Civ4 PakBuild is a program released by Firaxis that allows you to unpak the Art0.FPK file in the \Civilization IV\Assets\ folder. It's avilable for Win XP and Win2K.

File size is only 200 KB.

Windows XP: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/utility/PakBuild.zip
Windows 2000: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/utility/PakBuild-Win2000.zip

Nice! This will surely help mod makers, maybe even me in the future :)

Question: If I use this utility to unpack the artfile, will it improve the speed of the game?

Question: If I use this utility to unpack the artfile, will it improve the speed of the game?I was wondering about this too. This is true for some other games.

Using this program made the game unrunnable for me, even after reinstalling. So caveat utator.

Im guessing that anything in that folder then overrides the .FPK file itself when launching the game?

I can't figure out how to use it!!!

this tool made my game run better. the files most commonly used get cached better and more often. caching that whole file is a rediculuous proposition.

also for systems with less than a gig of ram use "Cacheman" do a google search

It´s funny, but adding to the alredy big list of problems and headaches, this little tool doesn´t work. For some strange reason it can´t read the FPK file.

Same here. I launch Pakbuild, File > Open > Art0.fpk and it gives me this error : ERROR: Could not open 'D:\blabla\Art0.FPK'!

Am I doing sth wrong ? File is unused and isn't read only.

Edit: I found why it didn't work. You don't have to open it, but to extract it.

My game crashes everytime I try to load my game I need help.

So I extracted all the pak files... now do I delete them? OR does Civ4 know to use the extracted art files instead of the pak files?

I think it will still use the pak files if it finds them in that folder. I just created a temp folder a couple of levels up and moved them there.

I think it will still use the pak files if it finds them in that folder. I just created a temp folder a couple of levels up and moved them there.


And did you notice any improvement? I did the same, and things seems to be running okay, but not noticeably faster. Movies still slideshows... I'm going to try the new Harkonnen patch and monitor the fps.

umm i am very worried. I cant find a file called art0.pak all i have is:
asset0.pak asset1.pak asset2.pak asset3.pak
Note i have the european version of the game

EDIT: i unpacked those and it seems to work

umm i am very worried. I cant find a file called art0.pak all i have is:
asset0.pak asset1.pak asset2.pak asset3.pak
Note i have the european version of the game

EDIT: i unpacked those and it seems to work

I have the same 4 files since 1.52 patch
and I am unable to unpack the files....I receive an error massage

is it normal?

This is a good idea, jus 1 prob.: the files are in unknown format. DDS? BIK? i don't know these. Can anyone show me format converter, plese?

Sure, I know this, dds are the skins, biks are the movies. There are links to were you can get programs to veiw them here on this site.

One tip: You don't have to open the FPK files, just unpack them. Open the "PAK" menu -> Unpack (CTRL-U). Then select your FPK files. If you try to open them you get an error message. Is see more people had this problem, perhaps something to put in the opening post.

I can't extract the PackBuild : here are the error messages I get :
"the CRC failed in PackBuild.exe. The file is corrupted"
And when I try to launch PackBuild, I get :
"PackBuild is not a valid win32 application"

Can anyone tell me how to do to get PackBuild to work?

Hmm, looks like a corrupted zip. Did you try downloading it again?

Is there anyway to unpak these using a different program, preferably free?

Thanks Granias :
It's ok, I redownloaded it and now it works.
I was wondering if it's possible to re pack the .fpk files after a modification.

It doesnt work at all, there isnt even an fpk file on my computer.

:confused: Man, now I can´t even find the custom assets folder anymore. It just vanished! :eek: :crazyeye: :cry:

Ive got the v1.52 patch and in my assets folder I get the art0.fpk file that was in the game before the patch, along with assets0.fpk folders. Every time I try to unpak any of them I get a window saying that the file could not be found. If I roll my mouse over one of the files it says the folder is emty. Ive reloaded the pakbuild more than once. Should I try reinstalling the game?

I've got the same problem, I can't find th Art0.fpk file.

I have all of the folders now but an error says files not found.

I got this when I opened the unpacked file:

FPKL y C:\Documents and Settings\Chase\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\CustomAssets\art\units\New Unit Textures[ C:\Documents and Settings\Chase\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\PakBuilder  Pak
 Pak0.FPK è

What next?

