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Miscellaneous Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Kandy_Man on 2016-11-07 12:43:43

Title: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki 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 ...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki 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!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kaldarasha 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2016-11-20 19:55:16
You're writing about QGears?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kaldarasha 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-)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki 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:
(https://s19.postimg.org/4b763xxhv/Highres_Screenshot00000.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/88uftckb7/Highres_Screenshot00003.png)
Unfortunately I lost the video.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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:
(https://s19.postimg.org/4b763xxhv/Highres_Screenshot00000.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/88uftckb7/Highres_Screenshot00003.png)
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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox 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

(https://s14.postimg.org/px46x6ynh/Screen0.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/px46x6ynh/)(https://s16.postimg.org/jvjkqrapt/Screen1.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/jvjkqrapt/)(https://s13.postimg.org/hnioe3b1f/Screen2.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/hnioe3b1f/)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9u3lbs54b7ift9/Photo%2002-10-2015%2C%2009%2055%2020.jpg?raw=1)

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlszpb1cyvl9euy/Photo%2002-10-2015%2C%2009%2055%2048.jpg?raw=1)

(https://www.dropbox.com/s/inyap6cmt2b4z3p/Photo%2002-10-2015%2C%2009%2055%2053.jpg?raw=1)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox 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. ;)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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 :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: WolfMan 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.
(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161128/081136526f524c0d58c5be2756081b3e.png)(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161128/4c48ee3788bc62fdda7af0d46dea9244.png)(http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161128/86e82a50ca20d84122ac8db509f40455.png)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man 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.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2016-11-30 09:33:47
Just wanted to throw this out there:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Blue-Fields-v2.mp3 (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Blue-Fields-v2.mp3)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Breezy-v2.mp3 (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Breezy-v2.mp3)

I started on a Roses and Wine pack a few years ago, was doing a lets play to show it off and my YouTube channel was closed for copyright infringement.  Kinda put me off finishing it but with the decision to work on this project I thought I'd pick it back up again.  Means I get to finish the Roses and Wine pack I wanted to do and we'll have all the music necessary for this project, win win.  It's also a rough mix as I've gotten new instruments since I first started on the pack so this is really starting over again.  I know the levels of certain instruments need adjusting, but any feedback would be great.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Goth on 2016-11-30 18:16:36
A HD remake will never be finished by amateurs.
The good news is that graphics is never been a problem for retrogamers / pre-FFX final fantasy lovers.
FF8 graphics is fine as it is (7 is the only one which admittedly is too basic).

QGears-like projects make way much more sense IMHO, because you then will have total control over modding, you could do an API to mod the game, etc. I don't care much for a HD remake, I care more for changing the gameplay, put a "skip scene" button, things like that, that would make the game fresh again.
Even if you want to replace some 3D models it would still be a good starting point anyway, I mean having such a game engine.

But it looks like this type of engines is very vaporware too.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2016-12-01 07:21:27
HD games or HD remakes is not impossible(if it had not been for copyrights and trademark protection), by amateurs sure(however I would say most people here who even does the slightest of modding for FF7 or FF8 is a bit above amateurs), then again even something like QGears or even just emulating the game with all the original assets and code is too much for amateurs, heck even making HD textures or backgrounds for FF7 or FF8 is too much for amateurs due to the asset pipeline they have to work through, and in fact I think had it not been for FF7-FF8-FF9 using 2D backgrounds(they would have looked really bad back then and even more so now though) they would have recieved a HD upgrade from the community a long time ago, as it takes alot of time to get the mesh scales and textures etc right when modelling from 2D assets, then to render it back to 2D in great quality, had they been in 3D this work process would have been alot faster.

Lets agree to disagree about the FF8 Graphics.

QGears really doesn't offer anything that other engines doesn't, every engine I know of that you have available today either has a scripting language builtin or it is possible to add ontop of it yourself.
infact QGears uses Ogre as its rendering engine which removes alot of work to even begin QGears.

The reason why projects like QGears usually dies, is because outside of reliving a game only very nostalgic fans would use it(aside from people wanting to download a package with everything+game setup for them beforehand), lack of interest/motivation, lack of time or lack of knowledge on how to proceed from the point it is currently at.
It also isn't much fun to be the sole contributor(in the case of it being a community project) to something that alot of people is using. if you want perfect examples you could look at two games called Fallout and Fallout 2, which has had probably 5-6 community made engines all died out(way too many people arguing about what scripting language, how to port(preconvert or runtime conversion of original assets) and the list goes on.

What also would attract most people to use/help something like QGears is if it is easy to use, which to be honest it isn't(not compared to engines which has builtin support for most of these features), Unity being a perfect example, which is why it is so popular among amateurs.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2016-12-01 13:02:12
Like was just said in the previous post, most people on here modding the FF games definitely do not fall under the definition of amateurs, they are clearly very skilled, hence I decided to enquire here about if people would be interested in it.

Unfortunately, the graphics on those older games are ruined when trying to play on modern monitors.  It's one thing to have the 3d models rendered at 1080p which makes them a bit nicer looking, but the backgrounds are just stretched and look horrible.  When playing FF8 recently I even noticed that just before you leave for the Dollet mission, after Headmaster Cid gives his speech, he becomes part of the background and goes from looking ok to a pixelated mess.  Things like that are very difficult to fix with mods (and in that particular case I'd say that isn't fixable without recreating all backgrounds for Balamb Garden in order to maintain continuity).

Personally, I'm not interested in a QGears-like project, I'd like to work with the community to make a true FF8 remake that stays true to its roots with optional enhancements such as voice acting, optional alternative soundtracks and the like.  As cool as it is being able to extract game files and stuff, they'd only get us so far in doing a good looking remake.  They'd be good for reference in making new models and stuff, but if we tried to shove modern looking high quality models back into the original game, I can see things falling apart very quickly as the game was just not designed to work with such high quality assets.  Besides that, imagine having the game done in proper 3D, being able to move the camera and see the world from angles you just couldn't before.

Skipping a cutscene sounds like an optional feature that would be nice to have, I'll bare it in mind.

