Adventures model ripper [UPDATE v0.4.1]

[Pharrox]

Hello everybody, first post here.

 

A little bit ago I decided I wanted to get the models out of Adventures for a few projects I wanted to work on. Since I have a bit of experience in this area and a bit of free time I figured I'd see if I could throw together a little model ripper for fun and see what I could end up with. I didn't want to mention or post anything until I got it at 100 percent, but unfortunately my schedule coming up is looking pretty full and I don't think I'll be getting much of a chance to work on it anytime soon. So I've decided to release what I have at the moment in case anyone happens to be interested.

 

In general it seems to be working pretty well. It can rip the majority of models out of the game's 'MODELS.bin' and 'mod##.zlb.bin' files. It exports as a Maya Ascii (.ma) file. I realize this may not be the most convenient option, but prior experience has taught me that the common interchange formats simply don't support all the features I desire when working on these projects.

 

Known issues:

- It doesn't link multiple UV sets to their appropriate textures.

- It will often report success extracting linked textures even if the process failed.

- The initial perspective viewport errors out, leaving you in a fallback camera.

 

Possible issues:

- There may be an issue with assigning certain weight values. From what I've seen this is probably pretty minor, if it is a problem at all).

 

Download link, as well as character models and textures for the main cast can be found here.

 

Change log:

Version 0.4.1:

- Fixed a bug where a failed extracion would cause a crash.

Version 0.4:

- Updated values for models with a predefined weight scheme (final).

 

Version 0.3

- Added support for models with a normal/binormal/tangent configuration.

- Updated values for models with a predefined weight scheme.

 

Version 0.2

- Added support for exporting multiple UV sets.

 

Version 0.1

- Initial release

 

Images:

 

 

 

 

Other notes:

It's a basic console application, just drag and drop the files you want extracted. If there are 'TEX1.tab' and TEX1.bin' files in the same folder as the file being extracted it will extract and link the textures automatically. Without the texture files present at the time of extraction, the textures will need to be linked to the models manually.

 

In the case of 'mod##.zlb.bin' files, the files on the root of the disk are just copies of files of the same name in the other folders. If you want it to extract the textures for those models you will have to extract it from the folder containing that file, as the texture files on the root do not contain those textures.

 

Finally I'll release the source after I've cleaned it up a bit if anyone has any interest.

[Icy]

This is amazing!

 

THANK YOU!!

 

Gotta go rip me some models. For a while, I've been wanting to take a deeper look at Adventures' models/textures, and now it looks like I can.

In the past, I ripped a few clean models using 3D Ripper DX, but they were never true "rips" so this is wonderful news to me.

[Robert Monroe]

Someone mind posting a dump of images for these models in hidef for us plebians who can't use this? That'd be awesome!

[Pharrox]

Thanks for the support! This is pretty much the kind of stuff I work on when I get burned out on my other programming projects. I eventually want to do Assault and Pokemon X/Y (if I can ever get a decrypted rom).

 

Minor update. It now saves multiple UV sets for polygons that have them, still doesn't link them to their appropriate textures (I'm no modeler and haven't figured out how to do that in Maya yet), but they're there to be assigned.

[Kett]

Too bad the models can only be opened with Maya.

 

Is there a way to convert the models to another program?

Edited June 1, 2014 by DZComposer
Don't ask for warez.

[Scott7]

Maya can convert

 

Too bad the models can only be opened with Maya.

 

Is there a way to convert the models to another program?

 

Files from Maya can be exported into .obj and .fbx files, though you'd have to do that within' the modeling program itself. As far as I'm aware there's really no outside program that can convert one model format to another.

 

I myself on the other hand actually do use maya for alot of my work, so It'll definitely be pretty interesting to get a look at these models myself.

[DZComposer]

Please do not ask, explicitly or implicitly, for pirated software.

[Scourge]

*crossing fingers for SFAD Fox McCloud Gmod model*

[The Undying Nephalim]

The Extractor does not seem to be working properly. For instance I've dragged mod53.zlb.bin into the .exe and it generates .png files fine. It also generates .ma files, but every time I open them in Maya it gives an error and the file is completely blank. Some files have joints when I open them in Maya, but I've yet to find any model that extracts an actual mesh. Am I doing something wrong? do any other files have to be extracted in addition to the .bin file in order to create the .ma properly?

[Scott7]

The Extractor does not seem to be working properly. For instance I've dragged mod53.zlb.bin into the .exe and it generates .png files fine. It also generates .ma files, but every time I open them in Maya it gives an error and the file is completely blank. Some files have joints when I open them in Maya, but I've yet to find any model that extracts an actual mesh. Am I doing something wrong? do any other files have to be extracted in addition to the .bin file in order to create the .ma properly?

