tutorial Quick X-pacKer 2017 Tutorial for creating pach's

[Perfectplex]

X-pacKer 2017 how to create working pach files from scratch.

if you don't know what chunk_cache file you are using this isn't for you as you need to learn some basics first but this is aimed at the beginner level who might be finding issues creating their own working pach files.

For some reason I have had problems creating pach archives which would result in crashing the game.

There is a strange step required to get it to work properly and that is to reinject the files into your created archive.

So lets try an example.

Lets use a character ch pac file, we will use ch34302.pac (Brock Lesnar), he is my go to ch for testing for various reasons.

• He has 1 attire
• Fewer files than some characters
• He is auto highlighted in the character select but most importantly...
• He is the first to load in for the menu background so we can see if the game crashes right after the 'then, now, forever clip' and we can see the mod straight away without having to load up a match.

Back his ch file up and copy it to a new desktop folder which you can operate in, dont try to do things directly to the program files directory, windows can be a bit fussy if it lets you do stuff or not.

1. OK, so we have ch34302.pac (Brock Lesnar), use xpacker to extract his shdc file (564F3C7E80227A49.shdc).
2. Create a folder within your folder called 564F3C7E80227A49
3. Open his shdc file and 'decompress all' to the 564F3C7E80227A49 folder.
4. Delete the .zlib files and the uncompress.bat file IF it created one.
5. rename the .zlib.uncompressed files to .pac for convenience for now.

You can find file renaming programs to do the renaming part easily in a batch, saves having to manually rename every single file manually. it will be 'rename ".zlib.uncompressed" to ".pac" make sure file extensions are showing (mine is called 'entire file name' on betterfilerename).

We aren't actually going to make any changes, we are simply going to repack his files and test it.

1. In xpacker File > New > PACH Archive
2. Select all the files within the 564F3C7E80227A49 folder and click open
3. Click on FileName to put the files in the correct Hex order, this is important and should never be forgotten.

1. Click on Create PACH Archive and save it as 564F3C7E80227A49.pach back in the main folder next to your ch34302.pac and 564F3C7E80227A49.shdc files.
2. Close the 'create texture archive' window (its a typo, you're actually creating a pach).

 

Now here is where things get interesting, if you try using this pach archive as is it will likely crash the game, here's how to fix it.

1. File > Open PC Pac File > PACH File and choose 564F3C7E80227A49.pach (not the .shdc file).

Now you can see all the contents of the pach file you created starting with 0000 and ending in 4E22.

Here's the boring but VERY essential part.

1. Starting with 0000 click on Inject (not Compress and Inject)
2. In the 564F3C7E80227A49 folder find your 0000.pac file and inject it, you should see "File injected successfully".
3. Now do the same for 000A, OOOC and so on until you have done them all, taking care to inject the matching name.

                                           *   The above step may not be necessary as I have since found just injecting 0000.pac seems to work.

1. Open your ch34302.pac file in xpacker and INJECT (not compress and inject) the pach into the shdc making sure you don't accidentally choose the shdc or bak file.

 

If you followed them steps correctly you will have now created a modified (although visually unaltered) ch pac file.

As we are 'replacing' ch43402.pac (Brock Lesnar) we don't need to make any further changes, pop it back in the ch folder and run your game, if your game crashes after the 'then, now, forever' video then you did something wrong.

If you followed the guide you should see Brock Lesnar walking around in the background, nothing will look any different, that is fine because we didn't change anything we just repacked his pac file to test and the fact you can see him shows you did it right.

Now you know how to make pach's (if you didn't already) and fix the crashes you can now make your own archives with more or less files, whatever you need.

And now you can inject it into a pac file of your choice, a 2K17 pac file is fine if you're replacing that particular character otherwise inject it into a 2K16 pac file so you can rename the pach accordingly.

If you already injected your pach into an shdc file and put it into a 2K17 pac file but now realise you wanted it in a 2K16 pac file so you can rename the pach ID you can just extract the shdc file and it will extract as a pach file, now just inject it into a 2K16 pac file and rename the pach ID by right clicking on the ID in xpacker or in hex editor at line 800.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Perfectplex

[kim666]

Thanks for the tutorial.

Do you know? You can change the default alphanumerically Windows file order to a hex file order.

Just open Regedit and go to 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWord with the name NoStrCmpLogical and set its value to 1

This makes pach creating easier, windows will list the files in the right order for X-Packer.

However the free tool "pac/shdc file adder" is much easier to use. Because this tool can add extra file slots to pach and sdhc files. No need to extract and recreate. 

