House of the Dead 2 Ripping

[orphe]

Hello; 
I had this sudden idea come over me to try to rip a certain model from House of the Dead 2.  Realizing that no one seems to have done this online, it looks like I'll have to do this myself.  So I have a few questions:
What program would I need to rip the model from this game?
If I manage to rip it successfully, can a ripped model be imported into blender?
I understand this might be a bit of an ask, but I'm not sure if I have the know-how to do the rest of the necessary legwork past finding this place.

[saratogaroad]

We're gonna need more info than that. Wiki tells me this game has both a Wii and Windows release, so the easiest way would be to pay for NinjaRipper2 and use the Dolphin emulator and a copy of the Wii version, but that'll cost you a month's sub on NR2's patreon and you'll have to find a copy of the Wii version/an .iso somewhere online.

The PC version...eh? There's this tutorial on YouTube for how to extract but it seems to be for the original House of the Dead, not 2, and I don't know if the method applies to the PC version of 2 or not.

So, what version are you trying to rip from? That informs the method of ripping you'll need to follow.

[orphe]

We're gonna need more info than that. Wiki tells me this game has both a Wii and Windows release, so the easiest way would be to pay for NinjaRipper2 and use the Dolphin emulator and a copy of the Wii version, but that'll cost you a month's sub on NR2's patreon and you'll have to find a copy of the Wii version/an .iso somewhere online.

The PC version...eh? There's this tutorial on YouTube for how to extract but it seems to be for the original House of the Dead, not 2, and I don't know if the method applies to the PC version of 2 or not.

So, what version are you trying to rip from? That informs the method of ripping you'll need to follow.

I was considering the pc version since that's what I'm more familiar with, but the wii version I wasn't aware of until now is a good option too.  I think I'll go with the option suggested by you since I can spare 5 bucks.  When using a program like that, I'm pretty sure you just have to play the game until you reach that point and wait for the data to dump, right?  It's the second boss so it shouldn't be too bad unless they don't give you free continues.  Well, as long as I know what I'm talking about (and I only know a little).

[saratogaroad]

That's exactly right. Get the thing you want to rip on screen, press the rip key on your keyboard (It'll default to something, you can change the keybind as you see fit) and give it a minute to work. It'll seem like the emulator has frozen, but it's working in the background and when you can see normal gameplay motion resume, it'll be finished.

Now, when NR2 installs on your computer, it creates a folder of import plugins. When I last used it, it required Blender 2.8x, you may need to get a higher version now that they're on 2.6 instead of 2.0.10, but install the plugin and import your rip and there you go.

It is worth saying, however, that NR2 only takes 3D screenshots and does not export rigging/bones/skeletons. If you're after a stage or motionless object this is fine, but if you wanted a character/monster, you'll have to either find another solution or learn to rig them yourself which. Heh, not it!

[orphe]

That's exactly right. Get the thing you want to rip on screen, press the rip key on your keyboard (It'll default to something, you can change the keybind as you see fit) and give it a minute to work. It'll seem like the emulator has frozen, but it's working in the background and when you can see normal gameplay motion resume, it'll be finished.

Now, when NR2 installs on your computer, it creates a folder of import plugins. When I last used it, it required Blender 2.8x, you may need to get a higher version now that they're on 2.6 instead of 2.0.10, but install the plugin and import your rip and there you go.

It is worth saying, however, that NR2 only takes 3D screenshots and does not export rigging/bones/skeletons. If you're after a stage or motionless object this is fine, but if you wanted a character/monster, you'll have to either find another solution or learn to rig them yourself which. Heh, not it!

Heh heh, I do have some tricks up my sleeve...as long as I get my hands on the 3d model, rigging won't be a problem (at least on a rudimentary level), although I assume I'm going to have to get a bit creative with the uv unwrap if I want any ripped textures to work properly.

[saratogaroad]

You might have to flip them a bit; when I ripped stages using 2.0.10, the textures were assigned correctly for the most part, though textures of things like hanging vines or rising flames had to be manually flipped 180 degrees vertically for. Some reason. Manually flipping them in an image editor solved that issue for me, so I wasn't bothered.

That said there is another method of extraction using Dolphin. You can extract the game files from the .iso directly; see tutorial here. I don't know if this will give you the proper model data, nor in what format it'll come out if it does give you the data, but it might be worth trying that before getting into the weeds with NR2. Good luck, and happy ripping!

[orphe]

You might have to flip them a bit; when I ripped stages using 2.0.10, the textures were assigned correctly for the most part, though textures of things like hanging vines or rising flames had to be manually flipped 180 degrees vertically for. Some reason. Manually flipping them in an image editor solved that issue for me, so I wasn't bothered.

That said there is another method of extraction using Dolphin. You can extract the game files from the .iso directly; see tutorial here. I don't know if this will give you the proper model data, nor in what format it'll come out if it does give you the data, but it might be worth trying that before getting into the weeds with NR2. Good luck, and happy ripping!

It took a few moments to get a handle of NinjaRipper, but pretty simple to use, then I just had to isolate the mesh I wanted from the chaff and will now need to arrange it into the intended form.  I will continue to update as I (hopefully) make more progress.

[ImTheHollow]

Hello! I hope you have great success ripping these models, I've always loved the enemy designs in HOTD2. I tried using ninja ripper myself at one time, but it unfortunately didn't work too well for me. I wanted to share a video with you in this thread (I'm not sure if links are allowed, I apologize if they aren't), but I stumbled upon this a few years back. Someone had successfully ripped many of the zombie models from HOTD2 and replaced the Ganados of RE4 with them! You might be able to get the models from the mod file if a download is floating around for it.
Video of the RE4 mod

[orphe]

Hello! I hope you have great success ripping these models, I've always loved the enemy designs in HOTD2. I tried using ninja ripper myself at one time, but it unfortunately didn't work too well for me. I wanted to share a video with you in this thread (I'm not sure if links are allowed, I apologize if they aren't), but I stumbled upon this a few years back. Someone had successfully ripped many of the zombie models from HOTD2 and replaced the Ganados of RE4 with them! You might be able to get the models from the mod file if a download is floating around for it.
Video of the RE4 mod

Ah, almost forgot about this; I actually have a bit of an update: I have been working on it bit by bit (among other projects), and learning things along the way, first and foremost that Ninja Ripper often has trouble properly aligning uv wraps, so I find they need to be adjusted manually.  I keep trying to remember to work on it, but my big move is going to be to try to combine the entire texture into a single texture and the mesh into a single mesh, and to be honest...it does sound a bit taxing.  But it's my goal, so I'll keep chipping at it.  If I'm ever able to get this finished properly, I should also see about uploading it here, as a way of thanks