arcdEx vs Source 2 Viewer
arcdEx
github.com
Source 2 Viewer
s2v.appSide by side
| Figure | arcdEx | Source 2 Viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Game Asset Extractors | 8.5 (#1) | 8.3 (#4) |
| Purpose | arcdEx is a tool to work with .arcd files generated by the Defold game engine. | Source 2 Viewer browses VPK archives and views, exports, and decompiles Source 2 assets such as maps, models, materials, textures, and sounds. |
| Support | The original README says feature requests and bug reports are intentionally disabled and that patches are welcome. | The maker directs users to report issues and notes that reports with a file path and error message usually get looked at quickly. |
| Texture support | It can inspect and extract .texturec files and their contained textures. | The texture viewer supports channel, depth layer, mip level, cubemap, and HDR viewing, and can export textures to PNG, TGA, or other image formats. |
Plans
In their own words
arcdEx
arcdEx is a free Linux tool for listing and extracting files from .arcd archives made by the Defold game engine. It handles compressed files and can decrypt files only when they use Defold's default encryption key. The tool can inspect .texturec resources and extract their contained textures, as well as inspect compiled .luac files and extract Lua source code. To work with an archive, provide the .arcd file; arcdEx guesses paths to the associated .arci index and .dmanifest manifest files. The repository says this version supports manifest version 5, while the README also lists versions 1 through 4. Multiple .arcd files from a Defold web game must be combined before use. The README distinguishes desktop applications, which contain compiled Lua bytecode, from web projects through Defold 1.3.4, which contain Lua source code. It supports command-line and batch extraction, and runs as a Java JAR. The project is licensed under AGPL v3, and its author is credited as Christian Weiske. Archive repacking is not supported.
Source 2 Viewer
Source 2 Viewer is a free, open-source tool for browsing VPK archives and inspecting or exporting assets from Source 2 games. It can search, extract, and create archives, including VPK versions from Source 1. Its renderer displays maps, models, physics, and particles with real-time lighting and animation playback. The tool also inspects textures, audio, shaders, and other Source 2 resources. Maps, models, physics, and animations can be exported to glTF 2.0, with material conversion and batch export; maps, models, and materials can be decompiled into editable formats for Hammer, ModelDoc, and Source 2 Workshop Tools. Texture tools cover channels, depth layers, mip levels, cubemaps, and HDR, with image export. Its audio player supports WAV, MP3, and Source 2 formats. The graphical interface is Windows-only, though the guide describes running it on Linux and macOS through Wine; the command-line utility is available for Windows, Linux, and macOS. The GUI is portable and requires no installation. Some data may be lost during export, and reverse-engineered format support is incomplete. The project is volunteer-built and says it is not affiliated with Valve.