Messages

1

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R03c)

« on: 2015-07-14 23:03:00 »

But if the swords were actually parts of Jenova, that would complicate the Reunion x)

Haha I definitely got a bit carried away. Part of it is that it's only been recently that I fully understood that Jenova had shapeshifted at all. When I was younger I thought that the Sephiroth that was walking around was a telepathic projection. When I found out how wrong I was, it just got me really curious into how that had all worked out, and it's kinda fascinated me since.

Though to finish off the discussion of the sword, I will say that the world of FF7 clearly doesn't abide by the science that the real world does (eg lifestream, materia, Cloud's huge-ass sword, etc) which is why I was willing to write off shapeshifting into clothes/swords as plausible. But yeah, thinking about it, the Masamune left at Shinra HQ does just seem like an oversight, as they needed something for Cloud to recognize. It's been fun to think about though .

Am I the only one who think that that meteor used to be a planet infected by Jenova? I'm pretty sure it is strongly implied. That's what Jenova is trying to do with the Earth: infect it from its root. That makes sense for a virus of that kind to try to spread not only throughout a planet, but also throughout the galaxy. And then it would be the Earth which would serve as a vessel and would crash as a meteor onto another planet, hurt it, and propagate Jenova, and use it, and so on and on. Jenova is a cosmic virus.

That's an interesting way to look at it. I mean it certainly fits. I was always under the impression that Jenova just wanted to suck up the lifestream and leave the planet as an empty husk, but I don't see why your idea couldn't be true.

2

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R03c)

« on: 2015-07-14 03:07:44 »

I ain't buying that either.  His sword was sure real and metal

While I struggle to believe that the sword was actually a part of Jenova, I feel like it's the only explanation that makes sense, and here's why:

When Sephiroth is initially thrown into the lifestream, he is still holding the masamune. It is described at least once in the game as a sword that ONLY Sephiroth could wield. Later, when Jenova breaks out of Shinra, the masamune makes its appearance being impaled in President Shinra. Note that at this point, Jenova has left the building. The odds of this being the same masamune that Sephy had when thrown are not good. The original is most likely still in the Northern Crater at this point.

Now why would anyone make a second masamune, if the only man who could wield it, already had one? It's possible that Shinra had a second one lying around, but highly unlikely.

Now my memory is fuzzy as I haven't played through in a while, but I know that the masamune makes another appearance during the unfortunate events at the Forgotten Capital. Seeing as the first sword was in the crater, and the second left at shinra, I think it's safe to say that this is a separate instance of the masamune.

Now you're probably thinking "Oh this guy forgot about the Gold Saucer, they just hand them out willy nilly there." I'll grant you that it is POSSIBLE. I won't deny that. But I think it's far more logical to assume that this theme park of sorts is not handing out deadly weapons, but rather cheap replicas (I'd be surprised if it'd be real metal). Sure, if you have Seph in your party, you can equip it, but that was never supposed to be possible, so why would Square bother making a second item when they could just reuse one they already have.

In conclusion, while I don't think the idea that the swords he's using are indeed metal can be completely discounted, I find it highly unlikely that he is just finding perfect copies of the masamune along the way. Certainly not to the extent that he can just leave one behind purely for the nuts of it. Therefore I think it most likely that the swords are indeed a part of Jenova itself. This is but one man's humble opinion.

Edit: After posting this, I remembered that the line I was thinking of about Sephiroth being the only one who could wield the masamune was from the original translation, and that perhaps the more faithful translation you've completed may make the meaning of the line different. I haven't gotten that far, but if this is the case, then I will concede that multiple legitimate copies of the masamune could exist, depending on how the translation worked out.

3

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2015-02-01 13:47:51 »

The after is definitely better storytelling, but I think "inside Mt Nibl" should be "inside of Mt Nibl".  I'm by no means an English major, so I could be wrong.

It's been awhile since I had an English class, but I'm pretty sure the 'of' is an unnecessary preposition, but not grammatically incorrect. It doesn't really add anything, so in my humble opinion the right call was made.

4

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-09-22 02:38:35 »

That'd make things easier on my end, specifically because I think all but one of the Turtle's Paradise posters on the extras disc uses the same design. The Gold Saucer poster is different, but still uses the same turtle so won't be hard to make when the time comes (optimistic  ).

Is there a particular size you'd like it to be?

5

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-09-21 23:57:18 »

So I started a new job a few weeks back and it's been sucking the ambition clean out of me. I finally got the urge to work on something today, and made a hi res Turtle's Paradise Flyer. Due to me not actually knowing Japanese or having Japanese fonts, I made it in English. If someone wants to convert it, by all means, but I'm afraid any translation I attempt would be as butchered as much of the original game's dialogue was when translating to English.

I might still tinker with the turtle a bit, but it's pretty much finished. Still uncertain about the font I used for the body text, but after going through my fonts three times I just settled on one.



