Messages

51

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-03 14:05:52 »

Thanks. I realized that during the FMV where Zack calls Sephiroth on his phone, there's a shot of Goblin's Bar so I decided not to edit it really, although I made the hinge in the middle more noticeable.

I also decided to replace this door texture because I didn't like the look of it (too uneven and filtered):



Instead of trying to salvage it, I found a free door texture online which resembled it a bit and edited the lighting, so do that for whatever purpose if you think the situation is appropriate. I was concerned it looks too photorealistic, but in the end, I think we should aim for photorealism as much as possible.

I also like the addition of the awning mural above the door, I think it adds finesse. I know it's not exact to the original, but in this case, I'd say it's a worthy addition. If you can find places to insert extra detail not there originally, go for it. I also like the door handles, so if you can find situations to make logical sense of things (why are there no door handles in the first place?), add it.

With that said, I think I'm done Loveless Alley for now. Just don't spend 10 hours on those shop signs since you can't even tilt the camera up in this game, so don't spend a lot of effort on things which the player probably will never see. I'd say other than Wing Motors and the Three Stars cafe, the other signs are barely noticeable and not worth that much effort.

I am going to see if I can fix that car tho (if you look at the tire area, you'll see it has weird masking).

52

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-03 07:34:39 »

Okay, I'll keep that in mind.

I updated the folder and now I'm seeing this corner window thing, it should be changed back, I assume it was an accident?



Other than that, I have no issues with this area so when Zakkura is done those walls, I think I'll add a CLOSED sign to Goblin's bar door (and fix light smudge above it), then we'll be done.

I also adjusted Cloud's high poly head a bit (his clothes still need to be upscaled by eqprog).

(original/basic filter/my edit)


He now has:

-New eyes to make him look less stoned
-Smoother lip lines
-Redone eyebrows so it looks less outlined and closer to what a blonde's eyebrows would resemble
-Hair reverted back to a bicubic upscale of the original (it looks pixelated but that can fixed later, just too lazy to do it now). Cloud may have had the worst hair upscaling done by the program.
-Fixed forehead lighting

I haven't seen low-poly Cloud close up but I remember him looking fine.

53

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-02 23:10:34 »

Looking good. When we start an area, we need everyone to announce what they're going to be working on so we don't have two people working on the same thing.

I updated the eyes for everyone so you should see them.

I would advise against replacing everything from FF7R. While certain things are unsalvagable because they're too blurry, I think if we start replacing the names of actual stores, the game loses too much of its identity. I'm fine with the large Loveless poster since I think the photorealistic woman looks too weird in a game full of anime people. Instead, I would just update the current store signs as best as you can. If you think it'd take too much time to recreate it, don't feel pressured to get it done now since we'll be done the outside alley in a few days, you can always return to this later.

54

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-30 21:59:51 »

I think 2 weeks is healthier than 1 week because some areas might be big and 1 week might make me feel a bit rushed, although 1 week should be fine for smaller areas like the train station. And yeah, we can start at the beginning. I think this could be our rough schedule:

Now to Oct 7: Loveless alley
Oct 8 to 15: Train station
Oct 15 to end of month: the entire Shinra Building

Now for some updates.

Aerith's door stained glass is now the same as in the remake. I wonder how people would feel if we used more assets from the remake since I know the church doors are different in the remake. I've just been trying to be careful not to touch anything seen in a pre-rendered FMV (like the scene where Aerith hugs a crying Zack, where there's shots of the back doors so we can't put stained glass above them).



The wheels of the flower cart have been changed back to get rid of white lines.
People shouldn't have to spend all that time building a flower cart only to see ugly textures:



I decided to change the green poster into a LOVELESS poster from the remake (since it's a pretty big thing in Crisis Core, and it helps people understand that LOVELESS is a famous play in the city). Also changed the cafe poster to a coffee poster from remake:



So I looked into the folder structure and texture.ini is missing links to a few needed elements (in the "ignore" folder). These include a wooden board in the slums, the map in Lazard's room, and the "ROOM" signs. I did all three, and even found the exact same font it uses (Impact Regular). Sadly, the transparent thing left of the map still could use some improvement due to different camera angles, but I want to leave that alone or else my brain will get tired:




Something that I need your help with is that Cloud's HD outfit doesn't seem to be upscaled:

55

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-29 11:38:56 »

I replaced the stained glass using assets from FF7make found here:

https://www.deviantart.com/oo-fil-oo/art/FF7-REM-AERITH-CHURCH-842124835

This account has a lot of FF7make assets so it can be useful for some texture work.