I was having troubles with this at first, since I tried "Open" and then had to select "All files" to see the asset#.fpk files, and when i tried to open them it gave me an error.

but then i tried "New" and then selected the asset0.fpk file and it all worked fine.

so if anyone is having trouble, remember to pick "New" not "open"

Has anyone simply tried using PAK->Unpack instead of Open?

Seems to work just fine for me.

Two questions...

1. When you extract them, where do you put it? Do I have to keep it in the same folder as the file I unpacked?

2. By doing this will it affect the game so that I won't be able to play GOTM or SGOTM games?

Two questions...

1. When you extract them, where do you put it? Do I have to keep it in the same folder as the file I unpacked?

2. By doing this will it affect the game so that I won't be able to play GOTM or SGOTM games?

Two pages and no simple instructions and description on how to use?

I have tried unpacking, but nothing seems to happen - where are the files supposed to unpack to?

I suggest unpak to temp folder to make sure the directory structure follows properly with Civ 4's current layout.

The files go in the \Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\Art directory and many sub-directories under that.

It is actually quite easy once you get used to using this...we PAK files for the ViSa mod to make it load quicker....so not sure why people report here to unpak to make the game quicker :lol:

EDIT
Oh you will want to 'remove' the FPK files once this is done or Civ will still use them....AND the unpak'd Art directory....

ok im trying to use this tool and like most others on here its not working for me. i used unpak function and it gives me nothing. i see a blank screen, samething for when i use new file feature a blank screen. its telling me i have no files in my asset or art folder. can someone please explain exactally where the PakBuild needs to be on the pc and how to use it to open files that dont seem to exsist.


ok after doing a search of my pc for them i found the fpk files. they are not in the game folder and this may be the same problem some other are having. instead of being in my game folder with the rest of the files including warlords and the patches they were in this directory

C: Documents and Settings\*profile*\Application Data\Firaxis Games\ Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets

* i have my profile name here, so if you dont have a profile on the pc skip that section

everything for the game is in this folder and the PakBuilder worked fine once i found the right folders and subfolders. i dont know why it has created to seperate folders and paths for the game

ok im trying to use this tool and like most others on here its not working for me. i used unpak function and it gives me nothing. i see a blank screen, samething for when i use new file feature a blank screen. its telling me i have no files in my asset or art folder. can someone please explain exactally where the PakBuild needs to be on the pc and how to use it to open files that dont seem to exsist.


ok after doing a search of my pc for them i found the fpk files. they are not in the game folder and this may be the same problem some other are having. instead of being in my game folder with the rest of the files including warlords and the patches they were in this directory

C: Documents and Settings\*profile*\Application Data\Firaxis Games\ Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets

* i have my profile name here, so if you dont have a profile on the pc skip that section

everything for the game is in this folder and the PakBuilder worked fine once i found the right folders and subfolders. i dont know why it has created to seperate folders and paths for the game


No you should be looking in the Program Files\Firaxis Games directory.

Not sure why anybody wants to use this for PLAYING the game as it just slows initial load times...we use pakbuild to FPK mod files, which took load times of ViSa from 7 minutes to less than 1 minute :)

But anyway, to fully realize unpak'ing the files, the FPK files need deleted too...that will finish off the slow-down move :lol:

At first, I couldn't open the .fpk files either. But when I open pakbuild and then press ctrl+u (for unpack) I can then open up whatever pak I want and fool around with it.

Trying to unpack my assets folder, and I finally manged to do something by reading this thread. I went New->assets0.fpk and now I have a new file with the same exstention with _layout on the end of it in the white box on the left of the screen. The Add>> and <<Remove buttons are greyed out. What do I do now?

Im not sure what you folks were doing... I DL it, open it and do PAK, unpack and everything works fine! :) Thanks for posting a link to this! :goodjob:

Is there anyway someone could put a tutorial on how to build, i tried and got it to (pak0, 1, 2) and a saved file (art, xml)also? Put it in my MOD and it wont read it?? I guess i am lost??

