Author Topic: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?  (Read 58205 times)

Kandy_Man

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Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« on: 2016-11-07 12:43:43 »
Hi, I'm a long time viewer of these forums, only joined today as I thought this was definitely the place to post about this.

I've been longing for a Final Fantasy 8 remake ever since it was announced that 7 8 and 9 were being remade for PS2 (that obviously never happened, though the FF8 tech demo was fantastic at the time).  As part of an assignment at university, I made a very simple demo based on FF8 (which can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7lfGBGgWk0 real stuff begins at 3:00, no idea why I left it running that long in the beginning).  I thought it would be cool if the community made a remake as they would probably be more faithful to the original than SE would be (see what they are doing with the FF7 remake for example), not to mention I've seen what some members of this community are capable of and I'm sure they could do a fantastic job (combine the knowledge of the community regarding how the engine/mechanics/formulas work along with other fan projects such as the voice over projects, people making hd models/textures and stuff and it could turn out incredible).

As you can see in that video, I have absolutely zero artistic talent, the only thing I'm proud of art wise is that I managed to make the gradient look pretty decent (as a non artist anyway), and the throw back to the Galbadian enemies as capsule soldier and capsule leader (I guess I'm quite happy with my covers of the music although I could do a way better version of them these days).

Basically, would anyone be interested in seeing this happen, and if so, would anyone be prepared to help?  I'd volunteer for music and programming as I've been involved in music for 13 years and am a recent Games Software Development graduate, but obviously there is a lot more than that that needs to go into it (I'd also like some optional enhancements, for example, if the voice over project was included voices could be optional along with the grey boxes being substituted for more subtle subtitles at the bottom of the screen, again, optional.  I also like the idea of optional camera stuff, i.e. traditional FF8 camera or more modern right analog stick to move camera so you can see more of the world instead of being confined to the camera angle set in the game).  Time would be limited for myself (and I imagine most people) due to work, but I think if enough people were interested in working on it we could do a pretty good job in not too long of a time thanks to software such as Unity.

Or, if no one is interested I'll crawl back into my cave and pray SE eventually does it :) (properly that is)

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #1 on: 2016-11-07 13:29:36 »
I'm always ready to help in FF8 remakes!
You see, the biggest problem in whole remake project is lack of artists. There are some fantastic 3D Artists here (FFVIII: The movie for example) but that's still too small (maybe enough for demo, but not for whole game xD).
I had some fun with putting ripped models into Unreal Engine 4 and it looked quite odd as it's still low-poly shit.
I've made also a demo in MonoGame with overture, menu, field support. Programming is not a problem, there are many programmers and VIII fans here, but as said above- I'm having a hard time to notice more 3D artists.
Find someone who would want to recreate whole Balamb Garden model in full detail.

Anyway, count me in.
I'll show you my MonoGame FF8 engine implementation for training, sec ...

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #2 on: 2016-11-07 13:38:02 »
I'm always ready to help in FF8 remakes!
You see, the biggest problem in whole remake project is lack of artists. There are some fantastic 3D Artists here (FFVIII: The movie for example) but that's still too small (maybe enough for demo, but not for whole game xD).
I had some fun with putting ripped models into Unreal Engine 4 and it looked quite odd as it's still low-poly strawberries.
I've made also a demo in MonoGame with overture, menu, field support. Programming is not a problem, there are many programmers and VIII fans here, but as said above- I'm having a hard time to notice more 3D artists.
Find someone who would want to recreate whole Balamb Garden model in full detail.

Anyway, count me in.
I'll show you my MonoGame FF8 engine implementation for training, sec ...

Yeah I had a feeling artists was going to be the problem.  I did see a video one time of someone who remade Balamb Garden in MineCraft (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P3NEiUYHro) along with someone who made an area of it using some assets they made in UE4 so that will be with looking into I think (http://scottmichaelh.artstation.com/projects/v163Y).  Only reason I suggested Unity is I'm very familiar with C# but not at all familiar with C++, not to mention Unity is catching up in terms of graphics and I personally find Unity to be easier to work in.  Even if we only got a demo completed (like the original FF8 demo for example) I'd be extremely proud that we'd achieved that.

