Author Topic: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)  (Read 70173 times)

blippyp

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Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« on: 2019-01-01 02:34:20 »
Graphical Update Mod (GUM)

Recently I started replaying FFVIII, which was one of my favorite old games. I downloaded it on Steam and, considering that I'm a programmer myself and absolutely love modding Skyrim, I was happy to realize that people were modding FFVIII as well.

Until now, I basically 'hi-jacked' the thread [FF8PC-Steam] Batch extraction of backgrounds but at this point feel it is time to start my own thread since my posts clearly no longer belong there. I have no idea how far I will take this project or if it will even get finished. I have completed a lot of work so far though and certainly feel it is doable and at least I can try to make all the graphics seamlessly work together with a new HD feel. I will begin with the backgrounds, but my hope is to redo all the in-game graphics so that it's all one package and just 'feels the same'.

As I'm sure you can tell from the title, I am currently calling this mod 'GUM' (I just came up with it, so it may/may not be temporary). The point of this thread is simply to keep people up to date with where I am and what I'm doing and also to hopefully get some feedback or even help from time to time from those more experienced with modding Final Fantasy games. I also consider it a 'diary' thread regarding the project's progress. So far, there have been a few people who have helped direct me in one way or another and I'd also like a thread like this to help keep track of those people so that I can add their names to a 'notable mention' list or 'contributors list', which may be helpful if this project ever actually gets completed.

A few people who currently come to mind are SaintBahamut, Yagami Light, and last but certainly not least - satsuki, who was kind enough to send me a rather lengthy and detailed pm regarding his own process.

Example comparision of the currently expected state of the images produced for this project:

Spoiler: show
Original Image


Project Image
« Last Edit: 2019-01-02 07:53:26 by blippyp »

Yagami Light

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #1 on: 2019-01-01 23:34:15 »
Looks great, looking forward to seeing the others

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #2 on: 2019-01-02 07:26:38 »
Sample Video with a couple of screen updates

One of the screens unexpectedly had some of it's graphics overwritten by other textures which I clearly haven't altered yet.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-02 07:30:29 by blippyp »

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #3 on: 2019-01-02 19:38:45 »
Youtube Video - Preview 002

Altered a couple more screens, and as suggested by LeonhartGR, I also sharpened the graphics more in the Training Center.

LeonhartGR

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #4 on: 2019-01-03 04:32:45 »
Thanks for the effort mate. I will give it a try!

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #5 on: 2019-01-03 21:20:34 »
Just my current thoughts and a fyi:

I finally got around to extracting all the field mapdata files. I ran them thru Pupu which returned 12,288 images in 925 folders. For a few days I kind of gave up hope on being able to automatically upscale all the images, but feel that I have another option after spending a couple of days going thru the last steps needed to rebuild the screens and add them to the game (the preview test videos I've been making). I am now going to start a database for all of these files and looking them over and cataloging them for which files are required to build 'the background', which files are lighting and other special effects and which files are animations for the backgrounds. As I go thru them I might discover another issue/type of image that will cause this not to work, but once I've completed organizing them all, I should be able to automatically upscale the images to produce a texture pack using whatever type of filtering/upscaling technique I wish to apply to each image.

Any of the textures which include characters though, as I've mentioned in the past, will look horrible, they simply don't upscale well. I'm hoping to find some way to fix this. I've noticed a few of the npc's have had their textures also upgraded by other people and don't have the old nasty textures attached to them, so if I can figure out how to use the models, I might be able to fix some of those, but some will likely need an actual artist to re-draw them. I can probably pull this off to at least be better than it's current state, but to get something that will 'look right' will probably need someone who can actually draw well, and not just 'kind of'.

My automated process is also designed to produce layered GIMP images of the final image so that if I have any desire to go back and alter a few images/layers used by hand after the process, I can easily alter any step used to get it to that point without rebuilding the entire texture pack again, so making minor edits like altering the characters on the screen or masking out some of the 'detail' added by some of the esrgan upscaling can easily be altered. I still certainly need to cleanup my script some more and have a few more changes to make to it, but have enough of it completed at this point that I'm absolutely confident that I can pull everything off, assuming I don't run into any more issues that I'm not already aware of (which still might happen).

