Author Topic: [FF7PC-98] Project Blackfan (V0.35)  (Read 100925 times)

yarLson

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[FF7PC-98] Project Blackfan (V0.35)
« on: 2011-03-10 22:25:09 »
This is a tremendous undertaking for just one man. All I ask is for your kind patience.

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Mission:

The basic idea is to upscale the field backgrounds from Final Fantasy VII by a factor of 4 using Perfect Resize 7.1, and to maintain them as close to the original images as possible. Therefore imaging effects are kept to a minimum and are only applied to sharpen detail, add detail and correct color distortion that is caused by the resize. I am constantly experimenting and rechecking to reach the highest quality possible for this project.

Feedback is always appreciated

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Releases:

Note: Installation instructions are at the bottom

V0.35 Torrent [uncompressed] [215 backgrounds complete] [1.25gb]
http://www.mediafire.com/?o32ac3cv6nvj8kk
I am seeding this one pretty much constantly and Aali is also helping to seed at amazing speeds so it should be no problem :D

MegaUpload Installer [uncompressed] [854mb]
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HJJMHNHP
Note: Thanks to Kranmer for making this installer

MediaFire Another Installer [compressed] 7 part download
http://www.mediafire.com/?hrv9b6cxcxnd8
Note: Thanks to Vgr255 for making this installer for the compressed version
Launch the executable and select your modpath directory (under the mods\ folder)

Google Mirror [compressed] [991mb]
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3FK0dqybqUCYTYzODQxZDktNzk5Yi00YjNiLTk5ZTYtZDM1ODhmYmYzZTFm&hl=en

MegaUpload Mirror [compressed] [991mb]
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NBKYFPYQ

please inform me of a dead link!

Enjoy!

Note: there is no visible difference between the compressed and uncompressed versions, although some of the images may have been reduced from 32bit depth to 24bit depth so I have decided to include both. The compressed version should load faster in game but I haven't tested this yet

*Attention!*

V0.35 Source
Part I [700mb]: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3FK0dqybqUCZTQ5NmZhNzAtZjg4Zi00NmJlLTkzZGItNWY2NmJlOWRmOWJm&hl=en
Part II [648mb] : https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3FK0dqybqUCNDIyNTZjMTItZWVhMC00OTZiLWEyNTYtNTY0ZGZlMjBiZTRh&hl=en

The source version is available for those of you who would like to make changes, would like to filter them in a different style, or would just like to take a look at what the layers look like before they are converted using Palmer. If you make a change or a correction that you think might benefit my pack, and you would like to share it with me, just send me the source layers with your modifications and I'll check it out.
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Important:

Note: Some of the scenes cause glitch errors due to palette changes. I have included the files anyways for those that wish to use them. If you want to get rid of the errors just delete the PNG that has the 15 in it. IE tin_1_15_00.png


Please if you find any problems be descriptive and post a picture if possible

I am spending a lot of time going over these images and correcting any errors I find but when your working with thousands upon thousands of images it is perfectly normal to miss something so please do not hesitate to post your issues!

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News:

[03/29/2011]
I am slowly pumping out new backgrounds but I am still more focused on cleaning up the ones that are already finished.
my main focus right now is smoothing, check this thread for the details
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11596.0
and in this file is a perfect example of the drastic difference between smoothed and unsmoothed layers
http://www.mediafire.com/?cwm5kmz08tcf5xx

[04/06/2011]
I have found a new plugin for Photoshop called Perfectum which allows me to make all of these photos look even better and more detailed when combined with a new technique I have developed. I will be applying this to all the images which are already finished as well as whats to come in the future. I am really excited about this! Check out the full, in game, comparison here!
http://www.mediafire.com/?2kbecfc817f8bu4

[04/09/2011]
1.epic problem that has been stalling progress for almost two weeks has finally been solved! Read about it here!
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=11663.0
Thanks to this new solution, progress can once again resume at a steady pace. However do not expect a full release as quickly as the last one. Due to the high amount of errors in my first release I am testing much more thoroughly for each image. Plus the smoothing process, which I am happy to report is finally moving along at a consistent and reasonable pace, still adds a decent amount of time to the workload so it will be a while.

