility pack; spupgrade’s is empty. The map change sets therefore describe the Online map, not Story. Observed

This ordering matters for downtown: mpheist invalidates Story’s downtown_01_metadata.rpf and enables hei_ maps, while patchday27ng carries a later Story overlay. Running each pack’s map group immediately after its startup can reintroduce the Story copy alongside the Online maps: downtown is then placed twice, 96,910 doubled placements map-wide. Observed CodeWalker skips patchday27ng as an explicit workaround, so agreement with its selected map is not by itself proof of the game’s transition sequence. Sourced · CodeWalker A map selected by CodeWalker’s mount code is the Online map without patchday27ng’s files. Inferred

Title-update paths under update:/dlc_patch/<pack>/ replace pack files. Some packs also have dlc1.rpf and other subarchives containing files absent from the pack’s main archive. Observed

Overlay precedence

The data supports a name-based interpretation of <overlay value="true"/>: an overlay copy wins over a plain copy of the same file name even when the overlay pack mounts earlier. Within the plain class or the overlay class, later mounts win. This rule is inferred from shipped replacements and archive naming, rather than established by executing the engine’s mount code. Inferred

For example, patchday21ng has order 21 but replaces vehicles from mpchristmas2018; other overlay archives have paths with no plain counterpart, so a same-archive-path interpretation alone cannot explain them. Observed

Map entries (ymap, ybn, ynv) participate in the map-archive namespace. Invalidating an archive also removes the overlays associated with it in the reconstructed active set. Observed

Does every mount edge case follow the reconstructed precedence?

The pack data constrains order and replacements, but script-driven on-demand activation and the engine’s complete overlay implementation are not established here. Unknown