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #6 on: 2019-01-05 04:14:10 »
It saddens me deeply to say it, but I think I'm putting this project on hold. Possibly indefinitely, I may still find solutions, but for now, I'd say on hold with no expectation of completion at this point.

It's not that I can't complete it per se, so much as I won't be happy with the final product.

I will try to explain.

My process for filtering the images actually uses many layers upon layers, three of those layers are three different AI Neural Networking generated images that everyone is all in hype over these days. My computer spent the past 20'ish hours generating over 40K images so they're created and can be simply merged into my own filtering process at this point. However, to complete the final filtering would take my system well over 2 months according to my math, although there are shortcuts that can be taken that could easily decrease that time down to about a week and most people wouldn't even notice that those shortcuts were used. But would require me cataloging every single file into a database, which would probably take me a few days if not even a dedicated week (and honestly this probably needs to be done any way).

Although this isn't a comforting thought by itself, it's not the problem (there's still a couple others also, but again, they're not what's stopping me).

The heart of the problem, and why I'm putting this project on hold: There are many background images that include npc's standing around. They aren't modeled characters, but part of the background images. These npc's simply do not scale well and really look out of place, even with neural networking, in fact, neural networking makes them look FAR worse. We could simply choose to ignore these handful of screens, but we'd be dealing with the same issues overall that we have now. HD images mixed with low-res or uterly destroyed npc's standing around that look horrible. These graphics require an artists touch. Maybe I'm wrong, but the only way I can see to repair this is to have someone actually redraw them or use those HD models/textures that many of the characters are using in game. I don't know how to work with the models at all right now, so I can't simply position characters with the HD textures that have been made and 'rebuild the scene' with them and take a picture or however it would/should be done. The tools for this might exist and I just haven't noticed or come across them yet, but without doing this (or something similar) to bring these characters up-to-par, there's simply no point in going thru all the effort required to rebuild these screens, at least I don't think it's worth it. I could complete the project regardless and hope that someone would 'fix' these out of place characters at some point, but then their own graphics might not 'fit' with my own and feel out of place yet again, better, but still out of place.


So for now, until I can figure out how to correct the characters in the game to also do the HD upscaling justice, I'm putting this on the back-burner. I will likely keep trying to finish it when I get bored and dig into the character problem as much as I can, but so far I'm not aware of how to fix this.

There aren't many screens like this that I'm aware of, but it simply destroys all the efforts I've been doing. If anyone is aware of what I'm talking about and knows how to fix it and/or is willing to help please pm me. I've never been against working with others on this project, and at this point, it would certainly help speed things along even if the character issue could be resolved just having more people also generating the final images. To help with this task all you would need is GIMP with Python-fu and G'MIC installed. Now that I have a 'mass' storage of files to work with I'm also altering my script to build them all instead of just one at a time, so I'd have to complete that as well as merge a couple scripts into one. I will/could probably have that completed in a few days likely at most, it's what I'm currently working on.

Also if someone is familiar with the naming convention with Pupu for identifying the files, I believe there is a structure there that can be used to help assist with automating rebuilding the backgrounds, but still haven't quite figured it out - any information regarding that would be very helpful and could save me from having to go over each file and catalogue what type of file it is. The Deling program also autobuilds the files as well from what I just noticed and am now using that as a base for my backgrounds, but it requires manually opening each background and saving them, and even then, there are a few that need to be placed in a 'fix' folder for further review before running thru my filter.

Either way, I think I need a break for a bit from this project regardless. I'd love to see this completed and can now see what needs to be done for the most part. There are shortcuts, but I'd rather do it right and complete it with something I'd be happy to play with, otherwise, I think I'd rather just play the game as it was originally designed tbh.

I'm sure I'll keep working on this project regardless, but I want to do it right and slow and steady wins the race. I really would like to see this project at least come to fruition to the point where I could run around even at the start of the game with all updated graphics just to say I could see it. But those npc characters, like I said, imo, destroys any hope of a fully fleshed-out final product imo, it's not impossible to fix, I simply don't believe I have the artist skills to do it, or the modeling knowledge required to rebuild them.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-05 14:28:14 by blippyp »

kennybones

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #7 on: 2019-01-05 13:06:16 »
How about you put the work you've already done into a repo, and let other's have a go?
My thoughts on the backgrounds which have NPCs around, the best thing would probably be for someone to extract the 3d models of those characters and manually put them into the scene.

