Hacking MOO1 LBX

rhicco · March 1, 2004, 15:43

I'm not sure how many people are out there are still trying to decode the .lbx file in order to mod the original game but this seems to be the most active forum I could find.

Previously people were able extract subfiles from the lbx package. Later, Cronel (r.i.p.) thankfully posted details on the 6bit DAC format for the palettes.
http://cronel.mube.net/moo/lbx.html

A friend and I have carried on the work and have taken it a step further. We've had some progress in this area recently. So far we've been able to reverse engineer the image compression format (at least partially, animation files still in progress).

For those interested, here is the run down:
-All of the original mouse pointers have also been extracted.
-All voice sound data can be extracted
-many of the game images can be extracted

If anyone is still interested in this stuff let it be known

Rhicco

PS
I thought I would add a little goody that no one else has seen before. "Where did everyone go?"

vmxa1 · March 1, 2004, 16:59

Ray K has been working on this, making an update in java for Moo1. Find the thrad here to see how it has progressed.

vmxa1 · March 1, 2004, 17:00

Here it is:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=106466

rhicco · March 1, 2004, 23:06

I think Java Moo is more about recreating the game. My project is more about decomposing and modding the original.

But Ray might be interested in the tool I'm developing if he thinks that pulling the original graphics and sounds directly out would save him time spent in photoshop touching up screen shots. For instance getting the picture I posted is not possible using a screenshot utility.

vmxa1 · March 1, 2004, 23:44

What is the pix from?

rhicco · March 2, 2004, 00:24

That pic was produced by a tool that I made to decompose the .lbx files. It was made directly from the game data files.

vmxa1 · March 2, 2004, 01:50

I can't seem to place it in Moo, maybe because the colors are more vivid.

rhicco · March 2, 2004, 12:56

Thats the background image for the research screen. Normally a picture of your current race would be on top of that and say a diagram of a missle on the board and a bunch of text.

Here is a screenshot, and to make this useful would take some work.

rhicco · March 2, 2004, 13:06

oop, here

vmxa1 · March 2, 2004, 14:16

Ok, it was due to the vividness. Now I see it in contex, the bright colors do not confuss things.

I guess I need to play another game tonight. It has been about a week.