porting 2k20 entrance

[xalaidne]

Hello everyone, Is there a good tutorial on porting 2k20 entrance on the site ?

Thank you in advance.

[BlindedByTheGrace]

1 hour ago, xalaidne said:

Hello everyone, Is there a good tutorial on porting 2k20 entrance on the site ?

Thank you in advance.

Hi, 

No there isn't any. Any writeup on porting over 2k20 entrances will be too lengthy and if shortened, will be more suited to a user who already understands the data structure of 2k19 entrance motion and how they are put together. It also involves heavy hex editing. Its not just a matter of copying over the entrance file from 2k20 and changing the ID. like we do with entrances from previous games.

The first step is decompressing a 2k19 entrance file and examining how the individual files are put together. Without this, any tutorial written will be too complicated to understand . This is why there are probably only 2 other  modders I know on the smacktalks and discord who have attempted porting entrances from 2k20.

I will illustrate briefly here with two screenshots.

Lets take The Rocks entrance 0100.pac. The entrance and victory motions are all pac files which can be decompressed.

2k20 doesn't use pac files.The data for each motion is located in 2 files, the evd and the acts 

When a 2k19 entrance file is decompressed using pac editor, you will obtain the individual files which make up the entrance.

These are the files obtained when a 2k19 entrance or victory file is decompressed.

Basically, the file with 0fop extension has been replaced with the file with the evd file.

All the files labelled 00,0A.... are data files. This data is now lumped together in the acts file.

You cant just copy these files to 2k19 as 2k19 can't read them.

What is done is looking up the data in the .acts file and creating new 00,07,0A,0C,0D,.....pac files 

Looking up the data in the evd file and create a new f0fop file. There are no tools to automate any processes. All this is done manually.

The complexity of it is the reason why there is no tutorial.

Edited January 28, 2020 by squaredcirclefan

[xalaidne]

Thank you for the answer. I would like to import advance entrance parts from 2k20. That's why i was looking for a tutorial. But as you said it looks a bit complicated. 

By the way thank you for all your work.

[BlindedByTheGrace]

54 minutes ago, xalaidne said:

Thank you for the answer. I would like to import advance entrance parts from 2k20. That's why i was looking for a tutorial. But as you said it looks a bit complicated. 

By the way thank you for all your work.

There aren't any advanced entrance motion files in 2k20. Unlike in 2019 and previous games where there is a separate entrance file for each motion, the same files are used for both easy and advanced motion in 2k20. The game engine just reads a part of the data in the single entrance file for the advanced entrance.

[xalaidne]

Ok thank you for your explanations.

[swipergod]

Figured I'd post here since my question might help others like me who are interested in learning a bit more about how to do this kind of stuff. 

I tried to use the method above to port Mankind's 2k20 entrance. @squaredcirclefan help with that one and it works. He did the 0fop because it's a bit tricker. For the dat files it's a bit more straightforward

Best way to do it is to find an EVZ (2k16) that has the same number of dat files otherwise, you'll have to edit the header to remove or add the missing files.

Dump all the 2k16 dat files. Open the 2k20 ACTS file in a hex editor. It's hard to find the file's start and end at first, but when you train your eye, you can catch them as they will always begin the same way for each entrance (each wrestler might be different). Easiest trick is to search for the term root and you'll find the header for the next dat file. The last file will end with the POF0 before the next root and will begin in the 4 bytes around the first value immediately after the POF0.

copy and paste in the dat content from the 2k20 file to the corresponding 2k16 dat (note that this is hex counting so file 10 is actually 0A, 12 is 0C and so on). You'll want to change the number (e.g. 00 or 10 etc) to the following 2500XXXX_AYY_def where XXXX is the entrance ID and YY is the number you just overrode.

Use pac editor after to insert (don't compress) back into the pac and that should take care of the EVZ. 

Now where I'm screwing up is with the 0fop from the EVP i think.

