Guide to Extracting N64 Models

Blue Gem · 10-09-2004, 11:55 PM

Here I have posted my guide and links to the tools you will need.

Here is where you can download the latest version of Nemu 64.

www.nemu.com/downloads.php

Nemu 64 comes with a plugin that extracts VRML files. Here is the link for the NEW plugin that ALSO extracts textures.

http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.ph...2&page=1&pp=15

On this page, download the SECOND attached file, NOT THE ONE AT THE TOP.

EDIT: I have recenlty found that 1964 (another emulator) supports this plugin as well. I think it runs more roms than Nemu also. Find it here

http://www.ngemu.com/n64/1964.php?action=download

Ok here is the guide I wrote.

------------------------------------------------------
-- DISCLAIMER --

- Roms -

Rom files are bakcup copies of Nintendo 64 game cartridges. If you do not own the cooresponding game, it is illegal to posses the Rom for more than 24 hours. Breaking this rule is breaking the law. Roms are not to be distributed in packages with emulator software.

- Models and Textures -

Any models and textures exported from a Nintendo 64 rom are not your property. They are copyrighted data owned by Nintendo or the third party game producer. You may not use these models or textures in any commercial way whatsoever or accept any profit/credit for the animations and/or pictures made using these models.

EDIT: It would be good to include the game company's name and info in the credits of any movies that use their models and textures.

Alright. Here is a list of everything you will need to extract and perfect models from n64 roms:

- Nemu 64 (or 1964) - The emulator that supports the VRML exporting video plugin
- ROM File - The n64 cartridge dump of the desired video game
- 3d Studio Max - The program used to remove all geometry execpt the desired model
- Milkshape - The program used to edit texture size and coordinates in relation to the geometry of the model
-MsPaint - The program used to correct texture sizes.

---Step 1. Preparation---

a. First, make sure that you have the necessary tools to complete this process. If you do not have everything, stop and obtain them all first.

b. Create a folder in your hardrive folder - C:\ - titled VRML. This file path is set in the emulator as the place to export the VRML file and the associated texture BMP's.

c. Extract Nemu 64 from the zip onto your desktop. Leave it there. You might be able to change it't location, but I found that doing this messes up the emulator - I don't know why.

d. Create a folder somewhere, anywhere, where you will keep your roms. This in not necessary, but it will help you stay organized.

e. Open Nemu 64 and go to the "input plugin" window by clicking the controller icon or clicking "input plungin" under the "plugins" pull down menu. If you have a gamepad that you would like to use, click select input devices and select your gamepad. Make sure that controller 1 is "plugged in" and assign the n64 buttons to your gamepad or keyboard.

---Step 2. Extraction---

a. Open the rom file that contains the desired model and wait for the game to load. The emulator will display the progress of the loading and then start the game.

b. Get to the area/level of the game where the desired model can be clearly seen. Press F4 to pause the emulator.

c. Open the "video plugin" window and check the "export VRML" option. Click OK. Rapidly press F4 twice to quickly unpause and repause the emulator. The reason for this is that you only want to export 1 frame of animation. More than one frame will cause missing faces in the geometry.

--- Note that large game areas have problems opening in 3d Studio Max. Try to stay in a small room when exporting the VRML. If the desired model is a weapon, try to extract it when it is not in the hands of a character. This can complicate the cleaning of the VRML. Extract the weapon while it's on a floor or while in the start menu (i.e. Goldeneye). If the desired model is a character, pause the emulator while the character is standing in a basic pose. ---

d. Open the folder C:\VRML and see that there are now many BMP files and a VRML file. The BMP files have numbered names. Don't change these. The VRML file is titled "output.wrl" If there are no contents in the VRML folder, retry the previous steps.

---Step 3. Editing the VRML---
-- For this step you MUST have experience with a 3d editing program --

a. Open 3d Studio Max (Do not use Milkshape for this step) and IMPORT the output.wrl file. Select the appropriate options regarding the import action such as "completely replace current scene."

b. Notice that the VRML world is very small. You may not be able to see it. Press Crtl A to select all objects. Resize the entire scene so that it matches the default grid.

