AssetRipper vs Crowbar

AssetRipper is an analysis tool for game developers working with Unity game files. It can identify accidentally included dependency assets, broken asset references, and code that could not be inlined or trimmed, as well as convert assets to native Unity format. Unity Project Export creates a project that can be opened in Unity Editor. For viewing content outside Unity, Primary Content Export produces meshes, scenes, and prefabs as GLB models, including for Blender workflows. Supported Unity versions range from 3.5.0 to 6000.4.X, with support quality varying by version. Free stable and nightly builds are available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Premium access costs $10 a month while an eligible membership is active, and includes features such as shader decompilation, static mesh separation, prefab outlining, asset path overrides, user-defined package export, and deduplication. Vulkan and OpenGL shaders can be decompiled on any platform, but DirectX shaders are limited to Windows. Traditional Il2Cpp analysis succeeds on about 10% to 20% of methods on x86 games, with lower success on other platforms.

Crowbar is a free modding tool for working with GoldSource and Source models and game packages. It can decompile MDL and related files into QC, SMD, and other related files, and can compile models when the game’s authoring tools or SDK and Crowbar’s studiomdl.exe are available. Viewing models likewise requires the game tools or SDK and Crowbar’s hlmv.exe. For archives, Crowbar can unpack, view, and search Valve VPK, Garry’s Mod GMA, Bloodlines VPK, Tactical Intervention FPX, and Fairy Tale Busters APK files. It can pack folders into VPK and GMA packages and supports batch extraction. Workshop functions allow downloading and publishing items for supported games. Game setups can link a game folder to its compiler, viewer, and package tools. On Windows, file associations and drag-and-drop can open VPK, QC, MDL, and folder inputs. The requirements page lists.NET Framework 4 and Windows XP or later, or Linux or Mac OS with a way to run a.NET Framework program. Crowbar is listed at free; donations are optional.