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Messages - DanTsukasa

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1
I have a question because I don't remember now lol - I bought the Lunatic Pandora mod almost 2 years ago to the day and I didn't know - do we get updates to that? Do we get this upgrade? or do we have to buy it anew? Just curious - I looked a few weeks ago and didn't see any way to redownload the one I bought, so wasn't sure. Thanks Mcindus for all you're doing for us! Can't wait to have the ultimate version of FF8!!
Its a Free mod, you don't have to pay for it, its always been free.

2
I saw that you mentioned automating exports and turning everything into gifs.

I don't know if you still intend to do it or not, but I thought I'd share when I did it.
I did it back in 2015, but made 2 albums, of every single background in the game, both animated and non-animated, as (largely) seemless gifs.
One or two small hiccups, I just realised I never shared them here in the forums.

Dynamic Backgrounds (Animated)
https://imgur.com/a/ra3OU


Static Backgrounds
https://imgur.com/a/A09TB

If you're able to make the same thing at higher resolutions that'll be really cool.

Also, I can't explain how happy I am to finally see someone not call the PSX renders 'downscales from higher resolution renders', which is what half the internet seems to think was how they made the PS1 renders. It's also pretty cool to see someone notice that some of the 'lost art of FFIX' is concept art, and things rendered just for an artists portfolio  and not 'original resolution renders or 'secret files from production'.

3
Team Avalanche / Re: Jmp's Field Scenes
« on: 2018-09-28 09:34:47 »
Why is only jmp434 doing this? If this forum had 4 more guya like him the whole game would be done by now! It needs to be done, Squares remake is going to suck anyway when it arrives in the year 2045.

It's interest.
There are a number of us in the forums, some who model for a hobby, and some of us who do it professionally, I'd guess at probably around 10 in total, but its based on interest.
Some of the artists might be more interested in redoing FF8's backgrounds, or redoing FF9's, or the areas they were interested in doing have already been done and they don't want to go to the effort of remaking the entire scene 100%.

Much the same reason people don't do the environments in order, or leave some unfinished, interest, thats all it boils down to really.

4
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-09-26 12:33:50 »
Thats pretty damn awesome man.
Could you post a wireframe of that too? I'd love to see how much is texture compared to how much is actual mesh.

5
Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] jmp434 Junon remaster.
« on: 2018-09-14 09:31:15 »
I use it. But despite everything, there are some mistakes in the scene. Big mistakes even

Oh ok, sorry, I misunderstood then.

6
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-09-14 05:24:22 »
Could I perhaps make a suggestion.

I don't know how people would be best organising themselves, across multiple countries, this works fine for people when they have a full time job doing the thing, but these people are doing it in whatever spare time they can find, so it can't really be too rigid honestly.

With the regular event of stopping a scene whilst waiting for inspiration, or quitting a scene entirely, it might be a good idea to upload the actual scene files, the meshes and cameras somewhere, this way if someone else can continue, someone else can continue.

What makes most of these mods is really texturing, mesh wise its all the same really, but the texturing and lighting is what kicks it up a notch.
Additionally, lighting especially is, one of my personal shortcomings, I'm terrible at it, and I'm a 3D artist by profession, I've worked on many games but I can't light for shit, but if someone else uploads a scene with complete lighting, I can retexture it and try to helpout.

For me its mainly the lighting putting me off, for others it might be lining up the objects, it'll be different for different people, but having a base can really help get things moving I think.

So a shared repository for the actual scenes would be great IMHO.

7
Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] jmp434 Junon remaster.
« on: 2018-09-14 05:12:24 »
Yet all the rest of the pipes is lined up, as well as every pipe of the stage. The designers have create backgrounds that do not respect the perspective, the only thing possible is to shift the object sometimes 1 mm so that the cuts do not create a hallo shift. But it works and many times. Some scenes work the first time but not all. That's why on each preview rendering we create you can criticize the formatting and this is normal since we must see the problem ourselves and correct it later. It is sometimes discouraging so much it is played on millimeters.

Why do you not use the tool from this post: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=13875.msg251531#msg251531

I have the tool itself, so I'm more than happy to PM it to you if you want it.

Making things knowing the perspective is a lot faster, and a lot easier than quite literally lining things up with a screenshot.

8
Misc. Tools / Re: [FFXV PC] Hammerhead, EARC archiver
« on: 2018-09-14 04:59:38 »
i guess you might also know about .gapk files used in NT for Characters...
or the STAGES .gmpk ... :)

There is a script on Xentax for those formats.