Looking forward to your FF8 MonoGame implementation
« Last Edit: 2016-11-07 13:41:23 by Kandy_Man »

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #3 on: 2016-11-07 13:52:38 »
Not much from visual side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT0_a7gKfMY&feature=youtu.be
but it's reading all files from original archives, so that's something. The music is OGG unfortunately. I tried to find a way to play original SGT songs, but it's heavily deprecated and there's no documentation anywhere.

It's okay if you want to use Unity. I'm also into C# with all that MonoGame and Paradox/Xenko engine too.
For models - I can do some basic models also, but for example Balamb fish statue- no way!

About the UE4 balamb garden- I tried to contact the author some time ago,  but got no reply. :C

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #4 on: 2016-11-07 14:00:47 »
Not much from visual side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT0_a7gKfMY&feature=youtu.be
but it's reading all files from original archives, so that's something. The music is OGG unfortunately. I tried to find a way to play original SGT songs, but it's heavily deprecated and there's no documentation anywhere.

It's okay if you want to use Unity. I'm also into C# with all that MonoGame and Paradox/Xenko engine too.
For models - I can do some basic models also, but for example Balamb fish statue- no way!

About the UE4 balamb garden- I tried to contact the author some time ago,  but got no reply. :C

That's awesome.  Reading from the original files is always a good thing, it will help in regards to being faithful instead of guessing things.  Yeah I was looking for years on music stuff, always wanted to extract the midi information so I could better learn the songs, then I learned that the midi information in the PC version is actually not accurate to the PSX version I believe?  OGG is how I did the music in my university assignment and probably how I'd suggest implementing music into a remake.

I'd rather Unity and if you're a C# person too that's even better, of course if you've been using MonoGame you would be :)

I'd say anything is better than nothing at this point, just to get the ball rolling so to speak, maybe attract other people who think they could do a better job of models and stuff (and I'd welcome them to if they can).

Yeah I think I tried to contact him too and got nothing.  Shame, but hopefully some people on here would be interested, I've seen what some of the HD mod creators can do :P

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #5 on: 2016-11-13 18:40:20 »
So in terms of where to begin, do you have any ideas Maki?  I realise there's documentation on the engine that was used back then such as the way it was modularised and stuff, would basing it on that be a good place to start?  Obviously with things like Unity we don't need to make as much from scratch as what Square did back in the day, and I've been thinking about whether basing a remake on the way the engine worked back then is even a good idea as tech has moved on so much there's potential for there to be a better way to do it today.  For what it's worth, the demo I showed in that first post, although it was never used for the demo I had an editor based on RPG Maker in terms of making a character, a weapon, a magic type etc.  It wasn't finished as I realised about half way in I was spending more time on the editor than I was on the demo for the assignment, but it could be a way of making things easier when it comes to making characters/magic/weapons etc.  It's linked here if anyone wants to check it out (https://youtu.be/7D7Gkh2bcXg?list=PL7GtxGvnH4xF-jZDZpc2ZHcwztwcgJDCx).  There was a lot more of it completed by the end, it was just used as an example.

Basically I don't just want to dive in and start coding without a plan else that will lead to disaster.  We can always get it going using primitives until we attract some artists.

Mcindus

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #6 on: 2016-11-15 04:12:27 »
Not much from visual side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT0_a7gKfMY&feature=youtu.be
but it's reading all files from original archives, so that's something. The music is OGG unfortunately. I tried to find a way to play original SGT songs, but it's heavily deprecated and there's no documentation anywhere.

It's okay if you want to use Unity. I'm also into C# with all that MonoGame and Paradox/Xenko engine too.
For models - I can do some basic models also, but for example Balamb fish statue- no way!

