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Messages - Az

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1
Releases / Re: Aavock UI 1:1Remastered
« on: 2021-02-05 04:03:56 »
Thanks Az, I did spent good amount of time searching across the web for the optimal artwork quality for each characters. Then, came the proper upscale, cleaning process, color correction, white balance and more.

I know some people love transparent backgrounds, so it's a nice addition. Thank you!
You did a really good job with them. Unless SE releases a digital artbook or something along those lines, we probably won't get anything better than this.
Someone did a very similar job on the french board: https://ff7.fr/forum/index.php?page=post&ids=463806&pg=0 Maybe you can compare both of your versions?
I wasn't aware. At first glance, that version looks a bit unpolished. Personally not a fan of drop shadows or outlines, either.

2
Releases / Re: Aavock UI 1:1Remastered
« on: 2021-02-04 11:21:08 »
Great work. Definitely the most faithful UI. I started another playthrough with your UI and noticed how high quality the menu portraits were, so I decided to spend some time in Photoshop to make the backgrounds transparent and thought I'd share my work here if anyone wanted to use them.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/xyynkj7biemuv36/Transparent_Portraits.7z/file

Edit: Uploaded a finalized version with more accurate outlines and finer details. Every portrait should be completely smooth with no visible edges or white pixels. As with every mod of this kind, the transparent backgrounds will look weird in the shop interface, but that can probably be fixed by changing the overlay texture to something else, but I'm not sure where this file is located as I don't have an asset dump of the game at this moment.

3
It's not an opinion to state there is bad storytelling, bad voice acting, bad pacing, and crappy fetch quests.  These can and are being demonstrated.  This subjective excuse creeps into every single debate and every time I call nonsense on it because it is.  If Cloud turned into an alien dung beetle and entered Sephiroth's brain through his ear and then proceeded to control Sephiroth from that point on - it's objectively poor storytelling.   It doesn't matter what word you give to it or this remake - it's lowbrow crap.   If we go by the logic that "opinons are all equal" then what I've just said is every bit as valid as a believable story.  You can't honestly with a straight face think that's the case.

Also, opinions are weighted - ad often based on facts and observable realities.  Shouting the word opinion is not a valid counterargument.
It absolutely is an opinion to state that the voice acting is bad, especially in this case. You must have very little experience with voice acted media as a whole if this is something you sincerely believe. Pacing is also subjective and often involves world building at the expense of the plot slowing down. Whether you enjoy that or not is based on how immersed you are in the setting, and of course, this entire point hinges on actually playing the game and experiencing it for yourself. Just because you dislike the plot device used at the end of the game doesn't necessarily make it bad, and certainly not objectively so. I agree that the quests are objectively terrible, but that's where it ends.

There only nonsense here is you presenting your opinions as fact.

4
Spoiler: show
Combat System is a mess. I mean how could anyone think that combat system makes sense? If you don't hit, you don't get ATB, so if enemy is out of range you basically can't do anything, no use items no use of magics. Lot of damages taken without even noticing, ATB ruined if you get hit while doing an ability.


Is that true?  Yes. Or No.  Because if Yes - that's another reason why someone like me would not like this game.  Yes.  or No.
Your ATB gauge charges constantly and is sped up by attacking. You also have various materia to help speed up ATB, and spells like Haste greatly improve the charge rate. Distance management isn't an issue in the game with a few exceptions. Each melee character has a basic attack that closes the distance when you're far away, and targeting flying enemies changes your standard attacks into an aerial combo. There are a few cases of enemies flying out of bounds, like high up in the Sector 7 Ruins and only Barret and Aerith can hit them with regular attacks while the rest have to use magic or items.