I don't know if its allowed to link to other forums, but the thread is called Dissidia NT.
You should be able to find it pretty easily I think.

9
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-09-01 10:15:55 »
Here is the finished render

Wow, you work fast!Impressive!

I like this, my main critique would be the texture scaling, considering where the camera is, I can see the grain and threads on the giant flags/murals.
If you compare the scale of one of those threads against the window, then I'd say any single thread is going to be roughly as thick as a persons arm, thats way too thick, you'd only notice such details if you were looking at it close up.

From a distance you shouldn't be able to see any of those details, the murals would look pretty flat and lacking in details (save for any actual damage).

Much the same with the upper wall texture, you can see the paint flakes and the unevenness of the wall from this far away, which suggests that all the flakes and marks must be very large to see from the other side of the street.

If I had to add anything, I'd say perhaps a little bit of variation in the door colours and window colours, perhaps some insides to some of those open windows, and an fire escape staircase on the side of the building that has the arrow, these things weren't in the original game, and nobody questioned it, but logically speaking they'd add some good detailing to the scene.

Thats honestly all I can comment on here, i think everything else looks fine, its a work in progress.

I also didn't notice in the original game, but the gratings are actually huge, you'd easily lose a foot down there if it were real life.

I love seeing the work come together here, its exciting!

Please let me know if my input isn't welcome, I don't want to discourage anyone from continuing on.

10
Gameplay / Re: Modding for an undeserving community?
« on: 2018-08-30 12:43:54 »
Taking criticism is rough, I can understand that, and I'm sure it can be difficult to continue doing something you love if other people come in and shit on it.

Shitting on someones mod isn't very nice. I have mods on here, or work in the forum that whilst the original authors are proud of it, I don't think its very good work, and thats a valid opinion to have, for example the upscaled backgrounds threads, I appreciate the effort that went into them, but they're not for me. But they *are* for other people, and thats great. It's all about taste and viewpoints.

If there comes a time when you don't enjoy it anymore, then it might be good to take a break.

Its also not always a closed mind issue, people might just think someones mod looks bad, or its story isn't interesting, that isn't having a closed mind, if something doesn't appeal to someone then they're perfectly entitled to that, so long as they aren't a dick about it.

There are times when something isn't right, and its a technical issue, ie: the perspective is off in a piece of art, or the shadows aren't correct, sometimes its a 'style' choice, and other times its nothing more than a skill issue, and pointing out and recommending how to fix something isn't negative feedback, nor is it changing someone elses art to suit them.

The most important thing is, people don't agree sometimes, but it doesn't mean anyones out to get someone else. Keep doing it if you love it, there will be someone somewhere that'll love it, sometimes they might show up at the start, sometimes you might never know they existed, but its a risk anyone takes when putting something out there for others to judge.

11
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-08-29 02:04:38 »
I'd like to offer my opinions here, if nobody minds.

JMP's


Quote
Yours is theoretically more realistic, but its also a lot rougher, the lack of lighting makes the area look much flatter than the other render.

The texture has more detail, but it has little to no contrast because fo the lighting, its just small details everywhere, there aren't areas that sink in or extrude more than others, which would be more natural for this kind of cave, in short, the current texture is too uniform.

It is quite different from the original games too, but personally, I don't think the original games textures are all that great either, but we'll ignore that because the game is 20 years old, and we haven't seen the high resolution renders.

The fact that its all very much the same colour is also an issue here, the only thing having any influence on the tones is the lighting, and it doesn't seem to be doing much in this particular environment.

The water that runs down, you've made it a lot smoother and look more worn away, which I think adds more realism overall.

Jusettes

Quote
The texture resolution is a bit odd looking, especially at the bottom left of the image, where the walls of the cave are at a hard angle, your texture looks flat and stretched, I'm guessing this is because the wall itself is just flat, and not tessellated, you're just relying on bump or normal maps to do the depth for you.

The centerpiece rises up in a way that in itself isn't unnatural, but again its stretched and looks too flat on its edges, such as the top and the sides.

The texture here is still too 'sharp'.
This area has water erosion, suggesting that there was once a fair bit of water in here, and it wore away the cenrepiece over time, smoothing it out before creating a sort of 'rim' at the bottom.

The rim should be very smooth, as shout the areas close to it.

One final point would be that the lighting, the rock has no material, just a texture, its far too shiny for what it would be, it has no real sense of roughness, its just smooth, eventhough the rock itself doesn't look particularly smooth elsewhere.

