ZiggyPalffyLA
Member
Wow, those are absolutely stunning.I wonder if there will ever be a way to import them into the mobile version of the game?
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Final Fantasy IX PC/Mobile |OT| How did the source code survive?
- Thread starter Xanonano
- Start date
Wow, those are absolutely stunning.I wonder if there will ever be a way to import them into the mobile version of the game?
Zantetsuken88
Member
Well I've just downloaded and looks like they've at least fixed Steiner's disappearing arm.
I don't. I'm using psx samples from this link (someone else posted it): http://imgur.com/a/A09TB#0
And the filter is waifu2x with Photo model and highest noise reduction. Some images are passed two times (the small ones) with second pass without any noise reduction (first pass noise reduction is enough). It is available online for anyone. I didn't have much work with these samples to tell you the truth.
MekaDragon
Member
Well, then your technique is awesome, I don't care if it's hard to do or not
I hope there is a way eventually coming from the mod community. This would make the game so beautiful to watch and play.
Definitely looking forward to that one!
Oh, that's good news. That was pretty distracting.
Actually doing these to be put into the game will be more work of course, since the ones in game are a) animated and b) layered with parallax scrolling.
I've been looking into modding this to make the battle HUD smaller again and strangely I've stumbled upon quite a lot of code and text that suggests this was (or still is?) planned for the Vita. One example is that the warning you get when enabling a booster is literally stored as follows:
That line is fully localized and integrated into the code as well (with platform checks). Sadly, nothing points at a PS4 release being planned yet.Code:BoosterWarningNotVita,\n\n[CENT][D06050]*This feature cannot be disabled once active.[C8C8C8],\n\n BoosterWarningVita,\n[CENT][D06050]*This feature cannot be disabled once active.\n[CENT]You will also be unable to earn achievements.[C8C8C8],\n
Agreed. 5x is is way too fast (wtf Square
Here's a link: Booster x2 (battle FPS w/ booster = 30 instead of 75). This file should replace Assembly-CSharp.dll inside "install_directory\FF9_Data\Managed". Be sure to make a backup first!
I also tried a modification to upgrade the default battle FPS to 24, which looks pretty nice IMO. It speeds up all the battle animations as expected, but not to the degree that it looks bad: Default Battle FPS = 24, Booster x2 FPS = 48. It shouldn't break anything, but again, be sure to make a backup in case it does.
You can also set battle speed to "Slow" in the menu to get as much time to think as before, except with faster animations and better FPS.
It seems scaling down the UI requires some more complex modifications which sadly I can't do. Applying the Waifu filter to the backgrounds seems like a lot of work too. Let's hope other modders will take care of that!
Looks like the 2.3 GB patch, replaced the modified dll. I put yours back in and seems to be running ok so far.
Warning: It will pretty much Undo the patch and minor fixes, game seems to run fine though no issues.
potatohead
Member
Well, if someone release a tool to export/import backgrounds to the game, then yes, I'd work on a pack of upscaled backgrounds.
Awesome, especially shrunk down, these look brilliant.
R10Neymarfan
Member
Well, if someone release a tool to export/import backgrounds to the game, then yes, I'd work on a pack of upscaled backgrounds.
This involved more than just using a program like waifu. Was this by hand or ?
I used waifu online: http://waifu2x.udp.jp/index.html
Using Photo Style (this is the Photo Model) and highest noise reduction you can achieve that IQ.
That is not a very strong argument when the original game was a blurry mess, the way it shipped. It's a pitty Squaresoft didn't bother to save the original renders.
I think that's a bit disingenuous. It might look like a "blurry mess" to modern eyes, but in 2000 that's about as good as a game could look, and it sure didn't seem blurry or messy then. In fact, I'd argue they aren't blurry or messy now, either: the blurriness comes from the filtering used to display the art at higher resolutions. On a CRT on the original version of the game, that art still looks perfectly crisp. And there's definitely an overall tone to those images that changes a bit when you put them through the waifu filter.
