Soul Reaverse is a project that seeks to reconstruct the source code of the PSX action-adventure classic Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. This is achieved by disassembling the executable of a prototype of the game that was built two weeks before its final release, which includes a full set of debugging symbols that makes the process of reverse-engineering the binary's MIPS instructions back to C language easier.
Once its fully overhauled, the source code could then be used for many different purposes, including but not limited to: porting the game to other platforms, improving its performance on console hardware, and developing tools for it such as a level editor.
| Name | ID | Progress |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver | SLUS_007.08 |
Note that the status above is not reflective of the actual completion rate of the project however, as Soul Reaver like many other titles for the PlayStation (especially those near the end of the system's life cycle) distributes a good amount of game logic throughout overlays. For those not familiar with the concept, overlays are binaries which contain code that is loaded at specific instances during gameplay by the primary executable. This was designed such to taper the maximum amount of memory that the game consumes at once, which could never be too high due to hardware limitations.
A complete list of overlays will be published on this repository soon.
Soul Reaver, like other Crystal Dynamics games for the PSX, stores its overlays in BIGFILE.DAT. There is a provided utility for unpacking, repacking, and comparing BIGFILEs to assist with the overlay work. To get started, place BIGFILE.DAT into the root of the project.
To unpack the file:
python tools/cd-dat-utils/dat_utils.py -c dat-config.json unpack BIFILE.DAT <output_dir>To repackage the file:
python tools/cd-dat-utils/dat_utils.py -c dat-config.json pack <input_dir> <output_file>To compare between 2 BIGFILEs (packed or unpacked):
python tools/cd-dat-utils/dat_utils.py -c dat-config.json compare <input_a> <input_b>The compare command will tell you how the BIGFILEs differ and in what way (encryption, hashes of file X in folder Y, etc.)
For first time setup, check out the installation guide.
Thinking about contributing to the project? Check out the contribution guide to get started!
New to the PSX, decompilation as a whole, or just stuck on a function? Check out the decompilation reference which has several common code patterns broken down and documented.
The PS1/PS2 Decompilation Discord server has an exclusive channel for this decompilation titled #soul-reaver, which is the main medium of communication for anything in relation to it: [REDACTED].
Alternatively, if you aren't able to join the server for some reason, you can write me an email to [email protected] with any query you might have.