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Messages - cbudd

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1
I pass judgement because I have eyes and ears and can see and hear crap voice acting and an insanely childish script - and very poor battle mechanics inflated by adding HP amounts - the most lazy way of programming battles ever.

If you like this game, it's fine - but I have higher standards. A lot higher.  And certainly, I find it more than foolish to shell out $180 for a full game and in no sane reality should that be considered acceptable.

I'm not trying to be argumentative or sway your opinion here - I am just legitimately curious.  What makes the FF7R script "childish" in your eyes?  It seems to me that the story itself (up until the ending) stays fairly true to the original, with some necessary expansions and additions that you have to have in order to make Midgar a 40 hour affair.  I didn't notice anything particular with the dialogue that bothered me outright.  There is definitely some JRPG/Anime sappy dialogue here and there, but that was true of the original FF7 as well. 

I already gave my thoughts about the voice acting earlier, but to reiterate in general I thought it was pretty good.  This is always going to be very personal, so I can definitely understand it not working for some people.  Thinking about it a little more, the only thing that bothers me with the voice acting (which seems to be a direction issue/design choice) is the constant "grunting" and "huh?" stuff that goes on.  It's very reminiscent of Metal Gear to me...  I feel like it may have made some sense in the past to give a little more insight into the characters with limited facial expressions, but small movements in the faces of the FFVIIR characters are really expressive and the extra noises are kind of distracting in my opinion.

2
I don't really see the problem with the game being broken up into multiple pieces, as long as each piece is compelling and makes sense. 

What is wrong with having two FFVII games?  Or Three?  Or ten?  As long as each game is individually satisfying and you are getting your money's worth, I just don't see a problem.  The original one didn't cease to exist with the release of the remake.  In fact, I would not be surprised to see some resurgence of interest for the original with the remake having now been released.  Evidenced by the fact that I just downloaded Reunion R6 for a fresh run :)

3
YES. I don't know why they picked a random YouTuber to do professional voice acting for what would turn out (despite anyone's personal feelings) to be an extremely popular game, and for such an iconic character at that. Something about her...just doesn't bring in the high quality "feels" I expected. Barret? On point.

I do want to point out that this is a little disingenuous.  She is still a professional actress, even though she does do a lot of Youtube stuff as well.  I wouldn't say that she is totally "random."

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4628145/


4
As a non-PlayStation owner I can’t buy the game.  As a long time FFVII fan, though, I really wanted to see how the remake would look and where the story would go.

I’ll admit, I have always been a fan of the original game, but have invested zero time in any of the additional games or movies.  My knowledge of them is only passing, and I can’t say that the things I heard were all that encouraging, so I never pursued them.  I did read a let’s play on Dirge of Cerberus by the Dark ID that was pretty hilarious, though.

With that said, I watched a play through of the remake with an open mind.  My opinions are as follows...
Spoiler: show

Graphically, I thought it was very nice to look at.  I don’t have a frame of reference for comparing it to a lot of other AAA titles, but from an average Joe it was visually interesting.  The slums were kind of boring by nature, but Wall Market was quite a bit more interesting in my opinion.  The destroyed Sector 7 was a great addition and really gave the devastation much more gravity. 

Sound:  no complaints, but hard to mess up in a game like this. 

Voice acting:  My opinion is that the voice acting was actually really good.  This is always touchy, especially when we are dealing with a situation where there have been prior expectations set for how these characters should sound.  For me, I haven’t been exposed to other voice actors for these characters so it was only what I imagined they would have sounded like reading the text. 

As far as the main group...

Cloud:  I liked his voice.  Granted, he is pretty non-emotional in general, but he was believably emotional at the right times.  He never jarred me as being too high or low pitched, which is usually my issue with voice acting.

Barret:  I’ll be blunt:  he needed to sound like Mr. T, and that’s what we got.  He’s over the top, but it’s completely in line with the character.  At the same time, he hits the right notes on the emotional parts.

Tifa:  it took a chapter for her to grow on me, but by the end I feel like she was the right voice for the character. 

Aerith:  This one is tough.  She is a bubbly sounding VA, and in certain situations it felt like she couldn’t quite get the serious parts right.  At the same time, she was really good in other parts.  Just a little inconsistent, but not enough to totally break my immersion.

Red XIII:  My least favorite.  Not sure what I expected, but he remains the one I am least comfortable with.

The rest:  there are a lot of characters in the game, and in general I thought they were pretty good for the most part.  I think that people complaining about the voice acting acting are generally being too critical, but again it’s always very touchy and personal in my opinion.

The story:  overall, it was entertaining to me.  I definitely think that the Avalanche team benefits greatly from the remake.  In the original, they are basically just set pieces for Barret’s backstory.  While the game wants you to feel for them when they are killed, it is hard to be too invested because they are gone early and don’t get much chance for characterization.