-- The next substep is EXTREMELY fragile --

c. Using all angles of the interface (top, bottom, left, right, and perspective) select and delete every piece of geometry that is not part of the desired model. DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK FROM EVERY ANGLE. You do not want uneeded pieces of the game environment or unwanted models included in the finished product. Ctrl A to select all pieces of the "cleaned" desired model and resize it appropriately.

d. Use the perspective view to get a good angle of the model and press F10 to open the rendering window. Click render to get a fully textured example of your model. Notice that some textures may not look right. This is because some textures are not extracted from the ROM in their proper size.

It is now time to edit the single model's texturing.

---Step 4. Relocating the Needed Model Textures---
-- Pay VERY close attention to the instructions for this step --

a. EXPORT the model into a new folder on your desktop as a 3DS file. A 3d Studio Max prompt will come up. Make sure the box to preserve the texture coordinates is checked. Click yes or OK. A completion window will appear and display VERY important information. Grab a paper and pencil curly!

b. This window is displaying the names of all the BMP files that are applied to the geometry remaining in the scene. Because you deleted all of the uneeded geometry, the texture files for the original game world and various deleted geometry are not used, thus their names do not show up in this prompt.

Notice that the prompt says that the textures have been renamed (i.e. 9D3B367_c.bmp has been changed to 9D3B67.bmp). The "_c" has been removed from the filename. For some files, only the "c" has been removed (i.e. 9D3B367_c.bmp has been changed to 9D3B67_.bmp).

c. Write down this information as you will need it later. Notice that some files are repeated. They may be repeated many times. This is because some textures are used more than once. You do not need to rewrite these filenames.

d. Go into the VRML folder in your C:\ drive and locate the file names that you wrote down. Look for the the files that still have the extra "_c" in the name. Cut them from this folder and paste them into the folder where you put the 3DS file. Notice that there are two files with similar names but different pictures. One has an "_a" and the second has an "_c". You only need the file with the "_c".

e. Now go to the files that you pasted into the new folder and rename them to the names given by 3d Studio Max. Now, if you import the 3DS into 3d Studio Max and render it, the textures will show up. If you did not do the cut/paste and renaming steps, the 3DS will not have textures. You can now edit the textures to display properly.

---Step 5. Editing the Texures in Milkshape---
-- This step requries knowledge on how edit texture positions and sizes in relation to geometry using Milkshape --

a. Open Milkshape and IMPORT the 3DS as and Autodesk 3DS. Milkshape will display the model with it's textures, although they may be dark or shaded wrong. You will see the same texture wrapping problems that occured in the rendered picture you made with 3d Studio Max. The cause of this problem is that some textures are too small to be properly wrapped.

b. To fix this problem, open the small texture in MsPaint and add a fair amount of extra color around the main texture and save it. Refer to example 1. Close and reopen the model in Milkshape. Now open the "texture editor" window in Milkshape. Select the geometry to which the edited texture applies and scroll through the list of geometry pieces until you find the one that is selected. Edit the size and positioning and watch the results in the perspective view. This process is used to fix textures for eyes, mouths, and other small single piece textures.

c. To fix clothing or large solid texture masses that wrap incorrectly, simply increase the size of the picture using MsPaint and follow the same instructions as the previos steps. Refer to example 2.

d. Now that the textures are edited, reopen and render the 3DS in 3d Studio Max. If you did the steps correctly, the wrapping problems should be fixed. Save the money shot and upload it for the community to see!

---Going Further---

The purpose of this guide is to demostrate how to extract and refine character or weapon models from n64 Roms. If you want to convert them into MD2 or BDML for use in 3dmm, you will have to create a skeleton using Milkshape and then follow the model conversion guide made by Kim Turley. Please adhere to the disclaimer at the top of the page.