Nothing looks crisp on a CRT. And your use of the word ``tone'' is so vague as to be meaningless, to me anyway. I think the painterly look works wonders for this game, combined with something to make the 3D models less sharp (they are still somewhat low-poly compared to modern games), the scanlines worked well, maybe also FXAA?
Static Jak
Member
I hope someone can actually make a tool to import these backgrounds. Would be amazing.Well, if someone release a tool to export/import backgrounds to the game, then yes, I'd work on a pack of upscaled backgrounds.
That simply isn't true, and I'm sure the entire retro gaming thread would differ with you, not to mention anyone who's ever watched 480i video on an SD CRT and then on an HD panel for comparison.
When you have a picture that was designed for a screen with scanlines, you have techniques that were used to optimize the look for that. It's stretching those images to higher resolutions that brings out their flaws and makes them look "blurry".
I believe it is a strong argument since they produced the game to look as it did on the TVs of the year it came out. It's not as if they made the backgrounds and then were disappointed at how much detail would be lost on a CRT. They knew exactly how it would look in-game, and produced the backgrounds accordingly.
artsi
Member
Most people suck at it, lol.
Huh!? That just simply isn't true?
An RGB connection into a CRT? Gloriously crisp.
The image on the left is from a Sony CRT. Perfectly crisp.
DukeLongfellow
Member
Well, if someone release a tool to export/import backgrounds to the game, then yes, I'd work on a pack of upscaled backgrounds.
Square, how in donkey's balls couldn't you, as a multimilion $$$ corporation, achieve at least THIS on your own? Jesus Christ. I am so mad when you have teams of paid people doing a half assed job at their games, when you have random modders (like with GeDoSaTo) and artist (like here) who in matter of days do what you couldn't do in months.
It's not that they couldn't have done it. I'm guessing it's that they (most likely) weighed the question of how much extra time and money it would have cost them to do this for the several hundred backgrounds in the game (which, bear in mind, aren't just static images like the ones modders have done; they are animated and layered), vs. the question of how many additional sales it would have got them, and came to the conclusion on a budgetary level that it wasn't worth it.
We may not like it because we all want perfection, but it's not immediately obvious that they were wrong.
Professor Beef
Banned
They probably weren't solely working on FF9. SE also works on other projects.
Also, the FFIX port was made not by their core internal teams but by a branch of the studio that made the Bravely Default games.
Well, if someone release a tool to export/import backgrounds to the game, then yes, I'd work on a pack of upscaled backgrounds.
Oh dear.
I'll go see what i hack up.
fake edit: Ugh. Nonstandard formats, no jpg or png markers...
Anyone has a open-source tool for VII or VIII on hand? Package type may be similar.
Wait, wait. Files may actually be.. Unity raw files? The port is in Unity?
Yeah, the headers state UNITYRAW 5.X.X 5.2.3, and there's a bunch of readable stuff that's obviously Unity.
But those aren't .assets packs, nor .unitypackage packs, so i know jack all on how to open them @_@
OmegaDL50
Member
We aren't even sure that SE was working on it anyways, since one of the very first things that pops up when you load the game is a porting company called Silicon Studio Thailand.
Silicon Studio is the developer who made the Bravely Default games. They're based in Tokyo, so they must have a satellite office in Thailand who were assigned the port (or parts of it anyway).
Awesome work. This is one of reasons I'm holding off FFIX. The stock pre-rendered backgrounds in the port look terrible. Mods FTW.
OmegaDL50
Member
Is it possible to disable the 3D polygon objects in a PSX Emulator and just have the background objects display in FF9.
When I used to do sprite rips for MUGEN characters years ago, that is how I ripped both character sprites and background objects by disabling the view for various layers shown in an emulator.
If there was some way to tell the Emulator to not display the polygon character models and just the background objects there might be a way to extract higher res versions of the backgrounds via some sort of native scaler increase.
Another possible idea is to use a frame counter and extract all of the elements of the animated backgrounds and turn them into frames like a gif and insert them into FF9 and have higher res backgrounds with the animation layers retained.
