Topics

1

7th Heaven / FFVII Steam: 60 FPS and some 7th Heaven Mod possible?

« on: 2019-07-16 12:15:17 »

Maximilian Dood is playing FFVII with some Mods and he is running Mods in 7th Heaven as well as 60 FPS Battle.
I tried to replicate it but couldn't.
Reunion isn't running 60 FPS (even though it says it's part of Reunion...?).

I could manage to run 60 FPS Battle once (patching LGP and copy pasting all files I need). I could even start it once via 7th Heaven after I patched everything, although it was very woobly as the Camera wasn't as fast to catch up to certain animations like Braver or Big Shot but at least it was running 60 FPS for Camera and 30 FPS for Motion.
Now the Game refuses to start whatsoever... *lol* I think it broke completely afterwards. xD

Is it even possible to get 60 FPS Battle and use 7th Heaven for only minor Mods like Music Replacement, Background switching as well as Charactermodel replacements?
Should I wait for Catalog 3.0 which should be coming out this month?

Every help is appreciated!

2

Gameplay / Need help combining some ESRGAN PY Scripts for dedithering and alpha

« on: 2019-07-10 13:22:14 »

As I wanted to improve on my FFIX and X/X-2 HD Remake Texture Mods, I searched for a way to preserve alpha channels within an image using ESRGAN and asked Xinntao (from the original ESRGAN Team) in one of the bug reports if there's a way to do so.
He tweaked the test.py script so that now we can also upscale and preserves alpha channels: https://pastebin.com/xUdTHff9 Sadly he never came back to the community on other questions, that's why I'm shouting help to you all.

Here goes my first two questions:

1. Would it be possible to tweak the alpha test.py so it can detect alpha in an image and preserve the alpha?
2. If no alpha is in the image then it should just skip the alpha scaling?
Right now if there's no alpha, the script will stop working and ask you to use the normal test.py that comes with ESRGAN which is a bit tedious to use.

On the other hand, I found a model that works wonder on dithered images which can be found quite a lot in PSX Games.
https://github.com/alsa64/AI-wiki/wiki/Model-Database

I made a quick comparison.
http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/21J1NNNU

The problem with this script is, that it sadly also eliminates alpha completely...
So here's my last question:
3. With a hopefully tweaked alpha py, I also would need to have this working with the dedither model

Every help is very much appreciated!

3

Support / [FFIX PC/Steam] UV Maps - Characters eye blink animation are gone

« on: 2019-06-24 10:47:07 »

Hi Forum, maybe you can help adressing a problem/bug with FFIX.

As soon as a textures for characters that have an eye blink animation (which is a second texture sheet with only the closed eyes) gets upsized in width and height, the animation doesn't play at all.
So all blinking is gone (which isn't that bad) as well as closed eyes (Garnet sleeps in the train or if a team member is wounded in battle).

This is only happening if the standard size isn't matching the original format. As long as it's preserved, the animation plays normally.
Also the same thing happenes to all Enemy Modell that are vissible in the Fields like the bandersnatches that chase you. In Battle they look normally, but in Field...oh lord they're messed up.

I can't figure out what's going on as in FFX I never had problems with different UV Maps with animations.

4

Misc. Tools / Video Restoration with Enhanced Deformable Convolutional Networks

« on: 2019-06-23 21:07:14 »

I didn't had the time to test this yet, but it seems promising for uprezsing Videos. It's also from some of the main contributors of ESRGAN.
https://github.com/xinntao/EDVR

Someone already had time to test this with Final Fantasy Movies?

5

Support / AKAO converter for sound effects - FFIX

« on: 2017-06-19 14:41:05 »

I'm trying to deepdive into the FFIX sound system (only the soundeffects not the music) as it could be rather easy to then switch out the sound effects from the Steamversion by custom made ones or the original from PSX. They're stored as AKAO on the images in the PSX Version and are stored as akb.bytes in Steam.

Maybe someone out there is smart enough or has more insight then me on AKAO files (and yeah start laughing as mine is almost at 0 ^^).
I want to know if there's a possible solution for converting AKAO files into finished wav/mp3/ogg.
There's a sequencer for the music but not for the soundeffects and I GUESS that everything is packed directly in the AKAO file itself rather than using an external sequencer from the PSX itself.