---Texture editing Examples---

This guide composed by Justin, "BlueGem"
------------------------------------------------------

And there you go.

If you have any questions or comments, post them here and Hylian Hero or I will try to respond to them.

Gorosaurus · 10-10-2004, 02:29 AM

If you're new, I suspect you are going to do real well here.

I don't know anything about texture importing and that stuff, but that seemed like a great format

Brimz · 10-10-2004, 02:41 AM

Whoa, that's really indepth. I bet this will go to good use man, great work.

Battletoads · 10-10-2004, 02:59 AM

Woah, great work dewger.

Hylian Hero · 10-10-2004, 05:55 AM

Hey all! Just wondering if you messed with any models of your own?

Shawn McGravy · 10-10-2004, 06:23 AM

OHHH... This looks complicated.

Blue Gem · 10-10-2004, 06:32 AM

Don't despair! It took Hylian and I no more than two hours to make this second nature. No lies!

Just follow the steps and you should succeed.

Gourry Inverse · 10-10-2004, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Hylian Hero
Hey all! Just wondering if you messed with any models of your own?

As soon as I find a Rom for Super Mario 64...

Molotov · 10-10-2004, 02:09 PM

Someone rip every weapon model in Conker's Bad Fur Day please KTHXBYE

Samuel Deacon · 10-10-2004, 02:23 PM

heh, thats funny, im just downloading that

Samuel Deacon · 10-10-2004, 02:24 PM

unfortunately, i have no idea what the fuck that guy at the top is on about

Brimz · 10-10-2004, 02:47 PM

It's a 'guide to extracting n64 models' to get the files we need to import into 3dmm.

HMC · 10-10-2004, 03:20 PM

This is why Mario Saga 2 is going to be obselete. I don't have any roms or 3d programs, and now I'll be the only one not using a Mario model.

Brimz · 10-10-2004, 03:39 PM

I made a mario model, I'll release him soon

.

HMC · 10-10-2004, 03:43 PM

No, see, I want to use a Handmade one because:

1. I'll be able to convey more expressions/actions.
2. A public release model would get old fast and Mario Saga 2 wouldn't be taken seriously.
3. I just don't want to use V3DMM for this. I don't need to.

Brimz · 10-10-2004, 05:48 PM

Ah, okay then. Just letting you know anyways.

Blue Gem · 10-10-2004, 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brimz
I made a mario model, I'll release him soon .

Did you make it from a Rom?

Ryan Omega · 10-10-2004, 07:27 PM

He probably did. I want him to release it. Now.

Brimz · 10-10-2004, 08:10 PM

Nah, it was a quake2 model.

Evil Ash · 10-10-2004, 10:01 PM

1. Why not edit the textures in 3D Studio Max? Why go through the trouble of the whole Milkshape thing?

2. You don't need to render to see the textures, just activate textures in the perspective view (or any other view).

Blue Gem · 10-10-2004, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Evil Ash
1. Why not edit the textures in 3D Studio Max? Why go through the trouble of the whole Milkshape thing?

2. You don't need to render to see the textures, just activate textures in the perspective view (or any other view).

1. I have little experience with 3d Studio Max, other than what is obvious from my use of it to make the models. Therefore, I didn't know you could do that with 3dsm. If it's possible to skip milkshape and get the same results, by all means DO SO! As far as exporting as MD2, Milkshape is the only program I know that can do that.

2. Again, there is a lot of stuff I don't know about 3d Studio Max. Thanks for the tip!

Dash · 10-11-2004, 09:04 PM

My computers to shit for n64 graphics

But...anyway where wud i get roms from?

Hylian Hero · 10-12-2004, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dash
My computers to shit for n64 graphics

But...anyway where wud i get roms from?

Actually, that's not really supposed to be discussed in forums. I don't know if you can really get in trouble for it, but roms are not legal (unless you own the game), so I won't say.

