Got some models, now what?

[DearlyStars]

Hello, I have never ripped models from a game before. However, I am giving it my best shot and don't know what to do from here. I am ripping models from THE IDOLM@STER Dearly Stars (a DS game from 2009). My goal is to get the 3D environments and character models from the 'live portions' of the game. This includes:

Stages:

• Lesson Room
  
• Live House
  
• Event Hall
  
• Dome
  
• Beach Stage
  
• Cheer Function Stage
  
• Audition Room
  

Costumes:

• Ai Hidaka (Cute / Cool / Cosmic / T-Shirt / Jersey)
  
• Eri Mizutani: (Cute / Cool / Cosmic / T-Shirt / Jersey)
  
• Ryo Akizuki: (Cute / Cool / Cosmic / T-Shirt / Jersey)
  

(Updated 9/19)
I have managed to rip several models using Melon3D and import them into Blender. I don't have much experience with this, but generally the way I understand that it works is that by pressing a button at a specific time, it pulls the assets and lighting effects being displayed at the time (explaining why some stages like the Cheer Function Stage seem to change color depending on where they are picked up in the live). To streamline the process, I am getting the models from the 'Costume Select' system. This way, the costumes are all in a relatively standard pose with the only variation that I've been seeing is the facial expression. My goal is to have each face as the 'default' expression... but I will see what I can do.

I am still just not sure quite what to do from there. I don't know what sort of file format these models are supposed to be (I'd imagine the default is not .blend lol), or if there's even a way to convert them from Blender files. I've only just started this project, so any suggestions would be useful.

Image Link:
Progress So Far

[DearlyStars]

Hello, I had an update reference this project. I have managed to pull several models into a blender environment.

Stages Updates:

I have pulled the following stages:

- Lesson Room
- Live House
- Event Hall
- Dome
- Beach Stage
- 'Cheer' Stage

I still need to progress in the game to an audition to get the audition room. I don't even know yet if it is a truly 3D stage, but I will work on that in the future.

Costumes Updates:

I have pulled the following costumes:

- For Ai Hidaka (All CUTE, COOL, T-SHIRT costumes. Still need COSMIC and the jersey costume.)
- For Eri Mizutani (All CUTE, COOL, T-SHIRT costumes. Still need COSMIC and the jersey costume.)
- For Ryo Akizuki (All CUTE costumes. Still need COOL, COSMIC, T-SHIRT, and the jersey costume.)

The way that the ripper I use works is that it essentially takes a '3D screenshot' of the 3D models while being used. I use the Costume Select portion of the game to make the models relatively standard. However, the COSMIC costumes have a sort of issue. The way the lights work on the costumes is that they have a 'dark', 'normal', and 'bright' setting. So in order for the rip to be  'standardized', I have to time it with their facial features as well as the light setting. And... None of these are T-posed. So... It's going to be a long journey, but I'm determined to made them standardized.

(Maybe if I figure out how to use this, someone can make a custom Yumeko and Cineria mod lol)

Progress Overall:
Pulled into blender:
- Stages: 86%
- Costumes: 60%
- Visual

[DearlyStars]

Hello, I made some progress on this project.

Stages Update:

I have imported all of the stages that I personally know about into blender. The rest of the images in the Dearly Stars game (as far as I've seen) are the 2D background images which still dump with the stage files. So, the seven stages I've managed to pull include:

- Audition Room
- Lesson Room
- Beach Stage
- Live House
- Event Hall
- Dome
- 'Cheering' Stage

While all of the above are 3D stages, the audition room (because it is seen only from one angle) is simply 2 planes: a wall, floor, and some smaller items across the stage.

Costume Update:

I have also imported all of the costumes that I know of into blender (all of which are posed for the Costume Select and not rigged as of yet). I have not really considered doing the accessories. There are 111 costumes in the game, with Ai, Eri and Ryo having unique styles. Each idol has Cute, Cool, Cosmic, and T-Shirt costumes in addition to a Jersey. The following costumes have been imported:

- Ai Hidaka (x10 Cute / x10 Cool / x10 Cosmic / x6 T-Shirt / x1 Jersey)
- Eri Mizutani (x10 Cute / x10 Cool / x10 Cosmic / x6 T-Shirt / x1 Jersey)
- Ryo Akizuki (x10 Cute / x10 Cool / x10 Cosmic / x6 T-Shirt / x1 Jersey)

One interesting thing to note is that (because this is a DS game), the ripper that I use includes whatever is on the other screen as well. That means I usually have to hand delete the sprites from the bottom screen. In addition, all of the costume files that I've seen include the 'shadow effect' that iM@S games used to have. It's those 'x' shaped shadows attached to the idol's feet, presumably because of how the idols appear onstage.

