[Upbeat Giraffe] How to Unpack Starbound's Assets (Windows) and Mods

[MysticMalevolence]

Unpacking the Game

Hey, you! Yeah, you. I heard you wanted to unpack Starbound's assets folder in the latest unstable version. Well, I can give you this information... for a price. (No actual price required.)

The first step to unpacking your assets is to open up File Explorer.

From there, open Local Disk (C:).
Go to Program Files (x86).
Open up Steam>SteamApps>common>Starbound.
Here there should be a folder named win32.

Scroll to the bottom of win32. The second-to-last item in the folder should be a Batch (.bat) file named unpack_assets. Double-clicking this will open up command prompt; do not close it until it tells you it is finished and to press any key to continue.
EDIT 1/31/15
After the update ported to stable, I cannot find the unpack_assets.bat.
Instead, you will have to copy this into a notepad (or notepad++) document:

@echo off
echo Unpacking ..\assets\packed.pak into ..\assets\unpacked\
echo This may take a long time.
start /wait /min .\asset_unpacker.exe ..\assets\packed.pak ..\assets\unpacked
echo Done.
pause

Then save it as "unpack_assets.bat" without quotation marks.

Now, return to the Starbound folder. Continue to assets. Inside here should be a new folder, Unpacked. This contains the games assets copied into a viewable form, allowing you to explore all of the secret stuff in the files. You can move this folder wherever you please.

Congratulations! You've successfully unpacked Starbound!

Unpacking Mods

This is just as simple as unpacking the game's assets. Remember that unpack_assets file? Return to that. Right-click it, and select edit (I'm doing so in Notepad++; I've run into problems with Notepad saving files in the past). You should get something like this:

@echo off
echo Unpacking ..\assets\packed.pak into ..\assets\unpacked\
echo This may take a long time.
start /wait /min .\asset_unpacker.exe ..\assets\packed.pak ..\assets\unpacked
echo Done.
pause

This can be easily changed. First of all, you should move the mod to your Starbound or assets folder. Now, all you have to do is change the locations in the Batch file with the new locations. For example:

@echo off
echo Unpacking ..\Example.modpak into ..\assets\UpExample\
echo This may take a long time.
start /wait /min .\asset_unpacker.exe ..\Example.modpak ..\assets\UpExample\
echo Done.
pause

(As you may notice, there's no folder name before \Example. This is because it is in the Starbound folder, not the assets folder. You may also note that this is a .modpak file; it makes no difference if it's a .pak or .modpak file, so long as you type accordingly.)
It is important not to modify the location of \asset_unpacker.exe. If you do so, it will not work.

Save this as a different Batch file (for example, unpack_mod.bat). Running it should add a new unpacked folder (in my case, UpExample) to your assets folder. I suggest moving this.

Congratulations! You now know how to reverse-engineer mods!

Hope this post helped someone out!

(I posted this because the official guides were not working as of Upbeat Giraffe, so I assume something was changed or something.)

[Goodnight]

Why should i use the 32bit unpacker instead of the 64bit?

[MysticMalevolence]

It shouldn't matter; both the 64 bit (which doesn't fully work ATM. This guide was written before it's existance) and the 32 bit versions both use the same assets. (Item sprites, item files, boss scripting...)

...Also, I believe the unpack_assets.bat has been removed (I can no longer find it). So, you'll need to copy the first quoted bit in the "Unpacking Mods" section into notepad (or notepad++), and save it as a .bat.

[Barf Ninja]

How about repacking the files? I only did some tweaks to the lighting to make mining a little bit less tedious, but I can't pack the files again. It gives me some weird errors and never makes the .pak file.

[Barf Ninja]

Nevermind I figured out eventually how to do it.

[Aguila]

It closes inmedialty after i doble click-it, what do i do?

[MysticMalevolence]

First off: what are you double clicking?

Assuming it's the .cmd file:
Either something was written wrong (for example, it may have been directed to an existing folder), it's not actually closed, or CF changed something recently (Most likely, I think).

Double-check the file or your taskbar.
If it continues to fail, then... I'm not sure.

[One True Paladin]

Really Helped thanks!

[ThomasThePencil]

So...how do I re-pack the unpacked files?

[MysticMalevolence]

Good question! Honestly, I haven't tried it yet.
It should work if you just make a new .cmd file with the path to the packer, the name of what's being packed, the path to said thing that is being packed, and the location in which you want it to go (which should end in a non-existant .pak file). Though it won't have the helpful text popup, so you'll have to wait for command prompt to do something different to know when it's done.
It's important to note, however, that it is not necessary to repack the files in order to play the game; (un)packing copies the files.

[Neko Boi Nick]

I would rather do "start /B /WAIT .\asset_unpacker.exe ..\assets\packed.pak ..\assets\unpacked" because then the "/B" doesn't open a new window and instead integrates it into the current window.

[SeatStealer]

Thanks dude, this helped a lot! I'm trying to do some fancy recoloring stuff so

[MysticMalevolence]

I'm honestly surprised it's still helpful.

[mother]

Originally posted by 🆄🅼🆁:

Why should i use the 32bit unpacker instead of the 64bit?

32-bit is usually the default for storing stuff in some games, i would recommend just going with that. (If 64 bit works too, there is no difference)

[No Time to Explain]

How do you use the @echo thing I keep seeing in all the guides. Also, how do I convert files to .bat Yes, I checked everything I could find for how to use it but none of them work because the internet is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless since no one knows how to explain ♥♥♥♥.




EDIT: Somehow it was fixed by me going into folder option without changing anything. I guess just letting my computer know that folder options exist instantly make it work.
Also, thanks... I guess... Ugh, I have a headache.

[MysticMalevolence]

Originally posted by Originality:

How do you use the @echo thing I keep seeing in all the guides. Also, how do I convert files to .bat Yes, I checked everything I could find for how to use it but none of them work because the internet is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless since no one knows how to explain ♥♥♥♥.




EDIT: Somehow it was fixed by me going into folder option without changing anything. I guess just letting my computer know that folder options exist instantly make it work.
Also, thanks... I guess... Ugh, I have a headache.

Yeah, sorry, this guide is pretty old and I'm not actually sure how functional it is at this point. I apologize for the poor writing, it was a bit rushed admittedly. The @echo is to make it output the status of the unpacking, and isn't strictly a "necessary" part of the program, as far as I'm aware.