Session mods in 2026: maps, gear and Steam Deck

Session has never had official mod support. Everything here runs on community tools, mainly rodriada000’s open-source Session Mod Manager and Illusory’s mod unlocker. Mods work on the PC version only. There is no way to load them on PlayStation, Xbox or Switch (why).

What you can add

• Maps. Original parks and recreations of real spots and other games’ levels. Within a month of early access, players had rebuilt levels from Skate 3 and THPS2 (PC Gamer).
• Gear textures. Decks, wheels, shirts and other clothing, through the Mod Manager’s Texture Replacer.
• Settings the game doesn’t expose. The Mod Manager can raise the object dropper limit (from 1 up to 65,000) and, since 3.0, set your money (3.0 release notes).

Install Session Mod Manager

These steps follow the project’s README.

1. Download the latest release from GitHub. The current version is 3.0.5, which added Epic Games Store support. Pick the build for your OS and unzip it anywhere.
2. Open SessionModManager.exe and set Path To Session to the top-level game folder, for example C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Session. It usually finds this on its own.
3. Click Patch With Illusory Mod Unlocker. The Mod Manager opens illusory.dev so you can download the unlocker.
4. Run the unlocker’s setup, set its path to ...\Session\SessionGame\Binaries\Win64 (one level deeper than the path in step 2), and click patch.

Without the patch, custom maps and textures don’t load.

Add maps and gear

• Asset Store (easiest). Click Asset Store in the Mod Manager, pick a map or texture and click install. Downloads queue and install one at a time.
• From a .zip or folder. Use Import Map, tick Import .zip File if it’s zipped, and browse to it. Map makers can right-click a map and choose Re-import Selected Map after each change.
• By hand. Copy the map files into Session\SessionGame\Content, then click Reload Available Maps.

Switch maps from the Mod Manager while the game is running. You don’t need to restart. Since 3.0 you can turn mods off without deleting them, and the manager won’t enable two mods that conflict.

Steam Deck and Linux

Session Mod Manager 3.0 rewrote the interface to run natively on Linux, so download the Linux build rather than running the Windows one under Proton (release notes). The game itself still runs through Proton. For the unlocker step and Deck-specific setup, follow agentender’s Session modding on Steam Deck guide.

When an update breaks mods

Game updates have broken mods before. In 2020, crea-ture’s own patch notes warned that older mods would crash and told modders to remove the patch first. The Mod Manager also warns about assets older than the April 2020 engine update. Players who come back after a long break sometimes find the unlocker asking to reset its settings and mods still not loading (Steam thread, May 2025).

If mods stop working after an update:

1. Update Session Mod Manager to the latest release.
2. Run the Illusory unlocker’s patch again against SessionGame\Binaries\Win64.
3. Turn off all mods, then turn them back on one at a time to find the one that fails.
4. Check the Mod Manager’s issues FAQ and the Illusory Discord for re-released maps.

The Barcelona DLC

Session’s Barcelona DLC is due on October 28, 2026 (shredder.news). Treat its release day like any other game update. If the update changes the game’s files, the unlocker patch may need to be applied again, and some maps may need updates from their makers. We’ll update this guide once players have tested it.

Make your own maps

Session is an Unreal Engine 4 game. A planned move to Unreal Engine 5 was cancelled in September 2024 (Wikipedia), so maps are still built in the UE4 editor. The Mod Manager’s settings tab has a Project Watcher that re-imports your map each time you cook it. The Session modding history covers who built the tools, and Skater XL vs Session compares the two sims’ mod scenes.

Updated 2026-10-10 · Improve this guide on GitHub