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Final Fantasy IX - PC Waifu x2 by Fraggoso ("HD"/ Filtered backgrounds)
- Thread starter StarVigil
- Start date
I made the mod mostly for myself as the steam background is filtered horribly and in some instances are broken.
In Motion it looks and feel way better than on screenshots.
The problem is, without additional manual touch up, they'll never look great. Still I prefer my backgrounds instead of the steam backgrounds. Nothing come close to the crisp and sharp psx backgrounds though.
In Motion it looks and feel way better than on screenshots.
The problem is, without additional manual touch up, they'll never look great. Still I prefer my backgrounds instead of the steam backgrounds. Nothing come close to the crisp and sharp psx backgrounds though.
Yep.
SirNinja
Member
Square really needed to remaster the backgrounds for this, like they did for Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD. The modders mean well here, but running images that low-res through Waifu2x is just not going to cut it.
Bizarrely, Square did touch up the character models for this version, but it only makes them look even more out-of-place amidst all the low-res scenery.
Bizarrely, Square did touch up the character models for this version, but it only makes them look even more out-of-place amidst all the low-res scenery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-g9yVk28GQ
Not sure if it's covered there, but there's also no analog support.
So much detail and texture is lost in the conversion.
These notices don't look great after being waifu'd, for example.
What detail is lost? There's nothing in the original.
In my opinion, it is what it is. These old PS1 games were never meant to be displayed in big-ass TVs or in a resolution over 320x240. I think I'd rather there be an option where you can display the characters in their original low-res selves (while still enjoying the clarity of a native-res display).
franklyshankly
Member
Seriously, why is it called waifu?? I am so confused.
sotojuan
Member
The description of the filter is:
"Image Super-Resolution for Anime-Style Art"
So it fits. It's a filter for weebs made by a weeb
https://github.com/nagadomi/waifu2x
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
that's incredibly shit.
Chipmungus
Neo Member
I completely agree, and find it hilarious that it's being written off by some as a "cheap emulator filter".
JimboJones
Member
Are you blind? The smudges are all smudged!
It's not as simple as that. Those are just static images, but the actual environments have foreground and background layering, animations, &c. None of which we have.
Plus they'd be pretty jarring to come across randomly.
We know. The point is, S-E in their filtering chose a kind of middle ground between smooth lines and detail loss. This mod goes all the way in the direction of smoothness but makes more sacrifices in detail as a result.
What looks like written lines in the original has strange crosshatches on it in the filtered version. What looks like the silhouette of a person in the original is now more or less a trapezoid. I think the difference is apparent.
During the 2 hours or so that I played it before modding the battle FPS and then going back to the PS1 version, I remember being irritated by the really large mobile UI, the font that is uglier than the original, the "!" popup when you go to talk to someone turning black for a few frames (a visual bug?), and the lack of analog controls. Luckily, it seems the creator of Memoria is working on fixing all of that.
If I were to nitpick, Zidane's model is also noticeably off (they made his shoulders slightly too broad, which makes him look very stiff, while he's a more relaxed kid of guy) - but I guess that's a matter of personal preference.
Yeah I know that, but the layering isn't all that hard to replicate and I don't think most of the environments we have hi-res artworks for have animations. It's true that they'd be jarring to come across, but I still think it's worth trying for the beauty of it alone.
Drillary Clinton
Banned
The second shot looks leaps and bounds better.
Good that they finally figured out how to implement this, but it feels like a lateral move. Worse in places and doesn't fit the art direction as well.
The dream is still all the original resolution assets that look gorgeous and match the art style (see above), but we've only got some of them publicly available and the assumption has been SE has lost the rest.
The dream is still all the original resolution assets that look gorgeous and match the art style (see above), but we've only got some of them publicly available and the assumption has been SE has lost the rest.
potatohead
Member
BTW, to the people saying how "shit" this mod and they prefer the "original" Steam backgrounds... Square Enix in fact ran them through an upscaling filter already lol.
Second picture is FF9 on Steam.
I mean I wouldn't run 2 filters either on my own.
SirNinja
Member
BTW, to the people saying how "shit" this mod and they prefer the "original" Steam backgrounds... Square Enix in fact ran them through an upscaling filter already lol.
Second picture is FF9 on Steam.
That's bilinear filtering, not upscaling. Goal was basically just to get rid of the pixelation in the original images.
That looks more than just bilinear filtering.
Honestly I barely see any detail loss. There's just barely any to lose at 320x240. Honestly I didn't even know that poster was supposed to be a silhouette. I had no idea what it was.
This would be A LOT of work, and we don't have every backdrop in high resolution. As far as I understand the scenery is stored in a really fucked up way. Only Squeenix could "fix" this. I don't think they're interested.
It's not a filter, it's taken from the original CG background artwork.
I was going to post this.
That said I just finished a playthrough of the Steam Version a couple weeks ago. I wouldn't let these minor things turn you off the game.
The "cheats" are also a nice addition. If you want to just enjoy the story and scenery you can become insanely powerful, turn off random encounters, and even make the game run at much faster speeds without ruining the music for whatever slow parts you want to speed through.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
The pixelated PSone backgrounds look the least bad from the complete-set game-finished renders. Also the PSone UI art.
