October 2015

360 Posts

   

Tutorial on extracting the models.

Since the tutorial aliensoldier has provided is really old and out of date, I decided to
post a new tutorial with the new, updated scripts and everything. You are no longer
forced to go in game and hunt for the models/textures you are looking for.

This will be a step-by-step guide.

What you need first are these:

- Rick's Bigviewer tools for Dead Space, Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 (the
first set of files are for Dead Space 3 and for that game only, the ones in "DS2" work
on Dead Space 2, if you use the wrong one on the wrong game, you will get a bunch of
unknown files in the archive viewer)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/trw0dv0igc...iewer.rar?dl=0
- Noesis' texture exporting tool as well as a script for Dead Space texture files
* Tool: http://richwhitehouse.com/index.php?...ts.php#prjmp91
* Script (credits to AceWell on Xentax for writing the
script) https://www.dropbox.com/s/9zpgf0qc3t...3_tg4h.py?dl=0
- 3D Max 201X
* 3D Max scripts (more to that below)
- Dead Space, Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 for PC, latest versions, 1 and 2 are
available on Steam and the third one is on Origin)

Getting the models

For this tutorial, we want to extract the Brute from Dead Space 2.

1. Locate the game folder. For me, it is in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\

common\Dead Space 2. It is probably different for you. In there, you will first see 6
different .dat -archives. The first two contain ambient audio files called .snu, I will
probably post a different tutorial on extracting all the sounds. They will not contain any
model files so ignore those competely. The other three contain mostly just assets from
different chapters, including textures, models and area-specific ambient sounds. Some
Necromorph sounds are only available there. The last one, DS2DAT9.dat is what
we are looking for.
This archive contains all the global assets of the game, such as NPC's, models,
weapons, audio that plays pretty much anywhere as well as models and textures you
find almost everywhere.

2. Open up BigViewer for Dead Space 2 (Gibbed.Visceral.BigViewer.exe in a folder

called "DS2 Big Viewer") and click the "Open" buton. Locate the folder where you had
installed Dead Space 2 and double-click "DS2DAT9.dat". This will open up bunch of
different sections in the archive.

3. Open "global_assets/global_assets/ds_assets/char_str/npc/brte_cct". This is the

archive of the Brute Necromorphs and all of its sounds, model, animations and
textures.
4. "brute.str" is the grey, common variant of the Brute and the "super_brute.str" is the
Enhnanced variant of the Necromorph, the dark colored and stronger variant you
encounter in the Government sector near the end of the game.

- For this tutorial, I will get the Brute's textures and model, but this same tutorial
applies to all the models so you probably get the point.

5. Right-click "brute.str" and click save. This will open up a window asking where you
want the .str archive to be saved. I have made a specific folder for all the Dead Space
assets so you probably want to do the same. Save the .str there and make sure the
archives name has .str at the end of it or otherwise the archive will get corrupted. It
doesn't have to be called "brute.str", the file can be "iliketurtles.str" if you want, it will
still contain the Brute's files. Then click save.

- If you press the sub-category and save it, it will save bunch of folders with the
names of the sub-categories containing all the archives that are part of these
categories. If you decide to save the first "global_assets" category, it will save
everything you see in the tool.

6. Now that we have our archive, we can move over to the next step. Open up the
BigViewer folder and locate a file called "Gibbed.Visceral.StrUnpack". Drag and drop
the brute.str file on it or right-click the .str file and select "open the file with" and
choose the str unpacker. This will open a CMD window with bunch of text scrolling
down fast. It will finish up on its own, do NOT touch it or it will break the unpacking
process.

7. Once it is done, if you dragged and dropped the file on the BigViewer folder, it will
unpack the content of the .str file in the BigViewer folder inside a folder containing the
unpacked files. If you did the other option, it will create it where-ever you had saved
the .str file. Once you have a folder called something like "brute_unpacked", you will
notice a bunch of folders and files inside it. That is good.

- At this point you need 3D Max already. If you do not have it, this tutorial is useless to
you, so you may as well quit. Well, if you do have it, continue reading.