Also, there is no reason this couldn't be finished.  Obviously not as quickly as a professional studio working full time, but what do you expect?  I'm sure it could be done in less time than it took to do FFXV :P

Also as was mentioned previously, Unity is a fantastic engine for amateurs, hobbyists and professional developers.  I only mentioned it as I have a fair bit of experience with it, but as mentioned, it's very easy to get into no matter what your discipline is, be it coding, music, art, animation etc.  Meaning if you've got the skill, getting your work into Unity and working will be a breeze.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2016-12-30 15:01:17
I found remaining lost screenshots:
(https://s19.postimg.org/sq1pz991v/Highres_Screenshot00004.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/5d3ogqsyb/Highres_Screenshot00005.png)

Anyway I did Balamb Town game in 3ds Max. I'm pretty happy with the geometry (I'm still amateur at these things):
(https://s19.postimg.org/y40i6sys3/Bit_Worse.jpg)

The problem is I had much less luck with texturing so it looks... bad I think:
(https://s19.postimg.org/6hxqm4ff7/Highres_Screenshot00002.png)
Ehh

Don't mind it's UE4. I just wanted to test the model
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2016-12-30 17:12:47
Modelling is fun you know..
(https://s19.postimg.org/fg5fg6qs3/Bit_Worse.jpg)
Gas station sign/lamp
This time I tested Substance Painter:
(https://s19.postimg.org/6dgy95r0z/Highres_Screenshot00007.png)
You see, the main fun part with SP is it exports all additional maps automatically and even creates mixed map for UnrealEngine which is current standard, but it still needs some tweaking as the metallic is 1.0 and it literally drops whole basic_color input... Anyway, now the ground or gas ditsributor...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2016-12-30 17:26:27
I would LOVE to texture this.

Any chance you can give me the files?  What program did you create the objects in?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2016-12-30 19:51:37
Sorry for delay, I was making gas dispenser. :D

(https://s19.postimg.org/tkaxzftoz/Bit_Worse.jpg)


Sure! I was waiting for you and any texture artist!
I'm making models in the newest 3ds Max 2016 Education edition, but I exported it to FBX so in case you don't have MAX you can edit it (It has UV map prepared for textures in case you wanted to modify them (e.g. the white block part is giant mess). Gas dispenser doesn't have a texture so far because I need to learn Substance Painter more first.. :O

Here's the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pbik3u409q2vnvv/30.12.2016.7z?dl=0
Do your magic. :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2016-12-31 07:41:22
So much better than my last tries last year. :) not even sure they are worth sharing as a base. :p
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7tuihdlhtgj06z6/BModels.rar?dl=0
mostly max 2015 files and no UVs.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2016-12-31 13:45:43
Hey! I like your Balamb garden core, Zervox!  8)

Today updates:
-Reworked Gas Station text
-Painted Gas Distributor
-"Gas" banner stand
-Test ground texture (subject to change)

(https://s19.postimg.org/d7210t0k3/Highres_Screenshot00009.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/btae5i1ar/Highres_Screenshot00010.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/dz4p004r7/Highres_Screenshot00011.png)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-01-01 08:01:29
Well, thank you. :)
I am unable to work on them anymore as I do not have access to Autodesk anymore as my license was tied to a game design course.
I was thinking the upper rim edges on the gaspump could be smoothed, as in the image they are rather rounded unless my eyes are tricking me.
Love your work.:)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-01 14:02:13
I am unable to work on them anymore as I do not have access to Autodesk anymore as my license was tied to a game design course.
If you are still a student of any kind (even highschool) then you can apply for three years educational license. I'm using one like this.

I was thinking the upper rim edges on the gaspump could be smoothed, as in the image they are rather rounded unless my eyes are tricking me.
Yep, you're right. I have an issue with chamfering the edges. The results are bad, I think I destroyed the mesh earlier with something, I don't know how to fix this so I did multiple Polygon outline >_> :
(https://s19.postimg.org/89y3qjuab/Bez_tytu_u.png)

Anyway, I fixed the textures and metal is no more 100% shiny. I also tried to do the park-a-lot building. I spent 3-4 hours on this and yet it still looks bad. Someone, please. Take care of the textures. :D

(https://s19.postimg.org/vx3nseozz/Highres_Screenshot00012.png) (https://postimg.org/image/vx3nseozz/)

(https://s19.postimg.org/lbjsgeiof/Highres_Screenshot00013.png) (https://postimg.org/image/lbjsgeiof/)

(https://s19.postimg.org/3ms1os6xb/Highres_Screenshot00014.png) (https://postimg.org/image/3ms1os6xb/)
I don't know what's  on the ceiling in the last photo. It showed up in "High-res screenshot" function in UE4, 3ds max and ue4 in-game shows it correctly.

I should take some 3ds max course...  :oops:
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-01 17:59:14
Okay. Phew, much better:

Ugly old one on left and brand new pretty on right xD

(https://s19.postimg.org/5jtd73mz7/parking.jpg)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-01 18:16:06
Holy crap, I'm away from the thread for a little while and this is what I come back to?  Awesome!  I'll try and make a bit of progress on the scripting side of things but this is looking awesome.  As for substance painter, I believe Unity also has it integrated similar to how UE4 uses it so it should import to that no problem as well.  Damn this is exciting  :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-01 18:26:46
As for substance painter, I believe Unity also has it integrated similar to how UE4 uses it so it should import to that no problem as well.
Yep!
(https://s19.postimg.org/q584z04k3/unity.jpg)
Unity 4, Unity 5 metallic and Unity 5 Metallic Specular :D

I know we agreed to make Demo first with Dollet raid (yes or no? xD) but I decided to do Balamb for attention. As far as I can somehow do three buildings, lamp, gate and gas dispenser I can't do whole Italy-themed city/fountain statue/comm tower etc. this is far beyond my 'skill' :-o
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-01 18:30:04
Yep!
(https://s19.postimg.org/q584z04k3/unity.jpg)
Unity 4, Unity 5 metallic and Unity 5 Metallic Specular :D

I know we agreed to make Demo first with Dollet raid (yes or no? xD) but I decided to do Balamb for attention. As far as I can somehow do three buildings, lamp, gate and gas dispenser I can't do whole Italy-themed city/fountain statue/comm tower etc. this is far beyond my 'skill' :-o

