[Tool] Ace Attorney Offline (Download Cases)

[falko17]

If you want to back up some AAO cases (or just download them to play them without internet), I've now written a tool for that called Ace Attorney Offline (aaoffline). It's available here: https://github.com/falko17/aaoffline (the latest release, including a downloadable EXE, is always available here)

It downloads all referenced assets and scripts for the case and creates a version of it that works completely offline. The GitHub page linked above describes some additional features (e.g., downloading multiple cases at once, or choosing a specific player version) and how to install and use it. This program doesn't have a GUI, so you'll need to invoke it on the command-line. You can pass "--help" to get detailed information on its usage and options.

I should note that this isn't an official tool, and I can't make any guarantees that it'll always work—I only tested it on a handful of cases, where I couldn't find any problems, but it's totally possible that there are some edge cases I missed. If you notice a problem or have a feature request, feel free to tell me either in this thread or by opening an issue in GitHub.

EDIT: I added some additional features since I posted this, such as:

• Passing the "-1" parameter compiles the case into a single HTML file (i.e., no separate asset folder).
• The user scripts by Time Axis can now be integrated into the offline cases by passing the "-u" parameter.
• Sequences are correctly "connected" to each other.
• Photobucket watermarks are automatically removed.
• A bunch of bugs have been fixed, thanks to Time Axis' numerous bug reports.

[TimeAxis]

I gave it a try with a couple of my cases. Didn't run into any issues specific to this tool (although some of my cases ended up being affected by the merged frame AAO bug, so I hope you'll update the tool once AAO gets updated). There are still some unused default assets being downloaded like the courthouse and detention center and stuff, but that's not a super big deal. Very cool though. Thanks again for making this.

[falko17]

some of my cases ended up being affected by the merged frame AAO bug, so I hope you'll update the tool once AAO gets updated

You could actually work around the new merged frame behavior by just choosing an older version (although this older version would of course not have all the bugfixes included in the newest version). For example, by running aaoffline with "-p 01c7623f02b452a025dc4511e7e68349eb72ea81", it uses the player version one commit before the merged frame change.
Also, ideally, I won't even have to change the script once AAO updates, as it by default uses the most recent version of the AAO player. It'll only break if a part of AAO changes that the script directly touches, such as the way the trial information is stored. Still, I'll run the tests regularly (it might be a good idea to automate this and run them once per day or so on GitHub Actions, I'll look into that later) and update the tool as soon as possible once they fail.

There are still some unused default assets being downloaded like the courthouse and detention center and stuff

Oh, I didn't notice that and will look into it soon, thanks for telling me.

[Enthalpy]

For what it's worth, the next AAO change shouldn't change trial_information.

[falko17]

I've updated the tool now to v1.2.0 with some additional features:

• Cases in a sequence are "connected" properly (i.e., redirection to other cases in the sequence along with variable/HP transfer works).
• Photobucket watermarks are automatically removed from case assets.
• Downloads are automatically retried a few times if they fail.
• I've fixed a bunch of bugs, thanks to detailed bug reports by Time Axis.

[K_G]

Tested this with TTT and works really well so far. This tool is very cool and important for case preservation too. I always hoped something like this would exist someday.

[Kroki]

I tried the tool and was able to play the downloaded case perfectly fine !

It took me some time to figure out you have to run the program from the terminal...

It's funny that this functionnality suddendly just pops up after sounding like a distant idea for 17 years, lol, great job !

[Crazalu]

Saw the reason why the test for my case was removed. File garden wasn't gone, their domain got blocked but it got resolved a few days later.