[Projekt] Extracting Ace Combat

[Infrid]

The AC3 translation by Infrid and the rest of the Word Load Team will be available soon. English, Italian, and Castilian Spanish will launch on the same day:



Kudos for this fantastic work!

thank you <3

If some native German speaker wants to translate the game, I am open for collaborations later!

Krishty I want to ask you something. During our fan translation we hit a bug on Claustrophobia, somehow the plane crashed to something invisible

https://twitter.com/loadwordteam/status ... 8346468352

do you know if it's some random collision polygon put there by mistake? is it something you can see with the tools you wrote to view the maps?

[Krishty]

do you know if it's some random collision polygon put there by mistake? is it something you can see with the tools you wrote to view the maps?

Can you show the map for a second so that I can find the specific location?

On first sight, I don’t see any polygons popping out.

[Infrid]

The bug should be around here



I checked the area but I couldn't hit that specific spot.

This issue happened twice, so I don't think it's just some cosmic ray hitting the memory and flipping the bits kind-of-thing :D

[Krishty]

Thanks, that’s helpful! I think I located the place. Didn’t find anything yet; this is just me taking notes so I don’t forget where to look.

[Krishty]

No luck, sorry. The area looks clear from any obstacles or stray polygons in my data.

Some background:

AC3 does have invisible polygons in some places; I mentioned it here. These polygons use blank texture areas and are therefore completely invisible when rendered with texture mapping. Out of pure luck, early versions of my datasets did not decode the texture positions properly, and so the polygons became visible. Here they are for Tunnel Vision:



In the same dataset, I cannot spot anything suspicious in Claustrophobia:


(I tried all angles, of course!)

Then I fired up my engine (which has collision detection) and checked if it detects collisions even with those invisible polygons. And it does – flying next to the tunnel in Tunnel Vision, towards the blocks from the first image, rings my terrain collision warning and then makes my plane crash into the invisible wall:



But nothing like that happens in Claustrophobia. I have flown the path up and down, multiple times; circled there and chased the canyons … but I never collided with anything :(

Here is my guess:

If you look at the crash sites, they seem very close to the seams where terrain tiles meet.





I haven’t found a spatial structure in AC3’s levels (yet?). There is no BSP tree or anything alike to speed up collision detection, just lists of polygons. So I don’t know how the game tests for collisions. But should these spurious crashes indeed happen on terrain tile edges, then the most likely explanation is an overrun in the fixed-point coordinates during collision detection – i.e. a software bug. Ray vs. Terrain is hard in fixed-point, and even more so with fast planes and small tiles like AC3’s. Claustrophobia has the most chaotic terrain with the highest cliffs, so the error would most often be observed there (and maybe in Ghosts of the Past).

tl;dr: Don’t know, sorry. This is an OG bug for real.

[Infrid]

thank you Krishty, this is a brilliant investigation!

Since the polygons are ok, the only thing I can blame is the emulator settings, it was on hi-res with perspective correction. That might alter collision detection 🤔

[Kiri678]

So, one guy wrote in comments (in my ac3 vid) about encountering glitch(es) while loading old save states (from v1.1 orig jpn image(works also with project nemo image save states)) with LWT patched image, i mean it's obvious more or less why it's happening but still interesting to see, that's why i'm wrinting about this and ofc there are videos of it.
Here they be:
https://youtu.be/61nhpSCzTp8

https://youtu.be/iyr1FRJcBpY

Kinda hilarious, in a way... claustrophobia one acctually looks good...

Tried it out myself but i'm lacking in-game save states (except remora in tunnel) all i got are menu s.st.-s which cause duckstation to CTD on loading into mission.
But the tunnel one does have switched out voice lines, happens on mission accomplished and during replay.
On a side note kinda sucks that those s.st.-s are broken, but nonetheless interesting find.

[Krishty]

lol that’s hilarious indeed!

[Infrid]

Ahahah, very hilarious.

This happens because the game keeps in memory an index to know where the assets are stored on disk.

To make it simple, when you edit the game, you change the values of those indices when you pack the files back to the disc.

with a save state from a different version it's like using an index from a book but open the page on a totally different one. The page number wouldn't match what the index says, creating such funny scenes during gameplay.

