Extracting .DAT files ( NFS Carbon )

[Scar557]

Hello,

Iv'e been following that topic : viewtopic.php?t=3547

And i'm stuck at the point where i need to extract those .DAT files, what program / script should i use ... ?

Sorry but i'm a huge newbie

[aluigi]

In that topic are mentiond ZZDATA files, not DAT files.
Are you referring to other types of files?
Where you got these dat files?
If you got them from the extraction of ZZDATA with the script I don't think there are good news because I don't remember "known" types of files, they were just raw data files so without any meaning if you don't know the game/engine very well.

[Scar557]

Yeah, i got them by ZZDATA extraction, just like the guy said in the topic ( Files are named 000001.DAT, 000002.DAT, etc ... )

So how could i extract ZZDATA without the files being *SPAM* up like this ... ?

[aluigi]

That's the content of those archives. Don't exist "better" alternatives.

[Scar557]

Well, how does the game work ... ?

An entire game can't run with only .DAT files

[aluigi]

Custom containers, custom data formats, (cooked/compiled) resources instead of archives containing the original files and so on... we have seen everything on this forum.

If you expected a ZIP-like archive containing ready-to-use dds, png and mp3 files you have to focus on other games

[BloodRaynare]

You'd be surprised how many developers using some trickery to access the files with most confusing way possible.
Some developers just using regular offset (usually multiplied by 2048 in decimal) and size information and also sometimes carrying the filenames. And then, you have some developers deciding to use some kind of compression, byteswapping, encryption, whatever you name it.

[Scar557]

No, but the guy with the PS2 version of the game ( On the other topic ) said that he had thé same problem than me, and he got through this, so i guess he did converted those .DAT files

[BloodRaynare]

Well, I've dealt with this archive format before from the previous games (NFSU1 and 2 and NFSMW, all of them were from PS2 version) and the only thing you could do is check the files through the hex editor one by one. Skimming through the filesizes of those dat files also help.

[Scar557]

Yeah, recognizing files shouldn't bé a real issue there

But how am i gonna convert them ... ?

Changing the extension ... ?

[BloodRaynare]

The only problem is lack of tools to support the console version of those files (All of NFS modding tools only support the PC version).

[Scar557]

Well, how could i get those files ... ?

Extracting them in-game with some Debug tools ... ?

[BloodRaynare]

Are you trying to use those extracted files to the PC version or just converting them into the format that can be read by some editing program (3DS Max or similar stuff)?

[Scar557]

Both, if i can

[Scar557]

Like said on this topic : viewtopic.php?t=2124

" NFSu360 never figured out the swizzling part... (though it does show image dimensions correctly)

Use Alugi's nfsu bun bms script to unpack the zdir/zzdata archive, and Console Texture explorer (recommend using the BMS script as learning material) to view the images in the tpks.

It works with HP2 zdir.bin/zzdata.bin archives, though NFS:u1 tpks would be laid out more... NFS:U1-like

The images are in Tim2-derived-format instead of headerless dds, but I don't know anything about Tim2 in detail. (Especially PS2 swizzling) "

So there is a " Console Texture explorer " to do this, but it seems they are some .tpk files instead of .DAT files for NFS Underground, so, how does the other guy did it ... ?

It was NFS Carbon files, as far as i know