The VG Resource

Hello, I am trying to rip map models from the original Wii version of Xenoblade Chronicles 1. That game's map models are BRRES', being recognized as such by BrawlCrate, but they have the extension .map when extracted. There's some info on how to extract them on these pages, but I can explain them in better detail if you guys want:
https://tcrf.net/Notes:Xenoblade_Chronic...ting_tools
https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-19877.html

The problem is that when I extract these models, the UV maps appear to be very messed up. For example, Colony 9 looks like this:

As you may be able to notice, while the area isn't totally unrecognizable, the UV mapping on a lot of the geometry appears very scuffed. For example, the paths in Colony 9 are meant to look like this:

The person in this video was using an HD texture pack, but this image is meant to show the correct state of the model's UV mapping, not the textures themselves. Notice how here, the path texture is properly repeated along the path's geometry. Also notice how the textures on the walls are a lot less stretched out.

To help get a sense of what exactly is the problem here, here is the path mesh's current UV map, projected onto the texture it uses:


Things I've already tried:
-Importing the extracted DAE into Blender instead of 3DS Max (produced same problem)
-Ripping another model (Makna Forest had similar UV mapping issues

How can I fix these issues? I'd really like to rip these models for personal use. Help!

What's probably happening is that the grass and the rocks need different UV maps, which are layering different textures across each other.

Also if you figure out how to get the sub-models that are hidden at a distance, that'd be rad, because I don't think anyone else has yet.

(02-19-2021, 08:45 PM)Sir Teatei Moonlight Wrote: [ -> ]What's probably happening is that the grass and the rocks need different UV maps, which are layering different textures across each other.

Also if you figure out how to get the sub-models that are hidden at a distance, that'd be rad, because I don't think anyone else has yet.

Can you please clarify what you mean by that? Obviously their UV maps are wrong, but I'm not sure what that has to do with layering different textures across each other...

Also, if you're talking about the objects that are loaded separately from the map model, I'm pretty sure they have an archive of their own, but I'm not sure if I have the patience to stich them to their respective map models. Not even sure I know the area/objects' layouts well enough to accomplish that, lol

(02-19-2021, 09:54 PM)Untitled-1 Wrote: [ -> ]Can you please clarify what you mean by that? Obviously their UV maps are wrong, but I'm not sure what that has to do with layering different textures across each other...

explain through example: the Bionis' right arm

[attachment=11675]
so here's the right arm without any snow textures

[attachment=11676]
this is snow texture 1

[attachment=11677]
this is snow texture 2, using a different UV map on the same mesh

[attachment=11678]
and this is them layered together for the final result

if you use the same UV map for both textures, one of them will be wrong, and so the final result will be wrong

(02-19-2021, 11:17 PM)Sir Teatei Moonlight Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-19-2021, 09:54 PM)Untitled-1 Wrote: [ -> ]Can you please clarify what you mean by that? Obviously their UV maps are wrong, but I'm not sure what that has to do with layering different textures across each other...

explain through example: the Bionis' right arm


so here's the right arm without any snow textures


this is snow texture 1


this is snow texture 2, using a different UV map on the same mesh


and this is them layered together for the final result

if you use the same UV map for both textures, one of them will be wrong, and so the final result will be wrong

Ah, that makes sense. How do I rip them correctly, then?

(02-20-2021, 12:37 AM)Untitled-1 Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, that makes sense. How do I rip them correctly, then?

so what I do is edit the .brres to make temp files with the UVs in a different order, so I can export multiple times and thus get a different UV map each time

you may have to use an older BrawlBox to do this editing, because newer ones are too smart and won't necessarily let you do this correctly
but older BrawlBoxes might not be able to read the format correctly so uhhhhhhh I haven't looked at maps yet (just characters and objects) so I dunno what the right way to go about it is

alternatively you can use a hex editor on each individual polygon in the .brres file to reorder the UV maps
depending on how the maps are broken into "polygons" (again, I haven't looked) this may be infeasible for a human, but a script would do fine

another possible solution is to flat-out delete the UV maps you already have an export for, rather than reordering them
(though given that I don't do this, there might be another gotcha to it that I don't remember)

(02-20-2021, 01:48 PM)Sir Teatei Moonlight Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-20-2021, 12:37 AM)Untitled-1 Wrote: [ -> ]Ah, that makes sense. How do I rip them correctly, then?

so what I do is edit the .brres to make temp files with the UVs in a different order, so I can export multiple times and thus get a different UV map each time

you may have to use an older BrawlBox to do this editing, because newer ones are too smart and won't necessarily let you do this correctly
but older BrawlBoxes might not be able to read the format correctly so uhhhhhhh I haven't looked at maps yet (just characters and objects) so I dunno what the right way to go about it is

alternatively you can use a hex editor on each individual polygon in the .brres file to reorder the UV maps
depending on how the maps are broken into "polygons" (again, I haven't looked) this may be infeasible for a human, but a script would do fine

another possible solution is to flat-out delete the UV maps you already have an export for, rather than reordering them
(though given that I don't do this, there might be another gotcha to it that I don't remember)

Is there a specific BrawlBox version you reccomend? And is there a way I can obtain it?

Looking at the model in an older version of Brawlbox I have, the model for Colony 9 has 198 unique UV maps. How do I know which ones I'm looking for?