Qhimm.com Forums
Final Fantasy 7 => Graphics => Releases => Topic started by: cmh175 on 2013-05-11 04:50:17
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All future updates moved to this thread (http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=14852). ~Covarr
This fmv mod now supports the 7thheaven mod manager. The fmv pack contains all 102 regular videos I did, and has the various ending videos you can configure. You can now easily and quickly swap from the original resolution ending videos to the full screen versions, and use either option for ending3, or use the HD ending3 video I made. Advantages to this pack other than being able to swap videos is you no longer need to keep a back up of the mod. Instead of copying all 105 videos into your game file and keeping a backup encase you need to re-install the game or rerun bootleg, you just drop this .iro into your 7thheaven mod library. I even erased all the videos in my games movies file since I don't need them now. The links below are for the .iro file, I divided it up into smaller downloads so it's faster. Should only be about a ten minute download depending on your connection speed. Just unzip .001 and pull out the .iro. The original download links for the avi videos are still available below.
(http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r570/cmh175/Untitled-9.png) (http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r570/cmh175/Untitled1-6.png)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7cHp4MXdqSVNYaEk/edit (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7cHp4MXdqSVNYaEk/edit)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7VWZIZGNaenRLM2M/edit (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7VWZIZGNaenRLM2M/edit)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7blFLdlJFcjRJRFU/edit (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7blFLdlJFcjRJRFU/edit)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7RlBSU3VjUThEU28/edit (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7RlBSU3VjUThEU28/edit)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7RmJ4RmU5MVc5aG8/edit (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7RmJ4RmU5MVc5aG8/edit)
If there are any custom videos you want to use just add an extra folder to your 7thheaven library, and inside add a "movies" file. Just place any particular video you'd rather use inside. When you activate the file in 7thheaven put it at the top of the list of mods, that way every extra mod you're adding has top priority.
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The cmh175 Remastered FMV project uses the videos Square Enix enhanced themselves for the 2012 release, and the audio from the psx videos. The original videos have a higher resolution than the 1997 videos, resulting in much more detail. Download the files below and add them to your movie folder. You should make a copy of your new movie folder though as rerunning Bootleg will wipe these videos out unless you set your fmv option to no change. The Ending videos have been converted to full screen to remove the black edges. Ending3 was done as well but it's always been the lowest quality video. I recommend the HD Ending3 video I made, I'll include the link below. I also made links available for remastered ending videos that are original size for those who want them.
Remasterd FMVs
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7UndkTnQwdjlZbWc/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7UndkTnQwdjlZbWc/edit?usp=sharing)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7d0I5VjJWdnNHLVk/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7d0I5VjJWdnNHLVk/edit?usp=sharing)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7Zk41TEp5QW9XOFE/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7Zk41TEp5QW9XOFE/edit?usp=sharing)
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7NWhjTE56WVU1Zlk/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7NWhjTE56WVU1Zlk/edit?usp=sharing)
Original Size Ending videos
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7M3daVTNSNjRPdE0/edit?usp=sharing (https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1ZlTwoAa_q7M3daVTNSNjRPdE0/edit?usp=sharing)
HD Ending3 video
http://www.mediafire.com/watch/gm0g5hwqu9pahsc/ending3.avi (http://www.mediafire.com/watch/gm0g5hwqu9pahsc/ending3.avi)
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I was looking around at the available movie options and who's done what so far. From what I can tell it looks like the best option is DLPBs FMV restoration project. Which turned out pretty great but as a direct quote it was like polishing a turd. I just finished my first Bootleg play through, and was impressed by a lot of what's been done, but somethings need fixing. Particularly videos where the whole bottom half of the screen is black. The ending video with meteor was really distracting, and it's about eight minutes long.
I'm going to use the videos from the rerelease as source material. They have better video quality than the pc or psx versions. I agree that during their restoration the audio took a hit and is total crap now so I'm going to remove it and use the audio from the psx. I plan on enhancing the audio and really bringing out the bass so they have more punch. The color was effected too so I'm going to restore it as much as possible. I haven't seen all of them to compare but I think I can fix these to make them better than what's currently available. I've done some testing already and it looks promising. I was planning this for myself and would release it for those who are interested but with the sheer size of this project I thought I'd see what input others have while it's in progress.
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Soon for an update already but the project's moving pretty quickly. Doesn't require too much work to resize the videos resolution. Restoring the color hasn't been too difficult, most of them weren't too effected. The original audio has been horrible though, even on videos like the Golden Saucer monorail. The psx audio has been working great though and through enhancements sounds even better than before. After working on them last night and this afternoon there's about 30 completed videos that are ready. At the current pace I could finish this a lot quicker than expected depending on unforeseen complications, such as the ending2 video requiring two hours for optimization (meaning it'll be left for last lol). If things continue like this I'm hoping to be done and have these uploaded by Tuesday.
