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Hoping for some kind soul to help me with extracting ps2 roms...

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Mr. Tearson

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As the title says. I'm looking for a way to extract the roms, but in my case, I want to extract the models from these games so I can enjoy it's content via Blender. So... I need to some how change them into OBJ or FBX files.

Any help would be appreciated as me and a few others are still trying to figure this out.
 
So, extraction from "modern retro" is a bit more complex than a ROM cart through PSP asset rip. Worse, with antipiracy tools on ps2&ps3 used differently game to game, with some games this process simply will not work.

Step 1) you need to use a virtual disc mount emulator to copy the ISO file from the actual disc (or to run a downloaded ISO file if you get the game copy from torrents or something).

Step 2) you need your virtual machine emulator to emulate using the virtual drive to run the game on an emulated ps2. This VM emulator wil also need a ps2 emulator core that is compatible with both the gamefile and the next step.

Step 3) get a "file ripper" plug-in. These are plug-ins for either your VM based emulator or for a text editor runtime. In any case, for some reason rather than simply digging through the ISO's archive of files for extraction of what you want, for about 20 years, the policy has been to rip these files by use of emulator plug-ins such as this. So, run your virtual machine with this, play game to point of where the model you want ripped is, then use this to extract it.

Why emulator plug-ins? The architecture of a ps2 game is somewhat similar to Unity packaged game. At least in the sense that 90% of the game asset's files used by the game, are shunted into some binary package container, that may even be within another binary package container and are essentially only accessible by text file execution of code scripting.

So, to find and extract these files, the community has been using emulator plug-in indexers, which allow you to extract any file which is "being called up" as currently on screen within the emulated game's live gameplay. From there you can select file you want and export it as a save file by means described in the plug-in's documentation/readme/manual.

And that's about it. Trouble is some of these plug-ins are more limited than others, most the big AAA titles will have trouble getting rips from due to incompatibility and anti-priacy stuff. And lastly, even if you do succeed in your rips, you will only end up with the "low poly" game model as ps2 is largely before implamentation of LOD to ultra highpoly character models.

So even if all goes well, games like Metal Gear Solid 3, some of highest chara poly on the console, snake only has something like 1,197 polys.

Point being getting models is do-able but downside is they are so low poly that you will largely have to rebuild them by re-topology to higher poly density anyway for modern usage of the models.

Here is a case example from another forum of the 3 step process.

 
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Reactions: 1 user
So, extraction from "modern retro" is a bit more complex than a ROM cart through PSP asset rip. Worse, with antipiracy tools on ps2&ps3 used differently game to game, with some games this process simply will not work.

Step 1) you need to use a virtual disc mount emulator to copy the ISO file from the actual disc (or to run a downloaded ISO file if you get the game copy from torrents or something).

Step 2) you need your virtual machine emulator to emulate using the virtual drive to run the game on an emulated ps2. This VM emulator wil also need a ps2 emulator core that is compatible with both the gamefile and the next step.

Step 3) get a "file ripper" plug-in. These are plug-ins for either your VM based emulator or for a text editor runtime. In any case, for some reason rather than simply digging through the ISO's archive of files for extraction of what you want, for about 20 years, the policy has been to rip these files by use of emulator plug-ins such as this. So, run your virtual machine with this, play game to point of where the model you want ripped is, then use this to extract it.

Why emulator plug-ins? The architecture of a ps2 game is somewhat similar to Unity packaged game. At least in the sense that 90% of the game asset's files used by the game, are shunted into some binary package container, that may even be within another binary package container and are essentially only accessible by text file execution of code scripting.

So, to find and extract these files, the community has been using emulator plug-in indexers, which allow you to extract any file which is "being called up" as currently on screen within the emulated game's live gameplay. From there you can select file you want and export it as a save file by means described in the plug-in's documentation/readme/manual.

And that's about it. Trouble is some of these plug-ins are more limited than others, most the big AAA titles will have trouble getting rips from due to incompatibility and anti-priacy stuff. And lastly, even if you do succeed in your rips, you will only end up with the "low poly" game model as ps2 is largely before implamentation of LOD to ultra highpoly character models.

