XD You can hex edit Coded Arms

[Stingerwolf]

Yes, go ahead bite my head off, I just wanted to see if it was good enough for me to buy, and yes it is, I WILL be buying coded arms.

But, you can hex edit MAIN.ARC and basically change any text that you see in the game. You can also see all of the files in the game, many of them are .BPX files which I assume are textures. (Hey, this is how halo PC modding got kicked off, just hex editing values, but then HMT came along and we didn't touch hex editors again.) Does anyone know or is anyone working on a way into the .ARC files? Also, I'm not going to download anymore PSP games so can anyone tell me if the other PSP games have their data in .ARC files?

[SANiK]

I've started hacking the model format using a custom made model hacking program: (Verteces are in basic XYZ pairs)



Now I need to apply the polys, but first I want to get to work on an ARC unpacker. Currently, I'm browsing the file using a hex editor ... the irony of it all...

Can you say, "Half Life 2 mod"?

[opticvictim]

Originally Posted by SANiK

I've started hacking the model format: (Verteces are in basic XYZ pairs)



Now I need to apply the polys, but first I want to get to work on an ARC unpacker. Currently, I'm browsing the file using a hex editor ... the irony of it all...

Can you say, "Half Life 2 mod"?

Keep up the good work! Imagine the online mods that could be had: goldeneye, etc. Or maby something more relivent like a matrix theme.
The game is pretty damn good so far BTW. Now that I know that Im definately buying too!

[SANiK]

So far what I got before I go to sleep:

There's a LOT of unpatterned **** in the arc format.
So it might take some time to find them all.

ARC file structure notation/pseudo C notation:

*.arc {
  byte header[16]=0x4B,0x43,0x45,0x4F,0x20,0x41,0x52,0x43,0x44,0x54,0x20,0x31,0x2E,0x30,0x00,0x00;
  dword file_total;
  dword file_list_start;
  dword file_list_size;
  
  //... null data, but instead of using "null", the '-' symbol is used instead

  //This starts at whatever offset is in file_list_start, and is the size set in file_list_size
  byte file_name[24];
  dword unknown; //2
  dword file_size; //4735040
  dword unknown2; //0

  //The above structure would repeat again if file_total was greater than 1
}

[ace11]

Originally Posted by SANiK

So far what I got before I go to sleep:

There's a LOT of unpatterned **** in the arc format.
So it might take some time to find them all.

ARC file structure notation/pseudo C notation:

*.arc {
  byte header[16]=0x4B,0x43,0x45,0x4F,0x20,0x41,0x52,0x43,0x44,0x54,0x20,0x31,0x2E,0x30,0x00,0x00;
  dword file_total;
  dword file_list_start;
  dword file_list_size;
  
  //... null data, but instead of using "null", the '-' symbol is used instead

  //This starts at whatever offset is in file_list_start, and is the size set in file_list_size
  byte file_name[24];
  dword unknown; //2
  dword file_size; //4735040
  dword unknown2; //0

  //The above structure would repeat again if file_total was greater than 1
}

did you get the moddles from the .arc files?

[SANiK]

The models are in the *.arc files, but one has to browse it by hand. I'm trying to find a pattern so I can write a C program to unpack the *.arc files.

[Stingerwolf]

Sweet, we've actually got something going, maybe if we can get the tools off the ground someone might be able to get support from Konami and get a way for custom content to be loaded off the MS with the retail CA UMD. But... That's a little too far in the distance I have to say...

[SANiK]

Yeah, too far.
I've got 60% of the format cracked so far.

The format is a piece of crap and wastes ram space.
It supports a file 8000 Terabytes big, but that's just a waste.

The *.arc files could be cut down to 17 MB by removing this feature.

[SANiK]

BTW guys, I'm done: http://www.pspupdates.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4847

=P

[borgqueenx]

someone continue to work on this, this can become so cool.
Maby coded arms contagion can be modded as well.

[AZeyC]

Why dig up a 2 year old thread?

[borgqueenx]

i found this with google and saw this game is easy modable.
so hb devs can mod this game instead of modding quake game.

[mohaas05]

you realize the people who posted in this thread 2 years ago probably arent going to check this thread anymore.

[1337PSPer]

And the biggest bump award goes to....

[SANiK]

Modding official games is a waste of man hours

[FreePlay]

closed.