Spyro Skyboxes and Levels Extraction and Conversion (DL/Release)

[Mr.Shadow]

I couldn't find the skyboxes anywhere, so I found a way to rip and convert them using ePSXe 205, the Plugin (gasp!) SpyroEdit, the tool Vertex Skybox Editor, GIMP 3.0, and Hugin (or an online github site that converts single cubemaps and stiches them together to panorama that is less fiddly, called Cubemap to Panorama).
And here they are, the first 3 spyro games' skyboxes and levels. In both Panorama and Cubemaps formats. It's not a perfect job, but if you're itching for a better job, it's not hard to do it yourself. Just time consuming.
The dropbox folder contains the following:

Spyro The Dragon:
* Skyboxes (Panorama);
* Skyboxes (Cubemap);
* Level Geometry, Textures;

Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer/Ripto's Rage:
* Skyboxes (Panorama);
* Skyboxes (Cubemap);
* Level Geometry, Textures;

Spyro 3: Year of The Dragon's Skyboxes:
* Skyboxes (Panorama);
* Skyboxes (Cubemap);
* Level Geometry, Textures;

Because of the experimental/abandoned nature of both emulator and plugin, I was unable to retrieve level geometry for Icy Peak's Challenge Rooms, as well as Tree Tops, and Misty Bog.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/hibgnpas8...gmrne&dl=0

I will simply update the folder directly.
What's left to do: Extract the level data's from the player's very first time entering (Aka, when it's a new level)


how to in the spoiler.

Spoiler

HowTo (note, I will only cover what I did):
Premise: all files will be on a folder with the level's name on the "Spyro Edit" subfolder on ePSXe's root folder.
Generally, is good practice to leave each relevant file on the level's folder.

It's not that hard. You need to setup ePSXe to use SpyroEdit and Genesis.
* Boot up either game and Genesis.
* Once you load up a Spyro 2 or 3 level, you'll simply hit the "Save all" button on the "mods" tab on the SpyroEdit plugin.
* You may want to check the "separate bitmaps", save, and untick it and save it again.
* Then you can also (with the game paused, not frozen) go on the genesis tab and with hit "connect", then hit "send level".
* On genesis, simply export the level.
* On the Plugin, hit "Send All Objects" and wait until it's done, then also hit "Send Spyro" and wait until it's done.
* Export the level again, give it a different name.

!! If on spyro 3, or on a level on spyro 2 that has a different arena for the minigames, simply hit "new" on genesis, then load the area up, pause, and do the level loading process again (Send level, Export Clean, Send all Objects and Spyro, Export Full).

We're done with the level.dae files. Part 1 is done, now onto the skybox work.

Part 2: Skyboxes.
!! On VSE, the sample file will not save as either Cubemap PNG nor Panorama PNG, but will probably save as a OBJ. Spyro's sky.sky will !!

* Once you're done with saving all skyboxes files from each level, open up Vertex Skybox Editor.
* Click the Spyro with an arrow icon (Import Spyro Skybox) Button, and navigate where the exported skybox (Sky.sky) is.
* Hit "export", save it as a Cubemap PNG
* Open gimp
* Load the skybox
* Select an area that is equivalent of a single (1024x1024),
* Then under "image > guides" click "new guide from selection"
Do this until you've "separated" all faces
* Under image, hit "slice using guides"
* Save each FULL image with it's own name. It's a good practice to save them as a number from 1 to 6, under a subfolder called "Cubemap part" from the level of origin.
* Open up the website "cubemap to panorama".
* If done correctly, 1 and 6 are respectively Top and Bottom. while 2-5 are the sides. You will load them up in the following order: Up is 1, Bottom is 6, Back is 4, Left is 3, Front is 2, Right is 5.
On the Rotation options, rotate up by 270° and bottom by 90. the sides are ok at "zero".
Set the resolution to 4096 (1024*4) by either 2048 (wide) or 3072 (tall).

Save the file.
Rinse and repeat. Mental sanity is required for the duration of the process.

[Mr.Shadow]

I'd like to ask a moderator to move this thread somewhere more fitting. It's not just the skyboxes, but also levels from the three Spyro games for the original PlayStation.