Help with DS files in .lz format

[Magma MK-II]

I have extracted the files from the game, and it has lots of files with .tex.lz, .anm.lz and .panm.lz formats. Any way I can see the contents of those files?

[puggsoy]

Try decompressing them using DSDecmp. If that doesn't work then upload a couple so I can take a look at them.

[Magma MK-II]

Hm, how am I supposed to use this program?

[Shade]

Hm, I know I've messed with this format before. Would you mind uploading some examples? Puggsoy already mentioned that, too, so he can look at it too.

[puggsoy]

It's a command-line program. If you don't know how to use such programs then you can use this batch script:

Code:

DSDecmp -d compressed

Put that in a .bat file. Put your files in a subfolder called "compressed", run the script, and it should output them in a folder called "compressed_dec".

[Magma MK-II]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/wzvwh4...ONSTER.rar

The files are from Dragon Quest V, btw.

[Shade]

Luckily, their fairly generic DS files that can be opened in Tinke with some slight adjusting.

I'll make you a mini tutorial on how to access them all in a bit. (And to get the little bit of effect at the end of the sheet to display correctly.)

[puggsoy]

DSDecmp decompresses them correctly, the version you included in the archive is an old version (you should use v5 alpha 2).

I made a new script to decompress and then additionally rename them to have the proper extensions:

Code:

@echo off

DSDecmp -d monster

for /R "monster_dec" %%f in (*.lz) do (
   rename "%%f" "%%~nf"
)

Put the files in a subfolder called "monster" then run this. Once it's done the files should all be in a new folder "monster_dec" and with the proper extensions.

As for the actual files, .anm (MonsterAnimation) and .panm (PaletteAnimation) seem to hold no useful data. Those .tex (TextureObject) files have 8bpp graphics though. I'm not sure where the palettes are (despite the name, I'm pretty sure they're not in PaletteAnimation files) but I'm taking a crack at it now.

Ninja'd by Shade, I should've known they can be opened by Tinke Still, hope my post helps decompress them.

[Magma MK-II]

Patiently waiting for the Tinke tutorial, because I just cant run the Dsdecmp here.

[Shade]

Mkay, sorry for the slight delay.

Go ahead and open one of the files in Tinke. Puggsoy already mentioned this, but the .tex files are the only ones of importance. Click the single file that appears and click the "Unpack" button to the right. A new file will show up below with [TEXT] at the end. Click OPEN AS, then open it up as a Palette. This is where you'll have to do some trial and error, for each file is different. For starters, type in "99999", it will then limit itself to the maximum byte amount. Subtract the result by about 500, and and look for a small cluster of promising colors like this:

Keep increasing or decreasing byte size until the colors are perfectly aligned in the corner like this:
 
(In this case, magenta is going to be the background color, for it's the first one available.) Once that's done, leave this window and open up the same file as a "Tile" this time. It should look exactly like it should. (Luckily, the tiles are already adjusted perfectly when opened) In my case, it's a little insect guy:
 
Increase the Offset until the garbage pixels at the top are completely gone, and your pieces are aligned with the side of your image:  
After that, feel free to extract the image. Also, to get the pesky effect to display correctly at the bottom (or wherever it might be), just open the file as a palette again, and type in "99999" once more. Subtract the given number by, eh, try 15. Those colors at the end will be the effect palette. Cycle through them until you get it to look right. More trial and error, but you get the general idea.

Hope I made sense of the process. If you have any issues, or there are exceptions to the technique above, let me know so I can assist you further. :>