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Looking forward to this! Please post some samples while progressing! Thanks!
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Good idea. The link below is the canon.avi video. It includes my version and DLPBs, which I've been using for comparison. You can either watch them using a video player, or rename the files to eidoslogo.avi and sqlogo.avi to see them back to back when starting the game (make backups of the originals first to restore your movies file)
http://www.mediafire.com/?8oeco2uyudnhqh7 (http://www.mediafire.com/?8oeco2uyudnhqh7)
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I like DLPB's contrast levels more... I know you can't see all details but I usually prefer higher contrast images.
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Damn you're right, I didn't even notice that. Luckily most of the videos actually aren't that dark so it's hardly noticeable. I'll adjust the Canon and Opening videos and double check the others. A higher contrast level maybe a good idea, but after working with these videos I think the others are a little too dark. A strong contrast between light and dark gives the image a better sense of depth, but too much just drowns out detail. They may also be darker to help mask the imperfections in the image, since the original videos were at a much lower resolution. I'll make some alterations, but mine wont be as dark.
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The rerelease's videos tend to be washed out. You could definitely add contrast without losing detail, just don't add too much.
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Yeah I've been doing some more comparing between the two versions and do see a big difference in contrast. I tested some new settings on the Biglight video and have an idea of what needs to be changed. I was about half done with the editing before encoding the videos, so I'll have to go back to make changes. Will no longer be done by the beginning of the week since I need to darken these more, and cant put in the same amount of time during weekdays. I did manage to fix the washed out look they had, so otherwise they should be good.
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Just a quick update. I've gone back and have now completed about 30 videos. The color's been corrected and increased the contrast. They now look comparable to the released FMV projects, but have crisp and clear images with a lot more detail. I converted the videos to a format that's a lot easier to use and edit so the process is speeding up.
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I'm following this thread... looking forward for any updates.
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Ok cool, well I'm glad to say ending2 is now one of the completed videos. I had planned on doing it last since it's over eight minutes long, but the new format made it less time consuming. Originally it would take over an hour to import for editing, but with .mov it was about ten minutes. After I finish the first 50 videos I'll upload them for peer review while I work on the remaining videos. Probably later today or tomorrow.
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Ok this update is a little late but the samples of the first half are done. A few things to note though. These are not ready for the game and will not work. I'm coding videos after all of them are done encase I need to go back to make changes. They are also currently bigger than the games resolution. I was able to convert them without causing any real distortion to the image, and they look fine after they're encoded. I already tested this on the canon video I posted before. Their format will probably only play using VLC or Quicktime. So check them out and let me know what you think while I finish the other half of videos.
Edit: Sorry guys. I actually stayed up and was editing for several hours and finished the second half of the videos. I had to pull the link for the samples to make room for the completed project. The codec is the easiest and fastest part, so look for a final download link either tomorrow (sunday) or monday.
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The Project was completed and posted late last night. Forgot to actually do an update. Info and links on first post.
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Thank you! I'm downloading!
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Just checked 1pt of the downloads, the best fmv's out by far in picture and sound :)
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Thanks I'm glad to hear it. If you want to checkout a few to get an idea of how they look try pt2. It has more of the real videos instead of stuff like the junon elevators. I think that's the pack that has the Golden Saucer videos with all the fireworks and stuff and they came out really well. They all look good at the default bootleg resolution but I play and tested these at 1920x1080 on my tv and unchecked "preserve aspect ratio" and they look awesome full screen on a screen that big.
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Think there are a few niggles dlpb has mentioned on your fmv's see if you can maybe improve on it based on his notes maybe (dlpb is like a master when it comes to fmv perfection and such lol :D):
Unfortunately his FMV are duplicating frames. This will give a very choppy effect. A lot of the frames are duplicated, probably by accident. Inform him.
In fact... hes made them 25 fps instead of 15.... thats a HUGE mistake.
he has encoded at 1280*960, which will disrort the image. It should be 1280*896 for all FMV except the credits explosion and ending FMVs.
ok lets just round this up in 1 post
1. he has reencoded the 2012 versions, which means that they are not as good as the 2012 upscales.
2. He has reencoded to a rogue resolution.
3. he has reencoded to the wrong framerate.
4. He has got the contrast wrong.
These videos are useless. Thats a shame
2012 versions are pretty good though!
To dlpb: it seems i can't send/reply your messages only receive
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Well if you pick anything apart there's always something wrong with it. I can do a test video at 15 fps for comparison. I set the resolution to 1280x960 because it's worked before and looked fine. Again my pc is connected to a tv instead of a monitor so maybe that changes things, but the videos fit and play fine and don't show any signs of stretching or anything. Unless you're looking for absolute perfection I think the color and contrast levels look good. I even compared them to his and another while doing each video. Either way that's a subjective call, I started this project so I had videos I personally liked. I shared them encase anyone else does too, and no one else had edited the 2012's yet.
