Making the Map | METAL GEAR SOLID (Data Extraction Tutorial)

Map gallery: https://www.deviantart.com/vgcartography/gallery/79358385/metal-gear-solid-maps
Map video walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALo5xbLb2SU


Several people were curious how I made it, so here is a brief tutorial. Unfortunately I can't help you if you aren't in a Windows environment. In summary:

1. Extract KMD files from STAGE.DIR with Rex
https://github.com/Jayveer/Rex/releases/tag/1.0

2. Use Jayveer's plugin to open the KMD files in Rich Whitehouse's Noesis by copying the .dll into the Noesis /plugins directory
https://github.com/Jayveer/MGS-KMD-Noesis/releases
https://richwhitehouse.com/index.php?content=inc_projects.php

3. Export from Noesis into FBX format and import the FBX files into Blender. Generally, portions from the same s## file are in the same coordinate system, so e.g. rooms will be in the right place around tank hanger 1F, but tank hangar B1 is a separate folder and won't be underneath 1F (it'll overlap).

4. I used isometric view in Blender to capture images into Photoshop (or GIMP for free equivalent), and created elements from there. For black areas in Blender that should be transparent, I chose the low-tech approach of taking screenshot, then deleting the black polygon in Blender and taking a screenshot of what is underneath, aligning them in Photoshop and deleting the black areas so you can see underneath to the next layer. I'm sure there's an easier way in Blender with materials but I couldn't figure it out.

You can follow me on Twitter here for more:
https://twitter.com/vgcartography
Looking at MGS2 in the near future. Thank you to Jayveer and everyone who worked hard on understanding the data structures to make all of this possible.

Also forgot to mention The Spriter's Resource, always a fantastic place to look for other peoples' contributions and rips. I got the codec faces and item icons for my graphics there:
https://www.spriters-resource.com/playstation/mgs/

I made the background music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGQiH_69xhQ&list=PLOB5jrs9wKZhq_0ZNCmPE9xd8CGXn88IN&index=9