ETS2 Mods

The SCS Extractor has been introduced years ago, widely used by most modders

to extend the functionality and gameplay experiences on both SCS popular games

Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator. Even though it's handy

and useful, SCS Extractor has a big disadvantage: lack ability of selective

file extraction. Came from that limitation, the SXC Extractor was written.

SXC Extractor (can be pronounced as Sexy Extractor) is another level compared

to the predecessor. It has list mode, able to selectively extract or list

contents based on certain criteria, and also support extracting mod zipped

files even with the "encrypted" ones. SXC Extractor however does not provide

ability to compress or recompress. As its name says it just an extractor tool.

Basic Usage

===========

SXC Extractor is a console program runs under Microsoft Windows. Like the

predecessor, it is a simple text based application. No fancy GUI and no

bullsh*t. It comes without installer. Extract the SXC Extractor package using

any ZIP Archiver program onto a destination folder of your choice. From

Windows Explorer, press Shift + Right Click on the extracted destination

folder then choose a menu item labeled as "Open Command Prompt from here" or

"Open Power Shell from here" depending on your Windows version. Running SXC

Extractor can be done by typing:

sxc

Or under Power Shell console:

.\sxc.exe

After typing, press the Enter key on the keyboard to actually execute the

application. Running extractor without any parameter will just display a usage

tips of parameter description, which will have described more details here.

Working with Files

SXC Extractor requires at least one parameter in order to function. You need

an input file to be processed, either SCS native game data/DLC files (with

.scs extension) or mod zipped files (with .scs or .zip extension). It can be

typing like this:

sxc thefile.scs

Or:

.\sxc.exe thefile.zip

Note the argument is preceding with a space character. Each argument must be

separated with at least one space character. If an argument contains spaces,

you should enclose it with double-quotes. Take a look at this example for

input file that containing long path and spaces:

sxc "C:\Program files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Euro Truck Simulator 2\def.scs"

Typing long argument can be a painful task especially if you don't know how

to copy a fully qualified path with file name and pasting it into Windows

console. SXC Extractor allow you to select a file in an easy way through Open

File dialog. Use an -i switch (lowercase letter 'I') as replacement of input

file into the argument as follow:

sxc -i

It will bring you a popup dialog window to select a file. Pressing Cancel

button on the dialog will abort the operation, and display usage tips as if

you run the program without argument.

Another trick is by creating a Windows shortcut and store it in the same

folder of SXC Extractor. For example, if you create a shortcut that

pointing to actual "base.scs" file on Steam folder with the shortcut file name

it as "base.scs" and store it in SXC Extractor folder, you can supply this

shortcut as the input file argument:

sxc base.scs

Or:

sxc base.scs.lnk

When working with SCS native game data/DLC input file, SXC Extractor will

create an associate index file (with .idx extension) and store it at the same

folder where SXC Extractor stored. The index file will be created when opening

input file at the first time, or re-created when the input file gets update.

Index file is required in the purpose of speed up process to work with the

same input file later. Note that there'll be no index file being generated

when working with mod zipped file.

List Mode and Extraction

========================

If supplying with only input file, SXC Extractor works under list mode. List

mode is where you are able to see the list of items (files and folder paths)

within the input file without actually extracting them. By default, only files

with their own path are listed. To extract these items, you have to supply the

output path argument as target extraction folder.

Output path argument must be pointing to an existing folder with write access

permission. Avoid supplying path to system folders as they might have special

access permission that may not granted to Windows user currently logged in.

Output path is specified by an -o switch (lowercase letter 'O') followed by

the target folder path like this:

sxc myfile.scs -o C:\Temp

If the target folder path containing spaces, as usual you must enclose it with

double-quotes, like this:

sxc myfile.scs -o "C:\My projects\ets2 mod"

SXC Extractor allow you to select target folder path by selecting it from a

folder selection dialog. Instead of using an -o switch, replace it with an -od

switch like this:

sxc myfile.scs -od

On execution, it will ask for target folder location through a dialog window.

Pressing the Cancel button on the dialog will abort target folder path

selection and automatically fallback into the list mode. For security reason,

SXC Extractor does not natively support folder shortcut or logical folder such

as a ZIP file.

