[FF7PC] NPC Reconstruction (Discontinued, use Unified Model Installer)

[stormmedia]

i can't finish run NPC-PCP 0.6 with ff7
ff7\data\field\char\xxxx.x unknown version
what should i do
help me plz 
thx

Well..... try this:

Try that:
Remove the char folder where you extracted your char.lgp and all file in it.
Insert a ff7 cd and goto to field or char folder and check for char.lgp. Open this file with your favourite LGP-extractor and extract all files to ff7\data\field\char.
Then you should be able to run NPC-Patch and create your new char.lgp.

Hey people !!  Since some NPC now looks better than some main charcater I thought that I should remake some of them.  I've been working on a brand new Cloud lately.  It's starting to look good so I decided to make the first shots of this model.

Here they are:
front:


back:

(click on the images for bigger size)

I still have some work to do with the face and the texture of the hair though.  And of course I have to make the legs. 

Anyway I'll update these shots when I gonna have some work done.

[squeeble]

Just a quick bit of critique, but I would get rid of the beveled pointy bits on clouds shoulder pad, and also the bangle on his wrist should just be straight cylinders rather than spikes. Other than that man awesome job so far can't wait to see more.

Oh and just a tip but maybe you could try alpha mapping the hair to add a bit more detail .

[stormmedia]

Just a quick bit of critique, but I would get rid of the beveled pointy bits on clouds shoulder pad, and also the bangle on his wrist should just be straight cylinders rather than spikes.

Well, I want to do it the more possible like the Cloud's last battle with sephiroth(basicaly the model used in the the NPC patch right now).  This model do have things like that.  But I know I have to rework them... I just made them in a rush before passing to another part.  Later I'll rework them (the ones on the shoulders are waaay too long)

[Terid__K]

I didn't like Cloud's face, he looks like a 40-year old. You shouldn't try to make them realistic, it just wouldn't look right. You should either stick to the anime style or make them Advent Children style.

[sword]

Yes it looks good, just the face.

[Master Ridley]

I would just say, I'd like to see the current style (0.6) with a few more models rather than seeing these complete custom models. The anatomy seemed much more accurate and realistic. Storm, are you using reference pictures when modeling or are you just modeling based on memory?

I'd say learn some anatomy from this link. The starter of the topic in this link is one of the official modelers for Guild Wars. One bit of advise Gir/Onslaught and 3D art colleges will tell you is before you begin with 3D modeling, perfect sketching in 2D (all angles possible that you plan to use for your 3D Models).

A few more modeling tutorials for you.

Here's some 2D Art tutorials...they can assist you in 3D modeling as well.

I'll be glad to search up more tutorials for you but I need sleep. Google or ask Gir if you want to get serious on modeling. Your models will turn out a whole lot better after pulling through with these tutorials.

Honestly, the Cloud from version 0.6 looks better than your cloud model.

[Salk]

My opinion is similar to Master Ridley's. Personally I like the Cloud model from the 0.6 patch better than this latest, modernzied one. The recustomization of the models shifts more and more towards an Advent Child kind of style that has little to do with the anime spirit that is a foundamental characteristic of the game itself.

[stormmedia]

I would just say, I'd like to see the current style (0.6) with a few more models rather than seeing these complete custom models. The anatomy seemed much more accurate and realistic.

Well, I'd like to remind you that I did resize them so the anatomy seem much more accurate because before I resized them the legs (and some other part) as way too long­.  The model isn't finished.  Once I will have all the parts done it will be easier to make it anatomically right since I will have an idea of the final result.

I'd say learn some anatomy from this link. The starter of the topic in this link is one of the official modelers for Guild Wars. One bit of advise Gir/Onslaught and 3D art colleges will tell you is before you begin with 3D modeling, perfect sketching in 2D (all angles possible that you plan to use for your 3D Models).

A few more modeling tutorials for you.

Here's some 2D Art tutorials...they can assist you in 3D modeling as well.

Wow that hurts, I didn't think I was so bad that someone would actually google tutorals for me.   Though I thank you for your links, but I hardly have time to do models... so I don't really have time for tutorals.  As for the anatomy I'm not bad it's just that the model isn't finished.

My opinion is similar to Master Ridley's. Personally I like the Cloud model from the 0.6 patch better than this latest, modernzied one. The recustomization of the models shifts more and more towards an Advent Child kind of style that has little to do with the anime spirit that is a foundamental characteristic of the game itself.

Why would more detailed models kill the "fundamental characteristic of the game itself"?  Can I remind you that as soon as the technology allowed it Square did make the jump in the realistic world?  I think that the only reason they gave an "anime spirit" to ff7 game(well to the characters) is because it was easier for a console to handle (so less CPU/GPU consuming) to do very low poly characters with manga style textures.  Square always wanted to do there work to look the more realistic possible.  It's just that at this time it wasn't possible to do better.  All the models I did so far did fit the rest of the game.  So I don't see any problems about killing the fundamental characteristic of the game.  I'm sure this model would do fine once finished.