 

Which version of Maya are you using? An old Dev friend of mine tried it out with an older version and he got quite a few errors trying to load them.

[The Undying Nephalim]

Which version of Maya are you using? An old Dev friend of mine tried it out with an older version and he got quite a few errors trying to load them.

I've tried both Maya 2010 and Maya 2012

[Scott7]

I've tried both Maya 2010 and Maya 2012

 

Yeah, that's the same version he tried. If you're able, try seeing if you can get ahold of a 2013 or 2014 version. I use Maya 2013, myself, and I was able to load them just fine.

 

 

You can easily get a student license for either on the Auto-desk website, though I very much doubt you'd want to get the 4-year license for just the tool alone.

[The Undying Nephalim]

Yeah, that's the same version he tried. If you're able, try seeing if you can get ahold of a 2013 or 2014 version. I use Maya 2013, myself, and I was able to load them just fine.

 

 

 

You can easily get a student license for either on the Auto-desk website, though I very much doubt you'd want to get the 4-year license for just the tool alone.

 

I still cant get to seem the model to open. Maybe it's just a problem with the model itself? I'm trying to extract the model of Andross, does it work on your end?

[Scott7]

I still cant get to seem the model to open. Maybe it's just a problem with the model itself? I'm trying to extract the model of Andross, does it work on your end?

 

That's definitely something to do with the model itself, unfortunately. We've attempted extracting him as well, though to no such luck. We noticed the same thing with Drakor, as well. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other boss models are under a different compression format entirely.

[The Undying Nephalim]

That's definitely something to do with the model itself, unfortunately. We've attempted extracting him as well, though to no such luck. We noticed the same thing with Drakor, as well. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other boss models are under a different compression format entirely.

Figures.... those are the exact two models I was trying to extract.

 I was able to open up Fox and a Sharpclaw so it must just be a problem with Andross.

[Scott7]

Figures.... those are the exact two models I was trying to extract.

 I was able to open up Fox and a Sharpclaw so it must just be a problem with Andross.

 

Yeah.. Sadly I don't think we'll be getting the complete rips of those two anytime soon. ^^;

 

At best we can get them as hard rips. Andross himself shouldn't be too difficult to rig due to the simplicity of his form, though Drakor would be a bit more complicated.

[Robert Monroe]

Awesome! I loved the palace's architecture.

[Pharrox]

The files it outputs are based on 2014, so I'm not sure how older versions will react. Song support for older versions may be something I work on when everything else is cleared up.

I'll try to do an update this week to fix the models that don't work. There seem to be a pattern to the ones that fail, it's all just a guess though. Worst case scenario I can add a few commands that will allow people to specify its behavior in cases where it can't identify things automatically.

Also I'll be updating some of the weight values next release. I'm not sure they'll be perfect (working on that) but they'll be better than they are now (which is just broken).

[Pharrox]

Okay, so...progress.

 

Firstly, sorry for the double post, figured since it a new version that adds the models being requested it would warrant its own post. Let me know if it's a problem.

 

Anyway, the new version should now support the boss models. It's kinda a stupid hack that I wanted to avoid, but given my already limited time and the fact that I just got a second job, I figure it'll have to do for now. Left the previous version up as well in case it breaks anything else (only tested on the bosses). Weights on some models have been improved as well. Will work on that more later.

 

Finally, can anyone explain to me the importance of binormal and tangent vectors? The boss models use them, but as far as I can tell in Maya they are auto generated and there is no way to alter them manually. Exporting them to fbx, altering them, then reimporting it seems to cause no changes. I know they are used for normal mapping, but I'm no modelling expert, I just look at the files and disassemble/reassemble them using common sense and a bit of trial and error. Currently the binormal/tangent vectors are just ignored. I'd prefer to preserve as much data in the output as possible, so if anyone familiar with these things could give a bit of insight it would be greatly appreciated.

[Pharrox]

Oopsies! Commented out some error checking to make debugging easier. Forgot to reenable it. Fixed now.

Were all mod###.zlb causing a crash or just a specific one? It should've only been crashing when it failed to extract something, and the ones I just tried everything in them seemed to work fine. It'd give me something else to look into.

Also, is that how Galdon came out, or did you change something with the normals? They seemed to come out alright when I tested them.

Thanks for letting me know wht you find. Let me know if you run into any more problems.

[Thomas Draco]

Thanks for the support! This is pretty much the kind of stuff I work on when I get burned out on my other programming projects. I eventually want to do Assault and Pokemon X/Y (if I can ever get a decrypted rom).