So even if all goes well, games like Metal Gear Solid 3, some of highest chara poly on the console, snake only has something like 1,197 polys.

Point being getting models is do-able but downside is they are so low poly that you will largely have to rebuild them by re-topology to higher poly density anyway for modern usage of the models.

Here is a case example from another forum of the 3 step process.

I have managed to rip the files from the iso but can't get the art, sound or anything only thing that I could do was get the cutscenes but the devs put the audio in other folders and I can't convert the audio to put them back on the video
 
So, extraction from "modern retro" is a bit more complex than a ROM cart through PSP asset rip. Worse, with antipiracy tools on ps2&ps3 used differently game to game, with some games this process simply will not work.

Step 1) you need to use a virtual disc mount emulator to copy the ISO file from the actual disc (or to run a downloaded ISO file if you get the game copy from torrents or something).

Step 2) you need your virtual machine emulator to emulate using the virtual drive to run the game on an emulated ps2. This VM emulator wil also need a ps2 emulator core that is compatible with both the gamefile and the next step.

Step 3) get a "file ripper" plug-in. These are plug-ins for either your VM based emulator or for a text editor runtime. In any case, for some reason rather than simply digging through the ISO's archive of files for extraction of what you want, for about 20 years, the policy has been to rip these files by use of emulator plug-ins such as this. So, run your virtual machine with this, play game to point of where the model you want ripped is, then use this to extract it.

Why emulator plug-ins? The architecture of a ps2 game is somewhat similar to Unity packaged game. At least in the sense that 90% of the game asset's files used by the game, are shunted into some binary package container, that may even be within another binary package container and are essentially only accessible by text file execution of code scripting.

So, to find and extract these files, the community has been using emulator plug-in indexers, which allow you to extract any file which is "being called up" as currently on screen within the emulated game's live gameplay. From there you can select file you want and export it as a save file by means described in the plug-in's documentation/readme/manual.

And that's about it. Trouble is some of these plug-ins are more limited than others, most the big AAA titles will have trouble getting rips from due to incompatibility and anti-priacy stuff. And lastly, even if you do succeed in your rips, you will only end up with the "low poly" game model as ps2 is largely before implamentation of LOD to ultra highpoly character models.

So even if all goes well, games like Metal Gear Solid 3, some of highest chara poly on the console, snake only has something like 1,197 polys.

Point being getting models is do-able but downside is they are so low poly that you will largely have to rebuild them by re-topology to higher poly density anyway for modern usage of the models.

Here is a case example from another forum of the 3 step process.

Hey, thanks! If this goes well, the low poly crap won't be an issue for me. It's getting those models and it's textures that are always the issue for me. I will check it out!
 
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Reactions: 1 user
I have managed to rip the files from the iso but can't get the art, sound or anything only thing that I could do was get the cutscenes but the devs put the audio in other folders and I can't convert the audio to put them back on the video
Sound is handled in 1 of 2 ways, one being like most old consoles, is managed through hardware and directly created by onboard synth through linker. Regarding cutscene audio, most cases thats likely a paired audio file usually in ogg compression somewhere on the disk. Which is the 2nd way. For most game cutscenes, to be able to minimize video compression sizes, the audio and video are both handled separately, which is also partly a hardware optimization config too.

For the latter, this is where we run into "not every game can be file ripped due to compatibility/piracy issues". For some you can access the audio, others you might not be able to. Particularly in cases where the game uses a comercially licensed soundtrack, which is made hard/impossible to access due to Music industry BS adjacent to Napster/Limewire related things.

TLDR short, if it is accessible on the iso whether in file structure or by file ripper, there are a few things that might cause obstacles to getting them, that can be worked around.

1) its in a binary package thats in a binary package. Due to multi levels of non-direct access, and considering in most cases each binary packet is encrypted in configuration to the console's address porting, exploration of child/subtree binaries is difficult. It's technically not impossible but its feasibly hard to do. If this is case, consider looking deeper into alternate file-ripper software options. Unlike 3D models which can be "address located" by use of emulator to find the model in game and then identify the object/file asset by pointer call, identifying audio in this manner is much harder/if not impossible due to how the console terminal handles the game's code addressing.

