Here’s my 3D print of a Firran from the video game ArcheAge.

I was super lucky to be in the Closed Beta 3 and decided to use this gorgeous game to continue my experiment on 3D scanning virtual worlds.

Instead of using the in-game models for 3D printing, I took a lot of screenshots and reconstructed a model using photogrammetry.

screenshot from ArcheAge

3D scanned reconstruction

Above shows one of screenshots I took and the 3D scanned reconstruction. As you can see, there’s some detail loss, but overall, it’s pretty good.

I made the Firran sit as to lessen the idle animation, so I could get a consistent pose.

I used Autodesk 123D Catch instead of VisualFSM and Meshlab (like in last 3D scan) because the surface reconstruction was a bit better. My intuition tells me the point could generation (turning photos into point clouds) is the same as VisualFSM, but the surface reconstruction (turning point clouds into 3D models with surfaces) is a lot better. Though, that’s a gut feeling without proof.

My initial impression of 123D Catch it is very easy to use and gives you nice renderings. However, it’s slow. There’s also no point in using the desktop version since it requires you to sign in through the Internet, just like the web app.

To create the 3D scan, I uploaded 35 screenshots of the scene to 123D Catch. Here’s an overview of the result. Since I focused on the Firran in my screenshots, the environment reconstruction is not as great. Also, since I wasn’t able to capture a complete 360° view, some parts are lacking details.

For 3D printing, I cropped the model and thickened the thin parts (like the hilt of the sword).

It came out great!

This 3D print success proves 3D scanning and photogrammetry techniques can be applied to virtual worlds.