:)

PS in this case the index is ACE.BPH and the book is ACE.BPB

[RythusOmega]

Decided to visit ZFX today after some time, unfortunately this will be in fact the only remaining phpBB forum i still got an account active, as Zenhax got attacked by dubious code injectors that hijacked sucessfully it, it were shut down, but the owner wasn't interesed at bringing the forum back by not begin happy with the perfomace of the same. and Xentax will be shutting down at the end of this week, despite people asking it for a backup preservation at least, the owner seems not be very interesed at all. already made backups from the progress of my ACI/Flight Engine research, unsure about the Zenhax one as it was shut down of a sudden, but Wayback still works and i think i already got screencaps saved but they're probably lost at my general folder organization which isn't one of the best. currently unsure where i'll be hosting those now, the import script got a Github page, but for the few people that were interesed, both Xentax and Zenhax were starting points to find information about it by the google search

about the cutscenes, i got some backstory to tell a bit of the topic

during 2010 and 2011, which was the first time i took to finish both the japanese and export versions at emulator(ePSXe at the time), i remember 1.7.0 begin very glitchy in general with the "DISC2 PLEASE INSERT" message, simply when switching discs depending of the first disc i was using, i could still access missions of the previous disc, which mostly generated similar side effects shown on the videos above, disc 1 to disc 2, and disc 2 to disc 1 got a very specific order of the cutscene changes, as some missions wouldn't read as the index couldn't capture the cutscene file, so it would simply skip crudely, as some missions mostly wouldn't play some dialogues either, working similar to the bootleg collection disc i had(removing all sounds would simply trigger the COMM box, but later it would return by the lack of audio files/zero byted, and the most critical issue begin the COMMUNICATION INTERRUPTED message resulting in a softlock, Fates Interwined, Utopian Dreams and Dillema been the starting points of it)

i mentioned long time ago, but good to remind is that AC3 is unique at the two disc logic compared to other PS1 games where disc swapping aside of audio changes most of the time would result in instant crashes, as both discs includes all the 52 + placeholder mission data, so this is why when swapping discs and forcing the game to play missions, you can still play normaly despite the glitches, instead of like what could happen if you decided to play Awakening with Disc 2, but game would suddenly crash if the files didn't existed. didn't checked in depth as it would demand a lot of patience, if disc 2 data of disc 1 missions and vice versa would contain slight details before corrections. but the noticeable factor of why AC3 is indeed, split in two discs is more "fault" of the total size in conjuction of the redbook audio and full motion videos

aside of the disc swap, which unlike at the ePSXe times, you'd need to mostly switch the discs when starting a mission, wouldn't recommend at doing with frequence as i would say there's risk at resulting in data corruption on the disc image, but still nothing too much critical compared to the tests i did at niche cheat code repositories from japan, one of the codes i inputed was able at instantly corrupting data from the disc 1 image i had on the save loading/disc change, glad that i had a backup in hands as otherwise would be disastrous

but for people that would like at trying to play at doing "custom cutscenes", you can acheive the same results, but with the assets of the mission you'd like to test by using the mission cheat code, and activating it above a different mission. mostly that's how i did at the time i did a slightly stupid meme video, the combination was Technology Transfer with Memory Error(if i remember?) as when triggering the R-352 cutscenes, it would play with the upper half model of the UI-4053 instead, which was the first brief clue i had of the Sphyrna's model begin split until noticing in clear details with Lean's Viewer release. the swapped cutscenes were also part of the contact i had from the very obscure mission failed cutscenes, as i remembered getting one at the time with Broken Wings, and years later using the atwiki page i discovered that One Way Ticket had a cutscene where Rena would fire a missile on the Armored Train, and when i triggered i recgonized it was the same scene i've seen a decade ago, but glitched with Rena on the X-49 above the lone sea


an even more "easier", for people that got Python and a brief knowledge at CMD, would be using Infrid's AC3 tools for unpacking and repacking the BPB and editing the mission map files, won't remember now the numbers of each map file blocks, but cutscenes were standalone depending of the mission. one thing that is interesing, when i was reordering a dump from the redbook audio i had, at the final moments with few audios to catalogue, i've found one that was very weird due i didn't heard it before, it took a bit of time, mostly trying to identify it, but came into the conclusion it belonged to The Prize, related to a secondary mission failed cutscene that the Hydrofoils would be destroyed and Cynthia would be confused of how that happend, and isn't too suprising of why this cutscene it's hard at triggering...