The stained glass in CC is the same as the one in Advent Children.
While I would love to use it, I don't want to spend 10 hours trying to recreate it.

I'm also in the process of making new eyes for Zack and Aerith because I feel they don't look "real" enough. Zack's is too blue (I know they're supposed to be "eyes infused with mako energy") but they're too different from other cutscenes and it looks like someone slid the saturation to 100 in Photoshop. Aerith had more shading on one side.

56

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-29 00:20:29 »

I don't think it's worth it because if you use this method, you can identify any texture in 2 mins and all:

- While you're playing, make a save state at the scene
- Close emulator, rename "textures" folder to "texturess"
- Open emu, reload save state, press the hotkey you assigned to texture dump
- Look in the "new" folder, search within the subfolders and it's all there for you
- Once you're done identifying the textures, rename "texturess" back to "textures"

I might have a notepad file open and be copying and pasting texture names too, and I have a shortcut to PPSSPP on my desktop to make this process faster.

I think you basically already captured everything so don't worry about it. I still think you need to update textures.ini for the Shinra lobby during the destruction, and I think Reno/Rude are missing textures, but I don't think it matters because they're only in the game for a minute anyway. I think you should go ahead and update that, then I can add the texture.ini additions that might be deleted in the process.

I have an idea where each week, we go into a specific room/area in the game and try to "oversee" everything, dividing up tasks.
For example, me and Zakkura are doing Loveless alley, and I'm doing the floor and Zakkura is doing the walls.
That way, it can feel funner and we can talk about our changes and ideas.

I also think we should make a new folder for all those DMW flashback scenes just because they're organized all over the place so I'm going to work on getting all of those right now.

EDIT:

Just made a flashback folder in the environment folder which is live on github now. There's 34 of them and I think that might be all of them, not sure.



If you want to adjust textures.ini for these, you can. I need your help to upscale these ones:

00000000b26c92244b446239
00000000c3c6a2cf90c65ceb
000000002e0d26a2456bd347
000000007de2c2b644b3bfa4
0000000037c5e2e5fc75a2cd
00000000975fdca3ef7f58f4
0000000027815412323a5002

57

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-27 07:14:27 »

Here's a WIP of the floors, you can see how much more realistic it looks now:



I still need to clearly define the brick lines (it's black in this pic but I'm going to make it a bit brighter in the end).

Zakkura, do you know if you can take a look at some of the walls in the area?

You can see some chromatic abberation in a lot of them:



The door could use an update:



Something also bugs me about this door here, it's not divided in half. The bricks don't look all that real either.
I think maybe we should add a "GOBLIN'S BAR" plate and a "CLOSED" sign on it after, since the establishment looks really strange otherwise and not like a real place.
There's an unreadable green poster to the top left of it but I'm still unsure what we should replace it either. Maybe a sign for a drink or something.

58

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-26 18:46:56 »

Looking fantastic, I love how your work makes it go from a "filtered AI" look to "native PS2 texture" look. And yeah, the vent to sewer thing is fine. It's nice to see the individual bricks again.

Are you done with the floor textures? I know a way a way to make them "pop" and look more realistic so I'll do that once you're done.

59

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-25 09:46:59 »

I accepted the request. eqprog should be able to give you control over the project so you don't need to do pull requests all the time. Just be very careful not to overwrite any important data.

As for the texture, I think it looks good! Imo, it'd be better if you did more work around areas the player will likely revisit. For example, there's a few subpar textures around the Shinra Building. I think that stuff is more important than an object in a cutscene you might only see a few times.

[Spoiler:]

60

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-25 00:56:39 »

Great job with the Nibelheim Inn, it looks a lot better, especially the floor.
I also like the church door.

I downloaded the newest update from Github so I think you should too so we're on the same page.

I added smoother black silhouettes for the DMW portraits, and got rid of the NOW LOADING texture.
I feel it's not needed since the load times are so fast on emulator compared to PSP, it looks like a small blue flash in the bottom right.
I feel it's distracting and less cinematic, and it's easier to just remove it entirely than upscale it.

