Decompressig GW .DAT file :)

Greetings to all !

I've been trying to decompress the huge GW DAT file in order to store the sound effects, textures, etc; but until now.... only frustating results .

I tried the usual .DAT unpackers, i even made a copy of the almost 2GB file into my Docs directory ( just to keep intact the original game file), but still without positive results.

Is it possible to do it, without harming the game file? HOW??

Ansiously waiting for replies mates

Cya later!

Check the -image switch

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=94814

I think he means decompress as-in "Extract" - to remove (copy) all the files from the .dat file so he can use them for whatever other thing he has going.

I haven't seen atleast anyone making a tool that would pop open the GW datafile.

'.dat' file extractors aren't reliable, as the file structure of these files varies from program to program, thus are usually working for few certain applications. File extensions are misleading anyways in most cases.

Googling brought up basic structure of the datfile, but no-one has coded any extractors for it, http://wiki.xentax.com/index.php/Guild_Wars_DAT

Yes... i meant extract!

Neither Dragon Unpacker nor MultiEx Commander extractors were able to read and extract the file content.

About that image switch thing... well... can you give me a detailed step-by-step help in order to aply that specific command NOT to the programs file directory, but to the copy that's in my documents folder?

Thx in advance mates!

Image switch doesn't extract anything out from the datfile, it just does the following:

1. Downloads everything you don't have (maps, models, sounds etc)
2. Uncompresses the files within the DAT file, so you don't have to wait at all when mapping around.
3. Exits itself once the above things are done

Unless you can find or write an editor that supports the file format used by GW I don't think you will succed.