The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles

[Reverend Speed]

Hey folks - was thinking of trying to rip a couple of models from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (for PC) for research on some best-in-class manga illustration-ish character models. I'm very familiar with Blender and have a little programming experience... any thoughts on how to approach this? I'd use Ninja Ripper, but ideally I'd be able to get my hands on some t-posed characters.

Best regards,

 --Rev

[Nooga]

Hi Rev! This technique won't work for  the GAAC release of the game, but you can get the models from the 3DS versions of the game. I made a tutorial a while back you can see here.

It's a little involved because there's multiple programs you gotta use but it's easier than you might think.

Hope this helps

[Reverend Speed]

Hi Rev! This technique won't work for  the GAAC release of the game, but you can get the models from the 3DS versions of the game. I made a tutorial a while back you can see here.

It's a little involved because there's multiple programs you gotta use but it's easier than you might think.

Hope this helps

DUDE. That's awesome! Thank you! Actually, before I begin studying your tutorial, would you mind if I asked you a question or two about those models?

(And it's always fantastic to meet another AA 3D connoisseur! =P)

 --Rev

[Nooga]

Hi Rev! This technique won't work for  the GAAC release of the game, but you can get the models from the 3DS versions of the game. I made a tutorial a while back you can see here.

It's a little involved because there's multiple programs you gotta use but it's easier than you might think.

Hope this helps

DUDE. That's awesome! Thank you! Actually, before I begin studying your tutorial, would you mind if I asked you a question or two about those models?

(And it's always fantastic to meet another AA 3D connoisseur! =P)

 --Rev

Go ahead. Might not be able to answer all of them though haha, I just rip stuff

[Reverend Speed]

Thank you! Honestly, any info you have would be helpful!

When I was looking at the models ripped from Duel Destinies, I noticed that they've a bunch of alternate parts for upper and lower faces and hands.

I was wondering: are the models you've investigated from Ace Attorney Chronicles are broken up in the same way?

Trying to guess why the model is setup this way, my friend and I ended up with two theories:

1) This is how Ace Attorney 2D games were built (parts swapped in on sprites based on the script markup), therefore it was a natural technical progression to do the same in 3D. Seems a little odd to me, as these games were built on MT Framework Mobile, but it's possible the deformation features hadn't been implemented at that point?

2) Limitations on 3DS (tri/polygon count, lack of blendshapes or limitations on model bones) made it more efficient to swap in different models rather than have a model with the tri/polygon density needed to support all the deformations required - easier to have bespoke models with smaller polycounts.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

Best regards,

 --Rev

[HeroArts]

TGAA/DGS handles models pretty much the exact same way as the mainline Ace Attorney games. As seen in this image, Ryunosuke (from the 3DS version of DGS) has multiple face and hand meshes (I couldn't really be bothered to separate them from their positions hahaha)
   

Thank you! Honestly, any info you have would be helpful!

When I was looking at the models ripped from Duel Destinies, I noticed that they've a bunch of alternate parts for upper and lower faces and hands.

I was wondering: are the models you've investigated from Ace Attorney Chronicles are broken up in the same way?

Trying to guess why the model is setup this way, my friend and I ended up with two theories:

1) This is how Ace Attorney 2D games were built (parts swapped in on sprites based on the script markup), therefore it was a natural technical progression to do the same in 3D. Seems a little odd to me, as these games were built on MT Framework Mobile, but it's possible the deformation features hadn't been implemented at that point?

2) Limitations on 3DS (tri/polygon count, lack of blendshapes or limitations on model bones) made it more efficient to swap in different models rather than have a model with the tri/polygon density needed to support all the deformations required - easier to have bespoke models with smaller polycounts.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

Best regards,

 --Rev

[Reverend Speed]

Hi @HeroArts - I've only just seen your response! That's really interesting... Hmm.

In case it's of interest to you or @Nooga , I put the question of why there were so many parts of the model to some coders on a GameDev Reddit, eventually getting the attention of someone who had experience working on the NDS (by the name of HaskellHystericMonad). If you look at the rest of the replies, the majority opinion seem to be that they're blend/morph shapes. Sadly, there's no 100% conclusive answer to the situation... but it might be an interesting read, anyhow.


Thanks for the notes, folks!