Extracting .DAT files

devilish
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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby devilish » Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:15 am

[quote="Harry97"]Yes I have tried Extracted Dat Reader. all that program does is output a text file based on the folder full of .copy001 files. it doesn't actually convert those .copy001 files into actual files. the issue i am having is that the text output states that each of my extracted .copy001 files are "null". and the text output from that program doesn't provide anything other then each file is null. the issue i think is that the .copy001 i have extracted do not have any information, and therefore are all labeled as null by both DFR and EDR.

i think the issue is the .copy001 files, that once i have extracted them via DFR v4.3.1.0 are null, without any size (have a size of 0 KB) and do not contain any information when viewed through a hex editor. therefore, i think EDR might have worked properly in correctly stating that all the .copy001 files are null without information. but why? why are those files not full of information waiting to be extracted? or why wouldn't actual files be extracted directly from the .DAT? is there a program that coverts the folder full of .copy001 files into actual files? even if we had .copy001 with a bigger filesize, we would still need a program besides EDR to convert the .copy001 files into actual files. that's why i'm thinking maybe it was the way DFR 4.3.1.0 extracted the .DAT. maybe there was an extra level of encryption that made the files appear to be null. maybe there's another version of that program that would extract actual files instead of null, blank .copy001 files. and if we could do that, then we'd need to be able to put the modded files back into the .DAT. which apparently DFR v4.3.1.0 can do, but would it work? it would be useful to compare the structure of the PC versions of Madden to the console (PS2/GC/OrigXbox) versions. do the PC versions of madden have the same .DAT files that the console verions do? have you been able to successfully extract stuff from the PS2 versions of Madden?

you say PS2 uses ssh. well i don't see any of that in the gamecube disc. just a lot of .DAT files like GAMEDATA.DAT and that one .DB file. i'd like to hear your ideas. i just discovered this great site. i am an old school gamer who prefer the PS2 era sports games from EA to the current gen games. i have time at night too. this is a great opportunity and i hope we can work together to share knowledge and ideas.[/quote
Sure sounds great!I have never looked inside of the gamecube data,PS2,360 i have taken a look inside,I dont believe that they're the same because usually different consoles (PC,XBOX360,PS2/PS3 GC) have different firmware that makes the systems run the games.But im sure somewhere inside of some of the game disc some files are the same from my experience.I have a Madden 09 disc here for XBX360 but i have to find it.
Im sure its a way to look inside of the files and find useful stuff mainly graphics and texures.Now getting it to work after its injected is another story because some files have other files that match data elsewhere in the game disc.I just extracted data using The Extractor from Live 09 PS2 disc and im using it in my animation files for Live(PC)Before i could get it to work i had to see the matching file but it was hidden i use extractor and the files showed.
Now i tried with .DAT and same as you i get .TXT files.I think some files work n some dont just how it is.

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devilish
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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby devilish » Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:18 am

Harry97 wrote:
elguapo wrote:If you open a .dat file with DFR4 and you extract a file with data but the file that is extracted is 0 bytes, it could mean that DFR4 cannot read the .dat correctly. Possibly because of a different .dat format.


yes this is what i am experiencing attempting to read and extract the .DAT files from the gamecube version of Madden 2005 / NCAA Football 2005. is this an issue with the PS2 versions and is there a way to convert the .DAT format to something that DFR4 can read and extract correctly?

and one more thing. lets say we manage to extract the copy001 files correctly with bytes. then what? how do you then convert the .copy001 files into actual game files? EDR just outputs a text file listing the type of each copy001 file. it doesn't convert them into actual files. is there another program that converts the .copy001 files?


Im looking for one as well :geek: :mrgreen: :ugeek: Where stuck at the same spot!!

