Very Advanced Tutorial on Packing 'Part 1'

[panker1992]

Hello and Happy New Year.

Well, a lot has happened last year. but i decided to finally expose some well hidden secrets i collected over the past years on packing data and games.

This tutorial is 'Part 1', Part 2 'Very Advanced Packing techniques - SFK Live Patch.' can be found HERE

The Game i decided to play with this tutorial is Sekiro Shadows Die Twice, its a favourite game and also GOTY.

The main focus of this tutorial will be to give Fitgirl a bit of a challenge!!!

Primarily get Notepad++, Hex editor from their free sites.

Spoilers Alert: keep a second back up of the game. we will manipulate data which is compressed and at some cases encrypted.

Step 1.

Whatever the game you decide to "destroy" first you need to unpack it.

Check for the data which you will be eliminating.

Sekiro, we know that the sound data are also included in "Data1.bdt"
so even if you delete all soundfiles from the sound folder, you will be left with a copy of them inside the pack itself.

Unpacking the files will give you the duplicated files which we will manipulate.

Other Example. Resident Evil 2 has movie files inside the gigantic pack.

Step 2.

Hex Editor Check Photos.

Find as many files as you wish for them to be replaced and proceed to part 3.

Tips: in Sekiro you won't be needing to patching back those files whatsoever.
So leaving them blank is OK.

HOWEVER there are several games, what will require to keep track of the offset or even show offset in normal numerical value.
This will help later to use SFK partcopy function to patch back the files. Videos or Sounds.

More Tips: Save the file each and everytime you do this, by doing so it will even create a back up of the previous replacement. you wont be needing to start all
over.

Step 3.

Compression Selection.

Split the game into reasonable Data. you won't be needing to pack movies with textures.

i have splitted sekiro as follows:

Pack1: sound folder with all sounds expect voices. and all bdt files. oo2reck+srep+lolz2
Pack2: movies = bpk+srep+razor
Pack3: sound folder with only jap voices = srep+razor
pack4: all executables, DLLs and other various small files along with bdh files srep+exe+razor

Overall Packed Size = 7.11 GB


If you want to pack sekiro like i did here are the blocks that you can delete safely with hex editor

offset (hex)

Block 1
17f332aa to 1b898ca9

Block 2
28c02dba to 53ae4699

Block 3
55e2a35a to 59987939

Block 4
5d37301a to 622e4cf9

Block 5
647e7c6a to 66b999a9

Block 6
6acdb9ba to 754c22d9

Block 7
79eb250a to 7c00e649


PS: I am making a video out of this

[ShivShubh]

Well unfortunately these methods are a variable with different games and sometimes their usual headers are changed a bit. At some point I thought of posting a tutorial on this but then I came across a game where there were tiny changes so it became more troublesome to explain all that than doing the same by myself. Anyway thanks for the tutorial !

[ozolt]

what is oo2reck that you use on the sound files and where can I download it

[KaktoR]

Originally Posted by ozolt

what is oo2reck that you use on the sound files and where can I download it

https://fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=102453

[ozolt]

never mind I found it

[PsYcHo_RaGE]

Originally Posted by ShivShubh

Well unfortunately these methods are a variable with different games and sometimes their usual headers are changed a bit. At some point I thought of posting a tutorial on this but then I came across a game where there were tiny changes so it became more troublesome to explain all that than doing the same by myself. Anyway thanks for the tutorial !

that's where it gets confusing to post a tutorial about it as we can't target every game in a single tut.
but there is a way out...

[panker1992]

All i am trying to interprete is the logic behind repacking.

its easier for me to post, a fully automated script that will use SFK, automatically scan and remove entire blocks of data from the "pak" or BDT file. while replacing them with 0.

What i am showing above is the cruel way to do it..... because i am trying to show you the way to do it.

i am working on a script for RE engine games. scan remove data from resident evil 2, 7 and devil may cry. as well show you how to write those scripts youselves.

[PsYcHo_RaGE]

Originally Posted by panker1992

All i am trying to interprete is the logic behind repacking.

its easier for me to post, a fully automated script that will use SFK, automatically scan and remove entire blocks of data from the "pak" or BDT file. while replacing them with 0.

What i am showing above is the cruel way to do it..... because i am trying to show you the way to do it.

i am working on a script for RE engine games. scan remove data from resident evil 2, 7 and devil may cry. as well show you how to write those scripts youselves.

please post and show us sensi

[panker1992]

Originally Posted by PsYcHo_RaGE

please post and show us sensi

I am writing the movie blocks. and then i will post.

[PsYcHo_RaGE]

Originally Posted by panker1992

I am writing the movie blocks. and then i will post.

appreciated