Chrono Cross (PSX) .BIK files - Could support be added?

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 6:16 pm

The contents of this post was deleted because of possible forum rules violation.

Darkfox · Post by **Darkfox** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:05 pm

If you can view the textures with PSIcture then it is possible they aren't compressed but are just stored within. Just an observation.

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 7:27 pm

Very true indeed, Darkfox, and thank you for confirming a suspicion I had. Do you know how I might go about getting at the individual files that aren't .BMPs? If the files aren't compressed, they do seem to be strung together inside the .BIKs. Any way to "break the container," so to speak?

Also, I'd like to ask the XeNTaX community at large a silly question, just to make sure: FileStripper doesn't automatically stuff whatever it finds into .BIK files, right? I mean, it's supposed to find .BIKs and not output to .BIKs, to my understanding. It's hard to tell whether .BIKs are really the containers Squaresoft stored the Chrono Cross files in, since the Chrono Cross CD lacks a Table of Contents that allows Windows to see the file structure. Whereas you can pop in Final Fantasy VII and see .lzs and .bin archives all over the place, Chrono Cross leaves you staring at the SLUS file and a tiny System file.

*Sigh* I'm still such a newbie at accessing game resources. Thanks for bearing with me.

Darkfox · Post by **Darkfox** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:47 pm

Also I would like to point out that PSIcture takes common and some uncommon/game specific image formats used by PSX titles and converts them to BMP. So in all likelihood they are not BMPs to begin with, PSIcture converts them and saves them that way. So you can't reinsert the converted image because it would mess up the game.

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:40 pm

Right you are, Darkfox. After playing around with PSicture's plugins, I've determined that the images ripped are .TIMs in their native format, silly me. Good to know.

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 2:50 am

Okay, now I've figured out that the .TIM files are not compressed within the .BIKs. I can locate a specific .TIM's signature within the files.

For example, the attached .TIM takes up hex addresses 002B6340 through 002BA55F in the first .BIK linked above. Will such knowledge help in the quest to break down these .BIK files?

It's not possible for a container such as .BIK to compress some files and not others, is it? I would imagine the compression is uniform across all the files stored in a single container / archive.

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:37 am

Found out an interesting tidbit that may be extremely helpful. Luminaire85 at the Chrono Compendium forums just let me know the following:

I also tried two of the *.bik files in RAD Video Tools 1.8w, and both failed with an error message saying "This Bink file uses an old or beta Bink file format - please re-Bink the original video file." This page states that way back before March 1999 they changed the Bink format. Seeing as how Chrono Cross came out in 1999, it wouldn't be surprising if they were still using the old Bink beta format.

So, does anyone just happen to have a really old version of RAD Video Tools lying around?

NKCSS · Post by **NKCSS** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 1:05 pm

To make sure that is the case, did you try to re-bink it with The RAD Video Tools? You can get them here: http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

Hope this helps,

Nick Kusters

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:16 pm

Thanks for the reply, Nick!

If you're referring to the post above regarding the inability to unBINK the .BIKs, we've had several people try to decompose the .BIKs with various versions of Rad Video Tools, all with the same error messages. The earliest version we could access is Version .8i. We suspect that an extremely early version of Rad Video Tools may have been used to create the .BIK containers obtained from Chrono Cross.

NKCSS · Post by **NKCSS** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 7:43 pm

FaustWolf wrote:Thanks for the reply, Nick!

If you're referring to the post above regarding the inability to unBINK the .BIKs, we've had several people try to decompose the .BIKs with various versions of Rad Video Tools, all with the same error messages. The earliest version we could access is Version .8i. We suspect that an extremely early version of Rad Video Tools may have been used to create the .BIK containers obtained from Chrono Cross.

Ok, sorry, I must have read it wrong

I've been googling a bit, but without any luck. I know that there are a few sites that host older versions of popular software, but can't seem to remember or find any of them, did you give that angle a try yet?

Sincerely,

Nick Kusters.

Savage · Post by **Savage** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:44 pm

Can attach a bik sample?
Thanks!

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:02 pm

Even using file cutter on the lowest setting I can only get the file sizes down to 300KB, just beyond the upload attachment limit here.

Is it okay if I provide a Rapidshare link to some examples, or is there another file sharing method you prefer Savage?

How much data would you need to determine whether / how the .BIK container can be decomposed? I can provide .BIK beginnings/endings between 300KB and 1MB in length.

EDIT: I've got a direct link to a .rar with three sets of sample .BIK data hosted on my MediaMax account. The beginning and ending 1MB or so of each .BIK file is contained within; it's a 3MB .rar.
http://www.mediamax.com/faustwolf/Hoste ... amples.rar

This way you don't have to be bothered with countdown screens and the like.

Savage · Post by **Savage** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 10:24 pm

well. you sure are a bik files?
If i get the first head.bin from the example i can compress (with rar) this (1.048.576bytes) to 572.774bytes

I'm sure at 100% this files are not BIK files, the program ripped it 'coz the FOURCC it's BIK nothing else

FaustWolf · Post by **FaustWolf** » Sun Oct 14, 2007 11:32 pm

Thanks for looking at it Savage!

Do you mean that the samples I gave you from MediaMax aren't .BIK files, or that the original files those samples came from aren't .BIKs?

I can provide a sample in another way perhaps, if necessary. I am aware that filecutter turned the beginnings and endings of the .BIK files into zipped .BINs; is that the problem?

I'm pretty sure that FileStripper didn't just add the .BIK format to the data it ripped. Judging from the Hexadecimal, these .BIKs appear in the larger .iso file. It also appears from our research that Squaresoft (the maker of Chrono Cross) has contracted with RAD Game Tools in the past, so I *believe* it's likely that the original files are indeed .BIKs. I'm not absolutely sure, of course.

By FOURCC, I assume you mean http://www.fourcc.org/ ? Is there a codec there that should be able to "read" these files?

NKCSS · Post by **NKCSS** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:10 am

FaustWolf wrote:Thanks for looking at it Savage!

Do you mean that the samples I gave you from MediaMax aren't .BIK files, or that the original files those samples came from aren't .BIKs?

I can provide a sample in another way perhaps, if necessary. I am aware that filecutter turned the beginnings and endings of the .BIK files into zipped .BINs; is that the problem?

I'm pretty sure that FileStripper didn't just add the .BIK format to the data it ripped. Judging from the Hexadecimal, these .BIKs appear in the larger .iso file. It also appears from our research that Squaresoft (the maker of Chrono Cross) has contracted with RAD Game Tools in the past, so I *believe* it's likely that the original files are indeed .BIKs. I'm not absolutely sure, of course.

By FOURCC, I assume you mean http://www.fourcc.org/ ? Is there a codec there that should be able to "read" these files?

What savage ment was that if any part of the data can be shrunk by 50%, it's not BINK video, since they have an extremely high compressionrate out of the box, a 3rd party product wouldn't be able to effectively shrink it by that much.

It might just be a false positive (e.g. it's a different type of file that just happens to have the BINK video header sequence as part of its own data).

Hope this helps,

Nick Kusters.