January 17Jan 17 Hello everyone, I’m currently researching the internal asset formats used in NASCAR Unleashed, specifically the PS3 and Nintendo 3DS versions, and I’m hoping someone here might have insight or experience with these files. I have access to the game data and have identified what appear to be 3D model resources, likely including cars, tracks, or environment geometry. However, the formats are not immediately recognizable by standard 3D tools (Blender, Noesis default loaders, etc.), and the file headers suggest they may be custom or lightly modified engine-specific formats rather than something standard like FBX, OBJ, or COLLADA. Some technical observations / questions: The PS3 version appears to use big-endian data, which is expected, but I’m unsure whether the models are stored as raw vertex buffers or wrapped in a container format. The 3DS version seems to use a separate asset layout, possibly with GPU-ready data optimized for the PICA200 pipeline. I suspect the engine may be related to Behaviour Interactive / Eutechnyx tech, but I haven’t found any confirmed documentation on their asset pipelines for this title. Textures appear extractable, but model data may be interleaved, compressed, or referenced via lookup tables. If this helps, i would like to mention that the game is made by Firebrand games using their in house Octane game engine. What I’m looking for: Any existing tools, scripts, or plugins that can parse or open NASCAR Unleashed model files Suggestions for reverse-engineering approaches, such as known libraries to try in Noesis, QuickBMS, or custom Python/C++ parsers Information on whether these assets are stored as: Platform-native GPU buffers Serialized engine objects Containers referencing multiple sub-assets (mesh, skeleton, materials) Even partial progress—such as confirming vertex layouts, index buffers, or skeleton data—would be extremely helpful. If anyone has worked on similar NASCAR titles or adjacent engines from the same era, I’d appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance, and I’m happy to share findings if this leads anywhere productive. Sample.zip Edited January 17Jan 17 by King Sexus Got some new information
January 17Jan 17 14 minutes ago, King Sexus said: Hello everyone, I’m currently researching the internal asset formats used in NASCAR Unleashed, specifically the PS3 and Nintendo 3DS versions, and I’m hoping someone here might have insight or experience with these files. I have access to the game data and have identified what appear to be 3D model resources, likely including cars, tracks, or environment geometry. However, the formats are not immediately recognizable by standard 3D tools (Blender, Noesis default loaders, etc.), and the file headers suggest they may be custom or lightly modified engine-specific formats rather than something standard like FBX, OBJ, or COLLADA. Some technical observations / questions: The PS3 version appears to use big-endian data, which is expected, but I’m unsure whether the models are stored as raw vertex buffers or wrapped in a container format. The 3DS version seems to use a separate asset layout, possibly with GPU-ready data optimized for the PICA200 pipeline. I suspect the engine may be related to Behaviour Interactive / Eutechnyx tech, but I haven’t found any confirmed documentation on their asset pipelines for this title. Textures appear extractable, but model data may be interleaved, compressed, or referenced via lookup tables. What I’m looking for: Any existing tools, scripts, or plugins that can parse or open NASCAR Unleashed model files Suggestions for reverse-engineering approaches, such as known libraries to try in Noesis, QuickBMS, or custom Python/C++ parsers Information on whether these assets are stored as: Platform-native GPU buffers Serialized engine objects Containers referencing multiple sub-assets (mesh, skeleton, materials) Even partial progress—such as confirming vertex layouts, index buffers, or skeleton data—would be extremely helpful. If anyone has worked on similar NASCAR titles or adjacent engines from the same era, I’d appreciate any pointers. Thanks in advance, and I’m happy to share findings if this leads anywhere productive. Sample.zip 137.81 kB · 1 download The PSSG file for PS3 is just a texture (in DXT1 format). I can't see any model data in there. so those must be in different files.
January 17Jan 17 Author 47 minutes ago, DKDave said: Hey Dave I am Sigma from DJ's Server. I have some more samples from the ps3 version. have you tried the files i uploaded from the 3ds version? lod2.zip DC_ANIM_plane.anim.zip Edited January 17Jan 17 by King Sexus
January 17Jan 17 32 minutes ago, King Sexus said: Hey Dave I am Sigma from DJ's Server. I have some more samples from the ps3 version. have you tried the files i uploaded from the 3ds version? lod2.zip 623.52 kB · 1 download DC_ANIM_plane.anim.zip 920.95 kB · 0 downloads There was only 1 3DS file and that seemed like texture data as well. There's some mesh data in the LOD0 file. It's such a horrible format though, so scripting is probably tricky. Just a manual example of one submesh:
January 17Jan 17 Author 8 minutes ago, DKDave said: There was only 1 3DS file and that seemed like texture data as well. There's some mesh data in the LOD0 file. It's such a horrible format though, so scripting is probably tricky. Just a manual example of one submesh: Hold on, lemme upload some more 3DS files lod2.zip
January 18Jan 18 Author 17 hours ago, DKDave said: There was only 1 3DS file and that seemed like texture data as well. There's some mesh data in the LOD0 file. It's such a horrible format though, so scripting is probably tricky. Just a manual example of one submesh: SO what is the way forward Dave?