First factor begin the first failed cutscene, where GR ships manages to reach into the destroyed OSL remains, which will be triggered by the same action mentioned. second that this second cutscene requirments, would first have the allied Hydrofoils to be destroyed, NEU will call for new ones, so for the cutscene to be triggered it would require that those extra hydrofoils to be destroyed. however, this is where things go wrong, as the enemy AI will act as braindead during this phase, mostly avoiding at attacking the Hydrofoils by your presence even on hard difficulties, i had a similar situation when i recorded a in-game cutscene comparsion with both japanese and export versions years ago, and i was annoyed of how easy the MAYDAY kill flags were easy on the export version, but i took like, hours and tries making the F-22C attack the R-808 at Guardian Angel on the japanese version by the same braindead behaivour

Not sure if the AI behaivour could be somehow fixed to avoid situations like those, but indeed, this flaw turns explicitly noticeable when you're trying to triggering the failed cutscene at The Prize, which is overlooked as few people will go at the through of "what happens if you fail the mission" resulting in missing most of those cutscenes that exists, but they are more like minimum bonus details instead of something really relevant to the main plot

[Krishty]

Decided to visit ZFX today after some time, unfortunately this will be in fact the only remaining phpBB forum i still got an account active, as Zenhax got attacked by dubious code injectors that hijacked sucessfully it, it were shut down, but the owner wasn't interesed at bringing the forum back by not begin happy with the perfomace of the same. and Xentax will be shutting down at the end of this week, despite people asking it for a backup preservation at least, the owner seems not be very interesed at all. already made backups from the progress of my ACI/Flight Engine research

Doing backups is great and I’ll do too, but from my understanding XeNTaX won’t shut down right now:

June 10 is this coming weekend. Is that also the deadline for the Xentax website? What is the deadline for Xentax, if I may ask? I assume you must make either yearly or monthly payments.

No. June 10th is just the date for MultiEx Commander. But it is more likely to be today, due to circumstances.

I don’t think the owner isn’t interested in having it up; I think he has the same problem as this forum or most of us – too little time for administration.

To restate, current funding is not the biggest issue, unless we wish to expand the site and offer dedicated downloads, for example. What I need is people with time. I need people to manage the site, a true webmaster, that keeps everything up to date and runs the show. Preferably just taking over the whole site. Since I have 0 time to manage it, moderate it, keep it up to date and deal with all the external bullshit.

I really really hope it remains up. It’s a treasure trove. Will donate, too, once I find that legendary PayPal link :D

[Krishty]

Thanks a lot on the input on disc swapping!

didn't checked in depth as it would demand a lot of patience, if disc 2 data of disc 1 missions and vice versa would contain slight details before corrections.

This is indeed still on my TODO.

[RythusOmega]

Seeing Krishty brought about the March's Namco press kit before, recently found high quality versions of Kei Yoshimizu aircraft concept arts(including the EF2000E, which is exclusive as it was only shown on the Appendisc movie and the official guide before, on the other end, the Su-37 one wasn't able to be found), along three, one which was already shown by him on twitter, but two new ones
(EDIT : forgot the link, my bad)
https://www.gamegrin.com/directory/game ... ere/images







(ngl that i found them in sort of a stupid way, simply dragging the lowres ones at Google Lens...)

[Krishty]

recently found high quality versions of Kei Yoshimizu aircraft concept arts

Amazing, I love them!

In related news, Discmaster has shut down. I can’t stress enough just how bad that is for video game paleontology. I tried to look for AC2/AC3 assets a few months ago, but I didn’t get far.

