Tutorial How to successfully pack and unpack .pak files

Haven't seen a tutorial and people keep asking so I figured I'd make one. This guide will assume you know what you're doing and are a competent computer user.

[MODERATOR EDIT]
For paking - the code is now simply

Code:

"<location of asset_packer.exe>" "<folder to pack>" "<location to place>filename.pak" 

The "name" parameter has been removed.
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Windows

tutorial video by @aMannus

Unpacking

Step 1: Navigate to your Starbound directory and (using SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK) open command prompt

Step 2: Type into Command Prompt "win32\asset_unpacker.exe", "assets\packed.pak", and the path to where you want to extract the stuff to.

Mine looks like this

Code:

"win32\asset_unpacker.exe" "assets\packed.pak" "UnpackedAssets"

Step 3: Wait until the process is finished. You'll know its finished when the command prompt brings up a new line for you to type on.

Now your stuff is all unpacked!

Packing

This works almost exactly the same as unpacking.

Step 1: Navigate to your Starbound directory and (using SHIFT + RIGHT CLICK) open command prompt

Step 2: Type into Command Prompt "win32\asset_packer.exe", the name of what is being packed(this doesn't change anything about it), the path to the folder that you want packed, and the path to where you want the .pak to go
Mine looks like this

Code:

"win32\asset_packer.exe"  "butts" "giraffe_storage\mods\MOD2PAC" "packedmod.pak"

Step 3: Wait until the process is finished. You'll know its finished when the command prompt brings up a new line for you to type on.

Now your stuff is all packed!

Mac Packing/Unpacking

if this doesn't work, follow this post below which is mostly the same as the Window's process but paths and syntax are different.

Linux Packing/Unpacking

The process is mostly the same as above but paths and syntax are different.

If this doesn't work, the old method is put below!

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Programs to do this for you

Windows

Mac

-Needs done-

Linux

-Needs done-

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Using .pak files with mods

 

mmmmm so nice.

 

[if you place those peices of code into a .txt, save the txt, and convert the .txt to a .cmd, you can cut all the typing and just run the cmd files]

 

For OS X, the location of the unpacker/packer is in the Starbound.app file. So you'll wanna do something like

Code:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/Steam/SteamApps/common/Starbound/
Starbound.app/Contents/MacOS/asset_unpacker assets/packed.pak assets/test

 

what about creating mods? how would you do that the same as normal but .pak it

 

Thanks for the guide I was trying to figure it out.

On thing though why not do this command first

Code:

cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Starbound

then you only need to put this

Code:

 "win32\asset_unpacker.exe" "assets\packed.pak" "assets\test"

oh also I didn't need a command prompt run as the admistrator

 

Question: how do I start a command prompt? I'm using a Windows 7 operating system.

Edit: And why is my username orange in this thread alone?

 

the game currently doesn't scan for .pak files in the mod directory so just keep the mods how they were before

Just being safe with the running as admin, also I was trying for the easiest approach. Explaining how to change directories would create 2 more steps

click the big blue windows orb, search for "cmd" and open it.

 

What do I do with the files after I unpack them >_> just wondering

 

whatever you want! You can mod them, delete them, add files... ANYTHING

 

Linux (assuming you're in the right Linux32/Linux64 dir)

Code:

./asset_unpacker ../assets/packed.pak ../assets/unpacked

 

Thank you but what about the linux?

 

added!

 

Thanks for the help. It takes some time to unpack everything, but it works. I'll add a shortcut to this program in my Starbound folder for quicker finding.

For those of you who want to know which "cmd.exe" you're supposed to open (since some of them may be trojans), go to "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" (for Windows 7 users, though I'm not sure if it's different for Vista or XP users).

 

Can you create a .bat file, where when you edit something in your /test assets then you can create a new .pak with just only running the .bat?
Thanks for the help anyway!

 

Everytime I try and unpack the files it says this in the command prompt:"Exception caught: I0Exception: remove error: Permission denied 0043F4F4 asset_unpacker.exe
00413CEA asset_unpacker.exe
004168E9 asset_unpacker.exe
004B65E3 asset_unpacker.exe
004010FD asset_unpacker.exe
77099F72 ntdll.dll
77099F5 ntdll.dll"

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Assuming that I just downloaded a mod from the site in order to add it to my game, is there a reason to unpack a mod? Or can I just put it in my mods folder and have the game run normally?

 

close command prompt and reopen it. I got errors like that too and that fixed it

mods dont work with .pak files so you'd have to unpack it for it to work.
In order for them to work, you'd have to manually add them to the bootstrap config.

 

That "IOException: remove error" was what it was throwing when I attempted to unpack to an existing directory earlier.

 

like I said, just reopen cmd and it should work as mine did.