Evil Ash · 10-12-2004, 04:29 AM

Hint: The Internet.
Bigger Hint: Search engines

Melrose Let Down · 10-16-2004, 09:49 PM

Blue Gem, let me ask you a question....

Do you know if it would be possible to export a model from a rom, modify it in 3dsm, and Re-import it to the rom and replace the original model?

10-09-2004, 11:55 PM	#1
Blue Gem Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 323	Guide to Extracting N64 Models Here I have posted my guide and links to the tools you will need. Here is where you can download the latest version of Nemu 64. www.nemu.com/downloads.php Nemu 64 comes with a plugin that extracts VRML files. Here is the link for the NEW plugin that ALSO extracts textures. http://www.emutalk.net/showthread.ph...2&page=1&pp=15 On this page, download the SECOND attached file, NOT THE ONE AT THE TOP. EDIT: I have recenlty found that 1964 (another emulator) supports this plugin as well. I think it runs more roms than Nemu also. Find it here http://www.ngemu.com/n64/1964.php?action=download Ok here is the guide I wrote. ------------------------------------------------------ -- DISCLAIMER -- - Roms - Rom files are bakcup copies of Nintendo 64 game cartridges. If you do not own the cooresponding game, it is illegal to posses the Rom for more than 24 hours. Breaking this rule is breaking the law. Roms are not to be distributed in packages with emulator software. - Models and Textures - Any models and textures exported from a Nintendo 64 rom are not your property. They are copyrighted data owned by Nintendo or the third party game producer. You may not use these models or textures in any commercial way whatsoever or accept any profit/credit for the animations and/or pictures made using these models. EDIT: It would be good to include the game company's name and info in the credits of any movies that use their models and textures. Alright. Here is a list of everything you will need to extract and perfect models from n64 roms: - Nemu 64 (or 1964) - The emulator that supports the VRML exporting video plugin - ROM File - The n64 cartridge dump of the desired video game - 3d Studio Max - The program used to remove all geometry execpt the desired model - Milkshape - The program used to edit texture size and coordinates in relation to the geometry of the model -MsPaint - The program used to correct texture sizes. ---Step 1. Preparation--- a. First, make sure that you have the necessary tools to complete this process. If you do not have everything, stop and obtain them all first. b. Create a folder in your hardrive folder - C:\ - titled VRML. This file path is set in the emulator as the place to export the VRML file and the associated texture BMP's. c. Extract Nemu 64 from the zip onto your desktop. Leave it there. You might be able to change it't location, but I found that doing this messes up the emulator - I don't know why. d. Create a folder somewhere, anywhere, where you will keep your roms. This in not necessary, but it will help you stay organized. e. Open Nemu 64 and go to the "input plugin" window by clicking the controller icon or clicking "input plungin" under the "plugins" pull down menu. If you have a gamepad that you would like to use, click select input devices and select your gamepad. Make sure that controller 1 is "plugged in" and assign the n64 buttons to your gamepad or keyboard. ---Step 2. Extraction--- a. Open the rom file that contains the desired model and wait for the game to load. The emulator will display the progress of the loading and then start the game. b. Get to the area/level of the game where the desired model can be clearly seen. Press F4 to pause the emulator. c. Open the "video plugin" window and check the "export VRML" option. Click OK. Rapidly press F4 twice to quickly unpause and repause the emulator. The reason for this is that you only want to export 1 frame of animation. More than one frame will cause missing faces in the geometry. --- Note that large game areas have problems opening in 3d Studio Max. Try to stay in a small room when exporting the VRML. If the desired model is a weapon, try to extract it when it is not in the hands of a character. This can complicate the cleaning of the VRML. Extract the weapon while it's on a floor or while in the start menu (i.e. Goldeneye). If the desired model is a character, pause the emulator while the character is standing in a basic pose. --- d. Open the folder C:\VRML and see that there are now many BMP files and a VRML file. The BMP files have numbered names. Don't change these. The VRML file is titled "output.wrl" If there are no contents in the VRML folder, retry the previous steps. ---Step 3. Editing the VRML--- -- For this step you MUST have experience with a 3d editing program -- a. Open 3d Studio Max (Do not use Milkshape for this step) and IMPORT the output.wrl file. Select the appropriate options regarding the import action such as "completely replace current scene." b. Notice that the VRML world is very small. You may