You named off quite a bit but to square it all up: try 15 fps at 1280x896. That's really not much to come back all the way from useless. I kept the pre-encoded videos I edited just encase. It took around 15 to 20 seconds to encode each video so if a new batch are needed I'll get those up by tomorrow and just call this a beta release. Look for v1.01.
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Ok so I checked it out and I have to say, I have to disagree with just about everything. 15 fps may have worked for you but for me it skips noticeably. 25 seems to work the best and looks fine in the game. If it's "choppy" it's nearly unnoticeable. 1280x896 looks practically the same as 1280x960. I'm redoing them anyway encase it makes a difference for gamers using computer monitors but for me there's no difference. I'm also reducing the black edges on the ending videos. They're the main reason I wanted to do this in the first place, and if it distorts the image it's not enough for the naked eye to notice. For those interested in an upgraded 2012 release with better audio the new uploads will be ready later tonight or tomorrow morning.
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Put some more sharpness if possible...
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Yes, sharpness would be good, they seem a little . . . blotchy(?). Overall good work though.
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That's pretty much the only thing I see that's off, and has been fixed as much as possible. The 2012's have a clear image that's not as pixelated and looks better on larger screens but it's smooth where the restored originals look a little sharper. When I corrected for that sharpness the pixels that they do have start becoming clearer. In the end it's basically a trade off, more detail or sharper image.
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Either way I will be using them.
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Thanks glad to hear it. About half way done with the new codec now. Takes longer to package them for uploading than anything else lol. Finishing the ending videos now. I removed the black edges and they look pretty good. Ending3 was the hardest though, it was the smallest to begin with. It came out pretty well, but it always seemed like it was weaker in quality compared to some of the others. Unless you prefer the classic videos I recommend the HD video I made.
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I prefer your modification actually!
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And thanks again for helping with the codec. I tried countless combinations to get it to work and it always did the same thing. Second try with your suggestion and it worked perfectly. Saved me a migraine and a whole afternoon of swearing at my computer.
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Glad you made it... ur welcome buddy.
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Looking forward to it! :)
Edit:
From DLPB (he can't write here as he is on his 4000th post)
The problem is, whenever you reencode a video, you are adding to the loss. The only real way to make videos "BETTER" than the 2012 versions is to actually start with the best known source (psx versions sadly and decoded to a lossless format like lagarith from which you can build your project) and then do what they did with 2012 version... use noise filters and upscaling methods.
After that, you do what has been done here... you make the colour better, make contrast better, make sound better.
Starting off by reencoding the 2012 versions, which is already a reencoding (of PSX) which was also a rather basic encoding (of the original master), is just introducing more noise again and distorting the picture further. (and if you look at these videos you can see that noise has indeed been added).
The whole approach has to start from the very basics and be worked up in order to better the 2012 versions. It has to be worked from the ground up or it is simply a variation with added impurities. Also, changing the Resolution or frame rate is a big no no. I actually like the new colour, though.
I am also going to stop pming people now, as it is cheating. Maybe at some stage I will look into filtering methods and try to come up with something better than the 2012 versions. My own versions are now completely redundant in most areas, despite the massive amount of work I put in. The method I used was inefficient, and looking back, totally flawed (not to mention ridiculously time consuming...).
Your videos will look decent if you correct the faults I listed, but it will still suffer from degregation of the image due to reencoding. So you are fixing one problem (colour, contrast, sound) and introducing another (noise, image degregation).
I didnt mean that the whole thing was useless. I mean the last encode was. The real question is, can we come up with the same or better filtering job they did with 2012, whilst also adding the other improvements on top, working from the PSX versions. I may have another try one day.
Dan
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Thanks I do appreciate the help. I hit some technical difficulties so things are a bit delayed. Good news is I found a much better process that'll actually do exactly what Dan said. Better yet, I'm sharpening the image a whole lot more and it's not having the negative effect I had last time. I'll try to get a sample of the sharpened videos available soon.
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Awesome man :D
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The reason 15fps is ideal is because the originals were 15fps. By changing it to 25fps, you are introducing duplicate frames, which accomplishes nothing but to bloat the filesize and cause it not to run nearly as well on any display running at a multiple of 60fps (TVs in North America and Japan, most LCD computer monitors worldwide).
You mentioned you're using a TV. Are you in Europe or Australia? If so, it's possible (and in fact quite likely) that your TV displays at a multiple of 50fps, in which case 25fps video would almost certainly run smoother for you... but it's really better to optimize for 60fps PC monitors, not 50fps TVs, since that's what the vast majority of people will be playing on.
