v0.6.0

BW2 Stuff Explorer 0.6.0

Version 0.6 expands the read-only asset-inspection layer with complete BWM material rows, additional image-format providers and format-neutral image relationships. The archive reader, browsing, searching and export pipeline remain read-only.

Highlights

• Adds a BWM Contents tab with material index, stored material name and all six texture slots.
• Keeps Contents compact by default: Diffuse fills the available width while five additional texture columns can be expanded together.
• Adds bounded metadata providers for retail BW2 TGA, BMP and .555 images.
• Validates uncompressed, grayscale and RLE TGA data, including footerless files and the confirmed BW2 extension-area deviation.
• Displays factual BMP DIB, dimensions, row order, bit depth, compression and pixel offset without inventing alpha semantics.
• Confirms the nine retail sky textures as 256 × 256 little-endian X1R5G5B5 with an unused high bit.
• Generalizes relationship targets across DDS, TGA, BMP and .555 and renames the final evidence column to Candidates.
• Opens Properties with Enter when the main file list has focus.
• Adds an optional strict regression test for the original retail archive.

Retail-corpus verification

• 3,928 archive entries
• 822 BWM entries, 820 parsed models and two known placeholders
• 1,753 materials and 3,396 stored image references
• 3,266 unique, 126 missing and four ambiguous resolutions
• 106 TGA, 19 BMP and nine .555 files validated

Current boundaries

• Image preview is not part of Version 0.6.
• The observed retail BWM material references all target DDS. TGA, BMP and .555 therefore show no incoming relationship until later source-format providers expose explicit stored references.
• The final .555 header value remains displayed as an unknown raw value rather than assigned an unsupported meaning.
• Unknown or unsupported formats remain neutral.

Installation

1. Download and extract BW2StuffExplorer-0.6.0-windows-x64.zip completely.
2. Keep the executable, DLLs and runtime files together.
3. Start BW2StuffExplorer.exe.

The Windows package requires the x64 .NET 8 Desktop Runtime.

Downloads and SHA-256

• BW2StuffExplorer-0.6.0-windows-x64.zip
a357ad4e564875fff25ff418af013a624b6e0303b7c332301cf17b819911aa80

BW2 Stuff Explorer v0.5.0

Highlights

• Friendly classification for all 13 file formats found in Everything.stuff
• BWM v5/v6 inspection with static, skinned and invalid model detection
• Bidirectional BWM ↔ DDS reference inspection
• Exact, unique, ambiguous and not-found relationship states
• DDS header details including dimensions, compression, mip levels and texture type
• Payload-based alpha detection for BC1, BC2 and BC3 textures
• Structured General, Details and References tabs
• Improved performance in large grouped folders and recursive searches
• Refined scrolling, reference tables, tooltips and properties-window layout
• Read-only archive safety retained

Download

Download BW2StuffExplorer-0.5.0-windows-x64.zip.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• x64 .NET 8 Desktop Runtime

Extract the complete ZIP and run BW2StuffExplorer.exe. Keep all included files together in the same folder.

Notes

Specialized metadata readers currently cover DDS and BWM files. Other formats such as CHA, ABN and CSK retain a truthful neutral fallback and are planned for later releases.

SHA-256

727a4848ef0f6211750b0ab33827849b23750604379530c31eb36b13cb5ac475

BW2 Stuff Explorer v0.4.0

BW2 Stuff Explorer v0.4.0

A read-only archive explorer for Black & White 2 STUFF files.

Highlights

• Browse STUFF archives using a familiar Explorer-style interface
• Search, sort and group archived files
• Export individual files, selections, folders or complete archives
• Navigate using Back, Forward, Up and breadcrumbs
• View archived file properties and modification timestamps
• Monitor and cancel longer export operations
• Refreshed Windows 11-inspired interface
• New multi-resolution application icon

Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• .NET 8 Desktop Runtime

STUFF archives are always opened read-only and are never modified.