So for dir diving of ISOs you would want to look into "decompiler" and "unpacker" types of file rippers.

2) audio files are a type pf asset file which can be contained within a compressed folder somewhere on the ISO whether that folder is in a binary or not. As such, being in a compressed folder, no emulator call based file ripper or basic directory search indexer will find these until that compressed folder is extracted.

3) consider instead, ripping the file by use of audio sampling. It's just infinitely easier to do this than getting tons of software and going through hasstle of ripping the raw asset. Plus since raw asset is either compressed or an ogg, your samppe recording will actually be higher audio quality than the actual raw file.

To get best set up for audio sampling, Hook ps2 to a TV with either 3.5mm or amp plug AUX out or midi out ports. OR if it has the plugs for home audio system use those. Rig the AUX out method of choice to either a MIDI input for your PC, or an input to equalizer/amp you can hook to your PC. Run FL Studio or some audio program DAWs and record input with that, slice up what you need and save that out to what ever file you need.

Alternatively, if you have a digital audio recorder (for lectures/audio logging) you can plug the AUX output directly into that for recording and work with the audio RAWs from that on PC DAWs later.

So, there are other considerations that can happen preventing access to the media assets in game, but those things, it gets far more technical from this point forward so, I'll leave that for a later discussion revisit.

Alternatively, like ps2 games are insanely hard to rip from and this has had a rather long history of that process. This is largely due to bit that until 2014 there was hardly any/no "real" fully functional emulators for the full hardware address options of the ps2, and also the BS deal from Sony initiating the console under "we are so open, you can linux dev games directly on the system" to going like ultra proprietary restricted by even the launch of the 1st gen of ps2 slim.

As result, if there is a game you want to rip from, consider using alternate ports of that game in the following order:

PC
PSX
Sega MD
NES
SNES
C64/famicom
Game Cube
X-box
X-box360
wii
psp
nintendo DS
 
Sound is handled in 1 of 2 ways, one being like most old consoles, is managed through hardware and directly created by onboard synth through linker. Regarding cutscene audio, most cases thats likely a paired audio file usually in ogg compression somewhere on the disk. Which is the 2nd way. For most game cutscenes, to be able to minimize video compression sizes, the audio and video are both handled separately, which is also partly a hardware optimization config too.

For the latter, this is where we run into "not every game can be file ripped due to compatibility/piracy issues". For some you can access the audio, others you might not be able to. Particularly in cases where the game uses a comercially licensed soundtrack, which is made hard/impossible to access due to Music industry BS adjacent to Napster/Limewire related things.

TLDR short, if it is accessible on the iso whether in file structure or by file ripper, there are a few things that might cause obstacles to getting them, that can be worked around.

1) its in a binary package thats in a binary package. Due to multi levels of non-direct access, and considering in most cases each binary packet is encrypted in configuration to the console's address porting, exploration of child/subtree binaries is difficult. It's technically not impossible but its feasibly hard to do. If this is case, consider looking deeper into alternate file-ripper software options. Unlike 3D models which can be "address located" by use of emulator to find the model in game and then identify the object/file asset by pointer call, identifying audio in this manner is much harder/if not impossible due to how the console terminal handles the game's code addressing.

So for dir diving of ISOs you would want to look into "decompiler" and "unpacker" types of file rippers.

2) audio files are a type pf asset file which can be contained within a compressed folder somewhere on the ISO whether that folder is in a binary or not. As such, being in a compressed folder, no emulator call based file ripper or basic directory search indexer will find these until that compressed folder is extracted.

3) consider instead, ripping the file by use of audio sampling. It's just infinitely easier to do this than getting tons of software and going through hasstle of ripping the raw asset. Plus since raw asset is either compressed or an ogg, your samppe recording will actually be higher audio quality than the actual raw file.

To get best set up for audio sampling, Hook ps2 to a TV with either 3.5mm or amp plug AUX out or midi out ports. OR if it has the plugs for home audio system use those. Rig the AUX out method of choice to either a MIDI input for your PC, or an input to equalizer/amp you can hook to your PC. Run FL Studio or some audio program DAWs and record input with that, slice up what you need and save that out to what ever file you need.

