How to Extract The HW2 Music and Convert to WAV

[Zatch]

After receiving another PM today on this subject, and realizing that there's never been more than a paragraph description of the process for extracting and converting the HW2 music, I decided to write a detailed but still simple to follow guide.

You will need the following:
A keyboard
Windows 98/NT/2000/XP
Homeworld 2 (installed)
About 266MB of free space on your HW2 Drive
An additional 1.04GB on the drive being used to store the WAV files
Winamp (www.winamp.com) v2.x or v5.x
The Relic AIFx Decoder Plugin for Winamp (http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=272)
A Big file extractor such as the one in the RDN modding toolkit, BigX (http://forums.relicnews.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7320), Spooky RAT, unfBig, but any one will work just fine.

So let's begin. For the purpose of simplicity, I've decided to use the Archive.exe tool that comes with the RDN toolkit. You may disregard the first step if you are using some other tool.

Warning: Your directories may be different! Do not just copy everything without reading and interpreting it first. If, for example, you have installed HW2 on your C: drive, then you won't find it on your E: drive. :)

Step 1: Extract the files from ..\Homeworld2\Data\Music.Big. My HW2 installation path is E:\Homeworld2 and I chose to extract the files to E:\Homeworld2\Data\music. Your installation directory may be different, so adjust the commands accordingly. If you are using Archive.exe, you must first open the Command Prompt by clicking Start-->Run...--> type CMD and click OK or press Enter. Once the command prompt window is open, you should type in something like this (user input is in green, *** = whatever your Windows username is)
C:\Documents and Settings\***>cd /d e:\rdn\tools\bin\archive

E:\RDN\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe -a "e:\homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
If the tool worked, you should then see this in the command prompt window (it scrolls as the files are extracted) --
Extracting Archive Contents

Extraction TOCEntry
Name : 'hw2music'
Alias: 'data'


Extracting 'sound\music\music.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_01.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_01.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_02.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_03.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_03.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_04.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_05.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_05.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_06.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_07.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_07.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_08.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_08.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_12.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_13.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\ambient\amb_14.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a00_01.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a00_01.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a01_02.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a01_02.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a02_03.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a02_03.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a03_04.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a03_04.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a04_05.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a04_05.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a05_06.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a05_06.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a06_07.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a07_08.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a07_08.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a08_09.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a08_09.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a09_10.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a09_10.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a10_11.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a10_11.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a11_12.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a12_13.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a12_13.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a13_14.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a13_14.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a14_15.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a14_15.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\a15.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\animatic.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\credits.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\hw2_trailer.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\animatic\logo.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_01.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_01.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_04.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_04_alt.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_04_alt.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_06.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_06.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_keeper.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_keeper.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_movers.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_movers.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_planetkillers.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_planetkillers.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_sajuuk.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\battle_sajuuk.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\bentus_arrival.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\battle\bentus_arrival.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis01a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis01a.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis01b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis01b.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis02a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis02a.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis02b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis02b.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis03.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis06a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis06a.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis06b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis08.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis08.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis09a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis09b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis10.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis12a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis12b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis13.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis13.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis14a.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis14a.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis14b.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis14b.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\nis\nis15.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_01.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_01.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_04.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_05.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_05.lua' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_08.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_11.fda' ...
Extracting 'sound\music\staging\staging_11.lua' ...
E:\RDN\tools\bin\Archive>

Step 2: Now we have the *.fda files extracted from Music.Big. We must now rename these files so they can be opened by Winamp (in this case, Winamp does not seem to detect the filetype from within the file, but rather from the filename itself.) In order to save you some time, I have written a batch file to do all of the renaming (and deleting the *.lua files) for you. The contents are as follows:
-----
ren .\ambient\amb_01.fda amb_01.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_02.fda amb_02.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_03.fda amb_03.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_04.fda amb_04.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_05.fda amb_05.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_06.fda amb_06.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_07.fda amb_07.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_08.fda amb_08.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_12.fda amb_12.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_13.fda amb_13.aifr
ren .\ambient\amb_14.fda amb_14.aifr
del /s .\ambient\*.lua

