Hello MCINDUS and Fated Courage,
I have been following this project for ages.
I first got interested when I discovered that fans were remastering the
prerendered backgrounds in Final Fantasy VII using AI upscaling programs for the Remako mod.
My excitement went through the roof for what fans would upscale next.
My mind immediately went to Final Fantasy VIII because it was the first
game I played in the series and was a major part of my childhood.
I instantly feel in love with the series and Squaresoft, and played them all, and completed most.
Then the Final Fantasy IX Moguri mod started and I became even more
confident that the Final Fantasy VIII fans would deliver.
Sure enough, you and the fan community have been making dreams come true.
I appreciate all the hard work you have done. THANK YOU!!!
I have couple thoughts and rabbit holes I have dived into that I wanted to share and get peoples insight on.
First off, I wanted to share this website,
https://www.kusanagi.co.jp/art/.
This is an art studio in japan that worked on a lot of the concept art and prerendered backgrounds for Squaresoft
during the time they worked on Final Fantasy VII - X along with many other great game developments and anime.
Just thought I should share this bit of history because they do amazing work and it is fascinating.
I also wondered and dreamed of what other games could get the HD AI treatment and
thought of Legend of the Dragoon, Chrono Cross and Koudelka.
I found that fans are working on Legend of the Dragoon but I haven't yet seen anything for
Chrono Cross and Koudelka. I know that the process to do these fan mods are VERY complicated
and rely heavily on reverse engineering everything and coding programs to rip assets, and programs
to allow bigger higher resolution images back in and make everything line up and work perfectly.
Amazing stuff! I know that is probably why the PC ports of the Final Fantasy games were used to mod.
Legend of the Dragoon, Chrono Cross and Koudelka don't have pc ports unfortunately.
Looking at the The Legend of Dragoon Upscale Project page,
https://legendofdragoon.org/2021/01/01/upscale-project-debut/ , I noticed that they are, "Currently we are still only targeting the upscale to work on RetroArch with Beetle PSX HW."
This gives me hope that all Playstation games with prerendered graphics can be
updated and have mods and patches used on emulators. Keepin' the dream alive!
Since I've been following this project I have been collecting all of the upscaled images that have been released
and have had them cycling as my desktop background. It even inspired me to go into the game and capture footage
to make gifs of the the backgrounds with animations.
Ever since I was young child playing Final Fantasy VIII the clock in Ultimicia's Castle has bugged me.
The roman numeral 4 is shown as "IIII" instead of "IV". I know both are considered correct but I
much more prefer "IV". (Big Ben in London has it's 4 as "IV")
Anyway, I plan on modifying this background in Photoshop once the mod is complete just for my own amusement.
This also got me thinking. The prerendered backgrounds could be completely changed as long as the places where the
characters walked were still the ground and things that they interact with also need to be considered.
This would be the easiest way to make a fan sequel, side quest or new environments or whatever.
Not that it would be easy but not impossible.
I've just barely been holding back from paying the 2 measly dollars to MCINDUS's Patreon
only because I don't want to try the mod until it's ready. MCINDUS has said though that is
very close to being ready and that it will then be released to the public.
I want help in any way I can to the project but just don't know how I can help or contribute.
I am kinda really hurting financially right now too. I can pay $2 though.
My only question is though, what can I do to help with the project?
I have a background in graphic design and have Photoshop.
This project seems to be in more than capable hands and is turning out epic! Thanks again!
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