Unpacking every Saints Row IV packfile

M

Minimaul

Guest
Please be aware - extracting all of the Saints Row IV packfiles will use up a significant amount of disk space

To extract every packfile using the Saints Row IV tools, you will need:
  1. My Saints Row IV tools: http://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/minimauls-saints-row-iv-tools.3188/
  2. A folder containing the packfiles to extract. In Saints Row IV, these files are in the "steamapps\Saints Row IV\packfiles\pc\cache" folder under your Steam directory. A typical full path to these files is "c:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Saints Row IV\packfiles\pc\cache"
To extract every packfile, do the following:
  1. Download the latest attached file from the Saints Row IV tools thread, and extract it using your favourite extractor. I recommend 7-zip.

    You should now have a list of files like the following:
    View attachment 3434

  2. Open a command prompt and browse to your extracted programs:
    recursive-chdir.png


  3. Type ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.RecursiveExtractor.exe "<your packfile path>" "<your output folder>" for example, mine is: ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.RecursiveExtractor.exe "D:\Gaming\Saints Row 4\packfiles" "D:\Gaming\Saints Row 4\extracted". Then press enter.

  4. The packfiles should now extract - you will see lots of text scroll by that looks like the following:
    recursive-inprogress.png

    Wait patiently - this process can take a long time to finish.

    The first set of numbers - for example: [484/21984] is the number of packfiles that have been extracted so far - 484 out of a total of 21984. The second set of numbers - for example: [10/12] is the file's position inside that specific packfile.

  5. When the process finally finishes, you will see:
    recursive-finished.png


    All of your extracted files should now be available in the output folder you specified earlier!

    For reference, mine looks a bit like:
    recursive-extracted.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Blub said:
I understand it... what do u not understand? which Step wont work?
Click to expand...
He's not gonna be able to answer you Blub. Pirates get banned.
 
For step 2, you have to open the windows command prompt (if you're not using windows you might be looking at the wrong thread entirely. Or forum. Is there a mac port of SR4?)
For windows pre-8, you can go start, all programs if you're using win7, programs if a previous windows.. then there may be a link with a square black icon and C:\_ labeled "Command Prompt". If not, go to accessories, and it should be there.

If you're using windows 8, you can probably do all that once you get a sensible version of windows that isn't made for tabletsgo to the desktop panel or whatever it's called.

An alternative is go start, run, then in the box type 'cmd' without quotes. That will bring up the prompt as well.

The important thing to note is the path you extracted the archive to, because you need to change to that directory. (He didn't note that either, but once you know the full path you can type cd "Path goes here" naturally substituting the full path in there. So if it's in, say, c:\Stuff\SR4 Hacking\Extractor then you'd type cd "c:\Stuff\SR4 Hacking\Extractor"

The prompt is a bit messy for those used to their fancy guis and their wysiwygs and their win-dows and their mice and their multi-tasking and their...
But once you get used to it it's handy for a lot of quick things, and the only way to run command-line programs like this one that don't have a need to do a quick job gui because they're so simple.

Hope that helped.
 
Using the ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.ExtractPackfileGUI.exe, I sucessfully extracted the customize_item.vpp_pc to a folder I named customize_item-vppdecmp that now contains 1,724 custmesh_**.str2_pc files.

Is there a way to decompress/extract all the .str2_pc archives contained within a folder
by using a batch file ?

For example;
SR4 tools folder = ( V:\z-SR4-ModdingV\1-Tools\ThomasJepp.SaintsRow-rev22\ThomasJepp.SaintsRow.ExtractPackfile.exe
Folder with all the custmesh.str2_pc = ( V:\z-SR4-ModdingV\3-VPP-Decomp\customize_item-vppdecmp )
Output destination folder = ( V:\z-SR4-ModdingV\3-VPP-Decomp\customizeitemsstrdecomp )

If so, would you please show how it should be written.
Thank you.

For referance, Idol Ninja helped me to create a batch file that extracts all .str2_pc files contained within a folder for SRTT.
Here's a link to that thread below.
http://www.saintsrowmods.com/forum/threads/unpacking-all-str2_pc-within-a-folder-batch-file.2309/
 
They really need to make a Archive Extractor that browses the Archives like Betheseda Archive Extractor works.
You should see the Archives in TreeView > When extracted should be in Folder Structures and can be repacked/injected back to its archive or packed as a Modfile that will load over/with game files or allow a drag and drop system like Bethseda where I can simply put into a Override/Data Folder with proper Folder Structure and the files will load.

And if they can go further, put a search bar in (Like https://saintsrowmods.com/search/Packages)and build a Wizard so people can
0. Set the Game Folder

1. Pick what type of mod they want to create
  • Replace/Add/Switch
  • Texture/Mesh/Animation/Effects/Stats
  • New Item, Type, SubItem and/or Options
    • Gun, Type, Style and/or Color
      • Pistol*/SMGs/etc > Heavy*/Quick/etc > .45 Fletcher*/Railpistol/etc > Default*/Gold Plated*/etc
    • Clothing, Type, Clothing Item, Color Tiers
      • Upper Body*/Lower Body/etc > Upper Body*/Bra > Apoc Shirt*/Pirate Shirt*/Color Tier 1/2/3

2. Pick a File to Edit also being able to Pull all or selected related files Texture/Mesh/Animation/Effects/Stats of the Object your going to edit

3. Pick Files for Resources with a built-in SR4 Character Mesh Viewer by MissingLink for previewing any Mesh on demand or automatically via Window
  • Like a ChromeBaseball Bat = I get the Virus Lockdown's Chrome
  • Like adding GlowFX on other guns from Alien Handcannon

4. Files should be extracted from Archives in Folder Structure or a Edited Folder with a .INI or .XML File saying where the Files go

5. Once you've edited files, just drop them in the Edited Folder Structure so it knows which is the Mesh, Texture, etc > Run the Program/.BAT > Out pops a Mod File to be injected or loaded in SR4
 
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