Extracting Mass Effect Models [Updated]
You are going to need :
- umodel
- ActorX script
- Autodesk 3ds Max (or Maya)
Now, let's start !
Download the umodel and extract it to anywhere, I recommend that you extract it to the main directory of the C:/ drive... Now, launch the Command Prompt CMD (you can do that by typing "cmd.exe" in the search).
In CMD, navigate to the folder which contains the umodel viewer. Now Go to the main directory of your game, Mass Effect 2 in my case, in the "CookedPC or CookedPCConsole" folder, find a suitable *.PCC file (I've chosen "Jack" " BioH_END_Convict_02 ")
Copy it (don't cut) to the umodel folder, back to CMD, type umodel.exe -export "Yourpccfile", so in my case it's going to be umodel.exe -export "BioH_END_Convict_02.pcc"
You can press TAB button to auto complete the file name.
We have finished extracting the model... Now, open the 3ds Max.
From the menu bar, click on MAXSCRIPT, and then click on "Run Script"... Navigate to the "ActorX" script which you have already downloaded before.
A window will pop up, click on "Import PSK" button... Navigate to the folder where you extracted your model, BioH_END_Convict_02 in my case.
"Import PSA" button is used to import animation to the current model.
In that folder, you'll see several subfolders :
AnimSet
Material3
MaterialInstanceConstant
SkeletalMesh
StaticMesh
Texture2D
Your model is usually in the "SkeletalMesh" folder.
The PSK files are located in SkeletalMesh, so open that folder, ignore the 1KB files, import the other files.- ARM For the Armor.
- HED For the head.
- HGR For the helmet.
Once all of those are imported, open your perspective view port and take a look.
Bones are also attached to the model in case you want to change its pose
It's time to apply materials to the model.
Body textures
Open the material editor in 3dsmax by pressing "M" or by clicking on the "Material Editor" icon
in the toolbar.If your material editor looks different than the screenshot below, click "Compact Material Editor" option from the "Modes" menu.
You'll see several grey spheres which represent blank materials. Armors usually need a single "Standard" material, a "Multi-Sub Object" material is needed for the face.
Leave the second sphere for the face. Click on the first one. Click on the small button near the "Diffuse" editor .
A list will pop up, Click on "Bitmap"
An Explorer window will be opened, navigate to the Texture2D folder which I mentioned before.
You'll see a lot of texture files, but we only need a few. For the armor, we need to select a Diffuse map. Armor textures usually contains ARM_Diff_Base in their names.
Diff_Base will always be diffuse files. Select it, you'll notice the sphere now has the color of the texture.
If you have low resolution textures, or you want very high resolution texture, you may want to use TexMod to extract the textures manually or you may download HD Textures from BioWare social network in the projects section.
With any diffuse file, make sure to check "None/Opaque" on the Alpha Source channel.
To return to the main material, click on the "Go to Parent" button.
You also have to set the specular map by clicking on the small button near the "Specular" right under the "Diffuse"
Select Bitmap and then navigate to the specular texture, it usually comes with RGB colors
Finally, apply the Bump for higher resolution model and lighting effect, to do so, navigate to the main window of the Material Editor, there is a drop-down menu called "Maps", expand it,you'll see a long list of maps. There is an empty slot called "Bump" Click on it, this time, don't use Bitmaps, instead, use a "Normal Bump" material.
Once you have the Normal Bump opened , you'll have two slots, Normal and Additional Bump. Click on "Normal" and click "Bitmap." , navigate to the Bump texture, it usually comes with Pink color , select it, then once again, click on "Go to Parent."
Finally, drag and drop the material sphere onto the armor to apply it.
Press Shift+Q from your keyboard to render the model.
Head textures
Head uses a different type of textures, it uses "Multi-Sub Object" which means multi-textures for one slot.Navigate to the second sphere, and change its type from "Standard" into "Multi-Sub Object" by clicking on the "Standard" button.
If you haven't selected a blank sphere, the application will ask you whether if you want to keep the old materials or not. You may want to keep them to save the time re-assigning them again
You will now see a menu which has many sub-materials, you can set your own number from the button at the top. We are going to need 5 of them for Jack.
You will also notice ID numbers for each sub-material.
Assign the following:
ID #1 : Jack's eyelashes.
ID #2 : Jack's head [neck and scalp]
ID #3 : Jack's face.
ID #4 : Jack's eyes.
ID #5 : Jack's earpiece [this one is only for Jack's model, just like the visor for Garrus and EDI, you can skip this one]
Keeping IDs in order is very important as doing the opposite will result texture misplacement
Basic textures' IDs order may be used for other models as well
At this point, you will do the steps earlier [the steps for assigning body's texture] for each individual sub-texture.Let's do the eyes texture, click on the "none" button of the eyes slot (ID#4), and then select "Standard" from the Standard Materials menu.
Assign the diffuse map just like you did for the body textures. Repeat this step for the rest 4 elements [head, face, earpiece, eyes]
For the eyelashes, you have to assign two textures, one for the eyelash color, and the other one is for the alpha which gives the model more feminine eyelashes.
To do so, assign the color texture in the diffuse as the previous steps. Once you've done that, click "go to parent" icon.
After that, expand the Maps menu and then check the opacity box
Click on the "none" button to assign the texture, choose Bitmap, and select the eyelashes alpha texture, which usually looks like this
Finally, drag and drop the head texture sphere onto the head and render your model.