1- To make it easier to access and read the game's data.
2- To enable quick script editing of the game's files.
Requirements:
1- StructIO
2- MinGW (Only if you want to recompile the C library)
Installation:
Download the build and rename the extracted folder to 'dbpf'. Outside the folder, create a python file and write import dbpf to import the library.
Creates an object resembling the structure of a .package file.
path (str): The path of the file that was used to create the Package object.
header (Header): Contains the header.
entries (list[Entry]): Contains instances of Entry.
Package()
Creates a Package object containing the data required to make an empty package file.
Package.unpack(path, decompress=False, read_names=False)
Static method. Reads a package file from the provided path and returns a Package object containing its data. If decompress is True, then all of the package's entries will be decompressed. If read_names is set to True, then the method will try to get all the names of the package's entries. Note that reading the names of the entries is slow.
pack_into(path, compress=False)
Converts the Package object into a package file and writes it to a file with the provided path. If compress is True, then the function will try to compress all of the package's entries.
copy()
Creates a copy of the package and returns it.
Inherits from StructIO.
type (int): Entry type.
group (int): Entry group.
instance (int): Entry instance.
resource (int): Entry resource.
compressed (bool): Indicates whether the entry is compressed or not.
name (str): Contains the name of the entry for supported entry types. Keep in mind that changing this value will not change the actual name in the entry's content.
Entry(type_id, group_id, instance_id, resource_id=0, name='', content=b'', compressed=False)
Creates an entry containing the provided arguments.
copy()
Creates a copy of the entry and returns it.
compress()
Compresses the content of the entry. If the content of the entry is already compressed, then nothing happens. Returns a reference to the entry.
decompress()
Decompresses the content of the entry. If the content of the entry is already decompressed, then nothing happens. Raises a CompressionError if decompression fails. Returns a reference to the entry.
read_name()
Reads the name of the entry from it's content and writes it to name. Returns the name of the entry if the entry's type is supported, otherwise returns an empty string.
search(entries, type_id=-1, group_id=-1, instance_id=-1, resource_id=-1, entry_name='')
Searches the a list of entries for the desired type, group, instance, or resource, returns a list of the entries matching the criteria. if any of the arguments is set equal to -1 then the the function will ignore that specific argument. If entry_name is specified, then the function will check if the names of supported file types contain entry_name. Searching the names requires unpacking the package with the read_names argument set to True.
General information on DBPF (Package) files (A little dated): https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=DBPF
Useful image showing the structure of a package file: https://simswiki.info/images/e/e8/DBPF_File_Format_v1.1.png
Information on the various entry types found in the game's package files (A little dated): https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=List_of_Sims_2_Formats_by_Name
Information on the compression algorithm used in the game's files: https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=DBPF_Compression
Original code for the library I used for the compression and decompression: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8279.0.html
Notepad++ with the HEX-Editor plugin was useful for viewing the game's files: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
SimPE also has a hex viewer, but it only shows you uncompressed entries: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=630456
I used this tool to compare my edited files to the original files: https://github.com/Shelwien/cmp/