Author Topic: [FF7PC-98/Steam] New High Quality FMV Project (2013-05-10)  (Read 47088 times)

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #25 on: 2013-05-22 01:17:02 »
And thanks again for helping with the codec. I tried countless combinations to get it to work and it always did the same thing. Second try with your suggestion and it worked perfectly. Saved me a migraine and a whole afternoon of swearing at my computer.

LeonhartGR

  • *
  • Posts: 2577
  • ~Whatever...~ Enjoy life!
    • View Profile
    • LeonhartGR Productions
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #26 on: 2013-05-22 01:38:57 »
Glad you made it... ur welcome buddy.

dkma841

  • *
  • Posts: 1225
  • delete
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #27 on: 2013-05-22 14:46:25 »
Looking forward to it! :)
Edit:
From DLPB (he can't write here as he is on his 4000th post)
Quote
The problem is, whenever you reencode a video, you are adding to the  loss.  The only real way to make videos "BETTER" than the 2012 versions  is to actually start with the best known source (psx versions sadly and  decoded to a lossless format like lagarith from which you can build your  project) and then do what they did with 2012 version... use noise filters  and upscaling methods.

After that, you do what has been done here... you make the colour better,  make contrast better, make sound better.

Starting off by reencoding the 2012 versions, which is already a  reencoding (of PSX) which was also a rather basic encoding (of the original  master), is just introducing more noise again and distorting the picture  further. (and if you look at these videos you can see that noise has indeed  been added).

The whole approach has to start from the very basics and be worked up in  order to better the 2012 versions. It has to be worked from the ground up  or it is simply a variation with added impurities.  Also, changing the  Resolution or frame rate is a big no no.  I actually like the new colour,  though.

I am also going to stop pming people now, as it is cheating.   Maybe at  some stage I will look into filtering methods and try to come up with  something better than the 2012 versions.  My own versions are now  completely redundant in most areas, despite the massive amount of work I  put in.  The method I used was inefficient, and looking back, totally flawed (not to mention ridiculously time consuming...).

Your videos will look decent if you correct the faults I listed, but it will still  suffer from degregation of the image due to reencoding.  So you are fixing  one problem (colour, contrast, sound)  and introducing another (noise,  image degregation).

I didnt mean that the whole thing was useless. I mean the last encode was. The real question is, can we come up with the  same or better  filtering job they did with 2012, whilst also adding the other  improvements on top, working from the PSX versions. I may have another try one day.

Dan
« Last Edit: 2013-05-22 17:14:52 by e1sunz »

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #28 on: 2013-05-22 18:18:18 »
Thanks I do appreciate the help. I hit some technical difficulties so things are a bit delayed. Good news is I found a much better process that'll actually do exactly what Dan said. Better yet, I'm sharpening the image a whole lot more and it's not having the negative effect I had last time. I'll try to get a sample of the sharpened videos available soon.

dkma841

  • *
  • Posts: 1225
  • delete
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #29 on: 2013-05-22 18:32:09 »
Awesome man :D

Covarr

  • Covarr-Let
  • Administrator
  • *
  • Posts: 3941
  • Just Covarr. No "n".
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #30 on: 2013-05-22 18:38:30 »
The reason 15fps is ideal is because the originals were 15fps. By changing it to 25fps, you are introducing duplicate frames, which accomplishes nothing but to bloat the filesize and cause it not to run nearly as well on any display running at a multiple of 60fps (TVs in North America and Japan, most LCD computer monitors worldwide).

You mentioned you're using a TV. Are you in Europe or Australia? If so, it's possible (and in fact quite likely) that your TV displays at a multiple of 50fps, in which case 25fps video would almost certainly run smoother for you... but it's really better to optimize for 60fps PC monitors, not 50fps TVs, since that's what the vast majority of people will be playing on.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #31 on: 2013-05-22 19:07:18 »
Nope I'm in DC. 25fps seemed ok for actual movies but the videos that move around the characters are jittery, and they weren't what I'd tested before. New codec is at 1280x896 h264 aac at 15fps. So obviously a better working codec is great, but the sharper images are what made me retool this in the first place and they look awesome. So I'm very optimistic, and do have to agree - this crap is very time consuming lol. 