[RythusOmega]

Sending a new message mostly related to the Cluastrophobia issue, decided to play with Duckstation today and managed to test something that i through this week, but only remembered now to test it

Claustrophobia on the US/EU Export release has that issue fixed, considering aside of content removal, the Export version had included some QoL fixes to the game, it took a while to get the blind spot of the affected area, but after some tries managed to get a short recording of both versions for comparsion
https://streamable.com/vwolo9

So my suggestion would be getting the map model data from US Claustrophobia, and migrating to Disc 1 or both discs, as only that would be enough for fixing it, but preserving the unique aspects of the japanese version like the dialogues from Keith and Commander. won't remember the exact numbers of the map structure files, but one handles the model data, when the other handles collision, i know that because of a test i made of replacing those files on the unused Mission Notification, which crashes originally at the game

[Krishty]

won't remember the exact numbers of the map structure files, but one handles the model data, when the other handles collision, i know that because of a test i made of replacing those files on the unused Mission Notification, which crashes originally at the game

Sub-archive [1] (counting from zero) contains the tile map; [2] contains geometry for individual tiles. Both are identical for the Japanese + Export version.

I see that [3] is different between the two (and vastly so). I haven’t decoded that yet. Could that be collision information?

[7] (mission script) is different, of course.
[10] is also different, but that’s just enemy setup, I think.
[12] (plane textures) is also vastly different, but that’s expected because there is one more enemy plane model in the Japenese version.
[15] (character map), is also different, of course.

[RythusOmega]

Indeed, so [3] would be the collision file considering they differ, i also made before like a map swap test with the default 52 missions, from what i remember it was one that i swapped a similar map, then a skybox of it, later migrating data from one of the export missions enemy setup, which similar to a disc swap test i did from the export and japan version the enemy sprite names were shuffled(in wrong order). aside of Mission Notification i also managed to get the unused Megafloat to work replacing the collision file and enemy list

[Krishty]

I missed to report on Project NEMO’s new translation!

Their English translation (International Edition was the first, and the update was long-anticipated.) It was released just a few weeks ago and comes with vast promo resources, e.g. a higher-quality version of the translated Mission 00 demo tape.

Download: https://useatoday.blogspot.com/2020/12/ ... .html#more

————

AC3 SOURCE LEAK (sort of 😁)

The green text in this video (you need a Twitter account to see it): https://twitter.com/ProjectNEMO_/status ... 1608207360


That’s actual names from the AC3 source code. MemAlloc and MemNoAlloc appeared in my article on Namco’s executable compression; CdLoadPack loads the data files from the game CD-ROM. Stuff like RotMatrixYZX is very common in 3D math, especially flight simulators. There’s also mention of game pads, Targets, etc.

We don’t see all function names, sadly. Would be great to match those in a disassembler.

NLZDecode seems interesting. Could be the decoder for the ULZ compression, just Namco internally calling it “Namco LZ”?

[RythusOmega]

interesingly, the whole strings of Simon's purge can be found on the BPB files, won't remember which one, i guess it was 0.dat or 1.dat from the root folder, but it'd contain the text in UTF-8(seeing UTF-16 would have dot spaces, as i was doing some research on text strings on ACI previously)

[RythusOmega]

also about the Namco LZ part, on the X360/PS3 games including not only Ace Combat(due Smash 4 even used most of the in-house containers), it's refered as NU Library because of the NU letters(my guess would be that i'd be called Namco Universal), AC7 even showed a name for the engine in question on the bone uasset files, which is called "Flight Engine". not sure if the PS2 files would contain leftovers of the possible name, along Flight Engine got in parts three versions to an extent, the original one from X360 used on AC6, the multiplatform one made for AH, which slightly got a port from Namco itself for MachStorm using Namco System ES3, and the QLOC of Enhanced Edition, which they had to adapt most stuff using Visual Studio, along if you compare EE with the PS3/X360 AH, you'll notice in fact diferences mostly on menus, behaivour and the 60FPS

other minimum detail point, is that Time Crisis used a very early version of the FHM containers used on AC6/AH/ACI similar to how AC5 used ULZ

[Krishty]

interesingly, the whole strings of Simon's purge can be found on the BPB files, won't remember which one, i guess it was 0.dat or 1.dat from the root folder

Indeed, it’s in 4.dat!

That’s likely some kind of dynamic library, and I haven’t investigated its purpose. Maybe Infrid knows.

