Messages

76

Troubleshooting / Re: Windows 2003 R2 64-bit edition setup issues

« on: 2014-09-07 15:50:28 »

Seriously?  Just use Windows 7 or 8.1. Even linux with wine would work better.  I don't think anyone here can really say much as I doubt severely that anyone is actually using that OS and can duplicate the problem so if you decide to stick it out your probably on your own.  Just a guess, I imagine the graphics drivers don't work too well with that OS.

77

Graphical / Re: Upscaling pre-rendered backgrounds

« on: 2014-09-07 15:46:28 »

Well I wish you luck but be aware.  If you plan on doing this by hand one by one it could take years.  That's how I started several years back and I only got about 1/7 done in almost 5 months.  Don't want to discourage you but I just hope you realize the magnitude of the workload involved.  Unless you've got the time to work full time.  Also not everything works perfectly such as the lighting which will make your time feel like wasted effort.  And cutting out the layers in some scenes by hand could drive you absolutely mad.

Also, from the beginning we we're all we aware that automation was not the ideal process and that trade-offs would have to be made.  However in order to actually release a finished product it felt necessary. There is the question of consistency as well.  To have different scenes all in different styles just because that's what works best for each does not mean that the overall experience would feel seamless and flow naturally as you put the pieces together.  All of these problems can't be solved by up-scaling alone.  Which is why Team Avalanche exists.

I consider my project nothing more than an interim solution to a problem which can only truly be solved by re-rendering the scenes from scratch.  Just some food for thought.  I hope I have motivated you to prove me wrong on all accounts. 

78

Graphical / Re: Upscaling pre-rendered backgrounds

« on: 2014-09-05 03:46:18 »

Well if your actually going to go through with it, make sure you check out omzy's script for automating most of the work.  You'll have to edit it up a bit to fit your method but its not so bad.

Also he has a pack that he did a few years back with the backgrounds already completed.

More recently I have actually finished my own upscale project as well using my own method that I found to  be superior in quality and actually touched up a lot of the scenes by hand to make it more of a seamless experience.  You can check out my work here.

So if your going to redo your this project in your own style I'll help as much as I can with pointers and things that I have found to make things easier.  However your going to want to test all of your scenes in game before deciding on a process because what looks good in photoshop might look tacky or unfit in game.  In particular your scenes might be a bit too blurry and noisy and will contrast poorly with the 3d models which are sharp and devoid of any shading or noise.  Blurring sounds like a great idea at first, I used to think so anyway but in execution it always panned out poorly and made the upscales feel too obvious.  Trust me save yourself days of work and test first before you get too excited.

Anyway that's just my opinion on it.  Good luck.

79

Completely Unrelated / Re: Paradise lost: 60% of US citizens believe American dream is unachievable

« on: 2014-09-01 02:35:40 »

Well I agree with you as well.  I was gonna bring the school into it but I didn't want to write a novel.  As I said the system is set up swimmingly to serve certain people.  Who those people really are we may never fully know.  But it ain't me and my family.  I dropped out of public school and now am pursuing a career that most people would call ludicrous but then again I don't really care.

Education should be abundant and free as well has good organic nourishing foods.  That's why I mentioned compassion.  Our whole system is set up to teach us that everything is scarce and can't be made otherwise from early on.  However the majority of human history has been lived in what's called a gifting economy where what's needed is freely given without expectation or debt.  In fact its the only economic system that has proven to be sustainable for any period of time.

And yet we insanely believe that we can overcome natural law.  The reality is this life was a gift that was freely given to us.  And so we should freely give unto others.  But separation and ridicule in the school systems separates us and puts us into our societal places.  Causing callous hearts and brutal minds when what's truly need is compassion and understanding on a mass scale.

I just don't want to understate the importance of personal responsibility either though.  Which is why I still agree with Covarr.  No matter how much you try to convince someone to be greedy and small minded.  Someone who is truly determined can overcome any unfortunate upbringing and achieve whatever they wish.  I think that has been proven enough times throughout history as well as subjectively in our own every day experience.  If we could take advantage of this on a mass scale amazing things could happen.  Technologies and ideas that have been suppressed could be unleashed in an instant.

