This page will cover the basics of extracting WipEout 2048 asset packs, and turning your mods into .fstar files that players can use. Information on how to modify the game's files directly once you've extracted them is not provided here, but there are other pages dedicated to a handful of file formats the game uses which can be found in the Table of Contents on the right-hand side.
As with any and all video games, before you can create mods, it's usually a good idea to dump the original assets first so you have an idea of what artwork the game is looking for and how you can manipulate it. If you don't have a good grasp of a game's internal filesystem then it can be a shot in the dark trying to replace the original assets effectively.
Extracting the original PSARC files
To extract PSARC files, we use a tool from the Vita SDK called PSP2PSARC.
You can download psp2psarc.exe here, or if you already have Firestar installed and set up, you can find it in your ~/.firestar/ folder.
The following instructions are for psp2psarc, the official Sony-developed archiving tool. Open-source alternatives may work differently.
For Windows (Powershell):
./psp2psarc.exe extract data.psarc
For Unix family systems:
wine psp2psarc.exe extract data.psarc
Use the -y flag to overwrite existing files from data.psarc when extracting patches and DLC:
./psp2psarc.exe extract -y data2.psarc
wine psp2psarc.exe extract -y dlc1.psarc
The above commands will extract to the current working directory. All of the WipEout assets are stored in a "data" folder inside of data.psarc and not the archive root, so this should all automatically end up in a data/ folder for you.
Creating .FSTAR Files
For storing mods, Firestar uses the common ZIP format with the FSTAR file extension. The contents of the ZIP are dumped directly over top of the original assets at build time when the user selects "Deploy" and then psp2psarc is called to re-bundle the assets together.
Patching Capabilities
To solve mod conflicts, Firestar uses the in-house FScript patching system. FScripts are run after a mod has been extracted and allow you to patch any file inside of the assets before the next mod is processed. This is useful if you want to modify part of a large file, without creating an entire copy of it that would overwrite any mods underneath it. FScript also natively supports using java-diff-utils to run diff patches, and includes binary editing capability. To learn more, please read Using FScript.
Firestar will execute the file named "fscript" at the root of your FSTAR package, if it exists.
Auto-Generate a Mod File
Firestar has a built-in tool to create FSTAR files. First, create a folder containing your data/ directory, and any other files Firestar needs such as your delete.txt. Then click "Tools" and then "Generate New Mod from Folder...", and select the folder your mod files are in.
This feature does not account for files needed by FScripts. If you include a file in your mod's patch instructions that is not in the player's highest priority PSARC, your mod will fail to install. Scroll down to "Specifying Dependencies" for information on how to fix this.
Manually Using a ZIP Archiver
Place your modified files inside of a new ZIP folder, ensuring that their path precisely matches the path of the originals you are replacing, including placing them in an all-encompasing data/ folder and not the ZIP root. Like so:
(And please, don't copy the ENTIRE data folder with the original assets. You will bloat your modpacks up tremendously, and you would also be committing piracy.)
Next, open the Comments editor.
On Peazip, this can be found in Tools > Comment or with the keyboard shortcut Alt+M. On WinRAR, this can be done by clicking the Comment button at the top toolbar.
Now write in your mod's metadata in JSON format. For example:
If you need to know what your loaderversion is, you can find it in the console output when you start Firestar:
Now, save your zip with the .fstar extension, and import it into Firestar. Ta-da!
Specifying Dependencies
Sometimes, the FScript or diff patches in your mod require the presence of a file that the user might not have dumped in their ~/.firestar folder. You should tell Firestar about any game updates and DLC that your mod relies on, and what files to copy if it can find them. Firestar will alert the user if it can't find a required file and abort the installation, with a friendly suggestion to dump the PSARCs and try again.
To do this, use the requires and extracts variables in your mod's metadata. requires holds a list of each PSARC needed, by filename. extracts tells Firestar which files to grab from them. Both of these are arrays of the Java type String.
Example:
"requires": [
"data2.psarc"
],
"extracts": [
"data/plugins/music/Definition.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/american/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/danish/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/dutch/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/english/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/finnish/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/french/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/german/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/italian/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/japanese/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/norwegian/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/polish/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/portuguese/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/russian/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/spanish/entries.xml",
"data/plugins/languages/swedish/entries.xml"
]
You cannot require only one of many possible PSARCs (for example, having either data.psarc or data2.psarc, with the latter taking priority). If you require an asset, pull it from the newest PSARC it's contained in. This unfortunately means if you make a mod that modifies a file in data2, but could hypothetically work with the base game, the user still needs to have data2 installed. More granular controls over the requires conditions are planned for feature level 2.