RCRA Forge

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart — Asset Browser & Model Exporter

A standalone Python/PyQt6 desktop tool for browsing, previewing and exporting assets from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PC) without Ninja Ripper.

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Features

• Browse all 340,000+ game assets by name and type
• 3D viewport with HD texture loading (2048×2048 / 4096×4096)
• LOD selector (LOD 0–5) with real-time viewport switching
• Blender-style viewport navigation — LMB orbit, MMB pan, scroll zoom, numpad presets, orthographic toggle
• Skeleton viewer with bone hierarchy tree
• Export Asset — export any single model as .glb, .gltf, .obj, .fbx or .ascii with:
  • Full skeleton with correct inverse bind matrices
  • RCRA skin weights (4 bone influences per vertex)
  • Per sub-mesh named nodes matching the asset browser
  • Correct UV scaling per-model from the built section
  • Named materials (e.g. hero_Ratchet_Gloves, hero_clank_body)
  • Look 0 / LOD 0 filtering — no bundled props or LOD duplicates
  • Bundled texture export — all PBR slots written to a textures/ subfolder alongside the model (PNG, DDS, or both)
• Export Group as GLB — export all parts of a named group into a single GLB, with the same UV, material, skeleton and skin weight correctness as single asset export. Each part appears as a named node under a shared root in Blender's outliner
• ASCII export — ALERT-compatible .ascii format for modding re-import via ascii_to_model.py, also importable in Blender 5 via the XNALara extension
• Hex inspector with named export
• Smart search with multi-token AND filtering

Requirements

• Python 3.10+ — during install, check "Add Python to PATH"
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PC) installed via Steam
• hashes.txt from Overstrike

Everything else (PyQt6, PyOpenGL, numpy, Pillow, imagecodecs) is installed automatically on first run.

Usage

Option 1 — From source (easiest, double-click):

run.bat

Automatically finds Python, creates a virtual environment, installs all dependencies, and launches the app. All of this only happens once — subsequent launches are instant.

Troubleshooting: If you see "Python not found" but Python IS installed, open a new terminal and run py --version. If that works, Python is installed but not in PATH — the script will handle this automatically on Windows 10/11 via the py launcher.

Option 2 — Standalone exe:

build_windows.bat

Builds dist\RCRA_Forge\RCRA_Forge.exe using PyInstaller. No Python required on the end user's machine.

Then click Open Folder and point it at your Rift Apart game directory (the folder containing toc).

• Single export: Select any .model asset, then click Export Asset in the Properties panel. Supported formats: GLB, GLTF, OBJ, FBX, ASCII.
• Group export: Switch to the Groups view in the asset browser, select a group, then click Export Group as GLB in the Properties panel.

All exports produce files ready for import into Blender, Maya, 3ds Max or Substance Painter — no addons required for GLB/FBX/OBJ.

Viewport Controls

Input	Action
LMB drag	Orbit
MMB drag	Pan
Ctrl + MMB drag	Zoom
Scroll wheel	Zoom
Numpad 1 / 3 / 7 / 9	Front / Right / Top / Back
Numpad 5	Toggle orthographic
F	Frame model

Customise invert axes and zoom speed via View → Viewport Controls… (Ctrl+K).

Importing

• GLB/GLTF: Blender → File → Import → glTF 2.0 (.glb/.gltf)
• FBX: Blender → File → Import → FBX (.fbx) — compatible with Blender 4.x and 5.x, Maya, 3ds Max, Substance Painter
• OBJ: Blender → File → Import → Wavefront (.obj)
• ASCII: Blender 5 → XNALara extension → Import → XNALara/XPS (.ascii)

Notes

• libdeflate.dll is bundled and required for HD texture decompression
• HD textures are loaded automatically when a model is selected
• UV scaling is read per-model from the built section (0x283D0383) for correct texture mapping
• Composite shell meshes (fur) are included in export — delete compositeshell and head_fur meshes by name in Blender after export
• Exported textures are written to a textures/ subfolder alongside the model file — PNG is universally compatible, DDS preserves BCn compression

