Extracting MPQ files (specifically music)

[Lywellyn]

I hope this isn't considered against the rules to ask/post...

I have the MPQ Extracter utility installed, and I used it to open expansion.mpq and patch.mpq (and got the Warsong Gulch battleground and Sunstrider theme that sounds like the Lament of the Highborne). Speaking of Lament of the Highborne.....what file holds the normal musics, like that one, or the city/zone musics that were present before Burning Crusade? I tried opening common.mpq, but it says it's not a valid MPQ archive. Please help!

[Dreadlorde]

that's against the rules

[Lywellyn]

*sigh* Okay. I didn't think it would be because the MPQ extrater I'm using (the link, anyway) I found here.....so I figured if I could get the program link from here, I could ask about it, too.

But if it's against the rules, I'll shut up now. ;_;

[Keppler]

Try downloading the Interface Addon Kit

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downl...downloads.html

which explodes some of the mpqs

The music files might be in there.

[Lywellyn]

No, the IAK only extracts addon data, frame xml, and artwork.

[Shirik]

The problem is common.mpq is a new type of archive that is an extension of the old MPQ format. This is because it became so big it would no longer fit (the space allocated for the hash table is too small, I believe, but that's not important... you just need to know the format changed slightly to accommodate this).

I know the new format; there are several white papers for it on the web; and I've been spending some of my off time writing up an extractor for this new format, but it's no easy task, of course. If I ever do manage to complete it, I'll let you know, though. Until then, I'm afraid to say I haven't found an alternative method to extracting it. Perhaps Blizzard will release a new version of the extractor for us in the future