I thought Dollet mission would be a good example but I'm happy to do whatever, besides, this definitely caught my attention and seemed to get others as well, so great job!  Hopefully some other modellers will take note and take it on, but I mean we could still demo all of the games mechanics within Balamb Town just to show it off. May as well since there's already some progress there
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-01-02 09:41:25
If you are still a student of any kind (even highschool) then you can apply for three years educational license. I'm using one like this.
Yep, you're right. I have an issue with chamfering the edges. The results are bad, I think I destroyed the mesh earlier with something, I don't know how to fix this so I did multiple Polygon outline >_> :
(https://s19.postimg.org/89y3qjuab/Bez_tytu_u.png)

Anyway, I fixed the textures and metal is no more 100% shiny. I also tried to do the park-a-lot building. I spent 3-4 hours on this and yet it still looks bad. Someone, please. Take care of the textures. :D

(https://s19.postimg.org/vx3nseozz/Highres_Screenshot00012.png) (https://postimg.org/image/vx3nseozz/)

(https://s19.postimg.org/lbjsgeiof/Highres_Screenshot00013.png) (https://postimg.org/image/lbjsgeiof/)

(https://s19.postimg.org/3ms1os6xb/Highres_Screenshot00014.png) (https://postimg.org/image/3ms1os6xb/)
I don't know what's  on the ceiling in the last photo. It showed up in "High-res screenshot" function in UE4, 3ds max and ue4 in-game shows it correctly.

I should take some 3ds max course...  :oops:

Sadly I am not a student since quite a few years ago, this was a separate online version of a school course which I completed.
if its not visible in anything but the high res screenshot it most probably is a rendering bug of the engine.(cant think of any other reasons)

GasPump, maybe it would be easier to fix that by cutting away the faces in which is smoothed and just add another box with more faces then move the top vertices accordingly? that way you do not get uneven faces. :)

When doing the large scale remodelling from images(as I tried with Balamb main hall) I found using 3D coat made it alot easier by using its retopolgy tools on a flat plane then adjust it by what I could see would be height differences. I also found making the floors/road network first before adding anything would make it easier as you would have a layout to follow.(not being experienced at all in modelling or in any artistic forms whatsoever free hand modelling similar looks is flat out impossible for me.)

redoing dollet I would imagine the same approach would probably be very suitable(atleast from the little experience I have).
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-03 17:15:40
Three minor smoothing group issues left (they showed up after importing everything, but that should be easy to fix) and texturing...

(https://s19.postimg.org/vp394hwr7/Highres_Screenshot00015.png)
(https://s19.postimg.org/tlstwtwyb/Highres_Screenshot00016.png)

EDIT: Yep, fixed easily but also lost whole UV Mapping...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-01-04 14:31:49
The roof disc/circular object also got smoothed edges. and the flower pot is placed on an extended overhang(100% replication to me personally is not nessecary).
of course I'd say this already perfect.:)

Heh, looking at the original FF8 backdrop made me laugh regarding the gas sign :p it's rotated 90 degrees :p
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-04 15:13:55
Heh, looking at the original FF8 backdrop made me laugh regarding the gas sign :p it's rotated 90 degrees :p

Haha, yeah. xD
That'd be our secret.. :D

Here are all the models so far (untextured; I forgot to save fixed gas pump xDD):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/o7ut97ejsa5qm5b/BalambModels.7z?dl=0

Max 2015 files in case you don't have 2016:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ypvbgloj0u0pyi8/Balambmax2015.7z?dl=0

About the shop- it has cutout for door behind and is made to insert interior model inside that shop model. I'm just too lazy to do it right now.  :-D

EDIT:
This is how it looks in Unity 5:
(https://s19.postimg.org/h3i7g445v/unity.jpg)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2017-01-05 00:21:41
Good work Maki! Thanks.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Dhaval12 on 2017-01-05 04:42:01
Wanting to learn Unity and C# I decided to recreate the material battle system from Final Fantasy.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-06 17:28:15
This time weapon shop:

(https://s19.postimg.org/vs44o6f4j/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/yaptov0ur/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/59lhfgger/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)

Now the question for all of you:
(https://s19.postimg.org/b0g96xdsj/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)

None of the videos does show this portion of Balamb. I bet they just left an empty space there. It wouldn't be the first time they lie with FMVs. World map shows that theres another building like Zell's home up to the village gate. Also, the railway station doesn't make sense at all. Everything doesn't make sense here. There are locations in Balamb that are not accesible even from logical point of view. Looks like we can start our imagination!  8-)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-01-06 19:32:38
The backdrop for Balamb street shows that the weapon shop back part continues all the way up to the wall. Empty wall space actually.
It's not logical because we do not have backdrops for every part of town.(which is expected),who would expect there only to be living 8 people in Balamb(I think this is an rough estimate considering houses and buildings visible through all the backdrops, not like Esthar were you can imagine every block essentially be a skyscraper:P)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-07 16:39:38
The more models I make the more I want to see whole Final Fantasy VIII remade! I'm happy with the results

(https://s19.postimg.org/mrvuszrir/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/3ya1vztar/5507692_cat_m.jpg)


I decided to not scale the weapon shop up to the wall, but to add another residental house (it needs a bit of deforming/modifying so it's not 1:1 copy of the other house)
Now I'll take care of the bench, lamps and etc. then the train station or hotel.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-08 15:11:58
Today:
(https://s19.postimg.org/lxa9x8u1f/lamp_bencj.png)

EDIT: I need some support  :-[ :cry:
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-09 10:36:53
Holy wow, this has suddenly came on incredibly quick, very well done Maki this is awesome.  Really hoping other forum members who can help you out take notice, I don't know where to begin with modelling or texturing unfortunately.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-09 16:36:03
Holy wow, this has suddenly came on incredibly quick, very well done Maki this is awesome
<3


This is the latest teaser. I'll be back when I finish whole Balamb:
(https://s19.postimg.org/k5uobqadt/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-09 17:25:57
<3


This is the latest teaser. I'll be back when I finish whole Balamb:
(https://s19.postimg.org/k5uobqadt/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)