I could open them with this little tool: https://github.com/vgmtrans/vgmtrans/releases and see that there're two samples stored in the file and I was also able to convert the two samples into wav's samples. And it also displays information like Sample Offset, Loop Point etc...
What is missing, when I convert the samples, obviously are all the information around this two samples. What sample is played when and what effect needs to be applied.

Here's an example from the PSX Version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ouy4h5xjl9gut58/0.zip?dl=0
The file contains two files and a folder.
The 0 is the AKAO File and the akb.bytes is the steam version (just drag and drop into VLC, it plays without problems).
The Folder contains the two samples that I've extracted from the AKAO file.

On the music part I tried using a psf psf file from the battle, and it could also be loaded by vgmtrans. It had the same 36  samples in it and with the help of tirlititi we could match that to the specific index/music from the steam version. So, in theory, there would be no guessing what will go into what file (as of now). The psf also contained the whole sequence.

I HOPE (!!) there's maybe a way to extract the whole sound effect in a finished state somehow from the AKAO files.
The Thread could also go into tools, but as I ask specifically around the AKAO file I'm good with either subforums. =)

6

Scripting and Reverse Engineering / [FF4 PC/Steam] - Is there a resource unpacker and repacker available?

« on: 2017-06-07 07:51:29 »

I also asked in the modding subforum for FFIV:

Is there a tool that can unpack the resource file and repack them back?
I want to mess with my graphics pipeline to get rid of the big pixel/3DS look of the textures.

I couldn't find anything so far. :/

7

FF9 Graphical Releases / [FF9 PC/Steam] Scaled UI (Memoria)

« on: 2017-05-29 07:30:24 »

At last someone released a partially working version of the scaled Battle GUI.
GDI gave the permission to share it her as well (and maybe spread the word so people can finish his work).
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ff-modding/discussions/13/1290690926876650747/

I'm not the owner and or maker of the mod and I also couldn't test it as I don't use Memoria as of now.

8

FF9 Graphical Releases / [FF9 PC/Steam] Improved NPC and battle background textures

« on: 2017-05-22 16:00:35 »

It's getting hot in here, so take out all your cloth... well...
I filtered all the NPC's-, weapon- and battle background textures.

Let's make this Game more awesome!

Here are comparison shots:
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/210535/picture:5

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9iOUmoUbwc4N181dTRDckVRZlU

Just unpack the 7z into your streaming assets.

If you've downloaded the old version, here's a temporary fix so the overworld stuff is vissible again.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9iOUmoUbwc4ZVc1Y1N6QmtqQ0k

Known Issue:
Worldmap model texture seem to be broken like Zidane and the vehicles (download the temp fix from above).
Characters don't blink. I'm investigating this and will release a patch ASAP. Sorry for all the inconveniences!

9

FF9 Graphical Releases / [FF9PC-Steam] Improved Backgrounds Mod

« on: 2017-02-28 08:42:13 »

Hi everyone.
I've started on a Backgrounds replacement mod for FFIX for quite some time now and I'm finished around 50% right now.

Here's a quick video of an early WIP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn1WGOKpt00

And yes, I've started a discussion on the steam forum as well:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/377840/discussions/0/142261352660457538

The mod will be compatible with Hades Workshop and I'll try my best to implement it in Memoria as well.
Everything is going smoothly, still I can't give out an ETA.

Edit:

Mod released!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9iOUmoUbwc4eHJSb3EwOWZNMEE (Version 1.1)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9iOUmoUbwc4Si1DNk4wNl9Rb1E (csharp.dll file)

Installguide:

- Backup in your FFIX install directoy under "StreamingAssets" the bin files p0data11 till p0data19.
- Backup in x64\FF9_Data\Managed the Assembly-CSharp.dll file.
- Download the 7z and unpack it directly into you Final Fantasy IX install directory where "StreamingAssets" and "x64" sit.

Play!

If you don't want to use it anymore just copy over the old bin files as well as well as the Assembly-CSharp.dll.

I know Meru is working on the Backgrounds, too. As he's using a complete different tool set that I'm and we also have other ways of implement the mod, we're not collaborating in any way so please don't ask.