Unpacking a .modpak file?

[Frambo]

Hello!

Recently I've been looking into trying to fix an older mod to make it compatible with the current version of the game - the newest version of the mod is a .pak file, which I was able to unpack just fine, however there is an older version which had more features that were never added to the newer version of the mod.

Since the creator of the mod has vanished several years ago now, I want to see if I can at least try to make the mod work again. Unfortunatley, the older version of the of the mod is a .modpak file, and the current starbound asset_unpaker.exe doesn't seem to support that format anymore.

Does anyone have a working method of unpacking .modpak files?
I've tried several things, including ModPackHelper, which is meant to support the .modpak format, but that program seems to be broken right now in general judging by what people in the forum thread have said.

I really appreciate any help or advice! :}

[Clownfish]

You might try various applications that are used to compress and uncompress archive files. I hear the .pak files at least are based on the design of .ARC archive files (similar to .zip). Try one of the free .ARC file compression applications or something that might open .ARC files. If they won't directly read the .modpack file, try changing the file extension from .modpack to .arc then try to open it.
If not this, check the Chuckle Fish official Starbound modding sub forum. I bet your answers will be there.
Best of luck!

BTW what is this older mod you are working on. I'm curious.

[Frambo]

Originally posted by Clownfish:

You might try various applications that are used to compress and uncompress archive files. I hear the .pak files at least are based on the design of .ARC archive files (similar to .zip). Try one of the free .ARC file compression applications or something that might open .ARC files. If they won't directly read the .modpack file, try changing the file extension from .modpack to .arc then try to open it.
If not this, check the Chuckle Fish official Starbound modding sub forum. I bet your answers will be there.
Best of luck!

BTW what is this older mod you are working on. I'm curious.

Thanks for your reply, I'll let you know how it goes when I try it later :}

The mod in question is the "Geode" race by Throwaway on the chucklefish forums, there is an older version of his mod in the Beta which had more content (furniture, weapons etc,) but he never finished porting those features - the newer version of his mod, which is still pre-1.4 is just the race and ship. I wanted to see if I could try and port some of those features to the current version, but I'd need to unpack the old file first.

[Clownfish]

Originally posted by Frambo:

Thanks for you're reply, I'll let you know how it goes when I try it later :}

The mod in question is the "Geode" race by Throwaway on the chucklefish forums, there is an older version of his mod in the Beta which had more content (furniture, weapons etc,) but he never finished porting those features - the newer version of his mod, which is still pre-1.4 is just the race and ship. I wanted to see if I could try and port some of those features to the current version, but I'd need to unpack the old file first.

You're welcome Frambo! Ah cool, I love to see older nice mods revived. Good luck with getting into the files. Any chance you can reach the original dev or dev team for this mod?

[Frambo]

Originally posted by Clownfish:

Originally posted by Frambo:

Thanks for you're reply, I'll let you know how it goes when I try it later :}

The mod in question is the "Geode" race by Throwaway on the chucklefish forums, there is an older version of his mod in the Beta which had more content (furniture, weapons etc,) but he never finished porting those features - the newer version of his mod, which is still pre-1.4 is just the race and ship. I wanted to see if I could try and port some of those features to the current version, but I'd need to unpack the old file first.

You're welcome Frambo! Ah cool, I love to see older nice mods revived. Good luck with getting into the files. Any chance you can reach the original dev or dev team for this mod?

I would try and contact them, but their account hasn't been active since I think 2019, so I figure getting a reply seems unlikely.
Not sure why it was abandoned TBH, the last updates on the mod made it sound like they wanted to keep working on it, at least to port those extra features from the old version, but they just stopped...

[Frambo]

Originally posted by Clownfish:

You might try various applications that are used to compress and uncompress archive files. I hear the .pak files at least are based on the design of .ARC archive files (similar to .zip). Try one of the free .ARC file compression applications or something that might open .ARC files. If they won't directly read the .modpack file, try changing the file extension from .modpack to .arc then try to open it.
If not this, check the Chuckle Fish official Starbound modding sub forum. I bet your answers will be there.
Best of luck!

BTW what is this older mod you are working on. I'm curious.

OK, I tried an ARC file extractor and it doesn't work on the .modpak file.
It didn't work when I changed it to a .arc file either...
Maybe .modpak files are just different from .pak files?
Either way thanks again for your suggestion. :}

[Clownfish]

You're welcome and hmm there must be a way.

Check out the details in the discussion on this website. Do they provide any clue to help?

https://www.file-extensions.org/modpak-file-extension

Scroll down to the Comments on the above website.

[Frambo]

Originally posted by Clownfish:

You're welcome and hmm there must be a way.

Check out the details in the discussion on this website. Do they provide any clue to help?

https://www.file-extensions.org/modpak-file-extension

Scroll down to the Comments on the above website.

That page doesn't really help, just says the files can be used in the game and opened with "dedicated modding tools" (doesn't specify what tools tho lol)
As far as I can tell the only way to properly open .modpak files is with the unpaker tool in the game files, but the unpaker from the current version of the game can't open it.
I asked my original question on the Chucklefish forums too, but the only reply I got is that I should try getting an older version of the game with the old unpaker.
This is quite difficult since steam removed the ability to roll back a game to a previous version, though I did manage to get the unpaker/paker files from Enraged Koala. Unfortunately that unpaker seems to be too old to open the file.
According to some people on the forums .modpak files can only be unpacked with the same version of the unpaker that originally packed them. The issue with this is that not only is it hard to find old unpaker and paker files without resorting to piracy, but it's also almost impossible to tell which exact version of the game a .modpak is from - the only clue I have is that it was uploaded to the forums on Oct 29, 2014, so it must have been a version of the game that was available at that time.