Its really stupid honestly.  There are over 174 trillion dollars that have vanished from the US treasury since the beginning of the FED.  There is even a youtube video (will post if I find again) of a senator questioning the head of the Federal Reserve in session about this fact and they can't seem to determine the answer.  I remember the sentiment being something along the lines of "I don't know".  While the senator is understandably perplexed at this answer in saying, "Your the head of the FED so if you don't know, who does?"  And you never saw that on the news did you?

That's over 10 times the national debt over the last 100 years that is completely unaccounted for and your gonna tell me that nothing better than fossil fuels has come along since then.  I mean the only way you could believe this is to be entirely and completely uninformed and impressed with authority.  Which is where school comes in.

And college really gets you.  They make you pay for that shit.  You think your gonna question something that you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to acquire.  In most cases I think not.  We believe our selves to be a scientific society and yet we do not observe and conclude based on those observations.  We digest and regurgitate what we are told to.  Nothing more is needed for menial success in this pathetic excuse for a human society.

Not that I am loathsome of it.  I am not a teenager anymore, I believe in focusing on solutions rather than obsessing over the problem.  But it is disgusting.  I won't blind my eyes to it for the sake of comfort.  It is just bothersome that a vast majority don't know how to find reliable information and worse don't know how to scrutinize that information and abandon it if its found to be out of context with reality.

And even more so, people won't actually go beyond there desk into the world to find their answers anymore.  Everything is in a book or a classroom or a computer.  I believe most of what I do because I have used logic to deduce that the world could be no other way through personal experience.  Seriously deductive reasoning should be taught on the first day of school.  The fact that it is not is telling as it is.  Sure information from different sources helps to find specific problems but the real understanding of the issue comes from within.  Which is sometimes why I think spirituality (not religion) has been mangled into the sorry messy state its in, so people feel lost and follow herds rather than their own damn selves.

80

Completely Unrelated / Re: Paradise lost: 60% of US citizens believe American dream is unachievable

« on: 2014-08-31 15:17:20 »

What is the premise of the American Dream anyway?  I don't remember anything like that in the Constitution.  It was probably drummed up by some advertising agency in the early 20th century and has nothing to do with the actual core foundation on which the country was founded.  Not that any of that makes a difference now.  There is virtually no understanding left of why this American experiment was initiated. 

What they don't tell you in history class is that the prime reason for the revolution in the first place was due to corruption of the financial institutions of Britain.  Many quotes from the founders state as much at least.  However bankers from Great Britain were back in business in America a mere 2 decades after we supposedly won the Revolutionary War.  And the result of that is that now we have the Federal Reserve and the IRS; two of the most unconstitutional institutions ever devised.

Anyone who believes you can run any type of functional society on a currency that is valueless except in the conceptual mind has a serious lacking in the discipline of mathematics.  Which is probably why it is a societal norm to loath the practice of it.  I'll paraphrase what FDR once said.  Everything that happens in the political arena is by design.  Don't think for any instant that chance or incompetence has anything to do with it.

Although since most Americans find it hard nowadays to even speak with correct grammar I suppose it is not to difficult for them to imagine that the political leaders are just as careless and fumbling as they are, but this is not the case.  However don't get me wrong.  I still agree with Covarr.  If more people had any sort of work ethic and sense of self control this would have never happened in the first place.  But alas people fall into helplessness and greed, thinking that they need a handout rather than a hand up.  It is a true humanitarian crisis that calls for compassion and re-education.  Unfortunately, those who are educated in this country tend to have very little in the way of compassion for the uninitiated.  When the end goal is to maximize profits above all else, there is very little room for it after all.

In my eyes the American Dream would be something along the lines of liberation from oppressive laws and taxation as well as enlightenment from ignorance and greed and the spreading of that ideal to the rest of the world.  In that respect the American Dream ended almost as soon as it began.  George Carlin said it best.  You'd really have to be asleep to believe it at this point.

81

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] Re:Sampled - High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-24 21:12:27 »

Okay fix for nivl is live sorry it took so long. On the first post.

82

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] Re:Sampled - High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-16 21:40:27 »

Sorry its taking so long to release a fix.  I have been extremely busy these last few weeks but I will get on it soon hopefully.

