Valkyria Chronicles (PS3, PC)

[gta1211]

Hmmm okay. I think I will wait for models pre-textured which can be used in animation software, or in Garry's Mod or something like that, where I didn't need to spend hours and hours and hours in options to find what's the problem

So, thank you very much for your response, clear and complete, but I think it comes from my PC ( This is not because it's not powerful enough, but it have some problems sometime so :p )

[gomtuu]

Very nice work figuring out the model format, Chrrox! Thanks!

I use Blender, and I didn't want to install 3DS Max, so I ported Chrrox's MaxScript to a Blender script. I've attached it in case anyone else would like to use it. Blender is nice because it's free and cross-platform.

I may be able to help a little more, too.

Several months ago, I worked on extracting info from DATA.CVM. I didn't get very far because of the encrypted header, of course, but I think I figured out how to extract all of the files from it (without names). I did this by taking advantage of the files' headers, which specify how long they are. And one thing I noticed at the time was that many of the files contain smaller chunks with similar headers of their own. That's about as far as I got, and then I stopped working on it.

Yesterday, I found this thread and tried out Chrrox's BMS scripts. His HMDL script produces 3235 HMDL files, whereas the extractor I made a few months ago only produces 92. When I saw this, I figured it must mean that some of the other, non-HMDL files my script extracted must contain HMDLs, so I searched through them to see if I could find them. Sure enough, I found an IZCA file that contains HMDL and HTEX files of Alicia, all neatly packaged together. (HTEX files contain DDS files, which you can extract with Chrrox's "Testures" BMS script.) There are other files inside the IZCA file, too: MLX0, HSHP, CCOL, PJNT, and PACT. I don't know what those are, but PJNT sounds like it might be armatures/joints. Maybe PACT is armature animations/actions? Anyway, this seems like good news, because it could at least help us figure out how to automatically associate textures with meshes.

So, I have a DATA.CVM extractor that produces 3709 files of various types, including HMDL, HTEX, and IZCA, and I have a separate extractor that pulls the HMDL, HTEX, and other files out of IZCA files. They're both written in Python, and they're pretty short. Should I just post them here, or should I port them to BMS? Or should I do both, since that would be useful to people who have MultiEx and people who don't?

[chrrox]

I got the bones figured out i am just working on the bone pallet that is the only thing left they did some weird things with he pallet.
the textures can not be auto assigned because we lack names. also the htex files don't contain model files but rather the same texture and its mip map versions.
the file structure is just the common format with an encrypted header i just used jcpsp on valk 3 and it decrypted the CPK file easily and i was able to get files with names from it.

[gomtuu]

I got the bones figured out i am just working on the bone pallet that is the only thing left they did some weird things with he pallet.

Yeah, I saw the Selvaria screenshot with the bones. Very cool! I hope you figure it out... Out of curiosity, are the bones in the PJNT block/file, or are they in the HMDL itself? (Or somewhere else?)

the textures can not be auto assigned because we lack names. also the htex files don't contain model files but rather the same texture and its mip map versions.

Well, the HMDL files don't seem to contain filenames anyway (unlike MXEN, MXMF, and MXMR files), so I figured they might just refer to the textures numerically. If an IZCA file contains models and the related textures, then a model might only have to say "use DDS #3 in HTEX file #2" or something...

(And I think you misunderstood me: I said HTEX files contain not models but DDS textures.)

the file structure is just the common format with an encrypted header i just used jcpsp on valk 3 and it decrypted the CPK file easily and i was able to get files with names from it.

I knew the DATA.CVM format was common, but I tried some standard tools to extract files from it, and they didn't work because of the encrypted header. That was 7 months ago; maybe things have changed. (Or maybe I didn't look hard enough.)

