I get this question a lot, so I just wanted to post this for everyone
to see, both for posterity, and so I don’t have to type this over and
over in PMs. 😛
If you haven’t already seen them, I have a lot of yummy step-by-step TS3 Conversion pictorials posted here:
http://murfeelee.tumblr.com/tagged/sims-3-tutorial
The
joy of converting games to TS3 for me is being able to recreate
characters and locales from my favorite games in a fully customized open
world sandbox, where I’m not restricted by the goals of RPGs and
battles, and I can just play with everything at my own discretion. That
was one of the big pulls TS3 had for me, from the very beginning.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and when I couldn’t find
certain custom content for TS3 that I wanted, I figured it couldn’t hurt
learning how to make them on my own.
IT HURT.
So hopefully, anyone reading my tutorials will feel slightly less pain than I endured.
☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾
☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆
☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾
Welcome to Murf’s School of Crap and Crap-Making!
School Motto: Prepare to be tortured! For Science!
Lesson #6: INTRO TO GAME EXTRACTING
☽✶•.¸(✶•.¸★¸.•✶´)¸.•✶´☾
☆«´¨`•°°•´¨`»☆
☽.¸.•✶(¸.•✶´★`✶•.¸)`✶•.☾
Quick Tid-Bits about Game Conversions
Game extraction really all depends on which games you’re converting from. Some are WAY harder to extract from than others.
Meshes
come in all sorts of different 3d formats, that some programs can read,
and others can’t. The Sims uses .obj files, which can be used in
practically EVERYTHING, from 3DS Max to Blender to Milkshape to TSRW,
etc. But when you’re extracting game meshes, more often than not they
won’t come in .obj form at all.
This is where converting gets its biggest challenge: how to get the meshes out of the original game, and into .obj format.
Because
the golden rule is: once you have an .obj file and its textures, you’re
home free~! Converting to TS3 is relatively simple at that point,
depending on what it is you’re doing or have planned.
3DS MAX / GMAX / etc
You’ll probably almost ALWAYS need to grab a copy of 3DS Max. No, it’s not free, so you’ll either need to use the free trial, or become good good friends with Blackbeard or Bluebeard or Captain Hook or Jack Sparrow or…ohh, you know what I mean!
Some games (usually PC games) have model viewer/extraction tools made for them by 3rd party programmers
angels of mercy, which makes extracting meshes VASTLY easier than games
that don’t. When they do, it’s just a matter of tracking them down
online, and installing them and the plugins required so 3DS Max can open the meshes and allow you to extract them back out as .obj files.
NOESIS
A name you might see rather often in your game extraction travels is Noesis,
which is a POWERFUL program that can view a whole EFFTON of different
mesh types, and extract them easy as pie. (It used to be called mesh2rdm,
which I still sometimes use for simple model viewing.) Noesis is famous
for its support of Final Fantasy game models, but trust me: it can
handle a whoooooole buttload of games.
FINAL FANTASY: Level 1/5 of Difficulty
The only hard part about extracting from Final Fantasy is that it’s a console game, so you need to either have an Emulator and/or ISO file on hand in order to get the game data out – MORE ON THOSE LATER. But Noesis makes all of that worthwhile. FF is the easiest game I’ve extracted from, by far. (Except for FF13, which we do not talk about, or acknowledge the existence of!
[EDIT] I forgot – this ‘easiness‘ of which I speak only counts if you just want static meshes or props. If you want, say, a FFX Aeon like Valefor to pose in a particular battle stance, then you need things like Chargeur and other tools, and/or 3ds Max, for the poses to stick.
It all depends on WHICH game you convert from. If Noesis can’t support the models you extracted, however, you’re gonna have to either:
A:) get another tool that can, or
B:) go the long way about it. U_U
If
A, then you’ll have to know what type of mesh type you’re dealing with,
by looking at the data files in your game folders. For PC games this is
easy, because everything’s already on your PC; you just need to know
how to crack the files open. And this varies from game to game. Like,
for instance:
SKYRIM (BSA/NIF) : Level 2/5 of Difficulty
Skyrim uses .nif format meshes. To the best of my
knowledge, no other tool supports .nif files other than Nifscope and/or 3DS Max, which requires a .nif import/export plugin in order to work with the meshes. Nifscope doesn’t work on my computer (IDKY), so I just use 3DS Max and the plugins; no biggie…except I have no model viewer, so more often than not I’m flying blind, trying to figure out what I’m looking at with no textures – grrrrr~!
Anyways, when you look in your game installation folder, Skyrim’s meshes are all bundled into big .zip-like files called .bsa’s, – like Skyrim – Meshes.bsa (which is1.5 GB base game) and Skyrim – Textures.bsa (1.29 GB) and Skyrim – Animations.bsa (which is 40MB, and which is where I got all the funky poses from to do things like the Bears and Werewolves conversions. 😉 )
So you need another tool to extract the .nif files from the .bsa files. There are two I know of and use, but I like one more than the other. There’s BSA Unpacker (my preferred tool, tbh; it’s simpler, thus perfect for noobtards like me) and BSA Opt.