I didn't like Cloud's face, he looks like a 40-year old. You shouldn't try to make them realistic, it just wouldn't look right. You should either stick to the anime style or make them Advent Children style.

I'm just trying to take the model from the game and make it look more realistic.  Why "realistic" is automatically redirected to "Advent Children".  And he sure doesn't look like 40-years old(25 maybe though) but as I said earlier, I still have work to do with the face.

Yes it looks good, just the face.

Yep thanks,  I have at least two positive comments 


Don't get me wrong ppl.  I do appreciate all your comments, positive or negative, I'm just defending my point.  But although I'm defending it I'll take all your comments and try to figure something out that will make everyone happy.

Anyway see you folks!

[squeeble]

Well I hope you have the hair and face as 2 separate pieces coz you can't edit the face as one whole or morw than likely you'll end up with an unsymmetrical face. Even if it's in one pice you might be able to select the hair using (select by element) and then detach the hair, assuming your using max. Then you would delete half the face an mirror it as an instance that way when you work on one side of the face it reflects directly onto the other. I would recommend doing a tutorial on modeling the one that taught me the most was a dreadnaught tutorial on 3d palace helps you get a good grasp of all the tools, like I know your doing a good job and your doing your best but you definitely need to touch up on some skills.
Modeling realistically takes allot of practice and I would agree with saying that anime style would look better on him, even AC style was anime touch more realistic but the anime stylings were still there, oversized eyes and boobs-_-. Theres a mention on the DVD behind the scenes thing that they said they don't want to make it look to real so they toned down the graphical power of what they were doing . But yeah keep on pushin those verts hope to see some more progress.

[stormmedia]

Well I hope you have the hair and face as 2 separate

Of course it is.  And don't worry about the face it will be perfectly symmetric.  The face is an old head I did some time ago from the scratch using the symmetry modifier.  On these screens the head is almost unaltered(except for the eyes) from the original one that I made. that's why it still needs a lot of work... this is not Cloud I didn't originally made it for Cloud.  I know all about making an object symmetric and I did some tutorals some times ago.  I don't know where everyone got the idea that I didn't know anything about modeling, but it's not the case at all.  This is a work in progress you know... I just didn't bother yet messing with the head that's why it looks weird.  I just need time to finish it... not billions of tutorals.

I know squeeble that you are good at it and that your are just trying to help here.  I just want you to know that I'm not that newbie in modeling.  It's just that I don't really have much time to do models and I wanted to do the model the faster possible so I can give you some shots and then refine it more.  I realise now my mistake.  I thought everyone would understand that it was just the draft of a work in progress just by seeing that the legs wasn't even there yet.  Now I will say it again and loud this time and will add some detail about why I made this model as a draft:

"THIS IS NOT THE FINAL VERSION OF CLOUD...  IT'S JUST A DRAFT OF THE UPCOMMING NEW CLOUD.  I MADE IT THE FASTER I CAN BECAUSE I WANTED YOUR COMMENTS BEFORE GOING TOO FAR INTO THE MODEL BECAUSE I WANTED TO KNOW HOW YOU WANT SOME PARTS TO BE DONE..... NOT BECAUSE I WANTED TUTOTRALS".

I understand that Cloud's the main character of the game.  That's why I wanted to know everyone's opinion on how to do it.  Of course some part of my new cloud aren't like you would want them to be and that's exactly why I made it as a draft.  After I will get the opinion of everybody, I will continue to refine the model keeping in mind everyone's thought.

Sorry if I seem to be over reacting but I just wanted to make myself clear on that matter.

[Salk]

Stormmedia,

first let me say that it was not my intention to imply that you are not capable of modelling. On the opposite, I believe you are very talented and that you perhaps could write tutorials for others to learn.

What I and others are contesting is the sudden change in style. We liked the style you guys used when remodelling the NPCs. And what we are here saying is that "more realistic" is not always "better". For a number of reasons. I list some: (1) whoever played the original game and enjoyed its graphic style can not get accustomed to a real graphic revolution and still feel he/she is playing the same game. If this goes too far then I guess many will rather stick to the original graphic than see such drastic changes overcome the game. It actually does not matter much that Squaresoft didn't use photorealistic textures for their models because of lack of CPU Power. It's the result that matters. And the results was defining a particular anime style that fit the game very well. What you could do (and have done) was to improve it to look better. Another rason is (2) the contast between ultradetailed and ultrarealistic models with the low quality, poor defined background. The PC version of the game is already a punch in the eye in this respect. Using models that are ultrarefined would just make things definitely worse. Here we are all hoping that one day the High Res Patch will also come with filtered background (or, more realistically, we are hoping in Q-Gears...). As last reason (3), I think we can call it "pratical". The NPC Reconstruction project still has many models that need to be remodelled. But not so many to justify redrawing from scratch the ones already done. Prioritizing your work after finishing all the models might be a good move.

Said all that, it's all your hard work that created and permitted this. No matter what you, Borde and Ice_Cold513 are going to do, you'll always have my thanks and respect for the NPC Reconstuction Project. Just please do not think our critics mean disrespect or ingratitude. We are just giving feedback to work as a link between you, the artists, and us, final users.