Your limit breaks, for some idiotic reason, can be interrupted because they have a long windup time and there's not much you can do about it unless you wait until you've staggered the enemy to use them. This also applies to the -Ga spells and requires positioning if you're expecting an interrupting attack. There's also a Classic Mode included that essentially does all the basic attacking automatically while you only select the ATB actions. This also greatly reduces the HP the enemy has. It may increase the ATB charge rate as well, but I wouldn't know.
People are allowed to like what they want. People are allowed to dislike what they want. No one is wrong. Even if you disagree with each other's preferences. It is ALL subjective.
100%. I'm not saying it's not allowed to dislike the game, I'm saying it's incredibly stupid to formulate an opinion if your sole experience with it is watching a few minutes of footage somewhere, especially drawing conclusions like the entire script being "objectively bad." That's just agenda driven nonsense, not an opinion to be taken seriously. Even how one perceives the events at the end of the game is subjective. Was it what I wanted? No, I wanted things to play out differently, but they could've gone in a different direction. Either way, I'll play the next part because I overall enjoyed the gameplay and character interactions.

It's really not all subjective.  Liking and disliking is.  Flaws with this remake are not.
Only the naming convention is a flaw since it's clearly not a remake. The changes are subjective, not objective flaws, and if you think they are, that's an opinion.

5
Yes cuz unlike you I dont feel the need of forcing my opinion on others while insulting them(good strategy btw)
Don't you find that incredibly ironic?

6
It's not faithful at all.  Please stop pretending that these fate creatures were in the original - or that major story points haven't been changed well before the end of Part 1.  They have.  Again - that is a fact.  It isn't faithful on any measurable scale.  Not the battle system, not the art, not the style, not the script, not the story.

And the end of part 1 departing so massively is the end of any and all arguments.  No fan wanted what they've done.  No fan asked for it.  And certainly no-one expected what they've done. It's not a remake - it's been falsely advertised and it's actually probably illegal what Square-Enix have done.
Please stop pretending that you read a single thing I said and that you didn't just get triggered by that keyword before continuing to spew your usual drivel in typical toxic DLPB manner. That post refers to you just as much as the other guy.  Like I said, up until the ending, the events can be summarized in exactly the same way as the original game.
Spoiler: show
Padding aside, Wedge surviving and the brief appearances of these arbiters that only tie in to the end of the game are the only major differences. I assume the other MAJOR plot point you're talking about is how Shinra allows Avalanche to blow up their reactors, while magnifying the blast in one case. The overall motive is still the same. Midgar is unsustainable. The new angle is that Shinra wants to go to war with Wutai again, and to this end, they use Avalanche and their actions as propaganda by saying they're funded by Wutai. Avalanche still has the same intent.

I also disagree about the art direction, especially as it pertains to enemy design. The slums are pretty boring to look at during daytime, but the city itself is very faithful to the original. The main cast is also very well realized and fleshed out in a faithful manner. I know you had an aneurysm about Aerith's dress being 5 centimeters too short, but that character is still very much the same innocent and playful girl found in the original.

Also, regarding your last post. This type of user reaction is very, very common on Metacritic. In many cases, review bombing gets out of hand and has to be manually reverted. Likewise, being a AAA game isn't enough to get high scores anymore and this viewpoint shows that you're out of touch. Only first-party Nintendo games remain suspect, and the Nintendo bonus has become a meme. We're living in a world where games like Sekiro win GOTY awards and are somehow mainstream despite catering solely to the hardcore. The vast majority of AAA games land in the 80 - 85 range. It was the case for both FFXV and Kingdom Hearts 3 as well, with equally big budgets and marketing campaigns and both of which were anticipated for over 10 years. It's nothing new and certainly not an exception in 7Rs case.

I could... respond in detail to this absolutely ridiculous post again but why would I....it all started with this "Ric" flaming Kefka who pointed out an obvious RIDICULOUS plot twist that not even a 10 year old would write. And when ppl come around so condescending and insulting it is natural to receive that back in their face.

My post is understood by those who do and not by those who don't. Period. No further point in argueing with ppl that just cannot face reality.

Btw your post again is full of personal insults while mine was written with a "one could argue" style of writing that doesn't head on attack ppl.

So yes, you are solely flaming and insulting right now, that is also a fact. Now stfu pls.
Yeah, no, that's not how an argument works. Your points aren't hard to understand, just incredibly silly and clearly driven by an agenda and inherent bias. Instead of "responding in detail," you chose to take "insults" out of context and proceeded to tell me to "stfu."

