How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Discuss Daggerfall Unity and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.
Post Reply
User avatar
King of Worms
Posts: 4752
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:18 pm
Location: Scourg Barrow (CZ)
Contact:

How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by King of Worms »

Is it locked or anyone can dive in and pillage? :D
Id prefer the 1st option. If anyone wants anything, he should ask the mod author. We should have some option to lock it, if it isnt the case already.

I ask because Ive received such a question, like "How can I open the DFMOD to get the textures for my project" instead of "Hi, can you pls share your textures for my project XYZ?"

Some ppl have it all confused........ :roll:

Thank you!

User avatar
XJDHDR
Posts: 258
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2019 5:15 pm
Location: New Zealand
Contact:

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by XJDHDR »

It's not straightforward but it can be done. There are special programs that can be used to extract data from Unity packages. I tested UtinyRipper on your mod and it was able to extract the textures.

I'm not sure I understand M1a2Xel's reasoning though. On top of asking for permission being nicer and probably faster than trying to extract files behind your back, I'm not sure why he needed your textures as placeholders and can't use the ones from vanilla DF instead.

User avatar
Baler
Posts: 225
Joined: Thu May 23, 2019 1:39 am
Location: Earth

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by Baler »

There is no way to 100% lock things like images in any software. There are dedicated tools to finding images in files or memory and dump them. However these are extreme measures that are rarely used by the average person.

In regards to people wanting to use your work, tell them to buzz off. But keep in mind DREAM is one of the highest rated mods available for DFU you're going to get messages from goofy people.

Also on Nexus Mods you can report mods that stole your work. ;)

---
I have mixed feelings about non-open source additions to an open-source project.
Some people feel their work should be protected from others who want to steal it.
Some people feel their work should be preserved for future contributors to fix or improve.

User avatar
King of Worms
Posts: 4752
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:18 pm
Location: Scourg Barrow (CZ)
Contact:

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by King of Worms »

XJDHDR wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 12:00 am I'm not sure I understand M1a2Xel's reasoning though. On top of asking for permission being nicer and probably faster than trying to extract files behind your back, I'm not sure why he needed your textures as placeholders and can't use the ones from vanilla DF instead.
Because most likely he is lying about the placeholders. If you want a placeholders, you dont search for high quality textures.

Thanks for the rest of the info ;)
Last edited by King of Worms on Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:57 am, edited 3 times in total.

User avatar
King of Worms
Posts: 4752
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:18 pm
Location: Scourg Barrow (CZ)
Contact:

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by King of Worms »

Also on Nexus Mods you can report mods that stole your work
I know, and Ive seen it happen in the past, when someone stole others work for Mass Effect 2...

And thanks for the rest of the info :)
Last edited by King of Worms on Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
King of Worms
Posts: 4752
Joined: Mon Oct 17, 2016 11:18 pm
Location: Scourg Barrow (CZ)
Contact:

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by King of Worms »

Now I think... the "textures" are more like a materials. So if someone digs deep, can he get the full materials? Like albedo, normal, height, smoothness, shader setup etc? I dont think I will like the answer...

Anyway... whatever.

User avatar
TheLacus
Posts: 1305
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 6:22 pm

Re: How hard is it to extract assets from a DFMOD?

Post by TheLacus »

Dfmod packages don't contain png or other files as you have them on disk, assets are built to a format usable by engine on target platform (i.e. DXT or other compressed texture format). People don't have access to your original files, but they can still retrieve assets with the Unity Editor and potentially have the ability to export them.

Post Reply