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Author: Myro Scope: Educational & research-oriented reverse engineering Status: Ongoing research Introduction: This thread documents an ongoing technical research project focused on analyzing the MPK container system used by Where Winds Meet (WWM). The goal is to understand the structure, behavior, and data flow of the game’s asset containers from a reverse-engineering and archival perspective, strictly for educational and analytical purposes. No proprietary assets, binaries, or tools will be distributed as part of this work. 1. Patch*#.mpk vs Resource*#.mpk — Structural Similarity, Semantic Differences At a container level, Patch#.mpk* and Resource#.mpk* share the same base format: Indexed via mpkinfo / mpkdb Entries contain: FileID Size Offset MpkIndex Use the same compression stack: LZ4 / ZSTD / LZMA EZST (AES-encrypted) However, despite this structural similarity, their extraction semantics differ significantly. 2. Patch*#.mpk — Partial Transparency, Direct Asset Access Patch MPKs behave primarily as delta / override containers: Assets retain near-original offsets Internal file structures remain largely recognizable Minimal indirection compared to Resource MPKs As a result: ~99% of audio assets can be recovered successfully A subset of Lua scripts becomes readable after decompression Non-audio assets (including some images) are present and partially accessible Testing on Patch3100.mpk confirmed that Patch archives are not limited to sound assets. Conclusion: Patch MPKs prioritize update efficiency and fast access, with limited transformation of payload data. 3. Resource*#.mpk — Indirection and Shared Data Resource MPKs represent the primary asset pool and introduce several additional complexities: The Size field often represents a logical or expanded size, not the physically stored payload Naïve extraction pipelines tend to: materialize padding and alignment blocks duplicate shared data blobs inflate archive size artificially (e.g. ~2 GB → tens of GB) This behavior explains why Resource MPKs appear far more “opaque” when extracted without validation. Important observations: Fixed headers such as 02 02 02 01 … frequently represent logical structures (e.g. texture containers with multiple mip blocks) Headers of the form size (4 bytes) + size × 20 bytes often describe lookup tables, not standalone assets Many assets are shared, aliased, or referenced indirectly Conclusion: While Patch and Resource MPKs share the same container format, they do not share the same extraction semantics. Resource MPKs require strict validation, deduplication, and asset-type verification to avoid false positives. 4. Audio Extraction & Tooling Initial testing with Ravioli Game Tools proved sub-optimal for this pipeline: Inconsistent parsing of Patch audio assets Unreliable WAV output in multiple cases Switching to vgmstream yielded significantly better results: Correct parsing of recovered audio data Clean, fully functional WAV output Proper handling of codec structures Current result: Audio extraction and conversion are fully verified and stable. 5. Resource.mpk Extraction – Current Progress Testing on Resources49.mpk (~740.9 MB) produced the following results: Successfully extracted: Audio assets → converted to valid .wav files Over 8,500 audio files identified in a single Resource MPK Video files (.mp4) → fully playable Lua scripts (.lua) → extracted but still encrypted / obfuscated Unresolved: Files detected as images (.png, .jpg, .bmp) Headers contain the string “messiah” Strongly suggests custom packing, encryption, or misclassification Currently not valid image data despite file extensions 6. Current Status ✔️All Patch*#.mpk, Resource*#.mpk, and lt*.mpk archives can be unpacked ✔ Audio assets fully recovered and validated ✔ MP4 video assets fully playable ✔ Lua scripts extracted but not yet readable 7. Next Steps Ongoing research will focus on: Reversing additional transformation layers in Resource*#.mpk Identifying: secondary encryption stages compression chaining block or stream reordering Investigating the custom image container format Further analysis of Lua encryption / obfuscation Automating Patch vs Resource handling as two distinct pipelines Notes on Tooling & Distribution All tools used in this project are: developed entirely from scratch created specifically for WWM research used strictly for educational purposes At this stage: no tools, binaries, or scripts will be released no proprietary assets will be redistributed Closing This thread is intended solely as a technical research and documentation log, not as a release, redistribution, or exploitation guide. In accordance with applicable intellectual property laws and forum policies, no tools, binaries, scripts, or extracted assets will be posted or shared, either publicly or privately. All game data, assets, file formats, and related materials discussed here remain the exclusive proprietary property of NetEase and the developers of Where Winds Meet. Any references to assets or file structures are made strictly for educational, analytical, and research purposes, with no intent to enable misuse, circumvention, or redistribution of protected content. Should any concerns arise regarding compliance or scope, I am fully open to cooperating with forum moderation and adjusting the visibility or content of this thread accordingly. Thank you for your understanding and for supporting responsible technical research. — Myro Below are a few illustrative screenshots and log excerpts from the current stage of the research, provided solely to contextualize the findings outlined above.

Excuse me, but I’m looking for a quickBMS script that allows access to .GSB files. There was one on XenTAX before it closed down, but I can’t access it now. That’s why I’m asking for it here and now because an associate of mine it trying to access the sound files for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Lightsaber Duels” on the Wii, and also that I want to access the sound files for the Wii version of “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed” as well. I’m hoping someone will reupload it so that we can get to work on it.

