Updated a lighter version of the same files so that there's less chance for conflicts with other mods. Any mod that uses Equipment.uexp will conflict with these.
quickbms - used for unpacking the .pak files (in this case "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak"), http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm unreal_tournament_4_0.4.25c - a script needed for use with bms, http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm#search - search for unreal_tournament_4 https://zenhax.com/download/file.php?id=11598 (use spiritovod's direct link over on zenhax instead) u4pak - tool used for repacking the .pak file (just google "u4pak sfv", this is the one I used) HxD - hex editor used to edit said .pak file FF7RemakeIntegrade encryption key - (pretty sure that these can't be posted so you'll have to rely on a google search, try "encryption keys rin")
The process:
For this example I'll just use the file contained in this mod, "Equipment.uexp". This file is contained within "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak". In order to access this file and edit it we'll need to unpack "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak".
1. Create a folder to store all your tools in to make this easier on yourself. I'll refer to it as "tools" in this tutorial.
2. Go to where you installed FF7 and copy the "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak" from "FFVIIRemakeIntergrade\End\Content\Paks" to your tools folder. DO NOT delete this from the game's folder lol. If you do you run the risk of needing to verify the game's files and redownload it.
3. Open quickbms_4gb_files.exe
4. It will have you select a BMS script type, select the "unreal_tournament_4_0.4.25c" you downloaded.
5. Then it will ask for the input archive/file, select the "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak" you copied/pasted to the tools folder.
6. It will then ask you to choose the folder in which you would like to extract the data to, just hit save and it will extract to your tools folder.
7. This is where it ask you to insert the content for the variable KEY, enter the game's encryption key that was found from the step in the necessary tools section. The extraction will take a few minutes depending on your PC's capabilities. After it's done there should be a new folder within the tools folder that says "End".
8. Within the newly created "End" folder is where "Equipment.uexp" is located. "End\Content\GameContents\DataObject\Resident\Equipment.uexp"
9. Open "Equipment.uexp" using HxD, this is how we will edit the data.
10. Within HxD go to Search and make sure that it's on the Text-string tab. Search for 3001 (this block of code is the star bracelet). The stats we can change here are stored as 2 byte values, their offsets are as follows:
11. Let's say that we want to change defense and magic defense (the vanilla values are 3/3), we can see that at offset 0000575E and 00005766 the values here are 03 00 and 03 00. Using https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/decimal-to-hex.html to help us convert decimal to hex let's use the value 500. In hex that would be 1F4. HOWEVER, when we enter this into HxD we will need to reverse the bytes so 1F4 becomes F4 01. We can change any of these stats up to FF FF or 65535, when we're done go to file > save.
12. Time to repack it. To make this easy just put the entire folder structure containing "Equipment.uexp" inside your u4pak folder, for me this looks like "tools\u4pak-master\End". You can remove all unrelated files and folders to reduce the final .pak size.
13. From within the u4pak-master folder hold SHIFT + Right Click within the empty space of the folder and select "Open PowerShell Window here". Now type cmd, this will prime it for inputs. Then type "u4pak.exe pack mod_name.pak End" (no quotations). This will repack your "End" folder into the .pak file name of your choosing within the root folder where u4pak.exe is.
14. Copy/paste or cut/paste your newly created pak.file into your ~mods folder, this should be located in "FFVIIRemakeIntergrade\End\Content\Paks\~mods".
15. You're done, boot up the game and check to see if your edits have worked! Happy modding.
I would like to edit a mod to add this modification (Equipement Rebalance Mod) but after following this method (outside of the key part) the mod isn't recognized by the game. Just extracting then repaking the mod doesn't work either so it's not the hexa edit the issue. I also tried using only u4pak to unpak then repak the mod but same result.
Does the script need to be different if the original .pak is a mod ? What should i do to make it work?
Thanks in advance
Edit : I found the issue ! :) The mod i was trying to modify has a mount-point (as it doesn't have the file tree as your mod so i had to add "-m ../../../end/Content/GameContents/DataObject/Resident/" in the end of the pack command. I found this out by using the command info on the pak, in case it may help someone one day !
That's strange, it should be as simple as using the same quickbms script used for unpacking "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak" - to unpack - then placing the folder structure inside the u4pak directory and repacking it. Glad you figured it out though!
No problem. I meant to add that beneath each armor and weapon's stats you can find the same 4 bytes "8F 03 XX YY" that represent the materia slots. It doesn't appear on accessories though.
Hi vain, thank you for the tutorial description, really appreciate it! I have a question though, is there a way to determine the ID of each of the equipment? Like for example, in this case the start bracelet is 3001. Is there a place where we can find this number for each equipment?