Alternatively, if you have a digital audio recorder (for lectures/audio logging) you can plug the AUX output directly into that for recording and work with the audio RAWs from that on PC DAWs later.

So, there are other considerations that can happen preventing access to the media assets in game, but those things, it gets far more technical from this point forward so, I'll leave that for a later discussion revisit.

Alternatively, like ps2 games are insanely hard to rip from and this has had a rather long history of that process. This is largely due to bit that until 2014 there was hardly any/no "real" fully functional emulators for the full hardware address options of the ps2, and also the BS deal from Sony initiating the console under "we are so open, you can linux dev games directly on the system" to going like ultra proprietary restricted by even the launch of the 1st gen of ps2 slim.

As result, if there is a game you want to rip from, consider using alternate ports of that game in the following order:

PC
PSX
Sega MD
NES
SNES
C64/famicom
Game Cube
X-box
X-box360
wii
psp
nintendo DS
found the audio there are 8 files in the folder in 4 different formats .sbb, .sbh, .tsc and .tse
we want to look through all versions including the gba game for cut contant sometimes stuff that was deleted is put on other versions including pal versions of games
The games we want to do were released on PS1, PS2, GBA, Xbox, Gamecube, PSP and DS
 
I have managed to rip the files from the iso but can't get the art, sound or anything only thing that I could do was get the cutscenes but the devs put the audio in other folders and I can't convert the audio to put them back on the video
Reply 2- PS:

before determining undertaking file ripping yourself, check online resource databases such as this:


this particular resource webmaster ring also covers audio, models and textures.

PPS-->
partial reason for some things not being discoverable, is that some things such as menus and GUI are handled by the console itself. At it's core, PS2 could run a small form factor linux/unix build OS. As result and for ease of programming, the systems BIOS is appended with a proprietary variation of a minimalist Unix OS system. Most text on screen, most UI apart from some graphics/logos, almost all menu systems and textboxes in any game--> these are products of BIOS & OS.

what is not a product of those:
>3D model characters
>3D level architecture
>OGG files and audio files
>video animation files
>some gifs and other image animations
>2D images billboarded to in game play area planes or used by file viewer although file viewer is byproduct of OS

With note to 2D games, everything is managed by texure/sprite atlasses. How these are structured in ISO can make it hard/impossible to access these atlasses.

Anyway point in TLDR pt2, is before considering ripping a file, see if it is already ripped and available elsewhere.
 
Reply 2- PS:

before determining undertaking file ripping yourself, check online resource databases such as this:


this particular resource webmaster ring also covers audio, models and textures.

PPS-->
partial reason for some things not being discoverable, is that some things such as menus and GUI are handled by the console itself. At it's core, PS2 could run a small form factor linux/unix build OS. As result and for ease of programming, the systems BIOS is appended with a proprietary variation of a minimalist Unix OS system. Most text on screen, most UI apart from some graphics/logos, almost all menu systems and textboxes in any game--> these are products of BIOS & OS.

what is not a product of those:
>3D model characters
>3D level architecture
>OGG files and audio files
>video animation files
>some gifs and other image animations
>2D images billboarded to in game play area planes or used by file viewer although file viewer is byproduct of OS

With note to 2D games, everything is managed by texure/sprite atlasses. How these are structured in ISO can make it hard/impossible to access these atlasses.

Anyway point in TLDR pt2, is before considering ripping a file, see if it is already ripped and available elsewhere.
we checked that site it's where we got the stuff for 1 of the games from but the other game barely has anything only like 5 models were there
 
found the audio there are 8 files in the folder in 4 different formats .sbb, .sbh, .tsc and .tse
we want to look through all versions including the gba game for cut contant sometimes stuff that was deleted is put on other versions including pal versions of games
The games we want to do were released on PS1, PS2, GBA, Xbox, Gamecube, PSP and DS
so for like "mystery files" they maybe what you are looking for but they may also ne junk files of who knows what kind of data.

you will have to look up not just the file extensions but the contexr of file extensions. For instance, in case of .sbb files, typically this file extension is a corporate accounting document


what or why would such a file be within a ps2 game of all things? This is where we run into instances of "custom file syntax and extension systems". a) It could be some weird leaked proprietary corpprate finance document for what ever reason, b) it could be a microsoft accounting spreadsheet which was used for video game maths table or something c) it is a custom extension utilized by proprietary systems of that particular game d) other

this is the type of leg work research that comes with raw ISO diving. Without some one from the devteam of the original game, this is where sherlock style research must be taken up.

