11-29-2016, 08:05 PM
It differs game to game and system to system. Generally speaking you extract from the disc (if needed), extract the archives within the disc (if needed), extract the individual files (if needed) to get at the meshes and/or textures, import them into whatever modeling program has a working script. From there you mess around or convert to other formats. Then there's tools that just rip objects from a running game into a static mesh (no rigging).
Your best bet for finding out how to get at models from a game is googling something like "*insert game title here* xentax/zenhax/vg resource/facepunch". Those are, to my knowledge, the best places to go for general model extraction and searching in that manner should get you links to posts about extracting from said game if it exists. There are also a few fansites that have game specific tools such as Civilization for PC and the WWE 2K__ games (though that one you need to pay for apparently).
There's also a great program for Unreal Engine games (not all of them, but quite a few and dating back many years) called umodel.
TL;DR: There is no catch all guide. Tools/scripts for games should have instructions. Read and follow them.
Your best bet for finding out how to get at models from a game is googling something like "*insert game title here* xentax/zenhax/vg resource/facepunch". Those are, to my knowledge, the best places to go for general model extraction and searching in that manner should get you links to posts about extracting from said game if it exists. There are also a few fansites that have game specific tools such as Civilization for PC and the WWE 2K__ games (though that one you need to pay for apparently).
There's also a great program for Unreal Engine games (not all of them, but quite a few and dating back many years) called umodel.
TL;DR: There is no catch all guide. Tools/scripts for games should have instructions. Read and follow them.