ROM Hack [HELP] Reading .arc, .tex, .sdl, .moflex files? Modding PWAA: Dual Destinies

solitonmedic

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A bit of a noob here, I just used braindump with *hax 2.5 to extract Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies just for curiosities' sake. Now after I done that, what to do now?

I'm sure you can't read .arc files within your average 3D modeling program, .tex is probably texture files, and I have no idea what are .moflex files are. Yes, I tried opening .arc files with FreeArc, looks like it isn't archive files since it came out as corrupted or unsupported.

zJ47tvd.png

qA5YGiK.png

CteitNx.png


Anyone care to enlighten me? I'm pretty much stoked in creating my first 3DS mod and maybe convert some of it's models for others to use, any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
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_eyCaRambA_

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arc are archive files, tex are textures files as you already thought and sdl are some sort of event scripts I think.
If you send me some arc example files via PM I should be able to write a simple unpacker for it
 

CeeDee

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arc are archive files, tex are textures files as you already thought and sdl are some sort of event scripts I think.
If you send me some arc example files via PM I should be able to write a simple unpacker for it
Would you be able to make some sort of .tex file unpacker/repacker? Cave Story eShop uses these files and it'd be easy to port hacks to that version if there was an unpack method.
 

_eyCaRambA_

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Would you be able to make some sort of .tex file unpacker/repacker? Cave Story eShop uses these files and it'd be easy to port hacks to that version if there was an unpack method.
A file extension doesn't really tell you much about the file itself. It's highly likely that the Cave Story .tex files are completly different from the ones in this game considering Cave Story is using a completely different framework. But sure, send me a few files per PM and I'll have a look - no promises at all tho.
 

solitonmedic

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A file extension doesn't really tell you much about the file itself. It's highly likely that the Cave Story .tex files are completly different from the ones in this game considering Cave Story is using a completely different framework. But sure, send me a few files per PM and I'll have a look - no promises at all tho.

Alright, I'll send some files right away. They'll be a couple .arc and .tex files. Hopefully we can turn them into something usable.
 

cearp

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Chinese hackers have already translated this game so i would have a look at some stuff in chinese, or ask around on some chinese bbs, like duowan. Google translate will come in useful i guess :)
 

solitonmedic

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Chinese hackers have already translated this game so i would have a look at some stuff in chinese, or ask around on some chinese bbs, like duowan. Google translate will come in useful i guess :)

This game's American though, I'm not sure what'll Google Translate do for me since the game is already localized. Unless you meant the data itself, I'm sure it's Japanese.
 

cearp

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This game's American though, I'm not sure what'll Google Translate do for me since the game is already localized. Unless you meant the data itself, I'm sure it's Japanese.
Sure but the format will most likey be the same for all regions of the game. So try and get information from the people who already hacked it apart :)
I mean use google translate to help you naviagte the chinese message boards these guys are on, unless you know chinese
 
D

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Would you be able to make some sort of .tex file unpacker/repacker? Cave Story eShop uses these files and it'd be easy to port hacks to that version if there was an unpack method.
*.TEX files are just images, no need to be unpacked. Just converted.

There's a *.TEX converter for the iOS version of PW:AA, it doesn't seem to work for the 3DS version's *.TEX files, though.

There's also a script that converts the model files used within the game to .OBJ (I can't remember the file extension it used, but I think it was *.BIN. At least in the iOS version) but bone weighting is all messed up, and there's no way to convert them back.
 

solitonmedic

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*.TEX files are just images, no need to be unpacked. Just converted.

There's a *.TEX converter for the iOS version of PW:AA, it doesn't seem to work for the 3DS version's *.TEX files, though.

There's also a script that converts the model files used within the game to .OBJ (I can't remember the file extension it used, but I think it was *.BIN. At least in the iOS version) but bone weighting is all messed up, and there's no way to convert them back.

Tricky. Any way to convert *.tex files back into images? One of the files seems to be the game's font for some reason.

It's hard to determine which files are the character's models, there is some folder named 'obj', and there isn't any *.bin or *.obj in sight.

KiDI6T5.png


This is just the tip of the iceberg. Looking inside the folder now would reveal a *.MRL and a... *.MPEG file? This is just getting weird.

Does anyone want to get these files to get a look for themselves?
 
D

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Tricky. Any way to convert *.tex files back into images? One of the files seems to be the game's font for some reason.

It's hard to determine which files are the character's models, there is some folder named 'obj', and there isn't any *.bin or *.obj in sight.

-snip-

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Looking inside the folder now would reveal a *.MRL and a... *.MPEG file? This is just getting weird.

Does anyone want to get these files to get a look for themselves?
I don't think there is one. Well, at least not a public one.
And, now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the models used a file extension that some video format also used, and it was *.MOD.
I dunno why you found a *.MPEG file though.
 

solitonmedic

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It was within the character models folder as I said before, it's unplayable, obviously enough.

here is the/a release page for the chinese translated game. i recommened asking here - http://bbs.duowan.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=43457227 :)

I'll have a look, hopefully I'll get some enlightenment on what to do here!

EDIT: Oh no, I think these guys were using 3DS firmware before 9.5, I don't think this'll be much help for me here..
EDIT2: Pfft, I'll look over the second then. downloading it right now
 
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