January 18Jan 18 5 hours ago, King Sexus said: SO what is the way forward Dave? With the PS3 ones, it would definitely need a bit work pulling out all the vertex parts and matching them to the face index sections, along with all the other data in there. That's if nobody else has already done so.
January 19Jan 19 Author How did you get the tire to show on that 3DS model, what settings did you use? On 1/18/2026 at 7:53 PM, DKDave said: With the PS3 ones, it would definitely need a bit work pulling out all the vertex parts and matching them to the face index sections, along with all the other data in there. That's if nobody else has already done so.
January 19Jan 19 42 minutes ago, King Sexus said: How did you get the tire to show on that 3DS model, what settings did you use? The settings are in the screenshot from 3d Model Researcher.
January 20Jan 20 Author 18 hours ago, DKDave said: The settings are in the screenshot from 3d Model Researcher. I realized that that screenshot is from the ps3 .pssg file, lemme check something real quick
February 13Feb 13 Author On 1/19/2026 at 10:54 PM, DKDave said: The settings are in the screenshot from 3d Model Researcher. Hey man, long time no see so an update for this topic. I understand that you managed to find 3-D data within the hex of of the LOD0.PSSG file for the PlayStation 3 version. Recently, I found some texture data within the livery PSSG’s within the textures folders. I got these DDS files using the ego engines PSSG editor. For some reason, though the LOD0 when opened with the PSSG editor had no data inside or rather data that can be extracted. As for the 3DS version, I managed to extract the models to .dae using citrus toolbox but when I try to open the models which are in BRRES format, every livery had the same texture file and it was corrupted not that it can’t be open, but for some reason to texture itself or rather the DDS file itself is torn to bits. so most likely that version of the BRRES format has to be proprietary. This is also the case for the Xbox 360 version. The model format that the Xbox 360 version uses is BDAE which the only information about it has something to do with Gameloft, but it’s but not compatible with the BDAE Noesis script. So I leave with the question have you found anything on your end? If not, I will request Reshax to delete this topic.
February 13Feb 13 Supporter 2 hours ago, King Sexus said: If not, I will request Reshax to delete this topic. If you did a more serious search on ResHax you wouldn't need to request topic deletions all the time. (lod0 from your lod2.zip): Edited February 13Feb 13 by shak-otay
February 13Feb 13 Author 2 hours ago, shak-otay said: If you did a more serious search on ResHax you wouldn't need to request topic deletions all the time. (lod0 from your lod2.zip): You are right about that, like i answered so of myy problems alreadyy. 2 hours ago, shak-otay said: If you did a more serious search on ResHax you wouldn't need to request topic deletions all the time. (lod0 from your lod2.zip): what version of the game is this, 3DS? please i would like for you to carry on.
March 4Mar 4 On 2/13/2026 at 4:56 PM, shak-otay said: If you did a more serious search on ResHax you wouldn't need to request topic deletions all the time. (lod0 from your lod2.zip): Hello Sir, I really love your H2O tool! The Creator of Model Researcher Ultimate created a H20 to Model Researcher Ultimate PMR and vice versa Python script, he wants to share it with you. somehow, how can he contact you? Gmail or Discord and Platform will be good.
March 4Mar 4 Supporter 36 minutes ago, Turnpike the Cabbage said: The Creator of Model Researcher Ultimate created a H20 to Model Researcher Ultimate PMR and vice versa Python script, he wants to share it with you. somehow, how can he contact you? Gmail or Discord and Platform will be good. Hello! Well, that's great. Though the "H2O to PMR" conversion is not the problem. I really loved the idea of having a full source of MRU but now it's not possible anymore (because of some "issue"). So say thanks to former user3678 but I decided to release my own source based on my MakeObj project, sooner or later.
March 4Mar 4 43 minutes ago, shak-otay said: "issue" I would like to know more. Are you even allowed to contact the creator at all? Edited March 4Mar 4 by Turnpike the Cabbage Bad grammar
March 4Mar 4 Supporter 24 minutes ago, Turnpike the Cabbage said: I would like to know more. Are you even allowed to contact the creator at all? Could you rephrase that? Which creator do you mean? The creator of the original MR is Lazov. The MRU clone was rewritten in C# and used a similar GUI. Maybe this was the issue which caused the source to be taken down from Github. (Just a wild guess.)
March 4Mar 4 On 3/4/2026 at 2:20 PM, shak-otay said: Could you rephrase that? Which creator do you mean? The creator of the original MR is Lazov. The MRU clone was rewritten in C# and used a similar GUI. Maybe this was the issue which caused the source to be taken down from Github. (Just a wild guess.) Ah ok, got you! Edited March 15Mar 15 by Turnpike the Cabbage
March 4Mar 4 On 3/4/2026 at 2:41 PM, shak-otay said: I've answered that already. "It's ok, I got you!" Edited March 15Mar 15 by Turnpike the Cabbage
Create an account or sign in to comment