2.I did say above not to expect a FULL release. I consider a full release to be a version upgrade, this will not happen until I have smoothed the layers in all of the existing images from v0.35 and added a decent chunk of new backgrounds on top of that. However stay posted because I have decided to release smaller separate packs from the new areas I am working on. First up will be Gold Saucer! probably in about a week or two as long as my schedule stays the way it is now. The main purpose of this new release schedule is two fold: to give you guys something new to experience without having to wait for the next full version release, and second, to demonstrate smoothed layers and the Perfectum filter in action!

All of this careful attention will help result in a much cleaner final product. I will not allow myself to be rushed.

_______________________________________________________________
Screenshots:

Here are some screens. I would recommend you open them up to full size in order to see them clearly. Hope you all enjoy them!
http://img41.imageshack.us/g/zz4000000000.jpg/
I converted them to jpeg so that I could upload them, so you may find some small artifacts. Don't worry about them if you do, they won't be there in the release.

Please note that these images have not been updated using my new Perfectum method, I will update these screenshots once I have finished cleaning up much more of the backgrounds
_______________________________________________________________
Progress:

Finished:

The Northern Cave
Return to Midgar Mission at the end disc 2
The Entire Shinra Building [Smoothed]
The Highwind
Rocket Town and the inside of the rocket
The Ancient Forest [Smoothed] [Updated]
The materia caves, Lucretia cave, chocobo sage house, sleeping man's cave, and blacksmiths house
The Forgotten City [Smoothed] [Updated]
Cosmo Canyon
Underwater Reactor and Sub
Galnika
the sequence with cloud and tifa in the lifestream
Mideel
clouds end of game flash back with zack

In progress:
The Gold Saucer

_______________________________________________________________
Installation:

Requirements:
Final Fantasy VII for PC
1.02 Official Patch
Aali's Custom Graphics Driver
http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=8306.msg156782#msg156782

to install just place the field folder in your mod path "mods/(mod path)/"
for example if your using the Team Avalanche Graphical Overhaul then you would place it in "mods/avalanche"
to reiterate: place the field folder inside the mod path, not the folder tree inside of the field folder or it won't work!

additionally, if you are downloading the torrent, you can just tell your torrent client to save the field folder in the mod path and it will download everything exactly where it needs to be

also make sure you have the mod path set up and activated in Aali's config file
for example
mod_path = avalanche
_______________________________________________________________


Thank you!


« Last Edit: 2014-07-19 18:19:15 by Covarr »

Timber

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Re: [WIP/DEMO REL] Field and battle texture enhancement
« Reply #1 on: 2011-03-11 02:01:48 »
Could you post a comparison of your upscaled battle textures?
Would be interesting to see how much it improves.

yarLson

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Re: [WIP/DEMO REL] Field and battle texture enhancement
« Reply #2 on: 2011-03-11 08:18:27 »
sure thing, I will edit the original post in a little bit.

*edit*
I am really sorry I never noticed you were asking for battle textures specifically and I only posted screens of the field, my bad Timber
I decided I am not gonna worry about battle textures for a while, since the battle scene reconstruction project in the Team Avalanche forum seems to be making decent progress. felix_leonhart just released 10 of his scenes and they are really great. I'll probably get around to it when I'm all finished with the field textures. Just because its easy to do and there might be those who would prefer the original textures but would also prefer them to not do be pixelated to hell. It would probably take me less than a week since there are a lot less to do compared to the field, and no layers to cut up (that I have seen). I wouldn't do it normally since theirs already a beautiful project underway but since its so easy I probably will.
« Last Edit: 2011-03-19 18:24:27 by yarLson »

Vgr

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Re: [WIP/v0.1 released] yarLson's Field Enhancement
« Reply #3 on: 2011-03-20 00:05:32 »
Jus' wondering, but when will be the next release? Your work is pretty good and I would like to have some others soon :D

yarLson

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Re: [WIP/v0.1 released] yarLson's Field Enhancement
« Reply #4 on: 2011-03-20 06:17:59 »
I can't say exactly but it should be in about a week or less.

