[Tutorial] Ripping Guide for Animal Crossing New Horizons

[Username123]

New Guide (can also extract data from update files):
Files that you need for this Guide:
Switch Hactool - https://github.com/SciresM/hactool/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .nsp (Google for that)
Optional: An Animal Crossing New Horizons update .nsp (Google for that)
prod.keys (Google for that) - Don't post yours here as it is illegal to share them.
Switch Toolbox - https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

For the base game + update file:
1. Unzip the Switch Hactool and put your prod.keys in the same folder
2. Open cmd and navigate to your folder. Then run these two commands to extract the .nca files from the .nsp files:
    hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=base_nca your_base.nsp and hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=update_nca your_update.nsp
    ( Of course, you have to replace your_base.nsp and your_update.nsp with the path to your two .nsp files )
3. Then open the "update_nca" folder and open the .tik file with a hex editor of your choice. Copy the title key which is located at 0x180.
4. Now execute this command: hactool.exe -k prod.keys --basenca="base_nca/your_base.nca" --titlekey=your_titlekey --romfsdir --exefsdir="exefs" "update_nca/your_update.nca"
    ( Replace "your_titlekey" with the title key that you just copied, also replace "your_base.nca" with the name of your biggest base game nca file and lastly replace "your_update.nca" with the name of your biggest update nca file ) 
5. Wait until the extraction process is finished, then you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

For the base game only:
1. Unzip the Switch Hactool and put your prod.keys in the same folder
2. Open cmd and navigate to your folder. Then run this command to extract the .nca files from the .nsp file:
    hactool.exe -t pfs0 --pfs0dir=base_nca your_base.nsp 
    ( Of course, you have to replace your_base.nsp with the path to your .nsp file )
3. Now execute this command: hactool.exe base_nca/your_base.nca -k prod.keys --romfsdir --exefsdir="exefs"
    ( Replace "your_base.nca" with the name of the biggest base game nca file ) 
4. Wait until the extraction process is finished, then you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

Please note that Hactool will always show: "[WARN] prod.keys does not exist.", you can just ignore that.


How to use Switch Toolbox

Importing and previewing files into Switch Toolbox

1. Drag & drop the .zs file into the toolbox and expand the folder. 
2. If you see "output.bfres", double click it. After that, you should be able to see the individual orders that contain the textures, models, or other files.

Please note that the glass is usually not displayed correctly in the preview.

Exporting Models

1. Expand the models folder and make a right-click on the model that you want to export. Then click on export.
2. Change the file type to DAE (*.dae) in the "Save As" window and click on save. This is important so that you can open the model with a normal 3D editing program.
3. You can leave everything in the Export Settings window as it is and press Ok.

Exporting Textures

Normal Maps:
Expand the texture folder and click on the normal map you want to export. Then go to the "Properties" tab on the right and change the blue channel from zero to blue as follows:
1. Press on the table cell that contains "zero" so that a small arrow appears.
2. Press the arrow to open the drop-down menu and select blue. 

After that, you can export the normal map like any other texture.

Other Textures:
1. Expand the textures folder and make a right-click on the texture that you want to export. Then click on export.
2. Change the file type to Portable Network Graphics (*.png) and click on save.

Exporting Animations

1. Expand the animations folder and make a right-click on the animation that you want to export. Then click on export.
2. Change the file type in the "Save As" window to something that you can open with your 3D editing program, for Blender, I can recommend SE Animation (*.seanim) and click on save. To open *.seanim files in Blender you need this plugin. https://github.com/SE2Dev/io_anim_seanim

How to convert sound files

Converting .bars files to .bwav files

Follow steps 1 to 6 of this guide, all you need is a hex editor and of course your .bars files.
https://www.vg-resource.com/thread-37125.html

Converting .bwav files

Required files:
Foobar2000 - https://www.foobar2000.org/
Vgmstream plugin for foobar2000 - https://www.foobar2000.org/components/vi..._vgmstream
Any .bwav file

1. Install the plugin by clicking File > Settings and then make sure that "Components" is highlighted in blue on the left side. If not, press it once. Then click on "Install..." on the right and select the plugin file. After that press OK and Apply to confirm that you want to install the plugin.
2. After installing the plugin, you can simply drag and drop the .bwav files into the program and use it to listen to the files.
3. If you now want to convert the file to a format of your choice, right-click the file you want to convert and click Convert > Quick Convert. Then choose your preferred file format and press Convert.

Troubleshooting

1. Hactool outputs this error message:
Invalid NCA header! Are keys correct?
Unable to locate RomFS in base NCA!

This most likely means that your keys are incorrect, not up to date, or in the wrong folder.

2. Switch Toolbox tells that it cannot find the DirectXTexNetImpl
First, make sure that the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio is installed, that the program is run as Admin, and that your antivirus program is not the problem for you.
If this is the case delete the folder x64 or x86 depending on your system architecture. Also, make sure that there is a DirectXTexNetImpl.dll file in the folder you are not deleting. If that doesn't help, try again, only with the difference that you now delete the remaining folder and restore the deleted folder.
If the program still does not start afterward, your computer is, unfortunately, most likely not compatible with the program, so try to start toolbox on another computer.

