How to create a profile for a new game (NBA JAM: On Fire Edition for PS3)?

[johnz1]

I desperately want to create a VaultLib profile for NBA JAM: On Fire Edition (PS3). It has what looks like an AttribSys DB, called "ATTRIBDB". There is a VLT and BIN file. I have created several mods for this game, but I really don't know where to start with this DB. I'd love to get some help with a VaultLib profile for this game.

I'm sorry that I created an issue for this. I just don't know where else to put this request.

[LeoCodes21]

I'll look into it.

[johnz1]

I'll look into it.

GREAT! Here's everything I know, and the files: https://forums.nba-live.com/viewtopic.php?f=72&t=116319

[johnz1]

Hello. Is there anything I can do to help with this? Having this game in VaultLib would really be a game-changer.

[LeoCodes21]

The files seem to be in a format I can work with, so I'll see if I can put something together for you in the next few weeks. Not promising anything because I have a lot on my plate.

Without deep knowledge of the inner workings of AttribSys and VaultLib, there probably isn't much you can do on your own for now.

[johnz1]

Thank you! I have had a bounty for this file on ResHax (and previously ZenHAX) for years. It's currently $200. I would be happy to send it your way if this materializes.

https://reshax.com/topic/186-200-attribute-database-for-nba-jam-on-fire-edition-ps3/ (Registration required to view)

[LeoCodes21]

@johnz1 That was pretty easy. I'll get the whole thing dumped for you soon.

[LeoCodes21]

Stock: https://mega.nz/file/hlYHVZhI#l0sdElx8VF987XWcpBWTKsFrzHaKToT246OUmfsnTrU
2013 Roster Update: https://mega.nz/file/N9ATyCAZ#aHLjAkMtC4OS6Q4xxPhaUrLzIzHY18PBRaFDTV0WFMM

These dumps are in Attribulator's YAML export format. The top-level info.yml file contains the database schema. Each file in main\attribdb\attribdb corresponds to a "class", similar to a SQL table. You will notice that most things have 0x... names. Attribulator tries to "discover" hash->string mappings by examining the loaded data, so occasionally you will see an actual human-readable name. To calculate hashes yourself, you can use NFS-Hasher; for example, 0x08760ABA corresponds to shaquille_oneal_name_mat.

[johnz1]

Wow! Thank you so much for this.

I don't exactly know what to do next, so I have a lot of questions - but I think these are the only two that matter right now:

1. Is what you've provided enough to actually rebuild the ATTRIBDB files with modifications? Does Attribulator need a new profile for this game in order to do that?

2. Is there any way to go from hash to string? NFS-Hasher only seems to convert from string to hash. I'm REALLY hoping 0x74BC3C83 is some kind of texture scale for heads.

[LeoCodes21]

1. No, it is not enough. I created a read-only Attribulator profile for this game. In general, any profiles for console titles are read-only, as VaultLib itself is not ready to be used for console modding.
2. In general, no. Debug symbols can reveal names, or you can guess the names, but the lossy nature of hash functions means you can’t automatically recover the original input.

[johnz1]

Oh no. Looking back at previous posts, I never made it clear exactly what I wanted to accomplish. I want to be able to modify ATTRIBDB for this game. Is that an unrealistic goal, from what you know about these files?

[LeoCodes21]

The most I can offer at this time, and even this is a bit of a long shot, is the ability to generate the uncompressed BIN and VLT files. It would be up to you to deal with the NBA specific format that you unpacked.

[johnz1]

OK, maybe the game will load the uncompressed files. Do you know if anyone has been able to rebuild and compress these files for any NFS or Burnout console game?

[LeoCodes21]

Every game uses different container formats. Also, console modding for NFS attrib data is not really a thing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any console mods that are more complex than a change to a single value. Within the Burnout community, attrib data modding on any platform was not well understood until my tools came along. Even now, I don’t think it’s very commonly done.

If you can share the BMS script you used for unpacking, I might be able to implement everything in Attribulator, but it will take longer.