 

Well I've been working on Assault off and on for nearly a year now, but I suck at model ripping because I'm a complete novice when it comes to 3D modelling and I haven't made much progress. 

 

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I would love to learn some tips and tricks if you have the time.

[Pharrox]

I'm definitely willing to help out and answer any questions if I can.

 

I'm also not that experienced when it comes to actual 3D modelling. I just have a decent understanding when it comes to the file formats (Nintendo's especially).

 

Pretty much all of my work is straight from the binaries, so I can't say I know much about ripping from Dolphin. I am pretty familiar with most of Nintendo's idiosynricies though, so if things are coming out a bit wierd I could probably take a stab at what's going on.

 

From the quick glance I've taken at Assault, the first order of business to rip from the binaries would just be to identify the files themselves. Most games make it pretty easy (Adventures has a file called 'MODELS' in every folder), but Assault just seems to have a bunch of numbered files with no immediate indication as to what is in any given one of them.

[Thomas Draco]

Pretty much all of my work is straight from the binaries, so I can't say I know much about ripping from Dolphin. I am pretty familiar with most of Nintendo's idiosynricies though, so if things are coming out a bit wierd I could probably take a stab at what's going on.

 

From the quick glance I've taken at Assault, the first order of business to rip from the binaries would just be to identify the files themselves. Most games make it pretty easy (Adventures has a file called 'MODELS' in every folder), but Assault just seems to have a bunch of numbered files with no immediate indication as to what is in any given one of them.

 

Yeah I noticed when I dumped the game myself. The models are there, they're just named weird or have different file types than normal model files. Not to mention since Namco made Assault pretty unilaterally, instead of Rare with help from Nintendo, the file types are different, and I have no idea how to view or open them in any type of 3D model program. That's why I just resorted to using 3D Ripper DX, but even that has issues.

[warewolff]

i have had this forever but never released it or done anything publicly with it because i can't get his textures to apply right, i've posted about it in various forums but never have any luck or never been able to fix this problem, models from this game are the only models i've had this texture problem with, well 1 being Zeus from God Of War and Zinyak from saints row 4, but i got zinyak fixed by ripping him instead of extracting, but with Andross that still doesn't work, anyone able to fix this?

Andross before textures

 

Andross after textures

[Pharrox]

Yeah I noticed when I dumped the game myself. The models are there, they're just named weird or have different file types than normal model files. Not to mention since Namco made Assault pretty unilaterally, instead of Rare with help from Nintendo, the file types are different, and I have no idea how to view or open them in any type of 3D model program. That's why I just resorted to using 3D Ripper DX, but even that has issues.

Okay, so I finally took a very brief look at some of the files from Assault.

The models seem to be contained in the 'nud_pack_##.pac' files on the root of the disk, and I'll assume the 'tex_pack_##.nut' files are the corresponding textures.

The '.pac' files themselves are just archives with a simple 32 byte header for each entry containing a magic number, the size of the entry, the size of the actual data, and the index of the entry. The files end with an empty entry that lists both size values as 0, despite the header still using the standard 32 bytes. There doesn't appear to be any compression.

In my experience, there's no real standard between games. Adventures is different from Assault which is different from Pokemon which is different from Smash Bros which is similar to Mario Kart. The key is to recognize patterns that tend to exist between all formats. One of the easiest to recognize is a list of draw commands that is sent to the system's GPU that actually links everything together, though that can be fairly advanced.

If you're really interested in learning how the system handles these files I highly suggest looking through YAGCD, as well as looking at the source code for similar tools that have been released. I'll be releasing the source for mine as soon as I get it cleaned up a bit.

 

 

i have had this forever but never released it or done anything publicly with it because i can't get his textures to apply right, i've posted about it in various forums but never have any luck or never been able to fix this problem, models from this game are the only models i've had this texture problem with, well 1 being Zeus from God Of War and Zinyak from saints row 4, but i got zinyak fixed by ripping him instead of extracting, but with Andross that still doesn't work, anyone able to fix this?

What did you rip this with? Andross seems to come out fine using the latest revision of my tool. The only thing I can think of is that the V coord has to be flipped when reading the UV maps, but that's true of every Nintendo model I've worked with.

One anomaly with the Adventure models that I haven't encountered before is the fact that UV values (as well as everything else) are stored as 16-bit fixed point values rather than 32-bit floating point numbers. That said, I've only worked with a couple other model formats before this, so I don't really know how common this usage really may be.

Finally, regarding Commitment to Purple's problem, I've finally taken a look into it. It seems like the scaling for the UV map is off for some of the models. I've been under the assumption that the scaling on all UV entries was fixed, though it looks like that might not be the case. As a temporary solution I would think it should be easy enough to scale up to the appropriate size.