Is there anyway someone could put a tutorial on how to build, i tried and got it to (pak0, 1, 2) and a saved file (art, xml)also? Put it in my MOD and it wont read it?? I guess i am lost??Here's one that Kael wrote up for pakking your art files in order to speed up loading a mod. Tried it with my modpack and it went from 2 minutes down to 15 seconds.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=187699

Hello
Packbuild doesn'st work with bts? i did like 4 warlords (always worked) but here the units are red or none.....

Civ4 PakBuild is a program released by Firaxis that allows you to unpak the Art0.FPK file in the \Civilization IV\Assets\ folder. It's avilable for Win XP and Win2K.

File size is only 200 KB.

Windows XP: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/utility/PakBuild.zip
Windows 2000: http://www.civfanatics.net/downloads/civ4/utility/PakBuild-Win2000.zip

is it for civ4+bts also ??
Where can I get if for civ4+bts ??
Also after I patched my civ4+bts.

OK i have tried so many times to get this to work to no avail.

When mine paks it leaves out the folder it was packaged in, and just places the files itself in the Pak1 file.:mad:
And i have marked stored full paths.

OK i have tried so many times to get this to work to no avail.

When mine paks it leaves out the folder it was packaged in, and just places the files itself in the Pak1 file.:mad:
And i have marked stored full paths.
Okay... I JUST USED PAKBUILD v2.14 to package my Art directory for my BtS mod and it worked just fine with no problems. Mod loads much quicker, and all graphics show up fine in BtS.

The tutorial is skipping the "name file" part, because you don't want the file to be named the same as the default Paks (like pak0, pak1, etc, etc).

It's also very important to ONLY place the Art folder in an EMPTY folder before using Pak build (Pakbuild will try to compress everything in the folder you select).

To recap the tutorial (and this DOES work with BtS), do the following:

1) Create an EMPTY folder on your hard drive... let's call it "PAKFOLDER"

2) Go to your Mod folder in BtS, go into the "assets" folder, highlight and copy the "ART" folder only of your mod (this will include the art folder itself, and all sub-folders)... don't bother messing with the XML folder.

3) Paste your "ART" folder into the EMPTY "PAKFOLDER".

4) Start Pakbuild v2.14 use pulldown menu "FILE" and select "New..." then select the "PAKFOLDER"... you'll see the Pakfolder in the left window and you should ONLY see the "ART" folder in it.

5) Click on the "New PAK File" button in the middle

6) Click on "Store Full Paths" on the bottom right (do NOT select "compress all").

7) Click on the "Rename" button a little above the box you just clicked on in step-6... rename the file whatever you want except the default (like Pak0 or Pak1). I recomend naming the file the same as your mod name. It should have a new name such as "Bubba.pak", or whatever you called it (including the ".pak" extension).

8) Select the pulldown menu "PAK" and click on "Build"... it should now create your new art PAK file.

9) Copy the new Pak file ("Bubba.pak" or whatever you called it) into your Mod's "Assets" directory... you can now remove the old "Art" folder from this directory. For most people, you should only see the "PAK" file and the "XML" folder in the mod's Assets directory (your mileage may vary depending on the mod work you're doing, but I'm trying to show the Pak file goes in the same place the old Art folder went and/or where the XML folder is... just-inside the Assets folder of your mod).

10) Fire-up the game with your mod... should load much quicker now if you have all the art files stored in a PAK file.

That's it... it does work with BtS if you do it as I explained above.

Okay... I JUST USED PAKBUILD v2.14 to package my Art directory for my BtS mod and it worked just fine with no problems. Mod loads much quicker, and all graphics show up fine in BtS.

The tutorial is skipping the "name file" part, because you don't want the file to be named the same as the default Paks (like pak0, pak1, etc, etc).

It's also very important to ONLY place the Art folder in an EMPTY folder before using Pak build (Pakbuild will try to compress everything in the folder you select).

To recap the tutorial (and this DOES work with BtS), do the following:

1) Create an EMPTY folder on your hard drive... let's call it "PAKFOLDER"

2) Go to your Mod folder in BtS, go into the "assets" folder, highlight and copy the "ART" folder only of your mod (this will include the art folder itself, and all sub-folders)... don't bother messing with the XML folder.

3) Paste your "ART" folder into the EMPTY "PAKFOLDER".