7
So first you say only respect your own opinion and then you go on shitting on everybody who hates this game calling them 12 year olds? ::)
Actually, your reading comprehension has failed you. I'm not "shitting on everybody who hates this game," I'm "shitting" on people like you specifically whose opinions are based solely on watching a handful of minutes worth of footage and are now on a warpath, all while believing they're voicing an objective truth and that they should be taken seriously in the slightest. THAT is what makes you come off as children. I assume all of us with older accounts are in our 30s at this point, which makes this type of behavior even harder to believe. This is what I expect to see on the first page of /v/, not an old school FF community where I assume most have an IQ that exceeds two digits.

Why would we have to spend tons of money for smth we know we don't like? And as far as I remember none of us tried to even expertly criticize detailed things we would only know after playing the game. We criticize first and foremost that its not a Remake, its a strawberries on the originals story and every major plot event and that is fact, or would you argue one has to play it to know that when its all right there in the cutscenes? Certainly not. And that is not what we expected or wanted. So why on earth is criticism not justified in that regard?
You've described the game as a dull action game that's just flashy and devoid of depth multiple times now, so your expert opinion has gone beyond just criticizing the story changes, which you've also not done your research on as displayed multiple times in this thread. You've concluded that the script  itself (dialog, character interactions) and the character development is bad which you would have absolutely no knowledge of from watching a handful of cut cenes out of context from the tail end of a 40 hour game. Do you see why I think you're being silly and why anyone with a functional brain can't take this seriously?

Also it is well known that the combat system is action based, not ATB like in the original. This is known for years now. If ppl (like us) don't like these things in general or at least not in a Final Fantasy, considering this was not like this in the original, then again criticism is justified.
Just because something isn't your cup of tea doesn't make it objectively bad like you're claiming. There's good action-based combat and there's bad action-based combat. The combat in 7R is far from bad, despite the criticism I wrote in a previous post. It's certainly more in-depth than the original, as any action-based game inherently is by requiring at least a slight degree of skill and interaction to succeed. The original game certainly doesn't have any gameplay depth (it's flashy and fast-paced, but shallow and fun), so I'm not sure why you're even voicing this (baseless) complaint.

Mad that it's not turn-based despite never being promoted as such? That's fine, but if you want to criticize its various systems and mechanics you should do so from experience, not assumptions.

Btw with about the same validity could we say that the ppl spending 60+ bucks on this game and like that strawberries are 12 year olds, not grown men who expect a game to have actual thought through design, balance, story-telling, character development, etc.
See, there you go again making assumptions beyond your reach. If anything, this paragraph reinforces my original point. I also don't follow your reasoning in the slightest, and this makes the below quote even more ridiculous on your part.

That you like this game is good for you but stop acting so high and mighty and condescending towards ppl that don't. Their opinion is just as valid as yours and is not based on things they do not know as all aspects that were criticized are directly there in the game, not made up or exaggerated. There is time travel, there is characters that don't die but should have, there is matrix like drama scenes that are just over the top you can watch them on youtube, there is major flaws in that new story that just doesn't make any kind of sense with the original. It's all there and wasn't made up by us. It was made up by Nomura.
Yes, I'm the one being "high and mighty and condescending towards others", not the guy who's generalized every single person who doesn't share his opinion that 7R is a bad game. What was it you said, that we're all from that "Game of Thrones generation" and just swallow anything that's flashy and lacking in depth? Next-level self-awareness you have there.

"Their" opinions are not as valid as mine, because I've actually played the game to completion and can speak in-depth about every aspect of it. The last hour of the game is a mixed bag, but it doesn't invalidate everything that came before it. It's about the journey, not the destination, and the journey was highly enjoyable for reasons you and your kind have already written off as OBJECTIVELY BAD.

If any, this is the forum of highest quality reviews and opinions of Final Fantasy games and RPGs in general. These are ppl that spent their life modding these games, playing them hundreds of times over and over again, discovering new stuff, and just thinking about these games and its characters, their reason to be and say smth, their behaviour in certain occasions more than anybody else in the world. And certainly more than the devs.
What you're referring to is an echo chamber, and I'm sure most wouldn't appreciate being generalized or spoken for. What you're really saying is that certain people here are stuck in the past and hostile toward change. That doesn't sound like someone whose opinions you should value above more reasonable and level-headed individuals. As far as I can tell, there are multiple reasonable users here who are capable of thinking for themselves without clinging to one extreme or the other mindlessly. Are these people not part of this holy community of knowledgeable FF fans?

