Posted January 12, 2016
high rated
*** UPDATED SINCE SAINTS ROW 4 IS NOW ON GOG ***
If you have played the GOG version of Saints Row 3, and you want to re-use your SR3 character in SR4, you have probably found out that the GOG version of SR3 does not allow you to upload your character to your Saints Row profile. But all is not lost. If you really want to use your SR3 character in SR4, you can. This is what you do.
Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk. I take no responsibility for the results of this procedure. Also note that there are different instructions for the GOG and Steam versions of Saints Row 4.
You will need a Hex editor. Warning: The Hex editor plugin for Notepad++ has a bug which means that this won't work in that. I used Frhed instead, which is also free, and it worked just fine.
1.
Find one of your SR3 saves. They are located under "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Saints Row The Third". The files themselves are called "sr3save_[xx].sr3s_pc". Just grab the latest one.
2.
Find your latest SR4 save file. You will need to have started the campaign, and finished the intro mission. When you reach the character creation after the intro mission, just make any character, save the game and then quit.
3a: Steam
The save file will be located under "Steam\userdata\[Steam profile ID]\206420\remote". Funnily enough, the Steam SR4 save files are also called "sr3save_[xx].sr3s_pc". Back up the latest one, so you can restore it if you mess up the editing.
3b: GOG
The save file will be located under "[Folder where you installed SR4]\_saves". The save files are called "sr4save_[xx].sr4s_pc". Back up the latest one, so you can restore it if you mess up the editing.
4.
Open up the SR3 save file in Frhed. Press Ctrl+C to open the "Copy" dialog (see image). Set "Start copying at offset" to x900, and either set "Copy up to and including offset" to x2b63 or set "Number of bytes to copy" to 8804, and click OK. Now the relevant data should be copied to the clipboard.
5.
Now open the SR4 save file in Frhed.
6a: Steam
Go to offset 05b80 (see image). Press Ctrl+V to paste the character data into the file. Save the file.
6b: GOG
Go to offset 4b4b. Press Ctrl+V to paste the character data into the file. Save the file.
If you did everything correctly, you should now be able to start SR4 and continue playing with your SR3 character. If the game crashes, you probably did something wrong, so restore the save file you (hopefully) backed up in step 3, and try again.
This (almost) worked for me. Well, it did work, but apparently the type of pants (trousers, if you're British) I wore in SR3 does not exist in SR4, so in SR4 I was in my underpants. Other than that, it worked perfectly, but your mileage may vary.
I did not discover how to do this myself. I pieced together the necessary information from this page, but I thought someone else here might benefit from a more easily accessible guide on how to do this.
If you have played the GOG version of Saints Row 3, and you want to re-use your SR3 character in SR4, you have probably found out that the GOG version of SR3 does not allow you to upload your character to your Saints Row profile. But all is not lost. If you really want to use your SR3 character in SR4, you can. This is what you do.
Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk. I take no responsibility for the results of this procedure. Also note that there are different instructions for the GOG and Steam versions of Saints Row 4.
You will need a Hex editor. Warning: The Hex editor plugin for Notepad++ has a bug which means that this won't work in that. I used Frhed instead, which is also free, and it worked just fine.
1.
Find one of your SR3 saves. They are located under "C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Saints Row The Third". The files themselves are called "sr3save_[xx].sr3s_pc". Just grab the latest one.
2.
Find your latest SR4 save file. You will need to have started the campaign, and finished the intro mission. When you reach the character creation after the intro mission, just make any character, save the game and then quit.
3a: Steam
The save file will be located under "Steam\userdata\[Steam profile ID]\206420\remote". Funnily enough, the Steam SR4 save files are also called "sr3save_[xx].sr3s_pc". Back up the latest one, so you can restore it if you mess up the editing.
3b: GOG
The save file will be located under "[Folder where you installed SR4]\_saves". The save files are called "sr4save_[xx].sr4s_pc". Back up the latest one, so you can restore it if you mess up the editing.
4.
Open up the SR3 save file in Frhed. Press Ctrl+C to open the "Copy" dialog (see image). Set "Start copying at offset" to x900, and either set "Copy up to and including offset" to x2b63 or set "Number of bytes to copy" to 8804, and click OK. Now the relevant data should be copied to the clipboard.
5.
Now open the SR4 save file in Frhed.
6a: Steam
Go to offset 05b80 (see image). Press Ctrl+V to paste the character data into the file. Save the file.
6b: GOG
Go to offset 4b4b. Press Ctrl+V to paste the character data into the file. Save the file.
If you did everything correctly, you should now be able to start SR4 and continue playing with your SR3 character. If the game crashes, you probably did something wrong, so restore the save file you (hopefully) backed up in step 3, and try again.
This (almost) worked for me. Well, it did work, but apparently the type of pants (trousers, if you're British) I wore in SR3 does not exist in SR4, so in SR4 I was in my underpants. Other than that, it worked perfectly, but your mileage may vary.
I did not discover how to do this myself. I pieced together the necessary information from this page, but I thought someone else here might benefit from a more easily accessible guide on how to do this.
Post edited May 01, 2017 by Wishbone
