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RA LUNA: A Cautionary Tale
This post is intended to serve as an example of something NOT to do when running a LUNA private server, or any other type of server for that matter. Making a similar mistake could end up costing you dearly, even more so if you were to make this mistake at your actual job.
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Celestia LUNA: The Black Sheep
If you’ve been reading along post by post, you may have noticed a certain fairly well known LUNA private server is missing from both the PAK and BIN file posts. That server, Celestia LUNA, is just different enough, and with just enough history behind it, that it deserves its own post and some closer examination.
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BIN Files
BIN is one of the most common file types in an SS3D game. As mentioned in our filetype overview post, they store the vast majority of the scripts and dialog strings that make up each game. Their format has evolved over time, from a fairly simple binary encoding, to using AES encryption on top of that encoding, but at their core they are just plain text, typically ASCII, although for some regions they may also contain UTF16 multibyte characters. The two variants of BIN files (normal and AES encrypted) both share the same headers, with the actual encoded contents themselves being the only difference. Their contents vary greatly depending on what they’re intended to do, from simple lists of dialog strings, to complex quest scripts and NPC dialog pages.
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PAK Files
PAK is one of the most complex file formats that SS3D has. As mentioned in our filetype overview post, PAK stands for Pack, and the purpose of this filetype is to contain the majority of each client’s actual assets, such as models, textures, animations, etc. An easy way to conceptualize them is as a ZIP file, but without any compression and without being nearly as resilient to issues. Interacting with PAK files in any way requires using SS3D’s FileStorage library, the clients, tools, and SS3D itself all depend on this library to access PAK files.
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The File Types Of SS3D
This post serves as an overview of all of the custom filetypes SS3D makes use of and their general purpose. The list is in alphabetical order, except where closely related file types have been grouped together. In a future series of posts, we will dive deeper into some of these.
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A Brief History Of EyaSoft & SS3D
One of the primary topics of this blog will be EyaSoft and it’s games, as well as the engine powering most of them. In the course of researching information about the games themselves, I’ve ended up with a fair knowledge of the company and its origins as well. So here is a fairly brief look at the history of EyaSoft and their various games, in case anyone else is interested in where this all started.
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Hello World
Hello World! This blog was created largely as a place to ramble on about several games originally produced by Eya Interactive, later known as EyaSoft, a now long defunct Korean MMO developer, and my findings and observations while working with their code bases.