Dreamcast Texture Ripping with Flycast

In this guide I'll quickly explain how to rip textures from Sega Dreamcast games using RetroArch.

RetroArch is a multi-system emulator that uses "cores" to emulate various different consoles. In this case we will be using the Flycast core to emulate and rip textures from Dreamcast games.

1. Download RetroArch here (click "Download Stable") and install.

2. Run RetroArch. On the left side, click "Main Menu", then choose "Online Updater", then "Core Downloader". Scroll down and click "Sega - Dreamcast/NAOMI (Flycast)" to download the core.

3. Atomiswave and NAOMI games require bios files. Locate awbios.zip and naomi.zip on the internet and place them in your system/dc folder.

4. Load your Dreamcast game. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to just drag and drop your .gdi file into the RetroArch window.

   When loading Atomiswave/NAOMI games, make sure you choose "Load archive" if asked, and use Flycast rather than MAME.

5. Once the game loads, open the Quick Menu with the F1 Key. Scroll down to "Options", then "Emulation Hacks".

6. Click "Dump Textures" to set it to “On”. Close the menu and return to your game by pressing F1 again.

7. As you play the game, any graphics you encounter will have their textures dumped. To view these textures, open File Explorer and navigate to the folder where you installed RetroArch, then system/dc/texdump/[GAMEID]

8. Note that the default key to enter coins in Atomiswave games is [u].

That's about all there is to it. Usually the same texture will only dump once, always with the same file name. If textures aren't dumping after changing settings at any point, try resetting the game or loading a save state.

PlayStation Texture Ripping with Beetle PSX

A similar function is available for PlayStation 1 games using the Beetle PSX HW core.

1. Download RetroArch here (click "Download Stable") and install

2. Run RetroArch. On the left side, click "Main Menu", then choose "Online Updater", then "Core Downloader". Scroll down and click "Sony - PlayStation (Beetle PSX HW)" to download the core.

3. In Windows Explorer, browse to the folder where your PSX game iso is located. Create a new folder with the same name as the iso file plus “-texture-dump”.

   • For example, if your game is my_game.iso your folder will need to be my_game-texture-dump

4. Load your PSX game. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to just drag and drop your iso file into the RetroArch window.

5. Once the game loads, open the Quick Menu with the F1 Key. Scroll down to "Options", then "Video".

6. Click "Dump Textures" to set it to “On”. Close the menu and return to your game by pressing F1 again.

7. As you play the game, any graphics you encounter will have their textures dumped. To view these textures, open File Explorer and navigate to the folder we created in Step 3.

3DS Texture Dumping with Citra

This is, thankfully, a bit simpler. Getting Citra set up is something of a process in itself, but there are many guides out there that will get you there. Once you are able to play 3DS games in Citra, here’s how to dump textures. 

1. In the main Citra window, click Emulation > Configure

2. Switch to the Graphics tab on the right side, then check “Dump Textures”.

3. Play the game, any graphics you encounter will have their textures dumped. To view the textures, go back to the main Citra window, right click on your game and choose “Open Texture Dump Location”. (By default it’s %appdata%/Citra\dump\textures\[GAME-ID])