How Do I use the PAK extractor?

[Zephyrus]

I looked at the information concerning that application, and I still haven't the foggiest idea of what to do with it. Any step by step explanations?

[Aradan]

You put the 3 files (Pack.bat, Unpack.bat and xpak.exe) inside your data/packs folder.
Then you edit the unpack.bat to read:

xpak.exe -mkdir pakname.pak
xpak.exe  pakname.pak

where packname is the .pak file you are trying to unpack. For example, if you are trying to unpack the mod_0.pak, the code should be:

xpak.exe -mkdir mod_0.pak
xpak.exe  mod_0.pak

That will "extract" the contents of the mod_0.pak file into your data/packs directory, in a new folder.

When you wat to re-peack your things, you need to do two things:
a) All the files you are trying to pack must exist inside a "data" folder (which in turn will exist inside your data/packs folder) or one of its subfolders, that correspond to the structure of RTW's data diretcory. For example: data/packs/data/loading_screen/loading_bar.tga All your files that are about to be repacked should be inside that bolded data folder.
b) You create a new .txt file, let's say my_pack.txt, in which you make a list of the files your .pak includes, along with their relative paths to the data folder mentioned before. At the top of the list, you include the name of the pak file you are trying to create (eg: mod_0.pak), like that:

ui_0.pak
DATA\LOADING_SCREEN\LOADING_BAR.TGA
DATA\SKY\CLOUDS\HEAVY\CLOUD_01-02_11.TGA.DDS
DATA\SKY\CLOUDS\HEAVY\CLOUD_01-02_12.TGA.DDS
DATA\SKY\CLOUDS\HEAVY\CLOUD_01-02_13.TGA.DDS
DATA\SKY\CLOUDS\HEAVY\CLOUD_01-02_14.TGA.DDS
DATA\SKY\CLOUDS\HEAVY\CLOUD_01-02_15.TGA.DDS
[...]

Then you edit the Pack.bat file, to read:

xpak.exe -v -pf text-file_name.txt

where text-file_name is the name of your .txt file where you listed the contents of the .pak.

For example:

xpak.exe -v -pf my_pack.txt

Hope this helps.

[Zephyrus]

Thx! I'll attempt this later tonight and let you know if it works.

[♔Sherlock♔]

Do the changes automatically take place for instance if I modded the UI folder in packs/data? :hmmm:

[Aradan]

No, you have to move the modded files in the data/UI/ folder, not the data/packs/data/UI/ one.

[♔Sherlock♔]

But there is no data/UI folder, there is just a data/packs/data/UI one. Should I have move the UI in data/packs/data/ to just the regular data file? :hmmm:

[Aradan]

Yep, either create the folder yourself or move the unpacked one like you said.

[♔Sherlock♔]

It still doesn't work, all the things I edit in the moved folder are still the same in game Not sure if it's relevant, but I modding the Roman interface in UI folder.

[Aradan]

Have you renamed the .pak files?

[♔Sherlock♔]

No, but I'm guessing now I should . If I'm only editing UI, are the UI packs the only ones I should rename?

[Aradan]

Yep.

[♔Sherlock♔]

Now I've renamed them, RTW won't even come up It goes to the startup page, then CTD's. What have I done wrong?

[Aradan]

Have you put *all* the extracted contents in their proper locations, even those you didn't change?

[♔Sherlock♔]

No, but I only renamed the UI packs, do I still have to move all of them? And if so, where do they go? I know where 'Models_Unit' and 'UI' go, but after that, do they all go directly into the data file?

[Aradan]

No, I meant if you have moved all of the files contained in the extracted .pak files (not all the files contained in all the .pak files).

K, try sth else. make the modifications you want in the extracted files, and then re-pack, so that your new files are included in the .paks. That should definitely work.

[♔Sherlock♔]

How do I do that again?( - me)

[Aradan]

Read the first post.

[♔Sherlock♔]

Do I list every single file that goes into it? Which files go into UI_1, and which go into UI_0???

[Aradan]

I'm afraid you gotta unpack them one by one, list the files in each one (there's gotta be a quick application that does that for you, search the web) and then re-pack...

[Greek God 117]

I get here, "C:\Program Files\The Creative Assembly\Rome - Total War\data\packs\DATA\MODELS_UNIT\TEXTURES" but when I click on the unit that I want to change it's skin, it says, "Windows cannot open this file."