How to make a PC game RIP

Difficulty Rating: Moderate



Chapters:
1. Deleting unneeded content from the game
2. Using UHARC GUI
3. Making a batch script


CHAPTER 1. Deleting unneeded content from the game

A rip is a game that has been stripped down and compressed with UHARC.
Note: Nowadays we don't need rips anymore since we have fast internet, although it stays the best technique for game compression.

It's always a bit of a puzzle to find out how the game engine works with the files,
some engines allow it to just delete files, others need their files to be replaced with blank files.

Safely deleting unneeded data:

In case you want to delete music:
1. Rename the menu song or a song that you will hear pretty fast after starting (not permanently)
2. Start the game and see if you encounter any problems.
3. If you haven't ran up to any errors you can safely delete all music contents of the game.
4. If you experienced errors, you should replace the music instead of deleting

In case you want to delete videos:
1. Rename the intro video's of the game (not permanently)
2. Start the game and see if you encounter any problems.
3. If you haven't ran up to any errors you can safely delete all video contents of the game.
4. If you experienced errors, you should replace the videos instead of deleting


Safely replacing unneeded data:

In case you want to replace music:
1. Right click on one of the original music files and click properties.
2. Look at the audio format and audio compression, also take a look at the bitrate, now save the info.
3. Make a new blank audio file and use the exact same audio info you gathered earlier.
4. Now copy the file x(amount of music files) and rename them all to replace the original music files

In case you want to replace videos:
1. Right click on one of the original video files and click properties.
2. Look at the video format and codec, most games use the ".bik format" (download Rad Video Tools if you have ".bik" files)
3. If it's some an other format then ".bik" you should use VirtualDub
4. Now the theory behind a blank file is really easy, Just open up MSPAINT and fill the background with black.
5. Now make it as large (resolution) as the video is.
6. Open Rad Video Tools or VirtualDub according to your file format.
7. Open the black ".bmp" and the save the video file with the video information you gathered in step 2.
8. Now copy the file x(amount of video files) and rename them all to replace the original videos



CHAPTER 2. Using UHARC GUI
1. Download UHARC GUI (the screenshots are from Uharc GUI 4.0.0.2)
2. Install and start UHARC GUI. Click on "Create new archive" to begin.




3. Click "Add folder" to choose a folder to add to your uharc archive.




4. Now click on Options... and choose the same settings as the screenshot below.




5. Click "Create archive" to begin the compression process, this might take a while depending on your computer speed.

6. When the compressing is finished, you will have a .uha file, now we will make a bat script to extract the files


CHAPTER 3. Creating a batch script

1. Open notepad, write a .bat file like this (save as type "All Files" and then write .bat as extension)

@echo off
cls
UHARC.exe x -o+ -vm+ -y+ files.uha
cls
del files.uha
echo DONE...
pause

 

Command explanation:

@echo off = the headline of every .bat file

cls = clear screen

UHARC.exe x -o+ -vm+ -y+ files.uha = paramter switches, we won't need any others so you only have to change "files.uha"

del files.uha = the file "files.uha" will be deleted after unpacking to save hd space

echo = a line where you can type something

echo. = this is a open line with no text

pause = this will pause the .bat, you have to press enter to continue

2. Now lets make an outro (cracktro), here is a example of an outro.

(I took a screenshot from notepad because the format looks horrible when I write it down here.)

You can visit this site to create ascii art:
http://www.network-science.de/ascii/

Save this as install.bat under (Safe as type: All Files)

4. To complete your rip, put all files together in a folder:
- Install.bat
- Files.uha
- Uharc.exe

Now run install.bat to install your game

Tutorial written by: broodplank
I hope you liked this tutorial, it's originally written in 2005, Rewritten on 09-10-2011.

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