Help me with my idea on how to extract in-game models... I like to think it can be applied to any game or 3D program (with some variation of course). 
I have a byte editor called WinHex.  The special thing about it is it can read RAM. 
I want to use it to capture a snapshot of the 3D scene as byte data.  Then I can filter this data for 64 or 32-bit floats, and by trial and error find xyz coordinates, until I can export a point cloud that fits the scene.  From there I could either use a reconstruction algorithm to make an iso-surface, or I could start looking for mesh references based on the relative order of the vertex coordinates.  Does the encoding depend on what OGL or DX drivers I'm using, and can I use documentation to help find the geometry data?  Can it be done?  What do you think? 

Interesting.  Hey, does that mean I can export them too?!  I've seen one for viewing the LZS models (but only a piece at a time).  What you're talking about is editing Read-Only content.  I'm talking about finding and parsing the VRAM to generate a model of the scene displaying in the game that is in play, whether I end up with a point cloud or a mesh.  Then I can, say, send the file to a prototyping service and have a solid model made.  I don't know if backface culling will factor into the problem, but that's the least of my challenge. 
For N64 emulators there 2 plugins that I can think of that export in-game models.  Lemmy's plugin, and Icepir8's plugin.  I have technical issues with both, but still I'd like to track them down for their knowledge.