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<fs xx-large>Extraction</fs></WRAP>

Welcome! This is my hub for video game asset extraction related information and guides. I will be going through everything one step at a time to explain how everything works.

Please note that these tutorials presume a basic, general understanding of how to work with a computer. It demands that you are comfortable with the Windows file system, understand file paths and are capable of performing basic PC procedures like installing and running applications, editing standard file formats like ''.txt'', download files or programs from Github and can perform basic operations in Command Prompt (I prefer cmd over ps). For example, I will not be teaching how to open the Command Prompt or how to navigate between folders with it. However, this tutorial does //not// expect you to be advanced enough to actually build Github projects, for example.

===== Step 1: Basics =====
Before you can work with video game files, you need to understand some basic game development concepts.\\
I have compiled the most important ones here:

  * [[Extraction Basics]]\\
This page includes only the strictly necessary information related to extraction.

===== Step 2: Identify Game Files =====
The approach to extraction depends on what the game files look like.

Games on Android, for example, come packaged as ''.apk'' files. That's all you need to know for now and you can already move to Step 3.\\
On Windows, you will now need to dig into the game's folder and see what you can find.

  - Unreal games, for example, tend to place their files into the ''\<gamename>\Content\Paks'' folder and contain ''.pak'' and ''.utoc'' files.
  - Unity games often have their files in the ''\<gamename>\<gamename>_Data'' and contain ''.assets'' and ''.res'' files.
  - In some cases, the game might store middleware files //outside// of the game engine's files. Rocket League for example stores many Wwise files in ''rocketleague\TAGame\CookedPCConsole''.

===== Step 3: Select Approach =====
Depending on the file identification, follow the following links:

  * [[Unreal Engine Extraction|Unreal Engine]]
  * [[Unity Extraction|Unity]]
  * [[Android Extraction|.APK and Android Files]]