Sonic Rush sprite ripping guide (.bac)

[Chor64]

So yeah, i have recently been searching the internet, and i havent found a way to easily rip Sonic Rush's sprites; So that's why i decided to do some research and figure out a way to properly rip Sonic Rush's sprites.

What i found

In my research, i first tried Tinke which allowed me to extract the raw files and preview the sprites; but the preview wasn't perfect as it could only get the first frame of the sprite and didn't get the size of the sprite correctly.

Later i found a bunch of python scripts related to Sonic Rush's file formats, which caught my attention; it converted the .bac file perfectly (with the right size) but again it just converted the first frame.

So then i figured that i must create my own tool that extracted all the frames. For that i used c# and the source code of Tinke and the python scripts as a guide.

Step 1: Extracting

First you need to extract the raw files of the game; For that i use tinke-ultimate which is a fork of the original Tinke.

To extract the files with Tinke you must first open the executable which will instantly prompt you with an open dialog, where you have to find your dumped DS game.

After Tinke finishes opening the file, it should look something like this:
   
Now you want to search for the file you want to extract.
*Most of the in-game sprites are in the "act" folder and are in the .bac file extension.

If you want to preview the selected file, click on "View". The preview will probably look like a mess; to fix it try adjusting the Width of the preview to values like 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 or other multiples of two, since those are common sizes of sprites.

Now finally, if you found the file you want to rip, press the "Extract" button and save it where you want.

Step 2: Converting

Because i havent found a tool that converted a .bac file to a common image format, i made it myself. It can be found here.
*Note that this might not work with all sprites.

To convert your file, you just have to drag and drop the .bac file into the executable. It will extract all the frames of the bac file with their corresponding sizes.

The program will export images with the names FrameX and FrameX_SubFrameY. You can think of Frames being the diferent animations and the subframes as the additional frames of those animations.

And you are done! you successfully ripped your sprites from Sonic Rush.
Also, this is my first post in the forums.

[boilingpot]

Thanks, this guide and the tool you wrote are very useful! I think I'll add this to the wiki.

[MotoBadnik]

Hi! Just tried it, seems to work pretty well! I'm trying to rip Advance's leftover files for TCRF.com (Managed to rip ac_ene_tento!) . The only problems I've found are when I try to convert the E3 beta's sprites (The file format seems to a bit different at the beggining?) and ac_sonic.bac in the final. I can see the first frame of the beta sprites on Tinke, just that your tool doesn't seem to be fully compatible. I suspect ac_sonic are the leftover 2D sprites, but the final file seems to have dummied out some data. I link you to both types of files, hopefully you can fix it
https://mega.nz/folder/Z3IgmTZD#0zW41pw2yvsRZhZxnphtGw

[Chor64]

Hi! Just tried it, seems to work pretty well! I'm trying to rip Advance's leftover files for TCRF.com (Managed to rip ac_ene_tento!) . The only problems I've found are when I try to convert the E3 beta's sprites (The file format seems to a bit different at the beggining?) and ac_sonic.bac in the final. I can see the first frame of the beta sprites on Tinke, just that your tool doesn't seem to be fully compatible. I suspect ac_sonic are the leftover 2D sprites, but the final file seems to have dummied out some data. I link you to both types of files, hopefully you can fix it
https://mega.nz/folder/Z3IgmTZD#0zW41pw2yvsRZhZxnphtGw

Hmm I see, by reading the error message I can think that It may have to do with something being outside the intended range. I didn't add checks for that kind of stuff so adding that might solve it.
When I have some spare time I will try to fix it.

[Chor64]

Hi! Just tried it, seems to work pretty well! I'm trying to rip Advance's leftover files for TCRF.com (Managed to rip ac_ene_tento!) . The only problems I've found are when I try to convert the E3 beta's sprites (The file format seems to a bit different at the beggining?) and ac_sonic.bac in the final. I can see the first frame of the beta sprites on Tinke, just that your tool doesn't seem to be fully compatible. I suspect ac_sonic are the leftover 2D sprites, but the final file seems to have dummied out some data. I link you to both types of files, hopefully you can fix it
https://mega.nz/folder/Z3IgmTZD#0zW41pw2yvsRZhZxnphtGw

Alright, I've managed to fix it and now it properly extracts the files you provided to me. It was a surprisingly easy fix.
You can download the new version here.
Note: The final version of ac_sonic.bac has no pallete/data, so it won't extract anything.

[MotoBadnik]

Works like a charm, thank you a lot!