The BSA Opt link takes you to a FABULOUS entire pictorial, that’s self explanatory.
So once you sit for like an hour and a half waiting for each BSA to extract (I’m not even lying, it takes like an hour), you get all your mesh/texture/etc folders, with the .nifs inside, that you can then import into 3DS Max, and export right out as .obj files. EASY! ^-^
And I’ve showed y’all how to convert Skyrim object and clothes meshes before.
DRAGON AGE ORIGINS (ERF/MMH) : Level 3/5 of Difficulty
I got rid of my copy of DAI, and I can’t figure out how to extract (properly) from DA2, so I stick with DAO conversions only. And all three games use 3 different extraction processes. *headdesk*
One thing you always(?) need (for whatever frikkin reason) is Bioware’s Dragon Age Toolset, which was a effing pill and a half to track down, IDKY. 😡 (x)
The same way Skyrim packs all its meshes/etc in .bsa files, DAO packs its own in .erf files – textures, meshes, animations, etc. Just like the BSA tools I mentioned, DAO’s GFF Editor cracks open the .erfs, so you can get to the smaller files inside.
DAO has way lower polys than effing Skyrim uses, so its .erfs are like HALF the size – modelhierarchies.erf is 150MB, modelmeshdata.erf is 450MB, and the anims.erf is the biggest, at 548MB (don’t ask me why).
Ohhhhh my gawd dealing with DAO animations in 3DS Max was aggravating. I had to download a zillion effing plugins, and they completely jacked 3DS Max for me; you need this weird interface thing I forget the name of that starts with an H or something – next time I’m in 3DS Max I’ll update this; I only use it for the DAO Wolves and Dogs poses. Effing aggravating.
[EDIT] It’s called Havok Content Tools, people. You use it for animations in DA, Skyrim, etc. You have to register with Havok (it’s free) and give them all kinds of information (I faked it, of course; wtf), and then you get access to the 3DS Max plugins.
Anyways!
DAO doesn’t use .obj files either; it uses .mmh files instead. I have to juggle between tools to get them out. I personally use Tazpn’s GUI and DA Tool 0.5 to view and extract files.
Once you’ve extracted the .erf files to get the folders inside of it, you need to use the Model Viewer/Extractor. Use DA Tools first. It lets you view the .mmh files inside the .erfs by type (clothes, props, buildings, etc), and exports them out when you click Save All.
(That poor lil guy was shared here, btw.)
Saving the meshes gives you anywhere from like 5 or 7 to upwards of 12 or more files, depending on what you’re exporting. It includes textures, and the meshes.
From there, you still need the .obj file, so I use Tazpn’s GUI to convert the .mmh files to .obj files.
And like I said: once you have the .obj file and textures, you’re good to go.
ALICE: MADNESS RETURNS (UPK/PSKX): Level 4/5 of Difficulty
I’ll be fair, the only reason I say converting from AMR is hard is because it’s the very first game I learned to fully extract from; I got SO MUCH help from my friends at DeviantArt, and it was my gateway drug; once I figured AMR out; it was a snap figuring out all the rest of the games I convert from.
I use Gildor’s GUI for UModel. It’s a little tricky to configure, which was the hardest part for me to understand. You just have to make sure you keep UModel GUI in the same directory as the game’s data files.
(I STRONGLY recommend to ALWAYS get the GUI over the Command Line tools. I HATE messing with Command Lines. I’m a noobtard. I like nice clean noob-friendly user interfaces, with shiny buttons and dropdown lists – EFF command lines! This is NOT 1990 anymore!)
But yeah, so to use the GUI, you just browse to the directory where you keep the game’s data files installed. You need the CookedPC folder, as that’s where all the juicy stuff is, in zip-like .upk files this time around.
Skeletal Meshes are Alice’s outfits and all the NPCs (and enemies).
StaticMeshes are all the decor props. Her weapons I think were in the AliceGame folder’s .upks
The .upks are relatively tiny, because each one is separated, not lumped together like .erfs and .bsas. BUT they’re organized by folders, which are EFFING HUUUUGE~! The Chapter Folder is 3GB, I kid you not.
So in the GUI, you just use the little [+] [-] buttons to navigate the dropdown lists, to look for whichever blocks from the game you want to extract meshes from. Most of everything is in the Chapters Folder section, which is divided in chronological order, so if you don’t play the game, you won’t really know where to look for anything.
The Dollhouse level, for instance, was in Chapter 5, so you’d scroll down to Chapter 5, and from there, you’d know that each chapter of AMR starts out with Alice in London, before she gets whisked away to…wherever.
