Extracting The 3D Models And Textures From The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy

[DKDave]

14 minutes ago, Supurreme said:

Appreciate the Noesis script! I'm a bit lost on extracting the files in the first place though? I'm tech saavy but not enough to go pulling raw files out of an archive just based on what the compression type is, is there a tool somewhere that could handle it? Or could someone provide simple-ish instructions for brute forcing it?

I wrote this QuickBMS script for the MVGL archives when testing, not sure it's 100%, but it seems to get all files, and adds extensions to meshes and images.

 

mvgl.zip

[Supurreme]

11 minutes ago, DKDave said:

I wrote this QuickBMS script for the MVGL archives when testing, not sure it's 100%, but it seems to get all files, and adds extensions to meshes and images.

 

mvgl.zip 599 B · 0 downloads

sweet, ty! o7

[Siren]

Thanks. Hopefully the textures/skeletons can be grabbed next.

I've also confirmed my suspicion, (unless they're somewhere else,) only the protagonist's casual outfit exists in the files. All the others exist as their battle outfits only.

It's odd knowing that they made casual outfit models for each character but only used them in pre-rendered cutscenes.

Edited April 26 by Siren

[DKDave]

I've been looking into the materials a bit more and made some progress.  Here's a few test renders.  I'm not sure if some UVs are exactly right, but it's better than no textures.

 

 

 

[Personaspace]

Really interested in getting the models worked on, but definitely lost with how to actually extract them. Just want to say that I appreciate the work being put in by those who are more knowledgeable than me.

[RickJames54]

17 hours ago, DKDave said:

I've been looking into the materials a bit more and made some progress.  Here's a few test renders.  I'm not sure if some UVs are exactly right, but it's better than no textures.

 

 

 

These looks great, I’m guessing the white part in all there hair is for the hair highlight thing ?

[DKDave]

2 hours ago, RickJames54 said:

These looks great, I’m guessing the white part in all there hair is for the hair highlight thing ?

I'm not sure.  As usual, there's lots of stuff in the files that is unknown.  There are also rougness/metallic textures which I haven't looked at yet, and not 100% sure how to process those correctly yet.

 

 

[SuperHundredLineFan]

DKDave, I am by no means technologically literate, an individual ten steps below the greenest of greenhorns as far any these matters are concerned, but nonetheless I've been reading and trying to learn how to modify -extract and 'repack' too- the contents of HUNDRED line, just out of curiosity, and your quickbms script has been a godsend. 

Problem is, the extracted data is regrettably (and I suppose obviously) scrambled, and in such a way that I can't think of any way to unscramble it; to make cohesion out of the inchoation. Do you reckon there's a way around this? -and in addition, a way to thereafter (1) edit it (2) re-integrate it to the game without any issue. I take it that, as far as text alone is concerned, this is maybe the most surely achievable...

All that said, thank you again for the script. You're a hero.

[DKDave]

26 minutes ago, SuperHundredLineFan said:

DKDave, I am by no means technologically literate, an individual ten steps below the greenest of greenhorns as far any these matters are concerned, but nonetheless I've been reading and trying to learn how to modify -extract and 'repack' too- the contents of HUNDRED line, just out of curiosity, and your quickbms script has been a godsend. 

Problem is, the extracted data is regrettably (and I suppose obviously) scrambled, and in such a way that I can't think of any way to unscramble it; to make cohesion out of the inchoation. Do you reckon there's a way around this? -and in addition, a way to thereafter (1) edit it (2) re-integrate it to the game without any issue. I take it that, as far as text alone is concerned, this is maybe the most surely achievable...

All that said, thank you again for the script. You're a hero.

How do you mean scrambled?  They're decompressed and not encrypted.  As for editing and repacking, that's a lot more complicated than just extracting, as you probably need to know a lot more about every piece of data in the files to properly recreate them with new data.

 

[SuperHundredLineFan]

Electing to choose the word 'scrambled' might've not been apt... You see, in what I take should be an openable file, within which are contents perusable reflective of what's found in-game, I instead get a jumbled assortment of data from only a generic 'file' that really means nothing, or instead does have information the content of which isn't uniformly presentable (PNG 2)

Admittedly, I have not yet opened all mvgl archives, so I should probably get to that..

Lastly, for the final point: well, you're certainly right it'll be extremely complicated, but what about if I restrict any attempt at modifications to specifically only in-game text, to start off? Assuming I edit a line -and nothing beside- would that really generate a damnable amount of conflict? A lot of questions, but I wouldn't even know how to get started, haha.

