Introduction and new DTA unpacker

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Jovan
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Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jovan » Fri May 30, 2008 1:28 pm

Hey all,

I'm an old-time H&D fan. This is my first time posting at this forum. I've known this site for a very long time along with the Gamespy one, very good fan sites :).

Now, onto the good stuff:

I've been speaking to Lars over the last two days and I wrote a new .dta unpacker. It supports both H&D2 and Mafia. You run the unpacker by providing it with the file you want, and the two keys it needs. I'm not sure if this was a better option than the other program, but it's more flexible because none of the files or keys are hardcoded. If you run the program without giving it the file or the keys, it will give you a list of keys it knows.

I tried to make the program fast, efficient, and bugproof. Let me know if you have any problems. Also, the other unpacker mentioned how the Missions.dta file could not be unpacked fully. After some testing I believe my unpacker extracts all the files.

You can download the unpacker here. Source code is included.

Onto the bad stuff:

Some of the files (especially H&D2:SS, and patches) use a different file format. These files cannot be opened at the moment unfortunately, but I will try to get them to work in the near future.

Let me know what you think about the program.
Last edited by Jovan on Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

Lars
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Lars » Fri May 30, 2008 3:00 pm

Works great and fast. Tested it with the hd2 dta´s. Be sure that you put your dta´s in another folder or it can be that your modifed maps will be overwritten cause it extracts to hd2\missions direct. Also be sure that you don´t mistype the keys or the prog will run in an endless loop with taking lots of ram. Ctrl+C will stop it than in case if you don´t know.
Great work!  thup01 Looking forward for the unpacker for the sabrefiles  :oops:

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Jason
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jason » Sun Jun 01, 2008 5:29 am

Welcome to the website!

It is great that you have created another DTA unpacker :mrgreen: but how does this one work differently to the other one currently available?

Do you have plans to create a friendlier interface for the program?
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Wesley
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Wesley » Sun Aug 10, 2008 10:33 am

Wow, a new Mafia extractor. That only took five years. I asked MassaSnygga to write a packer and he refused. I don't have much use for one now any way.

I also like interfaces and neat packages...

Jovan
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jovan » Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:38 am

Hey again everyone,

It's been awhile since I posted last. I've been busy with a lot of things over the past few months :sad:.

Guess I'll answer some questions that were posted a long time ago:
Jason wrote:It is great that you have created another DTA unpacker Mr. Green but how does this one work differently to the other one currently available?

Do you have plans to create a friendlier interface for the program?
If I remember correctly Lars sent me a DTA extractor, however it could not open some of the files and would only let you open -specific- files. The extractor I wrote works by letting you specify a file and the two keys it needs to open itself. This means that the only part the extractor is tied to is the algorithm it uses. Since both Mafia and H&D2 use the same algorithm, you can use the same program on both games.

I may make a proper Win32 GUI in the future, but I am hoping that someone will beat me to it :).
Lars wrote:Works great and fast. Tested it with the hd2 dta´s. Be sure that you put your dta´s in another folder or it can be that your modifed maps will be overwritten cause it extracts to hd2\missions direct. Also be sure that you don´t mistype the keys or the prog will run in an endless loop with taking lots of ram. Ctrl+C will stop it than in case if you don´t know.
Good. If I remember right our tests showed the extractor worked twice as fast as the old one? I forget the exact statistic.

I've read over the source files a few times since I released it, and I captured a few errors I made (including the infinite loop bug). I'll try to fix them and release a new version though I think at this point it's better for someone to combine a Win32 GUI + bug fix into one release.

So far, I hope people found use in my version of the extractor. I'll see if I can contribute more in the future, because there's still a handful of small programs to be written.

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Jason
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jason » Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:26 pm

Thank you Jovan for taking the time to reply. People definitely like and use the new extractor thup01

I hope you can find the time to develop those extra applications. It's all about passion and desire. I've recently re-ignited my own passion for games and gaming websites by simply playing a new game :mrgreen:

Play some H&D2 or some Death to Spies grin01 to boost your passion in the game - your tools definitely help us all enjoy the game more
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major sea
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by major sea » Sat Mar 07, 2009 12:06 pm

oke! i must the the real dummy here on hd2...what can i do with the program?
now i can select the sniper rifle but one is always grayed out...would this be able to fix this? the enfield MK1 [optics]  nods01
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Jason
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jason » Sat Mar 07, 2009 5:05 pm

what can i do with the program?
The DTA unpacker? it extracts the .dta files in the H&D2 directory so you can access the game files.
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GS-Hawk
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by GS-Hawk » Tue Aug 04, 2009 3:34 am

Hi Guys,

Was thinking of making a swish GUI for this but link for the unpacker and source is dead? Has anyone downloaded and saved it so they can send it to me?
The sooner the better ;)

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GS-Hawk
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by GS-Hawk » Wed Aug 05, 2009 7:43 am

So no one has the .zip file anymore?  no_01
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Jason
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jason » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:28 am

No, we have it, you just need to wait for us to see the post :mrgreen:

Click here for DTA Unpacker
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GS-Hawk
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by GS-Hawk » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:09 am

http://www.the-golden-squadron.co.uk/co ... nt.news.69

Sorry about the wait, had other things to do recently. But now it's here so enjoy!

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It's Not About Dying For Your Country.....
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Capt. Stirling
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Capt. Stirling » Mon Jan 17, 2011 2:30 am

I think its high time we get mercenary and put down some cash for someone to program the SS unpacker  grin01

I'll put my money where my mouth is btw
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Jason
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Jason » Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:00 am

As far as I know it hasn't been about money, just no one has been able to do it. Surely there is an elite coder out there that can crack the bitch grin01
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Capt. Stirling
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Re: Introduction and new DTA unpacker

Unread post by Capt. Stirling » Mon Jan 17, 2011 3:46 am

Well that programmer would need some motivation unless they were an H&D fan. So thats why I brought up the cash  :mrgreen:

Do you think if we went on some forums to pose the problem we could interest a coder to try in his/her spare time?
They Dared and Won..... And They Were Hidden and Dangerous.
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