Also, I wasn't sure whether to go with 'Turtle's Paradise' or 'The Turtle's Paradise', but I liked the way the latter looked better. Also, might need to be changed for Beacause, idk if the re-translation changes the text in that instance, but I figure it's probably best to wait for R02 before calling it good.

6

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-09-20 19:59:16 »

I am reminded of how Mystique from X-Men can shape shift into Wolverine and have metal claws. Granted they aren't adamantium, but they look like it. I'm just assuming Seph did something similar with Jenova's body.

7

General Discussion / Re: [FF7PC-98] Multiple mods - The Reunion (R01)

« on: 2014-08-20 03:47:25 »

I'm curious as to why the phrase "Believe-you-me" was removed. Was it not in the Japanese version at all? Because that is a saying I hear once in awhile, and I live in a very rural area.

8

General Discussion / Re: Resume of our work on FF7

« on: 2014-08-11 02:48:37 »

Only a small idea but it would be nice if we could change the staff roll through a video where the important scenes are viewed again with an old film effect and the original chibi models. As a kind of a tribute for the development team back then.

I could put that together no problem. My question is this, would it be possible to have a video play in place of the credits? If that's do-able, I'll start working the video.

9

Completely Unrelated / Re: The tripple a we all hate EA - A rant

« on: 2014-08-11 02:18:47 »

the story was now told in a novel form and from time to time you have to fight against a boss or they are so kind to let you explore a dungeon, but the freedom of a world map has gone... I really understand why so many people have left Square after FF IX. It was the only possible way to finish a game without being dragged to a new project, while the game is only 2/3 finished.

To me FFX wasn't even bad. I mean I noticed the linearity right away, but the core gameplay was still there. The story wasn't bad either. I didn't play XI, but XII turned me off of the main series in a very definite way. I played about 5 minutes of XIII, and havent had any desire to play it since.

The last EA game I remember playing is 007: Nightfire. I tend to avoid the company as a whole if I can.

My biggest gripe with them is the exclusivity with regard to professional sports. The fact that only EA can make an NFL game, etc., is really ridiculous. They effectively monopolized sports games. That's insane.

10

Completely Unrelated / Re: Enjoy n64 emulation?

« on: 2014-08-11 01:29:35 »

Are n64 emulators really that bad? The last game I played on an N64 emu was Majora's Mask, and I don't recall having any graphical glitches. I don't play N64 games often at all, I admit, but I thought Project64 was pretty solid.

11

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] Final Fantasy VII OST Symphonic Remaster (2013-10-16)

« on: 2014-08-09 15:45:44 »

I'll admit I was skeptical as soon as I opened the thread. Then I listened to a few tracks. Then a few more. Then  listened to "Those Chosen by the Planet"....

I got chills. That 'heartbeat' sound.... good lord it sounded awesome. And this is on my crappy speakers, I'm jacked to hear that on a good setup. Still not entirely sure if I want to use these tracks in-game, but it's some damn fine work.

12

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-08-07 04:13:10 »

This design choice will have to be consistent across 3D modelling artists, so I hope you're following me on this one.

Errr...not to be contrary here but...isn't using chibis one of TA's big things? I thought that was all part of keeping with the style of FF7 but just increasing the resolution.

In any case the bus is looking awesome!

13

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-06 03:21:21 »

While I would argue that this project isn't really transformative, and probably doesn't fall under fair use, I would also add that if it were to be completed (to the standards of Mayo and Spoox) it could potentially harm fan interest in a proper remake from Square. Common sense tells us that there'd be plenty of fans still begging for a remake, but the argument could be made.

All that said, it certainly wouldn't hurt by any means to keep the number of people who want to sue TA to a minimum, am I right?

14

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-01 19:13:21 »

Err...umm so for no particular reason I decided to try a different image on the poster, with a more stylized look to it. It's not exactly the same pose, but I brought back the beard (pretty sure he's got a beard). What do you think?

I am not sure how much you can use the original field file of the mako reactor as the base for the magazine cover.

Haha yeah, I just felt like I had some momentum going at the time and wanted to show that I'm working on it. I'm working on a new background for it, might take a little bit though.

It is most convenient if the 3d modelling artist (that would be myself, when it comes to the aforementioned scenes) would give to the 2d artist the dimensions of the image file which is requested. Generally, the 3d modelling artist has to unwrap the UV, and this unwrap should make the canvas for the 2d artist. So, if you want to make these images, please slow down a bit and let me take the time to give the UV unwraps to you

Luckily I try my best to use as much vector art as possible, and use overly large raster images when I need to to ensure that I can scale stuff to the necessary size. Give me the dimensions when you can, and I can adjust things from there. For my part as long as it's more or less the correct shape, I can shift graphic elements here and there to fit and scale the size without any problems. 

you'll notice that the original posters of the Turtle Paradise just look like boring black writing on white paper (you can't even read "Turtle Paradise"). My suggestion would be for you to come up with an idea of a nice logo for Turtle Paradise, and then you could even refer to the in-game script for figuring out what to write on the poster in question.

