How to extract Cold Waters Artwork

[NavyGuy570]

Today I will be showing you how to extract the Cold Waters artwork from the game files. A couple of months ago, a friend of mine, extracted them all for me and passed the skill down to me.

It is important to note that due to copyright concerns, you are NOT allowed to distribute the artwork, and this is why I can’t just post my copy.

Prerequisite: https://github.com/DerPopo/UABE/releases/tag/2.2stabled

This is UABE (Unity Asset Bundle Extractor). This is the tool we will be using to extract the Cold Waters artwork. Download the version that fits your computer; 32 or 64 bit. My PC runs a 64-bit operating system. To identify what type of operating system, follow the instructions below.

• In the bottom left search bar

Type in “System Information”

Click the System Information App

• Once you have opened the System Information App, in the bottom search bar, type “System Type”

Then hit “find”.

This will tell you what type of operating system you have. I run a 64-bit operating system.
Important Note: If you are running an antivirus or security program on your computer, it may start yelling that it requires a scan. Simply ignore it, I run it on my computer, and lots of others run it on theirs. There are even YouTube videos on how to use the program. I am not responsible for any damage that happens to your computer or anything along those lines.

• Once you have downloaded UABE, locate it in File Explorer. Extract the files out of the .zip to your preferred location.

• I have all my modding tools kept in a folder called “Modding Tools”

I renamed my copy of UABE folder to “UABE”, so yours should look a little different, and you shouldn’t have the extra programs that I have. Open your UABE folder, and look for a program called “AssetBundleExtractor”.

Open that.

• It should open up a program window that looks something like this:

Click “File” and then “Open”



Locate your Cold Waters game files, they should be in:

steam/steamapps/common/Cold Waters



If you do not know the location of your Steam folder, several people have it in their OS/Program Files (x86) This is my full path:




Travel there in the AssetBundleExtractor window.


You should see something that looks like this.

Open ColdWaters_Data in the AssetBundleExtractor. When you do, there should be a big list of files. You want to open “resources.assets”.

This is where it gets confusing. There are 3 files with similar names, only 1 is the correct one, “resources.assets”.



Important notes:

• The file name is not “resources.assets”, it is simply “resources”, “.assets” in the file type.
• It is not a “resource” file.
• It is not a “ress file”

This should hopefully be enough to narrow down the options to the correct file. If you opened up the wrong file, it will show this message:


Open “resources.assets”.

• Note: As UABE tries to open the file, another window should pop up and close by itself. This is just showing you how close it is to decoding and displaying the file. It may take a minute or two if you're trying to open the file for the first time. It should look a little like this:

Once you opened it up, it will show something like this:


Now we can begin extracting the artwork. Click View/Search By Name



And type in “pact surface raiders 2” It should look like this:

Hit “OK”. It should scroll down farther on the list, and show you the matching item.


Select the item and hit “Plugins”. Make sure it shows “pact surface raiders 2” in the top right.
It should open up the Plugins window and give you three (3) options. Now you must hit “Export to .png” Then hit “OK”.

After hitting “OK” it will bring up a copy of File Explorer. Select where you would like to save it, I will be saving mine to my Cold Waters folder. Then hit “Save” to save it and complete the export.



And look, there it is as a .png!

• Now we just have to repeat this process another hundred or so times in order to get all the artwork. This is a list of all the known artwork hidden in resources.assets. Note that a couple names might be off. If you can’t find an image, try adding or removing a number, in most cases it will be a one (1). I also suggest going back up to the very top of the assets list to make searching easier.

• plan air 1 - pact landing 1
• 73 Yom Kippur - pact landing 2
• 68 nato air 1 - pact landing 3
• 68 nato air 2 - pact ruined city
• 68 nato naval air 1 - pact tanks
• 68 vietnam 1 - pact troops
• 68 vietnam 2 - lost at sea
• nato air 1 - city nuke
• nato air 2 - nuke launch farm
• nato air 3 - gulag
• nato air 4 - pla prison
• nato air 5 - installation fighting
• nato naval air 1 - nato insertion 1
• nato naval air 2 - nato insertion 2
• 68 pact air 1 - nato insertion 3
• 68 pact air 1b - nato missile land attack
• pact air 1 - pact specops
• pact air 2 - pact specops 2
• plan victory - airliner_shot_down
• 68 nato ground 1 - economic collapse
• 68 nato ground 2 - reagan
• 68 nato victory - riot police
• nato ground 1 - pact port takeover 1
• nato ground 2 - pact port takeover 2
• nato ground 3 - pact reinforcements
• nato ground 4 - plan landing 1
• nato victory 1 - plan landing 2
• Pershings - plan reinforcements
• securing forces - plan ssbn
• _fulda redo 2 - plan surface raiders 1
• 68 soviet preparations - plan surface raiders 2
• 68 soviets invade - plan surface raiders 3
• 88 soviet factory - plan warship tender 1
• cuban missiles - plan warship tender 2
• pact france - plan wolfpack 1
• pact ground 1 - plan wolfpack 2
• pact ground 2 - plan wolfpack 3
• pact ground 3 - xia tender
• pact ground 4 - nato carrier loss
• pact ground 5 - oilrig destroyed
• oilrigs - pact landing sunk
• plan landing sunk - guam
• holy loch - nato convoy
• nato naval 1 - nato submarine
• nato submarine - port holy loch
• sea rescue 1 - sea rescue 2
• usn victory - usn victory 2
• _ROROs coming in high seas - 68 pact naval 1
• 68 pact submarine tender 1 - 68 pact surface raiders 1
• 68 pact warship tender 1 - 68 pact wolfpack 1
• pact ssbn - pact ssbn 2
• pact ssbn 3 - pact submarine tender 1
• pact submarine tender 2 - pact surface raiders 2
• pact surface raiders 3 - pact warship tender 1
• pact warship tender 2 - pact wolfpack 1
• pact wolfpack 2 - pact wolfpack 3
• pact wolfpack 4 - pact wolfpack 4
• pact wolfpack 5 - pact wolfpack 6
• under ice

*Sorry for the weird format, it didn't like the way I typed it in Google Docs.

And thats it, nothing else to it! If someone really wants it I can post a list of the black and white photos too. Once again a big thank you to HobbitJack for originally doing this, and please DO NOT distribute this, it is still the property of Killerfish Games. Also, if I missed any of the artwork, let me know and I can add it to the list!


Best of luck and happy 2021!