I've been trying to extract models from an old Wii game (Pandora's Tower) which has gone under the radar for far too long.
So far no one has extracted models from it so I wanted to give it a try. Supposedly the .aar files containing the models are related to ALAR archives.
I did try using a bms script which was shared few years ago for another game from the same developer but it doesn't seem to function for Pandora's Tower.
Can't read 32 bytes from offset a408ffde. Anyway don't worry, it's possible that the BMS script has been written to exit in this way if it's reached the end of the archive so check it or contact its author or verify that all the files have been extracted. Please check the following coverage information to know if it's ok.
coverage file 0 0% 36 447328 . offset a408ffde
Last script line before the error or that produced the error: 39 getdstring NAME 0x20 coverage file 0 0% 36 447328 . offset a408ffde
I've added a zip of the .aar file which I was trying to extract as well as the quickbms script itself. Is there something I might have overlooked? I'd be extremely grateful for any help on this matter.
idstring "ALAR" goto 0x06 endian big get entries short goto 0x10 for rip = 1 to entries get mistery long get offset long savepos temp xmath name "(offset - 0x22)" goto name getdstring name 0x20 goto temp get size long get null long
@Rabatini Incredible, it works! This is a big step towards progress. Now I need to do some research on these other file formats contained within.
It seems as if the bigger files (the ones containing boss data, possibly models?) still encounter errors, though. Here's what I get:
Error: incomplete input file 0: [...]\event\boss_fia_100.aar Can't read 32 bytes from offset 04200422. Anyway don't worry, it's possible that the BMS script has been written to exit in this way if it's reached the end of the archive so check it or contact its author or verify that all the files have been extracted. Please check the following coverage information to know if it's ok.
coverage file 0 0% 14 2836872 . offset 04200422
Last script line before the error or that produced the error: 12 getdstring name 0x20 coverage file 0 0% 14 2836872 . offset 04200422
I've attached the affected file to this post. Could this be related to the structure of the archive itself?
Crucius wrote:@Rabatini Incredible, it works! This is a big step towards progress. Now I need to do some research on these other file formats contained within.
It seems as if the bigger files (the ones containing boss data, possibly models?) still encounter errors, though. Here's what I get:
Error: incomplete input file 0: [...]\event\boss_fia_100.aar Can't read 32 bytes from offset 04200422. Anyway don't worry, it's possible that the BMS script has been written to exit in this way if it's reached the end of the archive so check it or contact its author or verify that all the files have been extracted. Please check the following coverage information to know if it's ok.
coverage file 0 0% 14 2836872 . offset 04200422
Last script line before the error or that produced the error: 12 getdstring name 0x20 coverage file 0 0% 14 2836872 . offset 04200422
I've attached the affected file to this post. Could this be related to the structure of the archive itself?
This is other type.
try this will work with both types. Some files have the same name, so just choice r to rename all files.
@Rabatini Once again, you've been a big help with taking apart these archives. Thank you.
I've been doing some research regarding the filetypes within these things and they mostly consist of these:
ALIG/.aig = texture file ALMT/.amt = contains data about nodes/hitboxes & movement ALMS/.ams = no idea but there's a lot of these, could be another imageformat? ALOD/.aod = contains references to nodes, might contain model data - check image below!
I tried experimenting with the program "Model Researcher" but I can't seem to get anything functional out of it. I assume these files still need further decryption? Or am I missing something here?
This might be the final step to finally getting these elusive models which the community has been waiting for since a decade.
I tried experimenting with the program "Model Researcher" but I can't seem to get anything functional out of it. I assume these files still need further decryption? Or am I missing something here?
Some files .arr like pac_d00_field.aar have a compression called Aqua lzss
fortunately i guy called brolijah, give source code to decompress and Alluigi implemented in quickbms. I have implement in the script, it will decompress and unpack i think you should extract every .arr files now.
Last edited by rabatini on Sat Mar 05, 2022 8:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rabatini wrote:I have implement in the script, it will decompress and unpack i think you should extract every .arr files now.
Much appreciated! I'm still struggling with figuring out what to do next however. The files within these packages are definitely part of the ALAR/ALLZ format but they can't be decrypted via the bms script. I keep getting this notification instead:
- 0 files found in 0 seconds coverage file 0 0% 4 4160 . offset 00000004
I need some way to convert these other files (.aig/.amt/.ams/.aod/etc) into something usable for these 3D programs. This is my greatest hurdle. It's a pity that most of these filenames aren't very conclusive so this'll be a ton of experimenting until I find the right stuff.
Last edited by Crucius on Sat Mar 05, 2022 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rabatini wrote:I have implement in the script, it will decompress and unpack i think you should extract every .arr files now.
Much appreciated! I'm still struggling with figuring out what to do next however. The files within these packages are definitely part of the ALAR/ALLZ format but they can't be decrypted via the bms script. I keep getting this notification instead:
- 0 files found in 0 seconds coverage file 0 0% 4 4160 . offset 00000004
I need some way to convert these other files (.aig/.amt/.ams/.aod/etc) into something usable for these 3D programs. This is my greatest hurdle. It's a pity that most of these filenames aren't very conclusive so this'll be a ton of experimenting until I find the right stuff.
I tried using your updated bms script on any of the file formats I've mentioned earlier and it didn't seem to recognize them. The output folder remained empty.
It still can open the archives but the files within them remain a mystery. Right now there's no way to convert them.
I tried using your updated bms script on any of the file formats I've mentioned earlier and it didn't seem to recognize them. The output folder remained empty.
It still can open the archives but the files within them remain a mystery. Right now there's no way to convert them.