I added nipples and a navel onto Zack like I did months ago in my earlier patch. No one can talk me out of this.
He looks too alien without them and Cissnei in the same scene has a navel, so it makes no sense for Zack not to.

Finally, this new update I did is a bit of a spoiler so don't open this unless you've completed the entire game.

Spoiler: show

When you find Gillian's body, the floor (both stone floor and rug) were not upscaled, because the room uses a different lighting set (so subtle, you barely notice it) for the room because the door is open. I restored it to use the original so it looks decent.



I also added the option for players to make the scene more gruesome in case this scene was censored somehow, just like how the scene where Sephiroth stabs Cloud was (probably) censored. It makes no sense for there not to be blood in that scene, so it was probably done so the game could keep its Teen rating (more demographics, more sales). That, or the developers thought finding an older woman's bloody body might be too objectionable to Western people (likely also the reason a statue in the game was modified to resemble Mary less in the Western release as to not offend Catholics as much) and turn them off from the story, while they would be less objectionable to blood during Zack's death in the ending. FF7 and Crisis Core are not cheery stories, there are a lot of dark and grisly aspects to them, so some people like me might prefer this change.

This also makes the plot make a little more sense because it turns out Angeal did not kill his mother, but rather, she killed herself in suicide. Angeal's Buster Sword has no blood on it, so it could serve as foreshadowing. It's never explained how Gillian killed herself. Without the blood, you have to guess she used a cyanide pill or something, but why would she have that as a villager? In this edit, you can guess she killed herself with a knife or a gunshot and may be lying on top of the weapon. In case this scene was censored and there was intended to be blood, you could also guess it was seppuku, due to the Japanese influences of the story. Gillian killed herself due to her shame, and I got the sense the Hewley family were meant to evoke a traditional Japanese family, especially due to Angeal's constant talk of dreams and honor.

Because not everyone may like this change, this is not the default so in order to make the blood appear (like I said, it will only appears when Zack finds her body, not when he meets her for the first time), you must change a line in textures.ini so control+F in the notepad file:

Before:
00000000c469d38fc69a056e = /textures/environment/ground/000000002e67574e617ca713.png

After:
00000000c469d38fc69a056e = /textures/environment/ground/00000000c469d38fc69a056e.png

61

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-22 11:01:09 »

Mr. Red and Mr. Blue are now re-done.
It's not 100% perfect but now when you look at it, you don't get weirded out as much by your first glance. I also removed the shadows above his gloves because that's not how shadows work in real life.



I redid some debris. Here's what it looked like before with weird black outlines: https://i.imgur.com/fGKDzFB.jpg

As you can see, it has a lot more detail now and makes the slums look grimier.
It's not often you can do stuff like this, but every bit of detail helps.
All you have to do is find some similar photo online and put it around 50 transparency and overlay it.





Some more debris.
Unfortunately, there's a weird pixelation error on the cube thing behind it.
I tried fixing it but it gives me that weird white transparency glitch.
It might take a long time to fix the stupid thing so I'll leave it for now.

62

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-22 00:49:33 »

@eqprog: You should let me know if you see any errors like that since I like fixing that stuff.

@jons: I'm glad you had a good time with the game. I'm surprised you beat it so soon, did you play 9 hours a day or something? And yeah, I'm a bit of a perfectionist. If you had to give some constructive criticism, what would it be (that may not already be mentioned on the current issues list)?

63

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-20 19:21:39 »

I'm fixing the red and blue versions of this NPC right now, took me hours just to fix some of the errors here. >_<

The way the seams work on this model is evil so I had to align stuff.

64

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-20 08:46:43 »

Thanks for being patient the past 2 weeks. All of Zack's textures (except beachwear and finale) have been updated (as well as Cloud in the SOLDIER 1st class outfit). This means there should be no more animation errors in the game. His hair has also been fully desaturated.

eqprog, I think we should update the pictures in the OP since they no longer represent the version out now (especially Zack's clothing). Maybe a comparison so people can see the actual difference better.