[DKDave]

22 minutes ago, SuperHundredLineFan said:

Electing to choose the word 'scrambled' might've not been apt... You see, in what I take should be an openable file, within which are contents perusable reflective of what's found in-game, I instead get a jumbled assortment of data from only a generic 'file' that really means nothing, or instead does have information the content of which isn't uniformly presentable (PNG 2)

Admittedly, I have not yet opened all mvgl archives, so I should probably get to that..

Lastly, for the final point: well, you're certainly right it'll be extremely complicated, but what about if I restrict any attempt at modifications to specifically only in-game text, to start off? Assuming I edit a line -and nothing beside- would that really generate a damnable amount of conflict? A lot of questions, but I wouldn't even know how to get started, haha.

Firstly, don't open files in notepad - you need a proper hex editor at the very least to see the proper information.  Most files won't have anything recognisable, that's where experience of reverse engineering comes in to recognise data offsets, different types of data, etc.  You might get some files that are fairly "standard", such as DDS image files or RIFF/WAVE audio files, but most will be proprietary.  Sometimes you might get lucky and versions of the file may have been used in previous games and others have already looked at them.

Even just editing text can be tricky.  For example, if your text is larger than the existing text, it may affect offsets for other lines of text, and you would also have to amend all of those affected.  If your text is smaller, it may work.  If you're doing something like translating to another language, it may not have the font data for specific symbols.  A lot of things to consider, even for seemingly simple tasks.

 

 

 

 

[SuperHundredLineFan]

Seems it'll truly end up a Herculean task, this one. If nothing else, the silver lining is that PNG2 was merely to effectualize an example.. as my primary concern is only English output within, naturally, English translations. Going, no, translating x -> z would indeed spark too much incongruence.

Also, you're correct in that I did get a collection of standard files, DDS image files among...

Now then, next step is the hex editor. Forgive the emoticon, but I can't help but feel it best expresses where and what my mind's like now:

(´• ω •`)

 

[KitoBallard]

On 4/26/2025 at 6:34 PM, DKDave said:

I've been looking into the materials a bit more and made some progress.  Here's a few test renders.  I'm not sure if some UVs are exactly right, but it's better than no textures.

 

 

 

This is looking amazing and I'm excited to see more advances to the tools so we can also dig into the files ourselves easier. I would love to get some of the character models for some projects

[RickJames54]

15 hours ago, KitoBallard said:

This is looking amazing and I'm excited to see more advances to the tools so we can also dig into the files ourselves easier. I would love to get some of the character models for some projects

me too I can't wait either 

[RickJames54]

On 4/27/2025 at 3:01 PM, DKDave said:

I'm not sure.  As usual, there's lots of stuff in the files that is unknown.  There are also rougness/metallic textures which I haven't looked at yet, and not 100% sure how to process those correctly yet.

 

 

any updates that you can share ?

[DKDave]

On 4/30/2025 at 11:51 PM, RickJames54 said:

any updates that you can share ?

No updated as yet.  Haven't looked at it for a few days, but I'll have another look at it soon and upload an updated script.

 

[KitoBallard]

13 hours ago, DKDave said:

No updated as yet.  Haven't looked at it for a few days, but I'll have another look at it soon and upload an updated script.

 

While I'm personally eager to get new info and even get my own paws on the models for my projects, I don't mind waiting. I know these things can't be rushed and rather see the system work better (such as the missing bone rigging) and finalized. And maybe some user friendly tools (as I'm code inept and somewhat of a dumb dumb).

What you've done so far is huge though and I hope things continue to work out ^_^

[batclark06]

Will it be possible to extract these models and get them to open in blender so that they may be ported to vrchat?

[KitoBallard]

4 hours ago, batclark06 said:

Will it be possible to extract these models and get them to open in blender so that they may be ported to vrchat?

sssshhhh you're ruining my plans lol I kid

Once they can be extracted with their bones and weights, then they can be changed to an fbx format 

[ModelTruther56]

I can't be the only one checking this thread daily for any updates 🤣🤣🤣

[Bantoras]

I wanted to ask are there any of the casual outfits of the students in the files? Or is it just their Class Armor (aside from Takumi, of course)

[KitoBallard]

3 hours ago, Bantoras said:

I wanted to ask are there any of the casual outfits of the students in the files? Or is it just their Class Armor (aside from Takumi, of course)

My guess is just Takumi, as all the other times you see them in their casual are in cutscenes, and those are prerendered