not be able to see it. Press Crtl A to select all objects. Resize the entire scene so that it matches the default grid. -- The next substep is EXTREMELY fragile -- c. Using all angles of the interface (top, bottom, left, right, and perspective) select and delete every piece of geometry that is not part of the desired model. DOUBLE AND TRIPLE CHECK FROM EVERY ANGLE. You do not want uneeded pieces of the game environment or unwanted models included in the finished product. Ctrl A to select all pieces of the "cleaned" desired model and resize it appropriately. d. Use the perspective view to get a good angle of the model and press F10 to open the rendering window. Click render to get a fully textured example of your model. Notice that some textures may not look right. This is because some textures are not extracted from the ROM in their proper size. It is now time to edit the single model's texturing. ---Step 4. Relocating the Needed Model Textures--- -- Pay VERY close attention to the instructions for this step -- a. EXPORT the model into a new folder on your desktop as a 3DS file. A 3d Studio Max prompt will come up. Make sure the box to preserve the texture coordinates is checked. Click yes or OK. A completion window will appear and display VERY important information. Grab a paper and pencil curly! b. This window is displaying the names of all the BMP files that are applied to the geometry remaining in the scene. Because you deleted all of the uneeded geometry, the texture files for the original game world and various deleted geometry are not used, thus their names do not show up in this prompt. Notice that the prompt says that the textures have been renamed (i.e. 9D3B367_c.bmp has been changed to 9D3B67.bmp). The "_c" has been removed from the filename. For some files, only the "c" has been removed (i.e. 9D3B367_c.bmp has been changed to 9D3B67_.bmp). c. Write down this information as you will need it later. Notice that some files are repeated. They may be repeated many times. This is because some textures are used more than once. You do not need to rewrite these filenames. d. Go into the VRML folder in your C:\ drive and locate the file names that you wrote down. Look for the the files that still have the extra "_c" in the name. Cut them from this folder and paste them into the folder where you put the 3DS file. Notice that there are two files with similar names but different pictures. One has an "_a" and the second has an "_c". You only need the file with the "_c". e. Now go to the files that you pasted into the new folder and rename them to the names given by 3d Studio Max. Now, if you import the 3DS into 3d Studio Max and render it, the textures will show up. If you did not do the cut/paste and renaming steps, the 3DS will not have textures. You can now edit the textures to display properly. ---Step 5. Editing the Texures in Milkshape--- -- This step requries knowledge on how edit texture positions and sizes in relation to geometry using Milkshape -- a. Open Milkshape and IMPORT the 3DS as and Autodesk 3DS. Milkshape will display the model with it's textures, although they may be dark or shaded wrong. You will see the same texture wrapping problems that occured in the rendered picture you made with 3d Studio Max. The cause of this problem is that some textures are too small to be properly wrapped. b. To fix this problem, open the small texture in MsPaint and add a fair amount of extra color around the main texture and save it. Refer to example 1. Close and reopen the model in Milkshape. Now open the "texture editor" window in Milkshape. Select the geometry to which the edited texture applies and scroll through the list of geometry pieces until you find the one that is selected. Edit the size and positioning and watch the results in the perspective view. This process is used to fix textures for eyes, mouths, and other small single piece textures. c. To fix clothing or large solid texture masses that wrap incorrectly, simply increase the size of the picture using MsPaint and follow the same instructions as the previos steps. Refer to example 2. d. Now that the textures are edited, reopen and render the 3DS in 3d Studio Max. If you did the steps correctly, the wrapping problems should be fixed. Save the money shot and upload it for the community to see! ---Going Further--- The purpose of this guide is to demostrate how to extract and refine character or weapon models from n64 Roms. If you want to convert them into MD2 or BDML for use in 3dmm, you will have to create a skeleton using Milkshape and then follow the model conversion guide made by Kim Turley. Please adhere to the disclaimer at the top of the page. ---Texture editing Examples--- This guide composed by Justin, "BlueGem" ------------------------------------------------------ And there you go. If you have any questions or comments, post them here and Hylian Hero or I will try to respond to them.
Blue Gem Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 323

