just like the subject says, now quickbms can even reimport the files back in the archives which means that if you want to modify a file stored in the archive of a game now it's possible using the same script and quickbms used for its extraction :)
the feature is really cool because now many of the extraction scripts already existent can do this job automatically WITHOUT modifying them, it's enough to add 2 options to quickbms in a file.bat or a link or via command-line... really a joke
obviously there are various limitations like in any reimporter tool but in any case remains a great thing because the cases in which will be required to write boring stand-alone rebuilders (that need time and a good person who writes them) will be reduced a lot.
you need at least the version 0.4.10 of QuickBMS that I have released today:
http://aluigi.org/papers.htm#quickbmsand the following is the dump of the section 3 of the manual of the tool (quickbms.txt) that has all the needed informations to know:
Code:
The idea consists in being able to reimport the modified files for the
less complex archives without touching a single line of the script,
yeah just reusing the same bms scripts that already exist!
The function is experimental and it must be used in the following way:
- make a backup copy of the original archive!
- extract the files you want to modify (-f option) or just all the
files as you do normally via the GUI or by command-line:
quickbms script.bms archive.pak output_folder
- do your modifications to the extracted files and delete the files
that have not been modified so that the reimporting process will be
faster
- reimport the files in the archive:
quickbms -w -r script.bms archive.pak output_folder
- test the game with the modified archive
Obviously you can use the GUI also for the reimporting procedure
because it's enough to create a file.bat containing the following line
and then double clicking it when you need to do this job:
quickbms.exe -w -r
Now some important notes about this particular reimporting process:
- you CANNOT increase the size of the files you want to reimport, so
the new files must be minor or equal than the originals
- for the maximum compatibility within the thousands of available file
formats I have decided to not use tricks for modifying the original
size and compressed_size values (think to those formats that use
encrypted information tables or the scripts that use MEMORY_FILEs
for such tables or that use things like "math SIZE *= 0x800")
- the script is just the same for both the extraction and the
reimporthing phase which means that many of the scripts written by me
and the other users already work
- the reimporting of compressed files is perfectly possible because
the tool automatically switches to the relative compression algorithm
if available (for example zlib->zlib_compress)
- if the original archive uses complex encryptions that require the
usage of MEMORY_FILEs to perform temporary decryptions then it's NOT
supported and the same is valid for chunked content (like the usage
of the command Append)
- FileXor and FileRot should work correctly
- Encryption and FileCrypt should work too but some algorithms (at the
moment only 2 almost unknown are confirmed) could give problems
because it's necessary to switch the encryption mode
- things like CRCs and hashes can't be supported
- at the moment only the files with a name can be reimported so the
nameless files (log "" OFFSET SIZE) aren't supported due to the
automatic extensions assigned to them during the extraction but it's
not excluded their implementation in future, in the meantime you can
force their importing by giving the DAT extension to the modified
files so 00001234.txt must be renamed to 00001234.dat
- it's a new and experimental option so it will be improved and
adjusted during the next months
this feature has already allowed to modify the demo of crysis 2 and I'm sure that when more people will be aware of it there will be a lot of more interest (and happyness) in it
obviously any feedback is appreciated