Can't wait  :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2017-01-10 01:12:04
Trying out some texturing:

(http://i.imgur.com/vXFPKob.png)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-10 08:47:50
Aw, this is great! Looks just like in-game. Great job! <3
You even fixed the corners!  :-*
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-10 09:21:35
This is looking more and more awesome every day :D I'm certain we can do this now
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2017-01-10 19:33:57
With normals:

(http://i.imgur.com/npWPoEO.png)

I need to tweak them a bit.  Some parts, such as the large bricks, didn't come out as intended.  Also going to ddo treat them.  Thank you, quixel.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-10 19:58:58
I remember I've seen Balamb logo reworked and here it is:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/8/83/Flag_of_Balamb.png/revision/latest?cb=20150411002726
so you can put it on the gate

Anyway, I know I was going to come back here with new screenshot AFTER finishing Balamb, but I really wanted to show you this train station! (still heavy WIP) :D
(https://s19.postimg.org/n0a88a1w3/5507692_cat_m.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/neg5lmbdf/cats_In_Tunnel.jpg)



and another quick texturing attempt at rails:
https://sketchfab.com/models/164676e20fe44a45abd54cbb6baaac49
 8)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-10 20:42:39
Damn that's amazing. You're probably gonna get sick of me pretty quick as I can imagine a lot of my comments are gonna be something like "wow that's awesome" haha
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-11 20:25:34
Damn that's amazing. You're probably gonna get sick of me pretty quick as I can imagine a lot of my comments are gonna be something like "wow that's awesome" haha
Totally not. It's 100% better than no reply at all. :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2017-01-12 06:38:52
Damn, Maki.  You are making so much progress, I'm wondering how I'm going to keep up.  I might just have to succumb to using 4096x4096 textures - especially considering this isn't meant to be an MMO ;)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-12 10:32:43
Damn, Maki.  You are making so much progress, I'm wondering how I'm going to keep up.  I might just have to succumb to using 4096x4096 textures - especially considering this isn't meant to be an MMO ;)

4096x4096?  Do it!  :P
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2017-01-13 17:08:40
4096x4096?  Do it!  :P

Done.  Also gave it a DDO treatment, added better normals, and created spec/gloss maps.

I've added the flag/logo - but i need to make it look less 'flat'.

After a tweak or two, I'm off to the rest of the assets. :)

(http://i.imgur.com/LIPnqYN.png)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-13 19:07:21
Done.  Also gave it a DDO treatment, added better normals, and created spec/gloss maps.

I've added the flag/logo - but i need to make it look less 'flat'.

After a tweak or two, I'm off to the rest of the assets. :)

(http://i.imgur.com/LIPnqYN.png)

That's looking fantastic. Absolutely floored by what you guys are doing
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-15 14:37:54
"Train from Trabia will arive shortly!"

Ultra HD screenshot with 4K textures:
(https://s19.postimg.org/9yyp072mp/Highres_Screenshot00018.jpg)
hehe  8)
The over-bloom effect is to hide that there's nothing at the end of the station (I could show the other side with entrance, but the geometry is not 100% finished so unwrapping and texturing it right now is waste of time)
This is realtime in-game screenshot with forced UHD resolution

Just a few detail models and train station is finished also with the entrance building.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2017-01-15 18:25:32
"Train from Trabia will arive shortly!"
hehe  8)
The over-bloom effect is to hide that there's nothing at the end of the station (I could show the other side with entrance, but the geometry is not 100% finished so unwrapping and texturing it right now is waste of time)
This is realtime in-game screenshot with forced UHD resolution

Just a few detail models and train station is finished also with the entrance building.

Awesome!!

I've been UV mapping the gas station - nearly complete.  Will texture soon, but right now I'm held up with the announcement of the the new MMORPG that I'm working on :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-15 19:31:44
That looks amazing!  Also, nothing wrong with a bit of bloom ;) I finally got the Internet in my new house and downloaded the GitHub project so I'll get properly started on that now. Also, any finished assets I'll add to the repo so we can keep track of them and they'll all be stored in one place
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-26 10:55:55
I fell a bit sick, so I'm posting the most up-to-date file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rtwv736khbw5juk/FullScene.7z?dl=0
just in case I died xD
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: jmp434 on 2017-01-26 11:54:01
Hello,
Very nice work, for the rails however, if you count animated the game, I would advise you to use a tools (PathDeform) to give it a more homogeneous form, the rails that joins the second part exceeds and if you see it on Unity I think it will spell a little bit :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-29 19:15:26
Hello,
Very nice work, for the rails however, if you count animated the game, I would advise you to use a tools (PathDeform) to give it a more homogeneous form, the rails that joins the second part exceeds and if you see it on Unity I think it will spell a little bit :)

Hey! Thanks! That really saved my ass on later geometries!


just in case I died xD

I didn't die  :-D



And, just a relax (water and sky is set only for concept xD):
(https://s19.postimg.org/jbnw5kvkj/Bez_tytu_u.jpg)

Personally, I like it. :D

Balamb is mostly done. Just needs some few polishing, add some details I missed and the pier that is not visible to player and the next step are interiors... :O
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: jmp434 on 2017-01-30 00:27:50
You work great! You amaze me, are you a graphic designer? Do you work at the original map scale?
Think you remake the world?
An open world would be great ^^
I would like to do the same for 7
But I do not understand absolutely nothing a Unity :(
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-30 14:05:42
You work great!
Ha, thanks!!

are you a graphic designer?
I'm All-in-One guy

Do you work at the original map scale?

I screwed up the scale, when porting to engine I'd have to rescale them.

An open world would be great ^^

I wish to, but I have no knowledge on open-world performance (I know only some theory like LOD billboard model on whole world and map streaming, but I've never done such things yet)

I would like to do the same for 7

Hey, I saw your works at FF7. They're amazing!

But I do not understand absolutely nothing a Unity :(

Me too... That'd be our secret. :D
I can create map, terrain, environment, but still don't know Unity. I'm not using it extensively.

