Combined file extracting and ripping tool for GCN and Wii games

[Scub3d]

Hey,

I made a tool that automates the dumping of some GameCube and Wii ROMs. I'm really interested in trying to completely automate the entire process of dumping the contents of ROMs and would love some feedback, tips, pointers, etc.. In my last post (whenever that was) someone told me about a 3ds max plugin that converted bmd to 3ds, however I don't have a copy of 3ds max, so I didn't add that part in. (Also, this is the code I mentioned in the previous post/thread, I just got around to putting it up)

Source Code: https://github.com/Scub3d/Nintendo-Rom-Dumper

What you need
[*]Python 2.7
[*]A Decrypted/Unpacked/Un-Zipped GameCube or Wii ROM that contains .szs files

Prerequisites
If you already have a Decrypted/Unpacked/Un-Zipped (I don't know the term) ROM, then you can skip this. If you have an ISO, you'll need to use Dolphin to unpack (let's stick with this term) it.

What you get
I include yaz0dec.exe and rarcdump.exe along with my python script. *Note: I just wrote the included python script. Credit for the two executables goes to other people way smarter than me

How To/What do

[Hiccup]

That isn't what ROM dumping means.
ROM dumping is where you have a ROM chip (such as one in a DS cart) and you make an image of it.

[Lexou Duck]

well as much as an automated yaz0dec+rarcdump could be useful - it saves only a few minutes from the ripping process, since the workload before simply involved some more drag & drops, but that's not the most time-consuming action i feel (although the automatic deleting of temp extraction files is nice, i'll give you that)

the most time, in my experience, is spent getting the rendering to work correctly, and to render the same in all exported versions of the 3d model, as well as making icon(s) for the model

i remember that when i was ripping wind waker models, i stuck to map models because bmd couldn't export to a bone-rigging supported format (there was only obj and 3ds i believe), even though it could show bones and view the animations of most types just fine

if you wanna really pimp this program up, -well you would probably have to learn an unholy amount of 3d programming/encoding-, but
- make it so it can rip animations and rigs along with the .obj format (writing a .dae export for bmdview basically - but since you say your goal is to automate things, i'm assuming you plan to also make batch exporting for bmdview, right ?)
- make it so the user can easily view the model, then choose the filenames of textures and all the secondary files with a batch-naming process (unless thats already the case, haven't really looked into your script just yet)
- perhaps even automate making a tMR icon ? the rendering in bmdview probably makes for better rendering than whatever 3d program the ripper uses

i hope i didn't sound too critical, but it seems like you're not done with this, so i'm just trying to say what i believe your target audience is looking for in this sort of program for the future, is all

[Scub3d]

That isn't what ROM dumping means.
ROM dumping is where you have a ROM chip (such as one in a DS cart) and you make an image of it.

Thanks, as you may have guessed, I have almost no idea what I am talking about. What would the correct term be?

---

well as much as an automated yaz0dec+rarcdump could be useful - it saves only a few minutes from the ripping process, since the workload before simply involved some more drag & drops, but that's not the most time-consuming action i feel (although the automatic deleting of temp extraction files is nice, i'll give you that)

the most time, in my experience, is spent getting the rendering to work correctly, and to render the same in all exported versions of the 3d model, as well as making icon(s) for the model

i remember that when i was ripping wind waker models, i stuck to map models because bmd couldn't export to a bone-rigging supported format (there was only obj and 3ds i believe), even though it could show bones and view the animations of most types just fine

if you wanna really pimp this program up, -well you would probably have to learn an unholy amount of 3d programming/encoding-, but
- make it so it can rip animations and rigs along with the .obj format (writing a .dae export for bmdview basically - but since you say your goal is to automate things, i'm assuming you plan to also make batch exporting for bmdview, right ?)
- make it so the user can easily view the model, then choose the filenames of textures and all the secondary files with a batch-naming process (unless thats already the case, haven't really looked into your script just yet)
- perhaps even automate making a tMR icon ? the rendering in bmdview probably makes for better rendering than whatever 3d program the ripper uses

i hope i didn't sound too critical, but it seems like you're not done with this, so i'm just trying to say what i believe your target audience is looking for in this sort of program for the future, is all

Thanks for the feedback. Previously, I had only used model's for hackathons and the most time consuming part for me was the drag and drop. I didn't know that most of the time spent was on other aspects. I do plan on attempting to add some of the features you mentioned, however, it might take a while because of pesky things like school and internships.

[Hiccup]

"Combined file extracting and ripping [or converting] tool for GCN and Wii games"

[Scub3d]

"Combined file extracting and ripping [or converting] tool for GCN and Wii games"

Thanks. I updated the title.

[TGE]

Mind using the regular font colour? It's pretty much impossible to read while using the dark theme.

[Scub3d]

Mind using the regular font colour? It's pretty much impossible to read while using the dark theme.

Sorry about that, I had no idea it wasn't default.