This tutorial will allow you to extract sections of the maps inside CoD4 (or any game for that matter), and then alter them as you wish inside of 3ds max, or maya.
You will require the following programs:
-3D ripper DX (HERE)
-3ds Max 9 (32bit), or earlier
-CoD4, or similar.
To begin, you need to download 3D Ripper DX and begin installation. Follow through the steps as usual, then when the following screen pops up, select the plugin version appropriate to your version of Max.
Once installed, boot up 3D ripper DX, and set the options as they are in mine.
Note: set the directory to the EXE of your game.
Now, press the 'launch' key. Once ingame boot up devmap (for example '/devmap mp_crash'), and look towards whatever you want to capture for your 3D scene. Press the F12 key, and then wait whilst the geometry is saved. The game will appear to freeze, and a small box will appear in the top left, saying 'capturing geomety', when the game unfreezes you are done.
Note, that due to how CoD4 renders the game, only what you can see on screen will be captured. I.E. if you are standing in the middle of the map, only what is in front of you will be saved. It is also important to know, that its impossible to capture complete maps in single sessions. The LOD's (level of detail) inside of CoD and other games, means that geometry that is far away from the charector wont be rendered completely to save up on memory and CPU power. This can lead to errors in the captured map, which are impossible to avoid.
You can however capture the map in multiple goes, i.e noclip above the map and capture a small section, and then repeat multiple times. Then you can stitch these sections back together within your 3D program. This can be very time-consuming though, and on the most part it is better to just capture small sections of the map for use in specific 3D scenes.
Anyway, now that the capturing is complete, its time to move onto importing into Max. Boot up your version, and select file->import. A box will now open, and select the directory for where 3D ripper saved your frames to (the directory was set within 3D ripper).
Make sure you select the 3DR import in the drop down box at the bottom.
Once you click open, another window will open. Leave all options as default, apart from the top 2. Change the FOV and monitor aspect ratio to match your ingame settings, and click OK.
Done! You now have the captured geometry inside 3ds max, ready for your next big project!
It is possible to export this file for use within Maya, just go to 'file>export' and select the FBX format. Leave everything as default and hit OK. Within Maya select 'file>import', leave the defaults, and after a few moments, it should all be within maya!
Written by Paul "agour" Richardson
