Asset Extraction? Is it possible?

HaLo2FrEeEk · Post by **HaLo2FrEeEk** » Sun May 11, 2008 1:47 am

I'm probably gonna get ripped up and down for asking this, but I want to make it abundantly clear that I'm not doing this to steal or anything. I want to make some short animated films using the Halo models and I need some good quality models or at the very least, bitmaps. I need to know, is it possible to get these from Halo 2 Vista. Before anyone says anything, I DO own H2V. If needed I can post my serial number from the disk (not the registration number, the serial number printed on the disk itself. I'm not stupid) Anyways, I just want to know if it's possible to get the higher quality models out of the game, or like I said, at the very least, the textures. Here's a screenie of what I'm dealing with now (even bump mapped, it looks like crap):

http://claninfectionist.com/images/misc/chief.jpg

And here is a screenie from someone else that somehow managed to get excellent quality:

http://claninfectionist.com/images/misc/visorbz6xr7.jpg

How did he do that!

Anyways, thank for any help I get!

Jason118 · Post by **Jason118** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:22 am

Ive been asking the same question! And no one wants to help!

HaLo2FrEeEk · Post by **HaLo2FrEeEk** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:33 am

Actually, on further investigation, I've found out that what I thought wasn't true. I was under the impression, from multiple sources, mind, that the textures in Halo 2 Vista had been doubled in resolution so as to provide a better viewing experience. This is untrue, as I was using the H2V Bitmap Extractor and I found that the texture for the chief is still 512x512, not the expected 1024x1024. What gives? Anyways, I still need help with this. I want results like the guy mentioned above got, and I can't figure out how to do it. Please help.

ares-erus · Post by **ares-erus** » Sun May 11, 2008 7:49 am

This should help you get the effects you desire

Jason118 · Post by **Jason118** » Sun May 11, 2008 9:51 am

Does that work for H2V? Or just for xbox?

Cryticfarm · Post by **Cryticfarm** » Sun May 11, 2008 10:02 am

THe excellent one you posted was probably a refined version with higher res textures and everything.

HaLo2FrEeEk · Post by **HaLo2FrEeEk** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:30 pm

He said he took the models and textures straight from the game, but he didn't say whether it was xbox or Vista. Vista was supposed to have higher resolution textures, or so the review video at gamespot said, this wasn't the case. Anyways, I bookmarked that tutorial, looks like what I need. I do have Max, but I don't use it, I prefer C4D, I guess I'll install max though. Hopefully when I get home from work tonight I can make good use of this and get better looking models. I kinda want the effect he did on the visor, with the hexagons on the edges, that is so cool looking. I guess I do have one more question, are the textures from Halo 2 Vista supposed to be twice the resolution, this video review at Gamespot is where I heard that:

http://www.gamespot.com/video/932095/61 ... eo-feature

So what gives?

EDIT: Crap, right after I posted this I watched the video again and I guess it's only the weapon textures that doubled, from 256x256 to 512x512. Ghey. Anyway, I'll follow that tut when I get home, thanks for that.

ares-erus · Post by **ares-erus** » Sun May 11, 2008 4:39 pm

what theymean is the game can render at higher resolutions not that the textures where at a higher res.

Jason118 · Post by **Jason118** » Tue May 13, 2008 2:30 pm

if the textures are from halo 2 vista I wanna know how he got them. Because according to some here its impossible to extract anything from h2v.

ares-erus · Post by **ares-erus** » Wed May 14, 2008 4:20 am

Their from halo 2 Xbox.
but they use the same resolution and bitmaps that are in h2v.

Post by **grimdoomer** » Wed May 14, 2008 10:12 am

Jason118 wrote:if the textures are from halo 2 vista I wanna know how he got them. Because according to some here its impossible to extract anything from h2v.

I have working sound extraction

HaLo2FrEeEk · Post by **HaLo2FrEeEk** » Wed May 14, 2008 5:57 pm

And I have working bitmap extraction. Like I said in the edit though, it turns out that only the weapon textures have doubled in size, not anything else. Weapon textures in xbox are 256x256 and in Vista they are 512x512, but nothig else has changed, except for slightly improving the quality of all textures. I still don't know how that guy got such good quality on his spartan body, but he said he used a custom texture map for the visor and it was 4096x4096. I tried doing something similar, but I can't get it to look right, I'm still working on it.

And ares, I followed that tutorial and it only got me in-game-quality results, I can do that in C4D, I just can't figure out how to make it look better. I've emailed him and he got back to me about the visor, but not the body, so I asked him for a little ore help, he didn't reply yet but the first reply took about a week, so I'll wait. In the meantime, though, I want to ask why extraction is impossible for H2V because I have the bitmap extractor, and grim has sounds...and the editor included has the 3ds exporter...should be everything we need right there.

