Zyxell Posted November 7, 2023 Share Posted November 7, 2023 Hello everyone. I would like to know where can I start when it comes to reverse engineering game file formats? I'd like to learn the process along with making tools to view a game's file formats and the contents of it (Viewing models, textures and animations). What can you suggest from tips/advice to someone and to those who are completely new to this? What should they be expecting when it comes to getting into it? What do they need to learn from content when diving into it? Any suggestions, tips and advice is welcome (this includes programming languages, Hex editors that are needed to get into reversing, etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michalss Posted November 7, 2023 Share Posted November 7, 2023 i would start in here from tutorial section. it will grow a lot in time.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik945 Posted November 7, 2023 Share Posted November 7, 2023 Well, I mostly use simple WinHex as a hex editor. Language, essentially is any. The most obvious is python for Noesis and Blender, Maxsript for 3ds Max. I would advise taking any ready script, add debugging information outputs there (data, offsets, etc.) and running it on the model. Then open this same model in a hex editor and compare what you see with the information from the script. Large arrays of similar data (vertices, polygons, etc.) are usually clearly visible. But then shamanism begins with the search for patterns and so on. You also need to read about structure of data and its writing to a file (on a PC, as a rule, they are written in reverse order - with the most significant bytes back, 0x1234 will be written as 34 12, the difference between signed and unsigned, etc.). Well, keep in mind that shortened notations are often used, for example, vertex coordinates are often encoded not as 3 float (12 bytes), but as 3 short (6 bytes) with further scaling. There are a lot of nuances, but it's quite interesting 😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikskoks Posted November 11, 2023 Share Posted November 11, 2023 On 11/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, Zyxell said: where can I start when it comes to reverse engineering game file formats? You can start here https://reshax.com/topic/47-reverse-engineering-tutorials-collection/ On 11/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, Zyxell said: What can you suggest from tips/advice to someone and to those who are completely new to this? Never give up 😉 On 11/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, Zyxell said: What should they be expecting when it comes to getting into it? A lot of hard work and the satisfaction at the end of the process. On 11/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, Zyxell said: What do they need to learn from content when diving into it? That depends on what you want to learn. On 11/7/2023 at 7:11 AM, Zyxell said: (this includes programming languages, Hex editors that are needed to get into reversing, etc) My personal favourites are Python 3 and Mexscript. See this for some examples https://github.com/bartlomiejduda/Tools 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptg1121 Posted January 23 Share Posted January 23 good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michalss Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 On 11/11/2023 at 7:40 PM, ikskoks said: My personal favourites are Python 3 and Mexscript. See this for some examples https://github.com/bartlomiejduda/Tools well this not gonna work anymore 😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikskoks Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Fixed 😛 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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