The strings are:

Code: Alles auswählen

draw_MisBarnner2
draw_MisBarnner
draw_RotorGV22
draw_RotorGH66
draw_RotorR701
draw_Specular
draw_Barnner
Effm_LaserCannon
EffmMazSet
WepValDraw05
WepValDraw04
WepValDraw03
WepValDraw02
WepValDraw01
WepValDraw00
GPadMgrVibPLScrape
GPadMgrVibPLCrash
GPadMgrVibPLFall
GPadMgrVibValShot
GPadMgrVibMisShot
Effm_NoiseFade
Effm_ScreenNoise2
Effm_GameFade
draw_Sprt_Noise
add_Fade_Tile
EffmSet_LaserCannon
EffmSet_SmkJet
EffmSet_Spark
EffmSet_Particle
EffmSet_PLDestroy
EffmSet_PLScrape
EffmSet_PLFall
EffmSet_PLCrash
EffmSet_Fall
EffmSet_Crash_gnd
EffmSet_Expl_air
EffmSet_ANBHit
EffmSet_MisHit_gnd
EffmSet_MisHit_air
EffmSet_ValHit_gnd
EffmSet_ValHit_air
EffmCtrl
EffmDraw
EffmInit
EffmClearFlag
AddFogClut2
AddBG_elect
AddBG_space
AddBG_dome
AddBG_sky
mt_SetMulRotMatrix
mt_RotScaleMatrixYXZ
draw_WMLine
calc_Dist
calc_Dist12
SquareRoot0_fast
CameraSetControlDDk
CameraChangeScrh
ObjPLSpecialNDMG
ObjPLSetControlEvent
ObjPLSetControlIntoAerosphere
ObjPLSetControlTakeOff
ObjPLSetControlPark
ObjPLSetControlRefuel
ObjPLSetControlLanding
ObjPLCheckIntoAerosphere
ObjPLCheckTakeOff
ObjPLCheckRefueling
ObjPLCheckLanding
ObjPLSetControlStop
ObjPLSetControlCrash
ObjPLSetControlCluise
ObjPLSetControlStrate
ObjPLSetControlChase
ObjPLSetControlSpace
ObjPLSetControlNormal
ObjPLMoveIntoAerosphere
ObjPLMoveTakeOffAP
ObjPLMoveTakeOff
ObjPLMovePark
ObjPLMoveRefuel0D
ObjPLMoveRefuel0C
ObjPLMoveRefuelAP
ObjPLMoveLandingAP
ObjPLMoveLanding
ObjPLMoveCrash
PLCTRLCluise
ObjPLSetEventModeAuto
ObjPLSetEventMode
ObjPLControl
ObjPLControlVWReset
PLCTRLCalcLAng
ObjGetMinMaxSpd
ObjPLMoveInit
ObjPLScrVib
ObjPLGetCondition
GHudDisp
GAscDraw
GMapBlackout
GMapFogSwap2
AddClutBlink
MakeFog2
MakeFogZ
SetFogNearFar2
MapDraw
MapPartsChange
vtxtransform
WepDraw
WepControl
WepInit
WepValSet
WepRocketRSet
WepBombSet
WepMisSet
EffkDraw
EffkControl
EffkInit
MemGetRemain
memcpyl
MemSet
MemFree
MemNoAlloc
MemAlloc
MemClear
ChkStruct
FMHMapn
FMHMap
NLZDecode
GPadMgrVibCrash0
GPadMgrVibMisHit
GPadMgrVibValHit
GPadMgrVibGndTch
GPadMgrVibStall
GPadMgrVibCtrl
GPadMgrVibInit
GPadMgrMain
GPadMgrInit
CtlrStop
CtlrInit
KsysCheck
QuitSys
InitSys
CdLoadModule
CdLoadPacks
CdLoadPack
CdGetPacksSize
CdGetPackSize
CdGetFileSize
CdLoadInit
CalcLAng14Vec
CalcWAng14Vec
CalcAng14Z0
CalcAng14
CalcWAng14
CalcAddLAng14
CalcLVec2WVec14
rasin14
ratan14
RotQMatrixZXY14
RotQMatrixYXZ14
RotMatrixZXY14
RotTransposeMatrixYXZ14
RotMatrixYXZ14
DebObjDeadPosHis
DebPlPosHis
DebMisHisInit
MissionCommands
CheckMissionCommands
MissionCommandTableInit
MissionInit
MobjControl
OrdSequence
OrdGuardObj
OrdGuardPos
OrdAttackObj
OrdAttack
OrdNoOrder
checkVectorAlt
checkActVW
ModEmgArea
ModEmgAltitude
ModCruise
ModInstigation
ModDogfight
ModHeadObj
initTObjMOnPhase
initTObjNPOnPhase
initTObjM
initTObjNP
ObjInitTablePointer
calcLocalPos
ObjCleanTgt
ObjDeleteTgt
ObjSetTgt
ObjSearchTgt
ObjGetTgtCnt
ObjTgtControl
ObjInitTgt
ObjGetAreaCaution
ObjNPActionControl
ObjNPModeControl
ObjNPOrderControl
ObjNPGeneralControl
ObjSpeedControl
ObjAngleControl
BaseAltitude
BaseHeading
BaseHorizon
ActEAltitude
ActAileronRoll
ActNop
ActGoStraight
ActHeadingPos
ActHeadingObjR
ActHeadingObj
GetMisType
GetValType
GetTGType
resignation
conscience
process control
connection
unit
active
evolution
self-preservation
mutation
epistasis
building block
heuristics
meta-rule
rule
delta
feedback
local enhancement
ethic
situated
action
philosophy
ambiguity
contingency
Tele-existance
Aero-coffin
Data-swallow
Ana-server
In-tera-net
Electoro-sphere
Antrion
ANB
Nano-bite
Sublimation
Nexus
ENSI
Aeon Generator
PIG
DOE
Geopelia
Night Raven
USEA
Global Way
Ouroboros
SARF
UPEO
NUN
MEU
Neucom Inc.
GDF
General Resource LTD.
UI-4053 Sphyrna
UI-4052 Cralias
UI-4054 Aurora
X-49 Night Raven
XR-900 Geopelia
R-701 Triakis
R-808 Phoca
R-531 Mobura
R-501 Rhincodon
R-352 Sepia （booster）
R-352 Sepia
R-311 Remora
R-103 Delphinus#3
R-211 Orcinus
R-102 Delphinus#2
R-201 Asterozoa
R-101 Delphinus#1
R-505U
EC-17U Globemaster III
Su-43 Berkut
Su-37 Super Flanker
R-201U Asterozoa
R-101U Delphinus#1
F-16XFU Gyrfalcon
F/A-18U HornetADV
MiG-33 FulcrumSS
EF2000E Typhoon II
KC777 ASST
V-22B Osprey
RAH-66B Commanche
B-1C Lancer
C-17B Globemaster III
RF-12A2 Blackbird (booster)
RF-12A2 Blackbird
XFA-36A Game
F/A-32C Erne
F-22C RaptorII
A/F-117X NAV Hawk
F-15S/MT Eagle+
F-16XA Sakerfalcon
F-16XF Gyrfalcon
F/A-18I HornetADV
Martha Yoko Inoue
Gabriel W Clarkson
Gilbert Park
Simon Orestes Cohen
Cynthia Bridgitte Fitzgerald
Erich Jaeger
Fiona Chris Fitzgerald
Rena Hirose
Keith Bryan
Abyssal Dision

