Endfield Research Kit

Endfield Research Kit turns a local Windows version Endfield install into an offline research browser. Its main surface is a static webui/ app for browsing recovered story text, curated gameplay records, exported media/assets, raw text tables, playable audio/video, and focused update diffs between game-data exports.

The project is built around reproducible local exports:

• Story reconstructs dialog, cutscenes, branches, inline media, audio links, story order, and recovery evidence from generated game-data JSON.
• Gameplay surfaces curated weapon, character, skill, talent, progression, and numeric table records from structured game-data tables.
• Assets indexes exported images, models, videos, materials, metadata, and related files.
• Text Tables exposes localized table rows and source data in a searchable browser.
• Updates compares a saved previous export against the current export so the WebUI reports game-data changes without treating local WebUI edits as upstream changes.

Disclaimer

This repository is for research and study purposes only. It is intended for local inspection of data from a legally obtained installation, with generated outputs kept narrow and reproducible. Do not use it to redistribute proprietary game content or bypass the rights of the original creators.

Most notes, recovery logic, generated outputs, and documentation in this workspace were produced with LLM assistance. Treat them as working research artifacts, not authoritative facts. Expect mistakes, inspect the source data, and verify important conclusions yourself.

The exported tables, story files, audio, videos, images, and update diffs can include unreleased or not-yet-seen game content. Browsing them may spoil story, characters, maps, events, mechanics, or other discoveries. If you care about a blind playthrough, be careful about what you export and open.

Older exploration notes, demo status snapshots, and one-off recovery utilities belong under memory/ so the repo root stays focused.

First-Time Setup

For a fresh checkout, install Git, Python 3, and a legally obtained Endfield client first. Then clone the project:

git clone https://github.com/Variante/endfield_research_kit.git
cd endfield_research_kit

Edit the repo-root path config once, then run the all-in-one setup script from the repository root:

notepad endfield_paths.bat
.\setup_first_time.bat

Set ENDFIELD_GAME_ROOT to the installed Endfield_Data folder. The same file also stores the saved previous export folder used by Updates tracking.

The script initializes the AnimeStudio submodule, builds AnimeStudio, verifies AnimeStudio's integrated VFS/audio commands, exports Story/Gameplay/Text Tables data into export_full/ and webui/data/, then starts or reuses the WebUI server at http://127.0.0.1:8765/.

It intentionally skips the heavier optional passes. Run export_assets.bat later when you want Assets tab media and playable CN audio, and run build_updates.bat --init-build when you want to initialize the Updates tab baseline.

The local tools/AnimeStudio fork includes custom Endfield VFS/export work informed by fluffy-dumper and EIHRTeam/EndfieldStudio. Many thanks to those projects and their maintainers for the groundwork.

First-time setup still does real work. Building AnimeStudio and exporting Story/Gameplay/Text Tables can take a while; the optional installed-game asset/media and CN audio refresh can take several hours. The full asset path has been observed around 27 GiB of process-tree RAM on a 64 GiB workstation, so 64 GiB system RAM is the comfortable target for full media refreshes. On lower-RAM systems, start with the base setup, then run the optional asset pass later with --webui-assets or --animestudio-jobs 1.

Keep plenty of free disk space for export_full/, decoded audio, reports, and optional packages. Around 325 GB free is a practical starting point if you want debug-level asset diagnostics and broad media outputs.

Keep that terminal window open while browsing the WebUI. To build everything without starting the server, add --no-serve:

.\setup_first_time.bat --no-serve

Useful setup options:

• --game-root PATH: one-off override for ENDFIELD_GAME_ROOT in endfield_paths.bat.
• --no-serve: build Story/Gameplay/Text Tables without starting the WebUI server.
• --help: show the script help and examples.

For troubleshooting and implementation details behind the wrappers, see AGENTS.md and scripts/README.md.

Routine Commands

After export_full/ already exists and still matches the installed game, use the faster rebuild commands:

.\export.bat
.\export.bat --with-assets
.\export_assets.bat
.\build_updates.bat
python serve.py

Plain export.bat rebuilds Story, Gameplay, and Text Tables browser data from the existing export_full/ and verifies freshness first. Use export.bat --with-assets when you want Story plus asset indexes and CN audio relinking in one local rebuild. Use export.bat --export-from-game after the installed game updates, after scripts\verify_export_freshness.py reports stale source roots, or whenever you intentionally want to refresh export_full/ from the installed client. Add --with-assets when media or audio should refresh too; that path runs one combined AnimeStudio Story+asset export instead of running export.bat and export_assets.bat separately.

export_assets.bat without --export-from-game remains the asset/audio-only path. It reuses existing decoded assets, rebuilds the Assets tab index and compact Story media lookup, then relinks existing CN audio. Pass --export-from-game when you want to refresh only media or audio from the installed client after Story is already current.