First you have to find an EVP that is matched with an EVZ that has the same number of dat files. You'll be using that header. Open the 2k20 EVD. So I want to be clear, I'm doing something wrong here which is causing a crash. If @squaredcirclefan or anyone else knows what step I'm messing up, please let me know.  Here's what I did.

Inserted the EVD data into the EVP file after the header (clearing out the old data). Added the new entrance numbers (18 72 is Hex for 6258).

Now I think I'm screwing this up:

This is what the original looks like and I'm trying to change it and reverse the positions

Here's the new one 

For the top 2 numbers I adjusted them as I saw in scf's mods. So I'm pretty sure that's right. I didn't change the numbers in red because I'm not sure how to recalculate them. The 00 01 00 00 replaces 01 00 FF 00 (a format thing I assume). 00 00 02 C4 is calculated from the 64 02 00 00. Basically I start by adding 6 hex values (from 64 to C4) and reposition them. Then every line, I add an additional 2 hex values (e.g 8 then 10 then 12). The last number which is the line number is just moved from front to back. I think I did most of this right, but I do think I need to change the values in red. Can anyone help?

[BlindedByTheGrace]

5 hours ago, swipergod said:

Figured I'd post here since my question might help others like me who are interested in learning a bit more about how to do this kind of stuff. 

I tried to use the method above to port Mankind's 2k20 entrance. @squaredcirclefan help with that one and it works. He did the 0fop because it's a bit tricker. For the dat files it's a bit more straightforward

Best way to do it is to find an EVZ (2k16) that has the same number of dat files otherwise, you'll have to edit the header to remove or add the missing files.

Dump all the 2k16 dat files. Open the 2k20 ACTS file in a hex editor. It's hard to find the file's start and end at first, but when you train your eye, you can catch them as they will always begin the same way for each entrance (each wrestler might be different). Easiest trick is to search for the term root and you'll find the header for the next dat file. The last file will end with the POF0 before the next root and will begin in the 4 bytes around the first value immediately after the POF0.

copy and paste in the dat content from the 2k20 file to the corresponding 2k16 dat (note that this is hex counting so file 10 is actually 0A, 12 is 0C and so on). You'll want to change the number (e.g. 00 or 10 etc) to the following 2500XXXX_AYY_def where XXXX is the entrance ID and YY is the number you just overrode.

Use pac editor after to insert (don't compress) back into the pac and that should take care of the EVZ. 

Now where I'm screwing up is with the 0fop from the EVP i think.

First you have to find an EVP that is matched with an EVZ that has the same number of dat files. You'll be using that header. Open the 2k20 EVD. So I want to be clear, I'm doing something wrong here which is causing a crash. If @squaredcirclefan or anyone else knows what step I'm messing up, please let me know.  Here's what I did.

Inserted the EVD data into the EVP file after the header (clearing out the old data). Added the new entrance numbers (18 72 is Hex for 6258).

Now I think I'm screwing this up:

This is what the original looks like and I'm trying to change it and reverse the positions

Here's the new one 

For the top 2 numbers I adjusted them as I saw in scf's mods. So I'm pretty sure that's right. I didn't change the numbers in red because I'm not sure how to recalculate them. The 00 01 00 00 replaces 01 00 FF 00 (a format thing I assume). 00 00 02 C4 is calculated from the 64 02 00 00. Basically I start by adding 6 hex values (from 64 to C4) and reposition them. Then every line, I add an additional 2 hex values (e.g 8 then 10 then 12). The last number which is the line number is just moved from front to back. I think I did most of this right, but I do think I need to change the values in red. Can anyone help?

Hi,

In a nutshell, the EVZ file from 2k20 should not be inserted into a 2k19 0fop file for the EVP. 2K19 Can't read the data the way its arranged in the EVZ so the game will crash.

What you need to do is copy the data from the EVD and paste insert it into the EVP. The question is, which data do you need to copy over.

First you want to find a 2k19 entrance 0fop file which is suitable.