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Nope I'm in DC. 25fps seemed ok for actual movies but the videos that move around the characters are jittery, and they weren't what I'd tested before. New codec is at 1280x896 h264 aac at 15fps. So obviously a better working codec is great, but the sharper images are what made me retool this in the first place and they look awesome. So I'm very optimistic, and do have to agree - this crap is very time consuming lol.
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Oh gosh... you reminded me of when I tried to test my modified opening.avi 25 fps render in a friends slower setup and experienced the usual video\sound lag once more... Square should at least fix those issues in the re-release... but obviously they didn't. My modified video does lag with the re-release when I tried it as well...
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I tested the first new video in the game and it not only looked great but plays perfectly. The new process isn't only better but it's faster too. I switched from final cut to sony vegas movie studio hd platinum 11. I started with the bike video and sharpened the video some and fixed the color and contrast. The really cool thing is I can import the next video without having to redo anything and just reanimate the video, it saves my settings. So now I only have to make a few alterations on some videos and replacing the audio I already enhanced. This will triple my productivity. I don't like windows much otherwise, but vegas seriously kicks ass. I want to get as much done as possible for now, but I'll upload a game ready sample later tonight.
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I need to get my hands on vegas sometime... I'm thinking about it for so long... adobe premier is a real pain in the arse indeed!
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Totally worth checking it out. With an Amazon Prime account it's $40 too lol, and doesn't sound much different than this years version. There's differently a learning curve with it, and mastering it would take some time, but it's made this project so much easier.
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Ok so here's a sample of v1.01. I didn't mean to pick two dark videos, but they were the coolest looking of the ones I've finished so far. These are game ready, so just copy them into your movie folder (don't wipe out the originals though). Ignore the file names, there so you can see them in the game without actually playing. Finished about 24 videos with similar settings so things are moving along pretty well.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/uon6783437i4i3h/eidoslogo.avi (http://www.mediafire.com/download/uon6783437i4i3h/eidoslogo.avi)
http://www.mediafire.com/download/10uoghj2ddnrpna/sqlogo.avi (http://www.mediafire.com/download/10uoghj2ddnrpna/sqlogo.avi)
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I love the videos. I can't wait to add them!
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Glad to hear it. I'm actually stuck in meetings tonight that only requires my physical presence, so I'm wearing headphones and setup with Vegas here and hoping to get a bunch of these done while I'm here.
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OK, so v1.01 is completed and new download links are available on the first page. I also included links for my HD ending3 video, and for original size remastered ending1 and ending 2 videos for those who don't want them full screen. The color and contrast maybe enhanced a lot more in these than in other projects so they may look brighter and darker than you expected, but I think they look really good, and I made videos like the golden saucer railway and junon elevators closer to the originals so they transfer well with the games background. I tried to make transitions like that as unnoticeable as possible. So check them out and enjoy the new remastered fmvs.
The links for the samples I posted earlier on page two will be available until I eventually need the storage space for another project. If you want to see some of the videos first before downloading the rar files try them and the ending videos posted on the first post. They'll give you a pretty good idea of what you can expect.
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Hmm... I have the feeling that the dark areas are too dark right now and losing some of there detail.
It's like using the full dynamic range (0 - 255 instead of 16 - 236) of your graphic card on a display which doesn't support it.
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Any one in particular? I haven't seen every single one of these ingame, but I did watch them using vlc to double check them all. Some looked a little darker, but not to the point they lost detail or anything like that. I'm using a powerful graphics card on an HD tv which may make a difference, but probably not much. If you're using a much older pc these videos may give you issues, but otherwise they should be fine. If you do come across anything that's extremely dark or anything else let me know, and give me info of your pc set up so I can recreate it. If there is anything that warrants a fix I will release a correction, but otherwise as of now I feel pretty good about them.
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Did you use full range for the videos or tv range?
If I remember correctly Aali's driver til 0.7.9 used the full range YUV -> RGB conversion and the later version used the tv range conversion (as used in every DVD/BR Player).
That's why you get wrong contrast/brigtness levels with DLPB's videos nowadays as they are compressed in full range for 0.7.9 so you shouldn't use them for reference.
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That's not a setting I even looked into so I'm not sure. I appreciate the info, but honestly as long as they're aren't any major issues I don't plan to make anymore changes. I've started a new game with them and gotten up to the attack on the Distict 7 plate. They've all looked fine. The movie videos may have different color settings but it has't effected their detail, and as they work independently from gameplay adjustments to them wont effect much. Videos like mkup and juningo I set them to match the background color and lighting as much as possible to cover transitions. So I appreciate the help, but in the end I was just looking for videos I thought looked good. They'll never be totally perfect.
