Hacking [PSP] SF:DM - sfx audio container?

[SILENT_Pavel]

Firstly hi all, you are great community, i'm always loved to read this forums, so i thought maybe someone can help me a little with hacking/extracting audio files from this psp game. Because you guys have wide experience with it. I have some work experience with this kind of things, (but not enough) mostly on less compressed console formats like ps2 and ect.

Subject: I need to extract all the sounds of actor voices (but not from CGI .pmf movies/radio communications - only 'sfx' enemy voices, like "he shot my leg", this kind of sound usually in pretty low quality and heavy compressed in game resources). I was figured out how to extract .HOG main game archives, but inside game sounds is compressed as hell (like most psp games). I tried to record this voices from emulator/real psp, but some sound effects is still there and i can't delete them from final recorded stream for clear sound. Also extracted all the music and ambient music (with UMDgen), but i don't need this music. I'm feel heavy frustrated, seems like this audio containers is something special. Any help would be very nice. All the technical info below. Thanks.

Download .bnk, .ska samples: https://www.mediafire.com/?k5r4lsy2fkv0865
(7-zip 9.20, LZMA, 2,38/6,74 MB)

Spoiler: How to unpack .HOG

You can unpack .HOG files of SF for ps2/psp with Xpert2 and "PS2_Syphon_Filter_The_Omega_Strain_HOG.epi" - working perfect and simple, almost like quickbms.

Download xpert2 here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/de6qchz05am4iyr/Xpert2_186_Plugins.7z

Here is my little research of game directories, i was searching for anything, that looks like audio files, results:

GAMEDATA/FRONTEND/BONUS/AUDIO/*.AT3
GAMEDATA/FRONTEND/MUSIC/*.AT3
GAMEDATA/FRONTEND/RATINGS_VO/*.AT3
-
This is usual at3 files, "audio" and "music" is just music and such stuff, nothing more. "Raitings" folder containing some radio communications, i don't need this too, but i can convert them to wav with SonicStage and himdrenderer like always.

GAMEDATA/COMMON/UNFREED.HOG/SND.HOG/SHELL.BNK
GAMEDATA/SINGLE/TRAIN_1P/TRAIN_1/VOLATILE.HOG/SND.HOG/*.BNK
GAMEDATA/SINGLE/HKONG_1P/HKONG_A1/VOLATILE.HOG/SND.HOG/*.BNK
GAMEDATA/SINGLE/AERO_1P/AERO_A1/VOLATILE.HOG/SND.HOG/*.BNK
-
This is highly possibly mysterious sfx sound containers (I need to extract this!), two for each level individually, plus unlinked one in "common" folder. Why this is sfx audio and effects? You can open it with hex for proof, and you will see something like this:

Spoiler: random hex screen of 'WEPS.BNK' from 'HKONG_A1' level

1:0770h: 47 5F 4D 31 36 4B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  G_M16K.......... 
1:0780h: 1C 01 00 00 47 5F 4D 5F 36 30 00 00 00 00 00 00  ....G_M_60...... 
1:0790h: 00 00 00 00 1D 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ 
1:07A0h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 45 5F 57 45  ............E_WE 
1:07B0h: 50 5F 53 57 49 54 43 48 00 00 00 00 0D 00 00 00  P_SWITCH........ 
1:07C0h: 5F 52 50 47 5F 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  _RPG_........... 
1:07D0h: 5E 00 00 00 47 5F 48 38 37 53 52 00 00 00 00 00  ^...G_H87SR..... 
1:07E0h: 00 00 00 00 9E 00 00 00 47 5F 4D 50 37 00 00 00  ....ž...G_MP7... 
1:07F0h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B6 00 00 00 47 5F 53 49  ........¶...G_SI 
1:0800h: 47 5F 35 35 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 00 00 00  G_550.......À... 
1:0810h: 47 5F 47 52 45 4E 41 44 45 5F 54 49 4D 45 44 00  G_GRENADE_TIMED. 
1:0820h: DC 00 00 00 47 5F 53 57 45 45 50 45 52 00 00 00  Ü...G_SWEEPER... 
1:0830h: 00 00 00 00 38 01 00 00 47 5F 53 57 45 45 50 45  ....8...G_SWEEPE 
1:0840h: 52 5F 41 00 00 00 00 00 39 01 00 00 00 00 00 00  R_A.....9....... 
1:0850h: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................ 
1:0860h: 4D 5F 42 4F 44 59 5F 53 4E 41 50 00 00 00 00 00  M_BODY_SNAP..... 
1:0870h: 07 00 00 00 45 5F 54 41 4B 45 5F 42 4F 4D 42 00  ....E_TAKE_BOMB. 
1:0880h: 00 00 00 00 0F 00 00 00 45 5F 54 55 52 52 45 54  ........E_TURRET 
1:0890h: 5F 45 51 55 49 50 00 00 24 00 00 00 47 5F 44 54  _EQUIP..$...G_DT 
1:08A0h: 55 5F 42 41 43 4B 00 00 00 00 00 00 33 00 00 00  U_BACK......3... 
1:08B0h: 47 5F 53 48 4F 54 5F 52 45 4C 4F 41 44 5F 32 00  G_SHOT_RELOAD_2. 
1:08C0h: 73 00 00 00 47 5F 42 41 52 52 45 54 54 5F 4D 38  s...G_BARRETT_M8 
1:08D0h: 32 5F 41 00 87 00 00 00 58 58 58 5F 41 55 54 4F  2_A.‡...XXX_AUTO 
1:08E0h: 5F 53 49 4E 47 4C 45                             _SINGLE

