Quick guide to unpack your starbound assets folder

In the recent patch the assets folder has been turned in to a database/packed/compressed (tbh I don't know exactly what). I do however know how to unpack it so you can make mods again, assuming that modding hasn't also changed in some way.

This is done in windows, but it should probably work the same in OSX/linux.

First you'll need to know where your starbound directory is. The easiest way to figure that out is by opening your steam library, right clicking starbound, clicking properties, selecting the local files tab, and finally hitting the browse local files button. This should bring an an explorer window in the root of your starbound directory, then navigate into the win32 folder and copy the file path. Now we're going to open a cmd window, just hit the windows key, type cmd and hit enter. Once open you're going to need to type, "cd <copied file path>" without the <>s. Now that your in the win32 folder type,"asset_unpacker.exe <file path of the .pak file, in the assets folder under root> assets", again without the <>s. It should look something like this.

EDIT: There should be quotes around the path, so the command your probably going to run is:

Code:

asset_unpacker.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak" assets

Once that resolves navigate back to the win32 folder, there should be a folder called assets with the fully unpacked assets inside! Happy modding!

I'll add more pictures if people are too confused with my writing.

I'm dumb. Download this, put it in your win32 folder and run it. It should end up in the assets folder.

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

'Exception Caught: AssetBackendException: Asset database E:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak is missing'
I've checked, everything is where it should be. Every folder in 'assets' contains either more sub-folders or nothing, bar a backup of the original Human Ship in an additional sub-folder (I changed my ship a bit) and three .abc files I added in 'songs'
I miss my ship! Any way around this exceptionally unfortunate exception?

 

Did you just copy what it says in the picture? Because you shouldn't have done that, I have my steam library on the E: drive, yours is probably 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\starbound'. I'll upload a new picture with the default path to avoid confusion I guess.

 

Oh.
OOOOH.
..I'm an idiot. Thanks for the help, though!

 

No problem, it's my fault for just uploading that picture without thinking it could confuse people.

 

Ah. Another problem. It's just giving me the

..another thing went wrong. Man, I'm terrible at this. It's giving me the 'usage:' message. I'm putting this command in:
asset_unpacker.exe C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak assets

 

Try putting an underscore between Program Files and (x86), so it's Program_Files_(x86), that might be confusing it.

edit: no that's wrong. Just put quotation marks around the path so it's

Code:

asset_unpacker.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak" assets

 

Trying it now..
Nope. Got the exception again.

 

CMD is automatically putting "C:\Windows\system32>" at the beginning of each line. Otherwise I'm copying it completely, and it just isn't working.

 

Adding _ on paths won't work, adding " on the end of the path and the start of the path would work.

 

Yeah I have been getting that too

 

Thank you! You've solved the problem! Man, the community here is suprisingly kind. What a nice place to be

 

Yeah do what SGXFury said, I'm dumb.

That's normal, you navigate out of it using the 'cd <whatever your starbound folder is>' command

 

Okay, I'm getting somewhere now. I now have the error message, "The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect." So I think I put the quotation marks in the wrong spot? Where should they go exactly?

 

Can you post a screenshot of what exactly is happening?

 

Here you go.

 

You have to execute them separately, so do the cd hit enter then use unpack_assets.exe.

 

I got my Starbound saved in

Code:

D:/Starbound/SteamApps/common/Starbound

What I have done so far is first when i loaded up CMD i did the D Drive
Then afterwards i typed in:

Code:

Starbound\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32\asset_unpacker.exe "D:\Starbound\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak" assets

Code:

(After i typed it all out it looks like this:

D:\>Starbound\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32\asset_unpacker.exe "D:\Starbound\SteamApps\common\Starbound\assets\packed.pak" assets)

Afterwards it says Exception Caught: IOException: remove error: Permission denied

 

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32 isn't working...

Neither is cd Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32

or Neither is cd "Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound\win32 "