LeonhartGR

  • *
  • Posts: 2577
  • ~Whatever...~ Enjoy life!
    • View Profile
    • LeonhartGR Productions
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #32 on: 2013-05-23 01:37:09 »
Oh gosh... you reminded me of when I tried to test my modified opening.avi 25 fps render in a friends slower setup and experienced the usual video\sound lag once more... Square should at least fix those issues in the re-release... but obviously they didn't. My modified video does lag with the re-release when I tried it as well...
« Last Edit: 2013-05-23 01:39:47 by LeonhartGR »

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #33 on: 2013-05-23 02:59:27 »
I tested the first new video in the game and it not only looked great but plays perfectly. The new process isn't only better but it's faster too. I switched from final cut to sony vegas movie studio hd platinum 11. I started with the bike video and sharpened the video some and fixed the color and contrast. The really cool thing is I can import the next video without having to redo anything and just reanimate the video, it saves my settings. So now I only have to make a few alterations on some videos and replacing the audio I already enhanced. This will triple my productivity. I don't like windows much otherwise, but vegas seriously kicks ass. I want to get as much done as possible for now, but I'll upload a game ready sample later tonight.

LeonhartGR

  • *
  • Posts: 2577
  • ~Whatever...~ Enjoy life!
    • View Profile
    • LeonhartGR Productions
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #34 on: 2013-05-23 03:23:48 »
I need to get my hands on vegas sometime... I'm thinking about it for so long... adobe premier is a real pain in the arse indeed!

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #35 on: 2013-05-23 03:29:09 »
Totally worth checking it out. With an Amazon Prime account it's $40 too lol, and doesn't sound much different than this years version. There's differently a learning curve with it, and mastering it would take some time, but it's made this project so much easier.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #36 on: 2013-05-23 04:43:48 »
Ok so here's a sample of v1.01. I didn't mean to pick two dark videos, but they were the coolest looking of the ones I've finished so far. These are game ready, so just copy them into your movie folder (don't wipe out the originals though). Ignore the file names, there so you can see them in the game without actually playing. Finished about 24 videos with similar settings so things are moving along pretty well.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/uon6783437i4i3h/eidoslogo.avi

http://www.mediafire.com/download/10uoghj2ddnrpna/sqlogo.avi

saftle

  • *
  • Posts: 88
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #37 on: 2013-05-24 21:25:29 »
I love the videos. I can't wait to add them!

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #38 on: 2013-05-24 21:50:58 »
Glad to hear it. I'm actually stuck in meetings tonight that only requires my physical presence, so I'm wearing headphones and setup with Vegas here and hoping to get a bunch of these done while I'm here.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #39 on: 2013-05-26 01:40:08 »
OK, so v1.01 is completed and new download links are available on the first page. I also included links for my HD ending3 video, and for original size remastered ending1 and ending 2 videos for those who don't want them full screen. The color and contrast maybe enhanced a lot more in these than in other projects so they may look brighter and darker than you expected, but I think they look really good, and I made videos like the golden saucer railway and junon elevators closer to the originals so they transfer well with the games background. I tried to make transitions like that as unnoticeable as possible. So check them out and enjoy the new remastered fmvs.

The links for the samples I posted earlier on page two will be available until I eventually need the storage space for another project. If you want to see some of the videos first before downloading the rar files try them and the ending videos posted on the first post. They'll give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect.   

