You could try using a converter online to export the files as a compatible type that can be opened with Blender

keycapcereal původně napsal:

You could try using a converter online to export the files as a compatible type that can be opened with Blender

So far the converters I've tried haven't been able to recognize the files, even though they claim to be able to handle them, aside from one which... was honestly unintelligible, and I couldn't find a way to save the file it was presenting.

Do you have one in mind that would work?

"the publisher Take2 might not even realize they still own the IP."

Have you ASKED them?

Just be aware that "abandonware" isn't a licence to do what you want with other peoples work. Copyrighted material is still copyright whether or not it is being actively developed or sold. Someone owns it, and that someone is not you. Modding something, maybe. Otherwise cover you arse & ask them.

Mark3 původně napsal:

"the publisher Take2 might not even realize they still own the IP."

Have you ASKED them?

Just be aware that "abandonware" isn't a licence to do what you want with other peoples work. Copyrighted material is still copyright whether or not it is being actively developed or sold. Someone owns it, and that someone is not you. Modding something, maybe. Otherwise cover you arse & ask them.

I've tried, actually, extensively to get in contact with people that might have the rights. Take2 and Slitherine are both possible options but so far forums, phone calls, and emails I've sent/made have been met with total silence. That's why I word it that way, I have no idea if the rights are still active, if they died with Creative Reality or Coyote, got bought by Slitherine after they moved to another studio with some of the people who made the game, or if they remained with the publisher. The only lead that hasn't almost instantly dead ended has been talking to the writer of MGU, who owns the characters themselves, and is a pretty cool guy honestly.

If you happen to have a hotline number that would actually get me past the spam walls then by all means lay it on me. I wouldn't be asking this in Steam forums for Blender if I wasn't basically desperate and doing this off the cuff. Also I'm aware that Abandoneware isn't free reign over an IP, the point wasn't to just China my way into this and create the game over again, claiming it was mine so much as remake it as best I could as a fan project, possibly using some of the RESE remakes as a baseline for updating. Mechanically only, I can't do graphics like that.

Unless you know something about these files and converting them, the reason behind this forum's existence, or the hotline number I mentioned, then otherwise let me worry about the other issues you mentioned. I've put some research into this as it is, and frankly my "arse is covered".

Tried and failed to contact the owners, means you don't have any right to take their work for yourself, or use it. I

t's not my or anyone else's job to supply you with such information. You haven't got it, so the default is that you do NOT have permission. Don't expect to be given permission because you feel like you deserve it. It isn't a matter of whether you WANT advice or not, it is just the way things are.

It doesn't matter what your intentions about claiming rights over any derivative work; it is the simple fact that you have not got a legal leg to stand on. Whatever. Take that or leave it. It's your choice.

Mark3 původně napsal:

Tried and failed to contact the owners, means you don't have any right to take their work for yourself, or use it. I

t's not my or anyone else's job to supply you with such information. You haven't got it, so the default is that you do NOT have permission. Don't expect to be given permission because you feel like you deserve it. It isn't a matter of whether you WANT advice or not, it is just the way things are.

It doesn't matter what your intentions about claiming rights over any derivative work; it is the simple fact that you have not got a legal leg to stand on. Whatever. Take that or leave it. It's your choice.

I feel like you miss the point of fair use and fan creation laws, which allow use of an IP or property so long as there is no "sale" of the product, as long as the owner allows it. Meaning projects like this can operate until overtly shut down, just like any of the thousands of fangames and recreations out there, alot of which are actually sanctioned by the original Rights Holders. You act like I'm committing a crime but appear to know little to nothing about how this works.

I remember I did something slightly in this vein awhile back. I had a random PC game that I was able to unpack into individual assets. Since you haven't said much in terms of detail, I will just say that file extensions are usually uniform, but not always. It's possible that .anm and .tex exist as completely different file types somewhere for some unrelated thing, which could cloud your results.