So L1 means London, and all the meshes you’d expect to find in London in Chapter 5. W1 and W2 are the Wonderland meshes – in Chapter 5′s case: the Dollhouse, parts 1 and 2. I think W3 was the Dollmaker’s shop – I don’t remember; it’s been awhile.
Anyways, all you have to do is click whichever segment you want to look through. I chose Chapter5_W2_Dfort2_01 (the Dollhouse Fort).
As I said, the StaticMeshes are props, so I just picked one at random; they’re usually self-explanatory. Double click the StaticMesh so the model viewer pops up, and right-click the name so you can export the meshes.
For AMR the meshes are in .pskx format, so yes, you need to hunt down the 3DS Max import/export plugin, so you can get the .obj file out.
From there, you’re all set.
EMULATORS AND 3D RIPPERS (OBJ) : Level 5/5 Level of Difficulty
Remember when I said Final Fantasy was a 1/5, and that the hardest part was getting an Emulator and/or ISO file?
If you were wondering what I meant, here’s the deal:
There’s two do-it-yourself 3d model rippers out there of note: Ninja Ripper, and 3D Ripper DX. I
prefer Ninja, but they’re both used with PS1/2/¾/etc PC Emulators,
which will allow you to play your console games on your computer (there are PSP, Wii, Nintendo,
Xbox, etc Emulators out there, too). The
Rippers will then FORCE the meshes on your screen out of the game in
real time, textures and .obj files included, so that you can fiddle with
them as you please.
This is a REALLY chunky process and can often yield
lackluster results if your PC is low-res and has a slow processor (like mine >_>). But unfortunately, it’s the only way to get models out of games without having to use EFFING COMMAND LINES to extract the meshes from .zip-like archives like .bin files and .dat files and whatever other files are out there.
There aren’t any PS4 Emulators yet I think, and the PS3 Emulators that are out there are apparently REALLY buggy. PS1 and PSP Emulators aren’t worth the hassle, because of the low poly meshes, so you’re pretty much stuck with PS2 or Xbox, as far as I’m aware. (I don’t use X-Box; frikkin hacks.)
Basically, to run a PS2 Emulator, you need the right kind of emulator, and
some ISOs. ISOs are game files, sorta like the huge .bsa/.erf/.upk zip-like files I’ve been telling you about, only WAY bigger. There are Youtube videos galore that show how to create ISO files using your PS2 discs (it takes FOREVEEEER~!) Easiest way to get an ISO and emulator is to just download one. (x)
You have to run the Ripper FIRST, so it can open the Emulator. From there, you just pick whichever ISO you want to run, and I kid you not, it will load the game, right there on your PC.
Currently, this is how I’m extracting meshes from most of the PS2 Koei Warriors games. There’s new revamped DLC from the newer games, but meh; I like I knew how to do this first, so whatever; I’m stuck in my ways. Plus, it’s effing HARD extracting from PS3 games without an emulator or extraction tool. I’m stuck with EFFING COMMAND LINES, I tell you.
KOEI WARRIORS GAMES: ∞/5 Level of Difficulty
With Ninja Ripper, while you’re busy playing your game, just take a second to hit
the [Shift] and [F8] buttons. It’ll freeze the game for a moment and
you’ll end up with a folder called Snaps in your Ninja Ripper directory.
Inside the Snaps folder will LITERALLY be 3D snapshots of whatever scene you were just in. LITERALLY.
It’ll be very skewed, so you need to know how to fix things like scaling, flipping UV Maps, and fixing Normals and shaders to get the meshes looking sexy. (Plus you need the textures, duh, so don’t forget to press [F9] to get the textures in the Out/_Ripper folder.)
(It’s best to just go right to the Character Viewers, like in-game
galleries or team customization sections, where the game lets you look a
the high-res models outside of battle mode or whatever.)
It takes QUITE SOME TIME to go from THIS:
to THIS:
to THIS:
(It’s actually very hard to configure, and I’m not the one to ask
about it; I have so many freaking bookmarks to online forums where I
figured out how to do it; cuz it’s deliberately complex. This is not an
Emulator tutorial; I’m just explaining different ways to extract the
frikkin models for TS3.)
So, I hope this long af tutorial at least gives y’all some idea of what to expect when you’re extracting from games.
I always feel really bad when people ask: How do you convert from games? And I always just wanna cry and say: WHAT game? Because there is NO one answer, as every game, as you can see, requires a different approach. And I don’t play very many games if they aren’t fanciful/historic RPGs or Hack n’ Slash or Adventure games, so I’d have no frikkin clue how to extract from GTAV or CoD or Madden, so please DON’T ask. 😛
(AND YES, Ranmaru Mori is one of my alltime favorite Warriors characters; nya nya nya, Tumblinrob~!)
The Faery's Gifts 