If anyone has been waiting to try this pack out, I would say go ahead now. Just give us feedback and if anything bothers you (that isn't already on the current issues list), post it here. I also updated the namebox shadow so that it doesn't look so pixelated:



I'm going to probably focus on Aerith and doing that Banora logo, but I'll also probably post some minor environmental updates.

Thanks for the donation offer as well. I prefer to keep my Paypal private, but if anyone wants to PM me Steam gift card codes on this forum, I'd appreciate it. Just know that I live in North America as I don't think it's compatible between regions.

65

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-08 19:03:53 »

I would say wait a week or two, I need to re-do Zack's low-poly models, then I'll post in an update when I think you should play it. Then I'll be 90%ish satisfied with the project, and I think you could bite then. All the major errors have been fixed AFAIK (we've done so much work in these past few months so either way, the experience you get in a couple weeks will be better than how it was originally was), but we still need people to play it and test it out anyway. I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of feedback, but I guess not everyone wants to make Qhimm accounts or something.

The 6 has been extended so it looks more as it should, and makes it more like the original.



The famous photo of Zack, Tifa and Sephiroth has been remade in HD (all the other photos during the trip have been updated, but sadly, they aren't in-engine so they aren't as HD as this one).

66

Team Avalanche / Re: Project Edge (Jusete's field scenes)

« on: 2020-09-08 03:03:59 »

Probably, but I don't think that should stop you from making it a little wider to prevent air walking.
I think it would be a good idea to accommodate for the real-life proportioned models for the very rare occasions issues like these pop up.

67

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-07 20:47:38 »

Zack's hi-poly models have all been updated a little.

Angeal's hi-poly and low-poly models have all been updated.



I had to fix a weird bug here (also tried to make his facial hair look less painted):



Seph's hi-poly and low-poly models are updated so all animation errors should be fixed. It's not the best work, but I made the geometry and his belt better.



During the Jenova scene, his face goes from sickly, to healthy (when he sees Jenova) and sickly after, implying being near Jenova gave him some health and energy.
Upscaling all his unhealthy frames is too much, so to compensate, I made his eyes look darker just because I wanted to get this important point across.


(sickly/healthly/my edit)

There was also a missing frame during this scene, so I added it and updated textures.ini

68

Team Avalanche / Re: Project Edge (Jusete's field scenes)

« on: 2020-09-07 14:01:26 »

Congrats on the first reactor, looks wonderful.

Since you're probably going to be moving into the city, I found a Velvet Voix poster from Crisis Core for when you meet Aerith:



Do you know if you can widen this walkway? If you use non-chibi models (since the people playing this mod are likely going to be doing so anyway), then it looks like Cloud is floating in the air.

69

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-02 20:14:31 »

Looking nice, I changed my mind on upscaled textures higher than 4x, while I think we should stick to 4x, we can always go higher if the texture looks too pixelated at 4x for rare exceptions. I might re-do Hojo's lab text, the sign in the inn and the caution tape in Gongoga later.

I just noticed the sign directory says Shinra Building is in Sector 8 when it's actually in Sector 0, so you should change it when you re-do the directory to make the text more readable.

I think my area of expertise is just about over. I don't really enjoy doing stuff like environment like bricks. The only exception are the crates since I like seeing real wood, but you should be able to do stuff like that using free textures online.

I still need to fix Sephiroth's low poly model and I do plan on desaturating Cissnei's low poly model too. I was wondering, how would you feel if you let me handle all the characters for the next month or two? I can update Zack, all the SOLDIER uniforms like Angeal, try to polish everyone else, and so on. You can focus on environments and we won't need to be concerned about overwriting each other's work.

Something I would like to do is touch up the Banora White signs and logo.
I can't find an HD version of it:



Once I try making an HD logo, we can port it to the posters and Hollander's shirt.
It looks like there's supposed to be text in the circle but idk what it's supposed to say. Anyone have any ideas?

70

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-09-01 13:18:18 »

I tried fixing Sephiroth's bangs but they're very hard to do. It's simply going to be incredibly difficult to make them look perfect. I was able to remove most of the artifacting by copying an upscaled version of the original onto the artifacts:

(original = top, middle = previous version, bottom = my version)


For some reason, there was a blob near his mouth so I removed it.
I also restored the skin color near his eyebrows.