Have a nice day!
(http://lolsnaps.com/upload_pic/SmileyCat-42520.jpg)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: SpooX on 2017-01-30 15:31:08
Nice work so far Maki :-)


Quote from: jmp434 on Today at 02:27:50
Do you work at the original map scale?

I screwed up the scale, when porting to engine I'd have to rescale them.

about the scale...
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/574/32489271411_779336ec94_o.png) (https://flic.kr/p/RuY1tV)

I just made a little comparison with the walkmesh from bcform_1, and I must say, it's only a tiny bit off ;-)
Squall is just an import so that is not scaled either, but the station is aligned.

(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/509/32458776642_1c22b1b78e_o.png) (https://flic.kr/p/RsgHs3)

by the way, what do you use as references? It's pretty hard to find anything useful.

 8-)


Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-30 19:48:45
Oh kill me... I didn't know/didn't remember that the train is a layer and you can hide it to see what's behind it... It looks completely different than my 'stained glass' fantasy...   ???
Anyway, the geometry on your screenshot - did you work on the train station too? You have that 'cross' part finished (near train entrance)! Wow! :O
I still don't know how to do that 'snail' thing..

References?
Just the walkmesh and background. There's only one CGi showing Balamb and it shows literally nothing interesting
I tried to find concept arts for Balamb, but didn't find even one...
Every part was done 'roughly'
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-01-31 10:48:40
Harbor finished
(https://s19.postimg.org/r78zxzys3/Bez_tytu_u.png)

What should I... Ah, yes! The fishing pier that is visible only in FMV No, not now, we need to discuss some plan on how it should look
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-01-31 13:30:35
This is absolutely incredible.  I had a busy weekend so only just seeing these updates from the last couple days now.  As for it being open world, that was my ideal scenario, and Unity takes care of things like LOD and stuff for us, so going open world would actually be really easy assuming all of the scenery was aligned and scaled correctly.

As for not knowing Unity, that's fine.  Getting the assets done is the hard part I think.  Once they are imported it's just a case of aligning them to make an open world and then programming in some sort of dynamic loading so we don't have to have the entire world loaded at once (no point having Esthar loaded when we're in Balamb).  There's plenty of people familiar with Unity so if you personally are not, don't worry, focus on a different area such as the environments like you're doing now. :)

I've been completely blown away by your work Maki so if you want to go ahead with the fishing pier I'd have no problem with that.  Alternatively, if you'd rather have a discussion about that, we can, and like you mentioned, the interiors could be worked on next.  If we can get the entirety of Balamb Town done that would be a perfect place to move on from environments to things like props, characters etc I think, then we can make a demo using Balamb Town.  Demo doesn't have to make sense in terms of plot, but we can get something going such as NPCs, interactions, quests, random encounters, boss encounters etc just to show it working.

I'm super excited :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-02-01 21:19:56
Really incredible work, as far as the scale to walkmesh I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as everything stays to scale with the remade assets tbh(although a certain amount of agreement for the assets scale would have to be made).

open world or not either is workable even performance wise as it can be streamed/loaded in on the go(the thing is if the world management will be having to work around precision of float or using a reset traversal is needed(moving the world instead of the character) to avoid it, possibly using double precision instead of single precision float and then cast to float relative to camera being at 0,0(rather complex things to handle)

unless I misremember asuming using float you can have up to 5 digits then you can only have 2 decimals.

I do however think it is easier to keep the world and locations separated, as then you won't have to worry as much of scale and precision(not to mention the time to make a world management that can handle the scale/size needed), as the world could be more compacted like it is in the original game/just imagine the distance from train tomemory  forrest before Galbadia Garden and remapping that distance relative to the actual size of Balamb town to world map ratio.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-02-04 10:04:42
Okay, so currently the top view of Balamb looks like this:
(https://s19.postimg.org/ujl4k276b/plan.png)

*The hotel road is subject to change as it's too tight


About the pier:
This is frontal projection that shows the sea of level position for the pier. It would be on the same height as harbour
(https://s19.postimg.org/xp5qa9psj/pierplan_Frontal.png)

The question is how to get there:
1. By hotel road extension, as it will go directly straight and down up to the pier
(https://s19.postimg.org/5md5petar/pier_Plan2.png)

2. By using Cat walks
(https://s19.postimg.org/fxpii2l03/pierplan3.png)
to drop immidiately to pier level and then straight road on sea level

The pier will finally connect harbour spots that are not available in-game currently (like that opera-like building in distant)

EDIT:
About interiors- it's quiet okay, but the interior wall need to be separate model to remain as close to the original
(https://s19.postimg.org/gyuckxrdf/pierplan_Frontal.png)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: jmp434 on 2017-02-04 12:51:38
The inner wall with a Unwrap will have a different texture and will give a different look or simply detach the inner wall for texture has by basic texture, no?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-02-04 13:25:14
oh, right
I forgot to upload a pic with inner wall (the room is mostly finished, I just need to fill the empty space that is not visible in FF8 and take care of the corridor and this one is done. Next is Zell's house
(https://s19.postimg.org/mojrwqcb7/boolean.jpg)
It is separate model with only one side (like plane) with normals flipped inside. I already cut-out the window and door so easy. :D
In FF8 vanilla it has different texture and feel outside and inside.

What with that pier? Anyone?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-04 15:19:39
For the pier I like the idea of the catwalk personally.  I think it would be something a bit different to all of the plain roads whilst still feeling like it belonged (Near where I live is actually steps down to a river and then a long road next to the river so it makes sense to me).

For anyone who is interested, I did the battle theme:  https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid.mp3

Feel free to give feedback :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Yagami Light on 2017-02-04 15:45:06
For the pier is that made up or are you talking about the rows of boats from the cutscene of balamb garden going out of control and ending up in the water. Regarding the opera building at the end of the harbor, are you sure that's not a boat where the gap is and beyond that there's another Island with the opera building on it. If you want to put the area with all the small boats down I'd put it to the right side of the harbor area. Anyway good job so far.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-02-04 15:57:45
rows of boats from the cutscene of balamb garden going out of control and ending up in the water
This^

Regarding the opera building at the end of the harbor, are you sure that's not a boat where the gap is and beyond that there's another Island with the opera building on it.

I don't know. It's not in worldmap model also.

