What would it take to fix FF8's backgrounds (field files)?

[Shard]

If only Myst3re could put a "mass import" feature in Deling to import a directory of field subfiles, rather than having to do them individually by hand. I'm going to need that anyway for my voiceover project.

Pretty please <3
Wrong thread. I'm guessing omzy's method doesn't actually modify the field backgrounds directly but on runtime with a thread interceptor.

[Omzy]

Nearing the finish line. Here's a proof of concept release that is very preliminary. It includes the textures starting from the first save point in Balamb Garden all the way to the front gate. Please do read the readme before using it. Let me know if you're unable to run it for any reason--I haven't tested it on any other machines so there very well may be a problem or two I didn't consider regarding portability.

Tonberry PRE-RELEASE ALPHA Readme
by Omzy
Born at http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=15222.0

Credits to Matthew Fisher at Stanford University for developing the original d3d9Callback interceptor: http://graphics.stanford.edu/~mdfisher/D3D9Interceptor.html

*This only works for the Steam FF8 release which uses DirectX
1) Drop the contents of this folder into your FF8 directory that includes your FF8_Launcher.exe
2) Run your launcher
3) Play!

Notes:
*) The textures bundled with this pre-release were improperly resized with photoshop in 30 seconds, do not use fractals (only bilinear), so are meant only as a proof of concept, not as replacers. You will notice there are lines that make the background look like bricks due to the poor quality resize
*) This hasn't been tested on low-end systems, only 1 medium-high end modern system running Windows 7 64-bit, there may be some barely perceptible lag but it isn't that noticeable but if you have a lower-end machine, it may suffer considerably, similarly to running an emulator
*) Anytime a switch/door/trigger occurs in any scene, there is a lag associated with the texture 'pop-in' when it loads. This may be addressed in further releases
*) The hashing algorithm is unfinished and will exclude some ~150 of the ~13000 texture pages used in the game. This will be noticed as parts of the background being high-res and other parts being low-res
*) Only field backgrounds are replaced at this point, but this will be expanded in the future to other texture types
*) Included is a WrapperParameters.txt which has a BaseDirectory that should equal the location of your FF8 directory. The default is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Final Fantasy VIII"

Download : Tonberry Pre-Release Alpha

Edit: Also, is there a project named Tonberry already? I looked but didn't find anything obvious, curious since its such an iconic ff monster.

***Edit2: I had a friend test my first upload and it was missing a few things so I've fixed that and re-uploaded for those of you who downloaded earlier. Don't forget to change your WrapperParameters.txt if you need to!

[Salk]

Impressive, as usual Omzy! 

Now I just have to buy myself a copy of FF8. 

UPDATE: Just bought it on Steam

[LeonhartGR]

Any screens yet?

[Omzy]

Any screens yet?

Since it takes a lot of time and effort to write Photoshop scripts to do what FacePalmer did, I don't have any fractalized backgrounds made up yet, if that's what you're wondering. I'm about to release my Tonberry Beta, though, which is the DLL that supports external textures and should pave the way for a beautified game experience. Check the Tools section in a bit.

[LeonhartGR]

Excellent! Thank you Omzy!!! Looking forward for any in game screens as well!!!