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SimCity (2013) — XeNTaX Forum Knowledge

Extracted from XeNTaX forum discussions (2014). Covers the SimCity 5 (2013) audio format: .wav files that are actually RIFF Vorbis containers, and the conversion pipeline to standard OGG.

1. SimCity 5 Audio: RIFF Vorbis .wav files​

Overview​

.wav files extracted from SimCity 5 are unplayable as standard WAV and import as "only noise" in raw-data editors. They are not PCM WAV at all — they are RIFF Vorbis containers: a RIFF wrapper around a Vorbis (OGG) stream. (Apollo, 2014-08-28: "RIFF Vorbis.")

Conversion workflow​

Use hcs64's ww2ogg tool to convert RIFF Vorbis .wav → standard OGG. (merlinsvk, 2014-08-28)

ww2ogg.exe SCP_0x0d9e5710-0x40490000-0x0b67f070.wav \
 --pcb packed_codebooks_aoTuV_603.bin
  • --pcb points to the packed codebooks file (packed_codebooks_aoTuV_603.bin) required by ww2ogg to decode the Vorbis streams.
  • The output is a standard .ogg file.

Seeking fix: revorb​

Optionally run revorb (also from hcs64's site) on the resulting OGG to fix seeking in the sound file. (merlinsvk, 2014-08-28)

revorb.exe SCP_0x0d9e5710-0x40490000-0x0b67f070.ogg \
 new_SCP_0x0d9e5710-0x40490000-0x0b67f070.ogg

Filename pattern​

Extracted audio uses a structured name of the form SCP_<hash1>-<hash2>-<hash3>.wav — the components are game-internal resource hashes, not meaningful filenames. (observed in the sample, 2014-08)

2. Tools Mentioned​

ToolPurpose
ww2ogg (hcs64)RIFF Vorbis .wav → standard OGG converter
revorb (hcs64)Fixes seeking in converted OGG files
packed_codebooks_aoTuV_603.binCodebook pack required by ww2ogg

Source: XeNTaX forum thread t=11840 (SimCity 5 .wav).