Pro Evolution Soccer 2015/zlib

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 Game Installation · File List Rules Rules · Aesthetic Exports · Auto-ATF Info Team IDs · Tactical · FAQ Modding Save Editor · DLC · Hex-editing · Managers · Stadiums · Faces · Kits · Boots · GK Gloves · Adboards · Team Colors · Strings · zlib · Aesthetics

Introduction

zlib in short is the method for file compression for PES that Konami uses. While zlib is a very general method for file compression, Konami has edited it very slightly for use in PES. It's also zlib that sometimes prevents you from opening a texture in for example Photoshop. This page will explain in several sections how you can recognize zlib, what files generally use zlib and when you use it, how you can unzlib and zlib files yourself, some general reminders and as last the download section.

Recognizing zlib

As described in the Introduction, zlib is the reason 99% of the time why the texture you ripped from PES won't open in Photoshop or any other image editor. Photoshop will give the error Could not complete your request because the file-format module cannot parse the file. Usually Explorer also won't show a preview in the thumbnail of the texture either (provided you had DDS preview thumbnails to begin with). A .xml file with zlib will usually show nothing when it is opened. Although if you open it with a text editor (like Notepad) it should read WESYS at the start of the file. This goes for MTL and BIN files as well. WESYS is the header for zlibbed files for PES. It's very likely that it stands for Winning Eleven SYStem where Winning Eleven is the Japanese name for PES. Most MODEL-files in PES are usually zlibbed as well. A general way to check whether something is zlibbed or not is to just open the file in a hex editor and check the header of the file. Again it should say WESYS in the header of the file.

What uses and when do you use zlib

While PES does not care whether files are zlibbed or not for almost all files, there are some files for which it is (kinda) useless. At this moment it is not known whether PES takes some files only when they are not zlibbed. Generally you can always zlib DDS, MODEL, MTL, XML and BIN files. zlibbing PNG files is useless as it will not save any file size. Most of the time PES also does not zlib very small files, usually only those >10 kB. So as rule of thumb it is advised to only ever zlib DDS and MODEL files that are over 10 kB. It's easier when MTL, XML and BIN files are not zlibbed for easy reading/understanding.

(Un)zlibbing files yourself

To (un)zlib files yourself you can use the tools you can download below Downloads. While both tools generally do the same, they work slightly different each. Both work by opening the executable and dropping your file on either the to 'zlib' or to 'unzlib' image.

The decrypt_2013.exe only allows you to (un)zlib one file at a time. When you zlib a file it will not create a backup, but it will create a backup when unzlibbing. To get the original zlibbed file back just remove the .backup at the end of the file.

The PES Edit-Crypter 1.2.exe allows you to (un)zlib multiple files at a time. However it will always create a new file with zlib_ or unzlib_ as prefix leaving the original file untouched. Make sure the Input Format is set to PC. It's also not necessary to enable Multiple unZlib to unzlib multiple files, the tool will always do this if you drop multiple files.

Reminders

• Watch out not to zlib files multiple times, sometimes it will give you a warning when a file is already zlibbed, sometimes it does not. And PES will break if a file is double zlibbed.
• Files zlibbed with general zlib commands in for example Python will not work in PES. It will still require the special header for them to work.
• For aesthetic exports it is advised to keep BIN, MTL and XML files unzlibbed, even when they are larger than 10 kB.
• Make sure that for aesthetic exports you always check whether the file is unzlibbed before you check the file size.
• Some PES tools that work with PES files sometimes only accepts files that are zlibbed or unzlibbed. So when a tool breaks when feeding it a zlibbed file, unzlib it and try again and vice versa.
• The Decrypting and Encrypting functions in the zlib tools are only used for the EDIT.BIN, so don't use them for (un)zlibbing files.

Downloads

• zlib tools: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0TwHGHvKz8TdGE0dG1Nd3NoaXc/view?usp=sharing