Tutorial How to successfully pack and unpack .pak files

Don't repack assets after you've unpacked them. If you want to change how something works in the game, make a mod.

 

Thx, but how? Used to repack in windows and it worked but now have no idea with mac

 

You don't need to repack them.
You even shouldn't.
Just keep the mods in a folder.

For the problem itself, it's showing you what's wrong:

/users/blablabla/asset_packer <Source Name> <asset folder path> <pak name>

You're missing the source name, if I see that right (screenshots with code are ... counterproductive).

 

Don't repack assets. Ever. Just make a mod if you want to change something in vanilla.

 

I'm on Mac, OSX Yosemite 10.10.2, and I'm having trouble unpacking it with the instructions given. Upon trying to unpack, it says this:
/Users/q/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/osx/Starbound.app/Contents/MacOS/asset_unpacker /Users/q/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/assets/packed/

Usage: /Users/q/Library/Application Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/osx/Starbound.app/Contents/MacOS/asset_unpacker <assets pak path> <target output directory>

If the target output directory does not exist it will be created

Can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

Asset pak path, not asset pack folder path.
Try this:


/Users/q/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/osx/Starbound.app/Contents/MacOS/asset_unpacker /Users/q/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/assets/packed.pak

 

I'm still getting the same "If the target output directory doesn't exist it will be created" error. I don't know why.

 

Have you tried ModPackHelper?

 

Just wanted to throw in that this isn't an error.
If the directory isn't there, it will be created, that's not an error that's intended behaviour.
And it's most likely what you want.

 

Well, I finally got it working. In the most roundabout way possible. But still! It works! So thanks for the help, even if it didn't do so much because I'm (Probably) too stupid to figure out how to do this the right way. Anyways, the day that I posted that, my neighbor came over and told me that he was giving away his desktop computers with Windows XP on them. I duplicated the file onto a USB, and then unpacked it on one of them. I also now have 4 windows licenses now. So that's nice.

 

I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I just realised how stupid I was in the past, thank you for what you did, I realise how stupid I was, I'm so bloody happy that I managed to get this done finally, thank you for the effort, and I sincerely appreciate the help. Seriously. Thank you, I was stupid, so stupid, how could I have not realised, I'm just happy, thank you.

 

i am trying to unpack the files and I am getting VCRUNTIME140.dll and MSVCP140.dll files are missing. I'm running Windows 10 & trying to unpack the Unstable version of Starbound. command I'm using is "\STEAM2\steamapps\common\Starbound - Unstable\win64\asset_unpacker.exe" "\STEAM2\steamapps\common\Starbound - Unstable\assets\packed.pak" "C:\Users\< user name >\Desktop\UnpackedAssets"

I do not want to download the dll's from a 3rd party site.

 

those DLLs come from Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015


Starbound prereqs folder contains vc_redist.x86.exe and vc_redist.x64.exe




install them both if you're using 64-bit Windows.

when running vc_redist.x64.exe on 32-bit Windows, "Setup Failed" is expected



vc_redist.x86.exe and vc_redist.x64.exe is also available from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=48145

 

So...I used to unpack mods and make minor changes to them and then repack them so that they continue to just be the .modpak files on my computer. However, I can't seem to do this anymore...or at least not with this one pak. I can unpack it just fine, it's the repacking that's not working properly for some reason. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with this bit here?

Code:

"Path\Starbound\win64\asset_packer.exe" 
"MiniDozer" 
"Path\Starbound Mods\skizots_dozers\MiniDozer\" 
"Path\Starbound Mods\minidozer.modpak"

For the record, I changed my actual path to just be "Path" up to the point where stuff matters, heh. Privacy and all that jazz. I also hit enter between each line, so that it's easier to read on the forums. However, in my bat file it's all on the same line with a space between each set of quotation marks. ^^

Anyway, I've tried renaming the folders (to match the name in the .modinfo...which is MiniDozer...and to just be lowercase), the mod name (to fit the one in the .modinfo), etc.

I'm at a loss, tbh. Can anyone help out here? I'm sure it's something absolutely stupid that I'm simply overlooking, heh...but I'm not catching any errors in the command prompt window that opens (though it's only open momentarily).

In the meantime, I'll just have to throw the folder itself into my mods directory~ Heh. =x

 

can someone make a video on this so i understand more clearly on the mac version?

 

I literally got it working as I was about to post similarly. Do you recall:

This person knows what's up.

1. Copy the code below:

/Users/USER/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/osx/Starbound.app/Contents/MacOS/asset_unpacker /Users/USER/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/assets/packed.pak /Users/USER/Desktop/TARGETFOLDER

2. Replace the capitalised USER with your own username and TARGETFOLDER with whatever you want the folder to be called.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This folder should not exist already! Let the program create it instead just in case!

3. Took me a while to figure it out, but Kayuko forgot to point out that you have to add the path to the folder you want the unpacker to unpack the contents to. For us mac users that's really simple. I recalled a windows tutorial I saw on it, where I was informed that the folder it unpacks to must not actually exist. So what I did was creating a folder, dragging it into the terminal (which the terminal translates to a path which it then can follow), and then I removed the folder, resulting in a path without the actual folder. Then I just ran the command and it worked. The code in 1. already contains a path, which will handily place the folder on your desktop, edit if you're feeling risky.

 

Just in case...so no one answers my question unnecessarily...I figured out what I did wrong. Put a slash where one shouldn't be, basically. Always funny how it's those little things that make it not work.

 

Okay then

 

There is no asset unpacker file ? just a file called run.sh in the MacOs folder Help!
(Im on mac running yosemite)

 

*Uses to re-pack assets* Lemme just hit enter here, hmm, blank? I'll just- *Starts packing* Oh my gooooooooooood!