Just as an aside, I've gotten a slightly better looking chief render, though nothing like his.

http://claninfectionist.com/images/C4D_ ... nder_2.png (0.99 mb)

http://claninfectionist.com/images/C4D_ ... nder_3.png (1.33 mb)

And I've done some Covenant crates, though I did them wrong, I didn't use the change color tex, so ignore the hard edges:

http://claninfectionist.com/images/C4D_ ... 0Crate.png (1.10 mb)

http://claninfectionist.com/images/C4D_ ... te%202.png (1.05 mb)

ShadowSpartan · Post by **ShadowSpartan** » Sat May 17, 2008 10:01 am

grimdoomer wrote:
Jason118 wrote:if the textures are from halo 2 vista I wanna know how he got them. Because according to some here its impossible to extract anything from h2v.
I have working sound extraction

It's not that hard, all you have to do is look at sound extraction code for H2X. The meta in H2V is the exact same as H2X. None of the code out there extracts every sound properly though to my knowledge, so I highly doubt yours extracts every sound perfectly.

Post by **grimdoomer** » Sat May 17, 2008 11:31 am

ShadowSpartan wrote:
grimdoomer wrote:
Jason118 wrote:if the textures are from halo 2 vista I wanna know how he got them. Because according to some here its impossible to extract anything from h2v.
I have working sound extraction
It's not that hard, all you have to do is look at sound extraction code for H2X. The meta in H2V is the exact same as H2X. None of the code out there extracts every sound properly though to my knowledge, so I highly doubt yours extracts every sound perfectly.

Actually the meta is different. And it did extract sounds properly.

ShadowSpartan · Post by **ShadowSpartan** » Sat May 17, 2008 11:45 am

grimdoomer wrote:
ShadowSpartan wrote:
grimdoomer wrote:
Jason118 wrote:if the textures are from halo 2 vista I wanna know how he got them. Because according to some here its impossible to extract anything from h2v.
I have working sound extraction
It's not that hard, all you have to do is look at sound extraction code for H2X. The meta in H2V is the exact same as H2X. None of the code out there extracts every sound properly though to my knowledge, so I highly doubt yours extracts every sound perfectly.
Actually the meta is different. And it did extract sounds properly.

You really are an idiot if you say the meta is different. I created code to extract sounds from H2X, my same exact code worked for the H2V sounds. They are not different and you don't know what you are talking about.

ares-erus · Post by **ares-erus** » Sat May 17, 2008 11:50 am

ShadowSpartan wrote:

You really are an idiot if you say the meta is different. I created code to extract sounds from H2X, my same exact code worked for the H2V sounds. They are not different and you don't know what you are talking about.[/quote]
If that was true then why dosnt entity work for h2v without some mumbo jumbo messing around having to be done?

ShadowSpartan · Post by **ShadowSpartan** » Sat May 17, 2008 11:55 am

ares-erus wrote:
ShadowSpartan wrote: You really are an idiot if you say the meta is different. I created code to extract sounds from H2X, my same exact code worked for the H2V sounds. They are not different and you don't know what you are talking about.
If that was true then why dosnt entity work for h2v without some mumbo jumbo messing around having to be done?

Wow....you obviously don't know anything about map files. I was referring to the actual sound tag meta, which is the same between H2V and H2X. The reason entity can't open H2V maps is because the map files are structured differently.

Post by **grimdoomer** » Sat May 17, 2008 4:41 pm

ShadowSpartan wrote:
ares-erus wrote:
ShadowSpartan wrote: You really are an idiot if you say the meta is different. I created code to extract sounds from H2X, my same exact code worked for the H2V sounds. They are not different and you don't know what you are talking about.
If that was true then why dosnt entity work for h2v without some mumbo jumbo messing around having to be done?
Wow....you obviously don't know anything about map files. I was referring to the actual sound tag meta, which is the same between H2V and H2X. The reason entity can't open H2V maps is because the map files are structured differently.

Well you should have said that, so it is you who is the idiot

And why would bungie change the format of the map files?

DEEhunter · Post by **DEEhunter** » Sat May 17, 2008 6:31 pm

They changed the format to support different LODs and also for quality and other preformance controls.. Also the assets in that picture looks like its from halo 2 xbox because of the visor error in the first picture is only there in the xbox extracted asset.

ShadowSpartan · Post by **ShadowSpartan** » Sat May 17, 2008 8:35 pm

grimdoomer wrote:Well you should have said that, so it is you who is the idiot

And why would bungie change the format of the map files?

First off, I did say meta you moron. Let's look at exactly what I said:

ShadowSpartan wrote:It's not that hard, all you have to do is look at sound extraction code for H2X. The meta in H2V is the exact same as H2X. None of the code out there extracts every sound properly though to my knowledge, so I highly doubt yours extracts every sound perfectly.

Do you see that bold and underlined word there? META. I did say the meta, so I wouldn't be calling other people idiots when you can't even read.

As for the map format, Bungie did not change the format of the maps, Hired Gun did since they made the port. They changed it around to make it suitable for the PC version. I suggest you get some glasses so that you can read a person's post thoroughly, and maybe even a brain because you seem to be lacking one.