GRID 2 ".nfs" audio format by Argonitious at 2:27 PM EDT on July 2, 2014
I decided to post this information here, since there is no documentation about it. Anyway, I was trying to extract the audio from the "music.nfs" file that is in the audio folder for the PC version of GRID 2. Using the hex editor known as HxD, I discovered that nfs files are actually containers for Audiokinetic Wwise RIFF/RIFX Vorbis files that have been combined together. I used a modified version of a Linux Perl script from Stack Overflow in order to extract the files. I replaced "3d3d" in the script with "RIFF" to make it work with the ".nfs" file. The first file that the script generated was junk data, while the other files that it generated were in Audiokinetic Wwise RIFFF/RIFX Vorbis format. I then converted the files with the ww2ogg converter. The "--pcb packed_codeboooks_aoTuV_603.bin" command was needed in order to covert the files. I tried playing the resulting 6 channel ogg files in VLC media player, but they were unplayable. However, foobar2000 was able to play the few that I tested. This probably means that ww2ogg did not generate proper ogg files. I tried following step 4 of this guide on Saints Row Mods and ended up with valid ogg files. I'll test another ".nfs" file and post the results when I can.
Nice. I wonder if this'll work with other platforms. And the previous game.
Re: GRID 2 ".nfs" audio format by Argonitious at 8:36 AM EDT on July 31, 2015
I'm sorry it took me over a year to update this thread. I forgot my account password and didn't figure it out until recently.
I hope to test some more ".nfs" files and upload the Perl scripts later this weekend. At some point, I might even write a reasonably comprehensive guide for processing these files.
edited 1:47 PM EDT July 31, 2015
Re: GRID 2 ".nfs" audio format by Argonitious at 11:18 AM EDT on August 8, 2015
Alright, here's the script. Enjoy! http://pastebin.com/SukLB8mF
Re: GRID 2 ".nfs" audio format by Argonitious at 1:33 PM EDT on August 9, 2016
I began writing a nice Java tool for handling the audio files in Grid 2 (or just concatenated files in general.) However, it looks like Luigi Auriemma has a better way to handle the files than I do. His QuickBMS tool does the job much better. With the help of his Codemasters Nefs script (on the same page as QuickBMS), you can extract any of the NFS files in the game.
I originally thought that the audio files in Grid 2 were merely concatenated, but they are actually in the specialized NFS/NeFS archive format. Concatenation is part of the archiving process, but compression is sometimes used as well. The only reason the script I found earlier was able to deal with it was because Codemasters didn't apply any compression to the files.
With that said, I will continue to develop my Java program. It was designed to handle concatenated files, so there may actually be other uses for it!