Author Topic: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation  (Read 200180 times)

MrAdults

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In fact, I happened to get Japanese CC data, and most of extracted files were not recognized by CC viewer nor mesh2rdm.  I don't think it's fault of G's extractor, for I could recognize some files, like 00000.raw which has [ATEL] header, and movies and sound data(identified by header).  Maybe offset matters, but it's somewhat confusing, for 00001.raw(which would be GT image), [GT] is at 80h, while 00002.raw(also can be GT image), I can see [GT] header at 40h.
It would be pretty unusual for the model spec to change in any way whatsoever across territory releases, but it's possible. But without seeing a few files, I couldn't tell you if it's extracted incorrectly or legitimately different.
Edit: Oh, I didn't really read what you said. Yes, it sounds like they are not being ripped properly. Of course offset matters, otherwise you aren't really getting a clean cut of the file, which means it's not extracted right. :) (and it's probably missing something off the end too based on your description, but who knows)

Woah woah woah. This isn't MY mod. This mod was made years ago buddy. Here's a link: http://www.specialistsmod.net/
I was not implying that you made The Specialists. I used to be quite an Action Half-Life fan/player myself, and have heard of the mod before. But the matter of legalities stands, please do educate yourself before you distribute anything.
« Last Edit: 2009-05-09 04:14:46 by MrAdults »

deadlyxvalentine

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Alright, I've been educated. But thing is I'm probably not gonna release this at all. Not saying I'm angry, but you keep freaking me out saying I need to learn of these legalities and such, and I HAVE........ Only problem is right now is that I'm stuck! I have Reno in .smd format and I can't seem to get him rigged onto the TS skeleton cuz well...I'm a newb. Also, the textures are messed up.

Landarma

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Yes, it sounds like they are not being ripped properly. Of course offset matters, otherwise you aren't really getting a clean cut of the file, which means it's not extracted right. :) (and it's probably missing something off the end too based on your description, but who knows)
Perhaps yes, although audio and video files seemed to be ripped properly. 

koral

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mmm, seems like G's extractor has its limitations.
But he provided the source, so it may be something trivial like offset values which simply need adjusting or whatever.
Although I don't suppose many people will bother with the Japanese version when they have the US or PAL versions to rip models from, right?

I really must get back to this project, you guys are all probably awaiting the map-models pretty eagerly, huh  :-P

Landarma

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Although I don't suppose many people will bother with the Japanese version when they have the US or PAL versions to rip models from, right?
I don't think we Asians will ever buy US or PAL version.  ;)  Anyway, I need to confirm if it's extractor's fault, though I don't think it will be done any time soon....
« Last Edit: 2009-05-10 23:22:56 by Landarma »

MrAdults

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Although I don't suppose many people will bother with the Japanese version when they have the US or PAL versions to rip models from, right?
I don't think we Asians will ever buy US or PAL version.  ;)  Anyway, I need to confirm if it's extractor's fault, though I don't think it will be done any time soon....
You could just send koral or I a few of your raw files to verify that. See koral's list on the first page for which files should be models. But I can guess with a high degree of probability what the answer will be, and you will not be any happier after hearing it. ;)

Landarma

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One more: Extracting data files results in 8787 .raw files.  As wiki states, 0000-0005 can be some kind of miscellaneous files, and 0006~1494 are media files(movie, sound effect/dialogue, and BGM).  [ATEL] and some more files which have recognizable headers can be read by CC viewer, so I do not need to worry about them so much.  However, I need to look through more.

**I asked people at somewhere for confirmation, but I doubt if they're interested on this.
« Last Edit: 2009-05-13 07:31:47 by Landarma »

koral

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I will try to get hold of the Japanese version of the game and see what I can do.
But really, there shouldn't be much difference at all, except script changes and perhaps different audio.
Although I believe if there are any unused or hidden items etc in CC, we are more likely to find them in the Japanese version of the game than in any other release.  :wink:

Aurenasek116

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Japanese one has two diffs. First of all, japanese version has more audio files than english one (It was confirmed while making an undub of english one ;P) and has changed Minerva statue model. In japanese version it looked too much like cathlic Maria so in US release they made completly new model for it.

Landarma

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For some files from Japanese version:
00000~00005: Some miscellaneous files.  00000.raw is started with [Atel], while 00001 and 00002 have [GT] inside.
00006~00062, 08769~08787: [PSMF0014] header.  Video clips.
00063~01426: [RIFF] header.  Dialogues or sound effects.  Even with ATRAC3 codec, I couldn't play it just by changing its extension.  You may need Sonicstage and Hi-MD renderer to decode & listen it, but I'm not sure.
01427~01494: [SSCF] header.  BGM or something.


Aurenasek116

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From what I know both Crisis Core and Dissidia use Atrac3+, so you won't be able to play them without ac3+ codec and sadly such doesn't exist yet for PC.

Landarma

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From what I know both Crisis Core and Dissidia use Atrac3+, so you won't be able to play them without ac3+ codec and sadly such doesn't exist yet for PC.
However, AT3 files in Dissidia:FF can be decoded with Hi-MD Renderer.  It may be able to decode Crisis Core files, however, bitrate matters(if SonicStage or Hi-MD renderer does not support certain bitrate, it cannot be converted).

koral

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Japanese one has two diffs. First of all, japanese version has more audio files than english one (It was confirmed while making an undub of english one ;P) and has changed Minerva statue model. In japanese version it looked too much like cathlic Maria so in US release they made completly new model for it.

