Each development studio may have their own file format, yes, but Capcom likely used the same engine for Tech Romancer and Project Justice and Plasma Sward. I am working with Tech Romancer right now. If I have any success, I can look at the other games, I hate to switch right now, because if they are different, I would have to learn a new thing. It would like starting over. Virtua On was made by Sega, so it's file structure is likely different.
I had a little bit of luck last night. What I got isn't very helpful, but it's more then I have gotten before.
I used a program called Ninja Ripper, but I can't recommend it yet. It requires a $5.00 Patreon membership to get it, and it has copy protection, in that you need to get a verify code from discord when you run it the first time. Ninja Ripper is supposedly able to rip 3D Models out of games, so I was hopeful it was a tool that would work for me. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I used it with Redream, as I would only get 1 flat square polygon and a texture of the screen, like a screen shot. I'm thinking that Ninja Ripper was capturing the Emulator and not the game that was running in it, which makes sense. I think it is designed to work with a games .EXE, and in the case with an emulator, the .EXE is the emulator and not the ROM. Anyway, last night I was able to get DEmul, another emulator to run. It doesn't seem to work as will as Redream for playing games, but that's OK. When I used Ninja Ripper, it produced a lot of small files (1k each). When I opened them in Blender, I was disappointed to see that it was just a flat triangle.
Later it hit me. I was expecting one file that was going to be the game model, but it occurred to me, maybe the model isn't just one file, but rather the collection of all the separate polygons. I selected and loaded all of the files into Blender. and I still got a flat scene, but it isn't just a single square, it's all the polygons that make the flat image. To be clear, this is not a 3D model, but I was able to isolate just the flat polygons that make the G. Kaiser image. I am not sure if I can upload a picture, but maybe I can link to it later tonight.
So you might be asking, why am I excited about this? It is because this is the most progress I have had, and it also helps me better understand the files I have been seeing. The game files had a bunch of little .BIN files and other files (about 1k each). See, I have been looking for a single game model file for each character. I imagined it might be a couple of megs in size, but it occurs to me now that the models could just be made up of many individual polygon files. This means I might have to go back to the game files and see if I can convert them to open them in Blender.
Please keep in mind I am very new to this whole scene. I have never made a game, done any modeling, programing, or ripped any game files, so I am very much over my head, so I appreciate you patience. Also, I'm married with a kid and don't always have a lot of time or energy when I get home from work to work on my hobbies.
So, one final note, (sorry, I know this is a long post) In lookin at the FAQs for Ninja Ripper, they have a question about it not getting any models. They say I have to disable any overlays. They go into a little detail about the Steam overlay and Nvidia Overlay. I did try exiting out of the Nvidia overlay, which is how I got the flat polygon scene. I am going to try to see if there is anything else running that might be getting in the way of Ninja Ripper from accessing the model files or polygons, but as I mentioned, the emulator itself may be getting in the way. As it stands right now, I cannot recommend Ninja Ripper, as I have not had it work as intended yet. If I can get it working, I will let you know how I did it.
I had a little bit of luck last night. What I got isn't very helpful, but it's more then I have gotten before.
I used a program called Ninja Ripper, but I can't recommend it yet. It requires a $5.00 Patreon membership to get it, and it has copy protection, in that you need to get a verify code from discord when you run it the first time. Ninja Ripper is supposedly able to rip 3D Models out of games, so I was hopeful it was a tool that would work for me. Unfortunately, I was disappointed when I used it with Redream, as I would only get 1 flat square polygon and a texture of the screen, like a screen shot. I'm thinking that Ninja Ripper was capturing the Emulator and not the game that was running in it, which makes sense. I think it is designed to work with a games .EXE, and in the case with an emulator, the .EXE is the emulator and not the ROM. Anyway, last night I was able to get DEmul, another emulator to run. It doesn't seem to work as will as Redream for playing games, but that's OK. When I used Ninja Ripper, it produced a lot of small files (1k each). When I opened them in Blender, I was disappointed to see that it was just a flat triangle.
Later it hit me. I was expecting one file that was going to be the game model, but it occurred to me, maybe the model isn't just one file, but rather the collection of all the separate polygons. I selected and loaded all of the files into Blender. and I still got a flat scene, but it isn't just a single square, it's all the polygons that make the flat image. To be clear, this is not a 3D model, but I was able to isolate just the flat polygons that make the G. Kaiser image. I am not sure if I can upload a picture, but maybe I can link to it later tonight.
So you might be asking, why am I excited about this? It is because this is the most progress I have had, and it also helps me better understand the files I have been seeing. The game files had a bunch of little .BIN files and other files (about 1k each). See, I have been looking for a single game model file for each character. I imagined it might be a couple of megs in size, but it occurs to me now that the models could just be made up of many individual polygon files. This means I might have to go back to the game files and see if I can convert them to open them in Blender.
Please keep in mind I am very new to this whole scene. I have never made a game, done any modeling, programing, or ripped any game files, so I am very much over my head, so I appreciate you patience. Also, I'm married with a kid and don't always have a lot of time or energy when I get home from work to work on my hobbies.
So, one final note, (sorry, I know this is a long post) In lookin at the FAQs for Ninja Ripper, they have a question about it not getting any models. They say I have to disable any overlays. They go into a little detail about the Steam overlay and Nvidia Overlay. I did try exiting out of the Nvidia overlay, which is how I got the flat polygon scene. I am going to try to see if there is anything else running that might be getting in the way of Ninja Ripper from accessing the model files or polygons, but as I mentioned, the emulator itself may be getting in the way. As it stands right now, I cannot recommend Ninja Ripper, as I have not had it work as intended yet. If I can get it working, I will let you know how I did it.