How to patch languages out of game files (xtool erase decode)

[KaktoR]

Introduction
Sometimes you have game archives which contains all the language files, but you don't need all of them. I will tell you what to do, what you need and giving you a example.

Side Notes
There is already another topic from Masquerade. He teached you how to cut language files out of UE4 game archives using SFK and such. Here is a different way.

What do you need?

• xtool.exe
• quickbms_4gb_files.exe
• bms script (wwise.bms, unreal_tournament_4*.bms, others)

How to? (UE4)
I will start with the game "The Dark Pictures Anthology Man of Medan", which is a UE4 game with some pak files. Language files are found in "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak".

1. First make a "testing/temporary folder" somewhere outside of the game folder
2. In this folder you have to copy all files you need, like xtool.exe, quickbms_4gb_files.exe, bms script and the target pak file
3. In this folder unpack the pak file. You can use this batch code to do it:
   

   for %%f in (*.pak) do quickbms_4gb_files -d -o -Y unreal_tournament_4.bms "%%f"

   The output in this case is a folder called "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract"

Now comes the xtool part (erase command)
Make another batch code for xtool, like this:

xtool erase "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\de" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak" dpamom.xtl
xtool erase "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\es" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak" dpamom.xtl
xtool erase "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\fr" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak" dpamom.xtl
xtool erase "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\it" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak" dpamom.xtl
xtool erase "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\ru" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak" dpamom.xtl

What it is doing exactly?
Xtool's erase command is nulling all files in "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\XX " folder and replace this nulled files with original data inside the pak file.

The "dpamom.xtl" file is optional and may be neccessary for later uses, if you want to restore the original files into the modified pak file again. The file is named after the game name in short (you can name this file like whatever you want to). XTool is storing original file informations like file positions/offsets and such in this xtl file.

I will tell you later how to restore the original files back to modified pak file.

Ok I've done this, but modified pak file is the same size as original pak file? What's wrong?
Nothing is wrong. The nulled files have replaced the original files inside the pak file. You can open the modified pak file with a hex editor, for example HxD and you will see that most of the file is replaced with "00" or "." (dots).

Same goes to the extracted files. Here is a example from "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\de \Audio\ExternalSourceBanks\Scene\alexpath\alexpath .uasset" file.


Both files have the exact same size, but the file contents are clearly different (and also the checksum of course). In terms of compression, nulled parts of the pak file will have a ratio nearly zero (0%).

What now? Can I repack?
Yes. Replace modified pak file with original pak file but make a backup of the original pak file first, just to be sure.

I want to restore original files back into modified pak file. What to do?
For this you need

• "dpamom.xtl" file which was created before
• Original (not nulled) extracted files
• Modified pak file

Take original pak file and extract it again in some other folder.
Copy extracted original (not nulled) files into the directory which contains modified pak file and xtool.exe and use the following code to restore:

xtool decode dpamom.xtl "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\de" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak"
xtool decode dpamom.xtl "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\es" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak"
xtool decode dpamom.xtl "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\fr" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak"
xtool decode dpamom.xtl "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\it" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak"
xtool decode dpamom.xtl "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak_extract\SMG019\Content\L10N\ru" "pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak"

Take note that the checksum of the file may differ from original (untouched) file. In this case you could make a diff file to patch the file back to original checksum (you can use hdiffz/hpatchz for example). This was the case for this game "The Dark Pictures Anthology Man of Medan", but I have played it with modified (nulled) pak file and it works normally.

Another example
Now I will give you another example, namely "A Plague Tale Requiem", which won't need any file patching afterwards (if you want to restore original files back).

Voice files are stored in "SOUNDBANKS\VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK".
Copy this file into testing/temporary folder, including xtool.exe, quickbms_4gb_files.exe and wwise.bms script.
Use the following code to extract the file

for %%f in (*.pck) do quickbms_4gb_files -d -o -Y wwise.bms "%%f"

Extracted files are stored in "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract" folder.

The following code erases all files except english

XTool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\chinese(simplified)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" aptr.xtl
XTool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\french(france)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" aptr.xtl
XTool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" aptr.xtl
XTool erase "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\spanish(spain)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK" aptr.xtl

Unlike in the previous UE4 example, xtool is not nulling the extracted files here, but is nulling them directly in the PCK file (god knows why, maybe the engine file structure takes effect here), therefore you don't need to extract original PCK file again to get original extracted files to restore.

To restore original files back to modified PCK file, you can use this code

xtool decode aptr.xtl "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\chinese(simplified)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK"
xtool decode aptr.xtl "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\french(france)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK"
xtool decode aptr.xtl "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\german" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK"
xtool decode aptr.xtl "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK_extract\spanish(spain)" "VO_MEDIA.PC.PCK"

In this example you can use WemTool on the extracted files to compress them better, for example if you want to give the choice to install languages in your repack (of course you have to include the extracted files in your repack too, inclusive the xtl file).



I did the same with "A Plague Tale Innocence", ripping all languages except german, played the game twice without any errors.

However I would suggest (or strongly recommend) to this stuff if the game is fully patched out. If there are patched to come, these patches updates modified file, you have f*cked up if you don't have the original files anymore, which leads to redownloading original files first.

[Guravkov2010]

Hello Tell me how to deal with encrypted files PAK

[KaktoR]

I think it is not possible, because you can not give xtool a key in erase/decode mode.

[Guravkov2010]

Thanks a lot for your answer

[dixen]

Originally Posted by Guravkov2010

Hello Tell me how to deal with encrypted files PAK

For UE4 *.pak - https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...1&postcount=25

[Guravkov2010]

Originally Posted by dixen

For UE4 *.pak - https://fileforums.com/showpost.php?...1&postcount=25

Thanks a lot