NBA JAM: On Fire Edition - ATTRIBDB Help

[johnz1]

The most important file that I haven't been able to decode is ATTRIBDB ('ps3\bigs\attribdb_big.ast'). This is a very important file because, among many other things, it defines the player models. Without being able to edit ATTRIBDB, creating and modifying players and planning out rosters is arduous and time-consuming - and at worst, it's simply impossible. For example, the stock game only has two female players (Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin). Without editing ATTRIBDB, you simply cannot have more than two female players. The same is true for skinny players, muscular players, and players with short shorts.

I know for a fact that ATTRIBDB controls player models because when you swap the original file with the one extracted from the official EA 2013 roster update, the player model changes from the update are present. I believe being able to modify this file will allow for many exciting things to be modified:

- Uniforms that players wear
- Shoes that players wear
- Body shapes
- Shorts length
- Jersey neck type
- Court texture placement and size
- And probably much more

'attribdb_big.ast' is an archive that contains two files: 'ATTRIBDB_VLT' (the "vault") and 'ATTRIBDB_BIN' (binary data that the vault references).

I've asked for help with this file on multiple websites going back to 2022. Several people tried to help, but no one really got anywhere. In 2024, I figured out that other EA games like Need For Speed and Burnout also have ATTRIBDB files (named "AttribSys"). People have decoded AttribSys in these games, and there is documentation and applications for it:
https://github.com/NFSTools/Attribulator
https://github.com/NFSTools/VaultLib
https://burnout.wiki/wiki/AttribSys_Vault

In 2025, I finally found the right person. LeoCodes21 on GitHub, the author of VaultLib, was able to decode and dump ATTRIBDB! Unfortunately, he doesn't currently have a way to modify ATTRIBDB files so that it can be reimported into 'attribdb_big.ast'. Our interaction can be found here: https://github.com/NFSTools/VaultLib/issues/22

The attached ZIP file contains the original file from the stock game and from the 2013 roster update, as well as the files that were extracted from them. Please contact me if you think you can help!

[johnz1]

First post edited with an exciting update: It looks like "ATTRIBDB" is the same as "AttribSys" in the Need For Speed and Burnout games, and it is well understood by people modding those games.

[Andrew]

[CelticsBird33]

Holy smokes.. thats Awesome!!

[ukwe]

This is amazing to hear!
Any updates on the decoding?

[johnz1]

This is amazing to hear!
Any updates on the decoding?

It's been dumped, largely without key names and values translated from hashes to english, which was exciting until I learned that there's currently no path to rejecting the modified files. So for now, I've given up and am proceeding as if this will never actually happen. It sucks, but I have needed an answer one way or another for years.

[ukwe]

Don´t lose hope, with your input and interest, i´m sure the file is going to be editable. Another option would be to locate, if they don´t work on EA anymore, any of the programmers that worked for NBA Jam OFE (mentioning this because i know NLSC interviewed the announcer before)