About the UE4 balamb garden- I tried to contact the author some time ago,  but got no reply. :C

If you want to play the original SGT files, you must have the Yamaha XG midi plugin to get the correct instruments, etc.  It came with soundblaster cards and was part of the original PC downloads as well.  I don't know of any XG drivers for modern cards, etc... not sure how that would work.  Hopefully that gives you some insight.

Also - I'm a texture artist, a 3d environment artist, and an amateur 3d modeler.  If someone got me the original .obj's of the characters, I could try my hand at increasing their poly count.
Anything else to contribute would be fun also.

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #7 on: 2016-11-16 08:26:38 »
If you want to play the original SGT files, you must have the Yamaha XG midi plugin to get the correct instruments, etc.  It came with soundblaster cards and was part of the original PC downloads as well.  I don't know of any XG drivers for modern cards, etc... not sure how that would work.  Hopefully that gives you some insight.

Also - I'm a texture artist, a 3d environment artist, and an amateur 3d modeler.  If someone got me the original .obj's of the characters, I could try my hand at increasing their poly count.
Anything else to contribute would be fun also.

That's awesome to hear Mcindus, I've seen quite a few mods for FF8 with your name attached so I'm looking forward to anything you can do (I have your essential mods thread bookmarked and check back quite frequently).  I guess we have to start somewhere and like I mentioned previously, I'm not sure where, so I'll do a bit of digging and see if I can get any character models, I'd consider that a good start if we had something art based to show off rather than just cubes interacting on a screen.  Even something simple like the textures for the conversation box and inner monologue box or something would be a fantastic start I think (the one I did in the video in the first post wasn't exactly great).  I'll look into getting us setup with a github or something so we have a place to store everything.

*EDIT*

*double edit*

The link before was to the thread discussing getting the models, these are the links necessary.

Models = https://www.models-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/
Textures = https://www.textures-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/
Sprites = https://www.spriters-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/

In terms of checking out the original art, it doesn't get much better than that.  Only thing missing is the field versions of the characters, the models mentioned above are all battle models and apparently rigged too.  Hopefully that's enough to get us started
« Last Edit: 2016-11-16 15:32:23 by Kandy_Man »

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #8 on: 2016-11-16 19:40:45 »
Models = https://www.models-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/
Textures = https://www.textures-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/
Sprites = https://www.spriters-resource.com/playstation/finalfantasy8/

Forget it. We already have all the tools and much more ripped things (the train set for example was uploaded by me, but this whole packing, taking a shot, writing a description job is sooo boring). Also, the 'G.Fs' section are not GFs itself, but enemies (so no GF sequence)(and we have it!). We have everything. Shunsq made a MCH2blend importer (field characters importer with animations)(but it looks like it's not yet released [as it's purpouse is to import it back to FF8 too] so...

I'll look into getting us setup with a github or something so we have a place to store everything.

Yes, github is fine for me. Go on!

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #9 on: 2016-11-16 19:53:09 »
Forget it. We already have all the tools and much more ripped things (the train set for example was uploaded by me, but this whole packing, taking a shot, writing a description job is sooo boring). Also, the 'G.Fs' section are not GFs itself, but enemies (so no GF sequence)(and we have it!). We have everything. Shunsq made a MCH2blend importer (field characters importer with animations)(but it looks like it's not yet released [as it's purpouse is to import it back to FF8 too] so...

Yes, github is fine for me. Go on!

Oh great I didn't know we had so much available.  I mean, I knew we had a lot just from the mods section, but wow.  Can you point out where some of this stuff is as Mcindus mentioned wanting to try to increase the poly count on the character models.

As for GitHub, I'll create a new account in the morning and post in here the details for it.