8. Download these scripts for 3D Max. You will need them for extracting the models
and also the skeletons.

- This one works for Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3. This script will open up
every .geo file in the Mesh folder, so just run it and select the Brute mesh folder and it
will open up the model for you.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtrof1xjrr...0batch.ms?dl=0

- This one is the same as above, except it opens only one file each time you run the
script. Good for if you have a model that has for example a hoodie up or down part.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4lyc37w04...%202-3.ms?dl=0

- This one is for .rcb.win skeleton files of the models. You will need the skeletons if you
are planning to pose the model or have animations for it. The skeletons are located in
a folder called "RCB".
https://www.dropbox.com/s/v340d9yzsi...0bones.ms?dl=0
9. Run the batch script on the Brute Mesh-folder. It will then proceed to open up the
entire model for you.

10. Once you have the model, hit "Max" on the top left corner and click "Export".
Choose where-ever you want to save the model and choose to save it in .obj format.
Bunch of new windows pop up and just keep repeating "next" until a final screen pops
up that converts the parts into .obj-format. Then click "Done" when it is ready.

Now you have the Brute model minus the textures and skeleton. 

Getting the textures

1. Download Noesis' tool

2. Download the script used to open the .tg4h texture files

3. Move the script to "\Noesis\plugins\python" and open up the tool.

4. Locate the "\brute_unpacked\tg4h" folder in the tool.

5. Export every texture file. You do this by right-clicking any of them and clicking
"Export". If you do not touch anything, it will save the outcome to the original tg4h
folder in .tga format. Hit browse to choose where it will save the texture. Clicking the
"Main texture ouput" will give you bunch of texture formats to choose from. I use .dds
so we will pick that. Hit "Export" and it will convert the .tg4h file to .dds format to
where-ever you chose it to be saved to. Do this same process to every file in the .tg4h
folder that is part of the brute model. If there are other texture files such as some sort
of maggot, slime or water textures, ignore those as you probably won't need them.

Now you have the Brute's textures ready to be applied on the model!

Setting up a character model on 3D Max

For this tutorial, we will use Nicole from the first Dead Space

1. Open the model on 3D max, make sure it comes with textures

2. Go to "Material Editor"

3. Select "bitmap"

4. Select the "0002_nicole_c" texture. This is the body texture minus the head

5. Select "Standard" material from the Standard materials tab

6. Hold down the left mouse button from the white ball-thingy next to the texture map
and move it over to the "Diffuse color" tab on the material. Then right click the
material, select the RIG and body parts, select assign texture, and press the "Show
Realistic Material in Viewport" button. This will display the textures on the body.

7. Repeat step 6 on all the parts of the model, choosing the corresponding textures
belonging to the right part.

8. Now, choose bitmap again and select the green looking N (normal mapping)
texture. Assign that to the "Bump" tab on the material. Repeat this to all the materials,
just like with step 6.

9. Now, choose the S (specular) texture and assign that to the "Specular level" tab on
all the materials. You know the drill.

10. O texture is for ambient occlusion. I have no clue how to set that up, so I'll skip it,
at least for the time being.
How to set-up the eye lashes:

1. Select the Standard material

2. Select bitmap and the lash texture

3. Assign it to "Diffuse color" and "Opacity"

4. Double click the bitmap, select bitmap parameters and set "Mono channel Output" to Alpha.

5. Now the lashes appear realistically, not as white, grey or brown mass.

Now we have our textures set up on the model for whatever use on 3D Max. If
you completed the previous tutorials for example on this model, you already
have everything you need, this is just for preview purposes on 3D Max.

Extracting models from the first Dead Space

1. Download Noesis tool and get this script for the program:
[URL="https://www.dropbox.com/s/p9zkp6uj3kovd18/fmt_DeadSpace1_geo.py?
dl=0[/URL]

2. Get the model you want

3. Open Noesis and export the parts from the Mesh folder like you do the textures. To
speed up the process, click Tools > Batch process > set input file as geo and output as
obj and hit browse and select the Mesh folder and click export

4. Open up 3D Max and assemble the parts. Once they are together, go back to
Noesis. The UVs are flipped upside down so to make the textures look good, we need
to flip the UVs so they go how they are supposed to be to match the color texture
map.

5. In Noesis, select the model, right click it and hit export. Then click "Flip UVs" and
export it.

6. Now you have a finished model from the game minus the textures. For the
textures, see the tutorial above.