Dragon Quest 4 (DS) .tex File Conversion

[WiserVisor]

I've become interested in creating a decompilation of the DS remake of Dragon Quest 4. I know that's a huge endeavor, so I wanted to start with something that I thought would be fairly simple, which was convert the sprites in the game into an easily-editable graphical file format, like a png. I unpacked the rom of the game using Tinke, and chose to start with the file data/MONSTER/m000.tex.lz., since I figured this was a texture file for a monster. I unpacked the .lz file, and then I tried using several different processes for converting the .tex file into something easier to work with. This included tex2png, LaTex, and several other pieces of software that supposedly could make a .tex file easier to manipulate. But none of them worked. I've seen a similar question asked in a different forum, but nothing there seemed to work for me. I can't seem to find any more leads on this, so I'd appreciate some help with finding how to convert these files.

TL;DR, Does anyone know how to convert a Nintendo DS's .tex file (specifically from DQ4 DS) into a more easily manipulated graphic filetype, and then convert back to .tex?

[Jorpho]

I know that's a huge endeavor

I'm not sure you understand just how huge you're talking about here? I don't think anyone's done a proper decompilation of a DS game yet; it's not really feasible in this case unless the official Square-Enix development tools get leaked one way or another.

I unpacked the .lz file, and then I tried using several different processes for converting the .tex file into something easier to work with. This included tex2png, LaTex, and several other pieces of software that supposedly could make a .tex file easier to manipulate. But none of them worked.

I hope you realize that "tex" is just a name; the contents of a .tex file used by one game could easily be completely different from a .tex file used by another game. (And I hope you realize there is no way in heck they are ever going to have something to do with LaTex.)

Probably the first thing to do (assuming you've already determined that no one else has done any work on this game already) would be to try opening it in Tile Molester. You will probably have to use some trial-and-error to determine the specific viewing options that will let you see anything.

[WiserVisor]

I'm not sure you understand just how huge you're talking about here? I don't think anyone's done a proper decompilation of a DS game yet;

Yeah, I know. In reality, I know I won't make all that much progress, but I want to see what can be understood and converted out of binary/weird file formats, edited, and then put back into the game. I've been able to mess with the stats of monsters, but that was through binary hacking methods rather than decompilation, so not quite the same thing. I've seen some partial decompilations of DS games, like pret's pokediamond, but it is, admittedly, incomplete.

I hope you realize that "tex" is just a name; the contents of a .tex file used by one game could easily be completely different from a .tex file used by another game. (And I hope you realize there is no way in heck they are ever going to have something to do with LaTex.)

I understand that as well. I noticed that some things that other people were asking about .tex files for other games didn't lineup with what I was seeing when I viewed DQ4's .tex files in a hex editor. Once I looked into LaTex, it became pretty obvious that it couldn't possibly be related to these files. I just listed it off, since other people have suggested it in other discussions of this file extension, and I didn't want to go through the whole "No, I already tried that."

Probably the first thing to do (assuming you've already determined that no one else has done any work on this game already) would be to try opening it in Tile Molester. You will probably have to use some trial-and-error to determine the specific viewing options that will let you see anything.

This already is starting to return some nice results! I've found some NPC sprites, but no monster sprites yet. Thanks for pointing me to a more useful piece of software!

[dawnbomb]

ARe you still around? I'd like to talk about DQ IV DS if so. My discord is Dawnbomb#3408

tell me your the guy trying to decompile DQ IV and remind me of this post, as i put my info out all over.