Digging into the Grim Fandango Remastered files...

[JohnnyWalker2001]

I thought I'd try and dig a little deeper into the Remastered edition, perhaps someone out there can help?

It appears we have the standard files (for the Original version), with probably a few tweaks/bug fixes:

CREDITS.LAB -- IDENTICAL
DATA000.LAB -- Slightly tweaked -- bug fixes?
DATA001.LAB -- Slightly tweaked -- bug fixes?
DATA002.LAB -- Slightly tweaked -- bug fixes?
DATA003.LAB -- Slightly tweaked -- bug fixes?
DATA004.LAB -- Slightly tweaked -- bug fixes?
MOVIE00.LAB -- Stripped down to only include the original lores vids when no hires version available
MOVIE01.LAB -- Stripped down to only include the original lores vids when no hires version available
MOVIE02.LAB -- Stripped down to only include the original lores vids when no hires version available
MOVIE03.LAB -- Stripped down to only include the original lores vids when no hires version available
MOVIE04.LAB -- Stripped down to only include the original lores vids when no hires version available
VOX0000.LAB -- Much bigger -- foreign SKUs included?
VOX0001.LAB -- Much bigger -- foreign SKUs included?
VOX0002.LAB -- Much bigger -- foreign SKUs included?
VOX0003.LAB -- Much bigger -- foreign SKUs included?
VOX0004.LAB -- Much bigger -- foreign SKUs included?
YEAR0MUS.LAB -- New music inserted into here
YEAR1MUS.LAB -- New music inserted into here
YEAR2MUS.LAB -- New music inserted into here
YEAR3MUS.LAB -- New music inserted into here
YEAR4MUS.LAB -- New music inserted into here

The new LAB files are:

COMMENTARY.LAB -- Self explanatory
IMAGES.LAB -- All new images: Menu items, controls, concept art, etc.
MATERIALS.LAB -- All new textures (I think) in MCB format

I'm trying to dig into the new textures a bit, and take a look at things.

Apparently all the textures are in a new file format, MCB. Does anyone recognize what this is?

[Mr. Calavera]

Hopefully the new textures/2D backgrounds are in separated folder, but have a option inside the game to change between the old graphics and remastered graphics, then probably the old textures/ remain inside the game .lab files.

[eriktorbjorn]

VOX0000.LAB -- Much bigger -- no idea why -- higher quality audio?
VOX0001.LAB -- Much bigger -- no idea why -- higher quality audio?
VOX0002.LAB -- Much bigger -- no idea why -- higher quality audio?
VOX0003.LAB -- Much bigger -- no idea why -- higher quality audio?
VOX0004.LAB -- Much bigger -- no idea why -- higher quality audio?

Additional languages, perhaps? I haven't had the chance to try it myself, but I thought I read somewhere that they said they would include all the localizations.

[JohnnyWalker2001]

Good point. That's probably it.

[Mr. Calavera]

I'm trying to dig into the new textures a bit, and take a look at things. Does anyone know anything about MCB?

Try using the GrimEditor to open the lab files and find the texture files, I tested here and it worked (http://forums.residualvm.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=656)

[JohnnyWalker2001]

I'm already far beyond that, Mr Calavera

I'm now looking to understand the file format of the new textures.

[Mr. Calavera]

I'm already far beyond that, Mr Calavera

I'm now looking to understand the file format of the new textures.

Oh... hahaha, sorry man, am stupid

[JohnnyWalker2001]

I've made it clearer now... before I was very vague.

[Longcat]

I'm already far beyond that, Mr Calavera

I'm now looking to understand the file format of the new textures.

They are DDS texture files.
I ripped them easily with HyperRipper(included in DragonUnpacker).

[JohnnyWalker2001]

They are DDS texture files.
I ripped them easily with HyperRipper(included in DragonUnpacker).

Yes, you're right. They've placed the DDS texture inside a file format they have possibly created called MCB (might well be Manny Calavera Bytes or something like that). No idea why they would take this extra step, but HyperRipper can pull out the DDS file from inside.

It'd be great if we could extract them en masse and then reconvert them back into their MCB wrappers.

[kavehth]

I've been looking at the files that they use for the new renderer and the l3d files are used to store the lights. they're pretty straight forward and it should be pretty easy to change the lights and add new lights but when i tried to save the lab file using GrimEdi the game doesn't start any more. anyone know what is different about the lab files.

[JohnnyWalker2001]

I've been looking at the files that they use for the new renderer and the l3d files are used to store the lights. they're pretty straight forward and it should be pretty easy to change the lights and add new lights but when i tried to save the lab file using GrimEdi the game doesn't start any more. anyone know what is different about the lab files.

There's nothing different about the LAB files. I've already saved some myself and the game worked fine. Try using this software to create your LAB and see if it helps:

http://quickandeasysoftware.net/softwar ... and-dumper

It'd be great news if we could tweak the lights. There's some that really bug me in GFR. (Partial list here: http://www.doublefine.com/forums/viewthread/16239/)

[Nitrus]

It'd be great if we could extract them en masse and then reconvert them back into their MCB wrappers.

From what I'm able to see, the "MCB" is just 28 bytes of header irrelevance when it comes to the DDS files within.

That being said, it's probably relevant to their own machining. The 28 bytes ( derived from the minimal number of files I opened) consist of:
- 4 bytes: MCBH Signature (Endian Unclear)
- 4 bytes: File Size including header (Little Endian)
- 8 bytes: Unknown (Endian Unclear) [*Could be 2x4 bytes, perhaps image count, or transparency flags or lighting flags or similar, seems the same in at least 4 files.]
- 8 bytes: MCIM Signature (Endian Unclear) [*Could be 2x4 bytes, with the second one always being 0x02000000(BE), the purpose of this is unknown to me, seems the same in at least 4 files.]
- 4 bytes: DDS File size (Little Endian) [*Complete file size minus 28 bytes header size]

After this follows just an appended DDS file. You can just strip the first 28 bytes, rename the thing to DDS, and it will work.

EDIT: Forgot to say, file sizes are in bytes. (E.G.: 2,796,396 bytes, or 2.66 megabytes)
So e.g. modifying the DDS, resaving it (DXT5, no mipmaps), And then prepending the 28 bytes from above (with the file size modified if necesary), should essentially work.

EDIT2: It seems some of the DDS's do contain mipmaps, so take care with that

EDIT3: Confirmed the above described workflow works. (With Bennyboy's Resource File Creator and Dumper, not GrimEdi)

[JohnnyWalker2001]

Fantastic! Great work Nitrus!

[bgbennyboy]

I'll be adding support for Grim Remastered to Doublefine Explorer soon. I just haven't got around to building and uploading the new version.

I was experimenting with enabling developer mode in the Remastered version but failed. The lua checks for good_times are still there and there's the debug stuff present. The registry is serialised into a file in \AppData\Roaming\doublefine\GrimFandango\ though so its not easy to add that key. I also tried decompiling/recompiling the lua scripts and bundles to hack it in but didn't get any results. Its possible that something else needs to be done to make it work with the new version or that I messed up. Someone else may have more luck.