Tonight, I submitted Batsu from Project Justice.
Project Justice is waaaaay easier to get a model from than Tech Romancer. I get the full model from Project Justice, where with Tech Romancer, I only get half the model at a time. I then have to stitch them together, and that is the tough part.
I still haven't found a way to easily extract the models and textures from the game files, so if anyone wants to chime in on that process, it might help people out.
So basically, this is an overview of how I extracted the Project Justice model.
I use 4 pieces of software.
1. DEmul - A Dreamcast emulator for capturing the models.
2. NullDc - A Dreamcast emulator for textures. The Naomi version will not work. Make sure you get the right one.
3. Ninja Ripper - This does cost money, but it's only $5.00.
4. Blender - Maybe some other 3D modeling program would work, but Ninja ripper has an importer for Blender, 3ds Max, and Maya. I use Blender because it's free.
Of course, you are also going to need the ROM files (game) to use on the emulator.
If you want to submit your models to this site, you will also need some sort of image editor. I am not sure you can do it with the preloaded image software. I use Paint.net. It can work with transparencies, and it's free.
I am not going to go into a super detailed tutorial on how to set everything up, but this should get you started, and this is more of a summary of this text thread. I may post a tutorial later, but as software changes, it may become obsolete.
There may be challenges in getting Ninja Ripper started, but they have a YouTube channel that is very helpful. You should watch the tutorials and read the FAQs page. You may need to change some default settings in Ninja Ripper. You will want to change the Texture File Format to PNG. If you want to upload your models to this site, they require the texture files are in PNG format and not in the default DDS format. If you try to convert them later, it breaks everything. There is a way to re-associate the textures to the newly converted textures in Blender, but don't do any of that, just change the setting now.
So you might be asking yourself, "Why do I need two emulators, and why specifically those two?" I tried a few emulators, and I didn't find anything that would get me everything, so as described above, I use one for the models, and one for the textures.
Also, I did a lot of fiddling around to get this to work and ended up downloading things that I probably didn't need, or maybe that is why it's working. When I can test this process on a new Windows install, I will. So if it doesn't work for you, let us know in this thread and maybe we can figure out why.
So after you get your emulators working and Ninja Ripper working. You will also have to follow the instructions on the Ninja Ripper FAQs site on how to install the add-on that will allow you to import Ninja Ripper files into Blender.
You run Ninja Ripper with the emulator executable path in the Program setting. Once the game is running, you will see some green text in the upper left corner of the emulator window. This will tell you which button to press to capture the assets. I had to change the settings to use "End" and "Home" because the default Print Screen button was just capturing an image. You may not have this issue. I might be having this issue because I have a screen capture program installed. Mostly I just use Windows key-shift-S to capture a screenshot now.
So now it is time to capture some assets. You will need to navigate your game to get the character model you want to rip on the screen. So start the game with the character you want. It is best to use a 2 player mode or a training mode so your character isn't getting punched or something.
When you press the capture button, the game will freeze for a few seconds. If it only freezes for less than a second, it didn't work. Wait a few seconds and press the button again.
After that, try clicking on the "Open RIP dir" button Ninja Ripper that will take you to the folder. You don't need to do anything with the files, but you need to know where the path is. In my case, its "C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Roaming\Ninja Ripper." you can open the folders. You should see one the folder name is the date and the name of the executable you were using, such as the emulator. I find it useful to sort the files by Date Modified so the most recent rips are at the top. If you open the folder, you will see a folder for each time you pressed the capture button.
Close the emulator you are running.
Open the folder that has the other emulator and drag the emulator executable to the program path in Ninja Ripper.
Run Ninja Ripper again with the second emulator and repeat the process of selecting the character and pressing the capture button when they are on the screen.
I doesn't really matter which order you run the emulators because you need both to do anything in Blender anyway.
Now open Blender. Hopefully you have already installed the Ninja Ripper importer.
Click on File and hover over Import.
Select Ninja Ripper 2 World Space.
In the path bar at the top, navigate to where you Ninja Ripper files are with the rips you just created.
Open the folder that has the date and DEmul.exe name. You may see a few folders inside named "Frame_0" or "Frame_1." These are created every time you pressed on the capture button. If you open a folder, and it only has one file in it, don't use it, it won't work. Just move onto the next folder. You are looking for a folder that might have nearly 200 files. (This is just how it works in my experience with 2 Capcom games. It might be different with other games and platforms.)
In this case, select a file and press the "A" key to select them all. (It isn't Ctrl+A like everything else. It's annoying.)
