===============-------------- === HOW TO get game data --- ---------------============== by Mirex , version 1 Hints for using the software ============================ Unmass: when you open the big-game-file it displays the contents of the file in few seconds. By hitting button 'Destination directory' you can choose where to save extracted files. If you want to select only files of one type click on the combo box next to About button then select file extension, and hit button '+' to select files and button '-' to deselect. Button 'Extract' extracts selected files to destination directory. Biturn: click on file to view it. Select 'Destination format' and press 'Convert' to convert it to different data format. When entering directory with lots of files (thousands) its better to turn off 'sorting' of files and 'Finding out filetypes on dir entering' to make loading of directory faster. Games: ====== Final Fantasy 7 --------------- What can be extracted: Textures, 3D models, game backgrounds info: game files are stored in big files with extension LGP, which are stored in the game folder\DATA\BATTLE, \DATA\FIELD ... char.lgp = world 3D models, battle.lgp = in-battle 3D models, battle scenes battle 3d models (high quality) - ??aa. files Look into "FF7 battle database", and find a character whose model you want to extract. There will be an 2 character identifier, for example: "mb King Behemoth". So run Unmass, open file battle.lgp, and select all files that start with "mb", there should be about 10-30 of those files. Extract these files somewhere, and then run Biturn and view file ending with 'aa' (for example mbaa) world 3d models (low quality) - *.hrc file It's hard to find a model you want, because there is no database on these files. Something-like-model-name is on the 1st line of HRC file (its plain text file, you can view it with notepad). Best way to find the one you want is to extract all HRC files and to look into them for the name, or to extract all files from archive, and to click on HRC's in Biturn. Every hrc file requires few subfiles, for example first model is [aaaa.hrc] (it's Cloud), second model is [aagb.hrc] (that's Tifa), and all files between aaaa.hrc and aagb.hrc are needed for first model. Warcraft 3 ---------- What can be extracted: Textures, 3D models. info: You have to unpack game data by some MPQ unpacker from file war3.mpq, and then view it with Biturn. textures - BLP just click on them to view them 3D models - MDX these need their BLP textures in same directory. To find out which textures are used, turn Logging mode to 'Major & Error to screen', and after loading model look into details pane. Scroll little up, and there you will see which textures failed to load. Oni --- What can be extracted: textures, game screens, object & character 3D models. info: game files are stored in .dat & .raw files in directory GameDataFolder; each game level has its own data. character models - ONCC Run Unmass and open some .dat level file. Extract files with extension ONCC (if there is no ONCC then open .dat of other level), to see which characters are used in this level. Check the names of the extracted files, to see if there is an character which you want to extract; remember its starting number. And the files with zero size can not be used. Then extract all the files from the archive (watch out now, there are about 10,000 of the files inthere). Afterwards run Biturn, and in the options\general switch sorting to 'do not sort', set 'loggin mood' to 'all to screen, errors to file' or 'show nothing' and turn off 'check all files on dir entering' to make loading faster. Now browse to the directory where all the files are extracted. Wait for a while for list of files to load and enter the number you have remembered into the search bar (with leading zeroes). You should be positioned on your file now. Click on it to view it, or select output format and convert it. object models - M3GM There are lots of them in archives, like computers, furniture, trucks, bodyparts, weapons and such. Files without names are usually body parts. game screens - TXMB They are usually made up from 6 textures (TXMP). Usually 2 or 3 in the archive (ending screen of level, lose screen and such) textures - TXMP Can be found anywhere in the archive. what to do if ============= -bodyparts are missing or bodyparts are not textured probably some files are missing, or are placed in different directory -models are half-transparent where they should not be try turning Option/Bitmaps/Alpha activated = off. links ===== Biturn, Unmass: http://mirex.mypage.sk, section Programs ff7 battle database: http://www.alhexx.com, section Descriptions or http://mirex.mypage.sk, section Descriptions new version of this document: http://mirex.mypage.sk in section Descriptions in next version ... =================== More games probably ... depends on requests ... so send me mail if something is needed ! my mail is 'mirex' on the mailserver 'centrum.sk'