Converting Tourist Trophy bikes to a format recognized by Curious Lab's Poser 6

[glen_drums]

First off, I'd like to give the community my greetings, I'm fresh and new here and hope to be a regular from now on.

Right, on with the question:

I'm looking, in short, to import a particular motorcycle form Polyphony Digital's Tourist Trophy into Curious Lab's Poser 6 program. I'm using XP and a DVDROM drive and nothing else as yet.

Is this possible at all?
What else do I need? (Preferably freeware)
How do I go about it?

I'm very aware that I'll most likely need to use a long chain of programs and or tools to get to my destination, and I was hoping to find out how to get to the 3D file itself in these forums, so that I may ask the right questions on a 3D forum somewhere else.

Here is a list of the files on the ROM I think might be relevant, most probably aren't, but I'm a complete newbie and don't know my .VOL's from my .IRX's, so please be nice.

CORE.TT
SCES_533.72
TT.VOL
IOPRP300 (IMG file)

DBCMAN.IRX
LIBPDI.IRX
MCMAN.IRX
MTAPMAN.IRX
PDICDVD.IRX
PDISTR.IRX
SIO2D.IRX
USBD.IRX
DS2U_D.IRX
LIBSD.IRX
MCSERV.IRX
PADMAN.IRX
PDISPU2.IRX
PDIUSB.IRX
SIO2MAN.IRX
USTORAGE.IRX

I'd better just mention, I'm absolutely new to any kind of programming and am numerically dyslexic, so anything number wise goes right over my head. Please feel free to post absolutely any info or advice you may have though, no matter how in depth it is as it's better than nothing, even if I don't get a word of it.

I've looked all over the place for information and only managed to find some very basic info on what the .IRX extention is about, and that's very very basic. There seems to be nothing out there.

If I'm in the wrong place or I'm saying all the wrong stuff, please point me in the right direction as I'm completely lost!

Lastly, I'd like to thank you very much for taking the time to read my annoyingly long post.

Take care all!

Just a note, this would also be good to do on Gran Turismo 4 as I'm sure the procedure would be the same.

[Tesseract]

The IRX files in my experience have largely been Device drivers. USBD.IRX, for example, is used to interface with a USB device.

If that's a full file listing, then you might have to dig around a little deeper, since it would seem that all of the necessary in-game assets would likely be squashed into the largest file there. If that's the case, you'll have to find out if there's a file extractor online to help you get at the chewy bits.

[glen_drums]

Hi,

Ok, well that explains a lot thanks! Actually I did look on the dvd again and found the file TT.VOL which is the biggest at 2.75 gig. So the bikes, tracks, music and interfaces and stuff will all be in here? In that case, does anyone know of a tool that can open up a .VOL file as in this case so I can see what I've got?:confused:

Many thanks for your help!

[Tesseract]

I think you've found the mother lode there... as for a program that would open it up...

Well, after a short jaunt through Google, I found a different method, using this (http://www.deep-shadows.com/hax/3DRipperDX.htm) program that allows you to rip the 3D model from whatever DirectX is displaying.

The trick here, is that you then plug your Tourist Trophy disc into PCSX2 (http://www.pcsx2.net/) (PC Playstation2 Emulator) and wait for the right moment.

Lemme know if this works for you! Shame that that game came out way before Yamaha announced the Tesseract (http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/concept_cars/yamaha_tesseract.html) bike. That thing's sexy....

If it doesn't work, please refer to the advice in my Avatar.

[glen_drums]

Cool, thanks for the info. Tried this out earlier, took me a while as I didn't have a clue about the PS2 bios. I managed to get a pack off p2p, so that bit's done. I'm having a few problems, it seems to load fine, then comes up with the error window telling me it needs to close...

Do I need to have anything special in my hardware area at all? Cos' I aint! Lol, I think I'm a N00B!! I'll take a look at all my system spec, if I can find out how to find out about it... Errmm... Ok, then I'll post my spec on here and see if anyone laughs at my old crappy pc from the dark ages, made from wood, wicker, stones and pig skin!!

Lol... Oooohhhh please don't flame!!!!!

[glen_drums]

I had a look but couldn't find anything for graphics or 3d or anything. I'm really not doing this right am I?

Ok, so I reckon my system is not good enough to run PS2 games, but I'm hoping I can still access the files. Also, I checked the compatibility list for PCSX2 and all it had for TT was "Intro", I'm assuming that means it'll only play the opening movie?