 
« Last Edit: 2013-05-26 01:48:00 by cmh175 »

Kaldarasha

  • *
  • Posts: 2449
  • Prince of Model Editing
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #40 on: 2013-05-26 03:08:26 »
Hmm... I have the feeling that the dark areas are too dark right now and losing some of there detail.
It's like using the full dynamic range (0 - 255 instead of 16 - 236) of your graphic card on a display which doesn't support it.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #41 on: 2013-05-26 03:21:08 »
Any one in particular? I haven't seen every single one of these ingame, but I did watch them using vlc to double check them all. Some looked a little darker, but not to the point they lost detail or anything like that. I'm using a powerful graphics card on an HD tv which may make a difference, but probably not much. If you're using a much older pc these videos may give you issues, but otherwise they should be fine. If you do come across anything that's extremely dark or anything else let me know, and give me info of your pc set up so I can recreate it. If there is anything that warrants a fix I will release a correction, but otherwise as of now I feel pretty good about them.

Rumbah

  • *
  • Posts: 58
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #42 on: 2013-05-26 11:26:44 »
Did you use full range for the videos or tv range?

If I remember correctly Aali's driver til 0.7.9 used the full range YUV -> RGB conversion and the later version used the tv range conversion (as used in every DVD/BR Player).

That's why you get wrong contrast/brigtness levels with DLPB's videos nowadays as they are compressed in full range for 0.7.9 so you shouldn't use them for reference.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #43 on: 2013-05-26 14:31:45 »
That's not a setting I even looked into so I'm not sure. I appreciate the info, but honestly as long as they're aren't any major issues I don't plan to make anymore changes. I've started a new game with them and gotten up to the attack on the Distict 7 plate. They've all looked fine. The movie videos may have different color settings but it has't effected their detail, and as they work independently from gameplay adjustments to them wont effect much. Videos like mkup and juningo I set them to match the background color and lighting as much as possible to cover transitions. So I appreciate the help, but in the end I was just looking for videos I thought looked good. They'll never be totally perfect.

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #44 on: 2013-05-26 14:55:22 »
By the way I appreciate everyones input. Definitely not a brush off. More of a I'm tired of editing these videos thing. I'll redo any that don't look right in game, but otherwise I don't plan on making anymore changes to them.

Template

  • *
  • Posts: 862
  • Life is a series of cats.
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #45 on: 2013-05-26 15:21:53 »
Hiya, first I want to thank you for your hard work on this project. I have been watching it and finally got around to testing some of the videos in game last night.

I was really excited because right off the line the intro is the best I've ever seen, the detail achieved is surprising considering the softness. I don't want to be overly negative, but these qualities do not hold out for all of the other movies, though I have not tested very many of them. 

I decided to just start from the beginning and test the movies in order. Early on I ran into an issue with brightness or contrast transitions that bothered me. In addition, I felt that something lossy was happening in certain movies, which surprised me considering the quality of the intro. I like the black levels just fine but to my eye the brightness of the transition from the opening movie to the 2d background scene in the train station do not match as closely as could be desired. I don't think it's wildly off by any stretch, but plainly said, I think the movies are a little dark. This issue is more pronounced in the videos that follow, the next being mkup.avi. If you compare that file with that of Trojak's pack, both in game, I think you'll see where the brightness should be.

Another issue which is significant is the breakup of some of the motion into what looks like compression distortion, in the form of square-patterned pixelation. I see this type of picture degradation on cable/satellite feeds, so I assume its related to compression anyway. An early example of both brightness mismatch and square distortion is mk8.avi. Again, compare that file in game with that of Trojak's pack and you will see the brightness is off when the video ends and is replaced by the 2d background, and also that the flames of the explosion are not displaying cleanly in your version. They look overly digitized and square anomalies can be seen there. I suspect a lot of these videos will require individual settings which may differ from one to the next a great deal to get them right.

At any rate, I bet you've nailed quite a few of the other videos' picture quality just as well as the opening, but I've only run through the bombing mission so far; however, I do suspect they are all a little too dark when played in game to exactly match the 2d renders. :cry:   

I notice a lot of the videos are smaller in size than DLPB/Trojak comparisons. You can crank up the file size, if that's an issue. Took me 10 min to get the whole set.

