Keep watching this thread, Crashpunk..! I just downloaded the new CrossOver 8.0 that (hopefully) runs command line EXEs as it should. :)

Oh man there goes all my work to remodel everything hehe :p
Anyway, Nice job guys haha! If there's anything you want done contact me :)

O man, Im on a mac but want to work with it badly, see if I can make something cool for yah guys from it haha! So if I use bootcamp it will just work right? Hmm Gotta figure this all out... Haha!

Haha, yeah!
Also, MojoMan. You wanted more pics, so here's a gallery of 39 random screenshots of models :>

Thank you, thank you, and thank you!

Wow, nice screenshots! Thanks for sharing.

Nice pictures! also the thought of Oddwold in Gmod makes me so happy ^^

Good(?) news!
I examined the DEF'd files again just yesterday and made an interesting observation.
I took six totally random DEF'd NIFs. Look at their first few bytes.


Common ASCII values ----- d  e  f  T     8                                x
NEWPISTONS.NIF ---------- 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 A6 72 01 00 49 DF 00 00 78
ROOM06_FAN.NIF ---------- 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 B7 71 01 00 FA D4 00 00 78
FIREFLIES.NIF ----------- 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 5E 4E 00 00 8B 2F 00 00 78
ONEWITHEVERYTHING.NIF --- 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 A0 70 05 00 B0 B5 00 00 78
TESTROOM.NIF ------------ 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 08 24 07 00 99 A5 00 00 78
OWEWATERPLANE.NIF ------- 64 65 66 54 80 38 01 00 59 86 00 00 5F 48 00 00 78



That last byte is our biggest hope. A lower-case x almost always symbolizes the zlib compression method.
Now, being a Mac user I'm told, (and I quote, from the zlib home page) "zlib is already included as part of Mac OS X". I can't find it no matter what I do, though.
Does anyone know anything about the zlib (un)compression schema and/or know a way to break it?
Thanks in advance.

Have you asked for help via any other forums that might be more knowledgeable of such encryption methods? Surely there must be places on the internet where these tasks are like second nature to the users (perhaps a forum on C++).

Also, what has been extracted up to now? Any textures or models, and do the DEF'd files appear to account for significant material or simply a few missing strands? Can anything be posted for download yet? Sorry if I sound impatient, but I'm really curious to see what this could mean in the way of user generated content.

Once again, thank you for what I'm sure is a lot of mundane number crunching.

I thought that zlib was the method used by all standard zip files, I don't know whether that's correct or even helpful though :p

@MojoMan220 - You can download the ROF files Nauhalauta uploaded to MegaUpload and then use my deROF tool (if you're running Windows) to extract files from them. I don't know how much of it you can use without having other software, but I'm just saying there is SOME stuff already :p

@MojoMan: Out of the several files a few can be viewed (It's 2:45 AM right now and I don't feel like counting them all, but I'd say uuuh.... about 5%? Maybe less.), as they're ordinary, non-DEF'd NIFs. Almost all of them are level files, and unless I'm mistaken, the only exception is a model of Munch. Everything else is DEF'd up and unreadable.

Also,, you're right. Maybe I should ask around different forums if they know the answer.

@Greting: I'm not too sure. I just Zipped some files and they don't show any sign of any x near the header. All ZIPs do begin with PK though, which I assume is a reference to Phil Katz, the inventor of ZIP.

EDIT: Also, MojoMan. The DEF'd files show no signs of original data, as if it was a complete encryption/compression/both. This also led me to believe it's not RLE or LZ based.
If anything, this somewhat resembles RAR.

Well, I did a little bit of research and it looks like PKZIP, the one you said is invented by Phil Katz, and ZLIB both use the same decompression algorithm (DEFLATE) but they have different headers so that might explain that.

I'll have to look into it further perhaps... What's one of the ROF's that contains a DEF'd file?

Anything goes. All ROFs contain at least one DEF'd up NIF. Any of the Layout_y.nif00000* files will do fine.

Well, I think it's safe to say I'm in over my head with all this zlib stuff :p I see what you mean about the DEF'd files not showing any signs of the original file though.

Perhaps it'd be best to, as MojoMan suggested, go to somewhere more generally experienced with this kind of thing. I hope you're right in guessing that it's zlib though, because if it turns out it's not, that kinda leaves us with no idea whatsoever of how to un-DEF them, doesn't it? :p

EDIT: Looking around that zlib website though, it doesn't look like zlib provides encryption. So if it is zlib it's just a matter of getting it to de-compress, which by the looks of it you have to use the DLL files there which would involve writing a program to do it I suppose (I tried searching for one but didn't come up with much, I suppose zlib can't be a very common encryption method for files - probably used more for internal stuff with a program, like sending messages and stuff, since it doesn't have the ability to store information about the files in its header). But if it's compressed AND encrypted (or just encrypted) we could be in for some fun :p

Original poster:

Haha, that's awesome. What with modding Morrowind years ago, i'm quite familiar with NIFs. It's like a blast from the past, lol.

Any updates? I was able to extract most of the textures from the game (the dds. files), so if there's an interest I'll post them. I labeled them with numbers and there are quite a few repeated textures under different names, so it's kinda sloppy.

is that just environment textures or character textures as well?

It's mostly environment, but I can confirm there is a comlete Intern texture map and of course the dead Elum one as well. I've extracted the textures from about half of the levels (many share the same textures), so I'll try to get the rest tomorrow. Most of them will be repeats, but perhaps there are a few more character maps hidden in the levels.

That'd be superb..! Please post them once you can :D

yeah, I'd be pretty interesed in the character ones, and all of them really, is it just diffuse maps or other types as well?

I wonder if this will realise my dream of playing as sligs in Unreal Tournament?

Well, like said, our problem #1 is the DEF encryption/compression. What we DO have access to at the moment are a few level files and the textures of Munch.

I'll post the textures tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

Here they are! Every texture found in the levels of Munch's Oddysee are here for your downloading pleasure!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I8ZM5J27

Just unzip the .rar and you're good to go!


EDIT: You can see the textures contained in the folder using this program...

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/dds_thumbnail_viewer.html

After it's installed, simply set the folder you're looking at to thumbnail view.

I will try to make 3d renders in 3ds max of these files. Finnaly i can make 3d animations of abe. So i can remake the movies in the game. With a twist!

My lord... TRULY SMASHING!
25 folders all full of exceptional beauty. Thanks for the rips, man!
Here's a few samples for the can't-wait-folks. :)
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/2073/49214061.png http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/4122/31946390.png http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/2374/77073254.png

omg! sweet!

That's awesome dude. Taking appart this game looks like hard work

I found a program to view the DDS files without needing to install anything on your computer: http://www.amnoid.de/ddsview/download.html . They look awesome.

By the way, are these the maximum resolution of the textures? I'm sure they looked better than this on the screen. In particular, #11 from Raisin's Cave (which has the rockart) really doesn't look big enough to have covered the whole roof.

The textures are exactly the same resolution and dimensions as used for the game. The developers may mess with the texture's panning, rotation, and scale once they put it in the level, but the texture file itself is never altered, unless making a new texture all together. The Raisin's Cave one has just about 30 cave paintings on it, and the same texture is mirrored on both sides of Raisin's Cave. 256x1024 is pretty damn long for a texture in MO, and it fits pretty well with very little stretching. (Verified using NifScope to view the level)

Thank you so much for those textures. Things like this are making the return to uni less painful :D