pc-rpgmaker3

A native PC reimplementation of the RPG Maker 3 engine (PlayStation 2, SLUS-21178, Enterbrain / Runtime Inc., 2005).

RPG Maker 3 is the odd one out in the series: while the PC releases stayed anchored to 2D tiles, the PS2 edition is a full real-time 3D engine with an on-console editor — scene graph, skinned characters, dynamic lights, pre-rendered backdrops and a multi-track keyframe cutscene editor. This project documents the disc and its formats, with the goal of bringing that engine to modern hardware.

BYOA — Bring Your Own Assets

This repository contains documentation and tools only. No game data, no executables, no assets. You need your own original RPG Maker 3 disc.

Layout

docs/     disc, format and engine analysis
tools/    Python tools (no external dependencies)

Tools

All of them need only Python 3.8+.

# disc index
python tools/rpgsp_index.py E:/CDIMAGE.TBL --stats
python tools/rpgsp_index.py E:/CDIMAGE.TBL --list

# extraction (filter paths take no leading slash)
python tools/rpgsp_index.py E:/CDIMAGE.TBL --dat E:/RPGSP.DAT \
    --extract out/ --filter img_2d/bg/

# textures -> PNG
python tools/p64_decode.py out/img_2d/bg/bg_000.mpic -o png/

# .iab movie -> playable MPEG-2 (the video track has no start codes)
python tools/iab_video.py out/logo/logo.iab -o logo.m2v
ffmpeg -i logo.m2v -vf scale=in_range=full:out_range=limited \
       -pix_fmt yuv420p logo.mp4

# .iab audio track -> WAV
python tools/iab_audio.py out/logo/logo.iab -o logo.wav

# ASCII strings with offsets
python tools/pstrings.py E:/SLUS_211.78 -n 6 --offsets

# PS2 memory card -> saved projects (PCSX2 .ps2 images included)
python tools/ps2mc.py card.ps2 --list
python tools/ps2mc.py card.ps2 --extract saves/
python tools/ps2mc.py card.ps2 --verify-ecc               # check every page
python tools/ps2mc.py card.ps2 --replace PATH=f --out new.ps2

# project files: header, record walk, text, byte diff
python tools/rpgproj.py saves/BASLUS-21178a/BASLUS-21178a --header --walk
python tools/rpgproj.py sample1 --walk --type 4          # just the classes
python tools/rpgproj.py sample1 --maps --png maps/        # world maps -> PNG
python tools/rpgproj.py sample1 --fix-checksum out.prj   # recompute the CRC-32
python tools/rpgproj.py a/BASLUS-21178a b/BASLUS-21178a --diff
python tools/rpgproj.py sample1 --skills --elf SLUS_211.78  # a class's skills

# disassemble the executable by virtual address (needs capstone)
python tools/mipsdis.py E:/SLUS_211.78 0x00100F48 --count 40

ffmpeg is only needed for the movie pipeline, and mipsdis.py needs capstone; every other tool has no dependencies at all.

Status

Sessions 1-4 — disc, formats, the movie codec, and the project format, which is now solved: the checksum verifies and every record of every project parses to the last byte. See docs/00-sessions.md for the progress log, docs/07-next-session.md for what is next, and docs/04-curiosities.md if you just want the interesting bits.

Documentation

00-sessions.md            progress log
01-disc-layout.md         what is on the DVD
02-container-formats.md   every file format, with verified layouts
03-engine-architecture.md the engine's classes, recovered from RTTI
04-curiosities.md         what the disc reveals about its making
05-open-questions.md      what is still unknown
06-iab-video.md           how the movie codec was identified
07-next-session.md        the plan
08-project-format.md      the project file: header, schema and records
09-memory-card.md         reading and writing .ps2 card images

Licence

MIT — see LICENSE. This covers the documentation and tools in this repository only. It says nothing about RPG Maker 3 itself, which remains the property of its rights holders.