Umodel Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents:

 

General

How can I check for umodel updates?

There is RSS feed available on the main site - check icon on ther upper right corner. But not every game takes its own entry in a news list.
Forum RSS feed is also available.
Another option is to subscribe on the facebook umodel news. I am trying to keep it up to date. You can also find a link to the facebook page on the left column of this page, below the site menu.
The best way to check for a new version is to verify online version of readme file. It contains detailed changelog.

Which game titles are supported?

Check this table:
http://www.gildor.org/projects/umodel/compat
I'm trying to keep it up-to-date.

How can I help you?

The best help is a donation

Also you may vote for the umodel (press "LIKE") on its Facebook page

 

I have made some project/video with a help of umodel. Can I add you/your program to the credits?

Yes of course

 

Can I post your tool on my site/forum?

I see no reason to do so, my site is alive. You should not copy texts from this site, post a link instead. Do not post direct links to files - these links may be changed in a future.

 

Will you publish an umodel's source code?

Yes I will. I know - I've promised this for more than one year, but I will do it. Currently umodel acts like my "resume" and I hope to find a good job in serious company

What should I provide to you for support for some new game?

I need a few files:

  1. game executable; note: I need non-encrypted file! For the PC it should contain a few "key" strings in ANSI and Unicode - one of them is a "USkeletalMesh". If this string is not present in the file - it is encrypted and useless for me.
    For XBox360 executable is usually (or always?) named as "default.xex". It is encrypted, but decoder is available.
  2. core.u and engine.u (for some games file extension may be "xxx").
  3. startup_int package (usually present for cooked games).
  4. file version report of the pkgtool - to let me make autodetection of this game with umodel.

These files should be compressed to reduce traffic - use Rar or 7zip.
NOTE: I'm not guarantee that I will support that game, but I'm usually cannot make something without these files.

Umodel is crashed!

First of all, check the compatibility table. Most probably the game you are trying to open is not fully supported and you must restrict umodel to not load some kinds of resources: use -nomesh, -nostat, -noanim or -notex switches.
... TODO ...

 

What does error "no supported files" means?

This is not an error. The package file you're trying to open has nothing to display in umodel.

 

What does error "too much unknown files" means?

The answer is here.

What does error "wrong tag in package" means?

This means you're trying to open non-package file. Or you're trying to open file from some unsupported game which uses modified package format. Sometimes this error happens when people trying to open incorrectly extracted package files from XBox360 ISO images.

Why umodel error messages are so strange? Text1 <- Text2 <- Text3 ...

This error message is in Unreal engine 1 and 2 style. It displays callstack of the functions, plus some additional information which allows me to detect error reason in most cases without obtaining additional information.

 

What is the message "WARNING: BoolProperty "SomeClass::SomeProp" was not found" in the log?

This message means: object of SomeClass has property SomeProp which is not known to the umodel. Simply ignore these messages, it could be useful for some diagnostic only.

 

What is "cooked package"?

Cooking were introduced in Unreal engine 3. Cooking is a process in development cycle which produces package files for target platform. Cooked packages are smaller than non-cooked and could be loaded faster. Usually these packages resides in "Cooked<PlatformName>" game folder. This folder contains compiled script packages, map packages and seek-free packages. For more information please read UDN article "Content cooking".

 

Why the same mesh is duplicated in multiple packages?

This is a side effect (or feature) of the cooking process. Read more about cooking above.

 

Texturing questions

Meshes in a viewer are not textured. What's wrong?

There are a few variants of answer:

  1. umodel is unable to find some package containing materials - check umodel logs
  2. mesh is not textured, materials are assigned by the game in runtime
  3. material is too complex for umodel, so it is replaced with "default texture"
  4. this is a variant of (1) - you're trying to start umodel with a wrong game path. For example: UE2 game usually has "Textures", "Animations" and some other directories. If you'll start umodel from the "Amimations" directory, umodel will not file textures. You should start it from the parent directory - common for the "Animations" and "Textures".

More info here and here.

Why UE3 game textures are in very low resolution - 64x64 instead of 2048x2048?

Check the log. Most probably umodel is unable to find tfc file (usually "textures.tfc"). If this file really exists - verify your "-path=..." option.
More info. Also check this thread.

Another note: this error often exists when user (following some third-party tutorials) is copying game files to some directory and trying to extract files from that place. This is wrong - umodel is written to open files directly from the game directory, no file copying is required.

 

How to extract data from the textures.tfc?

Textures.tfc cannot be extracted directly. This file is used by Unreal Engine 3 (and by umodel) automatically when package file has streamed texture. This file contains texture data, but texture metadata (texture name, size, format) are located inside upk file.
The same applies to the Bioshock's .bsm and Unreal Championship 2 .xpr files.

 

Exporter and PSK/PSA questions

Where I can find extracted files?