Thanks again! 

[Wuz]

looking good stormmedia

[stormmedia]

Hey Salk,

Don't worry I wasn't angry.  as I said I just wanted to clarify this point.  Anyway, I know your point since some time hehe(you explained it to me earlier).  But although the backgrounds are still pixeled in the field I'll tell you that I always thought that in this game just vertex tainted model was laking something to fit the backgrounds.  I really think that texturing the models will help cut a little this "punch in the eye".  I agree though that too much detailed texture will definitely not fit the rest of the game at all.  But I don't think that adding more detail in the modelisation will do any harm to the game though.

Anyway I will explain the reason of the sudden change in the style (well, the reason of why I did the change anyway).  It has been a while since I started to work with 3ds max and I really like this program because of all it can do.  So after some time I've became quite good using it and always wanted to do models from the scratch with 3ds and then import them into ff7.  However it wasn't possible back then.  Then Reunion did Pcreator that now allows us to do it... so as soon as I had the time started to do a model with 3ds to import it in ff7 (the snow woman which I used to make test with the importer).  I want to improve my skills with 3ds max that's why I'm doing models from the scratch with 3ds.  However it would be sooo weird to do so with NPCs but not with the main characters that's why I want to do the main characters before starting to do NPCs again.  After that I'll start again to make new NPCs until there is no models to do ... and then after that I'll start to redo some of the old NPCs or maybe to do some battle models.

looking good stormmedia

Thanks!

[Chrisu]

It's really looking very nicely but i think the face doesn't really look like cloud...
Anyways good work!

[Kilauea]

I just registered for this forum to make this one post, and that is to say wow and thank you for making this great mod. This is one of the main reasons so many people want to see a FFVII remake, because the characters look so bad, and now here this is. This is awesome and I want to thank everyone who spent time working on it so far! Nothing quite like seeing Cloud as he should look.

Also, I don't know if anyone is aware or anything, but Aeris is missing a hand. Or, at least, she was in the first scene she is in the game. I haven't gotten to where I'd see her again so I don't know if thats just in that one scene or in all of them.

Anyway, thanks again guys, you rock and keep up the good work. It's very appreciated!

Kilauea

[andrewmarsh13]

I don't know, I like it. I mean yeah you gotta' fix the face obviously. The other things that need cleaned up are the textures, and I think the torso looks a little fat. This is an early model though, so I'm sure the textures will be more deatiled later on down the line. Also, if you're going for realistic, bright yellow hair might not be the way to go.

[Wuz]

unless you're using the high res patch how good does the face really need to be?
The battle model needs to be pretty accurate i suppose but you don't see clouds face close up that much just walking around the field.

Realistically enhancing the models to the detail level of FF8 (or perhaps a bit better) is enough, Anyone asking for more than that is just asking for too much, imo.

[stormmedia]

unless you're using the high res patch how good does the face really need to be?
The battle model needs to be pretty accurate i suppose but you don't see clouds face close up that much just walking around the field.

Well, yes the face of my Cloud needs to be pretty accurate for two reason.  First there is some place in the field that you will notice it if it's not allright (although you're right that most of the time it wouldn't matter).  Second I will use this model for both field and battle so, as you said, the battle model needs to be pretty accurate hehe.

[Silver Wings]

first of all, thank to the great project  , but now, i have got a trouble: the patch was running fine but FF7 crashed many times, can you help me to solve this problem, i'm only a newbie

[Findecano]

Maybe you're walking into an area, where a "corrupted" NPC is standing, which makes FF7 crash.
If you got FF7-Music, you can see, what crashed ff7 and you can change the corrupted file with LGP-Tools.
Worked for me a long time ago (nowadays i can't even play the game    )

[Chrisu]

Hey guys, are you still working on the project? Because it appears a bit dead to me...
Just wanted to ask because i'm really looking forward to the next version (I'm playing through FF7 at the moment)

[ice_cold513]

Yeah

 I will post some pic's later
We are all over the shop right now
If i make 10 more model's, i will put out the new one

[Duellos]

Yeah

 I will post some pic's later
We are all over the shop right now
If i make 10 more model's, i will put out the new one

With Multi language support in the map for example?

[stormmedia]

Well, right now only ice_cold have some time to spare to the project.  From time to time I start a model... and finish it like a month later.  It's kinda hard for me to find time but I will not give up this project for a very long time I promess .  I just won't be very active in it...

[Psychotic Ninja]

Hi. I need help with the npc installation. i followed the step by step instructions on the installing and i got the error message "aaaae2.p unknown version" error message. then i do this

Try that:
Remove the char folder where you extracted your char.lgp and all file in it.
Insert a ff7 cd and goto to field or char folder and check for char.lgp. Open this file with your favourite LGP-extractor and extract all files to ff7\data\field\char.
Then you should be able to run NPC-Patch and create your new char.lgp.

and i still get the same error message. can anyone help me? and yes i have the max. version installed (no other mods)