Todays game design consists mostly of graphics and I can tell you because this eats most of the programming work as it is BY FAR the most complex and tedious part when programming a game(as smbd with a degree in just that department of computer science you can take my word). The maths and work behind Ray tracing, multiple reflections, real time animations is OUTRAGEOUS. That's why the companies need most and their best ppl to work on that. And then it's natural that there is just not much personel left for actual story-writing and thinking these things through. Also at some point when you spent months/years until the animations look so real HD like in FF7R then your investors wanna see results and finally publish smth and make money. And what can you impress them most with at a press conference? Right, it's GRAPHICS because that's what every fat business idiot can see and judge wether it's good or not. That's what makes money and keeps companies alive. Sadly. This explains the strictly monotonous downward curve of stories and the strictly monotonous upward curve of graphics in games in the last 20 years. Ppl growing up with that or the ones that just weren't touched so emotionally by the RPGs of the 90s and early 2000s might not care and get used to the new era of gaming but others, like many in here, cannot.
Wow, it's almost like there are dedicated and specialized staff members who handle different aspects of development or something. You're also generalizing again, or under the impression that AAA development is all there is to the medium, or that every case is the same. Either way, it has nothing to do with the quality of writing unless you're implying that the programmers, animators, 3D artists and various game designers are too busy with their jobs to help write the script, which is pants-on-head retarded.
And if after all these years a company promises an HD remake of the most iconic game in video game history that has touched us more than any other game, and the outcome is tons of stuff completely made up, probably made up on the spot because it just looks cool in a scene, altered story scripts and what not then yes, then we do not like this game and want to talk to others about this that feel the same. That is why we post here and we're entitled to. If you think the majority here are 12 year olds that just hate because they like hating...then why would you wanna post here? You don't seem attached to the forum in any way so why care? It seemed to be so important to just insult a lot of ppl here that you needed to do it......Do you see any of us going to forums/reviews of ppl where the majority likes the game and shitting on it? I for myself do not do that.
They did call it a remake, and it is very faithful (character development, chain of events, locations, enemy design, overall aesthetic and on) up until the end of the game, but I called it deceptive marketing in my very first post. Either way, games - even remakes - should be judged on their own merits, and saying that FF7R is objectively bad in any regard is insincere and obviously fueled by an agenda, especially when coming from holier-than-thou observers.

You're generalizing again, by the way. This "us" you keep speaking about doesn't seem to include an awful lot of people based on this thread. My Qhimm account is 14 years old, by the way. Are you implying that I'm only here to insult someone?

8
Nobody’s rating should matter to you except for your own. If anything, it’ll offer extra insight, but it’s definitely not meant to persuade you or others to think differently. Learn that and you’ll avoid getting worked up over these “discussion” threads.
I agree. You should form your own opinions based on your own experiences. The people running this hate campaign for the remake in here haven't even played the game themselves and are basing their opinions on seeing a few minutes worth of footage of a 40+ hour game and are desperately searching for confirmation bias that supports their views, something befitting a 12 year old, not grown men who consider themselves to be intellectuals. It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other. Let's not act like children.

9
Spoiler: show
Cat quests and rat quests to pad it out don't sound encouraging.  That guy's review from previous page pretty much spells it out.  But at least half of fanbase enjoyed FF7 for the story, so the fact it's a joke and the script is awful really makes it a deal breaker from the get go for many


Also things like:

Spoiler: show

Raz
15 hours ago (edited)
The censorship is more than just Tifas outfit. They removed the scene of Hojo trying to set red xiii on Aerith, they removed Sephiroths massacre of everyone in shinra HQ, Biggs and Wedge are still alive, and they kind of hint Zach Fair is alive, and much more. I mean, they even changed the opening mission so that Avalance didnt blow up the reactor, shinra did...


Also, I don't think many have considered that

Spoiler: show
The insane story change at the end means they don't need to head out to the world map anymore.  No world map.

