PAK (Tropical Freeze)

See PAK (File Format) for the other revisions of this format.

The PAK format in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is the third version of the .pak format, with another layout overhaul, file IDs being extended from 64 bits to 128 bits (as they now use a new GUID system that is used to associate IDs with various objects across the entire game), and the addition of an extra metadata section.

Format

The Tropical Freeze pak format contains three main header sections: the resource directory, metadata, and name tags.

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Description
0x0	Form Descriptor	1	Package Form Descriptor	Data type is PACK
0x20	Form Descriptor	1	Table of Contents Form Descriptor	Data type is TOCC
0x40	Header data sections (ADIR, META, and STRG) begin

Asset Directory

The asset directory contains a list of every asset in the pak, associating a GUID with an offset/size in the file. Assets are sorted by their GUID in numerical order, which is often not the same order that they actually appear in the file.

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	Chunk Descriptor	1	Asset Directory Chunk Descriptor	Data type is ADIR
0x18	u32	1	Asset Count
0x1C	Asset Entry	Asset Count'	Asset Directory
End of ADIR section

Asset Entry

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	char	4	Asset Type	This is an abbreviated fourCC that doubles as the asset's cooked file extension.
0x4	GUID	1	Asset ID
0x14	u64	1	Offset	This is an absolute offset relative to the start of the pak file.
0x1C	u64	1	Size
0x24	End of resource entry

Metadata

The metadata section lists extra metadata for some asset types, which are associated with them via their file ID. The structure and contents of a META entry varies depending on the asset type; check that type's page on the Wiki to check the structure of its META entries.

Note that a lot of formats don't have any extra metadata. If there's no assets with extra metadata in the entire pak, then the META section won't appear in the file at all.

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	Chunk Descriptor	1	Metadata Chunk Descriptor	Data type is META
0x18	u32	1	Metadata Entry Count
0x1C	Metadata Entry	Metadata Entry Count	Metadata Entry Table
End of META section

Metadata Entry

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	GUID	1	Asset ID	This is the ID of the asset that this metadata entry is associated with
0x10	u32	1	Metadata Offset	Relative to the start of the META section.
0x14	End of metadata entry

Name Tags

The name tags section associates certain assets with string names. These are the "main" assets of the pak; any asset that does not have a name is a dependency of one of the ones that do.

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	Chunk Descriptor	1	Name Tags Chunk Descriptor	Data type is STRG
0x18	u32	1	Name Tag Count
0x1C	Name Tag	Name Tag Count	Name Tag Table
End of STRG section

Name Tag

Offset	Type	Count	Name	Notes
0x0	char	4	Asset Type
0x4	GUID	1	Asset ID
0x14	string	1	Asset Name	Zero-terminated.
End of name tag

Tools

• PakTool by Parax; can extract and decompress files from Tropical Freeze paks, but doesn't support repacking or recompressing them