I did a little googling and found that the International version of FF7 has a fourth disc with some little known content. Some of this includes zoomed in images of the Turtle's Paradise flyers. Would using this as a basis be a possibility?
Example:

15

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-07-31 15:38:58 »

Poster for 5MIN1_1



If you need it in a larger size, that's not a problem, the original file is huge 

Alright, put a magazine cover together. If you can't tell, I'm having a little fun with this 

16

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-07-21 05:04:11 »

Ehh, reading through the comments on deviantart, there's one tiny fact that could have helped that I don't believe you mentioned, that being that one must own a copy of FF7 to use the TA overhaul. Everyone on there seems to be deathly afraid of cease and desists, but it's a different case from Chrono Resurrection as that was a standalone and would hinder sales of a future hd remake. If anything, this project could actually garner some new sales for the original if it reaches completion (A guy has to have dreams, right?).

17

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-07-19 05:10:14 »

I should be able to give you a hand with this kinda stuff. Like I said in the other post, I'm not very knowledgeable in 3D, but I do just fine in 2D.

But not this weekend. I'll be too busy watching The International  .

18

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-07-16 16:54:37 »

Yes! That bus was looking way too clean  . Looks great.

19

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-07-09 04:09:42 »

Just letting you know: these light beams in the top right corner are meant to be on a proper "background layer", whereas the other beams of light (such as the yellow-greenish on the right and the purple one on the left) are on a separate "light" layers which would have to be made by post-processing (compositing within Blender, or Photoshop on your end).

Haha yeah, right after I added those other two spots I realized they would be on different layers, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'll google around for tutorials specifically for post process lighting, since I'm just going off my general photoshop knowledge atm, and worry more the layering when the time comes.

I'm glad I can finally contribute something

20

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-07-08 21:46:55 »

The only criticism that I have, which is really splitting hairs at this point because that render looks awesome, is that the 'light bulbs'
in the original give off a radiation sort of feeling or like there is fog around the light sources.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the glow around the bulbs and the rays of light are essentially the same idea, which is volumetric lighting. It's something that's only recently been introduced to Blender/Cycles in the form of Volumetric shaders. I don't think it gives true volumetric lighting, but there are ways of faking it I think, which is what I believe Mayo is struggling with.

Again my knowledge of 3D is spotty, but I think that's the gist of it. Once I get a job and can afford to upgrade my rig, then I'm gonna invest some time in actually learning this stuff. 

21

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-07-08 19:10:10 »

So just for fun I had a go at adding the light beams in in photoshop. 3D modeling may still be beyond me, but I like to think I'm alright in 2D. IMHO I think the top right light beams came out alright, but the cone on the right and the blue area on the left definitely aren't great. Obviously being a test render I didn't want to waste a whole lot of time on it, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Yay? Nay?

22

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-05-05 06:09:59 »

I gotta say, that scene is looking great. I'm really digging the wood textures for the floor.

My main criticism at this point is the lighting. I'm only amateur at best when it comes to modeling, so I don't know how I would go about it exactly, but the lighting around the tv looks off compared to the original picture. For instance, in the original, there's a shadow caused by the tv on top of the fridge and in front, but you have a shadow behind it.

I like what you've been doing in your scenes with regard to scaling. This is a case where I find myself not entirely on board. The pop cans seem extremely small with reference to the fridge in the corner. If you can make a scene have more parity with the 3D models, I'm all for it. However I think parity within the scene itself should take precedent.

All in all, pretty f'ing awesome.

23

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-02-19 06:27:58 »

Anyway, I hope you don't feel too lonely here, as I know, many are watching us.... 

Haha, well you guys do do some pretty awesome work. I regret that I haven't had the time to properly learn Blender and do some work myself. I wanted to last semester and ended up putting in extra time learning After Effects for a class.

That scene is looking awesome. If anybody doesn't agree wholeheartedly with your consistency idea, that last image should sell 'em.

As for imageshack, that's super lame. I had just used it last week and thought it was still free, but I just checked, and apparently I'm on a free trial that's just about up .

24

Team Avalanche / Re: Would like to help and very eager to learn

« on: 2013-09-25 05:39:28 »

Question here, I'm in a class this semester learning about 3D modeling. In class we use Cinema 4D. I feel like I'm getting the hang of it pretty quickly, but it seems like most guys here use Blender or 3DS. Should I consider learning one of these programs in my spare time, and if so which?

25

Team Avalanche / Re: Out of hibernation

« on: 2013-07-17 03:55:35 »

That wouldn't be a certain flower girl perhaps?