83

Completely Unrelated / If communism is the devil, why is utilitarianism gospel

« on: 2014-08-12 03:31:59 »

aren't they based on the same principal

namely that
collective > individual

any takers?

84

Completely Unrelated / Re: Enjoy n64 emulation?

« on: 2014-08-11 23:30:59 »

2.1 is extremely broken.  Crashes a lot and should not even be a point release.  Most likely the authors just gave up entirely and that's why they open sourced it.  Thought maybe someone else would do something with it but I guess most devs aren't interested in platform restricted emulators these days.  The last stable release was 1.6 which is still probably the safest bet if your really against using the superior in every way RetroArch for some reason.  Might wanna wait for the next point release for a more up to date core though.

As far as cen64 and mupecan64 I kinda wish they would work together on a unified project instead of on two different projects with exactly the same goals.  But I guess that's just how they want it.  Probably foreseeing some sort of future debate as to the direction of the software.

85

Completely Unrelated / Re: Enjoy n64 emulation?

« on: 2014-08-11 04:41:18 »

Accurate N64 emulation is a long way off, which is why I invested in a framemeister and an everdrive 64.  Also I custom modded my N64 and painted it.  Took forever because I actually wet sanded and buffed for every coat, but it looks like it was actually made this color now rather than obviously and cheaply painted which so many customs do.  Also it looks brand new 

Anyway didn't angrylion already make and accurate low level graphics plugin for project 64 and other emus?  At this point I'd say retroarch's mupen64plus core is the best n64 emulator available, and you can use angry lions plugin with it too.  Works pretty flawlessly in most cases without any of the above graphical issues if your system can handle it.  Also it is the most alive with contributions and actual development.  Not to mention retroarch just kicks ass.  Project64 is actually quite dead even after being open sourced.  Sucks because I actually contributed to that project long ago.

also check out cen64 which will probably become the greatest of all 64 emulators if it is ever actually finished.  It will take probably half a decade for it to be in any respectable condition though lol.  I still hope marathon man finishes it just for documentation's sake if nothing else so future generations don't lose out on the greatness that is 64.

Haha 64 was all I had growing up if you can't tell 

86

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98/Steam] Smoother 60FPS Battles (v0.82)

« on: 2014-08-09 16:55:46 »

I just decided to give this project a go after backing up my current install.  I have to say it is much better and more noticeable than I expected at first.  Now I really wish my HDMI port on my laptop wasn't broken so I could capture this and show it off.  Somebody needs to make a video of this mod.  Even though some glitches remain it is absolutely fantastic and people need to see it for themselves.

87

Team Avalanche / Re: [HD Remake] WIP Sector 5 slums

« on: 2014-08-09 16:42:27 »

While in the end it is entirely up to the modelers I would like to apply my two cents.  First of all, by changing the scale of the game your implying that realistic texture models will then have to be created on top of the fact that animations would have to be reworked entirely, probably from the ground up.  In fact you might have to facilitate some sort of creation of a new model format entirely so that we can actually animate the models using modern standards rather than cutting them up into pieces.

Secondly, this isn't just a minor deviation from a rigid framework but an entire reimagining of the projects goals.  From the the start TA has been about accurately recreated the graphics based on their original artwork and proportions.  To go from a faithful recreation to scale realism is at odds with the very core philosophy of the project.

Now to be clear, I would thoroughly enjoy playing either project in the end and I am not saying any of this to pick sides.  More to illustrate that if you want to continue in this direction you might want to consider changing the name of this project to reflect the change in philosophy and leadership.  Furthermore the implication of work involved compounds exponentially if your goal is to actually bring the project to absolute visual consistency (because of model animations, probably walk meshes and any other unforeseen issue that arises in changing scale).  Not to mention the fact that many field scenes have already been worked in TA style and would have to be redone again to fit the new scale.

Lastly, just in my opinion, if I were to choose I would prefer an artistic recreation if your going to stick with the core game-play mechanics such as prerendered backgrounds, text interactions and everything that implies.  However I would prefer an accurate scale recreation if we could somehow break from prerendered backgrounds in the future and add in voices and more complex world dynamics like a controllable camera and a new model format.