I feel it's a shame to put the entire project on hold just because of these scenes. I get it that you don't feel it's up to par (and it's not), but other's may have some ideas on how to solve the problem :)

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #8 on: 2019-01-05 14:41:57 »
My thoughts on the backgrounds which have NPCs around, the best thing would probably be for someone to extract the 3d models of those characters and manually put them into the scene.

I also agree that using the 3D models when possible is certainly the best method for screens like my previous post where I believe it's likely, but there are screens of npc's which I'm pretty sure have no models in the game like the one in this post. I'm pretty sure that having access to both the models as well as an actual artist is basically necessary, or at least an artist. They wouldn't even have to be super awesome, but good enough to redraw and color these characters in these scenes so they dont' look like a deformed mess. Another option I might have for the moment that would still kind of suck, but would very likely at least make them turn out better is not using the neural networking techniques on the characters and simply resizing them using normal methods and filtering them the same as everything else. They would be blockier than desired I'm sure and would still look out of place, but at least they'd kind of feel like they belong more and wouldn't appear horribly deformed. And in the future someone can always simply replace just those images as a side project.


How about you put the work you've already done into a repo, and let other's have a go?

If I actually do drop this project (which I haven't yet, just not expecting to release anything soon due to these problems, and am just letting you all know that), I'm not against posting what I've done if anyone is interested in using it as a base or to learn from or whatever. But I'd need a very large storage location. My project folder is already over 25GB's in size and will likely grow well past 30-40GB's before I finally 'toss in the towel'. I think Mega has a 50GB limit, so that might be an option assuming my source files don't grow past that. Either way, I'm sure there are options but I'm not ready to go that far just yet. I'm hoping someone will have a solution for the modeled characters, and if I looked hard enough and bugged enough people I could probably get some artist willing to help out somewhere online for the rest of the images.

I feel it's a shame to put the entire project on hold just because of these scenes.

I haven't given up, just don't see a solution at this point, and to complete this project properly I'm pretty sure I need to go over and catalogue many of the images, and there are a lot, almost 13,000 and many of the backgrounds (approximately 1K of them) actually have more than one associated with it and also needs to be documented. Initially, I felt this would be simpler, ie: extract the images, filter them, maybe apply some alpha's and be done with it, but this project is much bigger than I anticipated. I might even go so far as to dig into the Deling code to see how the creator of that is re-creating the backgrounds, whoever did that seems to have a pretty good handle on them, although even that isn't perfect. Who knows, in a month there might be a ESRGAN 2 released that will keep the alpha layering (that would be awesome), but somehow I doubt it.

Currently I'm just very discouraged, as I was hoping for something much more complete than what I'm currently looking at being able to provide, and I also thought I'd have it produced far sooner as well. I wasn't counting on my own filter process taking so long in the end either, I hadn't even considered it until I ran the AI filtering, but the math says it will take a long time.

I might just take a step back, take a deep breath and begin the long haul and instead produce the project in 'sections', like to start off, try to produce a demo area to check out like the garden and balamb that people can roam around in. That might generate interest and cause an artist or two to flock this way and be willing to help out with the screens I lack the skills to complete properly on my own, I don't believe there is a lot of them, and I'm not exactly a horrible artist either myself, so I suppose I could do them if need be, but even a 'hobbyist' artist would be far better than myself for such a task.

other's may have some ideas on how to solve the problem :)

Well, that was my primary reason for my previous post tbh, I was asking for help from anyone who might know how to do that.  :P

LeonhartGR

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #9 on: 2019-01-05 15:24:44 »
I believe in you mate! Go on!  :mrgreen:

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #10 on: 2019-01-06 18:56:47 »
Thanks LeonhartGR, I appreciate your faith! ;-P

Long story short, it looks like that faith isn't going unwarranted. I'm much more hopeful atm then a I was a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, I still can't do anything about those npc's in the game, but as for the rest of it, it's going well I think. I have completed merging my scripts for the most part and am applying a few tweaks still, but am now testing it to see if the screens produced work (and so far it looks like they will). Best part is that I think I've figured out how to auto-build the backgrounds as well. I don't think it will work for ALL the backgrounds, but for 90%'ish of them, I doubt there will be issues. The problem with that is I will need to verify by eye each screen, but there's only about 1K screens, so it's not an overly impossible task, just kind of a pain, but still FAR better than building them all by hand. The screens that don't work will simply need to be manually built, but I doubt there will be more than a dozen or two of them, hard to say atm.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-06 18:58:28 by blippyp »

