modconv

A C++ command-line tool for converting and editing proprietary 3D model files (.mod format) from Pikmin 1 for the GameCube and Wii.

Table of Contents

• Features
• Building and Running
• Usage
• System Design
• Future Enhancements

Features

• File Handling

  • Load, parse, and write .mod files
  • Edit header data (date of creation / model flags)
  • Delete specific data chunks (materials, textures, vertices) from loaded models
  • Clear current model data

• Import / Export

  • Import / export material and TEV (Texture Environment) settings to human-readable text files
  • Import / export model geometry to Wavefront .obj format
  • Import / export texture data from .txe files
  • Import / export trailing .ini data blocks
  • Export model data to .dmd format [WIP]

Building and Running

Prerequisites

• Modern C++ compiler (GCC, Clang, or MSVC)

• CMake

Compilation

Navigate to the project root directory:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build .

Running

Execute the compiled binary to start the interactive shell:

./modconv[.exe]

Usage

The tool uses an interactive command-line interface. Once started, it displays available commands.

Interactive Mode

Basic workflow:

1. Load a .mod file
2. Export data to editable formats or modify the file as needed
3. Apply changes to the model
4. Write the modified model to a new file

Example session:

load my_model.mod
export_materials materials.txt
# Edit materials.txt with a text editor
import_material materials.txt
write my_model_new.mod
close

Command-Line

1. Convert MOD to OBJ

# Windows
modconv.exe load model.mod export_obj model.obj

# Linux/Mac
./modconv load model.mod export_obj model.obj

2. Extract all textures from a MOD file

modconv load model.mod export_textures ./textures/

3. Export and reimport materials

modconv load model.mod export_materials materials.txt close load model2.mod import_material materials.txt write model2_updated.mod

4. Modify and save a MOD file

# Delete collision data and save
modconv load model.mod delete_chunk 0x100 delete_chunk 0x110 write model_no_collision.mod

System Design

• MOD Class: Central class representing a loaded .mod file, containing vectors and objects for all data chunks (vertices, materials, meshes)

• cmd Namespace: Manages the interactive command-line interface, parsing user input and executing corresponding functions

• File I/O

  • util::fstream_reader & util::fstream_writer: Custom stream classes for binary file I/O with big-endian byte swapping
  • MaterialReader & MaterialWriter: Classes for serializing material data to/from human-readable text format

• Data Structures: There are a variety of structs that directly map to binary structures in the .mod file format (Material, TEVInfo, Mesh, Joint, CollTriInfo, etc.)

Future Enhancements

• Complete work-in-progress .obj and .dmd export functionality
• Implement the stubbed objToDmd converter
• Tidy the code further