Old Guide

Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder - https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xci or .nsp (Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox - https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. Open NSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
    Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selecting your file press "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process (this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open the folder "NSCB_exctrated". The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

[keyblade_crafter]

4 folders were extracted but there is nothing inside them. im not able to open then in the toolbox. any ideas? 

i also tried pressing 1, then extracting all the files instead of just the nca files, but that didnt work either.

edit: i should say the nsc builder extracted 4 nca files, but im not sure how to preview them with the toolbox

[Username123]

4 folders were extracted but there is nothing inside them. im not able to open then in the toolbox. any ideas? 

i also tried pressing 1, then extracting all the files instead of just the nca files, but that didnt work either.

edit: i should say the nsc builder extracted 4 nca files, but im not sure how to preview them with the toolbox

Most likely there is something wrong with your keys, since the program extracts the .nca files even with broken keys, but cannot decrypt them.

[keyblade_crafter]

i was able to find a title.keys and that allowed me to view the models. do you know if there is a way to export just the bfres files from the model folder?

[Username123]

i was able to find a title.keys and that allowed me to view the models. do you know if there is a way to export just the bfres files from the model folder?

You have to open the file in the switch toolbox and do a right click on output.bfres and press export.
But I don't know if there is a way to do this for all files at the same time.

[kouglov]

Cool tutorial ! mannaged to extract successfuly many things.
Now parsing them, opening with ToolBox, it works great.

Something that has been bothering me tho, the complete image is about 6 Gb, and only 2.8 Gb extracted.
Did I do something wrong ? Is it possible that some data is hidden elsewhere ?

EDIT : my bad, I wasn't looking at every extracted folder. I have +7Gb extracted

[Servine]

Hi, this is my first time ripping stuff, so I'm not too great at this.

I keep getting this error:
"Response 404. Old Files weren't removed."

Do you know how I can fix it?

[sectoid]

That's exactly the problem I'm having, Servine.

[kouglov]

You can ignore this 404, this worked for me. Just drag your NSP file on the command line, press Enter and follow the rest of the tutorial

[sectoid]

You can ignore this 404, this worked for me. Just drag your NSP file on the command line, press Enter and follow the rest of the tutorial

Oh, okay. Thanks! I might have been having issues because the XCI file got an error right before completing extraction.

[kouglov]

Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder - https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xci or .nsp (Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox - https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. Open NSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
    Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selecting your file press "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process (this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open the folder "NSCB_exctrated". The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

[sectoid]

Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder - https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xci or .nsp (Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox - https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. Open NSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
    Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selecting your file press "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process (this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open the folder "NSCB_exctrated". The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

Wait, so the base file doesn't contain the villager models? Damn.

[kouglov]

Files that you need for this Guide:
NSC Builder - https://github.com/julesontheroad/NSC_BUILDER/releases
An Animal Crossing New Horizons .xci or .nsp (Google for that)
Keys.txt (Google for prod.keys and rename it)
Switch Toolbox - https://github.com/KillzXGaming/Switch-T...TAL_LATEST

1. Unzip the NSC Builder and copy your keys.txt in the folder "ztools".
2. Open NSCB.bat and press "6" to enter the advanced mode. If it says "Getting NUTDB json" wait until it is finished.
    Then press "2" and select your .xci or .nsp. After selecting your file press "1" and then "4" to start the extraction process (this will take a while).
3. After it successfully finished, you can close the window and open the folder "NSCB_exctrated". The unpacked game files should now be there.
4. Now you can open the switch toolbox and use it to view and export most of the game files.

And yes, you can theoretically perform this process with any other switch game, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to extract data from game updates. So let me know if you can do it.

So far, I couldn't extract files from the updates nca file too.I think it is the one containing characters models, wich could explain why they pushed it day one.

Wait, so the base file doesn't contain the villager models? Damn.

I think not. I've explored everything of the 7Gb, and there is no model or texture of villagers or NPC in sight.

Edit : for an unknown reason, not all content of model folder was extracted. See my last post on this.

[kouglov]

Okay, strangely, not all content of model folder was extracted with the method using NSC Builder.
So I did a re-run with this : https://github.com/simontime/SwitchExplorer/releases
and the content of the model folder jumped from 10k to 30k.
Been able to find quickly some NPC model.
I don't know if they're all here, but they may be.

[Username123]

Okay, strangely, not all content of model folder was extracted with the method using NSC Builder.
So I did a re-run with this : https://github.com/simontime/SwitchExplorer/releases
and the content of the model folder jumped from 10k to 30k.
Been able to find quickly some NPC model.
I don't know if they're all here, but they may be.

@kouglov Strange, for me the NSC Builder worked perfectly and extracted all 37,549 elements in the model folder.