Modeling Mitsuki and how much I can think about modding Ace Combat 7

There is a bit of difficulty regarding Mitsuki model since his hands are placed deep inside the robe's large sleeves. I know, this sounds way much complicated considering this model has its own difficulty compared to Boruto, Sarada, and Konohamaru models. It doesn't stop me from paint-rigging the models, though; I know what's it like to dream something that people wanted to but no one have a time to do so. In fact, only 3 Naruto models (2 are from modern games, one from classic game, the rest done by Patreon user Darwin VS, in a few numbers) were made and I'm the only one who's doing Boruto ped mod pack (Team 7 that includes Boruto, Sarada, Mitsuki, and Konohamaru) at this time.

To be frank, I have no idea whether someone will attempt to surpass this project by making on their own. In fact, Terell1995 commented on both Naruto mods that published on GTA5-Mods.com that he has the resource files from DeviantArt, but most of them are in PMX or PMD format (extension that can be opened on Miku Miku Dance application for karaoke depiction of a song - in what it appears to be the videos I found on LINE and such). If that's true, then it's either NewCreation or TheFuumaSage will be doing Boruto ped mod firsthand, and I'm not talking about Naruto/Sakura/Sasuke/Kakashi since the very beginning of this project. Still, if they did it, it's only a matter of time until someone made Sarada, Mitsuki, or Konohamaru into GTA V.

Wondering why I'm still doing it? First week of this time is free without any significant hard work to do. I have trouble sleeping after I spent 12 hours playing Fallout 4 in modded environment, with AWKCR and such, plus one additional arsenal installed: Dragunov sniper rifle. Just finished Nuka-World quests with mods while achievement is enabled (don't hurt much of the account, TBH, since it doesn't use any anti-cheat systems like VAC). Had a headache with my right eye being red, but I'm still okay. Next week? No idea. Maybe it's gonna be weighted, but likewise, I must prepare to reduce the gaming time consumption for the preparation of Final Project.


Now, modding Ace Combat 7 also has its own difficulty. I've seen skin and data manipulation mods (like TLS weapon to imitate classic Ace Combat games: one hit, one kill) published on both Nexus Mods and ModDB, and extracting the unusual archives (*.pak) was easy as pie thanks to someone on Reddit (had to use the Google Cache to open the Reddit link since it's still banned in Indonesia), but the question is, how to edit them.

Extracted files seem to be found in *.uasset and either *.ubulk and *.uexp extensions, which this cannot be modified in a normal way. Also, some skin mods description also mentioned MREC that is quite unusual in modding. So, this became the question I want to answer.

*.uasset seems to be related to the Unreal Engine's extension, since the game uses Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) for the AC7's game engine. The site I found said that it can be opened using UnrealEd and said that,

an Unreal level editor that comes with Unreal Engine; contains an asset, such as a level, material, animation, sound, or particle system used in the Unreal Engine game.

UnrealEd has its own website, but no downloads, seems that it's a part of the Unreal Engine itself. In that case, I have no idea if this is right, but let's see if I can open those *.uasset files with the Unreal Engine. If it works, I might gonna open possibility to mod, map, or remap skins in AC7, see if I can put my TF606 skin from GTA V/LockOn FC2 into AC7, redesign the Osean skins to resemble common US(AF) design, or change logos like IUN and OADF roundel to UN and USAF roundel, make it like "oh, Strangereal has becoming real sh*t now".

No promises, though. I'm modeling Mitsuki and then finished by modeling Konohamaru. Alpha test on all 4 models and then, release as public beta. I might gonna pass this to someone like NewCreation to see if he can improve/fix the model, but... again, no promises, though. He might gonna need permission from me to prevent my mod from being abused.

My ZM3 license's still holding until September 27th. Let's see if I can wrap this up before the license expires on that date. For now, (re)mod the AC7 again and let's see what kind of thing that Terell1995 is posting to those dudes posting Naruto mods.