Some of them are most likely still in roughly the same order as in the executable, as it’s decorated function names. The encoding is not UTF-8 but Shift-JIS, as evident by the parantheses in R-352 Sepia （booster）.

Thanks, Rythus!

[Krishty]

Short write-up on AC3’s skies: http://krishty.com/articles/ace-combat- ... index.html

Or as X thread: https://twitter.com/kr1shty/status/1691043449598820352

Just one of many things I have yet to write down.

[RythusOmega]

Gave a read to it, interesing article

Made a quick count rundown, and indeed it englobes all the 62 mission maps, including the alpha/beta versions which gaves me a bit of notion of how they'd look like originally, as one of the files that crashes them are the skybox .dat

About Zero Gravity and Electrosphere, indeed you're right as i gave a entire read too of the dumped strings from the Purge log, the lines in question for their backgrounds would be :
AddBG_elect
AddBG_space

when
AddBG_dome
AddBG_sky

would be the default assets for missions with skyboxes, also going out from the Geofront based missions or simply going below the ground using invicibility cheats, you can also see the side effects of how the areas covered by the map/skybox would react without them visible, leaving vulture copies of the displayed 3D models/HUD elements

[Krishty]

About Zero Gravity and Electrosphere, indeed you're right as i gave a entire read too of the dumped strings from the Purge log, the lines in question for their backgrounds would be :
AddBG_elect
AddBG_space

when
AddBG_dome
AddBG_sky

That’s a fantastic find, thank you! I love how it ties together!