4) Start Pakbuild v2.14 use pulldown menu "FILE" and select "New..." then select the "PAKFOLDER"... you'll see the Pakfolder in the left window and you should ONLY see the "ART" folder in it.

5) Click on the "New PAK File" button in the middle

6) Click on "Store Full Paths" on the bottom right (do NOT select "compress all").

7) Click on the "Rename" button a little above the box you just clicked on in step-6... rename the file whatever you want except the default (like Pak0 or Pak1). I recomend naming the file the same as your mod name. It should have a new name such as "Bubba.pak", or whatever you called it (including the ".pak" extension).

8) Select the pulldown menu "PAK" and click on "Build"... it should now create your new art PAK file.

9) Copy the new Pak file ("Bubba.pak" or whatever you called it) into your Mod's "Assets" directory... you can now remove the old "Art" folder from this directory. For most people, you should only see the "PAK" file and the "XML" folder in the mod's Assets directory (your mileage may vary depending on the mod work you're doing, but I'm trying to show the Pak file goes in the same place the old Art folder went and/or where the XML folder is... just-inside the Assets folder of your mod).

10) Fire-up the game with your mod... should load much quicker now if you have all the art files stored in a PAK file.

That's it... it does work with BtS if you do it as I explained above.

OK i did exactly what it says here, besides saving it? and still same results, no folders inside the pakbuild??? The file i renamed has nothing in it and then it makes another thing called PAK0.FPK, with the files only, no folders??:mad:
I try to unpak it and it even does not list it as a FPK file??

OK i did exactly what it says here, besides saving it? and still same results, no folders inside the pakbuild??? The file i renamed has nothing in it and then it makes another thing called PAK0.FPK, with the files only, no folders??:mad:
I try to unpak it and it even does not list it as a FPK file??
Okay... well that's really strange.

If that didn't work for you, I'm grasping at straws here, but I'll try... here's a few toughts/suggestions... I garauntee none of these will work, but they come from things I've heard...

1) Somebody mentioned that there is a PakBuild v2.15 that works perfectly with BtS... (that person, who I forget their name, said v2.14 never worked with BtS for them). Before PAK'ing my own stuff, I searched all over for PakBuild v2.15 and couldn't find it anywhere... either I got bogus information, or this is a harder program to find then it should be. Maybe your luck will be better then mine in finding it... or it might just be a white elephant and not exist at all... after giving up finding it, I did get v2.14 to work with BtS.

2) Maybe the size of your file(s) for Pakbuild is too large... I also heard if it's too big, Pakbuild will bug-out on you. I heard that you can break down your FPK into multiple folders of smaller size (the game will load ALL FPK files when it loads, so it can be one big file or five smaller ones... doesn't matter). I know this is true, because I did make the mistake of accidentally putting the folder I wanted PAK'd into a directory with other large files in it... PAKBUILD kept locking up until I realized my error and put my "ART" folder in an empty directory (then it worked). In my own Wolfshanze mod, my art folder was approximately 232MB in size. I have no clue what the maximum size a FPK file can be, but I do know 232MB is okay!

Like I said... the above suggestions are total guesses... the directions I listed in my previous post worked for me, and I passed-on to you all I know about Pakbuild. I have no more information to give... hope you get it working.

Okay... well that's really strange.
1) Somebody mentioned that there is a PakBuild v2.15 that works perfectly with BtS..

2) Maybe the size of your file(s) for Pakbuild is too large.


OK PAK 2.15 is the XP Server one, right below the XP one.
And nope the files are only about 40M in size.
I have tried 2.14 and 2.15 both and they do the same thing except 2.14 makes two different file 0 & 1 whereas 2.15 only makes 0, both of course after the renaming of my file like you said.

OK i did like Kael said, i made a TEMP file on the desktop, i then copied my complete ART folder to that temp folder and placed it inside of that temp folder.?? Everything is exactly the same right up to the point of the BUILD part, the only file listed on the left side is the ART file (with the files and folders inside).
Then i use BUILD after changing Create new file and renaming the one like you said, and i have store full path marked also., just like everyone says, then POOF i get separate FPK 0 from the renamed one with the art files in it, but no folders, just the files. Then i save it all.??