[4 Life]

Nice tutorial mate I too always clicked the FileName button to sort them in the right order but some of the guys said you shouldn't do that as it wouldn't work but I've done it hundreds of times without issue and the file order is always correct - think it was @AlcLegacy and @Auday Elyafe, just tagging these folks in so they don't think I'm indrecting at them and so they can see that it does indeed put the files in the right order

[Auday]

1 minute ago, 4 Life said:

Nice tutorial mate I too always clicked the FileName button to sort them in the right order but some of the guys said you shouldn't do that as it wouldn't work but I've done it hundreds of times without issue and the file order is always correct - think it was @AlcLegacy and @Auday Elyafe, just tagging these folks in so they don't think I'm indrecting at them and so they can see that it does indeed put the files in the right order

Why you talkin shit?

[TheVisitorX]

7 minutes ago, kim666 said:

Thanks for the tutorial.

Do you know? You can change the default alphanumerically Windows file order to a hex file order.

Just open Regedit and go to 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWord with the name NoStrCmpLogical and set its value to 1

This makes pach creating easier, windows will list the files in the right order for X-Packer.

However the free tool "pac/shdc file adder" is much easier to use. Because this tool can add extra file slots to pach and sdhc files. No need to extract and recreate. 

Where can I get that tool?

[kim666]

1 minute ago, TheVisitorX said:

Where can I get that tool?

It's in the pac editor thread at the bottom of the first post under misc tools. 

[Perfectplex]

58 minutes ago, kim666 said:

Do you know? You can change the default alphanumerically Windows file order to a hex file order.

Just open Regedit and go to 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Create a new DWord with the name NoStrCmpLogical and set its value to 1

Oh that's something I will do now, I googled for just that and in windows you can order a folders files in everything under the sun except bloody hex which is way more useful than sorting by some of the crap they throw in that selection.

Cheers pal.

[laddanator]

Great tutorial as always, @Perfectplex!

[Perfectplex]

2 hours ago, 4 Life said:

Nice tutorial mate I too always clicked the FileName button to sort them in the right order but some of the guys said you shouldn't do that as it wouldn't work but I've done it hundreds of times without issue and the file order is always correct - think it was @AlcLegacy and @Auday Elyafe, just tagging these folks in so they don't think I'm indrecting at them and so they can see that it does indeed put the files in the right order

I think the reason people say not to click it is the same reason it crashes, I think what is happening is when you reorder the pach contents it falls out of sync with the files on the inside of the programs memory (temp structure), but it allocates the file size, so when you reinject them manually it puts them in the correct placement.

So technically yes they are correct but if you just remember to inject manually after doing so then you're set.

Edited March 20, 2017 by Perfectplex

[laddanator]

11 hours ago, 4 Life said:

Nice tutorial mate I too always clicked the FileName button to sort them in the right order but some of the guys said you shouldn't do that as it wouldn't work but I've done it hundreds of times without issue and the file order is always correct - think it was @AlcLegacy and @Auday Elyafe, just tagging these folks in so they don't think I'm indrecting at them and so they can see that it does indeed put the files in the right order

This is what happens if you don't click filename button.
 

 

[4 Life]

2 hours ago, laddanator said:

This is what happens if you don't click filename button.
 

 

Normally just crashes when I forget

[laddanator]

2 hours ago, 4 Life said:

Normally just crashes when I forget

The roids finally caught up with old, Hogan! Lol 

[tekken57]

Why are you injecting all the files a second time around? When you created a new PACH using the uncompressed files, there is no need to inject each file again.

[Perfectplex]

4 hours ago, tekken57 said:

Why are you injecting all the files a second time around? When you created a new PACH using the uncompressed files, there is no need to inject each file again.

If I don't it just crashes the game.

I'm not sure why it does that but if you create a pach and just inject it into a pac file then test it you will see it crashes.

If it doesn't for you then maybe there's something amiss, I will test running the tool as admin.

Edit: running as admin doesn't work either, just hangs on the loading circle.

Edit 2: It appears you only have to reinject 0000.yobj/pac file and the rest don't need manually injecting.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Perfectplex

[Raheem Baksh]

Great tutorial 

[tekken57]

On 21 March 2017 at 10:59 AM, Perfectplex said:

If I don't it just crashes the game.

I'm not sure why it does that but if you create a pach and just inject it into a pac file then test it you will see it crashes.

If it doesn't for you then maybe there's something amiss, I will test running the tool as admin.

Edit: running as admin doesn't work either, just hangs on the loading circle.

Edit 2: It appears you only have to reinject 0000.yobj/pac file and the rest don't need manually injecting.

Had some to look into this and found the issue. It seems like the pc version requires padding at the end of the pach file, whereas this wasn't compulsory on the console versions. 

 

The inject function does add the padding after injecting hence the pach works after doing this. I don't think you need to reinject all the files again, reinjecting just one file should fix the problem. 

 

I'll fix the padding issues on the next version of x-packer so that you won't have to reinject. 

[Perfectplex]

Thanks for looking into that Tekken and I look forward to the patch, its a minor inconvenience for now that is just something I have to remember to do when creating a pach.