The writing itself is actually very appealing in the remake. They flesh out the characters considerably and the scene to scene dialog is much better for the most part. Barret, Aerith and Red XIII really shine. One of my complaints about the original has always been that Aerith has like 50 lines of dialog in total and basically just tags along silently after you rescue her at the end of Midgar and until the events of the Temple of the Ancients and Forgotten City, then the game wants me to care about her dying. I never did, even as a kid. The character interactions were too shallow to develop any kind of bond and this is primarily what I was hoping the remake would rectify.

As for the censorship,
Spoiler: show
it's grasping at straws. The Wall Market girls are way more loosely dressed this time around, and both Aerith and Tifa get 3 dresses each that are more revealing than the ones they use in the original. That leads me to believe that Tifa's redesign had nothing to do with censorship. There are some highly suggestive scenes in Wall Market as well, especially one involving Cloud getting an off-camera massage.

There's no massacre in the Shinra Building this time because Jenova has its own research facility deep within the building that only a handful of people have access to. Hojo is the only person there during the events of the game because another Avalanche cell is assaulting the building (result of Wedge surviving), and this area also serves as a dungeon in the remake where Hojo sends a bunch of Jenova experiments and robots your way. All the original Shinra Building enemies except for the Warning Board, in fact. There is a Jenova blood trail leading up to the top floor, but it's mixed with a bright substance that glows. You get to see President Shinra get stabbed through the heart in front of you this time.

Hojo doesn't try to put on a bestiality show in the remake, but he does openly talk about having Aerith breed with SOLDIERs and other experiments during the Shinra meeting. He also says he wants to break her mentally, and he starts by telling her that they recovered Ifalna's body from the train station and that they dissected and sampled every part of her. He describes how they used her skin, bones and internal organs and that she didn't go to waste. This is much more twisted than what happens in the original game.

They didn't change the opening mission drastically, but they changed Shinra's intent. Avalanche still bombs both reactors, but Shinra magnifies the blasts significantly because they want to push a narrative that a war with Wutai is looming and that they're involved with Avalanche. Their reasoning is still that Midgar is unsustainable.

There's a bunch of unnamed Avalanche members who get gunned down on the pillar. Biggs and Wedge surviving isn't really censorship. Also, Wedge goes flying out of a window from the top of the Shinra Building and likely dies on impact. The ending does hint at Jessie having survived along with Biggs, though. You can see her gloves on the table next Biggs.

The game ends with Cloud and co leaving Midgar in search of Sephiroth. Rufus becomes President of Shinra and starts the search for the Promised Land, and Hojo's still scheming. The sequel will very likely have a vaguely similar progression to the original game. Whether the overworld is a miniature scale of the world or if it's going to be connected by scenes like FFX, they will obviously travel the world in the sequel(s). I wouldn't be opposed to the world map being handled the same way as Lost Odyssey.

I'm fine with the new direction the story is taking, because as I said in a previous post, I've already played FF7 20+ times. My overall opinion of 7R is positive. If they continue fleshing out the characters and having a large amount of character interactions, they'd have to severely fern something up for me not to enjoy it.

I have some criticism after spending 40 something hours with the game that isn't just screeching for the sake of screeching:
Spoiler: show
- Dull fetch quests that at best lead to reskinned enemies (Tonberry and Behemoth are exceptions) to fight with mostly useless rewards that you can just buy or find later.

- Dull loot that's never worthwhile, except for purple chests which contain weapons, of which there are only 6 per character. The steal table is also ass. Enemies only have regular Potions, Antidotes, Ethers and so on with only a handful of exceptions, all of which are bosses. Only one enemy in the entire game has something unique to steal, and that's Aerith's Bladed Staff from Elligor.

- Almost no materia variation. It's just basic elemental magic and a bunch of passives that affect ATB or decrease damage taken while blocking and so on. Enemy Skill is a token materia with only 4 skills that are completely useless. There's Wind materia, but no Earth or Gravity. There's only a handful of summons and they've shown almost all of them in trailers while some are pre-order DLC.

- No reason to use anything other than level 1 spells because the increased MP cost and cast time isn't worth it, especially on Hard Mode where MP doesn't recover and you can't use items. Very little difference in damage, and Curaga is only worth using when you have Magnify/All set.