The key to searching hyper specific things like this is first off to not use google because it doesn't work anymore. Next is to use advanced searching. So for example if you google .tex file converter, google will probably give you TOP 100 .MP3 CONVERTERS. So to assist with that, you might instead search using quotes and minus. So if we now type in
".tex" "convert" -.mp3
Then now we are forcing the search engine to exclude .mp3 and only show results with the quoted terms included.

The next thing is that it's very important to research the game to find out the names of the technologies associated. The older you get, the more often a game's engine or renderer or physics will be proprietary. But if they're not, then maybe you can find out more by finding more popular games on the same technology to see if anyone figured anything out from there.

It's also important to figure out file type associations. If .tex files are a super oldschool proprietary way of handling texturing for a game made in the 90s, then blender won't just open it. You might need to find a complicated pipeline of using a 90s version of Maya or Milkshape3D or whatever people were using at the time, and then using that to export as a different filetype that is easier to modernize.

Mark3 původně napsal:

Tried and failed to contact the owners, means you don't have any right to take their work for yourself, or use it.

If people actually followed that absurd suggestion 90% of old games and software and general would be unusable due to how badly copyright law is written.

Also for the original guy check online if anyone made a blender import addon for the file types you need and if not then it might be possible to make one yourself, but I don’t know where you would even start with learning to do that.

BiometalOmega původně napsal:

I feel like you miss the point of fair use and fan creation laws, which allow use of an IP or property so long as there is no "sale" of the product, as long as the owner allows it. Meaning projects like this can operate until overtly shut down, just like any of the thousands of fangames and recreations out there, alot of which are actually sanctioned by the original Rights Holders. You act like I'm committing a crime but appear to know little to nothing about how this works.

No. I'm not "acting like" anything". Stop being so childish. I am offering advice. You have already made your mind up so I'm out. You will probably get away with it, assuming you can manage the job in the first place. Although thinking that coming on a forum, run by a game company, asking for advice on what they might consider pirating is a bit stupid.

The law regarding copyright & fair use does not work the way you seem to think it does. It is not restricted to "sale" of the product, and Just because you think it sounds right, and "should" be ok, doesn't mean that you are immune from someone suddenly noticing what you are doing and slapping a hefty court case on you.

The key phrase is "AS LONG AS THE OWNER ALLOWS IT".

Good luck.

Stormer původně napsal:

Mark3 původně napsal:

Tried and failed to contact the owners, means you don't have any right to take their work for yourself, or use it.

If people actually followed that absurd suggestion 90% of old games and software and general would be unusable due to how badly copyright law is written.

Ahh, so we just ignore laws that stop us doing what we want because of some numbers and athing that you just made up. OK. Sounds utterly reasonable. I was wrong. Have fun with that. (shrug)

Mark3 původně napsal:

Stormer původně napsal:

If people actually followed that absurd suggestion 90% of old games and software and general would be unusable due to how badly copyright law is written.

Ahh, so we just ignore laws that stop us doing what we want because of some numbers and athing that you just made up. OK. Sounds utterly reasonable. I was wrong. Have fun with that. (shrug)

Buddy the numbers where just an exaggerated stand in for saying “most”, they weren’t mean to be taken literally lol.

Stormer původně napsal:

Mark3 původně napsal:

Tried and failed to contact the owners, means you don't have any right to take their work for yourself, or use it.

If people actually followed that absurd suggestion 90% of old games and software and general would be unusable due to how badly copyright law is written.

Also for the original guy check online if anyone made a blender import addon for the file types you need and if not then it might be possible to make one yourself, but I don’t know where you would even start with learning to do that.

It seems like there's a way to get the .ANM files to work, I've got an extension for that, however without the .GRP and .TEX files to attach them to Blender won't use them, and so far I've had little luck getting them to bind to anything. My worry is that I'll need to somehow get my hands on the EA program originally used to create these files to access them. At that point I might just need to start from scratch.

Mark3 původně napsal:

BiometalOmega původně napsal:

I feel like you miss the point of fair use and fan creation laws, which allow use of an IP or property so long as there is no "sale" of the product, as long as the owner allows it. Meaning projects like this can operate until overtly shut down, just like any of the thousands of fangames and recreations out there, alot of which are actually sanctioned by the original Rights Holders. You act like I'm committing a crime but appear to know little to nothing about how this works.

