This page concentrates on the theory of model finding and converting. If instead you wish to see completed scripts scroll below to the middle of this page or use the following link: Scripts To Convert Models

The Steps Used To Convert 3d Models from games.

The way that I extract models, is by first using a hex-editor (I use the program Cheat Engine which is mostly for hacking games but can be used to open files) to open files I suspect to contain models. Note that some PS2 games only have one data file that can be multiple gigabytes in size. Some games likewise will compress files to make them smaller, in which case they would need to be decompressed in order get data from them. The program "Game Extractor" (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gameextractor/files/) can decompress some games (such as the Big Game Hunter series) and also separate file archives into smaller files to make finding the models easier. It is worth checking out, even if your game is not listed on that website.

Step 1: Determining The Location of Files.
For PS2 games this should be easy, as PS2 game discs can be read by most computers CD/DVD drives. Most PS2 games are in DVD format, though smaller games such as Bloody Roar 3 come on CD-Roms. Once the disc is in the computer in most cases all of the files are visible. For some games such as Sly Cooper 1, the main data file is not visible (need to find out why), but some computer programs that make ISO's will still get the "hidden files" which can then by extracted by ISO editing tools (need to find out how).

Step 2: Determining if the Files are compressed.
One way to tell if files are compressed is to open the file in a hex editor, and see if you can not detect any patterns, or words that the characters in the game say. For example if a character in a game says "We must defeat the dragon" then searching for that text in a hex editor (using the hex editor's ASCII find function), and not finding it any file on the disc would mean that the game compresses the data. Some games compress some types of data, while leaving other types uncompressed. Certain common strings such as "00 00 80 3f" also tend to appear a lot in uncompressed PS2 files.

Step 3: Determining what Files contain 3d models.
In many games the name of the file will give you clues, such as file names and/or extensions having the words mesh, model, geometry, skin, msh, mdl, geo, skn. Also if say a character like a dragon has a tail or wings, then sometimes files will have the word's "tail" or "wing" in the file that has the dragons 3d model. In many games all of the textures/models/animations might all be in one large file on the disc, but inside that large file there are subfiles that have the features mentioned above.

Step 4: Composing a Script that converts the models.

I use the "BMS" scripting language to convert models from games. I use the free program called "QuickBMS" to run the scripts. This program can be found near the top of the following page:
http://aluigi.altervista.org/quickbms.htm

The documentation of all the commands can be found in this link:
http://aluigi.altervista.org/papers/quickbms.txt

If you have any questions yet me know so that I can be sure to be comprehensive as possible..
Since in many games the vertexes, use 1EEE-754 single precision numbers (a set of 3 one each for the length (x), width (y), height (z),, we will be using the command called "get" many times. For example suppose for the sake of example the script is currently at the start of a vertex, to get its value we could use the following:
Get type1 Long 0 ;
Get type2 Long 0 ;
Get type3 Long 0 ;

The "long" means it is a four byte integer (but since 4byte floats are also 4bytes in length we can use this as well)
The 0 means that we are operating in the main file the script opened which is usually the file that contains the 3d models.
In this example, I called the first component (which is the length or x) type1, like the y was called type2, and the Z was called type3

The name type1/type2/type3 do not matter as long as we are consistent (and we do not begin with a number, as in this scripting language named variables can not begin with a digit) and we use the same capitalization.

If we want to know put this vertex into a file that is generated by the script (which we will denote by using the 1, instead of 0), we would use the Put command
.It is important to note that the put command as well as most of my scripts need QuickBMS to be run using the Microsoft Windows Command Prompt, because they will not work simply by double clicking quickbms.exe)

Put type1 Long 1 ;
Put type2 Long 1 ;
Put type3 Long 1 ;

Suppose the vertex format of the models on the disc have the following structure:
Vertex(X,Y,X) Normal(X,Y,X) Texture(U,V)
And lets call the number of vertexes g
We can use a For loop to obtain every vertex

For v = 1 To g ;
GoTo base 0 ;
Get type1 Long 0 ;
Get type2 Long 0 ;
Get type3 Long 0 ;
Get type4 Long 0 ;
Get type5 Long 0 ;
Get type6 Long 0 ;
Get type7 Long 0 ;
Get type8 Long 0 ;
SavePos base 0 ;
GoTo start 1 ;
Put type1 Long 1 ;
Put type2 Long 1 ;
Put type3 Long 1 ;
SavePos start 1 ;
Next v ;

The following pages have QuickBMS scripts that will automatically extract models:

It is important to point out that you need to use a new version of QuickBMS for the scripts to work,
such as the one here:

quickbms.zip

SimpleExampleFile.doc

Step 1: Download "SimpleExampleFile.doc" and open it in Microsoft Word

Step 2: Type in the following (but remove the quotes) in the Find field under Find and Replace:
"^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? "
And then type in the Replace field:
"^&^l"
Press Replace All
This will put each 16Byte Array on its on line.

Step 3:
Type in the following (but remove the quotes) in the Find field under Find and Replace:
"^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^?^? ^l"
Leave the Replace field empty
Press Replace All.

If you followed the example right, there will only be "11's" left in the file.

.......

Miscellaneous programs and files:

The program below converts 2bytesigned integers and 4bytesigned integers into 4byte floating numbers that can be used in Ogre3d Binary .MESH files that use 4Byte Floating Point numbers.

IntToFloatConverter.rar

How To Extract Models

The Steps Used To Convert 3d Models from games.