The main thing I think is interesting about the IZCA files is that they conveniently group the necessary files for a particular model. For example, one IZCA file contains Alicia's body and head and the necessary textures for both (and possibly bones, if PJNT files contain bones). I couldn't tell if you already knew about that. I saw what you said before about how "all the models and model textures are grouped together after being extracted", but I didn't know whether you meant that the models and textures were separate (but "grouped" by being sequentially numbered) or actually combined together into a single file. Since the BMS files you released just extracted individual HMDL and DDS files, though, I assumed you meant the former. Also, some people in this thread were apparently manually trying to figure out which textures belonged to which models. I think IZCA files would make that unnecessary, even if it's still not possible to automatically determine which texture is assigned to each mesh chunk.

Just trying to help. Is anyone interested in my DATA.CVM or IZCA extractors? Or are there existing tools that I don't know about?

Thanks again for doing all that work, Chrrox!

[gomtuu]

Here's an updated version of my Blender importer. With version 0.1, certain polygons (like a few of the polygons in Alicia's left eye) were oriented incorrectly, causing their textures to look wrong. This version fixes that by changing the order in which vertices are specified for faces. I'm not sure why this was a problem in Blender but not 3DS...

Anyway, here's 0.1.1.

[gomtuu]

I figured out how to automatically assign textures... Sort of.

HMDL files do contain numeric references to the DDS files they use within a given HTEX file. I still don't know how to determine for sure which HTEX file to pair with each HMDL, but the tendency of HMDL files to appear together with the HTEX files they use within IZCA files makes it relatively easy to manually pair them. There are some exceptions, but this technique should work for the all of the character models, from what I've seen. Probably weapons, too. It won't work for the vehicle files I've seen, because they contain HTSF files (basically just DDS files with an extra wrapper around them) instead of HTEX files. I'm still working on that...

I've attached a set of utilities (both Python and BMS) that will let you extract files (including IZCA files) from DATA.CVM, then extract files (including HMDL and HTEX files) from IZCA files, then import HMDL/HTEX pairs into Blender. The enclosed README file explains things in a little bit more detail.

Here's a model that I imported this way. It's from file1787.IZCA.



Like I said, I'm still working on perfecting this, but I wanted to get the information out there in case others were interested.

EDIT: By the way, not all IZCA flies contain models, but many of them do. Here's a list of the models I've identified so far:

Code: Select all

file1736.IZCA Welkin Gallian Uniform
file1739.IZCA Welkin Civilian
file1741.IZCA Welkin Dress Uniform
file1742.IZCA Welkin Swimsuit
file1747.IZCA Alicia Gallian Uniform
file1748.IZCA Alicia Low-Res
file1751.IZCA Alicia Bruhl Uniform
file1753.IZCA Alicia Swimsuit
file1754.IZCA Alicia Pyjamas
file1757.IZCA Alicia Gallian Uniform Valkyria
file1761.IZCA Alicia Gallian Uniform Dirty Face
file1762.IZCA Isara Gallian Uniform
file1763.IZCA Isara Civilian
file1764.IZCA Isara Swimsuit
file1768.IZCA Brigitte Gallian Uniform
file1769.IZCA Brigitte Low-Res
file1771.IZCA Brigitte Swimsuit
file1775.IZCA Largo Gallian Uniform
file1776.IZCA Largo Low-Res
file1778.IZCA Ellet Civilian
file1779.IZCA Faldio Gallian Uniform
file1780.IZCA Faldio Dress Uniform
file1781.IZCA Eleanor Gallian Uniform
file1782.IZCA Eleanor Dress Uniform
file1783.IZCA Eleanor Officer Uniform
file1784.IZCA Cordelia
file1785.IZCA Martha
file1786.IZCA Martha's Baby
file1787.IZCA Isara 2
file1788.IZCA Maximilian
file1791.IZCA Maximilian Infused
file1793.IZCA Maximilian Cape
file1796.IZCA Selvaria
file1797.IZCA Selvaria Low-Res
file1800.IZCA Selvaria Cape
file1801.IZCA Selvaria
file1802.IZCA Radi
file1803.IZCA Berthold
file1882.IZCA Nina
file2110.IZCA Gun
file2373.IZCA Tank
file2413.IZCA Vehicle

EDIT2: I believe I've figured out how to associate HMDL files with HTSF files for the tank (file2373.IZCA) and other vehicle (file2413.IZCA). The MXTL file in each of these IZCA files appears to contain a set of HTSF numbers (and .hts filenames, though they shouldn't be necessary) for each HMDL file.

