Author Topic: Need some help testing FF8 models (Read 17768 times)

Vehek · « **on:** 2013-11-29 22:17:35 »

I'm not quite sure if this belongs here... (Is this a general discussion thing, reverse engineering though I've done most of the reverse engineering already?)
In order to investigate modding possibilities, I've run various tests with FF8's field models.
The way I see it, at the moment, the only way to get super hires models without support from Aali's driver would be to up the texture count of the models.
So I ran tests with a simple cube, with each side having a different texture. At least two types of glitches have shown up.
The first, involves the PMP files, the particle data.
(IMAGE REMOVED)

Here's another type of error.
(IMAGE REMOVED)
These errors crop up when the amount of model textures loaded goes beyond a certain amount. But my system's graphics suck, so I'm not sure whether they're universal.

Several-texture model testcase

To install the test:
1. Extract the main_chr.fs archive files from field.fs
2. Replace d000.mch, d001.mch in main_chr.fs with the included model file
3. Put the modded main_chr.fs archive files back into field.fs

2020 edit: images removed due to Photobucket terms of use change.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #1 on:** 2013-11-30 01:05:56 »

Thank you for even dealing with this! FF8 was my favorite game and I really wish there was a solution to the models issue...

ElectricPrism · « **Reply #2 on:** 2013-12-06 09:31:36 »

Final Fantasy 8 was re-released on steam yesterday December 6, 2013

http://store.steampowered.com/app/39150/

I did notice that there are minor model differences.

I'm curious if this new PC release of FF8 will make it possible to dump / 3D Screenshot the 3D Vertex points of the models from the OpenGL buffer to a 3D file now without the vertices rendered to 2D.

I would die if I saw someone find a way to High-Res FF8 PC. In fact, It would literally bring my favorite game of all time to modern high-res glory.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #3 on:** 2013-12-06 10:24:06 »

I wish it works though I doubt they changed a bit.

falkTX · « **Reply #4 on:** 2013-12-06 10:31:04 »

Quote from: ElectricPrism on 2013-12-06 09:31:36

I did notice that there are minor model differences.

care to elaborate on that?

I don't have the steam version yet, but from all the videos and screenshots I've seen so far everything is exactly the same as the original pc release.
In fact, my current local version seems much better, because of Aali driver + Roses&Wine + SeeD mods.

DLPB_ · « **Reply #5 on:** 2013-12-06 14:30:13 »

Quote from: falkTX on 2013-12-06 10:31:04

care to elaborate on that?

I don't have the steam version yet, but from all the videos and screenshots I've seen so far everything is exactly the same as the original pc release.
In fact, my current local version seems much better, because of Aali driver + Roses&Wine + SeeD mods.

I can get Roses and Wine working for steam too in time. There is one difference according to Covarr. The steam version uses individual FMVs and they are upscaled to 1280*896. The original has both 240 and 480p versions of the FMV in 1 archive. So that is one big plus at least.

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #6 on:** 2013-12-11 15:17:41 »

Quote from: DLPB on 2013-12-06 14:30:13

I can get Roses and Wine working for steam too in time. There is one difference according to Covarr. The steam version uses individual FMVs and they are upscaled to 1280*896. The original has both 240 and 480p versions of the FMV in 1 archive. So that is one big plus at least.

But they are upscaled right? Not redone?

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #7 on:** 2013-12-11 15:49:38 »

So how do you feel now Dan?

Kaldarasha · « **Reply #8 on:** 2013-12-11 16:57:04 »

Well, if at last 500 of the people (3000) have donate him 1£, then ...

I need a donate page, too.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #9 on:** 2013-12-11 21:06:46 »

That would be good! Finally some justice served for the years of hard work!

