MPQExtractor

A command-line tool to extract files from MPQ archives (used by Blizzard games).

Works on MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

Dependencies

The following libraries are necessary to build the extractor:

• StormLib (http://www.zezula.net/en/mpq/stormlib.html), MIT License, free to use - included as a GIT submodule
• SimpleOpt 3.4 (http://code.jellycan.com/simpleopt/), MIT License - part of the distribution

To download the StormLib submodule, do:

somewhere$ cd <path/to/the/source/of/MPQExtractor>
MPQExtractor$ git submodule init
MPQExtractor$ git submodule update

Compilation

Requires cmake to build:

$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ cmake <path/to/the/source/of/MPQExtractor>
$ cmake --build .

The executable will be put in build/bin/

Windows: To specify the compiler and build in Release mode:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake <path/to/the/source/of/MPQExtractor> -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" 
cmake --build . --config Release

Usage

See MPQExtractor --help for more details. All the examples below are shown using the World of Warcraft 4.3 files, as of Jan 2012.

Retrieve the list of files in a MPQ archive:

$ MPQExtractor -l list.txt /path/to/art.MPQ
$ cat list.txt
art-md5.lst
Cameras\Abyssal_Maw_CameraFly_01.M2
Cameras\Abyssal_Maw_CameraFly_0100.skin
Cameras\FlyBy_Maelstrom.M2
...

*Search all the .M2 files in a MPQ archive:

$ MPQExtractor -s *.M2 /path/to/art.MPQ
Opening 'path/to/art.MPQ'...

Searching for '*.M2'...

Found files:
  - PARTICLES\LoginFX.m2
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale.M2
  - Character\Worgen\Female\WorgenFemale.M2
  - Character\Goblin\Female\GoblinFemale.M2
....

Extract a specific file from a MPQ archive:

IMPORTANT: Note that the file name is enclosed in "". This is to prevent the shell to try to interpret the backslashes (\) as the start of an escape sequence, which would result in invalid file names.

$ mkdir out
$ MPQExtractor -e "Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale.M2" -o out /path/to/art.MPQ
Opening '/path/to/art.MPQ'...

Extracting files...

$ ls out/
WorgenMale.M2

Extract some specific files from a MPQ archive, preserving the path hierarchy found inside the MPQ archive:

$ mkdir out
$ MPQExtractor -e "Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale*" -f -o out /path/to/art.MPQ
Opening '/path/to/art.MPQ'...

Searching for 'Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale*'...

Found files:
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale.M2
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMaleSkin00_03.blp
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMaleSkin00_01.blp
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMaleSkin00_05.blp
  - Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMaleNakedPelvisSkin00_05.blp
...

Extracting files...

$ ls out/Character/Worgen/Male/
WorgenMale.M2
WorgenMale00.skin
WorgenMale0060-00.anim
WorgenMale0060-01.anim
WorgenMale0061-00.anim
WorgenMale0062-00.anim
WorgenMale0064-00.anim
WorgenMale0065-00.anim
WorgenMale0066-00.anim
WorgenMale0067-00.anim
WorgenMale0068-00.anim
WorgenMale0069-00.anim
WorgenMale0069-01.anim
...

Apply some patches before extracting a specific file from a MPQ archive:

$ mkdir out
$ MPQExtractor -p /patches/wow-update-*.MPQ  \
               /patches/wow-update-base-1*.MPQ  \
               --prefix base
               -e "Character\Worgen\Male\WorgenMale.M2"  \
               -o out /path/to/art.MPQ
Opening '/path/to/art.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13164.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13205.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13287.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13329.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13596.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13623.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-13914.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-14007.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-14333.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-13914.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-14007.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-14333.MPQ'...

Extracting files...

$ ls out/
WorgenMale.M2

Apply patches with different bases, extract files in lowercase:

$ mkdir out
$ MPQExtractor -p /patches/wow-update-13164.MPQ,base  \
                /patches/wow-update-13205.MPQ,base  \
                /patches/wow-update-base-13914.MPQ
                -e "World\Minimaps\*" -f -c -o out  \
                /path/to/art.MPQ
Opening '/path/to/art.MPQ'...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13164.MPQ' (prefix 'base')...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-13205.MPQ' (prefix 'base')...
Applying patch '/patches/wow-update-base-13914.MPQ' (no prefix)...

Extracting files...

$ ls out/
world/

License

MPQExtractor is is made available under the MIT License. The text of the license is in the file 'LICENSE'.

Under the MIT License you may use MPQExtractor for any purpose you wish, without warranty, and modify it if you require, subject to one condition:

"The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software."

In practice this means that whenever you distribute your application, whether as binary or as source code, you must include somewhere in your distribution the text in the file 'LICENSE'. This might be in the printed documentation, as a file on delivered media, or even on the credits / acknowledgements of the runtime application itself; any of those would satisfy the requirement.

Even if the license doesn't require it, please consider to contribute your modifications back to the community.