Extracting animal models?

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Bubblebeam
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Extracting animal models?

Post by Bubblebeam »

I want to take the meshes/models of the small animals and chaos from SA2 on PC. I've had a quick look through the files but can't find where the models are located. Could anyone help me with this? Also what tools are needed to unpack them.

Thanks for any help.
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ChaoGardenBuster
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by ChaoGardenBuster »

Currently, it is impossible to extract model files on SA2PC. If it were possible, no one has documented the addresses of the animal models or the chao models, so you would be searching forever. Sorry to burst your bubble there.

:darkno:
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Bubblebeam »

Well, someone has extracted the skunk here among many other models in the game, so it can't be literally impossible.
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

People abuse the word impossible all the time when it comes to video game hacking. Most of the time, when someone says something is impossible, what they really mean is no one has done it.

That said, last I heard, even the Dreamcast/Gamecube versions of the SA2 model format wasn't fully documented, and while the PC port has seen a surge in SA2 hacking, as far as I know, models continue to test the patience of hackers playing at the highest levels.
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Bubblebeam »

That's the impression I got too, that simply no one has done it, at least not famously so.

What a bummer. Such simple meshes, yet they hide under many tricky layers. Well as I said, at least one person seems to have cracked it. I downloaded the skunk model which comes with its textures, meaning he likely didn't just make it from scratch but pulled the lot from the game itself.

If anyone ever hears of anything like the models being released please PM me about it. :surprise:
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by ChaoGardenBuster »

ChaoGardenBuster wrote:Currently, it is impossible to extract model files on SA2PC. If it were possible, no one has documented the addresses of the animal models or the chao models, so you would be searching forever. Sorry to burst your bubble there.

:darkno:
Notice I said SA2PC. That doesn't mean dreamcast or gamecube which is where those models are from. The bracket in model resource clearly says "Gamecube"
You also asked if you can extract the animal models "From SA2 on PC" Maybe next time you could ask if you can extract the models in any version of SA2/SA2B. Exporting models in SA2PC is impossible for the time being.
Last edited by ChaoGardenBuster on Tue Feb 09, 2016 12:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Jeffery Mewtamer
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Jeffery Mewtamer »

I could be wrong, but I'm fairly certain SA2 Staem's textures are just PVR images stored in PVM archives like with SADXPC and several other Sonic Team games from the saturn, Dreamcast, and Gamecube eras. Sadly, I think all the models are crammed into a DLL rather than individual files in addition to being encoded in a proprietary format.

If I'm not mistaken:
The SA1 model format has been fully reversed engineered, ignoring any changes in the 2011 version.
The SA2 DC/GC model format is an extension to the SA1 format, and while most of the models have been extracted from the DC and GC versions, no one has figured out how to save models to the format that can be put back into the game without causing a crash.
I'm not aware of any serious efforts to extract models from the PC version of SA2.

Still, it's enough to make you wish professionally made games used generic model formats.
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by ChaoGardenBuster »

This is correct, you can export models in the adventure games but you cannot import them back (except SADXPC.) The only game you cannot export or import models is SA2PC which you can only replace object models and that is it. Programs for model editing in SA2PC is still being worked on.
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by chaoadventures »

That means you can probably extract the models from SADX (preferably the 2004 version.) instead, right?

You might not be able to get certain animals out of it, like the Bear, but I'm pretty sure animals like Seals in SADX use the same model as SA2.
(I mean seriously, all they did was recolor it.)
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by ChaoGardenBuster »

Yep, the tools that are needed are all right here! It's a packed set of multiple programs to edit SA2B and SADX. Of course, you can still download the programs separately. As reply to Bubblebeam, I believe the one you would be looking for is SAMDL. I haven't messed with SADX enough to understand how most of the programs work so I can't help you. However, there's some tutorials on youtube and more information in the topic on how to use it.
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Bubblebeam »

Awesome, I should be able to work with those tools to get a few of the models. Thanks heaps. :chaohappy:
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Re: Extracting animal models?

Post by Bubblebeam »

Have any of you had experience with this? I downloaded the model related tools and got somewhere, but without any detailed readmes I'm kinda just taking shots in the dark.
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