Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War - Media files extractor

by death_the_d0g

About:

A small collection of Python scripts that will process specific PAC files containing Ace Combat Zero's media files (such as movies and audio) so they can be easily accessed.

Requirements:

• Have Python version 3.8.5 or newer installed in your computer.
• PAC files to split. You can get them from ACZ's STREAM and SMV folders.

Compatible PAC files with these scripts: RADIO.PAC, RADIO[US/JP].PAC, BRIEF.PAC, MOVIE[US/PAL].pac, BGM.PAC.

Usage:
Place the PAC file to split and the script to be used (if you want to get the data from the MOVIE.PAC archive grab the "ACZ MOVIE[XX] splitter" script file. Keep in mind the game version from where you got the PAC file) then run the script. It will create a folder and dump the contents of the PAC file in it.

Notes:

• When extracting videos, the files will be dumped using the AVI extension. THIS IS NOT THE CORRECT FORMAT. The videos were encoded using the MPEG-2 codec, meaning that it can be viewed by most video players. When the videos are being played, the timeline bar of your player will not work.
• The videos are demuxed (the video and its audio stream are stored in separate files), so you will need to extract the contents of the BGM.PAC file to get their repsective audio files.
• DATA.PAC is not compatible with any of these scripts.

Video files:
BRIEF.PAC : contains the videos used during briefing.
MOVIE[US/PAL].PAC: contains video cutscenes (interviews, story, etc).

Audio files:
BGM.PAC: contains the game's music, the video (and pre-rendered) cutscenes' audio streams and some special sound effects.
RADIO[US/JP].PAC: contains radio chatter.

Recommended file converters:

For NPSF files : Psound or VGMstream.

For video files : Shutter Encoder or FFMPEG (for advanced users)

Special Thanks:

BelkanLoyalist for testing

Contact:
death_the_d0g @ Twitter and ModDB
Charles Charleston @ Youtube