How to extract FMVs from Flipnic (video game)
Since Flipnic uses its own custom formats for containers, we need a specialized tool for extracting the FMVs. I've made three of them, FlipnicFS, which is a graphical tool and FlipnicBinExtractor, which is a command line utility and Flipnic File Tools, which is an all-in-one tool that also supports extracting FMVs. A third party tool KnuxLib also supports reading of Flipnic blob files, however, you can't demux the .PSS files, which is required for FMV extraction.
All FMVs are stored in 2 files: STR.BIN and TUTO.BIN (short for "tutorials"). This tutorial will assume you're going to use Flipnic BIN Extractor, which I recommend you use if you want to follow along.
Extraction commands
After copying files from the game disc to your computer, open the command prompt at the directory you copied the files to (click on the address bar, type cmd.exe). You also need to copy FlipnicBinExtractor.exe to the same folder. Then run the following commands:
FlipnicBinExtractor /e STR.BIN STRFlipnicBinExtractor /e TUTO.BIN TUTO
Once both commands finish executing, you can go to the next step.
Demuxing the .PSS files
To demux all FMVs, run these commands:
for /f %a in ('dir /b /a-d STR') do FlipnicBinExtractor /est STR\%afor /f %a in ('dir /b /a-d TUTO') do FlipnicBinExtractor /est TUTO\%a
If you only care about demuxing one FMV, you can specify its name, like so:
FlipnicBinExtractor /est STR\FREEZE_OVER.PSS
Converting audio to PCM
To convert audio into something we can listen to, we need a tool called MFAudio. Copy the EXE file to the same folder where the extracted files and FlipnicBinExtractor are located.
Then go back to command prompt and run this command to convert all audio files:
for /f %a in ('dir /b /a-d *.INT*') do MFAudio /IF44100 /IC2 /II400 /IH0 /OTWAVU "%a" "%a.WAV"
Try to play any of the WAV files with a media player and check if you hear music/audio from one of the FMVs.
Converting IPU files
These files contain video data. You need the latest version of FFmpeg to convert these files. Copy ffmpeg.exe to the directory where extracted files are located and return to command prompt once more.
The command you need to run depends on 2 factors: the type of FMV and the region of your copy of the game. Here's a list of high-res FMVs - these don't have transparency:
UBI.PSS (Ubisoft logo)
SHUKYAKUDEMO.PSS (The intro, works, but you may not get the audio data if you replace this one)
TITLE_.PSS (the title screen)
SILVER_DROP.PSS (Biology A opening)
CIRCLE_OF_LIFE.PSS (circle of life mission cutscene in Biology A)
FREEZE_OVER.PSS (freeze over mission cutscene in Biology A)
TAKIWARI.PSS (hidden path discovery mission cutscene in Biology A)
SILVER_DROP2.PSS (Biology B opening)
CIRCLE_OF_LIFE2.PSS (circle of life mission cutscene in Biology B)
FREEZE_OVER2.PSS (freeze over mission cutscene in Biology B)
TAKIWARI2.PSS (hidden path discovery mission cutscene in Biology B)
WATCH_OUT.PSS (big UFO warning cutscene in Biology stages)
MISSING.PSS (big UFO invasion cutscene in Biology stages, the one where the ball is stolen)
CHAP01.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP02.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP03.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP04.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP05.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP06.PSS (in-game help)
CHAP07.PSS (in-game help)
To extract any of these, if you have the PAL version of the game, you need to run a command like this
ffmpeg -r 25 -i <filename>.PSS.IPU -vf bwdif -c:v qtrle -pix_fmt rgb24 <filename>.mov
If you have an NTSC copy, you need to run this command instead:
ffmpeg -r 29.97-i <filename>.PSS.IPU -vf bwdif -c:v qtrle -pix_fmt rgb24 <filename>.mov
If the file you're trying to convert was not on the list, you need to run one of the following commands:
PAL version:
ffmpeg -r 50 -i <filename>.PSS.IPU -vf bwdif -c:v qtrle -pix_fmt rgb24 <filename>.movNTSC versions:
ffmpeg -r 59.94 -i <filename>.PSS.IPU -vf bwdif -c:v qtrle -pix_fmt rgb24 <filename>.mov
Combining audio and video
You may have noticed that we now have a bunch of video and audio files. To combine all of them, run this command:
for /f "delims=." %a in ('dir /b /a-d *.mov') do ffmpeg -i %a.mov -i %a.wav -c:v copy -c:a aac %a_combined.mov
You can now all of the files that don't have the "_combined" suffix to free disk space.