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #11 on: 2019-01-07 18:17:14 »
So I've been testing my auto-generation over the past 12 hours, I auto-generated all the images in the bc texture folder (so basically everything in Balamb). It's finished and I've briefly run through it and for the most part everything is working great. However I have noticed a major oversight in my masking technique which basically forces me to start from scratch regarding the masking. I've demonstrated these new screens and the masking issues in a youtube video which you can see here:

Youtube Video

Bottom line is that I need a better masking technique. Satsuki was discussing his technique using vector images and I think that doing something like that (if not copying what he was describing completely if I can figure it out) is exactly what I need. It's not that the technique I'm using isn't working, it's working exactly as expected, but whenever someone walks behind an object, the masking is clearly blocky and very ugly. Not all the screens came out perfectly, nor did I ever expect them to, but for the most part they did turn out pretty well other than the masking.

If anyone is interested in seeing this for themselves in game, you can download the entire bc texture set I created thru this link:

Mega Download for BC Textures

They are just the textures, so you will obviously need Tonberry installed also as well as the hashmaps from the AngelWing mod also I believe.

Just a quick update and something to play with if you want.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-07 18:22:58 by blippyp »

kennybones

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #12 on: 2019-01-07 21:41:44 »
Holy fuuuuck that looks great! :-o
Regarding the masking, Im' asuming the blocky edges comes from the auto generator? The waifu packs also have them, but they're kinda rounded off.
But I actually think it looks better with these clear blocks, instead of the HQ2X looking edges.

Is it possible to manually touch up the alpha edges? Cause this is an issue in all games with prerendered backgrounds.
It's also an issue with the other waifu upscaled packs. Some areas have really bad masking. Much much worse than I can see here
« Last Edit: 2019-01-08 00:07:48 by kennybones »

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #13 on: 2019-01-08 08:21:23 »
Holy fuuuuck that looks great! :-o
Regarding the masking, Im' asuming the blocky edges comes from the auto generator? The waifu packs also have them, but they're kinda rounded off.
But I actually think it looks better with these clear blocks, instead of the HQ2X looking edges.

Is it possible to manually touch up the alpha edges? Cause this is an issue in all games with prerendered backgrounds.
It's also an issue with the other waifu upscaled packs. Some areas have really bad masking. Much much worse than I can see here

Thanks, it's nice to know someone is enjoying it :). As far as the masking goes however, I may have already come up with a much better solution:

Old Mask:


New Mask:


Although this was relatively easy to do in GIMP, doing it in code will likely take some playing around until I get it right. I'll now have to figure out how to convert the mask into a regular layer, filter the layer, and then convert that layer back into a mask. Which is super easy to do manually, but in code might be harder. But I'm sure I'll figure it out with some testing.

The fact that I'm coding the process, makes it very easy to keep any 'state' of the image I desire for the final image, so in the end, I could leave the whole image attached with the mask and save that as a separate file that I can easily open and quickly edit the mask if there's something about it I'm not liking. Even as it is, because I was doing a direct upscale of the mask without any smoothing of the edges at all which was to ensure that all the 'jigsaw' pieces fit together nicely without any gaps in between, but that same process produces this ugly masking and is obviously very noticeable when walking behind the objects. Since the only real issues I came up with were the parts where people were walking behind the object, I think it's fair to say that although not perfect, this new mask should look much better, and if it doesn't for an image here or there, I can easily just open that file and alter the mask afterwards for the few files that might need a little extra 'nudge'. So what I'll do is leave my current process exactly as it is but mask any image that isn't part of the 'base background' layer with this new method. I actually merge all the files for a background into one layered file and use that as a soure file. I hide all the layers except for the 'base background' layers to build that base image from, so it should be easy enough to determine which images need to be upscaled with this new method because they won't be visible in that source file.

