XeNTaX

*.dat format is an archive in D&D and lotro. It has the same header as the other dat files. So it's an archive, but maybe only with one file.

While I hate to drag up dead topics, this doesn't appear to have ever been resolved, and I am still hoping that someone can shed some light on the LOTRO .dat file format.

As discussed it seems similar to the D&D (DDO) .dat file format, but nobody appears to have released an extractor for that either.

The current smallest .dat file I can find for LOTRO is client_map_1.dat (which I'm assuming contains some map data). The .dat file is some 22mb when extracted, but it seems to compress down to 913kb, so as stated by Mr.Mouse it looks as though it's either a dummy file or full of padding.

The full game client with all it's data files is available as a free download, but again, as mentioned, there are few people willing to do this just to reverse a file format.

The next smallest file I can find is client_cell_2.dat which compresses to 44mb.

If this will be of help to someone, let me know and I will see if I can upload it.

I would make use of the FileCutter, but it seems to have trouble running on Vista 64.

Hopefully this raises some interesting discussion and this format can finally be unlocked.

The files are heavily padded. I'll post a write-up of some of what I've found later as well as some code.

EDIT: Zugg from Zuggsoft.com was apparently able to extract the map images and map data pre-Moria. Since the expansion was launched he has apparently been unable to find the data again. I've sent him a few questions but his only response has been, "The information I had on the DAT files is very old now and Turbine has changed a lot of it since then (which is why zExplorer doesn't work with it anymore). You might also do some Google searching since there might be some other people who have made more progress." He appears to be highly reluctant to hand out any information at all. But maybe someone else can bug him enough.

For some reason everyone seems very reluctant to expose any information about LOTRO.

I remember there was some code for extracting the dat files, but I dont think it then converted the files it extracted to any readable format.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

Some files are simple to extract, such as sound files which are just plain old WAV and OGGs. Others such as the highres textures appear to be zlib compressed. They're using Havok 5.5.0 for animation and Bink for video compression. Quest data and language specific sound files can be found in the client_local_English.dat or whatever language file you have. I haven't played much with the mesh files, nor the map or cell files (client_cell_1.dat is for Shadows of Angmar and client_cell_2.dat for Mines of Moria, I believe. Same goes for the map files.)

I have a bit too much information for a forum post so PM me some way I can get in contact with you and I'll fill you in on what I know and where I stand. I'll be glad to have someone to work with finally.

I can somewhat understand Zugg's reluctance considering his financial motives but I don't know about everyone else, it just appears to me that no one is interested. Personally I'm working on an algorithm based program to delineate the best order of quests for power leveling which is why I originally started looking into the archives (I'd rather not scrape sites like mmodb and such.) and now it's become an entire project of it's own. But yeah, give me some way to contact you and I'll get you up to speed.

I also interesting about file structure.
Especialy for client_local_English.dat, where must be located quest information etc.
Anyone have anything helpful ?

Not sure if this is of any value but if the LOTRO and DDO file stuct is simalar then it might be....

Doing a text rip of the client_gamelogic.dat yields the most readable info out of any of the files allot of which is in plain english.

Download the ASCII Rip

Of note to me, for the purpose of trying mod the game where the paths listed:

entity/character/npcs/quest/necropolis/npc_quest_necropolis_shadow_king.wcB
&
entity/equipment/quest/story/tutorial/eq_dqst_tutorial_divine_mark.wcC

I added those paths to the DDO folder and created a blank .wcc and .wcb file but it did not seem to influance the game. (Even a crash would have been welcome.)

Maybe there is more to the paths then what was listed, or maybe some of you can make some sense of it.
I dont have LOTRO to know if the client_gamelogic.dat exist in that game also.

I, too have an interest in the DDO .dat files. The link posted above my own post point to a file that was removed. If anyone has the original text ripper that was posted and can confirm that it works on the current version of DDO's client_gamelogic.dat, I'd be much obliged.

The contents of this post was deleted because of possible forum rules violation.

Just want to share with community Turbine .dat containers unpacker software
Link: http://lotrounpacker.ucoz.com/load/dat_ ... _2/1-1-0-1
It's a small Windows console application, requires .NET 2.0 Framework to be installed on your computer. Unpacker extracts files from the container, also decompresses compressed files.
It also will try to analyze extracting file and detect it's extension for common file formats (music, pictures, etc.). On first run it will take a lot of time to unpack full client data (you can choose .dat container).
If you want to follow Turbine changes (patches) - do not remove unpacked files and folders. After patching your game, just run unpacker again. It will check file versions and unpack only added or modified files. Also it will save information about added and modified files in log report.
Unpacker works with LOTRO/DDO .dat containers, it will correctly recognize .ogg, .wav, .jpg, and a half of .dds files (Turbine keeps textures in raw format without dds headers, unpacker writes correct headers for uncompressed and dxt1-compressed textures). If someone will find correct dds header for dxt3 and dxt5 textures, tell me and i'll add it. You can contact with me using my e-mail: [email protected]

Great work on the extractor. Works a treat.

yeah unpacker work but all of do is generate random numbers with files, is difficult figure out and add mesh+material for import into some 3D Tool.

Anyone alive here?

"Anyone alive here?"
I'm wondering that too, the extractor from 2011's link is down, and this seems to be the only place that ever talked about extracting from LOTRO.

Even the wayback machine cannot find the old page.

Edit:
Oh silly me..

https://lotrounpacker.ucoz.com/load/dat ... ol/1-1-0-3 is the latest release. The site itself was still up, just they took down their outdated file.

The thing is, I've upacked all the dat files and try to understand the inner stucture of upacked bin-files. Anyone tried this?