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+---- Thread: Golden Sun Dark Dawn's .cbmdl files (/thread-37629.html)
Golden Sun Dark Dawn's .cbmdl files - MayIncon - 08-01-2020
So I tried using MKDS Course Modifier to view the game's models but most of them are in the .cbmdl format, which is unreadable/unviewable by anything.
And the last post that discusses this only tells how they got the files but not exactly how it is done, or if it even works (the broken image files doesn't help)
Any help would be kindly appreciated. It's been about 10 years and there's almost nothing being ripped out of this game.
RE: Golden Sun Dark Dawn's .cbmdl files - why - 06-03-2021
I've figured it out. By cbmdl, i surmise you're trying to dump the Summon models? If you check a hex editor, you'll find that they're modified BMD0 files.
First you need to decompress the models (they use the LZ40 compression method) using some tool (i used https://gbatemp.net/threads/nintendo-ds-gba-compressors.313278/)
After that, using a hex editor, trim off the bytes before BMD0 (I'm not sure what they do, my guess is it's something Dark Dawn uses internally but it's irrelevant here.)
After trimming off the bytes, apicula recognises the files as a regular old BMD0, and you can convert it that way.
Some models are stored differently; for example, the overworld models are stored in a NARC container and have the extensions nsbmdbin and nsbtxbin. In reality these are just compressed nsbmd and nsbtx files, just decompress using LZ40 and apicula can read them.
Some models are screwed up (the final battle models for the characters have weird torso proportions, for example) but for overworld models and summons generally they seem to come out fine.
If you need any more info, pm me. I've already ripped several of the overworld models, and they're in the moderation queue.
Edit: For anyone from the future trying to find info on this little-documented game, the summon models are in \model\btlchr\summon, the overworld models are in \flmodel and the battle models are in \model\btlchr\pc.