Mirrorman95 · « **Reply #10 on:** 2013-12-12 21:25:39 »

For me, the big goal would be to get hires textures on the models. Magochocobo released a ton of high quality textures for all the major character models, but he had no way to get them on them. If we can figure that out, Final Fantasy 8 will look absolutely fantastic.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #11 on:** 2013-12-12 21:56:41 »

I absolutely agree! I met a guy on Steam. His nickname is T.Bogard. He is creating some sort of improvements for the textures and fonts. I forwarded him to this forum and hope he will create a thread. The best thing FFVIII Steam release brought along was the raise of interest from fans to modding these games and, what I wish for, the attraction of more modders in the qhimm forums. The fact that this forum got promoted by a big community like Steam is really important imho.

Aavock · « **Reply #12 on:** 2013-12-12 22:40:06 »

Glad to ear that LeonhartGR, I hope he'll create a dedicated thread so we can work as a team. Additionally I've downloaded M4v3R's FFVIIIAC in the wiki section so I will try to reinsert resized textures back to the game using the custom texture format.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #13 on:** 2013-12-12 23:22:21 »

Can't you do that with the Deling field editor?

tbogard · « **Reply #14 on:** 2013-12-14 06:30:52 »

yes, with deling is very plausible to import new textures. The only problem is regarding the character textures, which are way different than magochocobos textures.

if magochocobo can release HR textures from the ones released by ES, so we have a way to test them and see how it works.

here the ES textures + magochocobo textures so he can work with proper fixes.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/8akdzr93hjnhv59/texture+comparison.rar

Vehek · « **Reply #15 on:** 2013-12-29 05:31:47 »

Does anyone have any reports about my test model? This thread wasn't supposed to be about upscaled model textures; I don't think those work very well if at all without external texture support from Aali's driver (which doesn't do that yet for most textures). This was supposed to be about whether hi-res texture models could be achieved by splitting the UVs across several textures, or if that was impossible due to the way the engine manages textures and graphical data.

Aavock · « **Reply #16 on:** 2014-01-12 03:05:35 »

I've been looking for the battle (*.dat) and fields (*.mch) models and so far I was only able to switch models of a same character since each model have their own animation and most important: the skin/clothes texture location. As far as I know it is possible to import/edit new texture (for example, replace clothes, head, etc.) this includes Magochocobo models but keeping the original size.

What Magochocobo did is perfect, it just need some location adjustement depending on a specific model, problem is how to import a resized texture inside the *.mch and/or .*dat files and if the game will be able to read them?

Vehek · « **Reply #17 on:** 2014-01-14 04:39:03 »

I've used a hex editor to insert larger textures and adjust the pointers for the surrounding data, and used some scripts to double the UVs. I alter the UVs, because, well, why would the game adjust the UV coordinates for you? Those are some of the tests I mentioned in my opening post.

First is a test where I stretched the single-texture version of Squall's field model to 256x256.
(IMAGE REMOVED)

Here's a test of magochocobo's textures on the battle model. Because the battle engine ignores V-coordinates above 128, the textures are sized at 256x128 rather than 256x256.
(IMAGE REMOVED)
While it looks fine at first, the other character's textures trample over the expanded textures and ruin it.

2020 edit: images removed due to Photobucket terms of use change.

Failures like these are why I reject all this "we just need to know how to put larger textures back into the original files" talk.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #18 on:** 2014-01-14 10:36:15 »

Interesting find! Thank you!

Hellbringer616 · « **Reply #19 on:** 2014-01-14 14:43:47 »

I think the only hope for FF8 is if someone takes a look at the model files finds out how to decompress, and recompress them, as well as some sort of graphics driver back end i'm sure..

Just an idea. Has anyone tried Texmod? http://code.google.com/p/texmod/

I think it requires DirectX and D3D to work though.. so i don't think it'll be a solution. But who knows.

Aavock · « **Reply #20 on:** 2014-01-14 15:39:33 »

Can you please upload Squall's field model with the 256x128px original (cropped) texture using nearest-neighbor scaling ?

Edit: Nevermind, I got it. Thing is to insert several 128x128px *.tim files and set the UV mapping from scratch.