Harry97
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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby Harry97 » Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:54 am

devilish wrote:Sure sounds great!I have never looked inside of the gamecube data,PS2,360 i have taken a look inside,I dont believe that they're the same because usually different consoles (PC,XBOX360,PS2/PS3 GC) have different firmware that makes the systems run the games.But im sure somewhere inside of some of the game disc some files are the same from my experience.I have a Madden 09 disc here for XBX360 but i have to find it.
Im sure its a way to look inside of the files and find useful stuff mainly graphics and texures.Now getting it to work after its injected is another story because some files have other files that match data elsewhere in the game disc.I just extracted data using The Extractor from Live 09 PS2 disc and im using it in my animation files for Live(PC)Before i could get it to work i had to see the matching file but it was hidden i use extractor and the files showed.
Now i tried with .DAT and same as you i get .TXT files.I think some files work n some dont just how it is.


what program is "The Extractor" that you use to extract data from Live 09 on PS2? were they .DAT files similar to those in madden?i know madden 09 on PS2 added some new animations. madden 09 on ps2 also added right analog stick QB evade and receiver direct, which was also in ncaa 08 on ps2, but not on madden 08 on ps2.

what do you mean by having to "see the matching file but it was hidden"? i don't get .TXT files, i get .copy001 files that are labeled "null", and have 0 file size. essentially the files get extracted from the .DAT, but there is no information in them. what i'd like to know is why and if the .DAT files on other console versions of ncaa / madden (like ps2) extract or if it's just due to the gamecube version.

devilish wrote:Im looking for one as well :geek: :mrgreen: :ugeek: Where stuck at the same spot!!


yes! there are many things to try. have you tried extracting from the .DAT files in the madden or ncaa ps2 games? and how about the .DB file that is present in the madden / ncaa ps2 / gc games? is there any way to read that? one thing i'd like to find from those games is a configuration file, or a file where you can edit additional options about the game. you know in like fifa pc games, or maybe even nba live games, you know how there are many files with parameters that you can edit? like in fifa, there was ai.ini and stuff. do you think there could be those files in those .DATs for ncaa or madden on ps2/gc?

devilish
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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby devilish » Sat Oct 13, 2012 4:32 pm

Maybe so but the hardest thing I've seen so far is to read the .DAT files.
I haven't found out what program Read/Write to them yet.But i'm searching
Also I've tried to read the .DAT files via the extractor program but i get the same files as your getting.(doesn't work
But i use this for nba live the other day i could always see the data on the PS2 disc because its folders are almost the same.
So i wanted to do something with the animation file,what i wanted to do i couldnt do because of 2 sets of files needed to match.
I couldnt but 1 set until i used the extractor program,See i would open it in my usual program and it wouldnt show anything but i open it in extractor and the files i needed were there and now i had 2files that match to inject into the PC.

What confuses me is how is possible to make a .DAT portrait file
and no one can explain how to to make a .DAT uniforms file???? :roll:

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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby xflamexofxhopex » Thu Sep 17, 2020 11:28 am

devilish wrote:Maybe so but the hardest thing I've seen so far is to read the .DAT files.
I haven't found out what program Read/Write to them yet.But i'm searching
Also I've tried to read the .DAT files via the extractor program but i get the same files as your getting.(doesn't work
But i use this for nba live the other day i could always see the data on the PS2 disc because its folders are almost the same.
So i wanted to do something with the animation file,what i wanted to do i couldnt do because of 2 sets of files needed to match.
I couldnt but 1 set until i used the extractor program,See i would open it in my usual program and it wouldnt show anything but i open it in extractor and the files i needed were there and now i had 2files that match to inject into the PC.

What confuses me is how is possible to make a .DAT portrait file
and no one can explain how to to make a .DAT uniforms file???? :roll:



Any traction on this? I know it is an old thread, but I am looking into doing this.

Here's a link I found for a similar question: gamebanana.com/threads/69946

That said, I use dolphin and have extracted textures that way, but some teams use the same uniform files, like pants, so editing the DAT instead would be a gamechanger.

I've been looking into this for NCAA 05 on GC, NCAA 2K3, NFL 2K3, Madden 05, and Madden 08 all on GC. Also maybe for MLB 2K6, All Star Baseball 04, and MVP 05 if it could one day run on Dolphin.

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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby BUS36 » Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:30 pm

you may want to look over this posting..viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8541

there is alot of info there
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xflamexofxhopex
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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby xflamexofxhopex » Mon Sep 21, 2020 12:41 pm

BUS36 wrote:you may want to look over this posting..https://footballidiot.com/forum/viewtop ... =10&t=8541

there is alot of info there



Thank you. I checked though and am not sure where to start, since the GC dats are different than PC DAT.

