How can I edit protected .ar files to de-conflict them?

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TonySSS
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How can I edit protected .ar files to de-conflict them?

Postby TonySSS » Fri Mar 30, 2018 2:42 pm

Hello you all here, I am new here and only use this website to download cars for MM2 to drive around tracks also downloaded from here too. At first, I had a heap overrun error once I added too many cars to my MM2 copy on my old PC and at that time there were no fixes for it. But when I discovered that there was a 'heap patcher' here that fixed it, I went ahead to reinstall MM2 along that patcher and started adding cars on my gaming PC that I got 2 years ago.

But when I decided to open the game to see if it would've actually fixed that error, I ended up with another error which is a 'heap find memMemoryAllocator' error instead, which had to do with a few .ar files conflicting with each other, so I had to install the Game Launcher also found here to see which ones were conflicting and which specific files in a single .ar file. I found out that I could delete files inside an .ar file with 7zip to de-conflict them, although it's not possible with protected ones instead sadly.

So what I want to know is if it's possible to edit those protected .ar files in someway to de-conflict them so that I can drive all of the cars I download here and put them in my MM2 copy without any errors and issues whatsoever. But I promise to NEVER re-release/share here edited .ar files of mine in any method and will only use them for my own personal use, besides I never intend to post edited ones at all, only ones that I would create in the future once I'll learn programming and 3D modelling next year hopefully.

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Postby sajmon14 » Fri Mar 30, 2018 4:21 pm

Well if they are locked then you cannot do anything with the files. Try changing the alphabetical order of some mods so they won't overwrite some files.

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TonySSS
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Postby TonySSS » Fri Mar 30, 2018 6:38 pm

Well if they are locked then you cannot do anything with the files. Try changing the alphabetical order of some mods so they won't overwrite some files.
Well. I only managed to de-conflict one mod in this way which is an Acura NSX and that's it, since the rest of the mods share the same file which is a damn thumbs.db which I honestly think it is entirely useless to me inside a file like an .ar one, so I want to delete it at all costs. Besides, is that .db file really necessary at all?

And also, some people in other MM forums said that it could actually be possible to remove protection to an .ar file, but it's really hard sadly and currently a method for this is unknown AFAIK, because the majority of modders who created mods and locked their .ar files are worried about normal users modifying them and post them here or in other sites for everyone, but I will not be one of them and will only edit them for personal/private use and never share them with ANYONE else, I promise this.
(Until I will learn programming and 3D modelling to become a modder next year hopefully, so then I will start making my own mods and also learn how to lock .ar files for them)

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Postby Franch88 » Fri Mar 30, 2018 8:19 pm

Which mods and/or cars and tracks add-ons files are causing game crashes to you? Because, usually, the conflict of more mods installed together involve only their not proper working. For example, two mods that add new solid objects in SF won't work well together because they edit the same file to do that (it's called sf.inst), and so, you can only get the changes of the mod that's ahead the other one in file name sorting. But, this thing won't even result in a game crash. Rarely cars and tracks add-ons can have a conflict between them, since they must use files with names different between them for the proper working. It can just happen with badly named texture files, at least: for example, two cars add-ons can have a texture called windows.tga but that are actually differently looking (one is grey-ish and one is blue-ish); both the cars will have proper looking windows, yes, but they'll look the same way for both, it depends by the file name sorting of their .ar file, by which one is ahead the other.
The thumbs.db file that you're talking about, present in the Jpg folder and sometimes in the Texture one too, is of an old method used by Windows XP to generate the image thumbnails of image file types, to show them instead of the file icon. Windows OS versions after it don't use this method anymore. By the way, this file is totally ignored by the game, since obviously it isn't a file type used by it, and so, its presence doesn't give problems. The same thing is with the .txt and .bak files that can be present in the Geometry folder, which are generated by ZModeler after the .pkg file exporting. It's good to remove them just for a cleaning work of the entire .ar file package, though. Even the four default game .ar files have a lot of unused files, which are the same read by the game. :P
The Heap Patcher has given a great improvement with the capability of the game to read a lot more cars and tracks add-ons, without get anymore so easy game crashes because of the presence of too much of them.
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Postby FXANBSS » Sat Mar 31, 2018 12:25 pm

Actually there is a program that extracts AR (Angel Resource) files no matter how locked they are.

DaveReader.exe
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fnMe2 ... Po1-Xn_jMn

The instructions are as simple as dragging the AR file to the EXE application, it will extract it in a folder.

Have fun with the extra modding freedom!

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Postby cody » Tue Apr 10, 2018 10:14 pm

I'm trying to access the file you uploaded, but all I get is a "Violation of our terms of service" message. Please fix that.
My Member Number is prime. LOL!

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Postby FXANBSS » Tue Apr 10, 2018 11:00 pm

Woah, google security

Here is it again but from OneDrive, links are temporal tho in this but I'll try to not remove it from my computer, not sure yet if I can keep them online only oops :P

:arrow: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aovu4LYP3ruOgQP3VAj7f4vEbDQO