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #10 on: 2016-11-16 20:08:04 »
Can you point out where some of this stuff is as Mcindus mentioned wanting to try to increase the poly count on the character models.

http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=16738.msg243027#msg243027
Just contact Shunsq

For GF sequences- I got the modified (ripped and processsed with JWP script) archive from Softtm17 or kaspar01 with all GF sequences (readable by Noesis). Here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gccidg8js0draa6/gfSequences.7z?dl=0

Also alternative for MCH I made here (without animations, but with textures):
https://github.com/MaKiPL/FF8-Rinoa-s-Toolset/blob/master/SerahToolkit_SharpGL/FF8_Core/mch.cs

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #11 on: 2016-11-17 13:22:12 »
Git repo has been created here https://github.com/Kandy-Man/FF8HD  Currently just has an ignore file set up for Unity but I'll get around to creating a proper Unity project and structure so we can organise everything properly.  If anyone has anything they'd like to add (e.g. if you already have stuff ripped for us to examine) feel free to make a pull request.  Sorry this took so long, I'm doing this when possible at work.

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #12 on: 2016-11-17 20:24:00 »
Ok the GitHub link above now has a Unity project in it.  It's pretty much empty except for an initial folder structure.  Fairly sure I've missed stuff out but it's a good enough start I think.  Created using Unity 5.4.2 but that will change as time goes by.  Also I accidentally pushed with my work Git account so excuse that it doesn't say the commit was by Kandy-Man, it was still me, I'll try and be more careful in future.  As mentioned above, if anyone has anything they want to add or wants to get started, either make a pull request or I'll add you as a collaborator or something.  Feel free to download the repo and let's get started!   :D

Kaldarasha

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #13 on: 2016-11-20 19:46:01 »
As much I would love to see the game running in a better engine, wouldn't it be better to create an engine, which mimics the old PSX-JRPGS at first? If we can convert FF8 (and maybe 7) to it, then it would be, how does Bob Ross call it, a happy accident. Anyway FF9 runs already in Unity on PC, maybe a few things can be learned by reverse engineering its system.
Moreover, the engine could be used as a RPG Maker alternative, which could be ve~~ry lucrative.

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #14 on: 2016-11-20 19:55:16 »
You're writing about QGears?

Kaldarasha

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #15 on: 2016-11-20 20:52:25 »
Q-Gears concept is great, but I think that its focus on FF7 has probably limited it. I also think that Unity is a great, because very common engine, which has the advantage of a huge community. At the moment I'm not sure if SE would do something against a project which port a game to another engine (at last this project seems to be still alive: http://omnicide.razorwind.ru/en/). But of course we are talking here about a Square intern produced game, which may change the matter. All I want to say is: Let us keep as much on the save side as we could be. And it is a project with a high finical win, if it will be a competition to the RPG Maker.
Converting a legal copy of FF8 to the Unity based engine, could be great commercial to show its power.
Sure we are creating mods for the benefit of others and teaching us some skills, but it wouldn't hurt if it would be for the benefit of us (or at last for the guys who make the engine).

If the project comes to a degree of work ability, I really would like to start to create some character models. While FF7 and 9 are great. FF8 is the coolest in the FF franchise. 8-)

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #16 on: 2016-11-21 09:34:28 »
There's already an RPG framework for Unity called ORK that I would say is very much an RPG Maker alternative in that it is all editor based with little to no coding required to make an RPG with different types of battle systems.  Unfortunately it's quite expensive.

I guess you could make the argument that the PSX FF games all have the same fundamental elements (field, inventory, turn based battle etc), and therefor working on that as a core could produce something that could work for all of them, but then they also have very different systems on top of it (materia versus junction).  Not to mention, personally, I'm only interested in seeing 8 taken to the next level, hence this topic.  As nice as it sounds to have an RPG Maker style asset on the Unity Asset Store, that was never my intention with this project and would increase the scope for the project quite a bit.  I was just looking for like minded people with a love for FF8 who would like to work on taking it to the next level.  Who knows, maybe in future we could end up there, but that sounds like something that would be way off in the future.

Maki

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #17 on: 2016-11-26 08:53:11 »
Kandy_Man, I'm extremely busy with everything and before I could proceed to this project I need to do all the requests for VIII research/modding from users here.
Anyway, totally random I checked my cloud folder and found these two screenshots:


Unfortunately I lost the video.