Both of these are good pieces, with different pro's and cons, and a lot of opinion simply comes down to how well/if someone is trying to emulate the original or not. If not then outside of objective comments such as 'lighting doesn't work that way' or 'rocks can't shape this way unless X happens' everything else is largely subjective, just being down to peoples varying opinions.


This is an odd request but, could you guys perhaps share your scenes as dae files, complete with the lighting and camera setups?

I wouldn't mind a shot at this area myself in all honesty, see what I can put together in Substance Designer.

12
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-07-11 01:33:09 »
some progress on the chocobo farm. Playing with fur to make grass more realistic was fun xD. Ill try to add more props and finish by the weekend, then I´ll take holidays for 2 weeks xD.



You really are doing some awesome work here!
The scene has an almost identical feeling to the original area too, which is a difficult thing to replicate.

I have a little critique, if thats ok.

I don't want to deter you in any way at all, only give constructive criticism as I did before, please let me know if its not welcome or if I'm stepping on any toes.

The grass, looks good, I like it a lot, really helps stop the area feeling so 'flat'.

I think making the area inside the chocobo pen a little more 'worn' would make sense, as they're walking around on it all day.

Regarding the roof of the house, the texture is a bit too tiling, it might be worth modelling just a few tiles yourself and placing them around to help create a bit less of a pattern, and also to make it look a bit less 'object with a texture on it'.

The silo in the back is nice, but the texture tiles a lot, and especially on the sides, it can end up looking a bit flat.

Outside of those minor things, this scene looks good, i wanted to ask if the sky is still temporary, I didn't see if it was mentioned above.

13
The cameras of the fields are a bit weirdly stored and, last time I tried, I couldn't have them properly readed.

Would it be possible for you to share what unity asset file the camera data for fields is stored in at all? Along with the file extension.
I've searched high and low but I can't seem to find anything relating to the camera data.

If I had to guess I'd say it could be the MCF files inside of p0data7.
I'm unsure what MCF stands for, and its just a guess honestly, since p0data11 contain the walkmeshes themselves.

14
Team Avalanche / Re: Jusete´s field scenes
« on: 2018-04-16 01:21:48 »
I'll start by saying I think its great work, and its so awesome you're doing this!
My only gripe with it is as mentioned above, outside of that its just minor artistic stuff and 3D issues.
I've put together a quick imgur album here: https://imgur.com/a/p7aj1
I've noted what the issues are in particular scenes, and most of these are easy to fix honestly.

I'd like to ask if you're using bump maps or normal maps, and it seems you aren't using displacement mapping really, except in perhaps 1 scene.

1 final thing, Texture resolution, it looks asthough your texture resolution is inconsistent, some objects have stretched textures across large areas, whilst smaller objects have a lot of detail packed into small areas. You could help alleviate this by using texel density.

Texel Density may be a bit more specific to games, but for achieving a cohesive image, it still works well.
Here's a really good breakdown of Texel Density: http://leonano.com/ALTRO/pdf/Leonardo_Iezzi_Texel_Density.pdf

I hope I haven't offended you, I really think you're doing awesome work.
I can't wait to see this project completed.

15
Yeah, and recreate texture sets to match the environments from the prerendered backgrounds. Proper UV's.
I was forced to recreate in the environments in 3D anyways for ffix: tza the fmvs, considering it has different characters; look at the CGI, those as close to visual 3D of the environments in FF9 as one would get, without always seeing static positions. So, best start is to observe those, get a ball rolling and build off that.

It seems like it might be worth setting up a new topic then, instead of filling this one with our discussion.

I've had a look around, but I can't find any 3D or art related things for ffix: tza, do you happen to have anything online I can view at all? I'm curious how close you got to the FF9 environments, as I'm doing things myself recently, and thinking about eventually trying to get a few other people onboard if possible.

I'm not sure what you mean by proper UV's, do you that the originals are just renders so there is no UV data?
Creating textures to match the visuals shouldn't be difficult, most of the time, but its a given that anything we make is probably going to differ a little bit.

16
oh, but a real goal it is; determine is key. Minus the static camera; I always saw me eventually making ffix:tza with 3d & environments gambits (not a fan of backgrounds + fixed cameras; seems like an old method) with this engine still. T pointed where UI handled, it was extra work, but was determined to get gambits working here; at least I got somewhere! The button. I don't see it as completely impossible, more doable with determination. If Tirlititi confirms it's 100% impossible to do 3d environments; well, there's always back to walkmeshes for new backgrounds.