ren .\animatic\a00_01.fda a00_01.aifr
ren .\animatic\a01_02.fda a01_02.aifr
ren .\animatic\a02_03.fda a02_03.aifr
ren .\animatic\a03_04.fda a03_04.aifr
ren .\animatic\a04_05.fda a04_05.aifr
ren .\animatic\a05_06.fda a05_06.aifr
ren .\animatic\a06_07.fda a06_07.aifr
ren .\animatic\a07_08.fda a07_08.aifr
ren .\animatic\a08_09.fda a08_09.aifr
ren .\animatic\a09_10.fda a09_10.aifr
ren .\animatic\a10_11.fda a10_11.aifr
ren .\animatic\a11_12.fda a11_12.aifr
ren .\animatic\a12_13.fda a12_13.aifr
ren .\animatic\a13_14.fda a13_14.aifr
ren .\animatic\a14_15.fda a14_15.aifr
ren .\animatic\a15.fda a15.aifr
ren .\animatic\credits.fda credits.aifr
ren .\animatic\hw2_trailer.fda hw2_trailer.aifr
ren .\animatic\logo.fda logo.aifr
del /s .\animatic\*.lua

ren .\battle\battle_01.fda battle_01.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_04.fda battle_04.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_04_alt.fda battle_04_alt.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_06.fda battle_06.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_keeper.fda battle_keeper.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_movers.fda battle_movers.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_planetkillers.fda battle_planetkillers.aifr
ren .\battle\battle_sajuuk.fda battle_sajuuk.aifr
ren .\battle\bentus_arrival.fda bentus_arrival.aifr
del /s .\battle\*.lua

ren .\nis\nis01a.fda nis01a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis01b.fda nis01b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis02a.fda nis02a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis02b.fda nis02b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis03.fda nis03.aifr
ren .\nis\nis06a.fda nis06a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis06b.fda nis06b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis08.fda nis08.aifr
ren .\nis\nis09a.fda nis09a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis09b.fda nis09b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis10.fda nis10.aifr
ren .\nis\nis12a.fda nis12a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis12b.fda nis12b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis13.fda nis13.aifr
ren .\nis\nis14a.fda nis14a.aifr
ren .\nis\nis14b.fda nis14b.aifr
ren .\nis\nis15.fda nis15.aifr
del /s .\nis\*.lua

ren .\staging\staging_01.fda staging_01.aifr
ren .\staging\staging_04.fda staging_04.aifr
ren .\staging\staging_05.fda staging_05.aifr
ren .\staging\staging_08.fda staging_08.aifr
ren .\staging\staging_11.fda staging_11.aifr
del /s .\staging\*.lua

del music.lua
-----
Copy the green text between the dotted lines and paste them into a New Text File named Rename.txt. Rename the file Rename.txt to Rename.bat. This step is very important: place Rename.bat in the directory containing the folders Ambient, Animatic, Battle, NIS, Staging, this is a subfolder in the directory you extracted your music to (check ..\YourExtractionFolder\sound\music\.) Once it has been copied to the correct folder, double-click on Rename.bat and you should see the command prompt window flash very quickly, then disappear. When it has disappeared, check each of the subfolders to see if everything now has the *.aifr extension.
Don’t know if this helps but it's not necessary to rename the files. You just have to tell winamp to treat unrecognized files as .aifr. To do that open winamp preferences and under playlist you should see something like “Assume file extension of unknown files to be:” now the default value is .mp3 change that to .aifr and it should play the .fda files.

At least it works in ver: 5.35 don’t know about the older versions.

Step 3: The next step is to add all of the files to our Winamp playlist (note: make sure you have already installed the Relic AIFx Decoder Plugin!) The easiest method is to clear your playlist, and then select each of the folders + drag them to the empty playlist window, as seen in the spoiler below:
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2827/dragvf3.jpg

Step 4: Do not play the songs yet. If you've already clicked play, just click Stop. Now we'll convert all of the songs to WAV format. Click on Options-->Preferences-->Output Plugins-->Nullsoft Disk Writer Plugin-->Configure as seen in the spoiler below.
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/7048/diskwritesl8.jpg
Select the output directory where you have about 1.04GB free, and then click OK, then Close, and then you're back at the main Winamp screen with your playlist. Double-click on the first file and wait for the entire playlist to finish. When it's done, the output directory should contain all 61 songs in WAV format. Converting them to MP3/APE/OGG/etc... is up to you.

