New archive format .CBF maybe you know something I don't?

[Guest]

I have an archive file in .CBF format. I am trying to extract files from this archive, but it is not supported in any extractors that I have found. I think it would be a good addition to the MultiEX Commander.

This archive came with the new Vietcong demo, in one archive there are 5326 files. If opened in a hex editor, there is a list of all the files in the archive and they are listed in the same order that they are in the archive.

ex:

DEV\VERSION\GOD.JPG.[.......!....#KC....lk..................
DEV\VERSION\GOD.TGA._7......!...".TC.....P..................
DEV\VERSION\GOD_B.TGA.S<......!...0.[C.....|......."..........
DEV\VERSION\ILLUSION.TGA.C_......!.....`C.....]..................
DEV\VERSION\ILLUSION_B.TGA..c......!.....lC........................
DEV\VERSION\IS.JPG..T......!...ZIqC....LF.......-..........
DEV\VERSION\NVIDIA.TGA.........!.....zC.....4..................
DEV\VERSION\NVIDIA_B.TGA.........!...v..C....d.......&...........
DEV\VERSION\ORDERNOW.TGA.........!....G.C....8d..................

The codes after the file extension of each file are all the same length. The actual files in the archive are divided by this "[..]"

example of a .JPG file:

[..]....,@......H. ...A .......#J.H.....3j...... C..I....(S.\[email protected].*]
.....P.J.J....X.j......`...K....h..].....p...K..
..x............L......+^......#K.L.....3k.......
C..M.....S.^......c..M.....s.....o...R.R...$S.<q
....$L...........JFIF.....H.H.....vPhotoshop3.0.
8BIM.........H.......H......8BIM...........x8BIM
................8BIM..........8BIM'.............
//

//
................................................
................................................
................................................
................................................
................................................
................................................
.....[..]

On each file there is what, I guess to be a type of header, that varies in length for each file. As in the example above, even though it starts out with "....,@......H. ...A" the actual jpeg file starts at "....JFIF".

I wondered if maybe anybody recognized this fomat or the layout of the archive. I also wondered if the directory code pointed to the file in the archive. If you have any ideas let me know.

[Mr.Mouse]

Okay, it seems at first glance a reasonable format that shoudl not be too difficult to write a formats script for MultiEx Commander for. I will see if there's a demo verison of Vietcong around so I can have a look-see in the .CBF files. I will let you know here what I found.

[Bama]

Huh, I wonder why it put me down as Guest, I am the one who posted this. Anyway, that would be great, I've been able to rip out some of the files with a hex editor, but others are just a pain.
I have found 28 different file fomats in the archive: .FNT, .PK, .ANM, .WAV, .SHM, .IFL, .LDT, .TX3, .XST, .XDT,
.STD, .JPG, .BMP, .DAT, .STG, .STO, .BES, .DDS, .TGA, .EQP, .MANM, .SCR, .INI, .TXT, .CTR, .OCT, .SCO, .OGG.
I recognize a few, but others are new to me.

[Mr.Mouse]

OK you can try this Mex3Script (open Mex3Scriptor from the tools menu, paste it into the main window, save it as cbf.bms, and choose the "Use Custom BMS On..." option from the tools menu) and open a CBF file.
This will let you extract some, but a lot of resources in there are packed, zipped so to speak, and cannot be extracted (yet). I will have to know what zip method is used, and judging from the format I will also have to adapt MultiEx3 to be able to process it correctly.

Here's the Mex3Script :

ImpType StandardTail ;
IDString 0 BIGF ;
Set D Long 16 ;
GoTo D 0 ;
Get FC Long 0 ;
SavePos TailOffOff 0 ;
Get TP Long 0 ;
Get D Long 0 ;
Get TS Long 0 ;
GoTo TP 0 ;
For T = 1 to FC ;
SavePos FOO 0 ;
Get FO Long 0 ;
SavePos J 0 ;
Math J += 16 ;
GoTo J 0 ;
SavePos FSO 0 ;
Get FS Long 0 ;
SavePos J 0 ;
Math J += 16 ;
GoTo J 0 ;
Get FN String 0 ;
Log FN FO FS FOO FSO ;
Next T ;

[Bama]

I seem to be getting an error when trying to open the .CBF "run-time error 63: bad record number"

[Mr.Mouse]

That's interesting, but which program gives the error? MultiEx3Scriptor or MultiEX Commander?

[Bama]

In MultiExCommander, I selected "Run Custom BMS On..." and loaded the BMS. When I tried to load the .CBF afterwards is when the error occured.

[Mr.Mouse]

Ok, take this BMS file and try again

http://www.xs4all.nl/~michael/temp/cbf.bms

1. Choose the BMS File
2. Choose the game archive

Note : it may be that this only works on the demo version and NOT on the retail version. If all goes well you should be able to extract some WAV files with this BMS.

[Bama]

Great, I was able to extract .OGG, but not .WAV. It did however list all the files, starting point, and length. Better than nothing.

[Zagash]

Yeah!

Sooo great, if the MultiEx will supports this beautiful game...

[[TKC]Mullah Omar]

I get corrupted file info on most files.

Vietcong Demo is on http://www.vietcong-game.com

[Guest]

the file format changed in the final version.
in the demo it was able to list & listen to audio files but in final it dont even list the files in the .cbf

[Mr.Mouse]

ah I see, that's too bad.
Pehaps I'll fix this in the next release.

[Zagash]

Great!

Is there any information about the release date of that new version of MultiEx

[Mr.Mouse]

Not yet. Currently writing my PhD-thesis takes up most of my time. But there will be a new version in the future.