But seeing as some of the objects are mipmapped this seems to be far more complex than done.
This sounds like a very complicated and tedious task to do.
When I used to do sprite rips for MUGEN characters years ago, that is how I ripped both character sprites and background objects by disabling the view for various layers shown in an emulator.
If there was some way to tell the Emulator to not display the polygon character models and just the background objects there might be a way to extract higher res versions of the backgrounds via some sort of native scaler increase.
Another possible idea is to use a frame counter and extract all of the elements of the animated backgrounds and turn them into frames like a gif and insert them into FF9 and have higher res backgrounds with the animation layers retained.
But seeing as some of the objects are mipmapped this seems to be far more complex than done.
This sounds like a very complicated and tedious task to do.
There it is. The reason why it wasn't done in the first place.
Actually upon closer look they're not mipmapped, they're just chunked in 36x36 pix and the chunks put in a 2048x2048 atlas of.. some order.
It's very feasible to reconstruct & deconstruct them programmatically.
In fact, i'm working on chunking and reconstructing as we speak.
The game already improved some of those textures.
And I think the backgrounds are partially maddening in that they HAD to have much higher quality assets, but derp derp we don't need dis anymore.
All non-background textures aren't mixed up to hell and back, swapping them in would be pretty easy.
.. We're going to need a tool that updates pointers, though. Perhaps that unity unpacker does it...
Yes, from what I can see they improved some of the ones for boss battles and story battles, but left the ones for the random battles alone, along with the ones on the world map.
I agree with you with regard to the pre-rendered art, but that's spilt milk now. From what I have heard, Japanese developers in general were bad about archiving in those days, because storage was expensive and they didn't foresee a reason for the assets to ever be needed again.
What's strange about it to me is that Squaresoft at one point supposedly had plans to re-release all three PSX Final Fantasy games in remastered form on PS2. Did they still have the assets then? Or did they scrap those plans because they didn't?
Interesting. I've noticed that some of the backgrounds look worse than others; wonder if that's why.
Yep this is my delima. That and should I hold off playing my psx version on my Sony Wega 36 incher and put this through the steam link in my 60.
This is driving me mad.
Chunking and recomposition try of, i think, a Cleyra image: http://imgur.com/a/93BpF
.. But somehow position shifting is getting me nowhere.
Here's a manual recomposition (row shifting)
I think the issue is that the damn things are multi-layered. And there's a lot of 'surplus' information which is just getting repeated because eh texture is covered anyway who cares.
Chunking and recomposition try of, i think, a Cleyra image: http://imgur.com/a/93BpF
.. But somehow position shifting is getting me nowhere.
Here's a manual recomposition (row shifting)
I think the issue is that the damn things are multi-layered. And there's a lot of 'surplus' information which is just getting repeated because eh texture is covered anyway who cares.
Self_Destructive
Member
Isn't it because some of the backgrounds pan when the character moves. They aren't all simply the same aspect ratio as the screen.
That could explain ones that pan vertically, but it would be odd if they all just happened to be between exactly 360 and 480 lines. We'd have to see if the aspect ratios line up or not.
EVA UNIT 01
Member
so are the VIII and IX PC ports solid?
ive got a windfall at the moment and im on a spree here.
ive got a windfall at the moment and im on a spree here.
Okay, i'm starting to dump something...
edit:
Bad news. Backgrounds are mipmapped, as they're probably expected to be animated:
... It's probably beyond my skills. Someone batphone Durante.
Welp, this explains the tiling/blocking issues, since they're saved at upscaled resolution in tiles and it's rather likely that they were originally in tiles at PSX resolution to begin with, so unless someone was crazy enough to assemble each background by hand, upscale, THEN put them back where they belonged, tiling is going to happen.
(Not saying it shouldn't have been done, and the magic of computers allows a code-savvy person to automate a lot of things, but it explains quite a bit)
edit:
Maybe I should read the entire thread before replying, hah. Yeah, exactly that.