Note: Please post here if you have a suggestion, need clarification, found an error, etc... Please do NOT post here if Archive.exe doesn't work for you, you can't find the AIFx plugin, you can't find Winamp, you don't have HW2, your keyboard caught fire, etc... Also please note that the first step in reporting an error is to double-check this guide and make sure you followed the instructions to the letter. If you misplaced a quotation mark or spelled a command incorrectly, and it's spelled correctly here (they should be, because I copy+pasted the actual commands I used) that's not my fault. :spin:

[gamgam2]

Is the blue part supposed to be green, or is it supposed to be blue?
C:\Documents and Settings\***>cd /d e:\rdn\tools\bin\archive

and on my "cmd" whatever thingy(the command window) instead of
C:\Documents and Settings\***>
it has
C:\Documents and Settings\owner>

Is the "***" the owner thing(as in it changes depending on what kind of windows/mac you have?)

[4E534B]

Is the "***" the owner thing(as in it changes depending on what kind of windows/mac you have?)

Yes. For me, it won't be what it is for you.

[gamgam2]

>_< This is seriously starting to get annoying for me:S
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>

What would I put? The RDN thing is installed in the default location( C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network)
:S Thanks for answering if you do=)

[4E534B]

cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\archive

Should work.

[gamgam2]

>_< Sorry for all the trouble:S

All that's doing is changing it to "C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\archive>"
(in the command line thing, so it loses the first part:S)

C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>


this is the log thingy so far:S

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network
\tools\bin\archive

C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>

That's what I've gotten so far:S
(thinks it would just be easier for someone to post a link with the music in it=/)

[4E534B]

Do this:

archive.exe -a "e:\homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
...in the command propmt. That'll extract the music.

[gamgam2]

>_< This is what I've gotten so far:S





Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network
\tools\bin\archive
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe -a "e:\
homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
ERROR: Failed To Initialize Archive
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>-a "e:\homeworld2\d
ata\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
'-a' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe
-a <archivefile>, argument missing, required argument.
Archive.exe Usage:
Archive.exe -t |-c <buildfile> -r <rootpath>|-l -a <archivefile> [-v]
Required Arguments
-a <archivefile> - Specify the name of the archive to operate on.
Optional Arguments, at least one required
-c <buildfile> - Create an archive <archivefile> using the <buildfile
> input file.
-r <rootpath> - Use the <rootpath> as the source folder to locate fi
les listed in the <buildfile>. (required when -c used)
-l - List the contents of the archive <archivefile>.
-t - Test the archive File, Check the CRC of each file.
-e <extract location> - Extract the archive contents to the folder <extract
location>.
-hash - List the hash on the archive.
-v - Verbose output log all warnings/errors.
e.g.:
archive -c filestoadd.txt -a newarchive.sga
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe -a "e:\
homeworld2\data\music.big
Missing argument
Archive.exe Usage:
Archive.exe -t |-c <buildfile> -r <rootpath>|-l -a <archivefile> [-v]
Required Arguments
-a <archivefile> - Specify the name of the archive to operate on.
Optional Arguments, at least one required
-c <buildfile> - Create an archive <archivefile> using the <buildfile
> input file.
-r <rootpath> - Use the <rootpath> as the source folder to locate fi
les listed in the <buildfile>. (required when -c used)
-l - List the contents of the archive <archivefile>.
-t - Test the archive File, Check the CRC of each file.
-e <extract location> - Extract the archive contents to the folder <extract
location>.
-hash - List the hash on the archive.
-v - Verbose output log all warnings/errors.
e.g.:
archive -c filestoadd.txt -a newarchive.sga
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe -a "e:\
homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
ERROR: Failed To Initialize Archive
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>



I'm going to keep trying at it though, once agian, sorry for all the trouble>_< I still think that downloading the music would be easierXD

[gamgam2]

wow, I've been trying for like 3 hours, took a brake for about 2 hours to see friends, played some more of "complex" mod for hw2