Within HxD you'll have to search for the values of the stats of the items you want to edit, so far there isn't an item ID list I'm aware of. There's another post here where I briefly talk about how to search:
"search for either the integer value or hex value that represents the stat values in-game, so for example if you want to mess with the Chain Bangle you'll have to search for the values on it. I believe it has 50 defense and 50 magic defense. In hex that's 32 for each. If you use the integer number search function for "50", you'll find it relatively quick, when you do find it it'll appear as 32 since it's in hex. In the right column (decode text) you'll see some text such as:
Wow ok. I feel dumb because I spent about an hour and a half digging through the folders by opening the .pak file for the modded bracelet in umodel.exe. I don't write code but have a bit of experience in modding games, namely No Man's Sky, and didn't realize the program I was opening was basically showing MODEL information and not data table information. I was told NMS was a pain to mod, but after I dug through all the hex code BS I beg to differ; I think i'll take the .MBIN files over all this hex code any day.
Anyways, I really appreciate this guide here. As an amateur I was able to find exactly what I needed to edit the StarBracelet.
I do have 3 questions, if you would please help with! (it's all good if not) 1) Is there a list somewhere of all the Item ID's? (e.g. 3001 = StarBracelet) or do I have to use Cheat Engine? (there's a youtube tutorial but I doubt I'd use cheat engine to search the ID for a static object unless I find them in a shop but that's a really roundabout way to do it).
2) To increase the odds of mod compatibility, for NMS we use .lua scripts to modify the .exml files contained inside the .mbin file (so basically the .uexp file within the .pak the values we were intending to change.) You could then run them through a program that would run the .lua scripts to modify the values contained in the .EXML files with a load order so if two mods modify the same string/value, the lowest in the order writes over it last. It then re-packs it (so it would run it through u4pak) and exports the modified .MBIN (.pak) to drag and drop into the mod folder. So my question is, is there something similar for UE4?
3) Some WONDERFUL modders in the NMS modding community created programs that can view the contents of the .lib files. I'm a bit rusty here but I'm pretty sure either the .lib files or maybe the sub branches in the .lib files are similar to the pakchunks. I have limited HDD space on my PC and unpacking an entire .lib (pakchunk) puts my free space in the red easily, and this program allows me to search for the exact files that I need to yoink and edit, which only needs as much space as a .uexp file takes. Is there something similar for UE4 for FF7: Intergrade?
(This may sound like jibberish because I barely know what I'm talking about here, but somehow I managed to pull off some decent modding with my ooga booga no coding language brain. Feel free to just say idk what you're talking about bro, lol)
Thank you so much for this guide! Very well written! Managed to use it to merge your mod with the Nail Bat Reword by Ion, even though I have no experience with any of these programs. Thank you! And thank you for the modding too!
Very impressive mod. Considering how few cheats I've seen actually work without breaking the game from the mods for this game, I'm quite amazed. Thank you for your effort, I wish more mods on here were as effective as yours. I encourage you to mod other equipment or materia or merchant stores, and look forward to seeing your future endeavors.
238 comments
Necessary Tools:
quickbms - used for unpacking the .pak files (in this case "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak"), http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm
unreal_tournament_4_0.4.25c - a script needed for use with bms,
http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm#search - search for unreal_tournament_4https://zenhax.com/download/file.php?id=11598 (use spiritovod's direct link over on zenhax instead)u4pak - tool used for repacking the .pak file (just google "u4pak sfv", this is the one I used)
HxD - hex editor used to edit said .pak file
FF7RemakeIntegrade encryption key - (pretty sure that these can't be posted so you'll have to rely on a google search, try "encryption keys rin")
The process:
For this example I'll just use the file contained in this mod, "Equipment.uexp". This file is contained within "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak". In order to access this file and edit it we'll need to unpack "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak".
1. Create a folder to store all your tools in to make this easier on yourself. I'll refer to it as "tools" in this tutorial.
2. Go to where you installed FF7 and copy the "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak" from "FFVIIRemakeIntergrade\End\Content\Paks" to your tools folder. DO NOT delete this from the game's folder lol. If you do you run the risk of needing to verify the game's files and redownload it.
3. Open quickbms_4gb_files.exe
4. It will have you select a BMS script type, select the "unreal_tournament_4_0.4.25c" you downloaded.
5. Then it will ask for the input archive/file, select the "pakchunk0_s7-WindowsNoEditor.pak" you copied/pasted to the tools folder.
6. It will then ask you to choose the folder in which you would like to extract the data to, just hit save and it will extract to your tools folder.
7. This is where it ask you to insert the content for the variable KEY, enter the game's encryption key that was found from the step in the necessary tools section. The extraction will take a few minutes depending on your PC's capabilities. After it's done there should be a new folder within the tools folder that says "End".
8. Within the newly created "End" folder is where "Equipment.uexp" is located. "End\Content\GameContents\DataObject\Resident\Equipment.uexp"
9. Open "Equipment.uexp" using HxD, this is how we will edit the data.
10. Within HxD go to Search and make sure that it's on the Text-string tab. Search for 3001 (this block of code is the star bracelet). The stats we can change here are stored as 2 byte values, their offsets are as follows:
0000574E - Attack
00005756 - Magic Attack
0000575E - Defense
00005766 - Magic Defense
0000576E - Strength
00005776 - Magic
0000577E - Vitality
00005786 - Spirit
0000578E - Luck
00005796 - HP
0000579E - MP
11. Let's say that we want to change defense and magic defense (the vanilla values are 3/3), we can see that at offset 0000575E and 00005766 the values here are 03 00 and 03 00. Using https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/decimal-to-hex.html to help us convert decimal to hex let's use the value 500. In hex that would be 1F4. HOWEVER, when we enter this into HxD we will need to reverse the bytes so 1F4 becomes F4 01. We can change any of these stats up to FF FF or 65535, when we're done go to file > save.