So, like file rip discovery, it takes decades because it is literally this convuluded in research of what is there to untangle it as a 3rd party. This is why PC or other port rips are kinda the preffered option, much less mystery BS. Same time there might be something in form of a thread to pull at thats meaningful regarding the mystery.
 
so for like "mystery files" they maybe what you are looking for but they may also ne junk files of who knows what kind of data.

you will have to look up not just the file extensions but the contexr of file extensions. For instance, in case of .sbb files, typically this file extension is a corporate accounting document


what or why would such a file be within a ps2 game of all things? This is where we run into instances of "custom file syntax and extension systems". a) It could be some weird leaked proprietary corpprate finance document for what ever reason, b) it could be a microsoft accounting spreadsheet which was used for video game maths table or something c) it is a custom extension utilized by proprietary systems of that particular game d) other

this is the type of leg work research that comes with raw ISO diving. Without some one from the devteam of the original game, this is where sherlock style research must be taken up.

So, like file rip discovery, it takes decades because it is literally this convuluded in research of what is there to untangle it as a 3rd party. This is why PC or other port rips are kinda the preffered option, much less mystery BS. Same time there might be something in form of a thread to pull at thats meaningful regarding the mystery.
ok thank I'll have a look
 
we checked that site it's where we got the stuff for 1 of the games from but the other game barely has anything only like 5 models were there
resources site was just one example. The idea being check abroad. websearch, torrents, deepweb, look up what you might be looking for with regard to "unused content" of Game series X or Y. Do the research, look thoroughly.

It can help you avoid 100s of hours of work if the thing has already been discovered and distro'd. If that's not the case, it can help you find the "lore" of what might be added into the game data files and at the least, will tell you some info into how the game was developed. Such as utilization of custom built plug-ins or software used to run the game which utilizes custom extension system X or Y.

With ISO decompiling, since stuff is built on unix/linux systems like you will need to google n websearch the devkit needed to fully decompile all binaries included on the ISO. This will help you discover and extract all files on the ISO. Sametime this is a lengthy process and may not actually allow you to fully decompile the ISO.

Anyway, get what I mean on this becoming faaar more technical of a process. Thing is like, this is just the beginning entry level.
 
resources site was just one example. The idea being check abroad. websearch, torrents, deepweb, look up what you might be looking for with regard to "unused content" of Game series X or Y. Do the research, look thoroughly.

It can help you avoid 100s of hours of work if the thing has already been discovered and distro'd. If that's not the case, it can help you find the "lore" of what might be added into the game data files and at the least, will tell you some info into how the game was developed. Such as utilization of custom built plug-ins or software used to run the game which utilizes custom extension system X or Y.

With ISO decompiling, since stuff is built on unix/linux systems like you will need to google n websearch the devkit needed to fully decompile all binaries included on the ISO. This will help you discover and extract all files on the ISO. Sametime this is a lengthy process and may not actually allow you to fully decompile the ISO.

Anyway, get what I mean on this becoming faaar more technical of a process. Thing is like, this is just the beginning entry level.
been searching through google people recommend programs but either of them work they either don't open at all, do nothing when you try to extract the files or just crash while extracting I'm going to pay someone to do this
 
been searching through google people recommend programs but either of them work they either don't open at all, do nothing when you try to extract the files or just crash while extracting I'm going to pay someone to do this
probably should have advised at beginning, apologies but yea file ripping, a ton of software is fake/malware. Others are simply broken.