I know you've spent a lot of time on this already but here's the upshot: if you fix the brightness for some of the movies where transitions make them look too dark, there may be a bunch of others where it doesn't need to be perfect anyway, so a simple adjustment of brightness across the board may solve that issue. As to the loss of quality for the flame motion, no idea what to suggest there but it seemed to me there must have been some compromise made on whatever most affects fast moving objects. The sqlogo.avi is perhaps an even better example. Compared to DLPB's file, the running chocobos are totally distorted in your version. As an aside, your eidoslogo file did not work properly in game for me. It's just as well, I skip that file completely since I want the first thing to come up to be those scampering chocobos. 

It's really a massive collection of well done video conversions you have, but I think some more tweaking would be required to make it the definitive example. I do hope you'll continue the work, though, because there were details in your opening.avi that I have not seen before, not on a CRT with a PS1 or anything else either--it brought forward something in the image that was genuinely lost before, in my opinion. Would be a huge shame for this massive project to turn out just a couple good avis that people will like, and a whole pile of them they will prefer other versions of. 

« Last Edit: 2013-05-26 15:44:33 by Template »

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #46 on: 2013-05-26 16:47:05 »
Thanks. Currently I'm playing through and seeing what works and what could use tweaking. The mk8 video could use some to smooth the fire. I think the lighting and contrast though are as good as we can hope for. I actually barley touched it, so it's color is pretty close to the original. The opening video never really transitions well as the texture of the buildings and train are different from the video. I could make some changes there, but none that would make you actually forget it's a video playing. The pillar falling video could use some adjustments too to cover the transition, but otherwise the video looked good. Otherwise I haven't seen anything else that needs fixing, I'm on the 60th floor of the Shinra HQ. I was careful on videos that moved into game play, like the monitor video works seamlessly. Stuff like that I will definitely fix. It's odd the eidoslogo didn't work, it's a completely new one from the original too. Mine works fine. I wasn't as concerned with the logos anyway though since everyone always hits start right away.

Mostly videos like the biglight, weapon, and canon, these are ones that don't directly interact with gameplay, and I'm not as concerned with tweaking. I corrected the washed out look they had and enhanced the color and contrast. I may have taken them farther than what they may have ever been, but not by much and not necessarily in a bad way. I tested them outside the game and they looked good, but if they look rough or over the top in the game I'll fix them. Basically I'm not redoing all 105 videos though, only ones that'll seriously need it. 

Do you mean the size of each download? I use mediafire so I can organize uploads easier, and it keeps a record of how many times something's been downloaded. I use a free account though and it has a limit of 200mb for each upload. I'm considering also putting together a torrent for those who'd like a single file and don't mind using utorrent. 

 

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #47 on: 2013-05-26 17:54:30 »
Ok so there are about 42 videos that look noticeably dark or have been mentioned to have other issues and I'm making tweaks to. I'll make a list of them later....or just take a picture of the list lol. Then you can post others that may need any fixing. I need to know why or in what way though. 

Rundas

  • *
  • Posts: 704
  • What do you even do?
    • View Profile
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #48 on: 2013-05-26 18:34:29 »
Quote
"OK, this is the final release. Wait, I'm unhappy with the result so I'll redo them and post the actual final release and then stop working on them. Well, some are slightly darker so expect another release."

I hear you're a perfectionist lol

cmh175

  • *
  • Posts: 862
    • View Profile
    • Chris Hendrickson's Artstation
Re: New High Quality FMV Project
« Reply #49 on: 2013-05-26 19:55:54 »
Me lol? Seems so. I was pretty good with the release but some of these are apparently too dark on other peoples displays. I'd rather make these universally compatible so more people can use them. We may not have a "definitive" fmv collection until square actually does a remake, but it would be cool to have something pretty close.