One thing I have done is copy and paste all the 2k19 single entrance files (00100.pac -00622.pac) into a folder and do a MASS EXTRACT using pac editor so all the files are decompressed in the folder.

Now when you open the EVD for mankind, you will see the following which is a table listing the offsets  and other data the game needs to read from the EVZ .

 

the first think you want to look up here is the number 14. In this entrance, this is the number of data objects listed in the 0fop. You will see on the right I have highlighted 0 to 13. So entry 0 to entry 13 is 14 entries in total. You will need a 2k19 0fop file with that same number of entries and which is also the same filesize as the EVD . the filesize of the EVD is 324kb. 

What I do is search the work 0fop in the folder where I have decompressed the entrance files and look for one with a filesize 324kb. The 0fop file for Eddie Guerrero's entrance has the same filesize. if I open this up in Hxd, You will see the following.

You see here it also has the same number 14 so we can use this one.

First thing you want to do is copy the heeder portion and paste write it at offset 20 over the bytes as shown

Then you flip the data in offsets 20-21 (The ID for the 0fop) to 01 F1 which is 497 in Hex or the ID you want to assign to the entrance.

The 0's, 1,s and 2's are the data which enable the rope animation files in the entrance. I look up the pattern in the Mankind EVD and alter them accordingly. Do not copy and paste over any other blocks of data from the evd File.

What is now left here is to lookup the data for each of the rope animation files in the EVD and add them to the2k19  0fop 

Edited February 1, 2021 by squaredcirclefan

[BlindedByTheGrace]

So I will explain some of the data in the 0fop for better understanding.

When you renamed the files in the EVZ , you will have used the naming structure 2500XXXX_AYY_def 

For instance the 0000 character animation file is named as 25000XXX_A00_def

The 000A file for the animation is named as 25010XXX_A10_def etc.

You will see the number 15 listed multiple times in the 0fop table. This is for the number of steps in the motion.

Most entrances have 5 stages (you also see thsi in advanced creation)

Step 0 is the intro

Step  5 is the Stage

Step 10 is the ramp

step 15 is the RIng-in

Step 20 is the ring 

There are 21 steps from step 0 to step 20. Convert 21 to Hex gives 15.

Victory motions and some entrances from older games will have a 01 . This means its just one step. Entrances with 01 will have no advanced creation files.

Right below the table you will see 61A8 Convert this to hex gives 25000. This is data for the 0000 file in the EVZ

The data for the 0007 file for the belt is 25007 in hex 61AF

The data for the 000A file for the camera is 25010 in hex 61B2

The last file 0013.dat for one of the rope motions is 25019 in Hex 61BB.

Note that.

Lets look at the 0013.dat file in the EVZ. You will see it has a 00020000 I have highlighted. This means its is a rope animation in the ring stage of the entrance. Now lets look up this data in the Mankind EVD.

The 14 here is the hex value for 20 which is the ring data.

 0F is the hex value for 15. The evz data files for ropes will either have a 001500 for the ring-in or 0020000 for the ring.

This is the data in the Mankind EVD.

I have highlighted a series of byte arrays (4 bytes each). This is data for the rope collision , physics and interaction in the entrance for that stage. This is just one of the files. The data is flipped and will need to be reversed. Here is a screenshot of the data flipped in the EVD file.

I then copy this data over to the 61BB data section in thee 2k19 0fop at the bottom of the file.

This step will need to be repeated for the data in the other rope animation files. For mankind's entrance

000D, 000E, 000F,0010,0011,0012 and 0013.

