Information on RAD Video's KB2i Bink 2 Revision & Assistance

[MaskNinja]

Hi all,

I'm looking to research the KB2i Bink revision add custom FMVs to games made in the early 2010s. A roadblock to this is that almost all of them use Bink 2, as is industry standard. From around 2018, RAD made the KB2j revision compressor and then in 2021 they released the KB2n revision for Unreal Engine, essentially free for all. I'm looking to see if there is any information on a KB2i compressor from any source code or something. I've dug into around 6 or 7 source code leaks by now, and couldn't find anything. Cyberpunk 2077 had the KB2j revision in there (2.7J), but I haven't been able to find any more compressors, let alone the KB2i compressor. My searches are not the most extensive, but reasonable, however, do doubt it being in the list below. Due to my low disk space, it is difficult to download more leaks, although I have new leads. It is currently not possible to reasonably get videos compressed with KB2n/j to work in KB2i.

I'm wondering if anyone here has any information on a leaked compressor (as far as I know, I think, some 2.5 variant) which is revision i or leads on someone who does. I do know somebody who has it, but due to their strong refusal to assist, I have been unable to talk to them further. Note, I am not directly asking for a codec, just for stronger leads. If moderators do not approve, then please remove this post accordingly.

I'm now going to give you a list of game source code leaks which don't have Bink 2, from memory, though there are some more not on the list (and all the rest which don't as I have not searched)

Saints Row 4, GTA 5 (December 2023), Crysis 3, The Witcher 3, Thronebreaker, Insomniac (2.7m found), H4LT's leak (unlikely anyway), some of Nintendo's gigaleak, of which I could not find all of, Halo's "Digsite" leak and Gwent.

Gwent, The Witcher 3, Thronebreaker and Cyberpunk 2077 are all part of the "funnytorrent" leak. I checked the Xbox directory as well.

(Edit: I would like to clarify 2015 is likely KB2j, due to this page changing my past assumptions, due to it stating Hades has 2.5 and can read KB2j's format correctly, implying the bitstream is quite similar. 2.4d/e is still very likely KB2i, as Forza Horizon 2 is KB2i and was released in September 2014.)

I also have a very "alpha"/incomplete KB2a-i type codec I have possession of; it is definitely not perfect and has some issues, but if anyone would like it, feel free to reach out to me on Discord. The occasional frame looks like this. I'd like to give a shout out to atom0s, whom without that reference to NihAV this codec would not exist, and Kostya Shishkov, for his work on reverse-engineering Bink 2.

Edit in May: I have great progress on the encoder! I think I will be able to release a compiled binary by the end of the month; cheers everyone.

Cheers all,
MaskNinja

[wx69wx2023]

Why not try archive.org?
I test ,and could download the bink compress tool in 2010.

https://web.archive.org/web/20100102132147/http://radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm

[MaskNinja]

Originally Posted by wx69wx2023

Why not try the Internet Archive?
I tested it, and could download the Bink compressor tool from 2010.

Unfortunately, what you are referring to is the unlicenced encoder - this can only encode Bink 1 videos although it can decide Bink 2. The age range I am more specifically looking for is 2012-2017 of a Bink 2 encoder. The only way I could find this is through a source/tool leak, definitely not from RAD themselves.

[jonwil]

I know at least one game that uses Bink2 videos for its video files but supports Bink1 video files as well. Maybe whatever game you are looking at is the same...

[MaskNinja]

Unfortunately that also does not work - while this works with some games, there is sometimes graphical glitching which occurs (especially in low-light conditions). Bink 1 also is much worse at compression, although that isn’t my main concern.

Edit in May: this is chromatic abbreviation, as you will find in EtchJetty's GitHub page I linked to in the post.

[atom0s]

Here's a project that may be of interest that handles a handful of different codecs/formats:

https://nihav.org/

The author has mentioned some means of support of Bink2 format(s).

You can find the code for the various projects on their self-hosted setup here:

https://git.nihav.org/

[MaskNinja]

Thank you for the information on NihAV. I will check this out sometime in the future when I can. Sadly, it seems on first glance that NihAV only supports decoding Bink versions, and lacks functionality to encode so. Reverse engineering a video codec which is proprietary to encode new videos is an extremely difficult task which I doubt would be able to be done with only community support unless it is exceptional. Still, this is worth a look, although I presume the search for Bink 2 does not end here.

[jonwil]

I seem to remember Bink2 stuff existing in things connected to the Cyberpunk leak although I could be wrong.

I know for sure the big EA FIFA leak doesn't have Bink stuff.

[MaskNinja]

This is correct, however, as stated in the post, this is only the KB2j revision. It’s nice for encoding custom FMVs with newer games (post-2018), but it sadly doesn’t work with games before that time period and is more similar to the KB2n revision (Unreal Engine variant).