10-10-2004, 02:41 AM	#3
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317	Whoa, that's really indepth. I bet this will go to good use man, great work.
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317

10-10-2004, 05:55 AM	#5
Hylian Hero Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 273	Hey all! Just wondering if you messed with any models of your own?
Hylian Hero Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 273

10-10-2004, 06:32 AM	#7
Blue Gem Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 323	Don't despair! It took Hylian and I no more than two hours to make this second nature. No lies! Just follow the steps and you should succeed.
Blue Gem Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 323

10-10-2004, 02:09 PM	#9
Molotov Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4,858	Someone rip every weapon model in Conker's Bad Fur Day please KTHXBYE
Molotov Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 4,858

10-10-2004, 02:29 AM	#2
Gorosaurus Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 16,146	If you're new, I suspect you are going to do real well here. I don't know anything about texture importing and that stuff, but that seemed like a great format

10-10-2004, 02:59 AM	#4
Battletoads Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 6,605	Woah, great work dewger.

10-10-2004, 06:23 AM	#6
Shawn McGravy Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 3,787	OHHH... This looks complicated.

10-10-2004, 02:23 PM	#10
Samuel Deacon Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,141	heh, thats funny, im just downloading that

10-10-2004, 02:24 PM	#11
Samuel Deacon Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 2,141	unfortunately, i have no idea what the fuck that guy at the top is on about

10-10-2004, 02:47 PM	#12
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317	It's a 'guide to extracting n64 models' to get the files we need to import into 3dmm.
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317

10-10-2004, 03:20 PM	#13
HMC Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,715	This is why Mario Saga 2 is going to be obselete. I don't have any roms or 3d programs, and now I'll be the only one not using a Mario model.
HMC Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,715

10-10-2004, 03:39 PM	#14
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317	I made a mario model, I'll release him soon .
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317

10-10-2004, 03:43 PM	#15
HMC Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,715	No, see, I want to use a Handmade one because: 1. I'll be able to convey more expressions/actions. 2. A public release model would get old fast and Mario Saga 2 wouldn't be taken seriously. 3. I just don't want to use V3DMM for this. I don't need to.
HMC Super Moderator Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 8,715

10-10-2004, 05:48 PM	#16
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317	Ah, okay then. Just letting you know anyways.
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317

10-10-2004, 07:27 PM	#18
Ryan Omega Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 2,808	He probably did. I want him to release it. Now.

10-10-2004, 08:10 PM	#19
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317	Nah, it was a quake2 model.
Brimz Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Posts: 6,317

10-10-2004, 10:01 PM	#20
Evil Ash Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 15,534	1. Why not edit the textures in 3D Studio Max? Why go through the trouble of the whole Milkshape thing? 2. You don't need to render to see the textures, just activate textures in the perspective view (or any other view).
Evil Ash Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 15,534

10-11-2004, 09:04 PM	#22
Dash Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 2,358	My computers to shit for n64 graphics But...anyway where wud i get roms from?
Dash Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Posts: 2,358

10-12-2004, 04:29 AM	#24
Evil Ash Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 15,534	Hint: The Internet. Bigger Hint: Search engines
Evil Ash Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 15,534

10-16-2004, 09:49 PM	#25
Melrose Let Down Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Posts: 10,566	Blue Gem, let me ask you a question.... Do you know if it would be possible to export a model from a rom, modify it in 3dsm, and Re-import it to the rom and replace the original model?