Edited February 1, 2021 by squaredcirclefan

[swipergod]

Hey @squaredcirclefan I was finally able to try this out and followed all the steps for the Mankind 2k20 victory file 6246. Very clear and I get how to mode this cleaning now. The victory screen loads up now and the music kicks in, but it's all black and the game freezes. I'm guessing this means that the evz is ok, but that there's something wrong with the evp? I used Booker T's victory file as the template as it has the same amount of files. I must be missing one step somewhere? Here are the files in case you wanted to have a look: http://www.mediafire.com/file/pgq64tla35ytuhp/06258_MickVic.pac/file

[BlindedByTheGrace]

1 hour ago, swipergod said:

Hey @squaredcirclefan I was finally able to try this out and followed all the steps for the Mankind 2k20 victory file 6246. Very clear and I get how to mode this cleaning now. The victory screen loads up now and the music kicks in, but it's all black and the game freezes. I'm guessing this means that the evz is ok, but that there's something wrong with the evp? I used Booker T's victory file as the template as it has the same amount of files. I must be missing one step somewhere? Here are the files in case you wanted to have a look: http://www.mediafire.com/file/pgq64tla35ytuhp/06258_MickVic.pac/file

Hi. Looking at the data files in the EVZ, they don't seem to be labelled correctly.

The highlighted part here should be labelled as 2500106258_A10_def

The format will be 250XX6258_AXX_def. You will probably need to decompress the file for a victory motion and copy that section as a guide.

[swipergod]

4 hours ago, squaredcirclefan said:

Hi. Looking at the data files in the EVZ, they don't seem to be labelled correctly.

The highlighted part here should be labelled as 2500106258_A10_def

The format will be 250XX6258_AXX_def. You will probably need to decompress the file for a victory motion and copy that section as a guide.

Thanks @squaredcirclefan I changed all the file names and repacked them in an SHDC file. I also caught a couple of 01s that I missed in the 0fop. It now plays with no freezing or crashing, but the camera angle is off. It's zoomed in on people in the crowd and looks like it's at a top down angle. I updated the link above with the cleaned up file. 

[BlindedByTheGrace]

On 2/28/2021 at 1:26 AM, swipergod said:

Thanks @squaredcirclefan I changed all the file names and repacked them in an SHDC file. I also caught a couple of 01s that I missed in the 0fop. It now plays with no freezing or crashing, but the camera angle is off. It's zoomed in on people in the crowd and looks like it's at a top down angle. I updated the link above with the cleaned up file. 

Hi,

Ive had a look at the file. I Haven't been able to see what might be wrong but I will have to look at the 0fop in detail. I believe this Mankind Victory motion is the same one in 2k19. Its the entrance which was changed.

[swipergod]

Hey @squaredcirclefan thanks for helping with this. Going through this process has helped me understand these files a bit better. I'm hoping to explore more and do some more customizing. Regarding Mankind's victory, it's actually a different animation. In 2k20 he goes from corner to corner and it feels more "Mick Foley"-ish. The 2k19 one is him leaning on the ropes.

[BlindedByTheGrace]

4 minutes ago, swipergod said:

Hey @squaredcirclefan thanks for helping with this. Going through this process has helped me understand these files a bit better. I'm hoping to explore more and do some more customizing. Regarding Mankind's victory, it's actually a different animation. In 2k20 he goes from corner to corner and it feels more "Mick Foley"-ish. The 2k19 one is him leaning on the ropes.

Are you referring to the ones listed as PERSONALITY DISORDER ?

[BlindedByTheGrace]

2 hours ago, swipergod said:

Hey @squaredcirclefan thanks for helping with this. Going through this process has helped me understand these files a bit better. I'm hoping to explore more and do some more customizing. Regarding Mankind's victory, it's actually a different animation. In 2k20 he goes from corner to corner and it feels more "Mick Foley"-ish. The 2k19 one is him leaning on the ropes.

Ive seen where the error is. The 000A file.

The first is the screenshot of the 000A header for the camera motion. The 02 I have highlighted should be a  01. That byte is the number of YAMN blocks in the animation file. In this case its 1 which I have highlighted.

 

This is a screenshot of the 0000 (Character motion) . You will see here I have highlighted two entries . These means 2 YANM data blocks in the file. That's why the number 2 I also highlighted is correct.

Edited March 1, 2021 by squaredcirclefan