Although it only appears in the game for like 3 seconds, I did Jenova's nameplate.
Jenova's nameplate now says what it says in Advent Children.
If the remake changes it for some reason (it's inconsistent), then we can replace it later.

71

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-08-30 12:35:01 »

Thanks, you're really helpful.

I changed the Shinra logo at the train station so it looks older:



The original intent was to make it look older, to convey Shinra isn't just some new company that began a few years ago but decades. It was only bright red because it's one of the first textures I changed in the game and didn't have time to polish it. It now has a sepia tone and a dirtier look.

This texture project can't always be 100% accurate to the original as we've had to create flavor text sometimes (that's just the reality of working on a project like this), but this is an easy change, and I think it's important to be accurate where it should count. I want people to have faith that they can play our version and not have to worry about the "devs going wild with artistic changes" that often occurs when people make fan-made texture projects. Everything we change should be understandable as to why we do it.

I also realized Sephiroth has two texture sets, one where he looks normal and another where he looks unhealthy and has darkness around his eyes. I'm not sure where the change occurs (maybe when Angeal says Sephiroth looks unhealthy). I don't know if anyone else had realized this or if I'm one of the first since I haven't noticed anyone else point it out. It really is a cool and subtle little detail that would be nearly impossible to notice on a small PSP screen:

72

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-08-29 12:49:56 »

I found some Japanese warning text on the highway that could use deciphering
(I think it's the last blurry Japanese in the game AFAIK):

73

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-08-29 12:23:47 »

Thanks for the text, the fence is better.




A clock in the Nibelheim inn actually looks like a clock now:


Sometime soon, I think I should go on a desaturation binge (going through all the folders and looking for textures with obvious chromatic aberration) and fixing them. Some stuff in the game was hit pretty badly, like this wooden railing which looks like it has red and blue paint:



I found out the issue with Sephiroth, the ones in the priority folder just look like they were upscaled differently so I'll need to do some copy pasting + desaturation work there. Seems to be a common issue (character textures in the priority folder means they have animation issues).

74

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-08-28 08:35:59 »

Some updates:

Cissnei's bangs look much better now. I tried doing the end of her hair but when I touch it, I get weird small white artifacts on them so I'll have to leave them.



I noticed Lazard's HD model was missing glasses this whole time! I restored them (I'm not sure if they're missing in his lower model, we'll have to check). I desaturated his jacket and added filter. In order to get his jacket color:

0d004f (photo filter) density 100, preserve, saturation 50

His jacket (and well, all the other characters really) could use an HD overhaul like we did for Zack's outfit, but I don't want to get into that right now. If anyone does, they're welcome to.



The Shinra logo behind Lazard is weird. I guess you might've tried making it look more 3D eqprog, but it messed it up. I had to do some trickery edits to make it look more normal.
It only appears for like 2 seconds and I think this is the only major shot we get of it the entire game (in gameplay, you can't tilt the camera up to see it).




Finally, two things people can help with.

The fence in the very beginning of the game looks poorly upscaled. It has Japanese on it, but I don't know what it reads. If anyone does, please tell me:



I noticed Sephiroth has an animation frame glitch when he says "you're late".
I tried isolating the texture but it seems to have already been upscaled apparently?
If anyone knows how to fix it, please do.

75

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-08-26 10:59:38 »

I just did some things:

-Noticed Angeal's mother was missing an upscaled frame so I added it
-Tseng now has proper desaturation on both his low and high poly models

I submitted all the work I mentioned above, and I also did some other stuff:



I added designs for the reactors and put in green lines to symbolize mako (which the remake says is lowercase so I edited the infoboard too). It's a very simplistic design, but very powerful imagery so if anyone plays this before remake, it can help them understand the world better.

The Highwind art has been improved (I found a better version online) and I added a small blurb about Cid to make the room feel more like an exhibit.



I'm done the exhibit room for now so I think you should go take a look at it. If you take a look at the Hardy Daytona by examining it, you'll notice the circles on the rim of the tire look bad. I also think the lines on the bottom platform of my Midgar exhibit looks bad and uneven so I'd appreciate it if you could improve that. The directory in the lobby still needs to look more readable, and I think the metal detector entrance looks bad. I'll leave those to you too.

For now, I'm going to focus on fixing Cissnei's and Sephiroth's models, and I think I might also do work on Angeal's house.