PlayStation archive (PSARC)

Description

PlayStation ARChive is a container that allows subfolders and per-file compression using Zlib or lzma with 9 compression levels

• Notes:
  • lzma with compression level 9 has a compression ratio of around 50% of the size for general files
  • some files doesnt admits much compression like .BIK videos (max compression ratio for .BIK doesnt reachs 1% or 2%). For this reason is better to dont use compression with videos because the size reduction is ridiculous

Structure

See Discussion page

Header

PSARC header example:

Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
00000000  50 53 41 52 00 01 00 04 7A 6C 69 62 00 01 23 BA  PSAR....zlib..#º
00000010  00 00 00 1E 00 00 09 16 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 02  ................

PSARC Header

Offset	Size	Name	Example	Value (conversion)	Notes
0x00	0x04	magic	50 53 41 52	PSAR	PlayStation Archive
0x04	0x04	version	00 01 00 04	v1.4	First 2 bytes is the main version, next 2 bytes is the subversion and are processed separatedlly, so 0001.0004 is "translated" to 1.4 by the system
0x08	0x04	compression type	7A 6C 69 62	zlib	zlib (default) or lzma
0x0C	0x04	table of content length	00 01 23 BA	0x123BA
0x10	0x04	table of content entries size	00 00 00 1E	30 Bytes	Default is 30 bytes
0x14	0x04	number of entries	00 00 09 16	1+2325 files	The filecount includes the "file path/names definitions" as an additionall file always placed at first position in the list and without an assigned ID
0x18	0x04	block size	00 01 00 00	65536 Bytes	Default is 65536 Bytes
0x1C	0x04	archive flags	00 00 00 02	Absolute paths	Default is 0. See table below

PSARC Archive Flags are stored in the header as a big endian number, and defines the characteristics and structure of the archive when it was created

PSARC Archive Flags

Hexadecimal (big endian)	Decimal	Binary (flags)	Flag Name	Notes
00 00 00 00	0	00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000	relative archive paths (no slash character at the start of every line)	default value when using command line or xml
00 00 00 01	1	00000000 00000000 00000000 00000001	ignorecase archive paths (all characters in capitals)	same than --ignorecase in command line and ignorecase="true" in the xml
00 00 00 02	2	00000000 00000000 00000000 00000010	absolute archive paths (slash character added at the start of every line)	same than --absolute in command line and absolute="true" in xml

File table

The compression is applyed "per-block", is posible to know the compression level by looking at the zlib header

Zlib Header (more info here and here)

byte index	bit 7	bit 6	bit 5	bit 4	bit 3	bit 2	bit 1	bit 0
[0] CMF	Compression info 7 = indicates a 32K window size				Compression method 8 = denotes the "deflate" compression
[1] FLG	FLEVEL 0 - compressor used fastest algorithm 1 - compressor used fast algorithm 2 - compressor used default algorithm 3 - compressor used maximum compression, slowest algorithm		FDICT (Preset dictionary) If set, a DICT dictionary identifier is present immediately after the FLG byte. The dictionary is a sequence of bytes which are initially fed to the compressor without producing any compressed output. DICT is the Adler-32 checksum of this sequence of bytes (see the definition of ADLER32 below). The decompressor can use this identifier to determine which dictionary has been used by the compressor.	FCHECK value must be such that CMF and FLG, when viewed as a 16-bit unsigned integer stored in MSB order (CMF *256 + FLG), is a multiple of 31.

PSARC Tools

There are several versions of PSARC related tools, features has been implemented along the different versions and is hard to keep a record of them, please help filling the info in the page

GUI versions are derivated from the command line versions

Command line versions

Open PSARC PS3 Extractor

By Matthieu Milan. It allows you to extract PSARC archive data in linux

Source code: https://www.ferb.fr/ps3/PSARC/

PSARC tool

Port of Matthieu Milan's open PSARC PS3 extractor to Windows. Tool written by Matthieu Milan (@usineur). Ported to VS2012 by AlexAltea.

source code: https://github.com/AlexAltea/psarc-tool

Usage:
 psarc [option] filename

Options:
 -l                Create a text file that lists the file id, size, and name of every file in the archive.
 -x                Extracts all files.
 -e START END      Extracts files with the file id specified by the range between START and END (inclusive).

PSARC Extractor

By Insomniac @ xentax forums, download link: http://www.ps3hax.net/downloads.php?do=file&id=452 and http://www.modcontrol.com/Board/pc-tools/28869-psarc-ps3-extractor.html

Usage:
 PSARC [flag] <fileName>

Flags:
 -l             Creates a text file that lists the File ID, Size, and Name of every file in the archive.
 -e START END   Extracts files with the File ID specified by the range between START and END (inclusive). 
 <blank>        Extracts all files.