Now I'm back:S, this is what I'm doing=/
Start -- Run -- CMD(makes a black box with letters in it, you can type commands and such)
This is what it shows first
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>

When I type this " cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\archive "

This pop's up(This is the total thing so far)
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network
\tools\bin\archive

C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>


Now, when I type this archive.exe -a " e:/homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music "

This comes up (once agian, this is the total amout=/

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\Owner>cd /d C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network
\tools\bin\archive
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>archive.exe -a "e:\
homeworld2\data\music.big" -e "e:\homeworld2\data\music"
ERROR: Failed To Initialize Archive
C:\Program Files\Relic Developer's Network\tools\bin\Archive>


What am I doing wrong? I downloaded the RDN modding kit thing, downloaded it into the default path=/ I use Windows XP if that matters, thanks for answering.
:sniper: :argh: :hi:

[Zatch]

Where is HW2 installed? As I mentioned in the first post, you need to point to your installation directory. :)

e:\homeworld2\data\music.big is the path to my *.big file, your path may be different (it's up to you to find it.)

I don't recall the default HW2 data directory, but it is probably something along the lines of:
C:\Program Files\Sierra\Homeworld2\Data

Also, I'm not going to host the files in MP3 format because of a few things:

1) I don't have the bandwidth to spare, nor do I leave my computer on 24/7 any more.

2) Nobody learns anything by having somebody else do all the work.

3) I'm not about to publicly distribute Relic's IP to whomever visits the forums. If you don't own HW2, you definitely shouldn't be downloading or extracting these files. As a result, I will delete any post providing links to the music. It's not being mean, it's being sensible.

[4E534B]

ERROR: Failed To Initialize Archive

I'd say the %HW2_ROOT% variable isn't set. In any case, I think you should PM anyone (maybe Zatch), because it's problem with Archive.exe and so shoudln't be discussed here... ( as it has already been mentioned by Zatch )


3) I'm not about to publicly distribute Relic's IP to whomever visits the forums. If you don't own HW2, you definitely shouldn't be downloading or extracting these files. As a result, I will delete any post providing links to the music. It's not being mean, it's being sensible.
;) Yeah.

[gamgam2]

Thanks, I've heard of C, D, but not E drives before, thanks for clearing that up
I'm going to start trying to do this again today^_^(hopes I can do it rightXD)

[Zatch]

Keep in mind Archive.exe is not a requirement for this process. Command-line utilities, and especially those that require setting environment variables and finding working DLL files, tend to be more of a hassle than they need to be.

[gamgam2]

Hey, if anyone else has trouble setting up the Archive.exe thingy, try this

(Thanks to Zatch for replying to this)

Right-click on My Computer (on your desktop or in your Start Menu) and click Properties. Click the Advanced tab, then click Environment Variables. Under the top box, click New. The variable name is HW2_ROOT and the variable value is your Homeworld 2 installation directory path (e.g. if you installed it in E:\Homeworld2, you would enter E:\Homeworld2 and you should enclose the path in quotation marks if there are any spaces involved.)

Thanks again, for me it would be(I hope, tell me if I'm wrong) C:\Program Files\Sierra\homeworld2
I hope thats right=/

[Zatch]

Find your HW2 directory and post it here, I'll walk you through it again.

Also, get another *.big extractor. I use Archive.exe because I find it easy to use, but if you've never used it before or you're missing an important DLL, you'll get nothing but a headache out of it. Also, avoid BigX (my frontend for Archive.exe) because it has the same dependencies (it requires the same DLL files, since it just passes the command line script to Archive.exe.) I suggest using unfBig.

[reggie368]

Hi Zatch !

First I wanted to say thanks for tips. Now I'm listening to the musics of Homeworld 2 with Winamp and it rocks !

But still I have a question, It seems that those files are only the background musics of the game (I must admit I haven't listened to all of them yet).

The tracks I'm looking for are the narratives we can hear in the games during cinematics. Do you know which file contains them ?

I hope i'm not bothering you with my question.

Thanks again.

