How to export Red Dead Redemption 2 textures and models

Before you start

• RPFView with Red Dead Redemption 2 chosen and set up. See how to open RPF files for the first start.
• For models: Blender, or any other 3D program that imports glTF or OBJ.

Red Dead Redemption 2 support is a beta. Its textures and models can be viewed and exported, but its archives can't be edited, so nothing you do here changes the game.

1. Let RPFView index the game

Most Red Dead Redemption 2 models keep their textures in other files. To find them, RPFView builds an index in the background after it starts, shown in the status bar at the bottom of the window:

1. Indexing game files: the search index.
2. Finding Red Dead Redemption 2 file names: only the first time.
3. Indexing Red Dead Redemption 2 textures: about a minute. It's saved on your PC, so later starts are quicker.

You can browse while it runs, but models show without some of their textures until it's done. An open model picks them up when the index is ready.

2. Find the files

Textures are in .ytd files (texture dictionaries); most of them are in textures_0.rpf. Models are .ydr (single models), .ydd (sets of models, such as clothing) and .yft (vehicles and objects that break apart).

1. Press Ctrl+F and search with a filter, for example ext:ytd path:textures_0.rpf for texture dictionaries, or ext:ydr,ydd,yft for models.
2. Double-click a result to open its folder.

3. Export textures as PNG or DDS

1. Click a .ytd once. The texture viewer opens in the preview pane, with every texture of the dictionary in a list.
2. Pick a texture and open Export: Selected texture as PNG… for any image editor, or Selected texture as DDS… for other modding tools.
3. To save the whole dictionary, choose All textures as PNG… or All textures as DDS… and pick a folder.

Copy image puts the texture on the clipboard instead. The viewer reminds you that Red Dead Redemption 2 textures can be viewed and exported, but not edited.

4. Export models as GLB or OBJ

1. Click a model once. It appears in the 3D viewer in the preview pane, with its textures. Left drag orbits, middle or Shift+left drag pans, the mouse wheel zooms, and F fits the model into view.
2. If the model has several levels of detail, pick the one with the most triangles under LOD; in a file with several models, pick one under Drawable.
3. Open Export and choose glTF binary (.glb, embedded textures)… for Blender, a single file with the textures inside. Wavefront OBJ (+ MTL, PNG textures)… writes an .obj, an .mtl and the textures as PNG files instead.

Double-clicking a model opens it in Drawable Studio. Its Export menu saves the selected model as Selected model as glTF binary (.glb, embedded textures)… or as OBJ in the same way.

Import the file in Blender with File → Import → glTF 2.0 (.glb/.gltf); the GTA V model guide has the details, and they're the same for Red Dead Redemption 2.

5. Export many files at once

1. Select the files or folders in the file list and choose Export as… (Ctrl+Shift+E).
2. Under texture dictionaries, pick PNG or DDS (original format, all mips). Each dictionary gets a folder of its own.
3. Under models, pick glTF binary (.glb, textures embedded) or Wavefront (.obj + .mtl + PNG). Each model is exported at its highest level of detail.
4. Choose a Destination folder and click Export.

The dialog names the GTA V file types, but the same options apply to Red Dead Redemption 2's .ytd, .ydr, .ydd and .yft files.

Common problems

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