Suikoden V Character Renders

[Jocky]

Firstly I apologize if this is in the wrong section but I didn't know where else to put it and as it is about character artwork in a sense I thought it would do here.

I'm posting this in the hope that Pyriel or some other technical wizard can help me in trying to either locate or Rip the character models from Suikoden V. So far I have copied all the files from the disk and downloaded the Rom files from the iso-zone and I haven't been able to open either of the main DATA.PAK files they contain, which I am assuming contain the model data for the characters and landscapes etc., although if I'm wrong in this thought please tell me.
Anyway I'm in the middle of a, project, and I would really like to get my hands on the renders so that I can use/edit/make my own copies of them in Blender to create characters of a similar size and style. But I've been unable to locate anything even remotely similar to what I need on the internet. The only 1's I've found available were for SII and they are in 2D format which is of no use. So if anyone has any idea how I can acquire even a base model without having to build one from scratch it'd be appreciated. And I know this is maybe not your field as such Pyriel, but we all know how well you have been able to read and correct the coding of SII by your patch releases, so again I am assuming you managed to get into the base game files in order to find the errors. Although I do realize that 5 is a PS2 game and probably a whole different ball game. But if someone has managed, or knows the steps how, it'd be hugely appreciated. Thanks guys!!

(Although maybe I'll put up a poll in another topic to see what graphical style people preferred in their Suikoden games. Would 2 have been a better game if it looked like 5, and vice versa? If anyone has any thoughts on this let me know, but with the tools at our disposal nowadays 3D seems like the logical choice.)

[Pyriel]

As I recall, Suikoden V's file are compressed in their entirety, so that's your first hurdle. I'm pretty sure it seemed similar to LZ77 when I looked at it, but for my goals back then, it was easier to just dump the PS2s memory than figure out their file system.

[Jocky]

.....okay. Erm, I apologize for this but I'm not a technical wizard. I know enough to softmod my PS2 and do file extraction and stuff but, what I suppose I'm asking for here is a helping hand, or if not, some sort of instruction that I can follow. I get that trying to open the files directly is going to be difficult, so is there a better way to do it? Like recording the utilized files/code during an emulator play-through? I noticed on gamehacking.org a program called Omniconvert, created by a one Pyriel, I'm assuming this is you, yes? Would using this program to convert the PS2 files to something else work? Sorry if I'm pestering you about this, but managing to get even 1 model from Suikoden V, like Prince Freyjadour, would make my,.....Project, an AWFUL lot easier! Thanks in advance for any advice or help you can give!!

[Pyriel]

Omniconvert is for converting cheat codes between different devices and for build simple cheat files. It doesn't do anything useful outside the scope of working with cheats.

The catch here is that, while I might be able to figure it out, I'm not too keen on adding another project to my plate at the moment.

There are a couple of utilities that can scan for known texture types, but I don't know if they'd lead to everything you need, and there's very rarely a wealth of technical information about any console game floating around online. That's partly why I've tried to document everything, even things I uncovered incidentally in my bug-fix projects. The best you could probably do is look for an emulator that can do RAM and VRAM dumps, and hope for the best by scanning dumps. Other than that, the only people who would likely have bothered to crack the files and reverse their structure would be hackers on a translation project, and I'm not aware of any translation projects for Suikoden V. If it turns out that unpacking the file is something that's already been done, and someone was kind enough to release a tool, then you can scan the game data with existing utilities. You might find something (or not) that way. Unfortunately, I came up empty looking for even hints of large-scale projects involving Suikoden V. If you happen to know of one, or you're fluent enough in some language Suikoden V wasn't officially translated to, you might have better luck than me.

[Jocky]

Okay, I thought I actually knew a bit about computers but I feel like I'm a long way away from where I need 2 be. Suddenly my College classes on binary to hexadecimal conversions and Java look easy. I understand you have a lot on just now Pyriel, and I thank you for taking the time to answer me so quickly, but at least you have given me a couple of options to try in the meantime. I suppose all I'm really trying to do at the end of the day is save me from some extra work. But it would have been handy to get my hands on, even a single model so I had some sort of guidline for my own.
If yourself or anyone else stumbles across any of the info/utilities required please let me know! Thanks again Pyriel!

[Jocky]

I've gotta thank you Pyriel for pointing me in the right direction! I managed to get some of what I was looking for. At the bottom is a link to the textures I've extracted so far for the Prince, Lyon and Talgeyl (He just happens to be the first person you come across!) Now all thats needed is a way to get the wire-frame models they are pasted on, as well as the UV code needed to attach them (so that mesh is placed on them properly, rather than having the face part pasted on to the wire-frames crotch or something like that! ) and I'll be laughing!! But it's a definite start at least.
'Thank you' again Pyriel for taking the time to humor a noob like me!

http://s1203.photobucket.com/user/Jocky ... n%20meshes

ED* Oh and sorry for the double post. I didn't realize until after I'd done it.


Update* After some fiddling about I've managed to correct the BGR to RGB so the textures look normal instead of blue. But unfortunately Suikoden V uses back-face culling, so the models I've managed to capture all have faces missing where the camera isn't on them. Which sucks big time, so if anyone knows how to correct this OR how to extract the complete models directly from the disk it would be appreciated if you let me know. Oh and if anyone wants any of the textures/models or just wants to know how to do it let me know. I should mention that this technique will most likely work on 3 and 4 as well, although I haven't tried it myself I have seen a model of Geddoe done this way, which looked pretty good I have to say. Cheers guys!!