Crowbar vs UABEA

Crowbar is a free Windows tool for modding GoldSource and Source Engine games. It can decompile, compile, and view models, as well as unpack, inspect, and search Valve VPK, Garry's Mod GMA, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines VPK, Tactical Intervention FPX, and Fairy Tale Busters APK packages. It can also pack folders into Valve VPK and Garry's Mod GMA files. Decompilation can recreate QC, mesh, animation, and procedural-bone files, while batch workflows can process a selected folder and its subfolders. Crowbar supports downloading Workshop items and publishing them for several games. The maker says Windows XP or later and .NET Framework 4 are required. Compiling models needs the game's authoring tools or SDK and its studiomdl.exe; viewing models needs authoring tools or an SDK and hlmv.exe. The latest release shown is version 0.74, dated February 2023. Help materials include guides, tutorials, reference resources, Discord, and Steam discussions.

UABEA is a free reader and writer for Unity Asset Bundles and Serialized Files on Windows and Linux. Its maker positions it for modding and research rather than general asset extraction. The tool handles textures, TextAssets, fonts, audio, MonoBehaviours, Unity Asset Bundles, Unity Serialized Files, and Addressables bundles, and supports batch extraction and archive repacking. Editing Addressables requires clearing CRC checks with a separate CRC cleaning tool. UABEANext, a newer work-in-progress version, adds docking and multi-bundle opening. The latest listed release requires .NET Runtime 6.0. Windows also needs the Visual C++ Redistributable; Linux requires glibc 2.29 or later, and musl-based distributions require compiling UABEA. Font import and export covers TTF and OTF, but font atlases are unsupported. Swizzled Switch textures can be edited, while newly added textures are not automatically swizzled. The repository identifies the software as MIT licensed.