CG Ripping Guide

[Accordia]

Extracting CGs from games is surprisingly easy once you have the right tools, so I figured I'd share some tips and secrets =)

(Mods, is this the right forum for this, or should it go in BL Guides?)

CG Extraction Tools

Here's a list of tools you'll need, and where to find them. (Will be updated later as I add to the guide.)

Crass
ExtractData
MultiExtractor
ONScripter Tools
unrpa (also requires Python 2.7.2)
XnConvert


Game Engines I Can Work With

Some common game engines that I know how to extract CGs from:

KiriKiri (instructions below) - common for Japanese commercial and doujin games
LiveMaker
NScripter
Ren'Py - more common in the English and Russian visual novel communities, but sometimes used for Japanese games
SaiSys - Marine Heart & Ferret games
Yuuki!Novel
Scenario-kun

(I'll add more to this list as I update the guide.)

General Setup/Getting Started

Before you start, make sure your computer is set to show file name extensions. This will save you trouble when you're looking for particular file types.

Also, when working with Japanese games, it's always a good idea to install Japanese language support. Image file names sometimes contain Japanese characters, and I don't know if they'll extract properly if your computer's set to another language.

Game Engines I Don't Know How to Work With

This isn't a comprehensive list, but I figured I'd list engines I can't rip CGs from so people don't their hopes up, and also in case someone else has tips they can share.

Lanovee - commercial Japanese visual novel engine. The only game I've seen use it is Mou, Eewa... Suki ni Shite.

*****

KiriKiri

KiriKiri games either have all the resources packed in an .EXE file, like so:

capture_002_26032014_150743.png

Or have a separate .EXE file to launch the game, with data packed in .XP3 files:

capture_001_26032014_150617.png

Usually there's only DATA.XP3, but some games will have different .XP3 files for each media type, and/or patch files (PATCH#.XP3).

Either way, the file description of the game's .EXE will say TVP(KIRIKIRI) 2 core / Scripting Platform for Win32.

KiriKiri is one of the most common visual novel engines, so there are many tools for extracting resources. However, some methods will extract the images as .TLG files, which require an additional step using Japanese image editing software, so that's kind of a pain.

I've found the easiest program to use is ExtractData, as it will extract .BMPs even if the images are in .TLG format within the game archive.

Open the game .XP3 or .EXE file in ExtractData to see a list of the archive contents:

capture_007_26032014_151446.png

You can ctrl+click to select files, then click the floppy disc icon to just extract those files, or click the multiple floppy disc icon to extract the whole archive. I find it a lot less hassle to just extract the whole archive, then delete BGM and other unneeded contents aftewards, rather than digging through a list of files. Whichever option you choose, you just need to input a file path and then click OK.

Some KiriKiri games, however, are encrypted and can't be fully ripped with ExtractData. The program can detect the file structure and extract files with the correct names and everything, but if you try to open the files in an image editor, you'll get an error.

If this happens, you'll need to extract the game archive with Crass. This is a bit more complicated, but as long as you run CrageGUI, at least you won't have to deal with command line stuff.

First, click "Show Adv." to show more options.

Check the "Source File" box, then browse for the .XP3 or .EXE file you want to extract.

In the same folder, you should find a .TPM file:

25052014_194105_capture_002.png

This contains encryption information for the game archive.

In CrageGUI, check the "Param" box and type tpm1=, then copy and paste the file path to the .TPM file, in quotes. It should look like this:

25052014_194430_capture_003.png

Click Execute. If this doesn't work, replace tpm1= with tpm2= and try again, which usually fixes the problem.

By default, Crass will extract the game archive into a new folder wherever you have Crass saved, but you can also set your own extract path by checking "Dest. Path" and browsing for another folder location.



That seems like enough for a starting post! I'll tackle NScripter and Ren'Py next.

Please let me know if this guide is unclear or needs more detail! I may have assumed some computer knowledge that you don't already have.

And have fun extracting your KiriKiri games =D

[Kojichan]

Whoa! A bit complicated, but it certainly makes awesome results if you want the CG's.

I got confused with the KiriKiri engine stuff, as it was way over my head sometimes. I didn't even know these tools existed before, so they're awesome to have! Thanks for this, and can't wait for the others!

[Accordia]

I added a few things to the guide in the first post; not sure if that helps OTL

Actually, before I tackle NScripter, here's a really easy engine to deal with:

SaiSys

The game engine used by Marine Heart, Ferret, and probably other Aqua House-related companies. You know, the annoying one that advances text if you click anywhere on the screen outside the game window, and which refuses to save your text speed settings >_<

The game folder will have an executable file named SaiSys.EXE, which is what you run to play the game, as well as folders containing the game resources: Wav, Script, and Grd. It'll look something like this:

27052014_103313_capture_001.png

Inside the Grd folder, you'll find all the graphics for the game:

27052014_103325_capture_002.png

They're saved as files without extensions to throw you off, but they're actually unencrypted image files. All you have to do is convert them into a more familiar format, like .PNG.

For this purpose, I use XnConvert, a free image converter that works with a lot of less common image file types.

Just run XnConvert, select all the files in the GRD folder, and drag them into the Input window:

27052014_103949_capture_003.png

Then click on the Output tab:

27052014_104025_capture_004.png

Choose your output folder and image format, then click Convert​. It only takes a few seconds, and no special extraction software!

[joy3636]

Thanks for the guide. But how can I rip CGs from npa files? I tried with ExtractData, but the pictures are too little and too few. I don't understand.

[amVspR]

Thank you so much for your wonderful guide. Could you please guide us how to deal with DAT files, it's hard to extract =.=' (Like DAT files in Riddle Garden or Omerta)

[Accordia]

Thanks for the guide. But how can I rip CGs from npa files? I tried with ExtractData, but the pictures are too little and too few. I don't understand.