Don't open the files yet or your models will just be flat. Look to the right side of the window and click on the "Position" pull down menu and change it from the default "(FOV)" to "Reprojection (Full)."
There are some other settings too that I never noticed made a difference, but play around with them at some point.
On you screen, you might not notice much of a change. Maybe a triangle or two, but on the right side window, you should see a bunch of Meshes listed that weren't there before. These are the polygons of the model. In my experience the model is not just one file or object, it's a whole bunch of little parts.
You will have to move you camera around and look up to see a mess of stuff. The items are like through the floor, above you, I'm not sure, but I find if I try to zoom in, I can't get very close, so I turn my camera in the opposite direction and zoom out until I rise above where the models are. I find it easiest to select the model I want, and deselect anything I don't and then I press Ctrl+I to invert my selection to everything I don't want on the screen. Then I press the delete key and I am left with the model I want.
Take a look at how many meshes you have. If it's Project Justice, you should still have meshes 1 to about 60 for the Player 1 character. If you notice some other meshes below it, like in their own group that are really high numbers, like 180, you don't need those. You can select them, and if they are not highlighted as part of the character, just delete it.
At this point you can use the Grab (move) and rotate tools to position your model standing on the ground. I use the G key to move and the R key to rotate. When moving, you can press the key for the direction you want too, like G and then Z to move the model only on the Z axis (up and down).
So now you should have a gray model. Now you will want to texture it.
This is a little like putting a puzzle together, so like a puzzle and the top of the box, it is helpful to have an image of the character for reference.
When you captured the model, you will also get a screenshot of the moment of capture. That can be a helpful image to refer to.
Click on an element of the character, like the face or shirt. It will highlight in orange.
If you haven't used Blender, this is important. Right now, if you apply a texture, you won't see it because the default view is "show shading." If you look in the upper right corner, (and your screen is big enough) you will see the viewport options. They look like little round icons. One looks like a wire frame, one is a solid gray or white circle, depending if it is currently selected. You want to click on the one next to it that looks like a slice of pizza has been take out if it. It's called Materials Preview. If this isn't selected, you won't see the textures applied to the model.
With the character's face (or whatever) selected, look down the row of icons that are below your mesh list on the right. Next to the bottom is a red circle with a wedge shape in it. It is right above an icon that looks like a checkerboard. Click on this Material icon.
Click on the +New button.
Where there is the Surface "Base Color" click on the little yellow dot to the right of Base Color.
A window will pop up. From the Texture column, select Image Texture.
Now you will see the face has a temporary dark color. but at the right of Base Color, you will see Image texture is listed. Below that, click on the Open button.
Now you will need to navigate to the folder in the Ninja Rip directory to the folder from the NullDC rip folder.
You can copy/paste the path from file explorer. Or, you can copy the folder to another location first to make it easier to find.
Once you use the file location first, it will continue to open the folder location for other textures.
Once you have the folder open in Blender, you may notice it only displays the names of the files. You will want to change the view to Thumbnails so you can see the texture images. To the right of the folder path, there are three little icons, Vertical List (Default), Horizontal list, and Thumbnail.
Scroll through the images until you find the one you think will work, such as a face and select it. Double click it or click on the Open Image button.
Now you should see the texture on the model.
This is a good start.
If you need to change the texture, there is a little folder icon next to the file name.
Here are some helpful tips...
Sometimes it is worth renaming the texture files when you know what they are, like 1 face, 2 hands, 3 pants. Putting a number or "!" in front of the ones you know will push them to the top of the list.
If you want to select a different texture to one you used recently, instead of using the folder icon to open it again, there is a recent icon to the left of the file name.
Textures may be used more then once.
If you need to use the same texture for multiple parts. Assign it once and click off that object. Then select all the objects that you want that texture on by holding down the shift key and making your selections. Then, with the shift key still held down, make your last selection the object that has the texture you want. Then press Ctrl+L. From the menu press M or select "Link Materials" and all of those objects will have the same texture.
In the end, you may want to upload your models here. You will need to export the file as an .obs or .dae. I have only used .obs at this point. To export your file, select your model, and then click on File -> Export and select Wavefront (.obj). Before you continue, click on the check box for "Limit to Selected Only." Also, in the Materials section, change the Path Mode to "Copy." This way, wherever you save the file, you should get an .Obj file, a .Mtl file, and all the texture files you used. You can compress all of these files into a .zip so you can upload it to the site. be sure to read the Wiki on what makes a good submission (https://wiki.vg-resource.com/What_Makes_...ormats,DAE) , but also keep in mind I have no idea what I am talking about. I have submitted a file and it is yet to be approved, so my advice might not get you anywhere.