Progress:

All stage and costume files imported into blender... Not sure what next.
Costume and Stage Previews

[DearlyStars]

Welp, here we go. This is a link to the blender files and the renders I've made.

Current Progress:

https://mega.nz/file/ncVTCYoa#mxK1lcX45Z...OD7qRHnXWk

[DearlyStars]

So I am still working on trying to get to the actual files themselves using Console Tool (again, total layman here). When I open the .nds file, this is what I get. From my understanding, the .nsbmd and .nsbmx are what I am looking for. I have dug around the hexidecimal files and found most of the results in 'F_G3D.BIN [EZP]' in the 'contents' folder.



If you look at the hexadecimal code, you see alot of files with .nsbmd, .nsbtx, and .nsbtp extensions. So I think I am on the right track. I see files with names like 'STAGE' or 'LIGHT' or 'CYALUME', which I'd assume are in the majority of the stage objects (Dearly Stars was the first iM@S game to show behind an idol to view fan's penlights AKA cyalume).



If you keep looking down the hexidecimal file, you can se a list of filenames like COS_VO_07_H or COS_VI_01, which I would imagine are the 3D costumes like 'CUTE & GIRLY' (VO), 'COOL & SEXY' (DA), and 'COSMIC & FUNNY' (VI). I also see COS_SP_00 or COS_ED_01 and am wondering if those are the 'Jersey' and 'T-SHIRT' costumes.



Even further are Cheek, Eye, Mouth, Hair, Hand and other files. I am curious as to what some of these are, as these may be the 'HAND', 'HEAD', and 'BODY' accessories.



Near the bottom are a bunch of .nsbca files. I have a feeling these are the animation files as the majority of them are labeled using the same tags as the 'DANCE PANELS' in the game as well as some longer ones for the 10 complete songs in Dearly Stars (like Kiramekirari, ALIVE, etc.). There are several of these animation files and I can't help but wonder if they are possibly for each body part (I have heard that iM@S used to record mouth movements, body movements, and hand movements separately.) as I know Dearly Stars hands do not really animate like traditional iM@S hand movements work.



All in all, they are all packaged together, and I am assuming in order to unpack them they need to be decompressed. I don't know anything about hexadecimals (such as how many hexadecimals this is to try and unpack it) but I will keep trying to learn more to figure it out. I have a friend who is modding Starlit Season and I'd like to see some of this stuff get imported, but I simply do not know how to even extract these files in the first place. He says to find OBJ files, and I guess I will keep looking for them.


UPDATE:

So, I tried using NDSFactory to extract / unpack the DS files. I have no idea what I am doing. But, I think I managed to get the files out of the .nds file. In the first screen shot above are the BIN and IDX files for AGL, VOICE, F_G3D, TEXT, etc. However, NDSFactory has a 'FAT File' option which according to their GitHub means 'the actual files used by the software, like Graphics, Music etc.'. I decoded the FAT contents and got the files out of the ROM. Now, I think they're still packed up. However, they do appear to be what I'd imagine is the right file size.




I'd imagine audio would be the biggest files so F_VOICE and F_BGM make sense being the largest file size. That's followed by my target of F_G3D, which is reasonable that the 3D elements of the game would be second largest. The rest being smaller makes sense for the 2D sprites, text, and backgrounds that the game uses. I still don't know what to do with these but... progress? I think? Anyways, here is a link to my current progress:

All BIN & IDX files that decoded from FAT

[DearlyStars]

I have managed to find 'idx2dec', a command line tool to extract BIN files from the game from GitHub. I do not have any experience with actual programming unfortunately, especially not much with C#. As such, I have been unable to use this program even though I am 90% sure that this is one of the last steps that I need in order to extract what is in the files. There is no release version of the tool, meaning I am trying to figure out how to compile or build the given code by myself. I am looking at it in Visual Studio (with Strawberry perl and .NET being requirements) and I am admittedly very lost. I know the code works as I can run it in debug mode and there are no errors. However, there is no place to input the directories that I need in debug mode.