BONKERS
Member
And now that explains why there were so many alignment issues on the steam store page screenshots when it was first announced.
And people called me crazy for it. Shocker, I was right.
But why? Just so you can animate a few blocks here and there? (Layering wouldn't be the reason. You just have layers with alpha/transparency)That might have made sense on the PSX 16 years ago..
If you have access to the source, or are rebuilding it in Unity. Why not change that so it actually makes sense? (To that same tune I can come up with other arguments too)
But it's Square Enix, you should expect no less!
They couldn't even encode the Audio decently, so it sounds even worse than the original PSX game because of high amounts of compression.
To the person who made some example upscaled backgrounds. Those actually look pretty good!
IX is the only one approaching decent without a shit ton of mods.
None of them are as good as they should be that do these games justice.
The ones with animation have a few frames at best. It's not complex animation by any means either usually. (Tiling things instead of storing them as independent tiles due to re-using the same system that was optimized for a 20+ year old console doesn't help though)
And yes, there are a lot of them. But so what?
Re doing these backgrounds in some form or another allows you to preserve them for the future even more and re-release it even further on more platforms now and down the line. Which would more than justify the time and cost IMO. People will buy re-releases of games like this over and over, especially if they are of high quality work. Heck they do even when they aren't.
Instead of launching on Mobile and PC, they could've done all the other current platforms as well. IX originally launched on PS1, not releasing it on PS4/PSV/PS3 leaves out a huge potential market.
And people called me crazy for it. Shocker, I was right.
But why? Just so you can animate a few blocks here and there? (Layering wouldn't be the reason. You just have layers with alpha/transparency)That might have made sense on the PSX 16 years ago..
If you have access to the source, or are rebuilding it in Unity. Why not change that so it actually makes sense? (To that same tune I can come up with other arguments too)
But it's Square Enix, you should expect no less!
They couldn't even encode the Audio decently, so it sounds even worse than the original PSX game because of high amounts of compression.
To the person who made some example upscaled backgrounds. Those actually look pretty good!
IX is the only one approaching decent without a shit ton of mods.
None of them are as good as they should be that do these games justice.
The ones with animation have a few frames at best. It's not complex animation by any means either usually. (Tiling things instead of storing them as independent tiles due to re-using the same system that was optimized for a 20+ year old console doesn't help though)
And yes, there are a lot of them. But so what?
Re doing these backgrounds in some form or another allows you to preserve them for the future even more and re-release it even further on more platforms now and down the line. Which would more than justify the time and cost IMO. People will buy re-releases of games like this over and over, especially if they are of high quality work. Heck they do even when they aren't.
Instead of launching on Mobile and PC, they could've done all the other current platforms as well. IX originally launched on PS1, not releasing it on PS4/PSV/PS3 leaves out a huge potential market.
EVA UNIT 01
Member
so IX is decent with mods and VIII is just trash then?
What do you mean, "so what"? That goes directly into explaining why they didn't do it. Each animation in effect multiplies the number of passes that need to be done with filtering and minor redrawing. If it's an animation with, say, 30 frames (by my observation, many of them have a loop of about a second long), that's a multiplication by a factor of 30.
And if you have played this game recently, what you'll see is that almost every single pre-rendered environment is animated in some way. Some have only one object animated; others have several, often with different lengths to their animation cycles. Some have constant looping animations; others have event-based animations that only go off one time (like the gears in Tantalus HQ, or any time a door opens and closes). This game has a TON of animation in its pre-rendered backgrounds, and every single one of them would have to be gone through frame by frame.
And that's not taking into account the layers, either, of which nearly every environment in the game has at least two. That's a further multiplier.
What I'd be interested to know from Aureon is exactly how many background assets he finds in the Unity files.
I passed those 367 static backgrounds through waifu2x with highest noise reduction. If anyone want it before some export/import program arises, here's a link. I didn't apply any other enhancement other than waifu2x using Photo model and noise reduction 3. They'll need a second pass to achieve hd resolution, though.