theouterworlds Unpacking the pakchunkX-WindowsNoEditor.pak with UnrealPak.exe

[CuisinePK]

I am having trouble unpacking these.

 

1. Do you need the exact same engine version as the game (4.21 i think), or does any UE4.XX works ?

2. How do you use the UnrealPak.exe (do you need to use -list ? Do you have to put a special folder structure to use it ?)

 

Using this command in a terminal :

UnrealPak.exe "./pfile.pak" -extract "./"

Where pfile.pak is a copy of pakchunk0 and UnrealPak.exe is associated to the UE4.23 (I copied the exe and its associated libraries into a new folder, the result is the same if I call it from the install folder).

 

It fails as UnrealPak is unable to open the .pak

LogWindows: Error: Unable to open pak file "../../../UE_Project/UnrealPak/pfile.pak".

[UhuruNUru]

Unfortunately, UE has changed the way the UnrealPak, exe works since Codee Vein came out Code Vein used UE v4.18.3, and a simple batch file was all it required

Getting Started · KarbonAKitt/CVWiki Wiki

 

Trying to use that in TOW gives this error

G:\Extracted\TheOuterWorlds\Vanilla>G:\Extracted\TheOuterWorlds\Vanilla\\UnrealPak.exe pakchunk0-WindowsNoEditor.pak -extract "pakchunk0-WindowsNoEditor"
LogWindows: Error: === Critical error: ===
LogWindows: Error:
LogWindows: Error: Fatal error: [File:D:\Build\++UE4+Release-4.18+Compile\Sync\Engine\Source\Runtime\PakFile\Private\IPlatformFilePak.cpp] [Line: 3797]
LogWindows: Error: Trailing magic number (0d) in '../../../Extracted/TheOuterWorlds/Vanilla\pakchunk0-WindowsNoEditor.pak' is different than the expected one. Verify your installation.

I tried downloading UE v4.21.2, which Is the version used by TOW (See IndianaEpicGameStore-Win64-Shipping.exe > Properties > Detials > File Version), and copying that version over, but it called for missing files.

I got it running, but saw a different error, that I can't nowreproduce, and now I get same Magic number error as above.

What it did say was it expected to find a Manifest, of the pak contents, and did not find it. Not sure if that's inside the PAk but it's certainly not outside them.

 

All is not lost though the second option,

The umodel Individual-Extract Method

Does work, and with that tool you can view the assetd using the tool by double clicking on any file. It's more geared up for textures, and meshes from what I can see.

[CuisinePK]

I just spent a good part of the evening waiting on UE421 to download :D

 

The first exe I found to look up these .pak files was that ueviewer too.

 

This exe can even extract graphic assets (I tried on a texture file), so the pak files aren't encrypted. what could be the issue with the builtin pak manager ?

 

I dont know enough to make an educated guess so I'm a bit confused about it.

[UhuruNUru]

Like I said, it seemingly now needs a Manifest file, and can't5 find it, there are also some "Bundle" files in <Path-To-Game>\Indiana\Content\Exported\BaseGame\Design that need extracting.

 

I also wouldn't be to sure there's no encryption, from UE end, UE Viewer is regularly updated, and apparently needs the correct UE version number to extract the Pak files correctly.

I've only recently got the tool, and there's been 4 versions in a month.
UE Viewer v19.9.19
UE Viewer v19.10.9
UE Viewer v19.10.15
UE Viewer v19.10.22

Site does have a forum where more info is likely found.

UE Viewer (English) - Gildor's Forums

[rubyruby0]

All the bundle files in the aforementioned directory are written in JSON and can be edited as plain text.

[CuisinePK]

My bad UhuruNUru, I should take the time to read :>

 

The source code of uviewer is in github, so we might have something there (https://github.com/gildor2/UEViewer).

 

-- Edit

In the UEViewer source code (https://github.com/gildor2/UEViewer), there are projects that would be of interest to us : UEViewer-master\Tools\PackageUnpack and PackageExtract.
(UEViewer's creator wants his project to be under a 3-Clause BSD License).

UEViewer is not under license for now, but the creator states he wants it to be under the 3 clauses BSD.

 

I have a poor knowledge of cpp, and coding in general, so I'm not sure how to go from there...

Edited October 27, 2019 by CuisinePK

[CuisinePK]

UEViewer -> Right click on the folder/file -> Save Folder Packages

 

edit

 

UEViewer doesn't unpack .bin or the config files. It might cause issues with the game when repacking it, don't waste your time with it.

Edited October 27, 2019 by CuisinePK

[UhuruNUru]

Got it, you need a couple of things

 

QuickBMS by Luigi Auriemma

Download First Link

QuickBMS v0.10.1

 

UE4 Script by SSH - Updated the script for pak version 8 - Extra 0x80 bytes at the end of the file

Download

unreal_tournament_4_0.4.23.1.bms

 

Extract Files where you want them, I created a folder structure

QuickBMS\Scripts

 

The Pak Files are over 4GB, so you need to run

quickbms_4gb_files.exe

 

Quick BMS first Asks for a Script, so select

unreal_tournament_4_0.4.23.1.bms

 

Then it asks for the files to extract, I selected both, but as they are a linked set, you may only need the first one.

<Path-To-Game>\Indiana\Content\Paks\pakchunk0-WindowsNoEditor.pak
<Path-To-Game>\Indiana\Content\Paks\pakchunk1-WindowsNoEditor.pak

Then select where you want the extracted files, I put data on a HDD, save my SSDs for running games.

Any HDD:\Extracted\TheOuterWorlds\QBMS

 

Now it gets to work, I can see Default Ini's, and that alone makes this worth the effort and it's still extracting as I type.

\Engine\Config

\Indiana\Config

Main roadblock seems to be the UAsset file format, as no tools apparently exist to uncook these files, and UE doesn't uncook them anymore from what I've read on ZenHax Forum.

 

I've got those Base Ini settings now, so thats a big help, as user ini's only show changes user makes in Game's Options Menu.

Extraction still not finished, after typing all this out, currently at 12GB extracted, and Pak files are 36 GB, so takes a while, seeing many file types I didn't get with UEViewer so seems to extract everything.

 

Finally finished extracting

62.1 GB (62.7 GB On Disk). 348,532 Files, 6,858 Folders.

[rubyruby0]

You can also use the UnrealPak that comes with UE 4.22.3 (4.21.2 uses pak v7, not v8)

[UhuruNUru]

You can also use the UnrealPak that comes with UE 4.22.3 (4.21.2 uses pak v7, not v8)

However, The Outer Worlds uses Pak v8, with UE v4.21.2

 

It's only after going though the above process, that It was figured out, and installing QuickBMS is much quicker than installing another UE version just to get pak extraction.

Plus QuickBMS works with far more than UE4, it's a generic extraction tool, and has scripts made for most game engines.

I realised I'd used it years ago for 1^st State Of Decay (QuickBMS v0.9.2), while installing this newer version.