Base Path and Wildcard Filtering

================================

The main feature of SXC Extractor is the ability to list or extract selective

files. This is done through the -d and -f switches (lowercase letter 'D' and

'F' respectively). The -d switch is used to specify the base path as working

root path. Any items on input file where outside this path will be ignored and

excluded from the process. Specify this base path as second argument after the

-d switch, as shown in this example:

sxc base.scs -d unit/hookup/

This will list all items under "unit/hookup/" path on the "base.scs" input

file. Just take a look at another example:

sxc def.scs -o C:\Temp -d \def\world

This will extract all files under "def\world\" path in input file "def.scs"

and store those files into "C:\Temp" folder. Even though you specify a base

path, the results of extracted files still maintain the original directory

structures. From the above example, those files (and subfolders if any) can be

found in "C:\Temp\def\world" folder. It works that way to allow modders

working with their mods and keep directory structures in place. Note that you

can specify slash or backslash character as delimiter in the base path, with

or without leading and trailing path delimiter.

The -f switch allow you to filter items in input file based on '*' (asterisk)

and '?' (question mark) pattern characters. The text pattern follows after the

switch. Asterisk character means "anything else" while the question mark means

"any one character". These pattern characters can be placed anywhere, single

or multiple times. For example, a pattern "*side" will match any text trailing

with "side", so these text will match:

from the inside

beyond the outside

but these text won't:

for the insider

both the sideways

A pattern "the*" will match any text leading with "the", so these text will

match:

the brown fox

there'll be only one

but these text won't:

other than him

mother nature

A pattern "*ing*" will match any text contains "ing", so all these text will

match:

ingredients of soup

made for anything

the ingenious winglets

A pattern "*mo*th*" will match any text contains "mo" followed any text

contains "th", so these text will match:

monthly income

up to his mother

The pattern with question mark will find any matches fit into single

character. For example, a pattern "ab?de" would match a word like "abcde",

"ab1de", "ab de", etc. A pattern "some?????" will match word "something",

somewhere", or "somewhat." (notice the trailing period character). You may

combine both asterisks and question marks on the pattern. For example, a

pattern "*h??self" will match "himself" or "ask to herself".

The -f switch if used alone without the -d switch will find any matches

pattern to the entire item names (file and path) in the input file. If the

-d switch takes place, matches pattern affect only to all items under the base

path specified in -d switch. Let's have a look for few usage examples of -f

switch as follows:

sxc base.scs -f unit/hookup/*

This will list all items under "unit/hookup/" path. The usage actually has

similar result when using the -d switch like this:

sxc base.scs -d unit/hookup/

The difference is the -d switch is much faster than the -f switch. Consider

this when working with input file containing lots of items.

sxc base.scs -f *adviser*

This will try to find any file and path containing word "adviser" and display

matching results as the list of files.

sxc base.scs -f *adviser* -d ui -o C:\Temp

This will extract any files containing "adviser" under path "ui/" and store

the extracted files into "C:\Temp" folder. Practically this is will extract

all Route Advisor layout definition files.

Advanced Filtering

==================

SXC Extractor support multiple set of filtering criteria. This is allow you

to perform multiple filtering in a single pass. Just create a pure text file

containing several filtering criteria, where each line represent one set of

both base path and wildcard filtering. This example defines three filtering

criteria to filter only items related to Route Advisor:

material/ui/adviser

sound/ui/adviser/&&*adviser*

ui/&&adviser*

Each line may define either base path, wildcard filtering, or both. Base path

and wildcard filtering are separated by two ampersand characters (&&). If you

define only wildcard filtering, prepend ampersands separator before wildcard

pattern like this:

&&*adviser*

To let them easy to read, you can put spaces or tabs between ampersands

separator. The above example can be defined like this:

material/ui/adviser

sound/ui/adviser/     &&   *adviser*

ui/                   &&   adviser*

Save these filtering definitions as a text file and put the text file name

prepend with an '@' (at) character after the -d switch. For example:

sxc base.scs -d @adviser_filter.txt -o C:\Temp

If you save the multiple filtering definition file with a name containing

spaces, don't forget to enclose it with double-quotes:

sxc base.scs -d "@C:\My Filters\Adviser Definition.txt" -o C:\Temp

Please note when you define advanced filtering this way, the -f switch will

be ignored. Advanced filtering may be handy when you working with a mod that

contains asset's complexity involving many files.