Good luck.
Project Justice is waaaaay easier to get a model from than Tech Romancer. I get the full model from Project Justice, where with Tech Romancer, I only get half the model at a time. I then have to stitch them together, and that is the tough part.
I still haven't found a way to easily extract the models and textures from the game files, so if anyone wants to chime in on that process, it might help people out.
So basically, this is an overview of how I extracted the Project Justice model.
I use 4 pieces of software.
1. DEmul - A Dreamcast emulator for capturing the models.
2. NullDc - A Dreamcast emulator for textures. The Naomi version will not work. Make sure you get the right one.
3. Ninja Ripper - This does cost money, but it's only $5.00.
4. Blender - Maybe some other 3D modeling program would work, but Ninja ripper has an importer for Blender, 3ds Max, and Maya. I use Blender because it's free.
Of course, you are also going to need the ROM files (game) to use on the emulator.
If you want to submit your models to this site, you will also need some sort of image editor. I am not sure you can do it with the preloaded image software. I use Paint.net. It can work with transparencies, and it's free.
I am not going to go into a super detailed tutorial on how to set everything up, but this should get you started, and this is more of a summary of this text thread. I may post a tutorial later, but as software changes, it may become obsolete.
There may be challenges in getting Ninja Ripper started, but they have a YouTube channel that is very helpful. You should watch the tutorials and read the FAQs page. You may need to change some default settings in Ninja Ripper. You will want to change the Texture File Format to PNG. If you want to upload your models to this site, they require the texture files are in PNG format and not in the default DDS format. If you try to convert them later, it breaks everything. There is a way to re-associate the textures to the newly converted textures in Blender, but don't do any of that, just change the setting now.
So you might be asking yourself, "Why do I need two emulators, and why specifically those two?" I tried a few emulators, and I didn't find anything that would get me everything, so as described above, I use one for the models, and one for the textures.
Also, I did a lot of fiddling around to get this to work and ended up downloading things that I probably didn't need, or maybe that is why it's working. When I can test this process on a new Windows install, I will. So if it doesn't work for you, let us know in this thread and maybe we can figure out why.
So after you get your emulators working and Ninja Ripper working. You will also have to follow the instructions on the Ninja Ripper FAQs site on how to install the add-on that will allow you to import Ninja Ripper files into Blender.
You run Ninja Ripper with the emulator executable path in the Program setting. Once the game is running, you will see some green text in the upper left corner of the emulator window. This will tell you which button to press to capture the assets. I had to change the settings to use "End" and "Home" because the default Print Screen button was just capturing an image. You may not have this issue. I might be having this issue because I have a screen capture program installed. Mostly I just use Windows key-shift-S to capture a screenshot now.
So now it is time to capture some assets. You will need to navigate your game to get the character model you want to rip on the screen. So start the game with the character you want. It is best to use a 2 player mode or a training mode so your character isn't getting punched or something.
When you press the capture button, the game will freeze for a few seconds. If it only freezes for less than a second, it didn't work. Wait a few seconds and press the button again.
After that, try clicking on the "Open RIP dir" button Ninja Ripper that will take you to the folder. You don't need to do anything with the files, but you need to know where the path is. In my case, its "C:\Users\NAME\AppData\Roaming\Ninja Ripper." you can open the folders. You should see one the folder name is the date and the name of the executable you were using, such as the emulator. I find it useful to sort the files by Date Modified so the most recent rips are at the top. If you open the folder, you will see a folder for each time you pressed the capture button.
Close the emulator you are running.
Open the folder that has the other emulator and drag the emulator executable to the program path in Ninja Ripper.
Run Ninja Ripper again with the second emulator and repeat the process of selecting the character and pressing the capture button when they are on the screen.
I doesn't really matter which order you run the emulators because you need both to do anything in Blender anyway.
Now open Blender. Hopefully you have already installed the Ninja Ripper importer.
Click on File and hover over Import.
Select Ninja Ripper 2 World Space.
In the path bar at the top, navigate to where you Ninja Ripper files are with the rips you just created.
Open the folder that has the date and DEmul.exe name. You may see a few folders inside named "Frame_0" or "Frame_1." These are created every time you pressed on the capture button. If you open a folder, and it only has one file in it, don't use it, it won't work. Just move onto the next folder. You are looking for a folder that might have nearly 200 files. (This is just how it works in my experience with 2 Capcom games. It might be different with other games and platforms.)
In this case, select a file and press the "A" key to select them all. (It isn't Ctrl+A like everything else. It's annoying.)
Don't open the files yet or your models will just be flat. Look to the right side of the window and click on the "Position" pull down menu and change it from the default "(FOV)" to "Reprojection (Full)."