NPA is Nitro+ games, right? Try NIPA. I haven't used it before, so unfortunately I can't give you specifics offhand. But I know they use a file encryption system that ExtractData can't read, which is why you're only getting a couple of thumbnails instead of the full CGs.

Thank you so much for your wonderful guide. Could you please guide us how to deal with DAT files, it's hard to extract =.=' (Like DAT files in Riddle Garden or Omerta)

DAT is an extension used with a lot of different archive files, so it depends on what engine you're dealing with. I'll take a look at Omerta specifically when I get a chance.

[Accordia]

NScripter

The folder of a game made with NScripter will contain at least three files: an .EXE file to run the game, a script file (nscript.dat), and an archive file (usually arc.nsa or 00.ns2).

29052014_160449_capture_002.png

There may also be other files, such as envdata (save file information); don't worry about any of that.

arc.nsa files are easy to deal with; just extract them using the instructions for KiriKiri in ExtractData.

However, ExtractData doesn't recognize 00.ns2 files, and you'll get an error message:

29052014_160612_capture_004.png

If you click "Yes," ExtractData will scan the archive for file types it recognizes. You'll probably get all the game CGs this way, but ExtractData won't preserve the original file names and folder structure. Instead, you'll get a list of files named 00.ns2_[file#]

29052014_160622_capture_005.png.

If you're not afraid of using command prompt, download ONScripter Tools (under Current Release (2010-09-15)). Extract the ZIP file, then copy the file ns2dec.exe into your game folder.

29052014_163422_capture_009.png

Open a command prompt window. (In Windows XP, go to Start->Run, type cmd, and click OK.)

Next, copy the path to the folder where the game files and ns2dec.exe are located. In the command prompt window, type:

cd "C:\folder path"

So for this example, I'd put:

cd "C:\VisualNovels\0Japanese\LSDver1.02"

(This lets the command line know where the files are located. The quotation marks are just in case you have spaces in the file path, which confuses the command line.)

(Also, you can't CTRL+V to paste in command line, but you can right click->paste, so you don't have to retype everything by hand!)

Next, type into the command line:

ns2dec.exe 00.ns2

and press Enter. It should look something like this:

29052014_164211_capture_010.png

29052014_164236_capture_011.png

(Note: if you changed your computer language to Japanese like I told you to, backslashes will show up as ¥s in command prompt. I don't know why. It doesn't affect anything.)

The CGs and other resources are now extracted neatly into your game folder, like so:

29052014_164250_capture_012.png

I realize this was a bit of a jump in difficulty, so if something was confusing, tell me now before I go on to more complicated command line stuff!

[Munni]

I'd be curious as to how you CG from the Ren'py engine. Most of the known games using this engine are fairly recent (after 2012).

[Accordia]

I'd be curious as to how you CG from the Ren'py engine.

I'm glad you asked =D

Ren'Py

This is more complicated than our last adventure with the command line, just to warn you. But I don't know a reliable way to extract Ren'Py archive files with something like ExtractData.

You can identify a Ren'Py game by the fact that it contains a folder named renpy:

06062014_181055_capture_003.png

But also, any recent visual novel with a release for Mac and/or Linux was probably made with Ren'Py, and it's one of the most common engines for original English visual novels.

Open the game folder. If you see a bunch of image, script, and other files, like so:

06062014_181208_capture_004.png

Then you're done! The game's creator chose not to archive or encrypt their game resource files, so you can just copy the CGs right out of the game folder.

Otherwise, you'll find a file with the extension .RPA (usually named archive.rpa):

06062014_181413_capture_005.png

To extract the .RPA file, download unrpa and Python 2.7.2. (Unrpa won't work with Python 3.x.)

Install Python. The default installation path is C:\Python27\, which is what I'll use in my guide, so don't change it unless you know what you're doing.

Extract the unrpa .ZIP file to your C: drive. (Again, you can choose another location, but this is what's easiest.) The folder should look like this:

06062014_182305_capture_006.png

Open a command line. To extract an .RPA file, use the following format:

"C:\PATH\TO\python.exe" "C:\PATH\TO\unrpa" -m -p "C:\path\to\extract\to" "C:\file\to\extract.rpa"

So for this game, what you want is:

"C:\Python27\python.exe" "C:\unrpa-1.4\unrpa" -m -p "C:\Sleepover CG" "C:\VisualNovels\SLEEPOVER-1.0-win\game\archive.rpa"

(I usually type this up in a text document, then copy and paste to the command line, so I don't have to redo everything if I made a typo.)

If all went well, you should see this:

06062014_183217_capture_007.png

Wait till the extraction process is finished (when a new prompt line appears), then open the folder where you extracted the archive (in this case, C:\Sleepover CG) and enjoy your CGs!

[Munni]

In the meantime I learnt how to use unrpa with Linux. This programme would probably work on Mac too. but I can't test it since I don't own any.

Unlike Windows's conservative cmd programme in which you spend a lot of time specifying the location of all the elements (python, unrpa, .rpa file, destination folder), Linux can open a command-line/terminal pretty much anywhere in your system with right-click + "Open in Terminal"

With that in mind, just make ure unrpa and the .rpa file are in the same folder:

unrpa10.png


Then open a terminal in the folder and type the following command:

python unrpa archive.rpa

screen10.png

And BOOM! Files and CGs are now ripped and accessible.
screen11.png

Note that you can't open the .rpyc files, which are script files, with unrpa. Anyway all you want are the CGs so it doesn't matter.

On another note, the Russian software called AE can be a useful tool to extract and repack CGs from many engines. It's available in many language and coupled with WINE, it works perfectly with Linux and Mac too.