So I've been doing some experiments and came up with some pretty good ideas. Now keep in mind these are ideas that I haven been working with and would like some input.
With the new graphic driver, we could, realistically, have high resolution graphics for ff7 using the same old engine. I've been playing with various sources of the backgrounds, including the original 2D art, some of my own modeling and various 3D assets.
I think we may just have the ability to give the graphics a real boost in resolution....
The Crisis Core map models give us a wonderful base to start from. I've been playing with them in blender and I am more than happy that many locations can simply be re-rendered with just that data alone (half of coasta del sol, Nibilhiem, Junon, and many scenes from Midgar.) I also have a collection of the walkmaps to start as a base for 2D -> 3D projections which I've been toying with....
The problem is my computer is running on a blown AGP port, so I can't really do anything really spectacular until I get a new computer.
So Let's discuss technical aspects of bringing the pictures to a high-res status. Let me start with the basics...
The game run in 320x240, which is a 1.33 (4:3) aspect ratio. In a perfect world I would love to have the default display be 1080i,but that isn't happening because the aspect ratio is different and the game was never designed to be letterboxed.
We have several 4:3 resolutions to choose from.
1280x960 is good, (4x resolution) but it's kind of non-standard.
1440x1080 is better (4.5x resolution) but is a non-integer scaling making the pixels have uneven distrobution
1600x1200 is good, (5x resolution) but exceeds the vertical resolution of standard HD.
What do you guys think?
Of course, this would also mean the movies will have to be redone too. But all those model assets can be extracted from FF:CC with no problem, save for the midgar model which one can find easily online. Animation also is a snap as you just copy frame-for-frame the current shot with new models.
I donno, how does on feel about this?