Files should be located by default in a current directory.

Windows Vista and 7 has disabled writting files into "Program Files" directory for non-admin users. When you're trying to export contect from some game located in Program Files, operating system will redirect all output to the "C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files" directory.

If you having trouble locating exported files, use "-out=SomeOtherDirectory" option.

 

Umodel extracts nothing from package SomePackageName.upk

If umodel is not crashed - it's ok. Most probably this package has neither textures nor meshes inside, relax.

 

How to recompile extracted data back to the packages?

You may recreate package if target game has UnrealEd (of course, if all required data were exported - most data types are not supported, it is impossible to support everything). If the game has no publically available UnrealEd, this task is impossible.

 

How can I load PSK file into 3ds Max?

Use my ActorX Importer plugin.

 

Is there PSK/PSA importer for Maya?

No

 

Is there importer for Blender?

Check this and this

 

What is PSKX format?

This format is a modified PSK (ActorX mesh) format. Modifications were made by me to allow placing some additional information into the file. You should not try to import PKSX into UnrealEd, it may crash. I have changed file extension specially for people who trying to load such files into programs with PSK support (and asking after that "why that program is crashed when I've loaded psk?"). There is no PSKX documentation available, but I can reveal my changes if there will be any interest.

Currently PSKX has following additional features in comparison to PSK:

  • can store mesh without a skeleton (StaticMesh)
  • mesh can be made with more than 64k vertices

Earlier versions of the umodel were produced PSAX files too (in some conditions), but later it was overrided with .config files stored aside with PSA file.

 

Mesh is loaded into 3ds Max untextured, while it is appeared in umodel's viewer correctly

You should correctly set up ActorX Importer options "Path to materials" and "recurse".

Check this thread for more details. Also you could check 2nd tutorial video, I'm describing how to load textured mesh into 3ds max there.

 

How to export sounds?

Use "-sounds" command line option. This options is not used by default because I cannot guarantee that umodel will not crash on exporting sounds for particular game.

 

How to export FaceFX and ScaleForm assets?

Use "-3rdparty" option.

 

How can I export data from all game packages?

Use this batch extractor.

 

Starting umodel

Programs is not working - when I started umodel some black window appears and immediately disappears

Umodel is not a GUI application, it is a console program. Console applications uses a different approach to start - you should either start it from the command prompt (cmd.exe), or create a bat-file with the command line.

Which command line options are available?

Start umodel without arguments, it will display a full list of command line options.

Is there a GUI for umodel?

Yes. There is a GUI (umodel launcher) made by fritz.

 

Viewer questions

How to use umodel in a viewer mode? What umodel can do?

In a viewer model press <H> key, it will display full information about keyboard shortcuts. Note: this list depends on object beeng displayed - texture and mesh viewer has a different set of commands.
Also check my brief introduction into umodel:
http://www.gildor.org/en/projects/umodel/tutorials
"Unreal Model Viewer basics"

How can I take a screenshot?

Press <Ctrl+S>. Screenshot will be placed in the current directory, in subdirectory "Screenshots". They are in TGA format. If you want to produce screenshot with transparent background you should use key <Alt+S>. In this case umodel will replace background color with translucent black color. Also key <Ctrl+Q> could be useful - it will disable onscreen debug output such as texts and coordinate system axis.

How can I view player models combined from a few meshes?

Start umodel in a viewer mode. Browse through the meshes. Find a mesh which is a part of "combined mesh". Press <Ctrl+T> ("tag mesh"). Mesh name will appear in a list on the screen. Now, when you will browse to another mesh, tagged mesh will remains on the screen. Use the same method to tag all required meshes (head, legs, torso, arms etc). Note: the combined mesh can be animated in a usual way.

Also I suggest you to watch second tutorial video.

 

How to view animations for UE3 games? When I'm opening a model it has no available animations

Press <Ctrl+A> key. This key will cycle through all loaded AnimSets (MeshAnimation object for UE2).

Animated mesh has gone outside from viewport. How can I focus camera on it?

Probably animation uses "Root Motion". Press <F> ("focus") key to focus camera on the mesh center. You may hold this key pressed during the animation to keep mesh on the screen center.
Of course, you may also use traditional navigation with mouse.

 

How can I view animation when it is stored separately from the mesh (in a different package)?

When starting umodel add extra switch "-pkg=<package_name>" providing the name of that "different package". Umodel will load the priomary package (which name is provided in an "ordinary way") and all secondary packages (there may be any number of "-pkg=..." options).
Note: you may use the same approach to combine meshes which parts are placed in a different packages too. Example - UT3 Bonus Pack - it contains additional head, torso, legs meshes for human races - you may combine them with the meshes from retail game and even animate it with a standard animations.

There are a lot of materials in object browser. How can I quickly view meshes?

Use additional command line option "-meshes".