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AlphaTwentyThree, posted Tue May 26, 2015 8:03 am (5424)

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Hi! Here's an audio format I've never seen before: http://*USE_ANOTHER_FILEHOSTING*/049b7ec ... ffa/ess.7z
Any ideas? Is this some kind of headerless XWMA? What are the *.sformat files for?

aluigi, posted Tue May 26, 2015 2:24 pm (5437)

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It looks like a sequence of "chunks" or something similar.
The following script tries to dump them... I don't think it's useful but maybe you understand something from them:

Code:

endian big
get DUMMY long
get DUMMY long
get DUMMY long
get DUMMY long
get CHUNKS long
math CHUNKS / 0x200
for i = 0 < CHUNKS
    get OFFSET long
    putarray 0 i OFFSET
next i
savepos BASE_OFF
math OFFSET = 0
for i = 0 < CHUNKS
    getarray NEXT_OFF 0 i
    xmath SIZE "NEXT_OFF - OFFSET"
    math OFFSET   BASE_OFF
    log "" OFFSET SIZE
    math OFFSET = NEXT_OFF
next i

id-daemon, posted Tue May 26, 2015 4:11 pm (5443)

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Why do you think it may be XWMA?

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Tue May 26, 2015 4:47 pm (5445)

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id-daemon2 wrote:

Why do you think it may be XWMA?

The table at the stream start somewhat reminded me of a similar structure I once saw in XWMA. I could be completely off though.

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Tue May 26, 2015 4:48 pm (5446)

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aluigi wrote:

It looks like a sequence of "chunks" or something similar.
The following script tries to dump them... I don't think it's useful but maybe you understand something from them:

Hm, I can't make anything of the result... :\

id-daemon, posted Tue May 26, 2015 5:14 pm (5448)

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AlphaTwentyThree wrote:

The table at the stream start somewhat reminded me of a similar structure I once saw in XWMA. I could be completely off though.

Can you provide an example of such file? Because it is really strange for a sound to have a list of frames and a list of volumes in a separate file. You see, these frames are variable length, each has some data bytes plus some very small 16-bit numbers. Like 20, 5, -3,...

.sformat files seem to contain the same number of bytes as number of frames in .ess and they correspond to sound amplitude.

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Sun Jun 14, 2015 3:35 pm (5720)

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Well, I found an example of a WMA file stream that only has a wave header: http://*USE_ANOTHER_FILEHOSTING*/a2b6cc8 ... nds_21.wav
See what I mean?

id-daemon, posted Sun Jun 14, 2015 4:22 pm (5724)

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Yes, some table. But numbers in this one are much bigger.

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Sun Jun 14, 2015 6:28 pm (5728)

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I suppose I can't really help with this problem as I'm no expert in audio formats.
Do you happen to know how to decode or play the RIFF wma? I stumble upon these from time to time and always have to file the game under "unrippable"...

id-daemon, posted Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:43 pm (5744)

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I don't know.

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:23 pm (5748)

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Luigi once mentioned FFMpeg but I honestly don't know which command line to use.

id-daemon, posted Tue Jun 16, 2015 4:14 pm (5759)

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ffmpeg cannot convert it. I don't think its wma.

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Fri Jun 19, 2015 12:16 pm (5809)

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Found this: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exi ... /RIFF.html
Look under 0x61...

id-daemon, posted Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:10 pm (5843)

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I don't think it will help us. What year is this game from?

id-daemon, posted Thu Apr 21, 2016 4:40 pm (12754)

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I've made some research on this. Interesting algorithm. Anyone still need to decode this format?

AnonBaiter, posted Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:29 pm (12778)

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id-daemon wrote:

I've made some research on this. Interesting algorithm. Anyone still need to decode this format?

You can just go on and do it already! After all, it's been quite a while we've been waiting for new unknown formats to be discovered.

id-daemon, posted Sat Apr 23, 2016 8:51 am (12785)

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During last year I made decoders to some new codecs. Those were not only new formats based on known codecs, but different codecs.

MTA2 - new advanced type of adpcm with a big table
PS Vita - never seen before 4 predictors, and table of 128 elements in compare to standard 5 elements PSX adpcm with 2 predictors
mc3 - really old 3-bit adpcm, but sound alright anyway
codemasters BDL - precise float adpcm type with combined tables

Do you know of any other codecs that can't currently be decoded?

brendan19, posted Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:38 pm (12795)

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If you'd like, would you be able to take a look at the newer HCA files that are being XOR'ed in sections of the header.

https://mega.nz/#!ItkjyDgb!vdkJR_Sr0vlB ... FZpCU7-Xl8

id-daemon, posted Sat Apr 23, 2016 5:54 pm (12796)

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But this is not a new codec. Just some obfuscation attempt with the old ones. Maybe I can look into this later, but as for now, I understand there is nothing really new to be researched. So I can focus on these .ess files.

id-daemon, posted Sun Apr 24, 2016 5:23 pm (12819)

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ESS file decoded for the very first time!

Its only one channel, and some glitches because of probably some errors in decoding, but they will be eliminated soon.

http://www82.zippyshare.com/v/Pk6fZ7QL/file.html

id-daemon, posted Sun Apr 24, 2016 6:56 pm (12826)

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And.... full stereo track with no glitches. Now need to check ESS files from other games if its working.

http://www7.zippyshare.com/v/vhUIlDG1/file.html

id-daemon, posted Sun Apr 24, 2016 8:36 pm (12834)

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Checked Wargame Red Dragon. It also works

id-daemon, posted Sun May 01, 2016 3:28 pm (13021)

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First release. Only STEREO files! Don't try it with mono.

Feel free to test it on all games using this crazy ESS format.

ess_decode.rar

AlphaTwentyThree, posted Thu May 05, 2016 4:54 pm (13133)

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Wow! Thanks a lot, id-daemon!!!