If you want to put the area with all the small boats down I'd put it to the right side of the harbor area.
How to get there if the boats were on right side of harbour (from logical point of view)?

For the pier I like the idea of the catwalk personally.

This will also give the look at sea if seen from the entrance of Balamb as there wouldn't be any foliage to cover the view.
I'll check your battle theme when I get home! ;)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Yagami Light on 2017-02-04 16:32:40
Well the cutscene before shows the Garden to the left of the weapon shop steering leftish, you could assume it went clockwise around the town (I remember them saying no casualties) the first water area would be to the left of the harbor, or it could have went in a circle and ended up south east area of the train tracks. Hard to tell, I wonder if the devs just made up whatever they wanted. If I had to choose between your two choices I would choose cat walks since the road extensions are not there in the field file.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-05 21:41:58
Just done a second pass over the battle theme after coming away from it for a day.  Again, any feedback welcome:

V1
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid.mp3

V2
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid%20V2.mp3
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-02-08 20:00:26
V1
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid.mp3
V2
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid%20V2.mp3

Am I retarded or this is the same music? :D


Back to art, after importing I encountered many important issues, this is sample unfinished scene:
(https://s19.postimg.org/c9c9p8csx/Highres_Screenshot00028.png)
The issues are just a scale issues (or I just forgot to import the ceiling, too lazy to check everything again) and overlapping exterior/interior things also I exported like 1/2 without moving pivot and had to adjust everything manually again. Only one very small lightmap issue with small mesh, so don't bother it, everything else is producing nice lightmap. The interior, walls, rings in center and exterior mesh needs to be fixed (like moving a window a bit, whole room even idk yet

EDIT: https://sketchfab.com/models/7ba50e4a169646fa909d0c5ccde9f460
mhm :-X
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-08 20:11:13
Am I retarded or this is the same music? :D


Back to art, after importing I encountered many important issues, this is sample unfinished scene:
(https://s19.postimg.org/c9c9p8csx/Highres_Screenshot00028.png)
The issues are just a scale issues (or I just forgot to import the ceiling, too lazy to check everything again) and overlapping exterior/interior things also I exported like 1/2 without moving pivot and had to adjust everything manually again. Only one very small lightmap issue with small mesh, so don't bother it, everything else is producing nice lightmap. The interior, walls, rings in center and exterior mesh needs to be fixed (like moving a window a bit, whole room even idk yet

Looking brilliant as always Maki.  As for the music, they are both the same track (battle theme) but V2 had some tweaking with eq and volume of individual instruments and things.  Still not 100% satisfied with it but will probably try and get a final version this week sometime.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-12 20:07:50
So unless anyone has any objections, I think this is my final version of the battle theme:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/Don%27t%20Be%20Afraid%20V3.mp3

If anyone has any feedback to give, please let me know, I'd like the music to be the best it can possibly be.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2017-02-15 20:29:38
Awesome!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-15 21:27:38
Got another one for you guys, first draft of the game over theme.  Not sure on the strings sounds, may have to go the route of what I did with the battle theme and separate out each note to its own instrument instead of a "strings section" patch, what do you guys think?

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/The%20Loser%20V1.mp3

Edit:

Here's V2, strings sounded too artificial to me in V1 and the entire thing was a bit too compressed

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/The%20Loser%20V2.mp3
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-18 15:41:35
Got another one for you guys, as always, this is just a first draft, spent too long on it today so I need to come away and go back to it another day with a fresh head.

Victory theme!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/77339434/The%20Winner%20V1.mp3
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-02-18 15:56:01
Hm... still in old midi-style
Have you tried using real waves for instruments?
Adagio Strings bundle for example but it's Kontakt exclusive. I don't know in what software you are remastering it
I had a very nice and extremely light VSTi plugin for Floppy studio called "Orchestra" but can't find it anymore...

Your Blue Fields is the best so far IMO 8)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-18 16:23:55
Hm... still in old midi-style
Have you tried using real waves for instruments?
Adagio Strings bundle for example but it's Kontakt exclusive. I don't know in what software you are remastering it
I had a very nice and extremely light VSTi plugin for Floppy studio called "Orchestra" but can't find it anymore...

Your Blue Fields is the best so far IMO 8)

I'm using uvi orchestral suite for the instruments.  Maybe I just need to get used to it a bit more as the examples shown were incredible, just as good as Kontact but a lot cheaper.

I'll try and get them to sound more natural.  With us currently working in Balamb Town I was only going to do the boss theme after this and then try and get them all sounding as good as possible as we don't need more music than that to put something together based in Balamb Town.  I guess I just need to spend a bit more time on them.

And thanks, I really like how Blue Fields turned out, only thing that bothers me is lead melody near the beginning of the song isn't using the right instruments as orchestral suite didn't have it which I didn't realise when I bought it.  I'll figure it out though, unless it sounds good as it is in which case I'll leave it.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-02-28 15:43:29
Maki, how far along is Balamb Town?  Really excited to see the finished product.  Are there any final assets you can pass along so I can get them into Unity or are you putting the entire town into one file?
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-03-01 11:47:11
I find Omnisphere very entertaining to play around with(then again I only convert midi but the tool is rather cool(though abit expensive for just playing around with but eh worth it)) ;)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-01 13:31:51
I find Omnisphere very entertaining to play around with(then again I only convert midi but the tool is rather cool(though abit expensive for just playing around with but eh worth it)) ;)

Just had a listen to Omnisphere, it does sound pretty awesome.  Sadly not that appropriate for the FF8 soundtrack as there's a lot of orchestral stuff rather than synth stuff, and if I did need synth stuff, I have Massive.  Will definitely look into that in the future though, even if it's just for messing around with like you say :P
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-03-01 14:27:21
putting the entire town into one file?

Like single model? No, never, madness.

To be honest, I didn't do anything more. It's like whole Balamb finished except all the textures and interiors and that places that are not visible to player [in vanilla FF8], that's quite everything. I did some materials already, but I'm not good at it so it looks not so good, anyway I'll send you every fully completed meshes so far this week. :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-03-04 12:55:00
First pull request!  ;) :D

Oh God, I hate that git-thing (that was easy in VS when it took care of everything for me, but here, manually...  :-\ :-\ >:()
I just destroyed my fork when trying to commit second batch of models....

