I don't have enough knowledge about this topic to help you. Ok. If I somehow get this done, i'll return to post the rgb values and (maybe) to analyze the .str archive that contains them. Thanks for helping so far. _____________________________________________________________________________________...

I was wondering if rgb values are stored similarly in GTA SA and GF2, so I checked GTA SA's ram (with hex editor) during mod garages visit to see how carcols.dat is written in memory there. For example, color no. 86 rgb value is 46,91,32; so I searched for 34 36 2C 39 31 2C 33 32 (surmising that cha...

That's never clear on the beginning. You need to guess it. I would start with 4 bytes int, then 2 bytes int, then float, then double, then any other. Ok, but when one of the following value types - "binary", "string", "grouped" or "array of byte" is selected, there is no option for "unknown initial...

You can scan for the unknown value first, then change the color, then scan again and repeat that until you find correct value. The problem is, I'm unsure what data type I should scan for (binary, 4 bytes, 8 bytes, grouped etc.). When I scan the memory, the values aren't really helpful - I change th...

So, I couldn't figure out what's going on with the unknown data block inside decompressed NAM_1.dat - the only thing I found out was the fact that it contains font characters. But I managed to create new Granados mobster names and keep the total number of characters (2787) intact. I'll have to do th...

you don't know it for sure until you reverse engineer the whole file format. Alright. I'll see which option is better - doing this or simply keeping an eye on number of characters in Granados names block. The latter is definitely going to be different than editing other 5 names blocks (located in N...

Ok. Now, excluding the header, the .str file is divided in 3 chunks: NAM_1.dat, NAM_2.bal and NAM_3.dat. Their sizes are 127 KB (131,004 bytes), 67.1 KB (68,808 bytes) and 60.7 KB (62,240 bytes) respectively. It appears that not only the .str archive size matters, but also the sizes of these individ...

Why do you think pointers are in NAM_1.dat? I don't see any pointers at the beginning of this unknown data block. I don't think that the NAM_2.bal pointers are within the unknown data block inside NAM_1.dat; that wouldn't make sense, since that block is located above pointers block. I think that NA...

Yeah, you could write text importer which automates this task and it changes pointers during program execution. That would be the best solution - basically a custom tool. However, it would require not only understanding the pointers and text strings, but also the data above them. According to https...

One last thing. When refpack-brute-force is used for compression, the file size is 125 kb as opposed to 127 kb. There is no problem in reimporting the smaller file into .str. But, it compresses it in a way that after compressed data, there are exactly 2901 zerobytes added during reimporting to match...

Well, the game was released in April 2009 - if we exclude the trainers and graphic enhancement (which is also an "external" mod like Silent's Patch), it took nearly 12 years to be able to mod it. Was it because it never became as popular as several other games of its genre, or because the file forma...

I have created a text exporter that will make it easier for you. It outputs data in four columns - ID, pointer offset, text offset and text. https://github.com/bartlomiejduda/Tools ... xt_Tool.py This one is great. It's basically vital for finding pointers. Now, in one of your earlier posts, you wr...

Updated refpack-brute-force code is in the attachment with compiled executable ready to use. This one works! But it takes some extra steps to avoid game crashing. The only way to reimport modified kapR into the .str is by using dead_space_3.bms script. This script, however, reads the NAM_1.dat insi...

Delete 4 bytes from the beginning of NAM_1.dat and you will be able to decompress it. You are right. This makes is possible to decompress the file and it looks exactly like kapR. It means that GE only reads the file after those 4 bytes, and nothing else; this finding makes GE obsolete. This script,...

Test all refpack types from src\comtype.h in the bms script I have send you earlier. CT_RefPack XREFPACK XREFPACK0 CT_RefPack_COMPRESS DK2 DK2_COMPRESS Well, xrefpacks don't work at all. This type gives an error "unsupported compression -1 in reimport mode" with last script line: clog NAME 0 ZSIZE ...