Author Topic: [REL] sl1982's Field Enhancement (Read 74961 times)

DLPB_ · « **Reply #25 on:** 2011-03-16 23:53:54 »

he did say it was possible though

with some modifications.

sl1982 · « **Reply #26 on:** 2011-03-17 00:21:31 »

Im not going to bother him with it. This is functional and in my opinion he has more important things to work on other then something that will reduce the size of the images.

yarLson · « **Reply #27 on:** 2011-03-17 00:25:57 »

besides if he ever adds jpeg support to his driver, a total conversion of the finished product would be pretty easy compared to the work of getting it all finished up.

sl1982 · « **Reply #28 on:** 2011-03-17 00:57:23 »

Not to mention JPEG does not have an alpha channel.

yarLson · « **Reply #29 on:** 2011-03-17 01:31:43 »

sl and dl I'd like to get your opinions on this image

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?9d2so2m850hacvc

you see I wanted to take your guys input into account while upholding to my own standards. I simply could not condone the discolored strings that the resize and sharpen seemed to produce (even though they are so tiny I am sure the majority of players wouldn't even notice) but I started to see the loss of detail in my blur method after doing about half the northern cave and decided, like you said sl, that it wasn't really worth it after all so I did some more experimenting. Honestly I don't know how I didn't think of this sooner but I think I have come up with some solid settings here. If you like them sl then perhaps we could combine projects after all.

So here is what I have done to this image. Basically the settings in Perfect Resize are just as you said you were using. The same texture control we agreed on and the unsharp mask with the same settings you told me you had used on that materia cave picture. There is no grain added however. Now instead of applying a blur to remove the small strings of discoloration, I used a remove noise filter with these settings

strength 2
preserve detail 100%
reduce color noise 25%
sharpen detail 50%

this actually seemed to remove all strings of discoloration, much more effectively than my previous blur technique without any loss of detail. However I did notice that the because of this filter the color is left just a bit duller than the original image so as one last final touch I went to Image>Adjustments>Vibrance and put vibrance to +10 and saturation to +5. This seemed to bring the color range back to the original level but without any of the tiny discolored "strings". In the end I really like the results and I hope you like them as well.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #30 on:** 2011-03-17 02:37:07 »

seems nice

Timber · « **Reply #31 on:** 2011-03-17 08:26:37 »

I for one, prefer having the highest quality.
Sure it's big, but so are modern video games.

Here is a solution that I have tested: http://www.freemancontingent.ie/archives/623

It took your 'md1stin' from 9.16mb to 7.86mb using the brute method, with no quality loss.
To do a batch you just have to select multiple files.

I recommend you use it on the Team Avalanche stuff too.

FeliX Leonhart · « **Reply #32 on:** 2011-03-17 10:50:27 »

Anyone post some screens pliz=)

yarLson · « **Reply #33 on:** 2011-03-17 14:22:32 »

haha i just did man on my last post

FeliX Leonhart · « **Reply #34 on:** 2011-03-17 14:43:30 »

Missed it XD

DLPB_ · « **Reply #35 on:** 2011-03-17 19:46:52 »

Quote from: Timber on 2011-03-17 08:26:37

I for one, prefer having the highest quality.
Sure it's big, but so are modern video games.

They are not 8GB (not to to mention the cache that will be needed) for a few hundred 2D backgrounds. The difference in quality is so small it is not worth the extra 6 GB. I know aali would have to implement jpeg support but hopefully at the end it is possible to batch them all.

It is like saying you want the highest quality so you will use lagarith codec instead of H264. I think 8GB is crazy for this project but hey ho, that's just me, and hopefully as I say the project can be batched at the end.

sl1982 · « **Reply #36 on:** 2011-03-18 02:36:39 »

I am not arguing the fact that the smaller filesize of these images would be nicer for downloading. They are not good enough in my opinion to warrant lossless PNG. The TA remake on the other hand is a diff story. As for being batchable i doubt it. Given something would need to be figured out for the missing alpha channel of JPG. My honest opinion on the matter? JPG is not worth it due to the amount of work it would take, not due to 'highest quality' or anything like that.