Okay, let's make it different way. I will upload whole zip with project

Okay, it looks like this right now:
(https://s19.postimg.org/liobjw7v7/ff8hd.png)
I imported everything except the Zell neighboor interior and imported maps for everything I had so far
I sent you a PM with d/l link, please if you could update the repo with this project.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-11 11:49:23
Sorry I've had a really busy week at work, I've only just gotten around to reading the thread and the PM.  I'm taking care of it as I type this and adding in the music files as well, hopefully won't be too long and git will be updated
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-11 13:52:30
Project has been updated.  Everything I was sent has been uploaded along with all of the music I've done (though that's all wip).  Even set up Breezy for when you click play on the Balamb Town scene :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-03-12 19:42:47
Awesome!
I was really worried something bad had happened to you. :/
The breezy is cool!
Expect more updates soon! :D
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-12 22:39:40
No don't worry, no car accidents, no assassin from square, just been swamped at work.

Thanks for comments on breezy. I'm really tempted to do an actual recording rather than a digital instrument, but I wonder if I'd ever be satisfied with it haha

Looking forward to the updates. I did a quick run through in the scene view while my version of the music was playing and it felt awesome. Can't wait to see the finished version
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-18 17:18:03
This one is for the programmers out there.

I've been studying Qgears, along with any info I could find on how FF8 works, and trying to plan out how the underlying code should be structured.  I've taken inspiration from the data that Qgears gave us, though a lot of it has to be changed as that project is designed for FF7, not FF8.

However, I thought I'd put this up to get some feedback from any programmers looking to get in on this.  It's definitely not much, but it's more just to see if people think this is heading in the right direction.  If people have other ideas about how to do it then I'm all ears.

A lot of the files are Unity stuff, so the only ones that need looking at are ones with actual code in them.  I've left some "to do's" in there as I just don't have the time to do as much at one time as I would like.  I also made the character stats animation curves.  I've spent a while researching the best way to go about character stats in RPGs for a long while now (well before this project) and it seems an effective way to do it is to use animation curves, where we can set points on a graph, such as level 1 strength = 2, level 100 strength = 150, and then just evaluating the graph based on current level.  Saves a lot of time and allows good control as well (such as a character that grows slowly but then becomes really strong in their last 20-30 levels, sort of a pay off for sticking at it).

If anyone has any questions or like I said earlier, any better ways of doing things, let me know!

https://github.com/Kandy-Man/FF8HD/pull/2

Edit:  Just made another commit taking care of some of the tasks I left in as comments.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-03-20 01:03:44
Regarding Level stats etc
this is from my personal work
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzr64mo3sfqzd0x/CalcStats.txt?dl=0
(cstat here reads from the ',' in the HP column in Monster or Players table for example so LvlStat_1 = first number in the column, every column has 4 values.)

Using a Sqllite database in this case
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kwyt8u6fms7tfep/data%20-%20Copy.db?dl=0
Monster and Players table has the values needed to fill stat calculations
"HP" columns etc.

Monster stat|level calculation is 100% identical to original game to my knowledge.

the Player tables, is because leveling in FF8 levels grants stats to players as well, the values that I've filled in on players is just what I managed to get approximated as close to as possible, leaving 95% of the levels stats close to the original game. the few levels that are not 100% correct inbetween is only offset by +- 1 stat but last levels is identical stat wise.

btw creating the database was a pain in the butt filling each value by hand. ;P
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-03-20 09:35:15
Regarding Level stats etc
this is from my personal work
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uzr64mo3sfqzd0x/CalcStats.txt?dl=0
(cstat here reads from the ',' in the HP column in Monster or Players table for example so LvlStat_1 = first number in the column, every column has 4 values.)

Using a Sqllite database in this case
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kwyt8u6fms7tfep/data%20-%20Copy.db?dl=0
Monster and Players table has the values needed to fill stat calculations
"HP" columns etc.

Monster stat|level calculation is 100% identical to original game to my knowledge.

the Player tables, is because leveling in FF8 levels grants stats to players as well, the values that I've filled in on players is just what I managed to get approximated as close to as possible, leaving 95% of the levels stats close to the original game. the few levels that are not 100% correct inbetween is only offset by +- 1 stat but last levels is identical stat wise.

btw creating the database was a pain in the butt filling each value by hand. ;P

Personally this seems overly complicated to me.  The pull request I put up has a single variable per stat and a getter that is one line, where as your implementation requires 5 parameters and quite a bit of math to return the same value.  Not to mention, you said how much of a pain it was filling in each value by hand. That was the purpose of the animation curve that I mentioned in my last post.  We don't need to calculate values like that when we already have the values that each character will be at each level.  With the animation curve, we can set level 1, level 100, and for extra precision, each 10 levels (could go every 5 if you wanted to be super precise) and we'll have the same results only much cleaner and with a lot less work involved by us and the hardware when trying to calculate.

Of course, this is just my opinion.  I just feel that calculating values is a waste of processing when we have the calculated values that we could just look up based on the character level.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Zervox on 2017-03-20 17:58:59
as I said, it is to copy the original game's values without having to recreate the data nor it's behaviour. ;)
the amount of processing power used to calculate the stats are neglible, you can't even reliably measure the time spent due to how little time is spent in that part of the code.(yes, even if in my work I created 10000 enemies, all their stats would'be calculated according to their inputed level in sub milisecond time)

about the time spent with the DB,  I would've saved considerable amount of time just modifiying the Ifirit tool to export all the values.
but yeah, either way works. didn't say you had to use the code, just made it available.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kandy_Man on 2017-04-03 21:04:33
No one really seemed that bothered by the implementation so I've gone ahead and merged that into master.  I'll be looking to get back to this soon.  What would people prefer worked on first?  I'm torn between battle system or the character controller for when the player is in the field.  If anyone has any preferences, speak up, else I'll pick one when I next get around to it :)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Kaldarasha on 2017-04-16 18:42:14
I would start with the battle module. It offers many possibilities to present the game on YouTube or Twitch. It's simply the best way to show the new engine in action. The field is very important but with its static camera rather boring to look at.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Alkor on 2017-05-05 06:27:09
I really hope for this project..
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2017-05-14 08:12:10
I really hope for this project..

