[Closed] [360]ZLIB compression tutorial, no need to update arcs!

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TheDarthFoundation

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Here's a ZLIB compression tutorial. The point of compressing files to ZLIB is so that you don't have to update the arcs. X-PacKer does not support updating the entries for most files other than the wrestler pacs, but, it can open/inject files into 'em. So basically, if we take out the part X-PacKer can't do(which is update the arcs for most non-wrestler pacs), then we basically blow open most of the game :)2
Before starting the tutorial I'd like to give thanks to the following people:
Tekken57 for suggesting to me to use ZLIB and explaining header info.
BrienJ for actually using ZLIB which is what led Tekken57 to telling ME to use it.
THQ for adding ZLIB support in SvR 2010, lol.

Okay, let's begin.

First off, we all know how to uncompress BPE files using X-PacKer, so, just as an example, I'll uncompress 000C.bpe from a wrestler PACH file, this will leave me with 000C.bpe and 000C.pac, X-PacKer can open/edit 000C.pac, so, I inject an edited texture, X-PacKer automatically saves, nothing new here.

Now, download ZDrop application, here:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1jkog4jan7nimbs/zdrop.exe
(Not my program, I honestly do not remember who made this, but this is NOT my work)

Simply drag and drop the edited 000C.pac into the ZDrop application, a new file will be created in the same directory as the 000C.pac, with a .ZLIB extentsion.

Open the 000C.BPE in a hex editor. Also open the 000C.pac.ZLIB in the hex editor. Copy all the contents from 000C.pac.ZLIB, skip the first line in the 00C.bpe and paste the copied info from the second line onwards(hope that made sense, lol). Be sure to overwrite, not insert. You will notice that there will 'random' bytes from the old BPE that are still there, ZLIB files are almost always smaller than BPEs, that's why. So just fill the remaining bytes with 00s, this is called 'padding' the file, there's a command that automatically does this for you in HxD, it's called 'fill selection'. You simply select the 'left over' bytes from the BPE and use the fill selection command and fill it with zeroes.

Now, we go back to the header. The header still says BPE, well, that's wrong since it's no longer a BPE, so, we simply overwrite BPE with ZLIB0.

Hope you're still with me here, now, highlight ZLIB0 and look at the byte afer the 0x30(which stands for zero in the 'text' part, lol) it probably says 0x01, change that 0x12.

Done :)

It may seem a little tough at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can compress files like this in no time ;)

I'm also sorry for not knowing the 'technical' names for some things, so if you have a problem with that, go fk yourself, I tried my best :p

I'm also sorry for not posting pics, I'm lazy, deal with it.

This also works for WWE '13 :)

I'm not sure if this works for PS2, feel free to try it out if you'd like :)
Cheers!
 

TheDarthFoundation

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Yes!
I've also figured out how to add select pics to no models :) It's pretty hard to explain though :p
 

waleedgaber.619

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this sounds like big news , does this mean that we don't have an arc space limit anymore ?
 

TheDarthFoundation

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Well, no. See, if you want to add no models, etc, you'll have to edit the arc/add entries. However, if you want to edit any EXISTING file, you will not have to update the arcs if you compress with ZLIB :)
 

nikethebike

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I wonder if it is THQ/Yukes that added support for ZLIB or if it is an XBOX360 feature... Seems strange if they add support for a better compression format but still chose the larger one, unless zlib have some other issues. I have a hunch it might not work this way on PS2/PS3 but I can be wrong.
 

TheDarthFoundation

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Well, I'm pretty sure it works on PS3, so it's probably THQ/YUKES that added, but that, like you said, brings up the question as to why they would've gone with the larger compression scheme.
I've had zero issues with ZLIB so far.
 

Noktin

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Please give an example of the first line of new bpe. Because when I try modded .pac in the game, the game crashes. My header:
example.png

 

Noktin

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TheSmartFoundation said:
The header is absolutely fine. The PS2 version probably doesn't support ZLIB files.
It is SvR 2011 PSP. Maybe the game does not support ZLIB, but i have found 4-5 ZLIB headers when opened the whole ISO in hex.
 

CrocoX111

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Noktin said:
TheSmartFoundation said:
The header is absolutely fine. The PS2 version probably doesn't support ZLIB files.
It is SvR 2011 PSP. Maybe the game does not support ZLIB, but i have found 4-5 ZLIB headers when opened the whole ISO in hex.
ZLIB but not ZLIB0
 

nikethebike

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In that case this tutorial needs [360/PS3] brackets (if it was confirmed on both systems). We still need to test PS2.
360 is the only confirmed system so far right?
 

TheDarthFoundation

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Yeah. Open the file in a hex editor. If it has header information(if it starts with ZLIB0 ), delete the first 0x10 bytes and save. Make sure the file has a .zlib extension and drop it onto the zdrop.exe. The uncompressed file will made in the same directory as the zlib file :)
 
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