Reggie368

[Zatch]

If you own the English version of the game, all of the speech files are contained in ..\Homeworld2\Data\EnglishSpeech.big. The process for extracting and converting them is identical, except that the paths are different and I haven't written any batch scripts to make things go faster.

Once you've extracted that *.big, look under ..\EnglishSpeech\sound\speech\animatic for the speech played during the movies, ..\nis for the speech during non-interactive-sequences rendered using the game engine (I think that's what they are,) and ..\missions for speech played during missions.

[reggie368]

ok, thanks a lot !

[MasterChiefHalo]

Zatch plz can you help me with extracting the music from HW1
or Cataclism .Theres a HW_Music.wxd file so i understand theres another method or extractor. I tried Game Extractor 1.55 it extracted all the music files but without any (.wav just for example file011 , no wav,mp3 nothig) what to do now , decomple or what? PLZ HELP!
AND Zatch Sorry for my question on origan files I was wrong and i had to reinstal the game in to english version, and i didnt realised it was agenst EULA, sorry.

[Zatch]

No worries, I realize most users are not aware of all the legal issues surrounding use of a game's intellectual property.

Unfortunately I never really got into HW1/Cataclysm modding, so I don't know what format the music files are stored in. If it's the same format as HW2, the file type will be AIFR. You'll need to rename, for example, file011 to file011.aifr and then play them with Winamp after acquiring the Relic AIFx plugin here (http://classic.winamp.com/plugins/details.php?id=272). Again, though, that method might not work since I don't know if that's actually the file format they've used. :)

I suggest searching the HW1 section of the RDN (http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16) for information related to extracting the HW1 music (and Cataclysm.) The info might already be there so be sure to search before posting.

[gamgam2]

Find your HW2 directory and post it here, I'll walk you through it again.

Also, get another *.big extractor. I use Archive.exe because I find it easy to use, but if you've never used it before or you're missing an important DLL, you'll get nothing but a headache out of it. Also, avoid BigX (my frontend for Archive.exe) because it has the same dependencies (it requires the same DLL files, since it just passes the command line script to Archive.exe.) I suggest using unfBig.


C:\Program Files\Sierra\homeworld2\Data


Is where it's located at. I have never used an extracter, so this is all new for me.I have windowsXP.
I still think it would be easier for you just to send them to me if it isn't illegal. I could send you a pic of any mod, any ship, or I could talk to you online in the game. But anyways, since you won't let me be lazy-.- Try to help I guess=/ Just like post the names of the idems I need, I can google it myself and grab them, and thanks for helping me if you do=)

[Zatch]

I've added a link to my *.big extractor (http://forums.relicnews.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=7320) in the first post. Read through it one more time and use what you've learned (namely, you now know where the data files are located.) If you don't succeed, let me know which part of the procedure you got hung up on.

[Bogomil]

Wow that worked great, great tutorial. Ive been wanting to listen to the music for ever and now I can, thanks :)

[Zatch]

I'm glad you found it to be useful. :)

[Mostly_Harmless]

Does that work for all versions of homeworld or is that hw2 specific?

[Zatch]

It is specific to Homeworld 2, but I imagine a similar process exists for Homeworld 1 and Cataclysm.

[t4ct1c47]

Thankyou for posting this thread. Not only have I been able to extract the music from Homeworld 2 but you've given me a good idea on how to use DOS commands better and create my own batch files. Cheers! :D

[Silveressa]

First off, excellent threead with easy to use instructions. I also would like to note that this process can be used to extract music from any mods .big file as well with minimal difficulty. (the ambience music from dustwars and some of the other available mods is simply gorgeous)

[Prack]

Don’t know if this helps but it's not necessary to rename the files. You just have to tell winamp to treat unrecognized files as .aifr. To do that open winamp preferences and under playlist you should see something like “Assume file extension of unknown files to be:” now the default value is .mp3 change that to .aifr and it should play the .fda files.

At least it works in ver: 5.35 don’t know about the older versions.

[Zatch]

Good point, I'll add that (with credit) to the first post. Thanks. :)

[Prack]

Thank you.

[Joe 2987]

hi im converting rite now im on #43 (battle 01) and alrdy listened to the 1st few theyre awsome any chance of a way to do this with hw1?