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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby Harry97 » Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:57 am

xflamexofxhopex wrote:
BUS36 wrote:you may want to look over this posting..https://footballidiot.com/forum/viewtop ... =10&t=8541

there is alot of info there


Thank you. I checked though and am not sure where to start, since the GC dats are different than PC DAT.

When I created this topic, I think it was before Dat File Replacer 5.0 was released. It seemed that Dat File Replacer 5.0 added support for PS2 compatibility like with the DAT format of the PS2 NCAA games. Successful importing and exporting of the NCAA 06 PS2 DATs were possible in DFR 5.0.0.0 but not in DFR v4.3.1.0.

Even with the added compatibility of DFR 5.0 though, there are still some limits when trying to edit certain .DATs of NCAA 06. Those limits appear to be due to the formatting of the .DAT itself, like a file size limit in the compressed uniform file slots of UNIFORM.DAT of NCAA 06. In NCAA 05, the Uniforms were in PLADATA.DAT if I'm not mistaken, and NCAA 06 was the first PS2 game with a UNIFORM.DAT. In other cases like the playbooks (GAMEDATA.DAT), I was unsuccessful in making changes to that .DAT and getting the changes to work in-game despite it appearing to work when using DFR 5.0.

If you have success editing any of the Gamecube .DATs with DFR 5.0 and getting the changes to work in-game, please share your progress. I would just say be prepared for an adventure when attempting this. Dolphin as an emulator has some features that PCSX2 doesn't, and I did play NCAA 05 a lot on Dolphin. NCAA 05 is a deep game that could benefit from .DAT editing. I suggest you try DAT File Replacer 5.0 which can be found on this link - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18332 - The mirror link is still active. I personally haven't tried using DFR 5.0 on NCAA 05 Gamecube .DATs because I've been focused on NCAA 06 PS2 and there is no NCAA 06 for Gamecube but I'd imagine DFR 5.0 would work on the NCAA 05 Gamecube .DATs as well as the Gamecube Madden .DATs since it works on the NCAA 06 PS2 DATs.

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Re: Extracting .DAT files

Postby xflamexofxhopex » Fri Sep 25, 2020 1:14 pm

Harry97 wrote:
xflamexofxhopex wrote:
BUS36 wrote:you may want to look over this posting..https://footballidiot.com/forum/viewtop ... =10&t=8541

there is alot of info there


Thank you. I checked though and am not sure where to start, since the GC dats are different than PC DAT.

When I created this topic, I think it was before Dat File Replacer 5.0 was released. It seemed that Dat File Replacer 5.0 added support for PS2 compatibility like with the DAT format of the PS2 NCAA games. Successful importing and exporting of the NCAA 06 PS2 DATs were possible in DFR 5.0.0.0 but not in DFR v4.3.1.0.

Even with the added compatibility of DFR 5.0 though, there are still some limits when trying to edit certain .DATs of NCAA 06. Those limits appear to be due to the formatting of the .DAT itself, like a file size limit in the compressed uniform file slots of UNIFORM.DAT of NCAA 06. In NCAA 05, the Uniforms were in PLADATA.DAT if I'm not mistaken, and NCAA 06 was the first PS2 game with a UNIFORM.DAT. In other cases like the playbooks (GAMEDATA.DAT), I was unsuccessful in making changes to that .DAT and getting the changes to work in-game despite it appearing to work when using DFR 5.0.

If you have success editing any of the Gamecube .DATs with DFR 5.0 and getting the changes to work in-game, please share your progress. I would just say be prepared for an adventure when attempting this. Dolphin as an emulator has some features that PCSX2 doesn't, and I did play NCAA 05 a lot on Dolphin. NCAA 05 is a deep game that could benefit from .DAT editing. I suggest you try DAT File Replacer 5.0 which can be found on this link - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=18332 - The mirror link is still active. I personally haven't tried using DFR 5.0 on NCAA 05 Gamecube .DATs because I've been focused on NCAA 06 PS2 and there is no NCAA 06 for Gamecube but I'd imagine DFR 5.0 would work on the NCAA 05 Gamecube .DATs as well as the Gamecube Madden .DATs since it works on the NCAA 06 PS2 DATs.



Thank you. I tried with it and no dice. I tried the dat editors from the smash bros forums, to see if they could read it, but not working. PM me and I can share the dat I extracted, to see if you can decipher it.


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