So for now, I'm going to attempt making this type of mask, and if successful, I will then run a quick test on one of the obvious screens that was having issues (like the one with the paddle or the one with the flag and test that out and if it works good, I'll rebuild Balamb or another quicker to build area as a last test and if that works then I'll begin finally producing all the images (can't wait until I'm finally at that point) assuming I don't notice another major issue that needs fixing.

kennybones

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #14 on: 2019-01-08 18:13:35 »
That looks really good! But it looks like it always has issues with diagonal edges though. There's never a straight line. Wonder if one can code the behavior of these parameters.
But it has to be automated at some point, so it might be wise to not obsess over things you can't really control :D Haha

Is it possible to manually touch everything up? I understand that it might take years to do, but is it possible? :p

Btw, over at the Angelwing thread on the upscaled backgrounds, FanSH posted the backgrounds slightly scaled up and pixellated. That makes everything look much more authentic. Even with the waifu upscaling. Have you tried that out with these?

Spoiler: show

« Last Edit: 2019-01-08 18:17:04 by kennybones »

satsuki

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #15 on: 2019-01-08 18:51:17 »

I just use bicubic resize 25% then use my ff7 vb6 tool to generate this mask, all done with potrace and imagemagik.
If it's helping you ^^

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #16 on: 2019-01-08 19:14:46 »
That looks really good! But it looks like it always has issues with diagonal edges though. There's never a straight line. Wonder if one can code the behavior of these parameters.
But it has to be automated at some point, so it might be wise to not obsess over things you can't really control :D Haha

Is it possible to manually touch everything up? I understand that it might take years to do, but is it possible? :p

Yes, I after I have generated the images, I can then go back and edit the masks if I choose for the images that require them. This image is a bit of a special case. In the lower left of the screen, there is a smoke effect happening in the game, so the masking of the bars is very noticeable there. This is an example of when I would want to go back and manually modify the mask. The issue is certainly the mask, not the image. Look at the image without any masking taking place:



In most situations though, it would simply be a quick flash of the player or npc walking behind something, if the masking isn't absolutely perfect, most of the time most people wouldn't even notice or care, but when it's sharp and jaggy, it's just plain obvious. So simply generating a mask like I posted previously will 'probably' solve most of those issues and only require me doing minor manual edits here and there (I hope). Since usually the background is put behind the image, you don't even notice the mask happening until the moment when something goes behind it, so usually, you don't even see it.

Btw, over at the Angelwing thread on the upscaled backgrounds, FanSH posted the backgrounds slightly scaled up and pixellated. That makes everything look much more authentic. Even with the waifu upscaling. Have you tried that out with these?

The entire point though of redoing the backgrounds is to stop seeing all that pixellation though. There are some nice mods made for this game (like the updated characters) and the whole point of a mod like this is to complement those characters, so that they don't look so out of place, so to me, that's not really an option. I'd rather just find a better solution, even if that means manually editing a few masks along the way.

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #17 on: 2019-01-08 19:22:46 »
I just use bicubic resize 25% then use my ff7 vb6 tool to generate this mask, all done with potrace and imagemagik.
If it's helping you ^^

Ya I looked at your process much closer as well, even downloaded potrace myself. It's not an option I haven't completed disregarded yet. But it's a process I'd rather do without tbh. My resizing of the layer isn't quite as nice, but is much easier overall to do and I don't think it would even get noticed. I'll know once I try it, if I don't like it, I can easily enough simply alter that section of the code to use potrace to generate the mask instead, unless I can find a better filter (which I doubt), potrace will likely be my next attempt.

The unfortunate reality of using a process like ESRGAN basically requires an entirely new mask to be generated for these things, I simply refuse to put that much effort into it, it's certainly doable, I just don't want to ;-P
« Last Edit: 2019-01-08 19:27:42 by blippyp »

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #18 on: 2019-01-08 19:35:12 »
If it's helping you ^^



It's hard to deny the results of potrace though, and I only aligned your mask over the original by hand with this image. It's certainly the best option so far, but I haven't given up hope looking for another alternative just yet.

Spoiler: show
Although I do think potrace might be my only real option

Fraggoso

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #19 on: 2019-01-09 08:14:15 »
If it helps you:

I had the same problems with my masks as the blocky patern of the PSX original don't really look good on higher res arts.
I solved that by resizing the psx layers with 400% size & lanczos algorithm. After that I flatten the image so it get rid of all alpha. I then use a script to get rid of 3-4 Pixel radius around the edges.