I think that the Cloud flashbacks are well done, although the characters are seemingly oblivious to his episodes, especially towards the end when he basically passes out after rescuing Aerith from Hojo.

In general, the small story changes didn’t bother me, and in many cases I thought that they improved and expanded on the story.

Finally, I do have a few criticisms and storylines that I am not sold on or have concerns about...

#1- Avalanche members surviving.  As much as their deaths in the original are somewhat empty, having them survive in this one is almost worse because their deaths actually have more meaning in the remake.  The story is better with their loss.

#2- The whispers.  I understand the point, it’s just not a trope that I enjoy in storytelling.

#3- while I liked the shock value of killing Barret, the Sephiroth reveal and killing of the Shinra president in the original is more powerful.  Losing that for a Hojo research dungeon was not a good trade off.

#4- I’m not sure what the implications of the ending are... I am reserving judgment for the time being.

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I don't recall if I have an older version of this, but noticed one typo on my playthrough.  After you get through the train graveyard, if you talk to the train operator (before you go to the plate battle) he says "I heard a rumor that the plate is going to brought down, but I've worked at this station for years. I can't bear to leave."

It should read the plate is going TO BE brought down.

Anyway, this translation is a lot of fun and I'm enjoying it, thank you guys!

6
Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-11-04 19:11:51 »
Thanks!

Yeah, you are right.  I wanted to make sure that I could actually import the things and get them to work properly.  My texturing right now is really rudimentary stuff just to get some ideas for how things should look - although it is probably my weakest point as I'm not too artistic.  I think after I finish the model it will be a little easier to get proportionally correct and everything flowing nicely.

7
Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-11-04 05:27:07 »
Here is a Kimera shot of the updated head (still need to add braiding to the front hair) but definitely better with neck and ear adjustments.


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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-11-03 05:07:11 »
Well, finally got the head in game and found an area where you could actually see her face from the field view (you hardly ever see her up close in field I guess!)




I do have some problems that I am having a hard time with.  For one, there are some smoothing issues that I can't seem to resolve (specifically around the chin, eyes, and nose) and it seems that many people solve these problems with textures, but I am not sure how they are doing that.  It just makes for some sharp angles in areas that I do not like.  Maybe I just need more poly's, but that seems to just magnify the issue.

I tried making a normal map, but I really don't understand how to implement that.  The thing looks great subsurfed, but I can't transfer that into the game :(

*Some model problems are fairly obvious to me right now as well -  Ears are too large, and the neck does not transistion properly from the jaw line (too narrow and too much flat area below the jaw.  These are relatively easy fixes if I can get the other part straightened out.

Additionally, I noticed that in Kimera my model appears gray and not white, which I think is affecting the coloring of my textures.  Does any one know the cause of this or a fix for it?

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-15 23:19:49 »
Include pictures, texture issues could be almost anything. If you're using Meshlab it should convert to 3ds without any issues. Have you checked the mesh? The faces aren't flipped or anything? I had that problem with Red XIII, the feet were rendering light upside down. Also double check the texture and uv mapping in blender, make sure there isn't anything you missed, even small errors can show if something isn't lined up right. At least it's importing to Kimera now, that's half the battle right there.

btw if you're the last to post you can edit your posts to add to them, it'll make keeping track of your progress easier.

Yes, good call Meshlab fixed the errors!  I'll try to post an in game shot of Aeris with her new head if I can :)

Long way to go (and I wouldn't call the head finished by any means) but I am a lot less discouraged now!

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-15 21:02:48 »
Okay, I finally got it!  Sort of...

I flipped the texture itself upside down and now it matches, which is great.  Unfortunately, the model has some issues I guess created by the conversion process (seams maybe?  They are black lines in random spots on the model.  I've got some work to do yet, but it is something.

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-15 20:53:40 »
That's good, it'll actually work now. If it's not mapped correctly you need to check the uv layout in pcreator. Don't just flip the Y, make sure the mapping matches what you have in Blender.

I still can't get pcreator to see the uv mapping, though.  Even if I convert the pfile to 3ds, it just won't see it.

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-15 20:16:02 »
Well,

I finally got the head to show with textures in Kimera (latest version) but they aren't mapping right on the head :(

It still doesn't show anything useful in pcreator, though.

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-14 23:50:58 »
I'd like to have a look at that file if possible. The one comming from Blender.

Sure.  I can send you the original blender file and/or the exported object file.

I also noticed that I am probably running an older version of kimera, so I need to get the latest one just to double check.

Thanks everyone for their help so far!

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-14 16:15:40 »
I saw this while doing a little research. 


From here...

http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=65297

Quote
Umm... you do know that .3DS format is from stone-age and everyone who still uses it today is asking for trouble? :) I bet that you don't remember for example that .3DS supports only 8+3 characters in a filename, so "HugeCockpitPanel.jpg" is shortened to-- well, something "totally different" like Monty Python would say. Filename mismatch would explain why .OBJ works but .3DS doesn't if it's texture problem.