- Useless items. You get 3k+ health early in the game and a Mega Potion heals 1.5k at most. You also can't use them rapidly from the menu outside of combat. You have to manually select and use one over and over until you have full health and it boots you from the menu with each use.

- All bosses are damage sponges. Hundred Gunner/Arsenal and Air Buster took me 10 minutes to put down on Normal difficulty, and it wasn't hard, just tedious.

- Mind numbing arena matches that are repeated for each playable character with identical encounters. The only worthwhile rewards are level 2 limit breaks.

- Completely worthless weapon upgrade system that encourages you to just set it to auto because you don't need anything other than flat damage upgrades.

- Summon and limit break system flat out sucks. You barely ever get to use either. The limit gauge isn't stored between fights, so it starts over again each time and almost never fully charges unless you use accessories that make it charge via MP or ATB use. You can also take damage during the windup animation. I've had Cloud die right before using Ascension/Climhazzard multiple times. Better yet, Aerith during Planet's Protector. Not only do you not get to use your limit break, but you also drain the gauge completely. Massive game design flaw. The summons are also worthless because they just stand around doing nothing unless you spend your own ATB on their attacks, which mostly suck and are about as powerful as a level 2 spell. Their one use is waiting for the summon bar to drain completely so they use their limit break, which is also underwhelming and barely more powerful than a level 3 spell.

- Some OST misfires. The OST does have many versions of each track playing during different situations, but some of them are just bad and would make Uematsu cry, especially the Oppressed People playing outside of Wall Market. The OST is mostly well done. Air Buster's version of Those Who Fight Further is probably the best version ever recorded.

- Lots of slow world interactions and animations. God help you if you want to move up a ladder or shimmy along a wall. It takes forever and has lots of awkward movement quirks that could use polish.

- Absurd loading times. There's a pullup minigame at the end of Wall Market that has 40 second rounds at the highest difficulty, and if you mess up once you have no hope of winning. If you select give up it takes longer than the round itself to load the world state so you essentially have to pick your poison. Should've had a retry option.

- The slums are very bland and lost most of the soul the original had. I like Wall Market because it reminds me of Yakuza, but the original's still better.

- Edit: I'd also like to add the bland level design and constant invisible walls and restrictions that prevent you from exploring until you reach very specific points in each relevant chapter to the list. This is extremely annoying when you spot a chest a few steps off the beaten path and can't go there because a character wants you to follow them to the next cutscene.

10
Finished the game today. I enjoyed it. The overall plot is mostly preserved until the end of the Shinra Building, at which point it goes nuts. I've played FF7 almost yearly since 1997. I'm not opposed to something new and exciting. Dull treasure and an overwhelming amount of damage sponges on the standard difficulty are my main issues with the game, not the new plot direction. The more emotional moments from the original game were definitely given the right amount of love and are much more impactful in the remake, especially the events at the end of Sector 7.

11
General Discussion / Re: FF7 remake discussion time!
« on: 2020-04-05 09:21:15 »
Yes, it's very real. There's a bunch of shenanigans that will make you fall out of your chair laughing. For instance,
Spoiler: show
during the confrontation with Hojo on the 68th floor, Hojo recognizes Cloud and is about to reveal his true identity, which causes time ghosts to appear out of thin air and pull him out of the room by his collar. This sequence is straight out of a slapstick comedy.

12
General Discussion / Re: FF7 remake discussion time!
« on: 2020-04-05 04:34:03 »
Alright, so this game is not at all what was expected after reading some of the early leaks, and the marketing has been completely deceptive. Massive spoilers, of course.
Spoiler: show
So, the "remake" is essentially a sequel to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII that involves a future Sephiroth traveling back in time to undo what lead to his demise in the original game, including undoing Zack's death in the outskirts of Midgar.  The "ghosts" seen in the trailers are there to prevent the original timeline from being disrupted, and any action Cloud takes that influences a divergence in the timeline, like almost dealing a fatal blow to Reno in the Sector 5 Church, is physically prevented. They're present because Sephiroth has already arrived in the timeline at that point, and the game ends with Sephiroth tricking Cloud and co into killing these Watchmen and severing the chains of fate, leading to an unknown future, and in turn entirely different sequels post-Midgar.

