Age of Calamity Modding RnD

Hey there!

So for the past few days I struggled to work my way into the AoC file system but finally managed to do so. During that time I managed to learn the game uses the same filesystem as Dead Or Alive 6, which also happens to use a modified Dynasty Warriors 9 engine. Now for some info:

The File System(Inlcuding Formats, at least the important stuff):

After working my way into the romFS by dumping it from Yuzu, the structure for the main files of the game are:

-romFS/asset

This is the meat, pretty much everything we want is in this folder. This includes 1 subfolder(called data) that is in a bunch of .file formats which I'm trying to break into. If you've ever looked into DoA6 modding, the files here should look very familiar. So far however, I've only been able to rip into CharacterEditor.rdb, which includes most if not all game models.

-romFS/data

This only has 2 files, LinkData.bin and LinkInfo.bin. Sadly, I haven't been able to much with these. I've tried looking at them with hex, I've tried opening them in SwitchToolbox, all to no avail.

-romFS/movie

This includes the game's cutscenes, compressed and in a wonderful .webm format. However, while the videos seemingly play with no issue in a video playing software such as VLC, there appears to be no audio, which I assume could only be due to them playing it separately(I have yet to find the audio files for the game).

-romFS/movie_logo

This includes the game's company logo cinematics that play at startup. Also compressed and in .webm format.

Breaking Into The Files:

After a few days of struggling, I learned you can work with tools to extract .g1m files from the .rdb archives, which hold a LOT of stuff. This ranges from .MTL files, .g1m, and a bunch of other weird ones I've never heard of until now. Looking into the file formats, I learned that .g1m files are what you tend to want to get into, as they include all the models and whatnot. In order to do this, I downloaded DoA modding tools, which worked like a charm. So far however, I've only been able to get a good number of models from the game, sadly, without textures, which I'm trying to figure out.

Tools: Where to Get Them, Which Ones to Use, and How to Use Them:

First off, you can download the tools from here: http://modderbase.com/showthread.php?tid=766

The tools you want are: g1mtools, and rdbtool. I will explain what these do:

Rdbtool:

RDBTool is what you will use to open the .rdb files within the asset folder. Do NOT open the .rdb.bin files, but do keep them handy. When opening a .rdb, you will see a bunch of files within it. It's usually best to hit "extract all" so you know you have everything, and this will give you all your .g1m files and whatnot. Put these in a folder where you might not lose track of them.

g1mtools:

The main thing you want here in all honesty, is g1m2fbx, while only useful for models, seems to be the only useful tool here as of right now(I'm still looking into this.) This will convert any .g1m file model(which only seem to be in CharacterEditor.rdb) into a viewable .FBX model format, without textures, unless I'm just really dumb. For this, just drag and drop your g1m model onto the .exe. You also have .g1m_export, which exports the models meshes and .vb and .ib formats, which I'm working on looking into as well(this may be the key to textures but I really am not sure quite yet.). Last but not least, you have g1m_import, which does the OPPOSITE of g1m_export. I do believe once we figure out how to use these, they may end becoming essential, but don't quote me on that.

Afterthoughts:

Me doing this kinda started as me being bored one day, and wanting to see what was hiding in the files. I do sincerely hope this begins to help people somehow develop mods and/or patches for the game. I'm going to continue learning about the file formats and how to extract everything, but it may be a while. I'll keep posted with any discoveries I make. Also, sorry for bad formatting, I've never really made a thread like this before. If you guys would like to have pictures or whatnot, let me know and I shall provide. Thanks.

 

I'll take a look at it once I get my PC set back up. Had to pack up shop to move out of my dorm. Thanks for the info, I'll let you know what I find.

 

What exactly are these in-game screenshots supposed to be showing me? Nothing seems different about these. I might be blind though

— Posts automatically merged - Please don't double post! —

Never mind I see it now, im blind indeed. Do you have any info on how that swap was done?

 

Well it just didn't register cus I didn't look hard enough lol. Mainly due to Purah already being in the game as an NPC with a healthbar, so it threw me off.

 

Docked I have CPU, MEM and GPU all maxed out and while it does help, it still stutters a lot. I do want to try looking into patches and stuff that could possibly fix it, but I also do not believe it would be possible. If a patch does come out, it'll probably only be for Yuzu

 

Figured though a patch like 60FPS wouldn't worth the use on Switch as the game can barely hold 30. I hope to find a way to fix that.