————

I also noticed that nocash did exactly what I did – reverse engineer the file formats of Ace Combat 2 and Ace Combat 3, the container formats, and additionally both ULZ variants. Some amazing work because he tracks the use of these formats to different games and engines.

I wonder if he got the idea himself or got contacted by someone. I’ll ask.

[RythusOmega]

Hi, just doing a passing by to comment one small thing related to AC3

In 2017 to be more exact, it went through my mind at doing sort of a indentification sheet of the scenes used on the first cutscene of AC3 when starting the game on Awakening, which is this scene in question on 1:57 :


It may sound stupid for most which aren't AC3 or Namco fans in question(some may think i'd be "very bored to losing time like that"), but it was something that went into my mind at the time by begin curious, the first listing had some errors, but after doing a new research i managed to identify almost all the scenes used, going in order :

First Row

1 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
2 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
3 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
4 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
5 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
6 - Star Ixiom(Intro FMV)
7 - Rena's Article

Second Row

1 - Soul Edge(Intro FMV)
2 - (Data Swallow In-game scene) *Switched later for the R-101 Squadron flyby
3 - Tales Of Phantasia(Intro FMV)
4 - ???(Undentified #1)
5 - EAPN news outlet *Distinct scene
6 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
7 - World Stadium 3(Intro FMV)

Third Row

1 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
2 - Rena's Interview
3 - Dision's Article
4 - General Group
5 - Ridge Racer Type 4(In-game Demo?)
6 - Tekken 3(Intro FMV)
7 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)

Fourth Row

1 - UPEO R-Series
2 - Klonoa Door to Phantomile(Intro FMV)
3 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
4 - LiberoGrande(In-game)
5 - Kosodate Quiz - Motto My Angel(Intro FMV)
6 - Neucom's Introduction
7 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)

Last Row

1 - Point Blank 2(Intro FMV)
2 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)
3 - General Resource's Introduction
4 - Ouroboros's uncensored broadcast notice
5 - ???(Undentified #2)
6 - Ridge Racer Type 4(Intro FMV)
7 - (Data Swallow In-game scene)

Most scenes mostly are rehashed from the scenes seen on the Data Swallow portion of the game(and some weird choices, like the spies finding the R-Series of UPEO, or the uncensored Ouroboros broadcast notice), some i could identify, but others i didn't listed seeing it was some years i didn't played a full playthrough of AC3 by complete, so my memory is fresh in some, but lost in others. other scenes are intro FMV from other Namco games, mostly based on japan region but still with some familiar faces on the west like Tekken and Soul Edge. aside of some in-game footage, which LiberoGrande is my close guess by begin the only football game by Namco, when R4 i think is a demo scene, but unsure which one due i didn't experienced in depth the game to know. now only two of it are still unknown territory for me still

The first one, and indeed is very weird, is that blue screen on the second row, seems like a GUI element, but i couldn't identify of how poor the quality is, it seems like a insert disc button logo, but later it switches to a V-shaped line, unsure if would be some PS1 or even a SNES game, but it'd probably be on the in-game category which would required me to have experience of the game in question, which i don't have for now

And the second one is the one at the left of the R4 intro, i discard begin a FMV intro, it features cartoon style characters(if i'm looking right), that isn't anime styled but still with a japanese vibe. the closest artstyle i could find was from Smash Court 2(released in the west as a Anna Kournikova game), but the game as i've seen from gameplay it lacks a FMV intro. so my wild guess it could be or a commercial or even promotional material of the game, due aside of begin fluid, it got some letters(presumably japanese) zooming in and out in a insane fast speed, this one will be indeed challenging, but i guess japanese users, Namco fans mostly, could give a light if possible

But in fact, i'm a bit happy to managed to find new information to update this small thing i did years ago, despite it may look stupid, is something i like to give attention as i like to find and research details like that