In the header only one thing remains always unchanged, this is "SBlk" or "53 42 6C 6B" - that's all i can tell. Maybe this is not header at all, idk...

Spoiler: header of .BNK

0000h: 03 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 18 00 00 00 58 1E 01 00  ............X... 
0010h: 70 1E 01 00 C0 60 15 00 53 42 6C 6B 03 00 00 00  p...À`..SBlk.... 
0020h: 04 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 57 01  ..............W. 
0030h: 3D 08 BE 00 40 00 00 00 54 10 00 00 40 50 00 00  =.¾[email protected]...@P.. 
0040h: C0 60 15 00 C0 60 15 00 00 00 00 00 3C 52 00 00  À`..À`......<R.. 
0050h: 04 EB 00 00 E8 08 01 00 4B 00 00 00 0B 00 00 00  .ë..è...K....... 
0060h: 00 00 00 00 50 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 58 00 00 00  ....P.......X... 
0070h: 50 00 00 00 09 03 1C 00 A0 00 00 00 64 00 00 00  P....... ...d... 
0080h: 0A 03 1C 00 E8 00 00 00 64 00 00 00 07 00 00 00  ....è...d....... 
0090h: 38 01 00 00 55 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 70 01 00 00  8...U.......p... 
00A0h: 5A 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 88 01 00 00 50 00 00 00  Z.......ˆ...P... 
00B0h: 09 00 00 00 C0 01 00 00 46 00 00 00 06 00 00 00  ....À...F....... 
00C0h: 08 02 00 00 50 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 38 02 00 00  ....P.......8... 
00D0h: 2D 00 00 00 06 00 00 00 50 02 00 00 5A 00 00 00  -.......P...Z... 
00E0h: 07 00 00 80 80 02 00 00 5A 00 00 00 04 00 00 00  ...€€...Z....... 
00F0h: B8 02 00 00 50 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 D8 02 00 00  ¸...P.......Ø... 
0100h: 46 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 F0 02 00 00 63 00 00 00  F.......ð...c... 
0110h: 03 00 00 00 08 03 00 00 63 00 00 00 05 00 00 00  ........c....... 
0120h: 20 03 00 00 4D 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 48 03 00 00   ...M.......H...

GAMEDATA/SINGLE/TRAIN_1P/TRAIN_1/VOLATILE.HOG/SKA.HOG/*.SKA
GAMEDATA/COMMON/SKALEVEL.HOG/*.SKA
GAMEDATA/COMMON/SKA.HOG/*.SKA
-
This is unknown files, that might be sfx in-game voices too, but i'm not sure, maybe this is not audio files... Therefore, you should not pay much attention to it. I was found some tools for .bnk files, but every of them is failed. Here attached is pack contains several extracted .bnk/.ska files samples plus not working tools, that i have found. Thanks.

 

[SILENT_Pavel]

Bump. Nobody? There is 3 downloads of samples on mediafire right now, has anyone tried to do something with it? I will be grateful for any help with this files.
(sorry if thread bumping is against forum rules)

 

[SkyBladeCloud]

As usual in PSP, the audio is encoded in ADPCM-XA. Should be fairly easy to decode it to playable audio.

EDIT: One example, no voice acting here, though.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/4mjrwuudbk1zu83/WEPS.wav

Btw you have to download it and play it with WMP, as the mediafire online player sucks and can't play this file correctly.

~Sky

 

[SILENT_Pavel]

As usual in PSP, the audio is encoded in ADPCM-XA. Should be fairly easy to decode it to playable audio.

Finally, thanks! VGMToolbox + vgmstream - is way to extract PS ADPCM!

So, i decide to move up on ps2 version (less compressed, more bitrate) of SF DM and just found, what i'm was searching for! Individually voices for each level on ps2 is compressed in .vag (44100 Hz, 16 bit, mono) from archives "VOLEVL_E.SKX". Jaeder Naub v2.1.4g with default settings perfectly fine to extract all the .vag sounds from this archive, then convert it to .wav with MF Audio.

example: https://www.mediafire.com/?2cvb8q12ejyf3du
This is solution. Thread can be closed, thanks.