[bizzybody]

Is there any way to extract the 3D data from these old games? Terminal Velocity was a DOS game. Fury^3 was essentially the DOS software engine ported to Windows. Hellbender used DirectX 3D acceleration, but still looked pretty crappy compared to some contemporary games and games that came out soon after.

[NGTM-1R]

The TV-202 would not be particularly hard to just fake, I still have Terminal Velocity installed, and it's not a very complex model or anything.

[bizzybody]

I was thinking of something along the lines of SD's updates of the Wing Commander ships. Match the loadout capabilities in FS the TV-202 has in Terminal Velocity and it'd be a very powerful fighter. 

[Hellstryker]

I've tried it. you need dragon unpacker to open the archive files, but that doesnt help any because the models are in binary format 
EDIT: And even then, you can only extract with DU, you cant import new files 

[Nuke]

the vertex data is most likely in floating point, or about 4 bytes times 3 floats for a vector. if you could find where the vertex list begins, then you just convert the floats into numbers you can use, and place verts in a modeling program.

[Hellstryker]

I havent a clue what you mean. example please?

[bizzybody]

I don't want to put new ships into the old games, I want the 3D data to import into trueSpace, modify/upgrade, then use in Freespace.

A vertex list is a list of the coordinates' positions from some defined point. Where that point is, is up to whomever wrote the program code. Save a simple object in ASCII text format from whatever 3D program you use, then open it in a text editor.

That's the sort of list the game data needs translated into.

[Hellstryker]

Well then, where do you even plan to put the new ships? most of them were quite terrible except for the uni-bot (F3) and Hellbender (Hellbender.. rofl) if you have AIM drop me a line and maybe we can work on some models together. link to me screen name is next to my profile (duh)

[bizzybody]

Don't have AIM, just ICQ

[Hellstryker]

PM me your number then

[bizzybody]

http://binedit.com/

This site has been put together in an effort to properly document the model editing program BINedit, written by Oliver Pieper, and currently being updated by Richard Borchard III. BINedit is an editor for the objects used in the  Microsoft and  Terminal Reality Inc. (TRI) games Monster Truck Madness and Monster Truck Madness 2, Fury3, Hellbender, CART Precision Racing, FLY! and probably some more. This program and this site were developed with MTM in mind, but should work for other games, too.

I found that here. http://www.racelinecentral.com/Modelers.html

Edit: Cryptobranchus alleganiensis aka the Hellbender. http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/herpdist/species/cr_allegan.html It's a rather ugly, large (up to 44cm long) and wrinkly species of salamander, only found in a few areas in southern Illinois.

[bizzybody]

Here's the TV-202 exported from Terminal Velocity. I used Dragon Unpacker to extract the SHIP.BIN model from the .pod file in the shareware version of Terminal Velocity then opened it in BinEdit. It had me stumped for a while because none of the three Export options (Wavefront, 3DS or VRML) would give me a save dialog box. They just wouldn't do anything.

Then I got to fiddling around with it and turned the model 90 degrees on one axis then went to File > Save, but I didn't save it. What was really odd was after closing and re-opening BinEdit, then loading the model *which I did NOT save*, it was still turned how I'd turned it. I turned it back to where it was originally and saved it as a Hellbender model then decided to try exporting again and was able to save it as a Wavefront .obj.

That opened in trueSpace just fine.

So here's the TV-202 straight out of the game in .obj, converted to .cob with some parts' positions slightly tweaked to perfectly center them, and my updated TV-203. I pulled the nose down a bit and the wings are moved out and up just a little. The parts are all separate just like the original. I didn't include the original textures because they're only 64x64 monochrome RAW files and the shareware game uses a palette file for colors. (I dunno what size textures the retail CD-ROM version uses.)

I'm happy with this experiment. Now anyone interested knows how to rip models from 1990's games from Terminal Reality and Microsoft.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[jr2]

Interesting stuff here! 

[Hellstryker]

As soon as i manage to find the .bin file for the hellbender ill extract it 

[jr2]

I have some Hellbender stuff... not sure what I've got, but I'll poke through it... do you have Hellbender retail?

[Hellstryker]

No, i have a CD image of hellbender retail

[bizzybody]

Here's the ship listed as AFIGHTER. I can't run the game on XP without setting up DOSbox or something, so I don't remember what it's called in the game.

The ZIP includes the original as an .obj, a .cob with the various parts aligned to center and straightened up- this one had a rather crooked main body, and an up-styled version. The original and modified are in the images.

Edit: Once I finally got the @@#%@#% BinEdit to export, it works like it should now- without having to change something and change it back.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[bizzybody]

Here's the original mess exported to .obj, and all tweaked into alignment in .cob and .3ds with all normals and missing faces fixed. Those old games must have been a rush job, the models are all a horrid mess.

The sub-objects the .cob is broken down to are what I was able to decompose the .obj into.

10 years old and still looks mean and nasty!

My next step will be fixing up the weapon pods with some normal looking weaponry and various other up-stylings, but take this if you wish to do your own fixing up.

[attachment deleted by ninja]

[Snail]

Looks like one of takashi's models to be honest.

[bizzybody]

Here it is tweaked up a bit. Some rework on the pods, the wings got some remodeling, so did the front of the cockpit/canopy, the "intakes" have been altered and I enlarged the exhaust by pulling the bottom down a bit and beveled it in.

[attachment deleted by ninja]