In my opinion, this is better than just unfaithfully remaking the game. It's a sequel that requires full knowledge of the original game and extended universe. It doesn't serve to "replace" anything for a younger audience after all.

13
Team Avalanche / Re: [FF7] Recreating scenes in 3D
« on: 2016-06-11 22:49:53 »

Rendering high-quality :) I have taken the liberty of creating a different mat :p
Those Skyrim weapons are jarring. Lots of assets from other authors and games in these backgrounds.

14
That can vary by emulator.
True. Z-fighting issues have finally been eliminated with "modern" GPU plugins (hacks of existing plugins, rather), and 4k+ internal resolutions are also available. Other than the high quality FMVs and the new UI assets, this is nothing we haven't seen in emulation for the past 2 years or so.

I think the stretched and smudged 320x240 backgrounds look like complete garbage in the trailer. At the very least, I hope 4:3 is an option, as well as unfiltered backgrounds. Regardless, I'll buy it. If this somehow isn't emulation, I hope we can finally get combat that's not locked at 15 fps with 10 second loading screens at the start and end of battle.

15
General Discussion / Re: FF7 Remake Gameplay Reveal
« on: 2015-12-10 23:27:31 »
I don't really want a 1:1 remake, honestly. If we'll get a trilogy encompassing (or reimagining) FFVII with lots more content, I'm more than happy. The trailer would get me hyped, but I generally tend to not care about games until they're a week or two from release.

Yay!  I get to say something positive:  I think this is actually a good thing.  The renewed interest in Final Fantasy VII will be win-win for Qhimm's, modders, and projects already released. It's true that a lot of the people introduced to Final Fantasy through this won't want to play an "old" game.  But a lot of people - especially those alienated by this "remake" - will.
I'd say the FFVII modding community would grow rapidly if tools and mods were all readily available in one place such as the Nexus. Having lurked for years, I can say that it can be a tremendous pain to find anything here. Many links are dead, and the person whom the site is named after has seemingly been AWOL for years (little to no relevance). Nexus Mods has literally millions upon millions of members, and a page dedicated to FFVII already exists (courtesy of Kaldarasha, I believe). Moving projects and tools over there is the only way I can see modding for these games having any real future at this rate. Not only is it a consistent and reliable place to host your files, but it will also welcome new blood into the FFVII modding community.

16
Here are the presets I use for reshade.
https://mega.co.nz/#F!iVsG2BLB!9V3ytyAv3Ymg8sHh294BUQ
Make sure that the internal resolution is exactly the same as the output (a higher X value is even better) or else you get that big fat black bottom on the field screen.
I can recommend ambient light,t but I have a heavy performance drop with it.

I do use YarLsons files it is not possible to make the backgrounds better as they are through a postshader.
Disagree with that last part. Applying FXAA/SMAA/Gaussian to the already blotchy and blurry backgrounds only worsens the issue, further reducing the quality. I think you should at least use the default backgrounds as a base for your ReShade preset.

The most genuine and detailed image is with the CRT approach, given people have the patience to tweak it to their monitor or TV. Additionally, CRT phosphor blur is why we all remember FF7 looking so smooth and detailed in the PS1 version. PixelArt CRT in SweetFX with the resolution mode set to your native output or intended aspect ratio with the type 1 or 2 shadow mask is a good start. It actually looks very nice in combat scenes as well.

I intended to do a full enemy model overhaul, with smooth, gradient textures, true to the unshaded and untextured style, but ReShade with FXAA/SMAA, dithering and Ambient Lights/Bloom/Vibrance produces nearly the same results I had in mind, so I don't see the point.

17
Like I said, in motion, scanlines, artificial or not, are not visible. Still shots make them very obvious, similar to taking a photograph of your old CRT/LCD TV. Don't worry about that. Everything retains its detail, and with certain dotmasks, even gains the illusion of higher detail on 3D models.

I've reinstalled the Steam version. Here's how this looks on PC, with slightly different scanline settings:


Say for the 16:9 hack in PS1 emulation, it looks near identical now, doesn't it?