OK PAK 2.15 is the XP Server one, right below the XP one.
And nope the files are only about 40M in size.
I have tried 2.14 and 2.15 both and they do the same thing except 2.14 makes two different file 0 & 1 whereas 2.15 only makes 0, both of course after the renaming of my file like you said.

OK i did like Kael said, i made a TEMP file on the desktop, i then copied my complete ART folder to that temp folder and placed it inside of that temp folder.?? Everything is exactly the same right up to the point of the BUILD part, the only file listed on the left side is the ART file (with the files and folders inside).
Then i use BUILD after changing Create new file and renaming the one like you said, and i have store full path marked also., just like everyone says, then POOF i get separate FPK 0 from the renamed one with the art files in it, but no folders, just the files. Then i save it all.??
Honestly, I have no idea what's going-on at your end... I used v2.14, did the steps as I outlined them above, with a single "ART" folder containing about 232MB of files, and I got ONE FPK file called "Wolfshanze.fpk" of roughly equal size (232MB). I didn't get any extra files/folders, I got ONE fpk file named what I requested, and it works just fine with my BtS mod.

I wish I could help you further, but, alas, I'm at a loss as to your problem. Maybe if you gave me a link to your zipped 'ART' folder I could PAK it for you on this end and see (of course that probably won't help you for convenience).

Does anyone understand whats going on here??

Everything i do the same as listed, but then as soon as i hit the BUILD, it makes Pax0.FPK right besides the one i renamed??
The one i renamed has nothing in it, and the Pax0 one has the files in it and not the folder??
I save it and it makes a (what looks like a FPK with the renamed one in the temp file with the ART file). But when i try to unpak, it doesnt even list it as a FPK file?
Then i place the one i renamed into the MOD and try to unpak it and nothing there to unpak?:mad:

EDIT: Come on some one has to have had the same problem??

Unfortunately it would seem to just be you?

I was able to get it to run with v2.14... no idea what your problem is, but it may-well just be on your end? Dunno...

Unfortunately it would seem to just be you?

I was able to get it to run with v2.14... no idea what your problem is, but it may-well just be on your end? Dunno...

I got it working, one instruction was wrong, thats why i didnt get it right till now, but anyways,

:goodjob: Just thought I'd mention that it pakbuild was somewhat unstable on vista, but if you go to properties and set its compatiblilty mode to winxp it stabilizes

:goodjob: Just thought I'd mention that it pakbuild was somewhat unstable on vista, but if you go to properties and set its compatiblilty mode to winxp it stabilizes
Just thought I'd mention everything is somewhat unstable on Vista.... :lol:

Just thought I'd mention everything is somewhat unstable on Vista.... :lol:

Hear, hear!:mischief:

I am at a loss. The PAK->Build command doesn't always want to work for me. I put the files I want to pak into a folder (D:\Paking\AssetPack1\) and make sure the directory structure is intact (art files go into the \Art\ subfolder, etc) so in the end a file like a new leaderhead button would be in the folder D:\Paking\AssetPack1\Art\Interface\Leaderheads\sid .dds
I then open PakBuild and choose New and point it to D:\Paking\AssetPack1\
In the excluded extensions box I enter "bik;wav;bmp;tga;png" I click the button "New PAK File" and rename it "AssetFiles1.FPK" and select "Store full paths"
When I try to build it all the files are properly shown in the Packed Files area, but no PAK file is actually created. I've even tried saving the fpk_loadout and reloading it from there to try building again, but still no luck. What's even more frustrating is that other files I've packed worked fine.

UPDATE:
It seems that when packing at least one of my PAK files the .pak file gets created, but is deleted by the program before it finishes. Talk about strange.

How big is the pak build file your trying to do, i talked with mamba and he has seem to hit a limit of 200-250 mb. If you look at vanilla civ 4 they keep them at about 100mb. maybe that will help.

The first one I talked about is only about 70MB (98 if I remove those excluded file types). The one I can actually see create (and then delete) the pak file is closer to 680MB.

Hum try splitting the second one down. to about 100-150 MB. See if that works.

The second one is nothing more than all my other paks put together. I wouldn't have even tried doing that "all in one" pack if I didn't have the problem I originally posted in the first place.