For security reason, SXC Extractor will reject filtering definition file which

is larger than 32 Kb in size, containing non-standard ASCII text. In short,

it accept only pure 7-bit ASCII text file with size less than 32,768 bytes.

Output Suppression

==================

By default, SXC Extractor will be displaying all messages and errors. You can

hide unnecessary messages by supplying the -q switch (lowercase letter 'Q').

To hide error messages as well, use -qe switch instead. Message suppression

will be handy when launching SXC Extractor through a batch script, interfacing

with third-party application, or redirecting output to other device. The

following example will be saving all list of files in "base.scs" into a text

file called "list_base.txt":

sxc base.scs -qe > list_base.txt

List Mode and Page Pausing

==========================

When displaying files under List Mode, it will scroll to the last line. If

working with lots of items, you can use -p switch to allow a pause message

appears every 24 lines (default). For example:

sxc base.scs -p

To allow pause message appears every n lines, use -p:n switch. This example

will show pause message every 50 lines:

sxc base.scs -p:50

It is accepting minimum 3 lines and maximum 99 lines. Please note the -p

switch doesn't affect when working with message suppression through -q or

-qe switch.

List Mode Display

=================

SXC Extractor by default will list files under List Mode. This behavior is

similar to when supplying the -l1 switch (lowercase letter 'L') into the

argument. To list both files and path, you can use the -l0 switch. The -l2

switch is used to display only paths. This switch mainly intended in the

purpose of interfacing with third-party application. Please note SXC Extractor

does not provide ability to "extract" paths only. Extract operation always

applies to files.

Force Mode

==========

This function only applies to SCS game data/DLC files. You must supply the -X

switch (uppercase letter 'x') in order this mode to works. It will list or

extract all files stored in input file into a single level folder hierarchy.

This mode will be useful when working with game data/DLC files that has no

root directory or their directory structures has been stripped off. Please

note since there is no directory information, the path and file names are

unknown. All files being listed or extracted will be named to their associated

hash code followed by the .DAT extension. For example:

sxc core.scs -o C:\Temp -X

Please note when working with Force Mode, the -d (base path), -f (wildcard

filter), and -l (list display) switches are ignored since they are no longer

relevant under this mode.

Quit Prompt Message

===================

When working with batch script or running through a shortcut, you may consider

to put a confirmation message before SXC Extractor quit and closing console

window. This can be done by putting the -c switch (lowercase letter 'C') into

the argument. This let SXC Extractor showing a confirmation message asking to

press a key before quit. You can specify a countdown delay with -c:n switch to

allow application quit by itself after n seconds. For example, this will

prompt user to press a key and quit automatically after 10 seconds:

sxc -c:10

The countdown delays are ranged from 3 to 60 seconds. Please note the -c

switch doesn't affect when working with message suppression through -q or

-qe switch.

Epilogue

========

SXC Extractor has no relation to the original SCS Extractor and is not

affiliated with SCS Software. SXC Extractor made by user for users. It offers

similar functionality as the predecessor with additional features and

improvements. Since it is useful and proven handy for me (the author), hope it

is also useful and handy for you especially the modders. Have fun, keep

trucking, and happy modding!

Supported Operating System

==========================

- Microsoft Windows 2000

- Microsoft Windows XP

- Microsoft Windows Vista

- Microsoft Windows 7

- Microsoft Windows 8

- Microsoft Windows 8.1

- Microsoft Windows 10

Program Return Codes

====================

  0 = No error

 -1 = Internal error

 -2 = Invalid argument

 -3 = Input file not found

 -4 = Unable to open input file

 -5 = Unable to read input file

 -6 = Invalid input file

 -7 = Target path not found or invalid

 -8 = Unable to complete the process

 -9 = Unable create path for extraction

-10 = Unable to extract a file

-11 = Input file has no base root

-12 = An entry not found in input file

-13 = Unable to get directory structure

-14 = Empty directory structure

-15 = A file entry pointing to root path

-16 = Unable to create index file

-17 = Unable to load index file

Version History

===============

1.19.9.7

- Initial public release

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