Like you reported on the ReShade forums, there is a slight incompatibility issue with Aali's custom driver. At resolutions higher than 1600 x 900 (I use 1080p, but my image host resizes the images), between 20 and 40 pixels will be cut out, making the black border larger. Additionally, it will make artifacts appear in that field, like seen above. This also only happens in fullscreen mode.

18
Personally, I'd say this is ugly as sin. It reminds me of xBR filters seen in emulation, generally loathed by purists as it destroys the original aesthetic and artistic vision. There is a very simple solution to getting non-pixelated backgrounds without loss of detail at virtually any resolution, and it doesn't require you to alter any files, let alone download 3gb. What you do is use ReShade Frameworks/SweetFX with the OpenGL backend, and then enable a CRT/LCD filter/dotmask with whatever settings you prefer.

Here's some comparisons (right click and view):





The CRT dotmask is far less prominent in motion, but the 2D filtering remains as effective. Ignore the other image enhancements, as those are purely personal preference.

As I don't currently have FF7 installed on my PC, this is a shot of the PS1 version with the same config. Unless Aali's custom drivers don't play well with external injectors, it'll produce the same results as seen here. If it's incompatible, you could likely upscale the original backgrounds to 4k resolutions using Lanczos scaling, then apply a dotmask to them separately for the same results.

19
Modders of the original FF7, does this affect your motivation to continue working on it?

20
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-14 21:36:32 »
Is this with or without Weapon mod?  And with or without Menu Overhaul?
Not a bug... deliberate.  But I can amend.

Will fix.

Already been reported along with another bug there, see above
Both Weapon and the MO are enabled.

21
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-14 21:27:03 »
Played up to Cosmo Canyon now and found a few more bugs.

At the Gold Saucer, when receiving the Masamune Blade from the 1k rollercoaster reward, it's mistakingly showing as Superalloy Sweeper.

MP and HP Plus are missing a space in their description.
MaxHP and MaxMP seems off to me.

The Flame, Lightning and Water Rings state that they nullify damage as opposed to absorbing it, which is what they actually do.

The fifth Fort Condor defense item reward is five Hi-Potions, but it is translated as five Potions.
It's an error found in the original game as well, but I'm sure it can be corrected.

Didn't take any notes while playing, but this is what I can report by memory.

22
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-13 20:07:55 »
I've found a minor bug in the menu overhaul.
There's a single, semi-transparent pixel next to the materia slots if the last one to the right is filled.


http://i6.minus.com/ibhrFj05Ojs6tg.jpg

Look closely under the last letter in "Force Eater".


http://i7.minus.com/iEklydHlnIgzQ.jpg

In this one I removed the materia from the weapon and put it in the armor slot instead, and the pixel is under the last letter in "Silver Bracelet".

It's such a minor visual quirk that you have to strain your eyes to see it, but it's there for what it's worth.

23
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-13 00:28:10 »
I've played up until the Jenova fight on the ship to Costa Del Sol now, and I've noticed a few more issues that may or may not be bugs.

For instance; Tifa's "Surface Sweep" only shows as "Sweep" when used in combat.
I don't really recall whether or not the original "Waterkick" had a different name when used as well.

Could be working as intended.

Also, when talking to any of your party members on the cargo ship, "Reform" overlaps with "Form a party of three" and other messages in the upper window in the PHS menu.

I'm doing a 100% completion playthrough of the game, so it'll take a while before I get to the end; but I'll post now and then if I actually find something of note.

24
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-09 15:45:41 »
Yeah, I used the installer from the first post on a clean and newly converted Steam copy of the game.

I used your preset during installation with the exception of checking the incorrect character names.

Could be an anamoly on my part, so it's probably better to wait for more reports regarding the matter before spending any time on the problem.

25
General Discussion / Re: [REL] The Reunion
« on: 2014-01-09 09:32:25 »
There's a similar issue in Honeybee Inn when attempting to enter the Group Room.
No matter which option you choose, she won't open the door.

The other room works just fine, though.

I'm replaying the game with a friend, and that's the only bug we've encountered so far up until the save point at the Train Graveyard.

Great work on the relocalization.
The game is a lot more enjoyable now.  :D

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