I may try to rename my texture file to something simple (like 1.bmp or something) then export it.  Maybe my texture name is too long and it is getting lost in the translation...

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-14 16:08:45 »
When you have the piece selected in pcreator does it give you the option to add the texture or is it greyed out? If you have it set for a battle model do you have textures checked?

I'm at work right now, but I will do my best to recall.  I have been working under field model (although switching to battle model did not seem to make a difference for me) and I would pull down the drop down menu and check the texture option (texture file(s) or something like that?)

I would then go to the uv coordinates option which pops up a second window.  Everything is greyed out and nothing shows but the blue axis lines.  It by default is listed as view all.  Selecting my model in the uv coordinate window does not change anything, either.

Is there a program other than 3ds max that allows you to export a .uvw file?   I wonder if I can get a .uvw file then I could import that into pcreator and add textures...

The only other thing that I can think of right now is that somehow I have missed a step in blender that is not allowing the uv map to export properly with the object file.  My only problem with that is that opening the file in wings3d or meshlab shows the texture just fine.

Maybe there is something going on with the model that doesn't agree with the .3ds format, like an open area or something that it doesn't like?

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 22:57:18 »
Does naming matter with regards to what pcreator will see as a texture?  As long as it is a 24 bit bmp I should be good, right?

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 22:52:34 »
Kimera should be able to read 3ds files with UVs directly. If it doesn't, I'd like to know.

Incidentally, I can load my model after it has been converted to a .p file, but it has no textures nor can I add any.

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 22:43:37 »
I haven't tried that yet, I'll have to do that soon. Blender doesn't give a lot of options for uv mapping. You can export it as a png, but not as a working layout. More importantly I'd like to be able to import an edited uv layout.

Did you select the piece in pcreator? There's a drop down menu, select the piece and it'll turn red on the screen. Then you can add the texture and flip the Y on the uv layout. Otherwise it wont let you add either.

Yeah, I selected the piece.  When I open the UV coordinates part, it gives me no options to do anything because it doesn't see anything, unfortunately. 

I guess there must be something with the model that is not allowing it to work.  I just don't have a clue what it could be :(

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 22:41:19 »
Kimera should be able to read 3ds files with UVs directly. If it doesn't, I'd like to know.

I can open the Aeris head that originally came with FF7 that has been converted to a .3ds file.  I can't open my blender converted .3ds file, though. 

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 19:18:20 »
Well, I tried that but still no uv coordinates for Pcreator :(

I can see the texture in meshlab, but no matter what I do I can't see the uv map to put the texture in pcreator.  Very frustrating to say the least.  Can I export the uv map itself somehow?

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 08:56:45 »
Incidentally, if anyone knows how to export the model from blender and have it keep the UV coordinates I would love to hear how to go about it!  I've tried exporting as and object file, using biturn and wings 3d to convert to .3ds format, but I just can't get the UV map to go with it. 

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-13 08:06:48 »
Well, it's really late but I finally am getting somewhere...


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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-11 15:53:51 »
Okay, thanks for the advice.  Hopefully I will have something that works in the next week or two.  I'm definitely concerned with the texturing because I'm really not much of an artist :)

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-11 13:54:38 »
Not sure what happened, Blender isn't horribly great with uv mapping, in my opinion at least. For example it'll strip the uv mapping if you export to a .3ds. Basically you'll have to realign the layout. It seems pretty even though, you maybe able to just select the whole thing and adjust it together. Once the layout is aligned and looks good on the model it'll be fine when you import it just make sure to flip the Y in pcreator.

By the way, since Blender cant export .3ds files I use .obj and use Meshlab to export to .3ds. Works fine and is a great program for checking pieces before importing.

Unfortunately I can't just select it all and drag it - it is like it has been shrunk down or twisted somehow, so the left side won't match up unless I start trying to drag a bunch of the vertices around.  I could and would do that, but my concern is that when I eventually export the model and get it turned into a .p file the texture may not line up properly.

I suppose I could try and realign the map, export the image again, then re-import it and see if it matches.  That is the only thing I can think to do at this point.

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Graphical / Re: Hi-Res Aeris Model (WIP)
« on: 2013-10-11 06:53:20 »
So, I am working on texturing my Aeris head model.  I got the UV mapping part down, but I am having issues with actually getting it to import back into blender properly.  When I export the UV map, it looks fine.  I edit it with GIMP to get my colors in, but then when I import it back into blender it doesn't match up!



As you can see, the drawn textures are all offset to the right, and it doesn't match up when rendering.  Although I can move the things around to make it sort of fit, I am concerned that the UV mapping will be wrong when it comes time to import the model into the game.

Anyone have any ideas or know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

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