Machine-Readable

Ace Combat

I extracted the levels, models, and sounds from the PlayStation game Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere (and discovered two unused levels by the way). I’m still working on Ace Combat 2 () and Air Combat ().

This is where I gather my stuff:

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Ace Combat 2’s playable aircraft have no undersides or noses. This makes sense as an optimization: You never get to see your aircraft’s belly or nose during any mission, so why waste CPU time on it!
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Ace Combat 2’s Tornado. I haven’t found the correct coordinate transformation for the control surfaces yet.
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Me trying to extract Ace Combat 2’s player models.
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Ace Combat 2’s Saint Ark at sunset.
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Ace Combat 2’s Saint Ark at night.
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Ace Combat 2’s Port Edwards.
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The airport in Port Edwards from Ace Combat 2 is a loveless sight – there are glitches all over the place. It was probably modelled in a haste to add a landing mission.
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The skybox in Ace Combat 3’s Awakening mission.
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Unfinished prototype of the XFA-27 from Ace Combat 2, compared to the final model. The prototype is missing texture coordinates, but its texture file suggests a gray paintjob.
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Model Display models from Ace Combat 2 (rendering problems solved): ADF-01 Z.O.E., EF-2000 Death Rave 2000, JF-2A, MiG-29 Ricochet, Su-37, XB-10, XFA-27, YF-23A Fox Force Four.
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The A-4 from Ace Combat 2, now textured, but with rendering problems at the canopy.
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All Model Display meshes from Ace Combat 2 (flat-shaded, no textures).
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Trying to extract the A-4 from Ace Combat 2 …
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I fixed many shading problems with the planes from Ace Combat 3 (top) in the new download (bottom). Shown here: Rena’s Su-37.
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I fixed nose tip problems with the planes from Ace Combat 3 (top) in the new download (bottom). Shown here: UPEO EF-2000.
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The elementary particle lab in the Altoora Desert from Ace Combat 2’s mission Electric Dreams.
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Snider’s Top from Ace Combat 2’s mission Final Countdown.
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The terrain from Ace Combat 2’s mission Cuckoo’s Nest, with and without textures.
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For comparison, the less detailed landscape in Ace Combat 3’s similar mission Joint Maneuvers.
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The terrain from Ace Combat 2’s mission Rising High, with and without textures. It is more detailed than any other terrain even in Ace Combat 3. What a waste, as the entire mission takes place above the clouds!
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Palette problems with Port Edwards from Ace Combat 2.
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Unused data in the F-4 skin from Air Combat.
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Pictures from the international Ace Combat 3 press kit definitely show the alpha version of Expo City.
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The space center Comona Island from Ace Combat 2’s Toy Box mission.
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The industrial area Axel Bay from the Sledgehammer mission.
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Anchorhead Bay from the City on Fire mission.
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Alpha version of Expo City from Ace Combat 3. Focus is on the UPEO headquarters. Mind that there is no underground airport.
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Terrain tiles of Comona Island and objects from the Opera House mission.
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In 2005 – after nine years – Ace Combat 2 was re-released on the PlayStation 2 as part of the NamCollection. I compared the game files with the Japanese 1.1 version, but the only change with the entire game was copyright information in the title screen.
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The space center Comona Island from the Toy Box mission.
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Anchorhead Bay from the City on Fire mission.
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The Lambert Mountains are a loveless sight in every Ace Combat game. (Part 2 shown here.)
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Triangle tolerances were too low when resolving textures – at least it demonstrates the coordinates are correct!
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Comparison of Expo City’s beta version with high texture resolution (upper image) and mip maps (lower image).
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Comparison of Megafloat’s beta version (upper image) and the final version (lower image).
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Evolution of Expo City: the inaccessable alpha version from Mission Code (upper image, without underground airport), the inaccessable beta version (center image, with smaller buildings), and the final version from Game Show (lower image, with different textures).
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The inaccessable beta version of Expo City uses a different geometry format (must have been designed after the alpha version, but before the final version).
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GPU memory during the Awakening mission, reconstructed from texture metadata and resolved to true colors.
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GPU memory during the Awakening mission, reconstructed from texture metadata.
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Comparison of Expo City’s layout in the alpha version (upper image) and in the final version (lower image).
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Evolution of Expo City: The inaccessable alpha version from Mission Code (upper image, without underground airport); the final version from Game Show (center image, with smaller buildings) and Awakening (lower image).
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Air force base White Valley from the Stratosphere mission.
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The Sandbury Desert from the One-Way Ticket mission.
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Port Edwards at night.
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Nanobites near a Neucom research facility from the Bug Hunt mission.
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Megafloat at dusk (upper image), at night (center image), and in ruins (lower image).
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Geofront.
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Access tunnels to Geofront from the Tunnel Vision mission.
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Expo City from the Game Show mission. Lower image: Focus on the UPEO headquarters with the iconic underground airport.
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Expo City from the Target Acquisition mission.
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The space center Comona Island from the Reaching for Stars mission.
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The industrial area Axel Bay from the Fragile Cargo mission.
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Amber Mountains from the Claustrophobia mission.
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All playable planes of the Japanese version, textured.
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Wrong triangle coordinates while resolving texture palette regions.
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Direct3D and PlayStation handle texture coordinates differently; here I try different offsets.
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Palettes “bleed” into neighboring regions during resolving (see gray area in the front).
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High resolution snapshot of the MiG-33 Fulcrum SS.
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High resolution snapshot of the F-16XA Sakerfalcon.
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Textured F/A-18I Hornet ADV, but with the wrong palette on many texture regions.
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There is an updated version of Ace Combat 2. While the original version (let’s call it 1.0) was released in April, the updated version 1.1 was released in July. The main difference is in the English translation (diff shown above).

Apart from that, the original version contained the leaked string 04EAS.PLY P:\UNIX\PX201\BRIEFING\WO which was zeroed with the update. Executables are different as well, but I didn’t bother comparing them.

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Texture coordinates of the MiG-33 Fulcrum SS (red = U; green = V).
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First sight of the playable planes (individual parts in distinct colors).
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Terrain tiles – mirrored on one axis (upper image: from the Bug Hunt mission; lower image: from Ghosts of the Past).
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First sight of the inaccessable alpha version of Expo City (mirrored).
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Tile with normal color interpolation (upper image) and sRGB-correct color interpolation (lower image).
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Tunnel with normal color interpolation (upper image) and sRGB-correct color interpolation (lower image).
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Ace Combat 3’s terrain is tiled; these are the first extracted tiles (red and blue swapped).
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The first NPC models I extracted (without textures).
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The first static models I extracted (without colors).
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Gone wrong …
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Those damn titty games!
Have you seen my Driver Experiments?