Eutechnyx used to develop racing games, so yeah... I guess thats's all. Anyways, during 6th (PS2, Xbox era) and 7th (Xbox360, PS3) generation they used their own in house engine. This post is exclusively for that. Now, this developer might not ring any bells for most people. Their games were kinda mid. Their most notable games are Street Racing Syndicate (basically We have NFS Underground at home) and Ride to Hell: Retribution (why does this exists?). Thankfully Ride to Hell uses Unreal 3, so it won't be covered, ever. In case I forgot something, here is table of all their titles, that are covered here in some way: Title PC PS2 XBOX GC PS3 X360 WII Absolute Supercars ✔ Big Mutha Truckers ✔ ✔ ✔ Big Mutha Truckers 2 ✔ ✔ ✔ Ferrari Challange ✔ ✔ ✔ Ferrari: The Race ✔ ✔ Ford Mustang ✔ ✔ Ford vs. Chevy ✔ ✔ Hot Wheels: Beat That! ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ Hummer Badlands ✔ ✔ NASCAR The Game 2011 ✔ NASCAR Inside Line ✔ NASCAR The Game 2013 ✔ NASCAR '14 and '15 ✔ ✔ Pimp My Ride ✔ ✔ Supercar Challange ✔ Cartoon Network Racing ✔ The Fast and the Furious ✔ Street Racing Syndicate ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ A brief info about the engine The main resource format is called ArcBank with .arc extension. This bank contains all game assets. In it's own sense, it's similar to Unreal Engine 3 pck/upk packages. Each ArcBank is uniquely cooked for each platform. That means, it's harder to research across versions and platforms. Scripts themselves are in plain text and have .ls extension. They also seem to be referencing ArcBanks themselves. There are also other formats, like sound files and streams and language text. All of these files are mostly packed into cdfiles.dat/cdfiles.ar pairs that serves as a main archive format. This is the section where I introduce Technyx Technyx toolset can extract and convert various formats. As of current version. It can extract every cdfiles.dat/cdfiles.ar pair from all titles in the table above. It can also convert ArcBank models, maps and animations, but from a very few selected titles. As a cherry on top, there is a txt converter for language text. Again for all titles. Technyx can be found at: https://github.com/PredatorCZ/Technyx If anyone wishes to use project issues page to report a bug or a new feature, they certainly can. A small gallery of converted stuff

Hello, can anyone check these file formats to see if you can extract anything from them? I’ve already tried without any luck, but I figured some of you might know. This link contains the dump I created, so you can skim through the files and take a look. If possible, could you also suggest or maybe even create any plugins or tools that might help open them? https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kqHk6ULPWuRH6yAyc3tQuH_Vlivf8ysB?usp=drive_link

Hi everyone, I'm trying to figure out if there's any way to open, extract, and modify the content contained in these files for this game. Unlike the PC-only version, which is a moddable game, the console version appears to contain assets that would later be reused in the version developed by ISI, Image Space Incorporated, the same company that created rFactor, reusing the same engine. But getting back to the previous topic, I've noticed that both .CCD and .VSO files are some kind of file with encoded data, like the CCD, which should contain textures, models, and shaders for the cars and tracks. The .VSO files are generally for scripts, but I won't talk much about those because they're not my current interest. If anyone would be willing to help put together a QuickBMS script or useful tool to open this, I'd be happy to create a patch or future mod! :) Note: These textures, are from the Gamecube version!

Hello! Me and a friend, were messing with this old game files, but as expected, the files are very hard or impossible to edit "Packfile.dat". BUT, something did hit my attention was, the fact the PS2/Xbox/Wii versions has the 2Player (Split-screen) multiplayer featured, enabled and the PC Port, not. This version I'm using, are the original, with the patch 1.01 installed on. But, I mean the PC version, has a "Hidden" Multiplayer, that could be supposedely, actived... We've also discovered that the game has Debug material/stuff at your code, but for some reason, it cannot be actived, because the suppose references, was cutted from the final version, IG. However, after decompile using the ghidra and try different values with Cheat Engine, was possible we got some very interesting results, as you'll see right now! Check the images! It still doesn't over! We're still trying do reverse engineering from encrypted binary file: "Packfile.dat" which I was able to extract, some textures, using a not very, known tool: "Multi-Extractor 3.3.0" the remaing of the files are ".hnk" and ".dds" but they're technically encrypted as well. Being impossible extract or view them in any other tool! Someone do are able to develop a quickbms plugin for files of this game? if yes, let me know! I'll be glad in mod this game! :)

Hello! some weeks ago, i've diggin' for info about these 6 files formats, that belongs to ToCA Race Driver 3 from Codemasters, and they are: .AIL, .AIB, .RED, .AID, .COL & .PX The "AIL file" contains data about; Minimap, Track AI path, Start & Finish. The "AIB file" contains not much, but some data about the AI drivers behavior, as well. and the "RED file", despite of this funny name, seems contain some data related to Replay Paths (Like as Circuit Path) and cameras activation for some determinated area of Race track. About the AID, is same as AIL, but it is hard-codeded. and with help of chatGPT i could manage to view your geometry, that you'll see above: 1. Catalunya Circuit (from ToCA Race Driver 2), 2.Eurospeedway Lausitz Long (Also from same game) 3. COL File collision file (from Eurospeedway Circuit) 4. PX File, (Track Cone) Ok! but nothing could be done so far. Since I have no much knowledge for create any proper tool to edit this files, but would very interessing, port Circuit from RD1 & RD2 to the ToCA 3! If someone were able to do atleast proper conversors, of some these files, I would be glad! My Github repository is here: https://github.com/LFGamer2004/ToCA-Race-Driver-3-Modding-Track-Conversion-Tools LZS_EDITING_TOCA3.zip RD3format.zip