Timber · « **Reply #37 on:** 2011-03-18 02:47:14 »

Well FFXI, FFXIII, and FFXIV are all over 8GB, to give you some obvious examples, as well as almost all of my PS3 games that I run from HDD.

You are right about the cache though

That would really bump up the size.
Then again maybe cache isn't really needed for the field scenes, and aali could disable it for those?

Also like sl said, wouldn't the lack of transparency make jpegs pretty limited?

I don't think comparing it to lossless videos is really fair, since I imagine the file sizes would be even bigger, and for such brief sequences in the game.
But the field scenes are the primary visual in the game, totally worth it.

sl1982 · « **Reply #38 on:** 2011-03-18 02:53:15 »

The cache system should not really pose a problem. Who doesnt have a hard drive larger then 25 gigs these days? Plus the cached files are a lot smaller then the PNG's anyways.

Timber · « **Reply #39 on:** 2011-03-18 03:05:59 »

True, but I would still want it disabled, just to avoid any compression artifacts being added to your beautiful scenes

Did you try the pngcrush I showed? It really lowers the size by an impressive % I think.

Aali · « **Reply #40 on:** 2011-03-18 03:13:59 »

Field scenes are not cached anyway so thats not an issue. The alpha channel could be kept in a png of its own so thats not really an issue either. That said, jpeg is an inferior format and I think it should be avoided at (almost) any cost. Png is already almost small enough to be the right choice for any situation and the trend is certainly not going towards smaller disks and lower bandwidth

yarLson · « **Reply #41 on:** 2011-03-19 08:58:54 »

sl1982, I just uploaded my first release. I'd like to get your opinion on it if your not too busy sir. The entire Northern Cave is done, except for the last 4 images because Palmer had some errors with these. Are you almost finished with your next set? I'll be doing the mission at the end of disk 2 next.

sl1982 · « **Reply #42 on:** 2011-03-19 16:34:40 »

I am almost ready to release the next set but I have been busy and ran into a few problems along the way I need to sort out. As for checking out your backgrounds can you upload the full images? I have no save near the end of the game to test them out.

yarLson · « **Reply #43 on:** 2011-03-19 16:53:45 »

yeah I already have all the original layers saved for my open source idea. I'll upload them and post a link on my thread.

*edit*
okay the source images are ready to download

sl1982 · « **Reply #44 on:** 2011-03-19 23:32:33 »

Part 2 is up

Vgr · « **Reply #45 on:** 2011-03-20 00:00:52 »

Cool

I'll test it for sure.

yarLson · « **Reply #46 on:** 2011-03-20 21:43:04 »

I have gotten a lot done in the last 2 days, since I have had a lot of free time. Almost ready for another release after some testing. I have a question though, is there any way to force a layer to display underneath the character? You see I am having problems with a couple of doors in rocket town. They look fine, there are no problems with appearance, its just that when Cloud approaches them when he gets close, but before they open, he goes underneath the door. One of them is particularly noticeable and its just plain ugly. Thanks for the help and good work on part 2!

sl1982 · « **Reply #47 on:** 2011-03-20 21:45:49 »

It should be possible. You would have to put the door on another layer, which one I couldnt tell you.

yarLson · « **Reply #48 on:** 2011-03-20 21:52:56 »

ah okay but if I do that then won't it just stay shut? Its not a terribly big deal considering everything else is going well. I am just hoping that a new version of Palmer will be able to fix this kind of thing by allowing more control of the layering.

sl1982 · « **Reply #49 on:** 2011-03-20 22:10:06 »

Quote from: yarLson on 2011-03-20 21:52:56

ah okay but if I do that then won't it just stay shut? Its not a terribly big deal considering everything else is going well. I am just hoping that a new version of Palmer will be able to fix this kind of thing by allowing more control of the layering.

I couldnt tell you. Have you looked at the original to see if it exibits the same problem? Either way I am resigned to the fact that some scenes are not going to be perfect. I just spent over 4 hours trying to fix on scene with no success.