Others still, like some are just "plug-ins" meaning they do not operate as stand alone apps. You have to run them through another program/emulator.

far as failure to extract, site's like Mega are notoriuos for all of these:
>breakdown of source files
>improper/incomplete downloads due to throttling (aka your download didn't complete right, particularly if not a "paying member" of the "mega app" they do this on purpose, downloads fail unless/until you pay for an app subscription).
>original uploader of content to torrent/fileshare, pulled the content & replaced with broken/empty folder
>poor internet connection/wifi preventing you from downloading the file intact (throttled in packet exchange leading to corrupted file).

then there's bit it could be malware. Point is this is why "research" is important. Research your tools, don't just DL the top 50 google hits. Look into software solutions from ROM Hacking and game modding forums for example. Then also research the software itself, make sure its made by an actual company for starters.
 
probably should have advised at beginning, apologies but yea file ripping, a ton of software is fake/malware. Others are simply broken.

Others still, like some are just "plug-ins" meaning they do not operate as stand alone apps. You have to run them through another program/emulator.

far as failure to extract, site's like Mega are notoriuos for all of these:
>breakdown of source files
>improper/incomplete downloads due to throttling (aka your download didn't complete right, particularly if not a "paying member" of the "mega app" they do this on purpose, downloads fail unless/until you pay for an app subscription).
>original uploader of content to torrent/fileshare, pulled the content & replaced with broken/empty folder
>poor internet connection/wifi preventing you from downloading the file intact (throttled in packet exchange leading to corrupted file).

then there's bit it could be malware. Point is this is why "research" is important. Research your tools, don't just DL the top 50 google hits. Look into software solutions from ROM Hacking and game modding forums for example. Then also research the software itself, make sure its made by an actual company for starters.
rom hacking was where most were from and they were broken
and reason we didn't advertise at the start is because I don't have a lot of money and we wanted to try to do it ourselves
 
rom hacking was where most were from and they were broken
and reason we didn't advertise at the start is because I don't have a lot of money and we wanted to try to do it ourselves
I hear you on DIY. With ROM Hacking community, it is a very meeeh community imo. I have been in the OG ROM hacking discords since Discord's launch, these servers are mostly dead and no one really talks much, much less dev talk. ROM hacking forums have some useful tutorials buuut their usefulness ends when it comes to projects "more involved" than building a retrocade raspberry pi system to emulate your favorite games or to make a mod of pokemon.

Moemon discord server and forum, a rom hack community dedicated to total conversion of pokemon to moe type waifu monsters, is probably the only really significant achievement of the whole bit.

Since PSX, PS2, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn/SegaCD, Gamecube and PSP hacking involves the whole deal of ISOs and games built under Linux/unix based OS with everything locked in Binary Packages, most of the ROM hacking community is not exactly "tech literate" enough to hack, mod or DIY original titles for these systems. As result like there's not a whole lot out there on how to do things.

ROM hacking also mainly focuses on simply only "modding" games by asset replacement. They don't actually from ground up build "original games". Further, they focus on GB/GBC/GBA or NES/SNES ROMS as working with others such as SEGA or Atari, requires actually working in assembly programming which is a thing they avoid like its the friggin plauge. Of note, GBA even at some points requires working in modern Z80 assembly so there are fewer GBA hacks than GB or GB color.

ROM hacking also took a backburner when they lost most of their community to the fantasy console revolution of Pico 8, Tic80, Pixel Vision 8 and GB Studio. These made it insanely easier to make retro games, in many areas eliminated need for coding, and what coding remained was simple object oriented mid to high level coding systems (no longer working in low level assembly requiring direct hardware addressing coding).

With ROM tools becoming broken, thats not entirely the ROMHacking communities fault though. Switch to x64 win architecture, win10 to win11 transition and just compatibility issues as emulator cores got more uptodate while abandoned ROM hack tools did not, is mostly what's to blame with that.

With ps2 of note, as mentioned a propper ps2 emulator did not exist until 2014. Meaning psp emus popped up before ps2 ones. When they did finally arrive there was only one or two abd they were quite glitchy/broken as hell. I stopped following ps2 emulator dev around 2018 but between 2014 n 2018 there was not much progress made within it.