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By the way I appreciate everyones input. Definitely not a brush off. More of a I'm tired of editing these videos thing. I'll redo any that don't look right in game, but otherwise I don't plan on making anymore changes to them.
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Hiya, first I want to thank you for your hard work on this project. I have been watching it and finally got around to testing some of the videos in game last night.
I was really excited because right off the line the intro is the best I've ever seen, the detail achieved is surprising considering the softness. I don't want to be overly negative, but these qualities do not hold out for all of the other movies, though I have not tested very many of them.
I decided to just start from the beginning and test the movies in order. Early on I ran into an issue with brightness or contrast transitions that bothered me. In addition, I felt that something lossy was happening in certain movies, which surprised me considering the quality of the intro. I like the black levels just fine but to my eye the brightness of the transition from the opening movie to the 2d background scene in the train station do not match as closely as could be desired. I don't think it's wildly off by any stretch, but plainly said, I think the movies are a little dark. This issue is more pronounced in the videos that follow, the next being mkup.avi. If you compare that file with that of Trojak's pack, both in game, I think you'll see where the brightness should be.
Another issue which is significant is the breakup of some of the motion into what looks like compression distortion, in the form of square-patterned pixelation. I see this type of picture degradation on cable/satellite feeds, so I assume its related to compression anyway. An early example of both brightness mismatch and square distortion is mk8.avi. Again, compare that file in game with that of Trojak's pack and you will see the brightness is off when the video ends and is replaced by the 2d background, and also that the flames of the explosion are not displaying cleanly in your version. They look overly digitized and square anomalies can be seen there. I suspect a lot of these videos will require individual settings which may differ from one to the next a great deal to get them right.
At any rate, I bet you've nailed quite a few of the other videos' picture quality just as well as the opening, but I've only run through the bombing mission so far; however, I do suspect they are all a little too dark when played in game to exactly match the 2d renders. :cry:
I notice a lot of the videos are smaller in size than DLPB/Trojak comparisons. You can crank up the file size, if that's an issue. Took me 10 min to get the whole set.
I know you've spent a lot of time on this already but here's the upshot: if you fix the brightness for some of the movies where transitions make them look too dark, there may be a bunch of others where it doesn't need to be perfect anyway, so a simple adjustment of brightness across the board may solve that issue. As to the loss of quality for the flame motion, no idea what to suggest there but it seemed to me there must have been some compromise made on whatever most affects fast moving objects. The sqlogo.avi is perhaps an even better example. Compared to DLPB's file, the running chocobos are totally distorted in your version. As an aside, your eidoslogo file did not work properly in game for me. It's just as well, I skip that file completely since I want the first thing to come up to be those scampering chocobos.
It's really a massive collection of well done video conversions you have, but I think some more tweaking would be required to make it the definitive example. I do hope you'll continue the work, though, because there were details in your opening.avi that I have not seen before, not on a CRT with a PS1 or anything else either--it brought forward something in the image that was genuinely lost before, in my opinion. Would be a huge shame for this massive project to turn out just a couple good avis that people will like, and a whole pile of them they will prefer other versions of.
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Thanks. Currently I'm playing through and seeing what works and what could use tweaking. The mk8 video could use some to smooth the fire. I think the lighting and contrast though are as good as we can hope for. I actually barley touched it, so it's color is pretty close to the original. The opening video never really transitions well as the texture of the buildings and train are different from the video. I could make some changes there, but none that would make you actually forget it's a video playing. The pillar falling video could use some adjustments too to cover the transition, but otherwise the video looked good. Otherwise I haven't seen anything else that needs fixing, I'm on the 60th floor of the Shinra HQ. I was careful on videos that moved into game play, like the monitor video works seamlessly. Stuff like that I will definitely fix. It's odd the eidoslogo didn't work, it's a completely new one from the original too. Mine works fine. I wasn't as concerned with the logos anyway though since everyone always hits start right away.
Mostly videos like the biglight, weapon, and canon, these are ones that don't directly interact with gameplay, and I'm not as concerned with tweaking. I corrected the washed out look they had and enhanced the color and contrast. I may have taken them farther than what they may have ever been, but not by much and not necessarily in a bad way. I tested them outside the game and they looked good, but if they look rough or over the top in the game I'll fix them. Basically I'm not redoing all 105 videos though, only ones that'll seriously need it.
Do you mean the size of each download? I use mediafire so I can organize uploads easier, and it keeps a record of how many times something's been downloaded. I use a free account though and it has a limit of 200mb for each upload. I'm considering also putting together a torrent for those who'd like a single file and don't mind using utorrent.
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Ok so there are about 42 videos that look noticeably dark or have been mentioned to have other issues and I'm making tweaks to. I'll make a list of them later....or just take a picture of the list lol. Then you can post others that may need any fixing. I need to know why or in what way though.