That way I get way more organic masks instead of the blocky approach.
it's by far not perfect but you'll never get a perfect result without touching them by hand (or maybe some day an AI can do that for us ^^).

kennybones

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #20 on: 2019-01-09 11:03:00 »
Just a question, in order to actually edit these alpha layers, would I need specific software to do that? I've noticed the image files are in a weird blocky format, I guess that's what the hashmaps are for?
I was thinking, I'm quite efficient with Photoshop, as I'm an artist myself. And I don't really mind monkeywork like that, manually touching up tiny details :)
Alteast touching up on the worse alpha maps in specific scenes

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #21 on: 2019-01-09 11:55:01 »
Just a question, in order to actually edit these alpha layers, would I need specific software to do that? I've noticed the image files are in a weird blocky format, I guess that's what the hashmaps are for?
I was thinking, I'm quite efficient with Photoshop, as I'm an artist myself. And I don't really mind monkeywork like that, manually touching up tiny details :)
Alteast touching up on the worse alpha maps in specific scenes

The hashmaps afaik, are for Tonberry, which uses them to determine which images are being displayed and which images to replace those images with.

The only software you would need for what you're talking about is something like GIMP or Photoshop or whatever app you prefer. So if/when I get to the point of producing images for a final product, and you wish to go over the masking by hand, I would have no problem with that, I certainly have no desire to do it, and tbh, it really should be done, I'm simply trying to get as close to a match as I possibly can by generating them. We're trying to automate something that really needs to be re-done because the images are no longer even remotely what they were to begin with. The AI neural networking process basically destroys any hope of re-producing exact matches again for the masking (which tbh, was actually done horribly to begin with).

I've been trying as many different ways as I can find to rebuild these things, but tbh, the potrace method used by Satsuki looks to be the best method, and is probably what I'm going to go with. It's the only method that doesn't 'destroy' the image/'sprite' much.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-09 11:57:15 by blippyp »

Fraggoso

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #22 on: 2019-01-09 13:44:14 »
Going over masks hand by hand will take months and you may end up with seam problems if the overlay isn't matching up.
@blippyp If you want, send me one complete Field with all the Layers, I'll go over my method and send them back to you. After that you can decide if that would be the better way to persue.

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #23 on: 2019-01-09 15:22:10 »
Going over masks hand by hand will take months and you may end up with seam problems if the overlay isn't matching up.
@blippyp If you want, send me one complete Field with all the Layers, I'll go over my method and send them back to you. After that you can decide if that would be the better way to persue.

actually, now that I look at it again, what I've been discussing is useless. I would love to see what you're suggesting though, since I'm still trying to figure this potrace process out atm.

here is a small field which, every image is part of the background, so clearly ruins what I've been saying, and yet part of the image has crucial masking (the paddle for one) where the character(s) walk behind and the masking is crucial. if we can automate this screen's masking and keep that paddle nice, then I'd say the masking will be perfect for anything, I'm guessing. Just resize the images to whatever you want (like a lanzo4x or something would be fine I'd think) - the important part is rebuilding the mask again obviously.






potrace masks that paddle absolutely perfectly, but I still can't figure out how to get a good seam out of it. I've followed the steps Satsuki gave me, but there's something I'm missing/doing wrong about the process and would love to talk to him on discord or something to figure out what I'm doing wrong.

blippyp

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Re: Final Fantasy VIII - Graphical Update Mod (WIP)
« Reply #24 on: 2019-01-09 18:05:29 »
If it's helping you ^^

I don't know if you came up with this process on your own, but buddy, if you did - my hat's off to you. You got mad skills with image manipulation and I thank you for sharing them. :)

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show







I still need to implement this into my process, but I'd say my masking issues are solved, this is awesome. I don't know how you figured this mess out, but it works pretty darn good.

@blippyp If you want, send me one complete Field with all the Layers, I'll go over my method and send them back to you. After that you can decide if that would be the better way to persue.

I'd still really like to compare what you were offering to this though, so please let me know. I won't bother implementing anything until I hear from you so that I can compare, you certainly also seem pretty passionate about your own process, so I'd really like to see the results. Also, if you wouldn't mind, could you post your script or send it to me? I would love to try it out.

I really appreciate the help I've gotten on this masking issue though. I honestly don't know if I'd of solved this one on my own.
« Last Edit: 2019-01-09 18:45:19 by blippyp »