Hex Edit 101

Open the Hex Editor, select Tools and put a check on data inspecter.
Open Tools again and select Options, then appearance.
set columns to 25
I work with text on the left but select the way that suits you.
select Data inspecter, I have the 1st 6 boxes on the left checked.
Select OK.
Now open the NavalMine.dat and you should see something like this image.




Notice I have Ref's dat file format info. This is our main guide.
The 4 bytes in BLUE are important!
You are going to see this alot so make sure you understand this part.
The data Inspecter tells us the info to come is 51 bytes long.
Count the GREEN area and it's 51 bytes.
If you delete Kashmir in the left window, you need to lower
the count in blue to match the new length.
Click on the 33, open tools and select Encode number,
and set it up like below



Click OK and you should see that the 33 00 00 00
is now 2C 00 00 00

Make sure you save the file then open version 5 of Pack3d and open the file.



click on the left window and find address 80 as marked in yellow.
This is the start of this block of data.
select the numbers marked in blue and notice the data inspecter

We're looking at chunks now.

All chunks are like this:
01 00 00 00 = 1 ChunkType 4 bytes
65 00 00 00 = 100 Chunk Subtype/Version 4 bytes
CB 28 00 00 = 10443 chunk_size long (4 bytes) = Data (chunk_sizebytes)

The data chunk size is the same type info we changed in the header,
just telling us how big this block of data is.

RED is the ID the game engine uses to work with this block
which, in this case, is the actual 3d object of the mine.

All ID's are 8 bytes long.

Now, select the NavalMine under this and note the location.
In the hex editer select address and set it up like this.




Hit OK and your right at the start of this block.
Change the name from NavaiMine to Mine and fix the size info
and save.
Re-open the dat in pack3d and check it.
if you've got it right you now know how to Re-name things anyway you like.

The next thing we'll do is Dis-arm the mine!

Ok, today we'll work with the NavalMine.zon file.
It's nice and small so you won't get lost, will reinforce what we know already,
and has plenty of new areas we need to learn.

Opening NavalMine.zon with Pack3d 5 will show you several limitations
of Pack3d right off the bat. And I'll point them out as we go.

Now open the same file with Hex Editor and look at all the pretty numbers!
While I try to get some images up (Nets a bit iffy today) pickout what
you learned earlier as best you can.

We will dis-arm the mine by setting min and max areas = 0
Then we'll take the zon file apart, one piece at a time.
We are going to save the sections we remove as we will
re-assemble everything later on.

1st, the 0A 00 00 00 should be all YELLOW, My goof.
But, Yellow tells us the type/subtype = 10/-1
Everything in RED is size, and we'll break this all down in a moment.
GREEN is this files ID number as Pack3d shows you.
Now the BLUE is the PARENT ID.
If you look at NavalMine.dat you'll see this same ID and what it belongs to.

So what this first chunk is telling the Game Engine goes like this.

I am a Type 10, SubType -1 (YELLOW)
28 bytes of information follows. (RED)
My name (ID) is AD FD 71 B8 E4 C0 71 9B (GREEN)
I belong to 9A 88 45 36 F1 24 3C B1 (BLUE)
I am an Explossive.

Now we'll start tearing apart the zon file from the top down.
With the zon file open in Hex Editor, click the very 1st byte in the file,
click on edit then click Block mark.
We know 0A is the start of a new chunk so click on the 00 BEFORE the 0A.
Again click edit, Block mark and you should see this.



Click edit, select Clipboard, then Copy as hex string.
Now we open another Hex Editor.
Same one your using now just another instance of it.

Click on the 1st empty byte in this second Editor,
Click edit, select Clipboard, then Paste as hex string.
Save this as headerz.bin then close this second copy.

Back to the main part shown above,
click edit, select Block delete, and save the file.

We now have the header saved for later use and our zon file
is smaller and easier to work with.

Do a block mark again at the 0A that should be at the start of our zon file now.
Following what we know so far this chunk is 28 bytes starting the count at
the 1st byte of the ID, which is the AD. Click on the AD.
Now, I don't want to count 28 bytes, and in bigger files we may need to move
1000's of bytes!
Select Address, then Jump width.
Set this to decimal, then enter 28, click OK.
Select Address again, Jump down and block mark this.
Do your copy and save just like before calling this introz.bin
Then Block delete, and save this file again.

We haven't lost anyone so far have we?

Originally Posted by privateer

Now, select the NavalMine under this and note the location.
In the hex editer select address and set it up like this.




Hit OK and your right at the start of this block.
Change the name from NavaiMine to Mine and fix the size info
and save.
Re-open the dat in pack3d and check it.
if you've got it right you now know how to Re-name things anyway you like.

The next thing we'll do is Dis-arm the mine!

Ok, to answer a question, If you have deleted Naval from NavalMine you have lost
5 bytes of info.
Go to the start of this chunk which is position 76373.
1st 4 bytes = 4
next 4 bytes = 100
The next 4 bytes are the size, reduce this by 5.
Pay attention to the lesson before this one as they show you how to do this.

[thefretmaster]

cool thanks alot

Learning to identify the parts of the dats is easy once you get these basics.
The final goal of working with these files will be
to build your own Barrage Balloon!

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by privateer

Open the Hex Editor, select Tools and put a check on data inspecter.
Open Tools again and select Options, then appearance.
set columns to 25
I work with text on the left but select the way that suits you.
select Data inspecter, I have the 1st 6 boxes on the left checked.
Select OK.
Now open the NavalMine.dat and you should see something like this image.




Notice I have Ref's dat file format info. This is our main guide.
The 4 bytes in BLUE are important!
You are going to see this alot so make sure you understand this part.
The data Inspecter tells us the info to come is 51 bytes long.
Count the GREEN area and it's 51 bytes.
If you delete Kashmir in the left window, you need to lower
the count in blue to match the new length.
Click on the 33, open tools and select Encode number,
and set it up like below



Click OK and you should see that the 33 00 00 00
is now 2C 00 00 00

Small addition: String "Skip the first 20 bytes they seem to be always the same"
must to be "Skip the first 12 bytes. It's file header and we pass it".
Next data block is usual data block (chunk?) Type 1000 it can to have a name "Author's Description" (for exemple). It is important for creation of the program of Pack 3D type.
Next it's data block (chunk?) Type 0, SubType (version) 0 and size = 0 (all 12 bytes).
It's marker-block of beginig of data interesting us.
In the end of a file we have a marker-block of the end of data interesting us.
It's data block Type 0, SubType (or Version) 1 and size = 0 (all 12 bytes).

P.S. What is it chunk?
In the programming language (for example C ++) it refers to the data block ...

Thanks Anvart
I'll change my reference files to match this info!