Hi there! Here's a tutorial on how to rip from the How to Train Your Dragon game, School of Dragons.
What you'll need:
-AssetStudio
-Steam copy of the game
-Noesis and tool_normalswiz2.py plugin.
This game runs on Unity, but it's a little unusual in that the files aren't stored with the executable, but are downloaded into a different folder. First, you'll need to launch the game, wait for the progress bar to complete, then turn the graphics settings up to max, then wait for another set of downloads to complete.
Once you've done that, close the game and go to the following directory on your PC: C:\Users\(INSERT_NAME_HERE)\AppData\LocalLow\Unity\JumpStart_SoD. In there, there'll be a ton of folders that contain the assets. They're pretty descriptive so you'll know what's in them, but the models tend to be in folders named "dw_do" where _ is a name, e.g. "dwnightfurydo" would be the folder for the Night Fury model.
Drag a folder of your choice into AssetStudio and dig out what you want as you normally would. Next, you'll notice that the normal maps are red in colour. This is where Noesis comes in.
Unzip the attached zip file in Noesis' python plugins folder, this tool will allow you to fix the normal maps in Noesis. Once the plugin's been applied, go to the tools tab, click "Display Plugin Tools", and if it's checked, you should see an option called Normal Swizzler 2 (Thanks Knightmare on Discord). Open your normal map in Noesis, then click on Normal Swizzler 2, then simply click "OK" on all the dialog boxes. Now your normal maps are, well, normal.
tool_normalswiz2.zip (Size: 760 bytes / Downloads: 196)
From there you can assemble and submit your model, but here's some stuff to keep in mind:
-Typically, baby and Titan Wing dragons are included in the same folder as the adults, but not every dragon has baby or Titan Wing forms.
-Baby dragons use the same default texture as Adult dragons, but the detail texture is different and should be used on the eyes. Sometimes the normal maps are different too, but not all the time.
-Titan Wing dragons may not have a default texture if it's mapped differently than the Adult and Baby stage, so might be limited to the grey detail texture.
-Always include the color masks (the black textures with red, blue and green sections). These are used for custom colours.
-Titan Wing Dragons have two eye meshes, one inside the other. The outer one is used for the eye specular texture, the inner for the eyeball proper.
-Always check the dwdragonskinssdo folder for extra textures that might not be in your dragon's folder, e.g. the Deadly Nadder ice skin. Some dragons, such as the Sand Wraith, have their own skin folder for some reason.
Happy ripping!
EDIT: In light of the game's servers shutting down soon, I've also archived my own cache of as many dragons as I could (that I could view ingame for free anyway). You can find it here: https://archive.org/details/so-dcache-june-2023
What you'll need:
-AssetStudio
-Steam copy of the game
-Noesis and tool_normalswiz2.py plugin.
This game runs on Unity, but it's a little unusual in that the files aren't stored with the executable, but are downloaded into a different folder. First, you'll need to launch the game, wait for the progress bar to complete, then turn the graphics settings up to max, then wait for another set of downloads to complete.
Once you've done that, close the game and go to the following directory on your PC: C:\Users\(INSERT_NAME_HERE)\AppData\LocalLow\Unity\JumpStart_SoD. In there, there'll be a ton of folders that contain the assets. They're pretty descriptive so you'll know what's in them, but the models tend to be in folders named "dw_do" where _ is a name, e.g. "dwnightfurydo" would be the folder for the Night Fury model.
Drag a folder of your choice into AssetStudio and dig out what you want as you normally would. Next, you'll notice that the normal maps are red in colour. This is where Noesis comes in.
Unzip the attached zip file in Noesis' python plugins folder, this tool will allow you to fix the normal maps in Noesis. Once the plugin's been applied, go to the tools tab, click "Display Plugin Tools", and if it's checked, you should see an option called Normal Swizzler 2 (Thanks Knightmare on Discord). Open your normal map in Noesis, then click on Normal Swizzler 2, then simply click "OK" on all the dialog boxes. Now your normal maps are, well, normal.
tool_normalswiz2.zip (Size: 760 bytes / Downloads: 196)
From there you can assemble and submit your model, but here's some stuff to keep in mind:
-Typically, baby and Titan Wing dragons are included in the same folder as the adults, but not every dragon has baby or Titan Wing forms.
-Baby dragons use the same default texture as Adult dragons, but the detail texture is different and should be used on the eyes. Sometimes the normal maps are different too, but not all the time.
-Titan Wing dragons may not have a default texture if it's mapped differently than the Adult and Baby stage, so might be limited to the grey detail texture.
-Always include the color masks (the black textures with red, blue and green sections). These are used for custom colours.
-Titan Wing Dragons have two eye meshes, one inside the other. The outer one is used for the eye specular texture, the inner for the eyeball proper.
-Always check the dwdragonskinssdo folder for extra textures that might not be in your dragon's folder, e.g. the Deadly Nadder ice skin. Some dragons, such as the Sand Wraith, have their own skin folder for some reason.
Happy ripping!
EDIT: In light of the game's servers shutting down soon, I've also archived my own cache of as many dragons as I could (that I could view ingame for free anyway). You can find it here: https://archive.org/details/so-dcache-june-2023