12. Time to repack it. To make this easy just put the entire folder structure containing "Equipment.uexp" inside your u4pak folder, for me this looks like "tools\u4pak-master\End". You can remove all unrelated files and folders to reduce the final .pak size.
13. From within the u4pak-master folder hold SHIFT + Right Click within the empty space of the folder and select "Open PowerShell Window here". Now type cmd, this will prime it for inputs. Then type "u4pak.exe pack mod_name.pak End" (no quotations). This will repack your "End" folder into the .pak file name of your choosing within the root folder where u4pak.exe is.
14. Copy/paste or cut/paste your newly created pak.file into your ~mods folder, this should be located in "FFVIIRemakeIntergrade\End\Content\Paks\~mods".
15. You're done, boot up the game and check to see if your edits have worked! Happy modding.
I also tried using only u4pak to unpak then repak the mod but same result.
Does the script need to be different if the original .pak is a mod ? What should i do to make it work?
Thanks in advance
Edit : I found the issue ! :)
The mod i was trying to modify has a mount-point (as it doesn't have the file tree as your mod so i had to add "-m ../../../end/Content/GameContents/DataObject/Resident/" in the end of the pack command. I found this out by using the command info on the pak, in case it may help someone one day !
XX represents linked slots, 4 = 4 linked pairs, 8 slots total
YY represents individual slots
Anything above 8 slots total started behaving a tad unstable from my limited testing.
"search for either the integer value or hex value that represents the stat values in-game, so for example if you want to mess with the Chain Bangle you'll have to search for the values on it. I believe it has 50 defense and 50 magic defense. In hex that's 32 for each. If you use the integer number search function for "50", you'll find it relatively quick, when you do find it it'll appear as 32 since it's in hex. In the right column (decode text) you'll see some text such as:
Item_E_ARM_XXXX (these are Armor)
Item_E_ACC_XXXX (these are Accessories)
Item_W_TSW_XXXX (Cloud's weapons)
Item_W_GLV_XXXX (Tifa's weapons)
Item_W_GUN_XXXX (Barrett's wepaons)
Item_W_ROD_XXXX (Aerith's weapons)
Item_W_SHR_XXXX (Yuffie's weapons)
If the value you search for is within one of these sections chances are you're in the right spot."
- error in src\extra\xalloc.c line 703: xdbg_realloc()
Error: memory allocation problem
Access is denied.
press ENTER to quit
Anyways, I really appreciate this guide here. As an amateur I was able to find exactly what I needed to edit the StarBracelet.
I do have 3 questions, if you would please help with! (it's all good if not)
1) Is there a list somewhere of all the Item ID's? (e.g. 3001 = StarBracelet) or do I have to use Cheat Engine? (there's a youtube tutorial but I doubt I'd use cheat engine to search the ID for a static object unless I find them in a shop but that's a really roundabout way to do it).
2) To increase the odds of mod compatibility, for NMS we use .lua scripts to modify the .exml files contained inside the .mbin file (so basically the .uexp file within the .pak the values we were intending to change.) You could then run them through a program that would run the .lua scripts to modify the values contained in the .EXML files with a load order so if two mods modify the same string/value, the lowest in the order writes over it last. It then re-packs it (so it would run it through u4pak) and exports the modified .MBIN (.pak) to drag and drop into the mod folder. So my question is, is there something similar for UE4?
3) Some WONDERFUL modders in the NMS modding community created programs that can view the contents of the .lib files. I'm a bit rusty here but I'm pretty sure either the .lib files or maybe the sub branches in the .lib files are similar to the pakchunks. I have limited HDD space on my PC and unpacking an entire .lib (pakchunk) puts my free space in the red easily, and this program allows me to search for the exact files that I need to yoink and edit, which only needs as much space as a .uexp file takes. Is there something similar for UE4 for FF7: Intergrade?
(This may sound like jibberish because I barely know what I'm talking about here, but somehow I managed to pull off some decent modding with my ooga booga no coding language brain. Feel free to just say idk what you're talking about bro, lol)
Managed to use it to merge your mod with the Nail Bat Reword by Ion, even though I have no experience with any of these programs.
Thank you! And thank you for the modding too!
Tried some of the bracelets.
Followed the instructions (~mods folder etc.)
No change at all
Seems it doesn´t work anymore
D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE\End\Content\Paks\~mods
the ~ is important
(I have a clean fresh install and no other mods running)
8 Slot (linked) Star Bracelet.
-9999 HP
-999 MP
-999 Luck
-250 All other stats (speed excluded)
8 Slot (linked) Star Bracelet.
-9999 HP
-999 MP
-999 Luck
-250 All other stats (speed excluded)
nothing happened.