VIII -> 3DSMax 4?

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Cilantro

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I'm trying to import some graphics from Final Fantasy VIII to 3DSMax 4.0 (namely, the TriFace, Iron Giant, and Gilgamesh), but don't have the foggiest idea on how to do so...:( Can't locate any converters or plugins.

Help, please. :oops:
 
It requires special tools to rip the graphics out of FF8 since they were 'archived' so people couldn't do that.
Try the main site that lead you to these forums there should be a number of utilities that allow you to gain some access to the graphics.

Getting the models.. well heh good fortune on that it might be possible but on the PSX version of FF7 I only know one utility that reads the model information and displays it :p

If you have the PSX version of FF8 you will need to use PSXmc to get the graphics files from the game.

Oh and I don't know of any utility to get the background images/animations. However I think they just used an enhanced FF7 engine (IE added textures to the people in it :) ).
 
Aw crapola...

I've got 8 PC, and the tools...was pretty much afraid that was going to be the answer.

Oh well. Thanks for the help.:)
 
As far as I know, there are no useful FF8 Model Viewers / Rippers / Converters. Since our crew mainly works on FF7, we don't have any docs about the FF8 models ... it's a pity, but we can't do anything about it (yet)

 - Alhexx
 
Well i was working on ff8 some time ago, but i could not extract 3d models, i still dont know how are they coded. But if you need character textures or battle scene texures i can extract all of them. 3d models ... maybe later.
 
I believe the models and what not are identical to FF7 .. I suppose if one made a BSX DLL for PSXmc that looks for model file headers in the data stream and extracts and converts them you would be doing well.

The only real way to find out where they are is to put the PC version in SoftICE or another debugger like it and step to the place models are being loaded and drawn.  Easier said than done obviously. I'm trying with PCSX to integrate DDB into it, if successful might be able to 'break' out the information we all so desperately want :)

Cyb
 
Identical to FF7? No, I don't think so. And I don't think that we need debuggers to decode the file format ... it *should* be easier, but I think that simply noone of us has really taken a closer look to the FF8 models...

 - Alhexx
 
Mirex, about your tool, 7, and 3dsmax: whenever I try to convert a model straight to 3DS format, the components sometime get garbled. Coverting it to ASC first, then converting that to 3DS.  But even then there's a problem: the graphic is usually slightly off colorwise (i.e. Iron Man and Wolf Meister both have swords the same color as their bodies now; Reno's face is almost all black; and the tonberries get a large black spot on their face.) Is this fixable while at the same time still keeping the model's joints for animation purposes?

Other than that...I hope I can help with any work on VIII you do in the future (got 7 PC as well, as you've probably guessed from my post lol). The tools are honestly a godsend though for what I'm doing. Many, many thanks. :D
 
Alhexx: i have taken closer look to ff8 models, they're probably stored like all bodyparts and textures and anims in one file, i was able to get portions of the file, and to decode textures, but 3d models are mystery to me. They are in no way similar to ff7 models imho.

Cilantro: well it is fixable, but it takes lots of tuning; i remember when i was consulting lwo-lightwave output with Sephiroth3D, to tune it, it took about month or more. But i will do it, i'd like to fix the 3ds output.
Currently i have no free time, i have to finish my demo because im switching jobs now, so i need to concentrate on that ... income is important :).

btw, can you import into 3dsmax from some different formats ? like ASE, or LWO ?
 
I think the LWO plugin I have does wierd things to the colors honestly. Also, Biturn seems to try and save it as one huge polygon...no joints or anything.:\ Makes animation impossible. Trying to get Lightwave itself to see if it works with that purely instead.;) Don't have anything for ASM format though.
 
Oh?

FF8 model extraction?
COUNT ME IN!

Always wanted to play with this one..
I think the best proof about the skeletal form of seperated parts like in FF7 are glitches - in example the Squall lying kinda twisted under the ground when you try to alter a charslot value (never manged to get a monster in the team like in PSX <dammit> still want to *sigh*). The parts were quite visible.
 
btw, can you import into 3dsmax from some different formats ? like ASE, or LWO ?
Click to expand...

I don't know of any plugins that will work for importing LWO (and I have checked), and I don't know much at all about the ASE format. I can refer you to a converter, but I'm not that big a fan of it. To get it to convert textures and some other things correctly, it has to be registered. Even then, I doubt it will have something so obscure as vertex color conversion...

At $400, PolyTrans by Okino exports vertex colors. That is, of course, not much of a help. 3DS Max is costly enough. I'm afraid that's the cheapest plugin-esque utility I can find so far -_- . I'll keep looking for now.

Speaking of updating your 3DS export function, mirex, have you figured out how to do vertex colors yet in 3DS Max? I can show you how if you don't know already (it's pointlessly complex).
 
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