Best Compression Methods for 'Specific' Games. Q&A

[Masquerade]

Originally Posted by :( Sad8669

panker1992

So if i want to rip an optional .wmv i have to use HeX to replace its values with 00 and then insert it back into the re_chunk_000.pak file?

I am afraid i am missing something big.

You are correct.

First, we start by extracting the pak file to see what's inside.

Next you find the video/file whatever you want to rip out.

Open HxD and drag into it your pak file - the "big file" - and your the file you want to rip.

Next we highlight the first few lines of the rip file on the hex side (do NOT select the decoded text side) and CTRL+C to copy the data to clipboard.

We move to the big file and CTRL+F and go to "Hex values" tab. We paste what we just copied and hit ENTER.

HxD will search the file for the matching hex values in the file. Depending on the size of the file + amount of data you selected, this can take quite long!

When HxD finds the data, it will show highlighted.

Next, we go to the top of the window and change where it says "hex" to "dec" (this is because SFK only supports decimal offsets).

Go to the start of the highlighted data that hxd presents you with, and you can right click and click Copy Offset (or ALT+INS on keyboard).

Open a notepad doc, nothing special, and paste the offset.

After copying the first offset, go back to the rip file and go right to the very bottom and copy from the bottom upwards some hex data (be careful, some videos such as binks can have repeating data at the end so you will need to copy until the data starts to differ).

Go to the big file and search again with this new hex values. Note that here, it's a good idea to set the search filter to forwards only since going backwards is useless and wastes our time!

Once you find the end offset, copy it again and paste it into the notepad.

I like to sort mine a little like this:

8476305309 - 8490311604 - example.mp4

7249864117 - 7615226644 - bonus.mp4

Now comes the patch out part. You right click in HxD in the big file and click Select Block (or CTRL+E).

Make sure your HxD is set to Dec and not hex otherwise this next step won't work (you will get an error saying "file does not contain offset")

In the first box, paste the first offset we copied. In the 2nd box, paste the second offset we copied. Ignore the length box, HxD determines it on it's own.

Now select the block and you now have the full ripped file selected within the big file.

Next, we right click, and click "Fill Selection". Choose to fill with 00s (this is selected by default, so you can just press ENTER in the window that appears). 00 is just empty space.

You will notice the hex data that was there previously now goes all to red 00s. The data has been removed. Now you can hit CTRL+S to save the file. HxD is very kind to you and makes a backup file with .bak extension of the unchanged file (again, can take a while depending on the size of the file). After done, the red 00s will become black. The file has saved. Congrats! You just ripped out a video from a big file.

To patch the video back in, we can use sfk - bat file:

sfk partcopy <ripped_file> -allfrom 0 <big_file> X -yes

Replace <ripped_file> and <big_file> with their names accordingly. Replace X with the first decimal offset we copied.

A completed bat would look something like this:

sfk partcopy example.mp4 -allfrom 0 mygame.pak 8476305309 -yes

-allfrom 0 tells SFK to copy data from the very start of the supplied file. -yes tells sfk to actually do the specified command, since otherwise it wouldn't do it.