Hey everyone, I've recently created a guide on how to use PAK Builder. You can find it Here, and a more detailed breakdown of the interface and its options Here
can this unpack pak files? Looks like it cannot, I will still use this but do you know how to unpack pak files? new to modding, in other games the tool cover both packing and unpacking
You don't need this program. Just download WinRar from RarLabs. Highlight the folders you wish to convert, right-click them and Add to Archive. There you can set the compression format to Zip. And under Time label select, not to store modification time. Rename your file to (.pak) extension. DONE. This whole process will probably take exactly the same amount of time vs. using this program.
NOTE: For some reason in KCD2 hates modified and created dates. This wasn't the case with KCD1.
I've tried Winzip / 7zip / Winrar and none of them worked. I even tried Windows compression, didn't work. This program worked from the start and I've already combined all the mods that I want and changed / converted them to how I want to play. I even created my entire full set of gear that I wanted with the stats that I wanted to start with from the beginning to finish. You only need one set of folders too. You can just reuse it over and over creating as many mods as you wish much easier than any .zip program with zero crashes.
This program works much better, faster and less steps than the winzip or any other program to do with zips.
First of all you only need one mod for that when you are combining mods. And as I mentioned it in the note. The REASON why they don't work is because you probably forgot to remove the DATES on archiving and didn't archive it as normal ZIP. I am using it right now and it quite literally takes me 5 seconds to archive it as ZIP with all of the changes and the renaming part. And my mods work!
Hey, man. I have been trying all night to do this the way do described. For some reason it seems to be utterly impossible.
I use WinRar, right-click the folder and "Add to archive". From there I head to the "time" tab and tick off "Store modification time". (If I go to the time tab AFTER selecting archive format, the option to tick off modification time is greyed out). After this I go back to the "General" tab and choose "ZIP" as archive format. Then I rename the file to ".pak" and it gets saved as a PAK-file. Still, this alone did nothing. The mod isn't working.
I have tried changing up the compression method, from normal to "store" and "best". That doesn't fix it. I have also tried meddling with the archive time on the "Time" tab, trying both "Current system time" and "original archive time". Nothing I do seems to work.
Can you PLEASE tell me where I'm messing up? If it matters I am using 7zip to initially open the original PAK-file I want to edit, since WinRar doesn't let me do that.
On my auto-saving mod page when you download my mod, it includes the guide on how to do it properly. You've probably forgot to select zip format. But in any case, I've included a nice PDF guide to follow.
Thanks for the reply. After trying and failing a lot I actually got it to work somehow. If anyone else is having a hard time editing a mod, here is what I did that actually worked:
1. Download WinRAR from rarlab.com.
2. Right click the folder you want to compress. (Make sure that you are trying to compress the right folder. For example I compressed the mod folder, when I should have compressed the "Libs" folder within the mod folder). After right clicking, press "Add to archive".
3. A window will pop up. Navigate to the "Time" tab. Deselect/untick "High precision time format and "Store modification time".
4. Navigate back to the "General" tab. Under "Compression method" choose "fast".
5. Still in the "General" tab, under "Archive format" choose ZIP.
6. Still in the "General" tab, under "Archive name" change from "Libs.zip" to the mod folder name (The name of the folder you actually extracted) and add ".pak" after the file name.
7. Click "OK". WinRAR will now create a .pak-file that KDC2 actually can run.
Should this also work with KCD1 paks? I know "it's as simple as-" the many different ways being described in the comments, but I'm used to this now. It doesn't seem to be working with 1, but it could be user error on my part.
Hey, I'm afraid I haven't actually tested this with KCD1, only KCD2. To my knowledge, PAK files and their format/structure are the same across both games, but if you're encountering problems then that does make me wonder. Have you had any success with this since? (apologies for the delay)
If I create a PAK file larger than 1900MB, what will happen? It seems that the official has limited the PAK files to this size. We are trying to create a voice replacement pack, and it will exceeds 1.9GB if we don't compress the audio file.
Hello! Sorry for the delay, I have been away for a little while. You'll be glad to know that PAK Builder caters for this, and will split PAK files that exceed 1.9GB into separate parts. You can actually adjust this number if you would like the PAK files to be smaller, but the default of 1.9GB is usually the best setting:
Unfortunatly i cannot make it work for some reason.
Just downloaded an unprotected mod with simple XMLs. Extracted the pak file, edited few attributes value (nothing more than sword damages), then used your tool to re-pak it. Then the game won't use the mod anymore. even if it says it's loaded in the console and kcd.logs file.
That's pretty weird. I also tried the winrar without time meta data method and the same happens.
Did you repack the mod with the same subfolder structure? if its like a few lua files in nested directories, your pak needs that same directory structure. Its easy to make a mistake and just pack the folder with the files you care about and not the parent hierarchy.
The other thing to check is your mod is enabled in mod_order.txt
Well, it was a file structure indeed. BUT i feel like it's coming from the mod. For exemple if you have : /Data/lib/Tables and you target lib as the folder to pak, the paker will end up paking Tables instead ...