Known Issues

• Stitching textures not yet loading
• Emissive/glow channel not yet applied in viewport shader — emissive materials (e.g. holographic, glowing) appear unlit
• Fur and composite shell materials have no albedo texture by design — delete in Blender after export if not needed
• Models with no visible geometry may use bone-space vertices (skinning not yet applied in viewport)
• Some bangle assets (e.g. rebellion boots) appear very dark in the viewport — the mesh and texture are loading correctly, but the albedo texture is near-black leather/rubber by design. The viewport uses a simple two-light shader with no emissive or AO contribution, so these materials look darker than they would in-game
• Shell/fur mesh visibility toggle is not yet functional — the underlying logic is in place but programmatic viewport redraws don't register correctly. Delete by name in Blender instead

GitHub

https://github.com/ROStudios25/RCRA-Forge

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Changelog

v0.5.5

• New: Bundled texture export — "Export textures" checkbox in the Properties panel writes all decoded PBR texture slots to a textures/ subfolder alongside the exported model. Format options: PNG (universal), DDS (BCn compressed, smaller), or both. Shared textures (e.g. tiling detail maps used by multiple materials) are deduplicated — written once only
• New: exporters/texture_exporter.py — PNG writer (Pillow with pure-Python fallback), DDS writer (BC7 via imagecodecs, uncompressed fallback), GLB material embedding, FBX texture path helper
• Fix: Corrected material slot role mapping — previous _g and _m channel assignments were wrong. Corrected from community research (credit: ilaac, May 2026):
  • _c = base color (confirmed primary)
  • id_ prefix = color ID (alternative base color when _c absent)
  • _g = specular color (was wrongly labeled albedo)
  • _m R = emission mask, G = height, B = AO (was R=AO, G=emission — incorrect)
  • _ao = dedicated AO, replaces _m when present
  • _sm = micro-variation mask (NPC dinosaurs — Grunthors/Monks, ~30 textures total)
• Fix: Viewport texture priority — viewport now strictly uses base_color → color_id for display. Previously fell back to normal/specular maps for materials with no _c slot, showing the wrong texture for harness, gloves and boots
• Fix: _on_materials_ready no longer re-extracts model — was re-extracting the full model asset (up to 22MB) to read material names, triggering a spurious second AssetLoader run and model re-upload. Now reads material_names directly from the already-parsed ModelAsset in memory
• New: Blender-style viewport controls — fixed bindings: LMB orbit, MMB pan, Ctrl+MMB zoom drag, scroll wheel zoom. Numpad 1/3/7/9 view presets, Numpad 5 orthographic toggle, F to frame. Orthographic mode now renders the floor grid correctly
• New: Viewport Controls dialog (View → Viewport Controls… / Ctrl+K) — invert orbit X/Y axes, invert scroll zoom direction, zoom speed multiplier. Settings persist via QSettings. Includes a read-only bindings reference table
• New: ASCII export — ALERT-compatible .ascii format added to the Format dropdown. Compatible with ALERT's ascii_to_model.py for modding re-import, and importable in Blender 5 via the XNALara extension with correct UVs and skeleton
• Fix: Bangle and accessory models now render all meshes correctly — models where multiple looks reference the same mesh index ranges (rebellion boots, bangles, etc.) were only rendering 1 mesh instead of all LOD0 meshes. The look parser now processes looks in reverse order so look[0] always wins mesh assignment
• Fix: Improved viewport lighting — added a soft front fill light alongside the key light and raised the ambient floor, so dark-textured models (leather, rubber, matte surfaces) are readable from all camera angles. Two-sided lighting (abs(NdL)) prevents surfaces with inward-pointing normals from going black
• Internal: ModelAsset gains a joint_scales field (per-bone scale from m34[0:3])
• New files: ui/controls_dialog.py, exporters/ascii_exporter.py

