Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Vasudan Commander on August 04, 2007, 11:42:15 pm

Title: DLL viewing
Post by: Vasudan Commander on August 04, 2007, 11:42:15 pm

Hey guys

Does anyone know where i can get a program that allows me to view the contents of a .DLL file? (i'm trying to search for sounds from other games to use in my campaign)

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Herra Tohtori on August 05, 2007, 12:15:17 am

DLL's? :nervous:

They are dynamic-link libraries. Executables use them as extension libraries. They can contain executable code or data, but getting it to be viewed in any practical way (without the executable that is planned to use that library) is out of my understanding since the files themselves are compiled from some source, so effectively they are in binary format... so you'd need some kind of decompiler to get the source files out (in some form), and... that's really something of a black art AFAIK. Kinda like nechromancy, reviving bits and bytes from their post-compiling part of life... please be considerate of the poor buggers. :blah:

And, what would you see in there that would be of any practical value for you? DLL's are rarely used as containers for game media anyway. I've actually never heard of it but I guess it could be done, although I can't think of anyone wanting to do that for a game.

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Davros on August 05, 2007, 05:14:27 am

possibly a compiler add the dll to your project
and it may let you see the functons in them

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Nuke on August 05, 2007, 06:19:40 am

why would anyone want to store sounds in a dll? not that it cant be done. anything that can be written out in source code (which pretty much means anything), can be compiled as a dll. but that seems like a rather slow way to do it, as the whole file needs to be loaded into memory. code to get the sound effects from elsewhere are more effietient as you can put to memory only the effects you are currently using.

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Fragrag on August 05, 2007, 03:55:27 pm

If you're looking for the sound files, they're somewhere else, not sure where though.

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Unknown Target on August 05, 2007, 04:12:54 pm

If there aren't any external files, they're probably compiled into the EXE, which means you're screwed unless you record the sounds in-game.

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Nuke on August 05, 2007, 06:29:15 pm

tell us what games and we might be able to help

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 07, 2007, 03:17:11 am

Yeah most games use pack files, Homeworld uses .BIG, Quake based games tend to use .PAK or PK3 files, and our very own FS2 uses .VP......



Try a mod community for the game in question, they should have a FAQ page...  :)

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: jr2 on August 07, 2007, 08:05:10 am

Dragon UnPACKer (http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/File-Editors/Dragon-UnPACKer.shtml)
WinRipper (http://www.snapfiles.com/get/winripper.html)

Both are free.

Title: Re: DLL viewing
Post by: Nuke on August 09, 2007, 04:48:52 am

you know quake pak files version 3 and up are just zip files :D