We'll get this thing off the ground eventually, I'm sure of it!

[Tesseract]

Possibly. You didn't really tell me what was crashing. Is is PCSX2 or 3DRipper? If it's PCSX2, then you should just make sure that you're using all the right plugins and that your hardware's up to snuff.

I don't have a copy of TT, so I couldn't test that game specifically, but if you still run into issues, I can give another game a try with 3DRipper to see if I can learn anything.

[glen_drums]

hi, it was pcsx2, sorry.
I'm sure of the fact my system can't run such hi spec stuff tbh, its really very basic, gettin it to render poser is enough to ask really! lol!

[Tesseract]

Yah, and I think the more recent builds of PCSX2 required a multi-core processor (or at least one with Hyperthreading enabled).

So that brings us to the original problem of trying to extract the info directly from the disc. From what I know of this kind of thing, you generally have to treat each game on a case-by-case basis. Each game uses different ways of storing the information, so you'd be highly unlikely to find a universal utility. Tourist Trophy wasn't NEARLY popular enough to warrant a community project on something like this, and it's rather unlikely that someone with the right skills would spend his time on something so few would be able to appreciate.

Just for an example, check out Halkun (http://wiki.qhimm.com/User:Halkun)'s work on extracting the model info from FF7 and 8. I used to work with the bloke iRL a few years back and he'd regale me with fascinating stories of how twisted game programmers had to make things just to make them playable.

[glen_drums]

Oh, bugger!

All I want's a fridgin bike for Poser! Oh I knew I should've been a nerd at school, instead of playing drums...

Well, if there really is nothing out there then... I may aswell give in. You did say that TT wasn't popular enough for anything to have been made didn't you? Well what about GT4? TT is based around that game so if there's something for that, it might just be possible.

Just a note, I have an AMD Duron processor, and everything on my system is about the same era and wow-ness as that, so... Errr... NOT HAPPENIN!! Lol, effin shoebox!

[Tesseract]

I was actually thinking about that. It's possible that there's something for GT4, but I'd still peg it as only being a bit less unlikely than TT. Like I said... the work involved in something like that is ridiculous.

Poke around, maybe you'll find something!

[glen_drums]

Cool, what kind of thing do I search for? I'm completely novice so I've no idea what to look for. I'm after a kind of CD hack for GT4 right?

Thanks!

[Tesseract]

I'd probably search for 'model viewer', 'model extractor', 'file extractor'... soemthing like that. Something that better describes what you WANT to do, not HOW to do it.

[glen_drums]

Hi again!

Just an update i've been hunting all through the stupid internet and found no fruity stuff, only a ton of forums saying stuff like "download GT3VolReader" and "try GTFSExtract". Also, wherever I post, nobody replies, I'mgetting really fed up with it all, I mean, is it a completely taboo thing I'm trying to do here? is it sooooooo insanely illegal that nobody wants to be a part of it apart from Tesseract?

I must say, I've lost a lot of faith, I've posted so many threads that I'm going insane gotta be around the 15 to 20 mark, and all for nothing, I know about the programs, but any links I've found are dead and that seems to be it. I've even installed Ares, Limewire, Bearshare and Emule, looked on all of those for something seemingly worth it and... nothing!

Any help here on finding this stuff would be very, very, VERRRYYYY apreciated, thankyou!!!

[glen_drums]

Ok, so it seems that, through my whining, the internet has come up with what I asked for months ago! I found a link to GTFSExtract: http://www.megagames.com/ps2/ps2_guides_rip.shtml
I downloaded it (it's tiny, took seconds!)
I ran it, as it said, and I managed to extract the files from the TT.Vol file by renaming it to GT3.Vol and running GTFSExtract from the folder containing the .Vol file.

All items appear to have been extracted, but, to my surprise, nothing makes any sense whatsoever! There's nothing in the file names or anywhere to tell me where the individual bike models are, and I really need this before I can set-to to convert (if neccesary) the models. i mean, if I could see a file entitled "Ducati 999R.3DS/.LWO" then I'd know exactly where i was at and get the whole process completed in no time!

I just wish I could find an emulator to run TT, and get the prog that Tesseract suggested to copy the currently displayed 3D file. I'd only need to be able to access either the manufacturers showroom or the arcade mode, display one bike and rip it. If I could do that, the whole thing would be done!

If anyone could shed some light on this situation I'd be very pleased!

Many thanks all!!