I'm trying to find GTA V's base code files. I'm researching into the code that defines the Non-ELS sirens, Mostly to include the Carcols file. When trying to open gtav.exe it says that its not a supported file as its not using .NET assembly. Does anyone know how to look as the files in the .exe? I have looked everywhere else it seems for the actual game engine code that runs these meta files and I can't think of another place that would be than in the .exe files. Has anyone actually unpacked any of those files? 

GTA V is not a .NET assembly and contains no MSIL, hence dotPeek does not help you much. You would have to use something like Ghidra (free) or IDA (commercial) to study the disassembled code. Please note that this is not an easy task, though.

I had thought that it was not a .NET assembly but I just wanted to verify. It's used for a lot of other things related to GTA so I thought I might just get lucky. I am assuming yourself has actually looked through the .exe? 

 

Edited February 19, 20215 yr by stevenew95

Just gonna reply on top of myself here now.. Im in Ghidra and looking through the files. Im specifically looking at the <CVehicleModelInfoVarGlobal> Descriptor because I am looking into the file that defines the different setting in the carcols.meta file but I'll be honest a lot of it is just gibberish to me. Some is readable but some is not. Is there any way to point me in the right direction as to where it would define that information or how to specifically access that? @LMS

Edited February 19, 20215 yr by stevenew95

3 hours ago, stevenew95 said:

Just gonna reply on top of myself here now.. Im in Ghidra and looking through the files. Im specifically looking at the <CVehicleModelInfoVarGlobal> Descriptor because I am looking into the file that defines the different setting in the carcols.meta file but I'll be honest a lot of it is just gibberish to me. Some is readable but some is not. Is there any way to point me in the right direction as to where it would define that information or how to specifically access that? @LMS

 

Don't be discouraged by "gibberish", that is unfortunately often times all you can work with. Depending on our goal and experience, it might take some time, but it is definitely the way to go. What exactly are you after? Do you want to look how at how that file is presented in memory?

I'm actually looking for anything I can salvage from the Carcols file. There are still some things that are left unanswered that I am trying to find and honestly don't know if I ever will. Specifically, I was trying to look for anything referencing the code for <lightGroup> in the Carcols but have had no luck presently. I have found things referencing sirens and the Carcols file itself but nothing inside of it and I don't know other than looking at source code (which obviously we don't have access to) where to find anything referencing it. Yes, there was a TON of gibberish. I'm guessing most of the numbers are referencing where the line is stored in the memory or its referencing another file location but that's not really what I'm looking for. Thanks for the help by the way. @LMS 

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by stevenew95

GTA has its own parser structure which actually maps the tags in the file more or less directly to memory. Large parts of the parser structure are also hardcoded into the game, so there is definitely information you can find. You need to search for the hashed field names though, that is how they are stored. But it is largely undocumented and a bit of a mess.

A bit of a mess is definitely a good way to put it. I originally was just trying to search through string names and such which is how I originally found the references to the sirens. At this moment, I have no idea where to find the hashed names but ill keep looking and try to figure it out. It is unfortunate that there is not a lot of documentation on the matter. There are also multiple .exe's in GTA's directory but I'm assuming the most useful one is GTAV.exe  

 

EDIT: Yeah, it appears the other .exe files are nothing really game related. 

Edited February 21, 20215 yr by stevenew95