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"OK, this is the final release. Wait, I'm unhappy with the result so I'll redo them and post the actual final release and then stop working on them. Well, some are slightly darker so expect another release."
I hear you're a perfectionist lol
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Me lol? Seems so. I was pretty good with the release but some of these are apparently too dark on other peoples displays. I'd rather make these universally compatible so more people can use them. We may not have a "definitive" fmv collection until square actually does a remake, but it would be cool to have something pretty close.
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I think I know what you mean by the video size. I checked my conversion tool I used to go from avi to mp4, and the POS is defaulted to go for quickest conversion and smallest video size. I have never seen something like that, usually they're automatically set to keep original settings. I just tested it on biglight, and without adding the audio, the old one was like 11mb. The new unedited biglight video without audio is 81mb! That's what I get for swapping OSX for Windows. So the bad news is I have more tweaks to make than I thought, ugh. Good is that I kept my animation and rendering settings, so instead of starting those from scratch I can correct them much quicker, and swapping video files wont take long at all. So as annoying as it is that this has become the never ending project, the good news is that the slow and double encoded videos I'm doing now look twice as good, which will result in much better final videos. As each video is now nearly x10 it's original size, unedited, I probably will use a torrent.
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Luckily I kept vegas project files for each video this time so swapping video files didn't take long. This time I took a new approach to the remastering. Before I was basing the image of my videos on other restoration projects to get an idea of how to do mine. This time I compared my enhanced videos to the originals from the re-release. They did have a washed out appearance and seem to have a hazy grey screen across them, but they weren't horrible. So I cleaned up the color and sharpness again but this time I just adjusted the videos to how they would look without the grey haze, or as close to it as possible. I made several minor adjustments to each video to get them right, and they look amazing. I'm testing them now and replayed up through the reactor 1 bombing mission. The color and contrast seems to fit perfectly, and videos like mkup transition flawlessly. When I started the new game I didn't even notice when the opening video ended until people started jumping off the train. I'm going to go through them a bit more before uploading the next and final release.
The only draw back possibly is the file size. The new movie folder is 2.74GB. The re-releases are bigger than the originals and I did a lot to them. I also did nothing in conversions for compression to maximize video quality, and it really shows. I'm going to look into sites I can post something that large to, preferably as one or no more than two files. Otherwise I'm considering a torrent.
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Post in filetrip.net, they give 100GB for free.
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Or p2p it, i'll seed it like i do Roses And Wine
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Dang, that was fast, too. I have no doubt these will be well worth your effort, but I thank you for the extra sweat. Really looking forward to checking them out. 2.47GB is nothing to me, personally. The videos were so bad the way they originally released them for PC that I'm not surprised it took that kinda size to get them polished up. I have little doubt there would be a reasonable compromise as far as compression goes, but I also don't care and wouldn't mess with it if it wasn't causing YOU any trouble. /cheers
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Thanks, and you too LeonhartGR, I'm setting that up now. Ok so I've sat on the new release for awhile and only made two very minor tweaks, nothing seriously crucial. I could keep going through them, but I don't think there's really anything to do that would make them any better. I'm packaging it now for upload and will have it posted as soon as it's done. Look for a link ready by tonight.
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Damn it! Upload was half done and I lost power. What the hell! Ok take two.
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"But for real guys, I swear this time it's the final update."
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That's cute thanks. So the power outage killed windows. I seriously hate pcs. So bad news is I have to rebuild my computer which is massively time consuming, and I don't have a really recent backup. Good news is I'm recovering my data now and slowly copying it to an external. I had to use Backtrack 5 which is like using a bazooka to open a locked door but it's getting the job done. I'll copy the fmvs over to my mac and upload them then, although that maybe tomorrow.
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Good thing they weren't lost. Although if they were I could definitely be happy with the previous ones you made.
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Yeah I was in freakout mode for awhile. I recovered the unreleased fmvs and all the other ff7 files and other projects I was working on, so things are better. Just pissed. Considering a solid state OS drive with my two hdds with a raid one this time, or just visualize the damn thing. The project will be uploaded tomorrow, this has been exhausting.
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I prefer SSD's but some computers have problems with them. My X51 in particular seemed to run better and defrag quicker before I upgraded to the solid state.
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Defrag a SSD? ???
This will decrease the lifetime of a SSD, because there is a limit of writing processes. Another point is, that the drive doesn't need to search the data like a HDD. So it shouldn't matter if the data is fragmented.
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Then I guess I'm just an idiot.
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Defrag a SSD? ???
This will decrease the lifetime of a SSD, because there is a limit of writing processes. Another point is, that the drive doesn't need to search the data like a HDD. So it shouldn't matter if the data is fragmented.
SSDs and other flash media can still get performance benefits if related data is close together, just not nearly on the same level as a magnetic HDD. That said, you should still never run a defrag flash media.