Aha, it depends on how you create the archive. For example, both WinRar and 7Zip do not work with the default settings, and there are things you need to change to get a valid PAK file. I created this app so that you don't need to A) Worry about it, and B) Remember to perform these steps every time. It's for pure convenience and to prevent human error. But, if you'd rather use some other tool to do this then the choice is of course yours :-).
That's an interesting issue, I'll definitely take a look at that. How big is the directory that you're packing? And to confirm, are you dragging one single folder into PAK Builder? because it creates a single PAK for every folder that you drag in
Well, it's quite easy to determine by now. Tried to manually merge two mods before getting this (texture mods), and all the women ended up Smurf blue. When I used this instead, it actually worked. :)
As for the other thing, yea, I don't know why. Used the same folders etc., but it only worked when not dropping it in.
Hello, I have a problem. I wanted to change the color of a piece of clothing, which I did. I changed the material of the said piece of clothing in the unpacked CharacterComponent file. I simply unpacked CharacterComponents from the main game. I created the folders with the mod generator and then used the Pak Builder to convert the CharacterComponent file with its folder path into a Pak and added it to my mod folder. In short, there was no change in the game. What did I do wrong or overlook? Thank you in advance.
So I think (could be wrong) that it's actually likely Windows Defender that's doing this, and you can restore the executable through the Windows Security Center.
I can't check right now, but If it is indeed Chrome then there's usually some kind of three dots button you can click to get it to restore/ignore the file
Hmm, I wouldn't think so. It doesn't mess with the files and I haven't had anyone experience this problem before that I know of. When people have issues with their packed content, it's usually down to the content itself.
That said, maybe have a go at creating a PAK with another piece of software, and see if that gives you different results. If it still doesn't work, then you know it's an issue with the texture and not the PAK :-)
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Looks like it cannot, I will still use this but do you know how to unpack pak files? new to modding, in other games the tool cover both packing and unpacking
thanks!
NOTE: For some reason in KCD2 hates modified and created dates. This wasn't the case with KCD1.
This program works much better, faster and less steps than the winzip or any other program to do with zips.
I use WinRar, right-click the folder and "Add to archive". From there I head to the "time" tab and tick off "Store modification time". (If I go to the time tab AFTER selecting archive format, the option to tick off modification time is greyed out). After this I go back to the "General" tab and choose "ZIP" as archive format. Then I rename the file to ".pak" and it gets saved as a PAK-file. Still, this alone did nothing. The mod isn't working.
I have tried changing up the compression method, from normal to "store" and "best". That doesn't fix it. I have also tried meddling with the archive time on the "Time" tab, trying both "Current system time" and "original archive time". Nothing I do seems to work.
Can you PLEASE tell me where I'm messing up? If it matters I am using 7zip to initially open the original PAK-file I want to edit, since WinRar doesn't let me do that.
1. Download WinRAR from rarlab.com.
2. Right click the folder you want to compress. (Make sure that you are trying to compress the right folder. For example I compressed the mod folder, when I should have compressed the "Libs" folder within the mod folder). After right clicking, press "Add to archive".
3. A window will pop up. Navigate to the "Time" tab. Deselect/untick "High precision time format and "Store modification time".
4. Navigate back to the "General" tab. Under "Compression method" choose "fast".
5. Still in the "General" tab, under "Archive format" choose ZIP.
6. Still in the "General" tab, under "Archive name" change from "Libs.zip" to the mod folder name (The name of the folder you actually extracted) and add ".pak" after the file name.
7. Click "OK". WinRAR will now create a .pak-file that KDC2 actually can run.
8. D O N E
Unfortunatly i cannot make it work for some reason.
Just downloaded an unprotected mod with simple XMLs. Extracted the pak file, edited few attributes value (nothing more than sword damages), then used your tool to re-pak it.
Then the game won't use the mod anymore. even if it says it's loaded in the console and kcd.logs file.
That's pretty weird.
I also tried the winrar without time meta data method and the same happens.
The other thing to check is your mod is enabled in mod_order.txt
For exemple if you have :
/Data/lib/Tables and you target lib as the folder to pak, the paker will end up paking Tables instead ...
I'll just be aware next time.
Anyway, no matter how high I set the max mb size, it still separates it in two? What gives? :)
Edit: This only happens when dropping the folder, and not when pak'ing manually.
That's an interesting issue, I'll definitely take a look at that. How big is the directory that you're packing? And to confirm, are you dragging one single folder into PAK Builder? because it creates a single PAK for every folder that you drag in
As for the other thing, yea, I don't know why. Used the same folders etc., but it only worked when not dropping it in.
Again, great tool!
I can't check right now, but If it is indeed Chrome then there's usually some kind of three dots button you can click to get it to restore/ignore the file
That said, maybe have a go at creating a PAK with another piece of software, and see if that gives you different results. If it still doesn't work, then you know it's an issue with the texture and not the PAK :-)