I think it'd be better to work in the other direction, keeping both the backgrounds and characters low-res on a matching aligned pixel grid. But stabilise those low-res 3D models with greater sub-pixel accuracy and lightly filtered *textures. Honest, cohesive retro presentation with touches of modern polish.
*outside full-3D battle scenes, texel density usually exceeds the display pixel grid but still contributes to more popping of those display pixels.
I think it'd be better to work in the other direction, keeping both the backgrounds and characters low-res on a matching aligned pixel grid. But stabilise those low-res 3D models with greater sub-pixel accuracy and lightly filtered *textures. Honest, cohesive retro presentation with touches of modern polish.
*outside full-3D battle scenes, texel density usually exceeds the display pixel grid but still contributes to more popping of those display pixels.
ss_lemonade
Member
Yikes, those hq4x-like backgrounds don't look too good.
Unrelated but I ask the same question myself too with that RE 4 HD Project conversion. Somehow, the guys working on it are able to produce miracles with those soupy textures
Unrelated but I ask the same question myself too with that RE 4 HD Project conversion. Somehow, the guys working on it are able to produce miracles with those soupy textures
Almost every background in the game has animations to some extent, whether it's flags waving, gears on the wall turning, or whatever else. People forget how dynamic the backgrounds in this game were.
And the layering would be quite hard to replicate. Bear in mind that many layered environments had parallax scrolling, which means foreground objects moved with the camera at a different rate relative to the background. That means you'd need not just the foreground objects, but you'd need the background to have the parts of the image behind those objects. But those images from the old GAF thread are just flat renders without any of that information.
I don't know what to tell you, man. It looks pretty clear to me. It definitely loses form in the filtered version, and that's just one example from the game. There are plenty more.
Are the people complaining about this judging only by the screenshots?
If yes, please play the game with the mod installed first.
I know, taste is really diverse, still I don't know how people find the steam backgrounds better without the mod when I see something like this:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/210084/picture:1
If yes, please play the game with the mod installed first.
I know, taste is really diverse, still I don't know how people find the steam backgrounds better without the mod when I see something like this:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/210084/picture:1
Dark_castle
Junior Member
When I first saw this mod, I was excited. And then I saw the comparisons and yeah...not feeling it. Looks cleaner but details are sacrificed.
Yeah for example the ugly black outline on the top right of the castle's edge, is already there in the unfiltered image.
They both look bad, but at least the doctored one looks a bit more clear.
I don't really understand why people say this filter causes loss of details. More often than not you actually can see small details better with the filter like lines, stairs... sure it's not perfect and some may not like the watercolor effect but the loss of details (non-existent details if you ask me) isn't it, I think.
texhnolyze
Banned
They made it into a pallet background.
It's actually a very useful tool for upscaling low quality images, especially photos. I use it a lot for my side business.
It's actually a very useful tool for upscaling low quality images, especially photos. I use it a lot for my side business.
An apt name cos it works best on anime waifus which shows its strong suit - finding and smoothing splines. We used it in our work too, it's quite powerful.
Resident Evil Remake was made from scratch.
The source material (we're talking about the psx assets here as the steam version had allready lower filtering and couldn't therefor be used by me) didn't had so much detail to begin with.
The goal for this mod was also to "clean" the image, remove color bending completely, and if needed, repair some scenes.
At least I did it for myself. ^^
7DollarHagane
Banned
Doesn't look too bad on first impression.
With source material that low quality it will never look great. It's a lose lose.
With source material that low quality it will never look great. It's a lose lose.
Spiritwalker
Member
Play it on a PS1/CRT if you really care about the backgrounds.
Shinobu" Fix | CRT Scanlines, Soft 3D, remove grey bar, SMAA. All in one.
Still feel like the best middle ground, thought I have no doubt a CRT purist wouldn't like it.
I think the issue is that the illusion of detail is broken by the upscaling, not that there was actually any detail lost.
This is why I generally prefer CRT-emulating filters for older games rather than fancy upscaling techniques.
It would be good if there was a completely untouched screenshot to compare, because this is just comparing different upscaling methods.
One of the problems is that it looks like the noise reduction component is turned up too high though, so the end result is lacking any texture.
That might be good for anime, like the waifu2x scaler was originally designed for, but it doesn't work well for that image.
But the 'HD' releases use an ugly upscaling filter for all the backgrounds.
The RE4 HD Project is not even remotely comparable, tbh. As I recall one of the two modders in that project has actually gone scouting around Spain looking for the actual, real-life architecture used for the original assets in order to recreate them as faithfully as possible in a much higher quality. It really is an insane effort those guys are doing.
He means the HD Remake, which often has the same "painterly" scaling look.
You know what, I'm digging this. Makes the backgrounds look more palatable without modifying them so extensively.
Indeed, they're not working miracles with the soupy textures. They're replacing them wholesale. It's an incredible project, the best graphical mod I've ever seen. Unlike most others out there, it's done with the utmost respect to the source material, attempting to preserve the same look and feel as much as possible, just in higher fidelity.
I agree, although in general with PS1 games I just prefer to play them at their original resolutions for a multitude of reasons.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The REmake Remaster was very harsh in some specific areas but they drastically improved the up scaling for the Zero port at least.