Further, we still to my knowledge lack a ps3 emulator, and will probably never get one. This because the same GPU chip in the ps3 is used by US military forces in drone sat recon systems along with used onboard the Javelin's onboard camera target sightmark intercept system. So, since the hardware is technically top secret miltech, still, it's not likely to get an address port and code dump reveal so making an emulator for it is not entirely possible.

With ps2 resources, there are some rips around, you can get ISO clones of most PS2 games but there is still an overwhelming lack of devtools, emulators that function reliably and stablely, and there has not been much of a push in community to fix those things.

Focus instead has been more "retro blindered" to developing emus and devtools for the PSX. Which, the PSX was not fully address sector revealed until 2014-2017 and was only done so because some music nerd personally took one apart and spent 5 years address
mapping it by hand with a multi-meter.

I will take a look around this weekend and see what I can dig up on ps2 rips, hacks and indie dev but dunno if much has changed since 2019 in that arena.

In meantime, upon PS2's initial release, was a prehiprial kit used to turn the PS2 into a devkit Linux system. Doing this made it so that it no longer played ps2 games but allowed you to then use that Linux PS2 to directly dev ps2 games on that system. To date, as far as I am aware, this is the only "real" public devkit for PS2 modding or indie game making outside of using outdated versions of Unreal Engine to export a game in ps2 format. It is worth looking into that devkit to figure out how the set up worked and what tools might be available still in making assets that can mod or port to new ps2 games.
 
I hear you on DIY. With ROM Hacking community, it is a very meeeh community imo. I have been in the OG ROM hacking discords since Discord's launch, these servers are mostly dead and no one really talks much, much less dev talk. ROM hacking forums have some useful tutorials buuut their usefulness ends when it comes to projects "more involved" than building a retrocade raspberry pi system to emulate your favorite games or to make a mod of pokemon.

Moemon discord server and forum, a rom hack community dedicated to total conversion of pokemon to moe type waifu monsters, is probably the only really significant achievement of the whole bit.

Since PSX, PS2, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn/SegaCD, Gamecube and PSP hacking involves the whole deal of ISOs and games built under Linux/unix based OS with everything locked in Binary Packages, most of the ROM hacking community is not exactly "tech literate" enough to hack, mod or DIY original titles for these systems. As result like there's not a whole lot out there on how to do things.

ROM hacking also mainly focuses on simply only "modding" games by asset replacement. They don't actually from ground up build "original games". Further, they focus on GB/GBC/GBA or NES/SNES ROMS as working with others such as SEGA or Atari, requires actually working in assembly programming which is a thing they avoid like its the friggin plauge. Of note, GBA even at some points requires working in modern Z80 assembly so there are fewer GBA hacks than GB or GB color.

ROM hacking also took a backburner when they lost most of their community to the fantasy console revolution of Pico 8, Tic80, Pixel Vision 8 and GB Studio. These made it insanely easier to make retro games, in many areas eliminated need for coding, and what coding remained was simple object oriented mid to high level coding systems (no longer working in low level assembly requiring direct hardware addressing coding).

With ROM tools becoming broken, thats not entirely the ROMHacking communities fault though. Switch to x64 win architecture, win10 to win11 transition and just compatibility issues as emulator cores got more uptodate while abandoned ROM hack tools did not, is mostly what's to blame with that.

With ps2 of note, as mentioned a propper ps2 emulator did not exist until 2014. Meaning psp emus popped up before ps2 ones. When they did finally arrive there was only one or two abd they were quite glitchy/broken as hell. I stopped following ps2 emulator dev around 2018 but between 2014 n 2018 there was not much progress made within it.

Further, we still to my knowledge lack a ps3 emulator, and will probably never get one. This because the same GPU chip in the ps3 is used by US military forces in drone sat recon systems along with used onboard the Javelin's onboard camera target sightmark intercept system. So, since the hardware is technically top secret miltech, still, it's not likely to get an address port and code dump reveal so making an emulator for it is not entirely possible.

With ps2 resources, there are some rips around, you can get ISO clones of most PS2 games but there is still an overwhelming lack of devtools, emulators that function reliably and stablely, and there has not been much of a push in community to fix those things.

