Editing PS2 Rosters

[Rockyfan1212]

Hello I am new here.

I have been trying to edit the rosters on the PS2. I have done a lot on my own, but now I am stuck. I am hoping for some assistance.

 

I have extracted the DATABASE.BIG file from the game using Apache. That file contains the .DAT files for the rosters. I used the FinalBIG editor to extract the .DAT files from the .BIG file. This is where the problem occurs. The .DAT file appears to be compressed further or packed in a way that I still cannot read it, unlike with the PC version rosters I downloaded, those are totally readable.

 

MVPEdit cannot import these .DAT files either, it gives an error with the text:

"Run-time error'9': Subscript out of range". The program proceeds to crash.

 

My ultimate goal is to change the retired players to new ones with the generic model faces.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Gordo]

Maybe, if you're using Windows 10 it can't handle it.  Maybe run MVPedit in compatibility mode for XP or such.  But no one here has messed with PS2 rosters for quite some time.  And even when there was more activity on early consoles, it was primarily XBox.

[Rockyfan1212]

1 hour ago, Gordo said:

Maybe, if you're using Windows 10 it can't handle it.  Maybe run MVPedit in compatibility mode for XP or such.  But no one here has messed with PS2 rosters for quite some time.  And even when there was more activity on early consoles, it was primarily XBox.

Thanks for the reply. 

I will give it a try. I am on Windows 10, but I think that the issue isn't with MVPEdit. It will open PC rosters just fine. 

 

I know that this was possible at one time.  I found an 05 roster on my game, that originated here from Ilmac and Hypnoxxx. I tried using that,  but the .dat files are too large and the .big file is too large to add back to the ISO.

 

When I look at the files themselves, the pc version, the .Dat files are plain text, but the PS2 ones have special characters. 

 

Anyone who has any additional tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Rockyfan1212]

I have an update. Using a program called QuickBMS, with a script called fightnight.bms, I was able to get the .dat files uncompressed. I now have the standard roster from the game editable on my pc.

 

Now the next issue is recompressing the .dat files so I can rebuild the .big file.

 

The program quickbms has a script called chunkpack.bms. I cannot find it, if anyone knows of it, where to find it, or has an alternative, I would greatly appreciate it. 

[jcrash94]

Good luck, man. I hope you will be able to make the rosters for this great console. I was trying to make an updated roster in game since i don't know how to use the pc programs and it takes an eternity.

[jcrash94]

Maybe this program could help you. 

https://github.com/Experiment5X/BIG-File-Extractor

Here's more info about it https://zenhax.com/viewtopic.php?t=11568

It apparently has the script you are looking for. 

[Rockyfan1212]

On 8/7/2021 at 7:21 AM, jcrash94 said:

Maybe this program could help you. 

https://github.com/Experiment5X/BIG-File-Extractor

Here's more info about it https://zenhax.com/viewtopic.php?t=11568

It apparently has the script you are looking for. 

 

Thanks,  that's where I found the name of the script, but couldn't find the actual script. It's been a few days since I looked around. I have the .dat files pulled from the .big file. 

MvpEdit can read the .dat files from the game and it can be edited. I haven't done a lot of editing to it yet,  I want to make sure I can actually get the files back into the ISO before I go all out and waste time editing, just to not make it able to go back to the ISO. 

 

If I can get the .dat files back into the .big and replace the file it should work.

 

the problem is that the .dat files are compressed before being compressed into the .big.

 

I have found a way to decompress both, but now I need to recompress the .dat, to recompess the .big and inject it as the base roster file.

 

from there,  I should be able to simply save the roster and load them on an unhacked copy of the ISO.

 

I will keep working on this and update as soon as I find a solution.