Installed-game asset refreshes have three modes:

• --full-assets: default; exports the WebUI-facing image/model set plus Material JSON, builds the full Assets browser index, and decodes CN audio.
• --webui-assets: lean mode for WebUI-referenced Texture2D media when you want a faster media refresh with less output.
• --debug-assets: exhaustive AnimeStudio conversion/JSON diagnostics, then a full Assets browser index from whatever browser-visible files were exported.

AnimeStudio refreshes also accept worker and shard controls:

.\export.bat --export-from-game --with-assets --full-assets --animestudio-jobs 2 --animestudio-shards 16

--animestudio-jobs is the number of concurrent AnimeStudio worker processes; the default is 8, but use 1, 2, or 4 when RAM is tight. --animestudio-shards is the number of deterministic asset slices, defaulting to 16; it tunes per-process asset batch size and does not by itself increase concurrency. Non-sharded JSON type jobs are merged by default with --animestudio-type-job-mode auto, so AnimeStudio can load matching bundles once for multiple JSON types. Pass --animestudio-type-job-mode parallel to restore the older one-process-per-type behavior. export.bat --export-from-game accepts --animestudio-jobs for Story export work too, and export.bat --export-from-game --with-assets accepts the same asset mode, worker, shard, and type-job controls as export_assets.bat --export-from-game. Every export.bat run also writes a wall-time and process-tree RAM benchmark under reports/export_benchmarks/ and updates reports/export_benchmark_latest.md.

CN is rebuilt by default. To build more languages after the rebuild:

python scripts\story_builder\build.py --languages CN EN JP --default-language CN

Package a shareable browser build with:

.\pack_webui.bat

or:

python scripts\pack_webui.py

Packaging writes three zips by default: a story zip with the WebUI, story, gameplay, text-table data, and emoji images; a companion assets zip with larger story images and videos; and a standalone audio zip with decoded story audio. Extract the story zip first, then extract the assets and audio zips into the same directory when those media or audio files are needed.

Game Update Tracking

The Updates tab needs two game-data exports: a saved previous export and the current export. That comparison lets the WebUI show what changed in the game while ignoring local WebUI edits, regenerated reports, scratch files, and other research workspace noise.

For a first-time export, there is no older game export to compare against yet. After setup_first_time.bat finishes, optionally initialize an empty baseline:

.\build_updates.bat --init-build

When the game updates:

1. Rename the old export_full/ to the folder configured as ENDFIELD_PREVIOUS_EXPORT_ROOT in endfield_paths.bat.

2. Refresh the current export from the installed client:

.\export.bat --export-from-game

Use .\export.bat --export-from-game --with-assets instead when refreshed media and CN audio should be part of the same installed-game pass.

3. Build the Updates feed:

.\build_updates.bat

If the saved previous export keeps accumulating files that also exist unchanged in the refreshed export, build_updates.bat can help prune those old duplicate copies. Preview the cleanup first, then run the prune only when the target is the saved previous export you intend to trim:

.\build_updates.bat --dry-run-prune-previous-export-untracked
.\build_updates.bat --prune-previous-export-untracked

Do not point update tracking at webui/, reports/, memory/, or scratch/. It is meant to compare exported game-data roots only. One-off path flags still override endfield_paths.bat when needed. More specific flags, pruning safeguards, and scanner-cache details are documented in AGENTS.md and scripts/README.md.

Active Layout

• webui/: static app and generated browser data.
• scripts/: WebUI builders, packaging tools, and export helpers.
• tools/AnimeStudio/: tracked AnimeStudio fork submodule used for installed-game story and asset exports.
• export_full/: generated data exported from the installed client.
• res/: README screenshots and other small documentation media.
• reports/: durable WebUI/export summaries.
• videos/: local gameplay captures used by optional Story order OCR/audio recovery tools.
• scratch/: disposable local outputs.
• memory/: durable notes, conclusions, and recovery snapshots.

Community Resources

Special thanks to these LLM-driven community wiki projects. They are not affiliated with this project, but they are excellent resources and well worth checking out:

• AIC | Endfield Industrial Terminal is an AI-assisted Endfield wiki/reference project for checking public game knowledge and browsing organized Endfield material.
• PRTS | Rhodes Island Terminal is an AI-assisted Arknights wiki/reference project for checking public game knowledge across the broader Arknights setting.

If you are looking for conversational public wiki/reference material rather than this local research workspace, start with those sites and still verify important details against primary sources.