#technical shit

I am still very much stuck.

1 thing I want to make clear about what types of files each DDSAT model is saved as, it is a .PB file, which was engineered by ATLUS themself (meaning that these cannot just be opened regularly and are unrecognized by model viewers such as Noesis.

Games such as Raidou 1-2, DDSAT 1-2 and SMT Nocturne use these file formats for models.

anyway. so at this point after ruling out both the mass PB to FBX/OBJ/DAE convertor only giving me the models textures, i gave up and ended up loading 3ds MAX and then using TGE's plugin to import the .PB files into there. 1st Image pictured is Harley Q's textures, it's in a DAE folder which was a result of a line of code i ran to convert PB files to DAE, but there is no .DAE model file present in the results.

i'm putting the rest of this under a readmore for coherency and not to spam the main tag with a really long post, but I do really want to figure this out as I'm sure a lot more people want the models that are not present on modelers resource + other assets.

I was able to extract the assets of Digital Devil Saga 1's ISO using a command line, so i have access to all of the data in the game. The only roadblock i manage to hit is that since this is an older entry, all of the model files are stored in multiple unreadable formats (PB/MB/LB).

I hit a roadblock in which I'm really not well versed enough in computers to figure out the other commandlines used to convert these as FBX/OBJ/DAE formats (ones that are readable using programs like Blender or Autodesk).

There exists some tools on github meant to specifically convert these files and that I have a command file that is supposed to bulk convert .PB files from a folder, but it only provides me with textures. I'm trying to rule out whether the actual models with their data are being stored elsewhere in its assets or if i'm actually just flat out running shit incorrectly.

I'm probably going to take a break from this for a bit since I just flat out cannot understand what's happening, but if anyone wants to give it a go send me an ask and I can provide you with the raw data files i got from opening the ISO as well as the tools + guides I used to get this far. I mostly want models of the characters that aren't readily available

I like to think i'm moderately versed in computers and i was able to mount the primary iso file to my laptop and go look at it but i'm convinced either the data is in .DAT files that Noesis (program used for viewing raw 3D models from games + their animations) won't recognize or it's another disk image file of like 1-2 GBs i'm assuming holds stuff that would be important that i can't mount or if i try to isolate it directly on the computer it corrupts. Frustrating. It's like this for DDS 1+2 . Ive kind of looked online for ages about how to open ISO files to extract things and all of them lead to a model rippers which require you to run PCSX2 and scan the model. The issue with that is i assume that would have them all unrigged and also i do want the models with their animation data (IE. Heat's non-atma victory animation) . I'm only under the assumption these exist in some capacity albeit under trees of compression in files since I was able to get them for p4 (which is albeit. A different game WITH. A steam port which is why doing that was so easy.)

Idk if me having the og file as opposed to an .iso would make things easier to extract bc i remember someone saying if they hooked up their ps2 disc directly to the computer and mounted it they could just go through the visual files that way. But idk if that would even work, as each game has different discrepancies in its organization

Readmore is. Suggestive ?? I don't know, its me bashing two models together from 2020. This was the result of my endeavours regarding ripping models from p4.

I love the amount of characters you included, but I can only imagine all the work necessary to plan scenes, romance routes and just to keep track of it all. For you personally, has it been easier/more difficult than you initially imagined?

If you don't mind, I'm also very curious to know how are you going to manage the poly routes (since in one of my WIPs I decided to include four of them): will romantic or at least close interactions between the characters involved happen before MC's choice to pursue a poly ruote? Later in game, are you planning the same scenes with different characters or are you going for completely different scenes depending on the RO(s) chosen?

Sorry for the long ask and the amount of questions, and please accept my admiration for your work, I'm closely following this IF's developement❤

Hi um can I just say I'm so excited for the Chosen One and I love your work! Anyways, now responding to your actual question lol!

So with how many characters there are in FL and how many routes, I've broken them down into scenes that I sort of piece together based on player choices/reputation/relationship. When the story eventually reaches a certain point, it will branch out chapter-wise. So when you reach a certain chapter, you'll have a completely different game than someone who made other choices.

For example, in my startup file it would look something like this;

leydonch7 leydonch8 ebiach7 ebiach8 neutralch7 neutralch8

That sort of thing basically.

Personally, I've found that introducing characters at a paced rate (by region, for my game) has really helped with planning. I know when I'm introducing character A and what their relationship with the MC is or could be. Based on that, I begin to write interactions with them that set up the possibility for any of the potential routes this character can take. Be it romance option, enemy, reluctant ally, or friend, I try to make sure things happen at a relatively good pace.

When it comes to the poly routes, before the MC decides to lock into that route, poly flirt options are unlocked by having a certain romance level with each character.

So you flirt with them both so much individually, and it then unlocks the option to flirt with them at the same time. You're still not locked into that route, but you see the characters grow closer with each other and you, though nothing is strictly romantic yet, and this easily leads into the poly route.

As for romance scenes later in the game, they all differ based on who you are romancing and what route of the game (leydon, ebia, or neutral) you're on. They'll also differ slightly based on your pre-romance relationship (think enemies to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers, betrayal, that sort of thing). I have certain variables coded to remember big interactions and previous relationship percents at various points in the game, and those variables trigger different conversations.

For example, if the prologue I have three variables for your childhood relationship with Florian. They are flordisliked, florliked, and flor neutral.

Then in chapter 1, you can decide how your relationship has progressed with choices that lead to one of the following variables being set to true; florianstillfriends, floriannowfriends, florianneutralnow, florianstillneutral, florianstilldisliked, floriannowdisliked.

Those two variables decide your childhood relationship and how you've both grown, and it's similar with every character.

There are also variables in interactions the game remembers, like hugging Florian in the prologue. If you're still friends and hugged him, you have a much closer relationship. If you hugged him and now dislike him, it hurts him a tad bit more than it would otherwise because he really liked you.

Basically, all that decides what the romance scenes look like. Obviously, if you hated Florian you two wouldn't jump straight to making out. However, an MC that has had a crush on Florian for forever and finds out he likes them too might get to go ahead and swoop in for a kiss.

It's all very fun until I get the variables confused. But hey, that's what beta testing is for!

Long story short this thing is a coding BEHEMOTH and the reason I'm thinking of making it a duology lmao.