Quake PAK

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* file name, including path: 56-byte null-terminated string. No leading slash.
 
* file name, including path: 56-byte null-terminated string. No leading slash.
 
* file contents offset (from beginning of .pak file), 4 bytes
 
* file contents offset (from beginning of .pak file), 4 bytes
* file contents length
+
* file contents length, 4 bytes
  
All numbers are [[Endianness|little-endian]].
+
All numbers are [[Endianness|little-endian]]. Since each file entry of the table consists of 64 bytes, the header's file table length (offset 8 to 11) must always be a multiple of 64, and most likely never 0. If the 4 bytes for the file table offset (offset 4 to 7) would be <code>0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00</code> or <code>0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00</code> it would also match [[Git]]'s .pack files. If the first byte is <code>0x00</code> it would also match [[Packdir]].
  
 
== Software ==
 
== Software ==

Revision as of 13:56, 18 October 2023

File Format
Name Quake PAK
Ontology
Extension(s) .pak
Magic Bytes PACK
Kaitai Struct Spec quake_pak.ksy

Quake .pak is the container file format for storing game assets in versions 1 and 2 of ID Tech game engine and some derivatives of it, including following games:

Later Id Tech games (starting from Quake 3/ID Tech 3) switched to ZIP format with .pk3 extension.

Contents

Description

This file format is very simple. File starts with PACK magic string (4 octets), then 4-byte offset to file table and 4-byte length (measured in bytes) of it.

File table consists of entries consisting of:

  • file name, including path: 56-byte null-terminated string. No leading slash.
  • file contents offset (from beginning of .pak file), 4 bytes
  • file contents length, 4 bytes

All numbers are little-endian. Since each file entry of the table consists of 64 bytes, the header's file table length (offset 8 to 11) must always be a multiple of 64, and most likely never 0. If the 4 bytes for the file table offset (offset 4 to 7) would be 0x02 0x00 0x00 0x00 or 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 it would also match Git's .pack files. If the first byte is 0x00 it would also match Packdir.

Software

Sample files

Links

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