No. I'm not "acting like" anything". Stop being so childish. I am offering advice. You have already made your mind up so I'm out. You will probably get away with it, assuming you can manage the job in the first place. Although thinking that coming on a forum, run by a game company, asking for advice on what they might consider pirating is a bit stupid.

The law regarding copyright & fair use does not work the way you seem to think it does. It is not restricted to "sale" of the product, and Just because you think it sounds right, and "should" be ok, doesn't mean that you are immune from someone suddenly noticing what you are doing and slapping a hefty court case on you.

The key phrase is "AS LONG AS THE OWNER ALLOWS IT".

Good luck.

Altogether you're incorrect as there are laws that protect this kind of project so long as it isn't directly shut down by the IP owner and doesn't make a profit from sales of the product. End of story. As for acting childish, I'm afraid you were the originator of that chain, as instead of actually helping in this thread or staying quiet you felt the need to try and shut down a project you have no association with or connection to, and obviously have little to no knowledge about. If you have nothing useful to say, please move on and go back to verbally assaulting people without reason on Twitter. Oh excuse me, X.


The likelihood of a court case coming from this is almost zero, it isn't like I'm using a Nintendo property. I never claimed immunity either, I just reference there being laws that "can" protect projects like this. Your "advice" is redundant, reductive, and frankly out of place, as the original point of this forum was to find ways to open model files in newer programs. If you have nothing useful to add, go elsewhere.

Nirvash původně napsal:

I remember I did something slightly in this vein awhile back. I had a random PC game that I was able to unpack into individual assets. Since you haven't said much in terms of detail, I will just say that file extensions are usually uniform, but not always. It's possible that .anm and .tex exist as completely different file types somewhere for some unrelated thing, which could cloud your results.

The key to searching hyper specific things like this is first off to not use google because it doesn't work anymore. Next is to use advanced searching. So for example if you google .tex file converter, google will probably give you TOP 100 .MP3 CONVERTERS. So to assist with that, you might instead search using quotes and minus. So if we now type in
".tex" "convert" -.mp3
Then now we are forcing the search engine to exclude .mp3 and only show results with the quoted terms included.

The next thing is that it's very important to research the game to find out the names of the technologies associated. The older you get, the more often a game's engine or renderer or physics will be proprietary. But if they're not, then maybe you can find out more by finding more popular games on the same technology to see if anyone figured anything out from there.

It's also important to figure out file type associations. If .tex files are a super oldschool proprietary way of handling texturing for a game made in the 90s, then blender won't just open it. You might need to find a complicated pipeline of using a 90s version of Maya or Milkshape3D or whatever people were using at the time, and then using that to export as a different filetype that is easier to modernize.

Thanks for the relevant response, its refreshing around here.

I've been using DuckDuckGo, and I won't pretend its perfect, but I've found a few supposed file converters for .TEX and .GRP, the only issue is that they either fail to recognize the file or spit out incomprehensible garbage, almost like they're no longer being supported by the devs or aren't meant for files this old.

And you are correct, these files are linked to EA's Deluxe Paint tool, which I have yet to find an install for so far, although that has admittedly been on the back burner. Might be what I try to do next at this rate. Creative Reality was originally working on a point and click adventure game, a second one for the studio actually, and I think they kept using the same programs for MGU. I'll also look into Milkshape and Maya, thanks for that, as I believe you're correct again, these files are linked together by Deluxe Paint, and while Blender *can* use ANM files, it can't utilize them without the GRP model base, and I would assume the same would be true for the TEX skin. Then again I'm a little new to this, so its also possible the ANM files are for 2D assets alone, and the rest is the 3D environment, etc. I didn't choose the smoothest project to be my first.

No I am absolutely not "altogether incorrect", and I think you know that, & you do seem to be acting very churlishly. No one is trying to shut your little project down. If you can't understand the simple things I wrote then please ignore me completely. You are invincible in you superior knowledge. Good luck. Out.