[gomtuu]

Here's another hmdl_import.py update. Improvements include:

• Added ability to open IZCA files directly. If an IZCA file contains models, they'll all be opened and textures will be assigned automatically.
• Made import several times faster by switching to a faster method of creating faces.
• Added preliminary support for Blender Materials (but alpha still doesn't work).
• Added support for HMDL files that contain multiple KFMD chunks for models that have multiple levels of detail.

You'll find a file called IZCAmodels.txt enclosed. This file has a list of all the IZCA files that contain models. I identified most of them, too, so you can tell what you're opening. Enjoy!

I'd like to add bone support, but I haven't worked on that yet because I know chrrox was already working on it. Chrrox, would you mind releasing what you've got so far?

Thanks again to chrrox for making this possible. Also, FEATHER's list of models helped get me started, and mariokart64n's GameFAQs screenshots made identifying the models much easier. Thanks, guys!

[windfury]

Whoa, this imports instantly now, awesome.
I've noticed some UVs which seem rotated, although I haven't checked alot of models, these are the ones I've seen so far.
file1753.IZCA Alicia Swimsuit
file1754.IZCA Alicia Pyjamas
file1761.IZCA Alicia Gallian Uniform Dirty Face

The incorrect UVs are on her left eye.
Aside from that, great job so far, looking forward to more progress from you guys.

EDIT: Whoops, it seems that this was the issue with your version 0.1 which you already fixed in version 0.1.1. I guess it wasn't a UV problem but polygon orientation, my bad.

Here's an updated version of my Blender importer. With version 0.1, certain polygons (like a few of the polygons in Alicia's left eye) were oriented incorrectly, causing their textures to look wrong. This version fixes that by changing the order in which vertices are specified for faces. I'm not sure why this was a problem in Blender but not 3DS...

Anyway, here's 0.1.1.

[gomtuu]

The incorrect UVs are on her left eye.
Aside from that, great job so far, looking forward to more progress from you guys.

EDIT: Whoops, it seems that this was the issue with your version 0.1 which you already fixed in version 0.1.1. I guess it wasn't a UV problem but polygon orientation, my bad.

Actually, the problem still exists. I didn't realize it until later, but version 0.1.1 fixed some polygons and messed up other ones. I don't know what's causing the problem yet... It's weird that so few polygons are affected, and I don't understand why changing the vertex order affects those polygons, but not others. I'll have to investigate some more. Fortunately, that'll be easier with the speed and automation improvements in 0.3.

[gta1211]

No no no, this topic can't be in the second page

So, any news on the progress of your work on skeletons, Chrrox ?

[gta1211]

Sorry to insist, but there is really nothing new ? Not a single skeleton at all ?

[sakemaster]

Great work man ,you are the best of the best
i a begginer in that category ,so what kind of book or what kid of knowledge is needed.thk

[omfgpota]

hi thanks for the great work sir chroxx and gomtuu! can you take a look at sir youngmark's post on page 1 ;

Thanks chrrox.

hmdl format for Valkyria Chronicles PS3 is very similar to Macross Trial Frontier PS3.

If you are interested, could you have a look at this file, please?
http://www.mediafire.com/?43geuz8zec8zwdz

the file format has the same extension, can you please take a look at it? thanks yet again sirs!

[shcfyd]

I`m having some trouble with gomtuu`s hmdl importer in blender I`ve tried to run hmdl_import 0.3 in Blender 2.49b with python 2.6.6. I get a python script error and the importer does not run.
According to blender`s console

TypeError:Blender.sys.join() argument 1 must be string, not None

I've also tried it with Blender 2.49, and 2.49a with similar results. Though these versions can't detect my copy of python, it gives the same error as 2.49b the version that does.

Thanks to everyone who is working on this, Chroxx, gomtuu and anyone else, really appreciate it.
Btw, did they remove the give thanks function or am i just blind?

[sprayer]

anyone can reupload bms scripts please?