If you want to effectively defragment flash storage, you need another storage device whose free space is greater or equal to that of the fragmented SSD. Simply put, you back up everything, wipe the drive, and restore everything. Assuming you're not doing a whole disk image, it will defragment itself naturally when copying back, while only using one write cycle (as opposed to standard defragmentation software, which can use hundreds or more).
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It doesn't matter that much, I can get another one once mine's fried, and everything is automatically backed up through AlienRespawn.
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I wouldn't worry. They're pretty resilient, and starting to drop in price, sorta. They do have a write limit but otherwise you cant really effect their performance. Also, you should enable trim to help with performance ( http://lifehacker.com/5640971/check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7 (http://lifehacker.com/5640971/check-if-trim-is-enabled-for-your-solid-state-drive-in-windows-7))
Second upload attempt under way. It's about 3gbs with the extra original ending videos too so it's taking its time. Probably be up later tonight.
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Maybe that's why my standard hard drive seemed a bit faster. Anyways, glad the vids are being uploaded. better videos means a more seamless experience.
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Testing download speed after upload was so long....currently at 16 hours? Damnit, and at 40kbps that could be accurate. I'll repackage it for faster sites.
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Google drive took the original size ending videos just fine. Waiting on the rest in the other package. I've reorganized them into four smaller zip files if needed.
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go go go ! ;D
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I know right. I should have used my vm from work. Runs on a server at a data center with a fiber link at 1 Gbps. Last file finishing now. Google was a lot better.
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Ok finally. Took all evening to get these organized and uploaded effectively. Links are on first page.
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Dang dude, I am on it. Google drive is blazing fast imo. I can't wait to check em out...
Had the day from Hell so this is definitely a good start to last day of May as it's just past midnight here now.
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For good, free hosts, I typically recommend MEGA (http://www.mega.co.nz) and FileTrip (http://filetrip.net/). They're both fairly fast, and far better than most free file hosts in almost every meaningful way.
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You have actually managed to make your opening.avi (which is super special as a sequence, i think) even better than it was. So now it's pretty much perfect. Also, I'll be using many of your vids even if you never touch them again because, for whatever reason, the settings you used work really well on them. But some of the others are still not perfect. At least not on my system.
One that is super obvious and easy to access is sqlogo. I don't have the psx version anymore (though I bought it over the years like 3 times) so I can't compare to them. But DLPB's settings on that tiny movie make it look like a gaggle of nice soft chickobos, while yours looks like a yellow pixelated mess. So what's going on here? I think I might have a clue.
The developers used a number of different techniques to make the original videos, of which I know almost nothing. What I finally noticed was that different settings look better for the different techniques they used. On northmk.avi: the first part of that sequence, which is a quick transition from a field map to a movie as cloud and jessie run to escape the first reactor explosion, looks particularly bad in game with your version, especially when compared to that of Trojak's movies, which are very soft. HOWEVER, the second half of northmk.avi looks pretty bad on Trojak's version; it is a pan out scene overlooking Midgar, with the recently exploded reactor smoking like Chernobyl. This is exactly the type of modeling that looks so good in your opening.avi, and again, your settings bring out all the detail of the city, which suddenly looks animated and alive with activity when compared with Trojaks, which frankly looks like a party platter or something unrecognizable. Were it feasible, I would edit that movie so that it basically switches from Trojak's softer settings to your kind of gritty, more natural settings halfway through. I hope that makes sense. Take it with a grain of salt but I'm a movie person... Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai, that kinda stuff.
OK, now that the complicated stuff is out of the way... my other real criticism is that they are still too dark. Not everywhere, but when they are, it's sometimes severe. A really good example of this is biglight.avi. You cannot ignore the washout of color on a very very angry Ruby weapon (i think it's ruby anyway) and features on the airship in that movie are just swallowed by the black levels. Trojak's version has it's own cartoonish look as a downside but the brightness and available color detail as a result of it is more pleasing to my eye by a long shot. I think I like DLPBs approach more than Trojak's but the softer movies look better stretched out of res.
So that's the rub, I think. For a set of movies with a more or less standard set of parameters across the board, I think you outdid yourself. If you wanted to look at each one individually and adjust them really obsessively frame by frame, I think you could make them look a lot nicer, but I think I'd want 50grand for the job. Your movies are an order of magnitude higher in detail, in a lot of scenes, than any of the previous versions I've watched. I think that was probably your goal, so you nailed it and I really like the results. Thanks again for posting your project and for all your hard work!
P.S. I want to use your eidoslogo cus the very first part is neat looking, but the second part with the actual eidos runs choppy even in windows media player. like its at half frame rate.
