P4G PC Mod Ports to Vita?

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Ahkri The Killjoy
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Simply making this thread to ask the question... Is porting mods from the PC version to the Vita possible? If so, what tools would be needed? Are there restrictions to modding certain properties in the game on PC vs the Vita?

The idea has merely piqued my curiosity. If anyone has an answer, please do let me know
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ShrineFox
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Good question! It can certainly be done, but it can be a very manual process. It depends on what kind of mod it is, since some files are identical on PC/Vita and some are very different.
For instance, BF/BMD scripts are more or less identical. think custom/swapped models also work (need to double check...)

Where it starts getting very different is in the audio department. Vita uses at9 for sound/bgm, but PC uses some Microsoft WAV format. You'd have to dump both, match them up and batch convert/rename/replace them. Here's stuff I recommend for that:
foobar2000 (listening to audio from either version and converting to WAV): https://www.foobar2000.org/download
vgmstream plugin (opening game audio formats in foobar): https://www.foobar2000.org/components/v ... _vgmstream
at9tool (commandline wav => at9 conversion): https://amicitiamods.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=29
Bulk Rename Utility: https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

The .bin/.pac/.spr/.arc files throughout the game used for UI sprites also use .DDS instead of .TMX on PC, and are at a completely different resolution, so you'd have to also keep that in mind: scaling back down the textures and replacing them in the Vita's equivalent of the archive, and porting over any other changed files relevant to the mod as well. You can do all that using Amicitia.

One more thing to keep in mind is the Vita version is only supported by the Mod Compendium right now, but most P4G mods are for PC and therefore distributed as Aemulus packages.
You could make a Mod Compendium mod and slap the files from the Aemulus file in the directory. Some differences there:
Aemulus packages are structured like

Code: Select all

AemulusPackageManager/Packages/Persona 4 Golden/MODNAME/data_e/init/init/datMsg/datWeaponHelp.bmd
but Mod Compendium mods are like

Code: Select all

ModCompendium/Mods/Persona4Golden/MODNAME/Data/init.bin
Things to note:
1. PC files are distributed in a "data_e" folder (which corresponds to the English CPK they're from), but on Vita they just go in the root of the CPK so there's no need to specify with a folder name.
2. The contents of Mod Compendium mods go inside another folder called "Data" instead of the root of the MODNAME folder.
3. The rest of the path is derived from the path of the edited file inside the .bin, which can be found using Amicitia. In this example, "datWeaponHelp.bmd" is inside a file called "init/datMsg.pak" inside "init.bin", thus the two "init" folders.
Aemulus mods support loose files like that whereas with the Mod Compendium they must be packed in the archive they're from, so more manual replacing with Amicitia...

Here's a recent example of what I mean, where I walk through converting the Custom Sub Menu mod from PC to Vita.
It touches on a lot of these concepts since I took the field.bf from the Aemulus package and put it in the Vita's init_free.bin.

Hope this clears things up but feel free to ask for more clarification! I know it's a lot of info to dump, especially if you're not familiar with these programs.
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Ahkri The Killjoy
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ShrineFox wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 3:04 am Good question! It can certainly be done, but it can be a very manual process. It depends on what kind of mod it is, since some files are identical on PC/Vita and some are very different.
For instance, BF/BMD scripts are more or less identical. think custom/swapped models also work (need to double check...)

Where it starts getting very different is in the audio department. Vita uses at9 for sound/bgm, but PC uses some Microsoft WAV format. You'd have to dump both, match them up and batch convert/rename/replace them. Here's stuff I recommend for that:
foobar2000 (listening to audio from either version and converting to WAV): https://www.foobar2000.org/download
vgmstream plugin (opening game audio formats in foobar): https://www.foobar2000.org/components/v ... _vgmstream
at9tool (commandline wav => at9 conversion): https://amicitiamods.jcink.net/index.php?showtopic=29
Bulk Rename Utility: https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/

The .bin/.pac/.spr/.arc files throughout the game used for UI sprites also use .DDS instead of .TMX on PC, and are at a completely different resolution, so you'd have to also keep that in mind: scaling back down the textures and replacing them in the Vita's equivalent of the archive, and porting over any other changed files relevant to the mod as well. You can do all that using Amicitia.

One more thing to keep in mind is the Vita version is only supported by the Mod Compendium right now, but most P4G mods are for PC and therefore distributed as Aemulus packages.
You could make a Mod Compendium mod and slap the files from the Aemulus file in the directory. Some differences there:
Aemulus packages are structured like

Code: Select all

AemulusPackageManager/Packages/Persona 4 Golden/MODNAME/data_e/init/init/datMsg/datWeaponHelp.bmd
but Mod Compendium mods are like

Code: Select all

ModCompendium/Mods/Persona4Golden/MODNAME/Data/init.bin
Things to note:
1. PC files are distributed in a "data_e" folder (which corresponds to the English CPK they're from), but on Vita they just go in the root of the CPK so there's no need to specify with a folder name.
2. The contents of Mod Compendium mods go inside another folder called "Data" instead of the root of the MODNAME folder.
3. The rest of the path is derived from the path of the edited file inside the .bin, which can be found using Amicitia. In this example, "datWeaponHelp.bmd" is inside a file called "init/datMsg.pak" inside "init.bin", thus the two "init" folders.
Aemulus mods support loose files like that whereas with the Mod Compendium they must be packed in the archive they're from, so more manual replacing with Amicitia...

Here's a recent example of what I mean, where I walk through converting the Custom Sub Menu mod from PC to Vita.
It touches on a lot of these concepts since I took the field.bf from the Aemulus package and put it in the Vita's init_free.bin.

Hope this clears things up but feel free to ask for more clarification! I know it's a lot of info to dump, especially if you're not familiar with these programs.
Oh wow, thanks a lot! Definitely helpful. I'm not too knowledgeable about modding, but this definitely points me in the right direction. I'll certainly be experimenting with this soon. Thank you!
Seek your lasting future in the Dreamscape~
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