There are some other settings too that I never noticed made a difference, but play around with them at some point.
On you screen, you might not notice much of a change. Maybe a triangle or two, but on the right side window, you should see a bunch of Meshes listed that weren't there before. These are the polygons of the model. In my experience the model is not just one file or object, it's a whole bunch of little parts.
You will have to move you camera around and look up to see a mess of stuff. The items are like through the floor, above you, I'm not sure, but I find if I try to zoom in, I can't get very close, so I turn my camera in the opposite direction and zoom out until I rise above where the models are. I find it easiest to select the model I want, and deselect anything I don't and then I press Ctrl+I to invert my selection to everything I don't want on the screen. Then I press the delete key and I am left with the model I want.
Take a look at how many meshes you have. If it's Project Justice, you should still have meshes 1 to about 60 for the Player 1 character. If you notice some other meshes below it, like in their own group that are really high numbers, like 180, you don't need those. You can select them, and if they are not highlighted as part of the character, just delete it.
At this point you can use the Grab (move) and rotate tools to position your model standing on the ground. I use the G key to move and the R key to rotate. When moving, you can press the key for the direction you want too, like G and then Z to move the model only on the Z axis (up and down).
So now you should have a gray model. Now you will want to texture it.
This is a little like putting a puzzle together, so like a puzzle and the top of the box, it is helpful to have an image of the character for reference.
When you captured the model, you will also get a screenshot of the moment of capture. That can be a helpful image to refer to.
Click on an element of the character, like the face or shirt. It will highlight in orange.
If you haven't used Blender, this is important. Right now, if you apply a texture, you won't see it because the default view is "show shading." If you look in the upper right corner, (and your screen is big enough) you will see the viewport options. They look like little round icons. One looks like a wire frame, one is a solid gray or white circle, depending if it is currently selected. You want to click on the one next to it that looks like a slice of pizza has been take out if it. It's called Materials Preview. If this isn't selected, you won't see the textures applied to the model.
With the character's face (or whatever) selected, look down the row of icons that are below your mesh list on the right. Next to the bottom is a red circle with a wedge shape in it. It is right above an icon that looks like a checkerboard. Click on this Material icon.
Click on the +New button.
Where there is the Surface "Base Color" click on the little yellow dot to the right of Base Color.
A window will pop up. From the Texture column, select Image Texture.
Now you will see the face has a temporary dark color. but at the right of Base Color, you will see Image texture is listed. Below that, click on the Open button.
Now you will need to navigate to the folder in the Ninja Rip directory to the folder from the NullDC rip folder.
You can copy/paste the path from file explorer. Or, you can copy the folder to another location first to make it easier to find.
Once you use the file location first, it will continue to open the folder location for other textures.
Once you have the folder open in Blender, you may notice it only displays the names of the files. You will want to change the view to Thumbnails so you can see the texture images. To the right of the folder path, there are three little icons, Vertical List (Default), Horizontal list, and Thumbnail.
Scroll through the images until you find the one you think will work, such as a face and select it. Double click it or click on the Open Image button.
Now you should see the texture on the model.
This is a good start.
If you need to change the texture, there is a little folder icon next to the file name.
Here are some helpful tips...
Sometimes it is worth renaming the texture files when you know what they are, like 1 face, 2 hands, 3 pants. Putting a number or "!" in front of the ones you know will push them to the top of the list.
If you want to select a different texture to one you used recently, instead of using the folder icon to open it again, there is a recent icon to the left of the file name.
Textures may be used more then once.
If you need to use the same texture for multiple parts. Assign it once and click off that object. Then select all the objects that you want that texture on by holding down the shift key and making your selections. Then, with the shift key still held down, make your last selection the object that has the texture you want. Then press Ctrl+L. From the menu press M or select "Link Materials" and all of those objects will have the same texture.
In the end, you may want to upload your models here. You will need to export the file as an .obs or .dae. I have only used .obs at this point. To export your file, select your model, and then click on File -> Export and select Wavefront (.obj). Before you continue, click on the check box for "Limit to Selected Only." Also, in the Materials section, change the Path Mode to "Copy." This way, wherever you save the file, you should get an .Obj file, a .Mtl file, and all the texture files you used. You can compress all of these files into a .zip so you can upload it to the site. be sure to read the Wiki on what makes a good submission (https://wiki.vg-resource.com/What_Makes_...ormats,DAE) , but also keep in mind I have no idea what I am talking about. I have submitted a file and it is yet to be approved, so my advice might not get you anywhere.
Good luck.