• Examples:
  • Extract all files from data.psarc : PSARC data.psarc
  • Create list of files from data.psarc : PSARC -l data.psarc
  • Extract file with File ID 5 : PSARC -e 5 5 data.psarc
  • Extract files with File ID 7 through 12 : PSARC -e 7 12 data.psarc

The flag -l creates a .txt file with a list of all the contents of the archive, the info included is: File ID, File original size, and File path inside psarc archive

Example of a .txt file created with the -l flag:

ID       Size         Name
1      | 7,39 KB    | /my/files/dummies/dummy1.bin
2      | 8,80 KB    | /my/files/dummies/dummy2.bin
3      | 3,30 KB    | /my/files/dummies/dummy3.bin

PSARC

1.60.008 SDK : x
1.92.001 SDK : x
3.40.001 SDK : psarc-138.002 (C++), built on Feb 15 2010 at 16:17:41
3.41.001 SDK : psarc-138.002 (C++), built on Feb 15 2010 at 16:17:41
3.60.001 SDK : psarc-138.002 (C++), built on Feb 15 2010 at 16:17:41
3.70.001 SDK : psarc-138.002 (C++), built on Feb 15 2010 at 16:17:41
4.00.001 SDK : psarc-1310.001 (C++), built on Nov 16 2011 at 03:31:36
4.50.001 SDK : psarc-1310.001 (C++), built on Nov 16 2011 at 03:31:36

• From xentax forums: http://forum.xentax.com/viewtopic.php?p=44228&sid=0a7b5167ba4599f71f85471119c918a6#p44228
• Download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?o3wy35uublreh
• Help

usage:
 psarc verb [options] [file...]
 psarc --xml=XMLFILE

verbs:
 create                                  Create an archive. (default)
 extract                                 Extract contents of an existing archive.
 list                                    List contents of an existing archive.
 dump                                    Print detailed info about archive for unit testing.
 verify                                  Verify an existing archive's structural integrity and ensure that all files can be decompressed.
 dtd                                     Display a DTD describing psarc's XML input syntax.

general options:
 -h, --help                              Show this help message and exit.
     --version                           Display version and exit.
 -d, --debug                             Debug: Show debug messages.
 -v, --verbose                           Verbose: Show additional progress. (default)
 -q, --quiet                             Quiet: Don't show any progress.
 -y, --overwrite                         Overwrite existing files when creating/extracting.
 --xml=XMLFILE                           XML list of actions to perform.

create options:
 -oFILE, --output=FILE                   Archive filename to create.
 -IINPUTFILE, --inputfile=INPUTFILE      Inputfile listing files to archive. Consider --xml instead, which gives you more control.
 -m, --mself                             Create a PSARC-MSELF hybrid file for PS3, which can contain encrypted special files like SDATA, SPRX, and SPU SELF.
 --zlib                                  Use Zlib when compressing. (default)
 --lzma                                  Use LZMA when compressing. (usually for PS3 PSN)
 --level=N                               Compression quality. 1 is fastest, 9 is best. (default = 9)
 -N, --nocompress                        Store all files uncompressed in the archive.
 -bBS, --blocksize=BS                    Use blocks of size BS. (default = 64KiB)
 -jJOBS, --jobs=JOBS                     Compression threads to run at a time. (default = number of CPUs)
 -sREGEX, --strip=REGEX                  Perl-compatible regex specifying a prefix to strip from the pathnames stored in the archive. This may be specified more than once. (default = current dir)
 -S, --strip-all                         Strip all paths from files stored in the archive.
 -a, --absolute                          Make the paths within the archive absolute.
 -R, --relative                          Make the paths within the archive relative. (default)
 -i, --ignorecase                        Make the archive directory case-insensitive.
 --exclude=WILDCARD                      Wildcard specifying files to exclude.
 --skip-missing-files                    If set then ignore it when a file cannot be found.
 --mergedups                             Compare the content of all files, and merge identical files so that only one copy of the data is included.

extract options:
 --input=FILE                            Archive to extract files from. (default is first file argument)
 --to=DIRECTORY                          Directory to write extracted files to. (default is current directory)

--blocksize is in bytes.

Total Commander plugin

http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/PSARC.html

GUI versions

PS3 PSARC GUI

It's a graphical user interface to view, extract or create psarc archives. GUI written by aldo, unknown psarc tool used internally

Download link: http://aldostools.org/ps3_psarc_gui.rar

Games or Apps using PSARC files

External information			PSARC Header info					Notes
Platform	TITLE_ID	TITLE	Version (offset 0x04)	Compression (offset 0x08)	TOC entry size (offset 0x10)	Block Size (offset 0x18)	Flags (offset 0x1C)
		Ape Escape	00010004	Zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000002	uses full paths (created with --absolute)
		Atelier Rorona Plus	00010004	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000002
		God of War. Ascension	00010004	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000002
		Killzone 3	00010004	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000001
		Mass Effect 3	00010004	lzma	0000001E	00010000	00000003	AUDIO.PSARC created with: --lzma --nocompress --absolute --ignorecase MAIN.PSARC created with: --lzma --absolute --ignorecase
		Motorstorm. Pacific Rift
		Ni No Kuni						.psarc file extensions renamed to .adat
		The Last Of Us	00010003	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000000	the game can load files from decompressed psarcs (because the original psarcs doesnt uses flags)
		Uncharted 2	00010003	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000000	the game can load files from decompressed psarcs (because the original psarcs doesnt uses flags)
		Warhawk
		VidZone	00010004	zlib	0000001E	00010000	00000000

• Other games that probably uses PSARC's
  • Uncharted 1?, and 3?
  • Killzone colletion ?
  • God of War. III ?
  • God of War. Collection ?
  • other Motorstorms ?

• Rebuild notes:
  • Mass effect 3 MAIN.PSARC contains a folder with generic files (compressed with level 9) and another folder with .BIK videos (not compressed at all). In the creation options suggested above in the table the compression level is not defined and this means all them will use the default compression level 9 (so the .BIK files will have an 1% or 2% of compression ratio). This is not how the original file was created (but works), it seems there is a way to define specific compression levels "per file" or "per folder" (by using a DTD.XML filelist?)