Just in time for Xmas - a new .hack picture extractor.

[Ressic]

Some of you may recall a program that's been floating around for a few years that could pull images from the first set of .hack games. I've been working off and on over the last couple months to make a new one that can pull all the images (even ones the original program didn't handle so well), and which will work on GU as well.

Now, I just need to find some place to put it where people can download it. ;p

[Kuukai]

Wow, that's pretty impressive. As long as it doesn't subvert encryption, use any hardcoded copyrighted data, or otherwise break applicable copyright law, I am pretty sure that we can host it for you. Let me talk to d5t and I'll get back to you.

[Ressic]

Well, there wasn't any encryption really. The images themselves aren't much different than regular Windows Bitmaps, and everything was compressed as gzip files. Neither format seems to be proprietary. (gzip format is detailed in an RFC somewhere, and you can find enough information on msdn to figure out what a .bmp needs, I believe)

The copyright stuff I'm not knowledgeable enough to speak to. The program itself doesn't contain any code or data that came from the games. It's just built to scan one of the game data files, let you see the pictures, and save them to your hard drive. Users will need to have their own game disc, and a DVD drive on their PC to get the data file in question.

[Kuukai]

It sounds like a legal file viewer to me. If you find somewhere else to host it, go ahead, otherwise I'll let you know when d5t gets back to me.

[d5t]

How does this work exactly? I think it's within fair use boundaries-- Namco Bandai in particular is really lenient with fan based stuff.

[Kuukai]

As I understand it, traditionally utilities such as this are find as long as they don't incorporate any part of the original copyrighted software (like boot codes for games, etc.). Since the advent of the DMCA, they also can't circumvent encryption, but I believe this does neither. Some companies would probably sue you anyway, since most people can just be scared into submission by a C&D, but like you said Bandai Namco seems like they'd be fine with it.

[FlameSage]

Does it output them as .bmp's or as 3d models?
Or does it simply view them? o_0
Please post, asap!

[Ressic]

The gory technical details of how the program works:

The data file on the game disc that contains the images is basically a lot of files which have been gzip'd to compress them, and then tar'd into one big file. (Sort of - it lacks a tar file's header, but the concatenation of the gzip'd files is pretty much the same way tar would do it).

My program scans through the data file to locate the start of each gzip'd file (they all have a standard gzip header, so that's not hard to locate). Next it decompresses the file into memory, and scans the uncompressed data to locate the images it contains, if any. There's a listing at the top of those files of each "component" it contains; where a component may be a color table for an image, the actual image data, or other things I can't identify and probably wouldn't know how to work with anyways (some of which I suspect are 3d models, but I'm not a graphic artist, or 3d modeler, so I really wouldn't know what that data would look like). The listing at the top of the uncompressed file also indicates which components go together (a windows bitmap consists of a color table, and image data that uses that color table, plus some info on the dimensions of the image, etc). My program uses that to match color tables with image data, and bundle them together so it can display the images to screen.

The program allows the user to dump the uncompressed files to disk, or save specific images (as .bmp's) from those compressed files to disk. It also displays images on screen, so the user can decide if it's an image they want to spend disk space on.

It doesn't do anything with 3d models; I don't know anything about 3d programming, so I wouldn't know how to render a 3d image.

The program uses the zlib C++ library v 1.2.3, freely available (http://www.zlib.net). It also required some knowledge of gzip file format (RFC 1952 - http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1952), and knowledge of the .bmp file format. I mostly used the wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMP_file_format but the bulk of that information is also freely available in msdn: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... S.85).aspx

Of particular interest - you can get the desktop wallpapers out of the game, as well as the backgrounds from Haseo's e-mail contact list (the large portraits of the characters, but none of the text that went with it). You can also find the stills that make up the marriage endings, and the artwork for the Crimson Vs cards (without any of the stats - the game animates modifications to the various scores when you watch a match, so the numbers are separate from the card's background).

You can also see the textures from the various monsters and characters, but again - no 3d model data, so the textures look a little odd.

[d5t]

Let me know of you still need it hosted (PM me and I'll get back to you with details).

[Ressic]

Uh... sorry. I have a strict policy about not dating numbers. ;p

[Aina]

Ooh, I can't wait. I hope they are available for download soon, too, unless it's illegal. Maybe I'll try it, yes, no?

[Daichi]

is it for the IMOQ or the G.U. games??

EDIT: Whoups..... works with both, huh??

Coll stuf you've made..... If you know anyone who knows about 3D data, call him and ask him do do the litle favor

[The White Blade]

Oh please, get it working! I would love some of the wallpapers from it.

[Astra]

Sounds awesome, i'd like to see it. hopefully Ressic gets back online soon.

[Ressic]

So far, no one has gotten back to me on getting the materials to them so it can be hosted. Hopefully people will start checking their PM's soon.

[kirby_422]

If you know anyone who knows about 3D data, call him and ask him do do the litle favor

Well, I don't know anything of the makeup of the data, but I do make 3d models, and, it just so happens that I use the same program they used to make GU.. if you happen to go onto youtube, search "gu trilogy special", click ".hack//TRILOGY TV Special Part 2 of 3" put on there from Zer0 from these forums, and you see starting at 4:56 that they are using 3dsmax.. you can all get a 30 day trial of it from the autodesk site, and you can examin the plugins to see the link between 3dsmax and the GU models, then bypass max and export as 3ds or obj witch are more common model formats.

What format are the models anyways? I have alot of import and export plugins, so mb if its a commoner type of format I have it already, and I could convert em for people?..

Also.. if he wants to examin files for models, I could make a box, export that same box in all the formats to be examined to see hte differnt types and how they store the box..

Sorry if my post isn't of any help..

[Ressic]

Might be worth some exploring. Unfortunately, I'm knee-deep in getting ready to move, so all things programming are on the back burner for a while.

[Ressic]

Did some digging on line today. The two most probable file formats for the 3d models are Autodesk proprietary formats. That said, it isn't impossible to write code that would extract the appropriate parts in a useful form, but it'll take an awful lot of guessing and research to work up, and I'm not enough of an expert to know if that'd even be legal.

Anyways. Back to the sorting and packing. Maybe in a few days I'll scratch out some time to figure out some sort of hosting solution for the program as it currently stands.

[Lolobeebop]

Hi Ressic,

I sent you 2 PMs regarding the hosting of your files. Please contact me so we take care of this

[Erroneous]

Well when you return and still hold interest to this project, I have ample webspace on my dothack specific website's gallery. I could easily make a new gallery specific for your cause or if you wish to place them in the already existing GU gallery section. Either way, I'm not really fussy when it comes to dothack specific goods and there is various options to use it with discussed later on if necessary. There's always a link in my signature.