From what I understand, if the code works, you put 'idx2dc' into the command prompt tool, followed by the file paths to where they are located on the computer. However, when I try running the program, it either won't let me input anything (if it launches in debug mode) or automatically closes out (if it launches from the release folder). I am still trying to learn how to use the tool and have asked the creator for insight, but I have not heard anything back. I am still currently at a loss, but will continue trying.

That being said, by brute force, I feel like I've learned so much about different ripping, emulating, and modeling tools including:

- dslazy
- melonDS-MelonRipper
- Console Tool
- NDSFactory
- Tinke
- MKDS Course Modifier
- VGMToolbox
- DeSmuME X432R
- Blender

I will keep continuing until I can figure it out.

UPDATE:

I made some small progress. We are not programmers, but my brother helped me out with forcing 'idx2dec' in reading the files. Again, no experience here, just Googling my problems. I went to the Solution Explorer tab for the project, found 'idx2dec', right clicked to Properties, then navigated to 'Debug' > 'General'. Then to 'Open debug launch files UI'. In the Command Line arguments, I put the paths to the BIN and IDX files. To my surprise, the file runs... It just can't decompress anything.



It instead dumps out a 0 byte file. So... A little disappointing, but I will continue working on it! At least it is some progress! Still have not heard back from the creator yet.

[DearlyStars]

There was a breakthrough. My brother and I tried and failed to extract the files, so I asked my sister's partner for input. They found the files actually needed to be in a specific folder as follows:

> idx2dec-master > bin > Debug > net5.0

Then they created a script that can decompress the files one after the other (using the forced debug arguments). From the files, I found several different file types (I think this is all of them but I am sleepy and may have missed some):

- F_AGL : .AGL, .GLD
- F_AGLCHR :  .AGL, .GLD
- F_BG : .NCGR, .NCLR, .NSCR
- F_BGM : .SSS, .S14
- F_G3D : .NSBMD, .NSBTX, .NSBCA, .NSBTP, .ECA, .GLD, .NSBMA
- F_OBJ : .NANR, .NCER, .NCGR, .NCLR
- F_SCN : .BBQ
- F_TBL : .BBQ, .CHE, .GLD, .MVMP, .NFTR, .AGL
- F_TEX : .GLD
- F_VOICE : .BIN, .IDX

I decided to decompress the files in the F_VOICE category and got a LOT of .bin files. Here's all of the extracted files as well as the extracted voice files in their default formats:

https://mega.nz/file/2ZV2TbTb#KPZCeNO1j_...NH5txcw5T8

I still have a lot to do on this project. I haven't really gotten to test the files myself outside of a few glimpses with some 3D tools. I have a few guesses as to what some of the files are, although I haven't checked them myself yet.



F_AGL has a lot of files with names that make me believe they are the interactable objects or images in the games, like: BANDAI_NAMCO_GAMES, COMMU_BAD, COMMU_GOOD, COMMU_NORMAL, COMMU_PERFECT, D_EDIT_PLAYLISTCURSOR, D_NWF_WIFI_RANKING_TOP, or D_EDIT_PLAYLIST_FRAME.


F_AGLCHR has files for almost every character in the game, so I think these are all likely character portraits. There are also a few extras, likely character effects for Ai, Eri, Ryo, and Ami.

