[Import] Extracting and importing Dota Models

[Ugabunda]

Hi all,

Dota has some very nice models and effects that I cannot find anywhere. So I tried to extract them via MPQ Editor. But I have two issues doing so:

1) Attached you find DotA v6.83d - for some reason I cannot see any folder structure, so I don't know what the relevant models / effects are (attached an image). Is this because the map is extra protected?

2) For DotA 6.8 AI I do get a folder structure and I can extract the things I want. However, some models / effects are white when in-game. I figured this is because the blp (texture) path is wrong, but I have no idea what it should be. How can I find out the texture path in this case?


Thanks!

 

[Ugabunda]

Sorry for the double post, but can anyone please help here?

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Stealing models from a map without permission eh?

 

[Ugabunda]

Sorry, but who would you suggest to ask for permission in this case?

Icefrog moved on to Dota 2 (and doesn't own any of these assets himself) and with the new eula Blizzard owns ultimtely everything. So what this boils down to is to let all these great assets die out the longer this game becomes abandoned by people (and Blizz).

I didn't know exctraction was possible in the first place, I followed Magtheridon96 comment here, but I have trouble applying it:
[Import] - Where can i download the model that used in DotA ?
"Extract everything from DotA using an MPQ editor, import them into a map, then browse thorugh them in the object editor. That's what I do :3"

 

[Dr Super Good]

1) Attached you find DotA v6.83d - for some reason I cannot see any folder structure, so I don't know what the relevant models / effects are (attached an image). Is this because the map is extra protected?

The map has no or a corrupted (listfile). This acts as a manifest of all files inside the map archive. Due to how MPQ file lookup works it is not required to know the paths of all the contained files to retrieve a file. As a result it is often deleted as a form of obfuscating "map protection".

The solution in this case is to use a standard auxiliary listfile which will detect the common map data files. The common map data files are at known file paths since that is how Warcraft III loads into the map. These data files will then reference model or texture paths which can be resolved to retrieve the desired model from the map archive. The model file itself then contains texture paths which can be resolved to the required textures from the map archive.

How can I find out the texture path in this case?

Look up the texture path in the model file. Notepad can be sufficient since the texture paths will be the ".blp" suffixed human readable text sequences near the top of the file. Alternatively use Mangos or Retera's model studio for a more user friendly experience looking these up.

MPQ file paths are case insensitive. Hence texture paths should also be case insensitive.

 

[Ugabunda]

Thanks for the answer!

On the first point, I found this video:

But this leads me to all kinds of weird sites to download "deprotection tools". Is this correct or is what you mean much simpler?

For the second point: Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but as you suggested I found for example the path Textures\TrackBuff.blp in the MDX file via notepad. I thus adjusted the path in the editor, closed and re-opened the map, but the MDX preview is still white. Attached the 2 files. Do you know why?

 

[BloodSoul]

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but as you suggested I found for example the path Textures\TrackBuff.blp in the MDX file via notepad. I thus adjusted the path in the editor, closed and re-opened the map, but the MDX preview is still white. Attached the 2 files. Do you know why?

Weird. The model works fine for me. Tested it on both 1.29 and 1.32.7 versions.

Delete those files from your map and save it. Then, import them back again, change the texture's path to Textures\TrackBuff.blp and save your map once again. Finally, go to object editor and check if it's now working for you.

 

[Ugabunda]

Man I was about to write that I'm also using 1.32.7 and that it doesn't work, but I closed and re-opened the map and then it worked!

By also following the video I got a lot more "identified" models out of the map. There are still 28 unknown ones - will I be forced to just "try out the blp-path" there and check if a white model gets a texture?

 

[Dr Super Good]

But this leads me to all kinds of weird sites to download "deprotection tools". Is this correct or is what you mean much simpler?

I was explaining how such tools are meant to work. Of course if the tools were to come from a shady source they could be filled with malware rather than doing that.

For the second point: Not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but as you suggested I found for example the path Textures\TrackBuff.blp in the MDX file via notepad. I thus adjusted the path in the editor, closed and re-opened the map, but the MDX preview is still white. Attached the 2 files. Do you know why?

Did you extract the texture from the map at that file path? If using MPQEdit you need to add it as a line in an external list file and then mount the archive using that list file so that it detects the file path.

but I closed and re-opened the map and then it worked!

You need to import the models, set the file paths correctly, save the map and then reference the model. If this is not done in that order then the model may fail to load correctly in the editor. Due to the asset cache this will require the editor be restarted in order for the model to appear correctly.

There are still 28 unknown ones - will I be forced to just "try out the blp-path" there and check if a white model gets a texture?

You can try manually looking up the paths. Perhaps triggers reference them which the tools do not scan through. Otherwise you can inspect each file individually and look at the header. If it starts with BLP1 then it is a .blp texture which can be inspected using BLPLab to visually guess which model it is related to. Like wise with MDX you can see the MDX file identifier in notepad and know it is a model file and then use a model viewer to guess what the model is and give it a sensible name.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Sorry, but who would you suggest to ask for permission in this case?

Icefrog moved on to Dota 2 (and doesn't own any of these assets himself) and with the new eula Blizzard owns ultimtely everything. So what this boils down to is to let all these great assets die out the longer this game becomes abandoned by people (and Blizz).

So by that logic its absolutely okay to break into houses and steal stuff if the owner cant be contacted? Sound logic.
/sarcasm

Most of these models are not ownedby Icefrog anyway. So youre not stealing assets from him but from the poor people he paid to create them.