Oh, OK. I didn't know that. I will wikify this little trivia for future reference.

But I wonder why there is more Japanese audio?
Usually it takes longer to say something in English than in Japanese, so the only explanation I can think of is that the Japanese CC dialogues were more in-depth and may have suggested better character development or something.
I will dig into the game scripts to see what else I can find  :-D


But anyway, I wished to update you all on the progress on RINOA: progress is slow (slower than a snail walking :lol:) but the tool is still alive and well.

I have finished adding FF8 [MCH] Field Models now (albeit with rough guesstimates of bone positions) and unlike mirex's biturn, I intend to allow exporting these models out with the bone and weights intact, probably as directx models although I am looking into alternatives.

The idea is, these simple MCH files have allowed me to create the foundation for animated characters within RINOA, so in the future it should be able to handle the more complicated bone-weighted characters from CC and Dissidia (or other games RINOA might fancy).

And karlisle reminded me that the OBJ format needs the broken material-file fixed, so I will also be fixing that sharpish.

I cannot give an exact date for the next release, but I can promise it will be before the end of this month.

In the words of a small, wise green thing: Patient, you must be  :-)

Aurenasek116

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Quote from: koral
Patient, you must be  :-)

Fast road, to dark side leads.

koral

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Boring, the slow road becomes  :lol:

I decided to get cracking on RINOA and when I had the OBJ exporter fixed, I decided to just get it out for you all and explain the future of the project a bit.
I created a new Topic just for RINOA here: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8451.0

Please try to keep this topic focused entirely on the CC Data side of things, for anything regarding viewing or extracting the said data, use the other RINOA topic instead.
Sorry to split it up and complicate matters a bit, but it was the only logical thing to do  :-D

My next steps will be to look for the character animations, and karlisle has provided a number of leads already.
But I will probably look into that ZACK files (08623 - 08627) next, because they should contain everything about the field model that the player controls and runs around the maps with.

obesebear

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation
« Reply #290 on: 2009-05-21 01:54:55 »
I noticed when extracting the characters that the summons aren't in the same mix as the npc's.   Now I haven't taken the time to go through EVERY file (because it seems to cause Koral's program to randomly crash) but does anyone know where they might be?  A crisis core Bahamut, Tonberry, Magic Pot, Cait Sith, and Ifrit would be quite nice

Aurenasek116

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation
« Reply #291 on: 2009-05-21 07:14:19 »
I noticed when extracting the characters that the summons aren't in the same mix as the npc's.   Now I haven't taken the time to go through EVERY file (because it seems to cause Koral's program to randomly crash) but does anyone know where they might be?  A crisis core Bahamut, Tonberry, Magic Pot, Cait Sith, and Ifrit would be quite nice

Erm, all models are there o.O I had no problems finding tonberry, both bahamuts, ifrit, cait sith and others.

Colly

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format Investigation
« Reply #292 on: 2009-05-30 07:50:15 »
Here
http://i464.photobucket.com/albums/rr10/ignitzhjfk/TABELA.jpg
I found thias in the lost files
XD
I delete the header to make this table font to be visualizble

In files extracted by G's extractor, this table file has number 01418~01420, correct?

How did you make that this file is visible? I know that you delete the header, but how should I arrange the rest of the file to see the font?


I found pointers to the some of MBD files, but to the some, I can't find. I have to seek deeper. ;)

killerhack

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation
« Reply #293 on: 2017-06-19 12:55:26 »
Hello guys  ;)
My name is Daniel, I understand that this topic is very old, but I was very happy to find it.
I am from Brazil and here Crisis Core has not yet been translated because the team that was translating gave up and now there is nothing left.  :-\
I just wanted to know if you still have the project files, if you have not, at least explain to me what method you use to identify the files and texts inside the game files.
What programming language do I need to learn to find myself as you did?  ???
Who knows I can even translate gradually the game, I understand that the process is very time consuming.

Colly

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation
« Reply #294 on: 2019-05-28 21:49:30 »
After almost ten years of abandoning the investigation of Crisis Core, I have finally found the pointers to text.  :-D
They are directly in every Atel file. Offset to every string is counted started from MBD flag, and stored reversed, so if new text is started, for example, 1156 bytes after MBD start, then it's 04 84, not 84 04!
There is also a section which contains sizes of parts inside the Atel files (MBD, SSCF and another files are inside). It looks like below and these sizes are stored not reversed:


First 8 bytes is number of entries, and then 4 bytes of address starting from BDD0 (in this exact file), and number of bytes. Note that there is a padding to nearest 16 bytes.

killerhack

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Re: FF7 Crisis Core - File Format and Data Investigation
« Reply #295 on: 2020-04-26 22:22:20 »
After almost ten years of abandoning the investigation of Crisis Core, I have finally found the pointers to text.  :-D
They are directly in every Atel file. Offset to every string is counted started from MBD flag, and stored reversed, so if new text is started, for example, 1156 bytes after MBD start, then it's 04 84, not 84 04!
There is also a section which contains sizes of parts inside the Atel files (MBD, SSCF and another files are inside). It looks like below and these sizes are stored not reversed:


First 8 bytes is number of entries, and then 4 bytes of address starting from BDD0 (in this exact file), and number of bytes. Note that there is a padding to nearest 16 bytes.

Can you create an "unpacker" for the txt files?