FFXView

Friday, October 21, 2005 » art gaming

French gamer/programmer yaz0r has created a utility called FFXView that lets you view all the models from Final Fantasy X and X-2. Once you load them in the viewer, you can zoom in and out and spin them around, but the coolest feature is that you can actually cycle through each model's animation sets. You can watch your favorite monster or summon do its special attack over and over from any angle, for instance. There are also a bunch of toggles to show the wireframe, normals, and bones for every model, and even though I just got into 3D modeling (I made the planets spin!), I can see how having all these professional models available for viewing would provide a lot of insight for people interested in doing modeling for games. You could compare Tidus's battle model with the one used for the in-game cinematics to see which polygons they decided to cut out, for example.

yaz0r has also created a viewer that works with Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but unfortunately it seems unlikely he'll release it.

I found some notable things I found browsing through all the Final Fantasy models, too. First, this familiar sword is listed right after Tidus's ultimate weapon. A bonus weapon cut out at the last minute, maybe? Also, apparently I've been misreading sabotender/cactuar's expression of surprise for years. It turns out that he's really just happy to see everyone.

At the moment, you can stop by this Chinese site to download the full sets of models from FFX and FFX-2.

Thanks to insert credit for finding this.