I wish it succeeded, but that's too giant project and I'm bad at texturing (>implying that I'm good at modelling too...) so artists currently are our Phoenix Down's, and we at the moment have 0 HP. I still have all the source files and everything by the way!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2017-06-03 10:04:29
http://finalfantasy8remake.blogspot.gr/
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2018-02-04 14:42:09
I'm at it again:
(https://s19.postimg.org/832t3smkx/Highres_Screenshot00046.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/9uvryoqi9/Highres_Screenshot00047.jpg)
(https://s19.postimg.org/o1bitxw8h/Screenshot_1.png)
Textures are placeholders
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: LeonhartGR on 2018-02-05 07:58:59
Ahhhh! What a wake up post! Maki I love you brother! Nice progress and good luck!
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2018-02-27 21:45:55
I need to start texturing this....

It will be a slow process as I'm very busy, but now that I know what I'm doing I think we'll make some good progress.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: cmh175 on 2018-02-28 01:54:54
Not sure how I never saw this, but very impressive! Above all, I'm glad to see you've stuck with this project ever since you posted it. That's half the battle. My knowledge about Unity is mostly textbook, no hands on experience, but I'm pretty familiar with UE4 (may translate well enough). I'm actually curious what made you pick Unity over UE4, I love the Unreal blueprints. To better help with development you should definitely look into Houdini FX and Houdini Engine if you aren't already using it. You'll spend more time creating a single Houdini digital asset, but you'll be able to procedurally create a whole level in UE4 and Unity in almost no time at all. Once you have a growing library of these assets you'll fly through level assembly (textures too). I'm actually getting into this now and learning more about environment creation in UE4. The Indie license isn't free, but it's not super expensive either. The amount of functionality you'll get out of it, and amount of time and effort it'll save you in the long run will make it really worth it.

I'm a Game Art student at Full Sail, and in the last...8 months or so of classes (one class each month), so my workload between assignments and personal projects can get pretty heavy, but I can try to help out with any environment or prop pieces you need. I'm getting into character sculpting now too, but it's a work in progress, anatomy is probably the biggest hurdle to get over. Other than you working in Unity, our pipelines seem pretty similar. I use Maya, zBrush, Houdini, Photoshop, and Substance Designer/Painter, so anything I work on would fit into the game design pretty well.

My Artstation if you want to see my work first: https://www.artstation.com/cmh175
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2018-02-28 18:13:52
Honestly, I think we should do this port in Unreal.  As an artist, it's just so much better looking and more optimized than unity.  We can start a design in Unity in the meantime, but I do think we should ultimately use UE.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2018-02-28 19:02:04
I'm not going to lie, I did every single visualization directly in Unreal Engine except the full Balamb Garden that I did in Unity, and as I do prefer UE4 over Unity, so yeah, I'm with you. 😁
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: cmh175 on 2018-02-28 21:12:52
Luckily porting from one to the other wouldn't be a huge hassle, assuming you've just done level assembly and materials and no coding. The UE4 blueprints would make gameplay like this pretty simple though. There's even blueprints for turn based battles like old school FF games. Would probably require almost no custom coding. I'd honestly considered doing a project like this for FF7, but it wasn't something I wanted to undertake alone, not at that scale. Though I'll admit, learning Houdini to procedurally assemble level assets is making me reconsider. Feel free to reach out if there's anything I can do to help here. I may not have time to do an entire scene, but I could assist with any props or environment assets that need to get done. As well as Hero Props if you're planning to do characters down the line (working on a character pipeline for quick NPC creation, though I need to learn and practice with Marvelous Designer). I keep an album for personal projects on my Artstation, so everything I work on ultimately helps.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2018-07-06 08:24:57
World of Final Fantasy has fully modelled Balamb hall (with some 'artistic' addons):
(https://s19.postimg.cc/l5sxoyczl/image.jpg)
extremely good for reference purpouses and floor texture

Vista is also there:
(https://s19.postimg.cc/x7xyu0n37/image.jpg)

Textured in UE4 if I didn't mess up some materials (the model has changed text [translated english to rubbish made-up language] and logo is different):
(https://s19.postimg.cc/atph56bwz/Highres_Screenshot00048.png)
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Maki on 2018-07-09 10:28:12
when you forget to clear object collections (and textures) when changing stages:
(https://s19.postimg.cc/4krsgi6s3/fancy.jpg)
it produces actually very cool effects.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2018-09-15 02:15:41
World of Final Fantasy has fully modelled Balamb hall (with some 'artistic' addons):
(https://s19.postimg.cc/l5sxoyczl/image.jpg)
extremely good for reference purpouses and floor texture

Vista is also there:
(https://s19.postimg.cc/x7xyu0n37/image.jpg)

Textured in UE4 if I didn't mess up some materials (the model has changed text [translated english to rubbish made-up language] and logo is different):
(https://s19.postimg.cc/atph56bwz/Highres_Screenshot00048.png)

HOLY CARP.  Can you get these files to me???  I was working on remodeling Balamb Garden, and it looks like the pieces I was about to create are already here for the taking!
I'm putting placeholder assets in UE4 so that I can create the new Balamb continent - with Fire Cavern and all.  Will prob have to instance the fire cavern, but we'll see.  might just be able to create a nice curvy entrance so the world gets occluded when you're in the cavern.
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: qotsaninsoadkorn on 2018-09-15 02:29:02
love the progress here...
also putting my hand up to help port to UNITY on PS4 Fw 5.05
later on...
Title: Re: Final Fantasy 8 in Unity?
Post by: Mcindus on 2018-09-15 06:50:13
I've been having fun....
(https://i.gyazo.com/1fe8471ec2231067aecc4709a5b40ad8.png)
(https://i.gyazo.com/d0b7cc15a25671430a30edd64d93a45c.png)
(https://i.gyazo.com/35db998d59038a758d4f8ada20215f55.png)
This last image shows outer shell in Green and interior in Blue.