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #18 on: 2016-11-26 15:47:27 »
Kandy_Man, I'm extremely busy with everything and before I could proceed to this project I need to do all the requests for VIII research/modding from users here.
Anyway, totally random I checked my cloud folder and found these two screenshots:


Unfortunately I lost the video.

I completely understand that. I can't commit full time myself either with work and stuff so don't worry, we'll chip away at it over time and get there in the end.

That's awesome, is that models and textures ripped and put into a different game/engine? Obviously I can see the enemies but the environment looks much higher quality than what was in FF8.

Zervox

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #19 on: 2016-11-27 02:31:25 »
some time back I was working on my own project(not using Unity though) with the same target although I have to say my motivation dwindled. :-X

« Last Edit: 2016-11-27 02:33:07 by Zervox »

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #20 on: 2016-11-27 10:34:21 »
That's a pretty interesting take on the UI. I started tinkering in Unity one time to try and replicate the UI, when I find it I'll attach it. As for motivation. I've wanted to do this for many many years but never had the skills to, but now I think I do. I think with the help of this community it could definitely be done. Just hearing the covers I did of the music a few years ago got me pumped to work on it again so I'm not worried about my motivation dropping :)

Edit: Found the UI stuff I was looking for. The gradient was a lot smoother on the computer than it looks in the pictures. Tried to embed them in the post but I suck so links will have to do.





« Last Edit: 2016-11-28 09:48:45 by Kandy_Man »

Zervox

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #21 on: 2016-11-27 21:25:27 »
gradient probably looks like that due to jpg.

and the links you simply have to do
["url=https://postimg.org/image/px46x6ynh/]["img]https://s14.postimg.org/px46x6ynh/Screen0.jpg[/img][/url]
excluding the "

in my project I didn't worry about the UI look replication, I wrote code for handling scenes in 3D and 2D although with the hope of there eventually being access to full 3D scenes/objects to build the scenes from. of course you could make quite some good look alike scene with premade assets just would take some time. ;)
« Last Edit: 2016-11-27 21:32:27 by Zervox »

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #22 on: 2016-11-28 09:55:26 »
gradient probably looks like that due to jpg.

and the links you simply have to do
["url=https://postimg.org/image/px46x6ynh/]["img]https://s14.postimg.org/px46x6ynh/Screen0.jpg[/img][/url]
excluding the "

in my project I didn't worry about the UI look replication, I wrote code for handling scenes in 3D and 2D although with the hope of there eventually being access to full 3D scenes/objects to build the scenes from. of course you could make quite some good look alike scene with premade assets just would take some time. ;)

Turns out it was the way I was referencing the dropbox link, but thanks, images are showing now :)

Yeah I'd like this project to be as faithful as possible while being better looking, hence my attempt a while ago at replicating the UI.  Unity makes it very simple to handle scene changes and 3D objects as you can imagine, plus I have an asset from the Unity asset store that deals with looping music whilst maintaining the intro to a song which is used incredibly frequently in FF music.  Just need the big modules now such as battle system, field system, mini game system, inventory system, junction system etc.  The hard part of having a game engine is taken care of with Unity.  Not that this means we can do it overnight or anything, but if you wanna help you're more than welcome to :)

WolfMan

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #23 on: 2016-11-28 13:18:18 »
Hey everyone. I've been pretty absent lately but I am a video game art major at FullSail. I'd be happy to help in the art realm.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Kandy_Man

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Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
« Reply #24 on: 2016-11-28 13:26:42 »
Damn that looks awesome.  Any and all help is welcome  :D

I know it was mentioned in the topic at some point that an entire remake would be extremely time consuming.  I think what we should consider is where to start so that the art guys/girls don't start on something that we couldn't use/show for a long time.  Personally, I like the idea of starting with the original demo (so the Dollet mission) as it has a clear beginning and end as well as not being too long.  Of course I'm open to suggestions, just so we can start to push this forward.