Anyway that's just how I feel about it.

88

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] Re:Sampled - High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-08 16:08:49 »

try removing the lighting texture and let me know if that fixes it.

89

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-06 00:50:59 »

Sorry for the misinterpretation - that's a classic shortcoming of written communication. Especially when you joke and speak seriously on the same topic. That's why we have all these emoticons    

Your right.  I apologize I should have made it more clear I guess I was just being lazy.  Hopefully I at least garnered a few laughs in the process   

90

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-05 22:55:27 »

No.
As I was explaining previously in this thread, the 2D artists needs to pay attention to copyright matters. Unless I can be assured that an underlying image (meaning, before photoshopping) can be used, I would rather not use a derivative work. Image alteration doesn't not change ownership. The question I would have is: if you change an image so much that the original is no longer recognizable, would copyright still apply? I don't know where the law stands on the matter.
We in Team Avalanche have to walk a fine line in order to remain within the context of fair use to merely apply our mods to the game. Last thing we want is to have to debate of fair use during the making of each of the scenes. I hope you understand what we have to deal with, and that's also why I have refrained from applying filters on googled images to do the trick. So, that's why I need help, and that's why these images would take time in the making.

I am sorry I though it was obvious that it was a joke.  I didn't even fill in the black properly and it looks terrible please, nobody, consider using it for real.  Seriously though, if I was gonna do it I'd probably do a 3d model first of a chibi in a similar pose but with more detail (like TA Cloud chibi).  And then render him into the image.

91

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-04 22:08:23 »

Done! Move on.

92

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-03 22:35:15 »

took a stab at it just for fun.  This was just real quick to give you an idea.  I prefer the first one as well but it just needs to be a bit more stylized like the second.  Also, you've got to have a beard!  Actually if we could find a photo of Chuck Norris in this pose it would be ideal!

93

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] Re:Sampled - High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-03 16:17:44 »

fix is live

94

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds - Re:Sampled (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-03 04:23:12 »

Yeah I figured there would still be a few of those left thanks for pointing it out.  I'll probably pump out a small fix in the morning.  I am tired and need to sleep.

95

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds - Re:Sampled (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-02 19:27:42 »

Thank you.  Glad it wasn't a complete waste.  I just found a few transparency errors that I missed so I uploaded a small fix for the two scenes.  Download it in the first post and replace to two folders in the field folder with the new ones to fix a white block that shows up around the door way in the train.

96

Releases / Re: [FF7PC-98] High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds - Re:Sampled (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-02 18:12:09 »

Thanks a lot man.  I also forgot to mention that I kept the lighting layers in this time.  I like it better this way even with the glitches.  I am sure aali will figure it out someday anyway.

97

Releases / Re: [FF7PC] High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds - Re:Sampled (v2.0)

« on: 2014-08-02 17:54:48 »

2.0 is live!  The new demo is also live as well as some new comparison images all on first post.  I used the same images that Omzy used so it is easier to compare our two projects. 

*off topic*
Also Kal do you have any plans on finishing these chibis?  I love them
*/off topic*

I hope you all like it and as always please mention any minor imperfections if you find any.  Also could we move this to the released board?

98

Releases / Re: [FF7PC] High Resolution Pre-Rendered Backgrounds - Re:Sampled (v1.1)

« on: 2014-08-02 14:36:30 »

That is killer man, got any screens?

99

Completely Unrelated / Re: Unsure where to post this, but my avatars never show up?

« on: 2014-08-02 04:10:50 »

okay real simple answer  to this one.  When you use two http the forum has no idea where the file is so it doesn't give an error.  With just one http you get the error that the file is too large.  This means it is finding your image and the file size or dimension is too large.  The maximum size is 150 x 150 pixels i believe and there may be a filesize issue but a compressed png or jpg should fit just fine.

I can tell you right now that that photo is too big so open it in an image editor and bring the dimensions down a bit.

100

Team Avalanche / Re: Team Avalanche looking for 2D artists

« on: 2014-08-01 20:39:08 »

That's a really good basis especially since its official artwork from the actual game.  My vote is on keeping the text japanese.