v0.5.4

• New: Blender-style viewport controls — fixed bindings: LMB orbit, MMB pan, Ctrl+MMB zoom drag, scroll wheel zoom. Numpad 1/3/7/9 view presets, Numpad 5 orthographic toggle, F to frame. Orthographic mode now renders the floor grid correctly
• New: Viewport Controls dialog (View → Viewport Controls… / Ctrl+K) — invert orbit X/Y axes, invert scroll zoom direction, zoom speed multiplier. Settings persist via QSettings
• New: ASCII export — ALERT-compatible .ascii format added to the Format dropdown. Compatible with ALERT's ascii_to_model.py and importable in Blender 5 via the XNALara extension with correct UVs and skeleton
• Fix: Bangle and accessory models now render all meshes correctly — look parser now processes looks in reverse order so look[0] always wins mesh assignment
• Fix: Improved viewport lighting — soft front fill light added, two-sided lighting (abs(NdL)) prevents inward-pointing normals from going black
• Internal: ModelAsset gains joint_scales field; new files ui/controls_dialog.py, exporters/ascii_exporter.py

v0.5.3

• Fix: Group GLB export mesh index remapping — mesh index in nodes was never offset by mesh_offset, causing all parts in a group export to reference mesh 0 instead of their own geometry
• Fix: GroupExportWorker now uses the shared TocParser instance instead of re-instantiating one per part — fixes wrong API calls (read_asset/parse_model_asset → extract_asset/ModelParser) and removes significant per-part overhead
• Fix: Export List now uses the shared _toc_parser directly instead of constructing a new TocParser on every export
• Fix: Stray part_name = self.group.entries[i] line removed — was overwriting the resolved display name with a raw entry object on every iteration
• Fix: Skeleton root bones no longer added to scenes[0].nodes in GLB output — Blender was rendering each unparented bone as a visible Icosphere empty in the scene
• Fix: run.bat now tries py → python3 → python in order — users with Python 3.10+ installed via the Windows Python Launcher (common on 3.12+/3.14) no longer see a false "Python not found" error
• Fix: Texture albedo slot fallback — materials with non-standard path suffixes now fall back to asset_id_lo stored in the slot for direct TOC lookup, rather than silently showing nothing
• New: rcra_empties_to_collections.py — Blender utility script to reorganise a group GLB import: converts top-level empties into Collections and moves mesh children in

v0.5.2

• Viewport texture display fixed — HD albedo textures (2048×2048) now load and display correctly in the 3D viewport
• Fixed: background thread was killed before texture loading completed (mesh_ready signal was incorrectly quitting the asset loader thread)
• Fixed: OpenGL texture uploads now always happen on the main thread via paintGL
• Fixed: glGenTextures return value cast to int (PyOpenGL returns numpy array, not integer)
• Fixed: unique texture IDs tracked to prevent double-deletion on model reload
• Fixed: imagecodecs added to PyInstaller spec — textures now work correctly in the standalone exe build
• Fixed: fbx_exporter, group_exporter, core.material and core.hashes added to PyInstaller spec
• Fixed: pip version check notice suppressed in run.bat and build_windows.bat
• Added: run.bat — double-click launcher that auto-installs requirements on first run
• Added: requirements.txt

v0.5.1

• FBX binary exporter fixed — models now import at correct scale and without errors in Blender 4.x and 5.x, Maya, 3ds Max and Substance Painter
• Fixed: UnitScaleFactor = 100 for meter-scale data (was 1, causing models to import 100× too small)
• Fixed: UIDs written as 64-bit Long (L type) as required by Blender's FBX importer
• Fixed: object node names use Name\x00\x01Class binary separator
• Fixed: FBX class strings match top-level type (Geometry, Model, Deformer, SubDeformer)
• Fixed: RotationActive property value written as INT32 not bool
• Fixed: Shading node written as "Y" string

v0.5.0

• GLB exporter — full skeleton, skin weights, correct UVs, named materials, look/LOD filtering
• FBX exporter (binary 7.4) — initial release
• Group export — all parts of a named group into a single GLB with same quality as single export
• Export filename matches asset browser name
• Viewport look 0 filtering — no bundled props in 3D view
• About dialog updated to v0.5.0

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Credits

ROStudios25 — Project concept, direction, testing and community research

Claude AI (Anthropic) — Codebase developed with AI assistance, translating the project concept into working Python code

Tkachov — ALERT (Amazing Luna Engine Research Tools) — format documentation, struct definitions and GDeflate decompressor that made this possible

thtrandomlurker — io_mesh_riftapart — Rift Apart Blender importer; material section format, UV scaling, mesh subset layout and bone transform reading confirmed from this source

