View PS2 3D Models (to learn from)

Morbius · Post by **Morbius** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 7:16 am

Hey,

I'm a 3d modeler and I want to better my skills by gleaning some knowledge from the pros. To me the best way to do that is to see the raw models.

So I'm here asking is there a way I can view the 3d models in PS2 games. Like the wireframe and textures etc.

Right now I'd like to see the models in FFX-2. I downloaded DreamGL but I have no idea what to do with it. I'm not a coder so if anyone can help that would be great.

Thanks for your time,
-Morbs

mharris · Post by **mharris** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 8:28 am

AFAIK there is no 'standard' for the formats for models and/or textures. Every game probably implements it their own way, in whatever's easiest for them. They might compress stuff, or they might add stuff too -- e.g., the model format for FreeSpace on the PC adds bounding box info for easier collision detection, which is useless for a modeler, but very handy in-game as it saves a lot of calculations on what's otherwise static data.

In most cases, I'd expect them to be in separate data files, but you never know -- they might be inlined into the code, too. The models and their texture(s) might be glommed together into a single file, or all of the data (along with sound, etc.) might be in one big mega-mess.

In other words, it'll be highly unlikely that you'll just find a bunch of raw .BMP files (or .3DS or whatever) sitting around on the CD.

Unless you have some specs to go on (either from the game developer or someone who's reverse-engineered it already), it's going to be a grueling process, I fear.