Cesarepais

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #5 on: 2011-03-22 16:33:09 »
Hi, sorry, but I don't understand one thing: I create a folder and I nominate "modpath" or what? I don't know how to insert the new field in the game

yarLson

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #6 on: 2011-03-22 18:25:42 »
hey did you read my instructions I don't know how else I can explain it. What do you mean by nominate?

Cesarepais

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #7 on: 2011-03-23 00:45:32 »
Do I have a folder mods in the folder of the game?
« Last Edit: 2011-03-23 00:48:54 by Cesarepais »

Timber

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #8 on: 2011-03-23 01:50:22 »
what's in v0.1 and the current file size is 388mb so by the time I finish the other 3 new parts it will probably be over 500mb. Just a heads up.

Been doing some research into lossless PNG compression, and I get the best results from PNG Monster: http://www.vbgore.com/PNG_Monster
Not only will it reduce the files sizes, but this should result in making them load slightly faster in-game too.

But do note that it takes a LONG time to compress, but at least you only have to do it once :)

sl1982

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #9 on: 2011-03-23 02:56:17 »
Interesting. I may have to give that a shot.

yarLson

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #10 on: 2011-03-23 03:24:12 »
I'll look into it as well but I'll wait until I am finished. Is there any noticeable loss in quality or detail?

DLPB_

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #11 on: 2011-03-23 03:25:27 »
I'll look into it as well but I'll wait until I am finished. Is there any noticeable loss in quality or detail?

into lossless PNG compression

yarLson

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Re: Field Upscale Project
« Reply #12 on: 2011-03-23 03:28:28 »
duh my bad :-o
« Last Edit: 2011-03-23 03:32:41 by yarLson »

yarLson

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Re: [BIG Update on coming Monday] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #13 on: 2011-03-26 04:24:31 »
release coming after this weekend. Get ready because this is a big one!

Salk

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #14 on: 2011-03-26 06:45:24 »
Way to go, yarLson!  ;)

sl1982

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #15 on: 2011-03-26 16:00:34 »
Awesome news, hopefully with your mod and mine a good chunk of the game will be done.

Kyo13

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #16 on: 2011-03-26 17:04:36 »
I agree ! Many thanks to you two (again & again).

Thanks to continue the game's enchacement ! :)

yarLson

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #17 on: 2011-03-26 18:36:00 »
Awesome news, hopefully with your mod and mine a good chunk of the game will be done.
yep, with your help, and if I can keep anything close to the pace I have had this week, it'll be done in no time. By the way, were you able to use my actions to run a good batch after all?

sl1982

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #18 on: 2011-03-26 18:41:02 »
Honestly I havnt looked at them yet. I dont know if i will be able to as Perfect Resize does not work in photoshop for some reason. I have to use the standalone

yarLson

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #19 on: 2011-03-26 18:52:40 »
oh man that's very odd. does it give you an error message or is it just not showing up? it should show up in the file>automate menu (at least in CS5) underneath the droplet option. You might have to install the OnOne service although I'm not really positive on this one, its just something I had to do to get it to work. I had to download the OnOne service from their website, although if its not showing up in the menu then thats probably not it, because mine was showing up but it was giving me an error message.
« Last Edit: 2011-03-26 18:58:27 by yarLson »

Dark_Ansem

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #20 on: 2011-03-26 20:09:19 »
have not tried it but previews look amazing. thanks a lot!

yarLson

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #21 on: 2011-03-26 20:12:38 »
its okay it'll be better to try it after Monday anyway :D

sl1982

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #22 on: 2011-03-26 20:23:50 »
Oh well that is a neat trick. I didnt realize that was there.

yarLson

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #23 on: 2011-03-26 20:25:41 »
Oh well that is a neat trick. I didnt realize that was there.
did you get it working?

Vgr

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Re: [BIG Update coming on Monday+Screens] Field Upscale Project
« Reply #24 on: 2011-03-26 20:33:39 »
Sorry, but PMs are there for a reason...