Hmm, I'm quite happy to just remake backgrounds and pre-render them honestly. Then I can paint over to get smaller details, this is a bit easier than doing standard 3D, and its a nice change of pace from the usual day job.

I'm curious to see what Tirlititi thinks about the possibility of fully 3D Environments, as that'd require a huge amount of work, replacing the environments is one thing, but then if you have a 3D Camera the game would have to become quite different in order to work, so instead of having single scenes like now, it'd have a whole accessible map, which means NPC's walking between scenes, things looking good from every angle. Even modelling wise it'd add so much extra time.

Theres a point where you'd be doing so much work, and so many edits, and wrestling against the engine so much, that it'd be easier to simply rebuild most of the engine to support all the changes instead of trying to endlessly bend it to your will.

I honestly think a lot of the charm of the game is due to the framing of the scenes, having a fully 3D scene would require things that're off camera usually to have new animations, effectively you'd have to redo all the 3D Art again from scratch, but if its possible, it'd be a very interesting thing to witness.

17
Oh it's possible; being a Unity game after all.

Ah, I mean more as in, 'I don't think its a realistic goal', its possible, but the amount of extra things that'd need writing and editing is a bit much, plus actual 3D environments, if its still a static camera, would end up looking worse due to aliasing I'd imagine.

18
I could see new walkmeshes would provide possibility to import new backgrounds in assets; but whole 3D . In that case, the backgrounds would be kicked, and instead add 3D environments (maps) in the assets. No need for a walkmesh then, in such case. You see?

(Still dunno about the Vivi Cure bug).

I don't think its really possible to just switch everything out with 3d meshes, what I'll do, and I'm guessing what jmp434 intends to do is simply remodel and replace the backgrounds like what people did with the FF7 backgrounds (admittedly, to a much higher quality).

19
Lining these up with Cameras is going to take quite a while, but I'll do what I can.

Ah yeah, this project is... going to take a long time, but I want to have some things to show before I see if anyone else is interested, see if I can get myself a good workflow and the like first.

Thankyou for those, I really appreciate it, if you by chance also happen to know how to export the cameras too, as FBX files, that'll speed things up even more.
I have a tool that exports the FF8 walkmeshes and camera all in the correct positions, which was super handy for running tests, though ironicly enough, I find that FF8 doesn't really have any good camera angles, or makes nearly as much use of its pre-render medium as ffix does.

20
Awesome progress as always.
Would it be possible to add an exporter thats just OBJ for now, for the walkmeshes, I understand the cameras are a bit of a pain, so if those aren't a priority then I can just guesstimate the rest easily enough.
Having the walkmesh will save a lot of time with recreating some of the environments in HD.

21
General Discussion / Re: Who's excited to mod FFXV?
« on: 2018-02-28 01:39:36 »
Yeah, XV is going to be extremely easy to mod due to the fact on how's it built. It has visual scripting, node based properties and you can freely edit the levels as they are just as in every other game engine. Cameras, actions are also not hardcoded, so everything is grabbed directly from files. That means a dedicated modder may be able to easily total convert the game to completely different genre. Unfortunately, file structures are ZLIB'bed + custom structure based on nodes, so we would need official modding tools for that.

I'm not sure if i agree.

Reverse engineering all the formats required will take some time.

I don't doubt its possible,, but other engines have had visual scripting for years and thats still not been hacked at any point, unreal being the perfect example of this.

22
Tirlititi, I'm really looking forward to the model importer, again you're doing great work here.

23
I've followed Sweden for a long time, and visiting the place - speaking to my ex gf and her friends for 9 years... yes... I'm afraid it is true.  I can find you 100 articles or more of sheer batshit craziness. And the UK isn't too far behind. But it isn't up to Swedish level of dysfunction.  We haven't had "mansplaining" helplines yet.

And we also generally add a description of an attacker... rather than "man".... simply because Sweden want to avoid the truth that this was likely a refugee, immigrant, Muslim:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4839706/Swedish-police-officer-stabbed-neck

This happened today.

I don't doubt it happened, just the dailymail isn't really where you should get your information from.

24
Have you ever lived in Sweden or stayed there for an extended period of time (at least 6 months)?

25
Nice update, great work as always.

Tirlititi, I wanted to ask, have you come across the cameras for the environments at all? They don't appear to be located in the same place as the walkmeshes, which is a bit of a surprise.

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