Focus instead has been more "retro blindered" to developing emus and devtools for the PSX. Which, the PSX was not fully address sector revealed until 2014-2017 and was only done so because some music nerd personally took one apart and spent 5 years address
mapping it by hand with a multi-meter.

I will take a look around this weekend and see what I can dig up on ps2 rips, hacks and indie dev but dunno if much has changed since 2019 in that arena.

In meantime, upon PS2's initial release, was a prehiprial kit used to turn the PS2 into a devkit Linux system. Doing this made it so that it no longer played ps2 games but allowed you to then use that Linux PS2 to directly dev ps2 games on that system. To date, as far as I am aware, this is the only "real" public devkit for PS2 modding or indie game making outside of using outdated versions of Unreal Engine to export a game in ps2 format. It is worth looking into that devkit to figure out how the set up worked and what tools might be available still in making assets that can mod or port to new ps2 games.
great thanks and there is a ps3 emulator but not as compatible as pcsx2 is and a lot of the devs on discord are dicks when you report a problem people have claimed to got the assets with pcsx2 but I haven't worked that out
 
also worked out how to convert audio but the program has an annoying bug that'll make the conversion process take so much longer
 
also worked out how to convert audio but the program has an annoying bug that'll make the conversion process take so much longer
well didn't kno on ps3 emu, must be somewhat recent. compat issues may stem from not having the ps3 gpu reality engine, address mapped.

With audio issues, thats why suggestion for audio sampling and why most solve that issue by doing that.
 
I have all cutscenes and audio done finally still no programs to search through the files for cut stuff and can't find a program to open the art files
 
I have all cutscenes and audio done finally still no programs to search through the files for cut stuff and can't find a program to open the art files
in effort of further diving ISOs, you want to look into binary package unpackers/decompilers. What you want to do with recovery of all assets within a game is basically "demaking" of a game. Pending the package formats used and compression vs encryption schemes this may or may not be do-able in finding that software.

If the software is not out there, you will have to code implamentations to uncover things. This in either method is not-so-easy and will take research. Research which starts with looking up the fike extensions to binaries you cannot yet open.

There are two communities which may be of help aside from ps2 file ripping circles. 1) the Unity engineering circles particularly those with Linux focus and Mono Bleeding Edge coding. This can give you insights into the more modern forms of packaging game assets into binaries in compiled game files.

2) doom mod community. There are fairly educated coders within these communities, such as the user who created the "demake" compiler for DOOM 2 to GBA which they initially started by demaking the DOOM 2 official GBA ROM. This is user Kappy/Kippy and I mention this as one of the main focuses of learning doom wad modding is "demaking" other mods to look under the hood. In Kappy's doom 2 to GBA personal blog they tutorial sample how to demake both GBA ROMs and DOOM wads. this will give you better idea in processes/methods involved with the complexity of undertaking "demakes".

to begin research you can start here:

and here:

Now yes ISOs are very different from ROMs but the point here is showcasing the level of work involved for something simpler than an ISO demake.

For binaries that you cannot find unpackers for in research of their extension, ultimately that means going into text editor and figuring out what's in it and how to crack/hack into it the hard way. In this by both looking at code which points to the binary from the game's code scripts and ideally if available the source code. Then also looking at the raw data code of the binary itself.

Point is, it's quite the process/ task.

As to resources available to PS2 "ripping" this is ubfortunately very hampered. Case sample:

90% of google/websearch hits will arrive at something similar to above. Rather thab showing how to rip assets from the game's file, it only shows how to burn the DVD's contents into a binary file and then convert that into an ISO which you can then mount to a Virtual Machine and play through an emulator.

of what is left, for sone reason the modding community only cared about these things: (most non IMGBurn tuts will focus on these only)

ripping models from the game
ripping textures from the game
ripping environment maps
modding models and or environments
ripping cutscenes

beyond this, you may not find much via websearch. For more technical help other than forums, consider consulting LLM AI. While not all of it will be accurate, it can help to get you pointed innthe right direction especially since wrbsearching this will be soo exceedingly difficult without the AI to help you figure out what specific software and or functions you really need to be doing.
 
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