I have been working on extracting data from the Final Fantasy XIV dat files. I have been able to sucessfully extract a couple of maps (which are not the maps that appear in game, but perhaps earlier drafts of them). I have been able to extract all kinds of sounds/music which are already encoded in OGG format.
Why am I posting here? In all my weeks of googling, this site has so far been the best match to some of my search terms. I have not been able to successfully extract any useful images out of the dat files, such as item icons, status icons, spell icons, maps (the actual in-game maps), etc.
What have I found? Well, here is a list of what I have been calling file headers that I have found:
* SEDBlyb
* SEDBveff
* SEDBRES - looks like they contain "actor" and "actions" and stuff - maybe a "script" for cutscenes?
* DDS
* DDS / DXT5 - directx texture compression - contains map tiles which need to be stitched together
* GTEX - 3d texture files
* xml - there is some straight xml in some of these files, not sure how they are using it yet though
* SEDBSSCF (not Ogg) appears to be icons or other images - not sure how to view them as images yet
* SEDBSSCF / Ogg - these are sound files encoded with in OGG format - foobar audio player will play these files directly if you rename the extension to .ogg - these contain dialog, background noises, the soundtrack, etc..
* #fileset (found in folder data\27\02\00)
* MapLayoutResourceData
* VfxGraphResourceData
The maps I have found so far are split up into many tiles, which I have been able to script and piece back together for a completed image. Notice there are some headers which begin in "SEDB" which probably stands for something like "Square Enix DataBase", but then a more common header follows like "SSCF". SSCF is what led me to this site, and while the wiki here does say it contains sounds/music for games like Crisis Core, I believe it also contains the images I am looking for. When the SSCF dat file does contain audio, it pretty much always is followed by Ogg and is actually playable directly without any extraction/conversion with a player like Foobar.
So, I could use some help. Anyone who might be able to point me in the right direction would be most helpful. If someone knows how to read an image out of dat files, that would be even better! Thanks for reading.. I guess this is pretty "cutting edge" dat mining. Some people have already done some of dat mining against these dat files, but their findings are quickly removed by Square Enix legal notices to site operators, and I would like to be able to do this on my own. Thanks again!