Fanis — Community RE research, initial _m channel investigation; connected the team with neptuwunium's rivet research

ilaac — Material slot role corrections (May 2026): _c = base color, _g = specular color, _m packed channels (R=emission mask, G=height, B=AO), _ao = dedicated AO, id_ = color ID, _sm = NPC micro-variation. Also UV scaling research and Blender import documentation

neptuwunium — rivet and rivet_hook — reverse-engineered the complete Rift Apart DDL schema (8,211 type definitions, 863 enums) and confirmed in-memory struct layouts via DLL injection. Essential reference for future level/zone parsing in Forge

macton (Mike Acton) — DDLParser — Insomniac Games' original DDL schema parser, referenced by neptuwunium's rivet research and providing context for the Luna Engine data definition system

Development note: This project was conceived and directed by ROStudios25, who had the original idea of building a native PC tool for browsing and exporting Rift Apart assets without relying on Ninja Ripper. The codebase was developed with the assistance of Claude AI (Anthropic). All format research and struct definitions are sourced from the ALERT project by Tkachov, thtrandomlurker's Blender importer, and community reverse engineering work. The idea, direction, testing, and persistence were human — the Python was AI-assisted.

A standalone Python/PyQt6 desktop tool for browsing, previewing and exporting assets from Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PC) without Ninja Ripper.

---

Features

• Browse all 340,000+ game assets by name and type
• 3D viewport with HD texture loading (2048×2048 / 4096×4096)
• LOD selector (LOD 0–5) with real-time viewport switching
• Skeleton viewer with bone hierarchy tree
• Export Asset — export any single model as .glb, .gltf, .obj or .fbx with:
  • Full skeleton with correct inverse bind matrices
  • RCRA skin weights (4 bone influences per vertex)
  • Per sub-mesh named nodes matching the asset browser
  • Correct UV scaling per-model from the built section
  • Named materials (e.g. hero_Ratchet_Gloves, hero_clank_body)
  • Look 0 / LOD 0 filtering — no bundled props or LOD duplicates
• Export Group as GLB — export all parts of a named group into a single GLB, with the same UV, material, skeleton and skin weight correctness as single asset export. Each part appears as a named node under a shared root in Blender's outliner
• Hex inspector with named export
• Smart search with multi-token AND filtering

Requirements

• Python 3.10+ — during install, check "Add Python to PATH"
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PC) installed via Steam
• hashes.txt from Overstrike

Everything else (PyQt6, PyOpenGL, numpy, Pillow, imagecodecs) is installed automatically on first run.

Usage

Option 1 — From source (easiest, double-click):

run.bat

Automatically finds Python, creates a virtual environment, installs all dependencies, and launches the app. All of this only happens once — subsequent launches are instant.

Troubleshooting: If you see "Python not found" but Python IS installed, open a new terminal and run py --version. If that works, Python is installed but not in PATH — the script will handle this automatically on Windows 10/11 via the py launcher.

Option 2 — Standalone exe:

build_windows.bat

Builds dist\RCRA_Forge\RCRA_Forge.exe using PyInstaller. No Python required on the end user's machine.

Then click Open Folder and point it at your Rift Apart game directory (the folder containing toc).

• Single export: Select any .model asset, then click Export Asset in the Properties panel. Supported formats: GLB, GLTF, OBJ, FBX.
• Group export: Switch to the Groups view in the asset browser, select a group, then click Export Group as GLB in the Properties panel.

All exports produce files ready for import into Blender, Maya, 3ds Max or Substance Painter — no addons required.

Importing

• GLB/GLTF: Blender → File → Import → glTF 2.0 (.glb/.gltf)
• FBX: Blender → File → Import → FBX (.fbx) — compatible with Blender 4.x and 5.x, Maya, 3ds Max, Substance Painter
• OBJ: Blender → File → Import → Wavefront (.obj)

Notes

• libdeflate.dll is bundled and required for HD texture decompression
• HD textures are loaded automatically when a model is selected
• UV scaling is read per-model from the built section (0x283D0383) for correct texture mapping
• Composite shell meshes (fur) are included in export — delete in Blender if not needed, or replace with particle hair

GitHub

https://github.com/ROStudios25/RCRA-Forge