I've been seeing quite a few questions about using St.Vampyre's DAT tools scattered among topics, so here's a short guide detailing how to use those DAT tools (extracting and repacking). They are command-line based, meaning you will have to open up a command prompt to use them. Alternatively, you can write batch files (.bat) for the sake of convenience, but this guide will show you how to extract and repack a .dat file. There is also an online html version at http://re4.acrophony.co.uk/howto_dattools.html .

Firstly, you need to download the tools from http://z6.invisionfree.com/Resident_Evil_4...p?showtopic=437 and place them in the directory you plan to work from.

Secondly, you should locate the .dat file you want to modify. Here's a sample directory (/em/, which is extracted from the em.dat GCA file):



Copy that file over into your work directory, with the two tool executables:



Next, you need to open the command line prompt. Go to Start - Run, and punch this in:



Using the command prompt, navigate to your workspace directory like so:



As you placed all the files you're working with in this directory previously, you should now be able to run the extractor:



If you have been successful, you should receive command line text similar to this:



Furthermore, a directory named wep13 (for this example) should have been created in your workspace directory:



... and in this folder should be your extracted files:



Notice that the file highlighted is wep13.index - this file is created by the extractor and acts as a list of all the files that make up the dat. Why is this needed? Because when you go to recompile the package, the program uses this as a reference in order to know which files to include. In most cases, however, you won't be adding or subtracting files, so this is best left alone.

Once you have made your modifications to the files, you need to repack them back into the dat. By default, the dat files are marked read only, so if you try and overwrite them, the program will display a number of errors. The best way is to simply rename the old dat like so:



You then need to use the command line to run the recompiling program:



A quick breakdown: datrepack runs the program, wep13/wep13.index is the location of the index file discussed just above, and you must include the resulting filename (wep13.dat at the end), otherwise the compiler appears to screw with the index file and you won't get your compiled package.

If everything has run successfully, you should be greeted with a message similar to this:



Job done! Now all you need to do is copy the compiled .dat file into the directory you grabbed it from (don't forget to back up the old one!):



Hope this guide helps!

wish this was here a day ago Xd i did this all by myself =), took me a while to catch on but i did,

good job

PS: my names james =)

most easily is drag the .dat file and put this file on datrepack.exe B)

Why the flying francais wont this work?!

It just wont do anything???
I've even follwed and pasted the same folders that you used?!?!

FFS! *cries*

:lol: , dragging and dropping works for extracting, not for repacking though.

First off, I'm going to apologize if I'm posting in the incorrect place, but I'm not sure where else to post.

I just purchased my copy of RE 4 today and I'm running it on Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit). I've tried using the the GC Archives and Data Extraction programs, neither of which work in any order I've attempted.

I tried to run both of the in Windows XP (2000) compatibility mode, but nothing happens. When I go into the command prompt and set up the command, it will begin to open the file. However, once it actually opens the file, the program exits and disappears. Does anyone else have this problem?

Please help me! :(

---Edit---

I copied the response I was given by the prompt.

Reading file...
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space
at FileHandle.read(FileHandle.java:142)
at DatExtract.<init>(DatExtract.java:66)
at DatExtract.main(DatExtract.java:18)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.exe4j.runtime.LauncherEngine.launch(Unknown Source)
at com.exe4j.runtime.WinLauncher.main(Unknown Source)

thats the exact same issue im having, its just not letting me get past that...*explodes*

Im acry in the corner...

java :P

you need java, t least i'm pretty certain.

Vamp codes in java

I think it means your computer doesn't have enough memory. Try closing some programs you have open, and running it over.

well how much ram do you guys have to run it...and this happened still on a restart, clsoing donw processes for programs that start up and running it, Ive updated o the lastest java then this happened, befor it was ok?

Well, I've got 1.5 gigs of ram, which is a lot more than needed, but I've noticed that Vampyre's PMD viewer doesn't run when I have around 1GB of memory in use.

Actually, I just realized when I reread the guys post, you're probably running the dat extractor on the wrong files. The dats that comes with the installation, despite the extension, are actually gca archives. And so, you're running out of memory because those files are hundreds of megabytes in size, hence the error. You need to rename the extension and use the gca extractor, which can be found somewhere around here.

Well the GCA extractor doesnt work lol, ive tried downlaoding it and its a unvalid win32 application.