- AIH ... Ai Hidaka
- AMI ... Ami Futami
- AZU ... Azusa Miura
- CHI ... Chihaya Kisaragi
- ERI ... Eri Mizutani
- HAR ... Haruka Amami
- HIB ... Hibiki Ganaha
- IGA ... Yukio Igarashi
- IOR ... Iori Minase
- MAI ... Mai Hidaka
- MAK ... Makoto Kikuchi
- MAM ... Mami Futami
- MAN ... Manami Okamoto
- MIK ... Miki Hoshii
- OZA ... Reiko Ozaki
- RIT ... Ritsuko Akizuki
- RYO ... Ryo Akizuki
- SAI ... Cineria
- TAK ... Takane Shijou
- TKD ... Soichi Takeda
- YAY ... Yayoi Takatsuki
- YUK ... Yukiho Hagiwara
- YUM ... Yumeko Sakurai

- EFF_AMI
- EFF_RYO
- FX_AIH
- FX_ERI
- FX_RYO


F_BG has a lot of assorted files that I'm curious as to what they are for. A lot of them seem to be related to events or menus, like AUDITION_DAN, D_COSTUME_BG, D_ACCESSORY_BG, D_NWL_UNITLIVE_BG01, LESSON_RANK, QR_SQUARE, U_STAGE_DANCE_LESSON_ROOM_FRONT. All of the stages are listed here with proper names in the files:

- U_STAGE_AUDITION_STAGE
- U_STAGE_DANCE_LESSON_ROOM_FRONT
- U_STAGE_ISLANDSEA
- U_STAGE_LIVEHOUSE
- U_STAGE_NODATA
- U_STAGE_NWLLIVESTAGE
- U_STAGE_PUBLICHALL
- U_STAGE_TOKYODOME


F_BGM has what I'm assuming are all of the music related files, not just BGM. The majority of these file names match the songs of 'THE IDOLM@STER BEST OF 765+876=!! BGM COLLECTION' or the playable songs in Dearly Stars (Agent Yoru o Yuku, ALIVE, Kiramekirari, etc.). There are some differences though, with 5 tracks not being listed on the BGM collection or in game songs (that I know of).

- HELLO_GAME
- HELLO_LESSON
- MELO_GMW
- MELO_MAT
- MELO_PRE


F_G3D is all of the 3D related items, as far as I can tell. I want to work on this one the most, but there's a lot to it, so I'm just going to say there's a lot going on in there. Some of them seem to have exported oddly, but I'm not entirely sure why.


F_OBJ is other interactible objects. I see ACCESSORY_OBJ, COSTUME_OBJ, D_DANCE_DETAIL_OBJ, D_NWL_TOUCH_OBJ, D_SCROLL_BAR_OBJ, all of the dance panels listed, MEMORIES_NUMBER, MENU_ITEM, and several more objects.


F_SCN is full of BBQ files. They all have a bunch of assorted names like AIH_A01_AUD01, ERI_B02_SUB01_MES, RYO_LES_RESULT_RIT_MES, RYO_SUN_TALK, TOUCH_AIH_GOP, MAKERLOGO, etc. I am not sure what these are to be honest. Possibly text and routes in the game?


F_TBL I think must have something to do with sequences. AGE_CAMERA I would imagine would refer to Agent Yoru o Yuku's default camera, AGE_FACE I would imagine would refer to facial expresions, AGE_LIP would be mouth sync, AGE_HANDS would be hand movements, etc. I see files like ML_ERI_C02_MAIL, AUD_REEL_TABLE, IDOLIMAGELEVELTABLE, QRCODEPRESENTKEYTABLE, and a lot of others in there as well though, so there's got to be more here.


F_TEX has a lot of file names that sound like background images. B2D_876PRO_MEETING, B2D_876PRO_FLOOR_DAYTIME, B2D_876PRO_FLOOR_NIGHTTIME, B2D_ROOM_ERI, B2D_THEMEPARK, B2D_KITCHEN_HIDAKA all sound like locations. There are also files with HIT_BG_00, HIT_BG_01, HIT_CHR_00, HIT_CHR_01 file names that I have no idea what they refer to.


F_VOICE is what I can only assume is the vocal lines within the game. The files are separated by AI, ERI, RYO and COMXX. I'd imagine that COMXX would be the rest of the vocal cast (765PRO) as only Ai, Eri, and Ryo are voiced out of the characters beyond the 765 idols.


All in all, a lot to explore. I have next to no experience when it comes to ripping files or extracting them, but I feel like I've already accomplished a lot here. I want to keep looking into these files and see more and more! There's a lot of intricacies here and I'd like to keep exploring them. I also am curious as to what is going on with the 3D files. I have definitely opened them and had them open normally but later opened them and the vertices are all over the place. I will be looking more into them soon.