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Thanks glad to hear you like them. I did my best going though them to get the best possible results. Unfortunately perfection isn't really attainable, as you said I'd have to go though every single frame of each video and that's a full time job for a serious professional. The color and shading is as close as it could be to the original image while enhancing the image and removing the hazy grey appearance. So if something seems really dark check your settings if it seems off. They look perfect on my pc and my mac.
Unfortunately some transitions like the reactor exploding aren't perfect. There's not a lot to fix this as the video images are rendered differently than the regular background. Even on nearly perfect videos you can see where they end and the game background picks up. Luckily those imperfections are mostly minor and over pretty quickly too. And in that video particularly you pretty much forget the imperfect image when you see the city and the explosion.
On biglight do you mean the main weapon you see who flies away first? That's Ultimate Weapon, he's a dark purple, nearly black color. It's an odd video and one of my favorites and most hated. I have no idea why the sky keeps going from bright to looking like midnight in that video. That's just how it's always looked. I brought out the original image in that video as much as possible and only slightly changed the brightness and contrast levels. I thought the deck of the highwind came out really well.
It's odd you keep having trouble with the Eidoslogo. One thing that'll help is don't watch any of these in windows media player. VLC plays these videos perfectly. What are your pc specs? That could be why your experience with the videos seems different from mine. The square logo is just bad, or at least in the 2012s. Square kind of butchered that one, same as the second half of the Eidoslogo. I cleared them up some but I also wasn't stressing over those two.
I'm glad you like them. It makes a big difference playing the game with videos this clear. Unless someone really digs into them and corrects them frame by frame it's about as good as it'll get for the most part. It would be awesome if we could just animate new videos, but that would require a team of 3d modelers and editors.
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Actually I found that the post processing shader settings effect the movies and the menu as well as regular game play. If your videos look really dark try another setting. I found they didn't make a big difference for me, other than darkening the videos, so I disabled it.
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I haven't been using postprocessing for a while since it makes no difference for my ATI card currently. I am positive differences in hardware setups can effect these things. One of us could have a TV that was calibrated way off, too. The point was for you to make new videos that YOU like, and if you are happy than who care's if they are dark on someone else's rig. It's awesome to have more people doing mods period. I'm betting since you are into video editing you use nvidia?
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hahahaha! Card warzzzzz once more... I like it! Sneaky nvidia betrayed me with the new Tomb Raider though... (post #398 (https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/533493/geforce-drivers/nvidia-please-take-a-look-at-tomb-raider/post/3796731/#3796731) in the relevant nvidia forum) but still using it because of backwards compatibility and support :P :P.
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lol wow. Yeah I use Nvida, not really out of preference or loyalty though. I picked mine because it's an overclocked card with extra memory and matches specs of much more expensive cards. What problems did you have with Tomb Raider LeonhartGR? I had a few glitches with her hair but that was the night it released, and it seemed like a common issue. Otherwise my 660 ti handled it without issue at the highest settings.
As for the videos my pc on my tv matches my macbook and looks similar playing games like bioshock that I also have on the 360, so my settings seem pretty close to where they should be. So if anything looks dark for anyone check your monitor settings and also what shading option you're using. I tried the HDR Blooming and my screen was practically black, while the blooming option was so bright it was like an acid trip. The smart blooming maybe the best but it wasn't a drastic change and I didn't like how it darkened the videos.
It all comes down to preference though. If a particular video doesn't suite your taste there are plenty of others you can check. My preferred choices were DLPB HQ and 1080p Smooth. Those were the options I originally pieced together.
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(post #398 (https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/533493/geforce-drivers/nvidia-please-take-a-look-at-tomb-raider/post/3796731/#3796731) in the relevant nvidia forum)
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Cool it, both of you. ~Covarr
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Pretty neat! Would like to incorporate these almost immediately but i'm wondering just how far this can be improved :D
Looking forward to some newer 'betas' if you will.
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This is a final release. I corrected the 2012's as much as possible to their original image, while removing imperfections and clearing up the image. Basically this is what they look like without the washed out appearance and a sharper image. Short of stripping these down and correcting each video frame by frame this is as good as they'll get. And as this went through three betas already, there wont be anymore attempts of improving them, short of any minor issues for support.
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Ok so the fmv pack now comes in an .iro for 7thheaven. I've been testing the configuration, and to be sure it works I actually deleted the videos in my games movies file. It's a little bit larger than the original download, but it'll allow you to configure what videos you want, and you don't have to worry about keeping a back up when you reinstall or run bootleg. Plus with the option of removing the videos in the games movies file it'll actually free up hard drive space.
If there are any custom videos you want to use just add an extra folder to your 7thheaven library, and inside add a "movies" file. Just place any particular video you'd rather use inside. When you activate the file in 7thheaven put it at the top of the list of mods, that way every extra mod you're adding has top priority.