So either way im buggered...

If your download finished half way, you'll get an error like that. Try to download it again, the file might be corrupt.

If you're running some 64-bit operating system or Vista, perhaps put it in some compatibility mode. I wouldn't know, though -- I'm using 32-bit XP, and it runs fine here without the need of any compatibility mode. But try to download it again.

it done that at first - knew of this bug and redone it - didnt work, the downlaod application is corrupt.
:blink:
I have a universal extractor that opens .gca files...didnt work..
seriously im running in circles.
:huh:
can i have a gun now please lol
:angry:

Anyone know if it works with windox view?

The gca extractor should be 385,024 bytes in size, and should have a CRC32 of 5420D4E4

If your file is that size and has the same CRC, then sadly I don't know how to help you. You can check the CRC by adding the file to a Winrar archive or something.

After putting it inside the zip and checking the code, the extractor now works...
Maybe windows needed to have that code CRC think checked and clarified? Wow LoL
:D :P :lol: :) B) :rolleyes: : :blink: :ph43r: :unsure: :huh: :huh: :o ;)
This is how i feel jsut about the now LoL

*officially your Sock sex slave....*

Thank you so much! Seriously!

I have a problem when using extractor to extract
pl16.dat .

Please help me!

I copied the response I was given by the prompt.

Reading file...
# of files: 148
Get offsets...
Done
Get extensions...
Done
# Offset(d) Ext.
====================
00: 1216 BIN
.
.
147: 1276256 BIN
Writing Files..
DatExtract - error: main<String args[ ]>

Thank you for this great, nice and detailed guide.

Now I am swapping animations, and have been successful in creating the new .dat files that are inside of the em.dat file.
So I now have the new .dat files which I put inside me EM folder (which contains all of the files within the em.dat which I had extracted using gca.exe tool.

Now I was hoping someone could tell me how to then repack this EM folder into the EM.dat file (there is no .index file within the EM folder so I suppose I can't use EMRepack)

I appreciate the help.

where the heck are the images to go along w the tutorial???

Yeah, the lack of the images is making it hard for me to understand this tutorial.

grow up.

Then if we're not supposed to drag and drop it there then how do we repack? I've done it before but I forgot how (I'm rusty by a mile).

There's some other file I need to repack, coz I'm tring to do this but it doesn't work. I've made the changes on the dat, but it doesn't repack ¬¬

Dont bump this old topic please...please read the rules...

GCA is detected as a virus. I would like to know if it's just an misunderstanding - everybody uses it, so I guest there's no problem. But still, I would like to confirm this. And for a tutorial for noobs, it should teach how to turn off the antivirus.

it isn't a virus and what antivirus do you have ?

Actually, it might be a virus. :>

You don't know that he has the exact same copy as everyone else - his copy might have been modified with malicious code (either in transit (as he was downloading it), modified on the server, or modified on his local machine).
You also don't know that the extractor doesn't contain code that executes on only certain system configurations, or that is designed to run so rarely that only, for example, one in a million users are affected


So, don't tell him lies, Duke :rolleyes:

ah well mine isn't then :>

I downloaded it from here:

www.4shared.com/file/VyvptnWp/GCA_RE4OFICIAL.html
(link recommended by a RE4 community)

The antivirus is McAfee.
I think that if the antivirus can infer how GCA works, it could easily guess GCA is a virus, inasmuch GCA does a "cracking work". <_<

Zaia, in my opinnion that AV alert thats why the follow reason: "EXE COMPRESSION" GCA its compressed in UPX my AV detect it as virus when i open it, the solution is removing that protection is very simple, if you want i can do it [in fact in my toolkits GCA is uncompressed to save problems whit users]

Dr. Emuler, I guess you wanted to say:

Zaia, in my opinion that AV alerts: "EXE COMPRESSION" GCA is compressed in UPX. My AV detect it as virus when i open it too. The solution to remove that protection is very simple. If you want i can do it [in fact, in my toolkits GCA is uncompressed to save problems with users]

I never heard about EXE compressed, as an EXE file. Besides, other download links that use antivirus on GCA (seem to always) detected GCA containing/being a virus.
Doesn't it's more likely to guess that the antivirus has methods to know how GCA works, and then accuse it to be a virus? A "misunderstanding" after all?