Messages

26

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2021-01-10 16:33:46 »

Yeah, I saw the seam but there's not much I can do about it. I tried a little bit to fix it before, but it was difficult. I also tried to find a higher-res version of that image but no luck. We can't make everything perfect sadly.

We had a major .ini overhaul recently. If anyone notices Aerith doesn't have her DMW portraits upscaled, please update on Github. eqprog is also going to go through the whole game again to find missing textures.

For some reason, I haven't seen Zakkura in the past few weeks, so I hope they're okay and nothing's bad happened to them.

I've been a bit busy and have had some burnout, but I wanted to post some updates.
I changed Zack's portrait into different art, simply because I like it better and it fits the original more. It also gives me OG FF7 vibes. I think the left tries to portray him more as "so cool" while the right makes him look more "sweet". I think considering the ending of the game, portraying him as "sweet" instead of "cool" makes more sense thematically.



I plan to go into Nibelheim's basement and upres some of the objects there:



I plan on updating all these bottles which got put through the upscaling deep fryer, here's some WIP. I also updated the little monster thing in the top right.



I'm almost done the 2nd Class sword, I'd like to release it before the end of the month:



I'm also working on an optional mod which makes 15-year-old Tifa less sexualized so she has less cleavage and covers her mid-riff, inspired by the "Modest Lulu/Rikku/Yuna" mods I've seen for FF10. This is closer to what she wore in the original FF7 and Last Order. I'm not a prude by any means and I know Tifa is a sex icon by now, but I never liked her sexy cowgirl outfit. For one, she's 15 and Japan's affinity towards rampantly sexualizing teenagers (and even children) in their games/anime makes feel iffy. I also feel it doesn't make sense, Tifa's a tour guide of the town, so I think she'd have more of a serious look. I think people's first reaction to seeing her should be "oh hey, it's Tifa" rather than "wow, that's a sexy girl". I like to think most people know better nowadays how to portray minors than they did in 2007.

I know some people don't like censorship so this mod is optional, and the FF7 Remake decides to double down with Crisis Core. This mod is just for those who prefer Cute Tifa over Sexy Tifa.

27

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-12-24 06:30:03 »

We got some publicity yesterday from PCGamer.com so that's nice.
The Discord had like 20-30 people join after. I think a lot of people don't want to make Qhimm accounts, but I've been reading some supportive comments so thanks.

The pack had a few updates, so if anyone downloaded the pack a few hours ago, their copy might have some errors. It's fixed now. The project is now Android-compatible as well.



I fixed Mr. Red's armpit here. Armpits have been a bit challenging since a lot of skin tone blends together there. It's not perfect, but you don't see them often.

Another new addition is the Buster Sword is now HD.





It's not totally finalized but it's good enough to be replace the original.
I have no idea why the original is so inconsistent with official art and the FMWs.

For future plans, I need to work on NPC phasing and updating the DMW portraits on the rest of the UI for consistency.

28

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-12-21 11:00:56 »

Hi Tellilum, I just saw your post (didn't notice it before), I fixed the warning, using almost the exact same font (Xolonium).



When entering Gackt mode, the white flash would look cut off like this.
This has been fixed.


The tablecloth in Angeal's house has been redone. Yes, I know it's not exactly the same, but I don't think anyone cares, I like the more intricate design over a plain one. I also changed the bowl of.... something.... into a bowl of nuts or seeds or whatever anyone thinks it might be.



Some cans in the (dumb)apple factory have higher resolution. If anyone spots any low-quality dumbapple cans somewhere else, please let me know.



I edited Lazard's widow's peak area to match his new hair tone, made his eyes a more pale blue like they were originally, and tried to get rid of the weird bright line under his lips.



Here's a Zack before and after for those curious, because I've never really done a full comparison with all these changes before:



Here's some future stuff I plan to do:

-I discovered if you do Cait Saith in the DMW, Zack model isn't updated with his long hair.
-NPC phasing, I'll take a look at and try to improve.
-I'm almost done the new Buster Sword.

I've also noticed people joining the Discord which is nice. I don't really know what people want from the project there, so I figure I'll just post updates and sneak-previews earlier there.

Finally, the RE4 HD Project is almost done so props to them. I hope our Crisis Core project can reach that level of finesse some day.

29

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-12-09 05:41:04 »

It's been a while since the last update so I wanted to share some stuff.

- Zack's low-poly model now has darkened hair as well so it's consistent with high-poly.

- Zack now has a new hairline (fade to black). I didn't notice how messed up it was because I didn't have the right brightness.



- Aerith has a new hairline. It isn't perfect but better imo.



I filitered Cloud's hair so it looks less pixelated.



I also fixed the umbrella here:



Currently, I'm going to be remaking the Buster Sword and will be doing some minor fixes around the Shinra Building. I haven't really heard from eqprog or Zakkura much, probably because it's this time of the year.

I'd like to see more feedback about the project from players, like people saying what they really feel could use improvement the most. It's been pretty silent from this angle.

As a reminder, everyone is welcome to contribute and this is open-source.

30

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-26 11:05:10 »

Some updates:

An electrical box in Midgar market has been redone:



The map has been redesigned so it looks more virtual.
Could the 9.13 I added in the corner be a secret reference to something?



I redesigned this console so it looks like people actually use it.
Before, it was just a vague screen:



The ugliest clouds in the game are now in HD:




Lazard's coloring (hair and jacket) is retouched:



Tseng had a weird coloring error where the inner portions of his eyebrows were off, so I needed to thicken them a little to fix it. Also retouched the forehead dot:



I fixed two animation errors that could happen when Angeal's and Zack's low-poly model first appear in Shinra HQ in the beginning of the game. For some reason, it didn't always appear, meaning I think some animation errors might be cycle-timing related somehow. If anyone sees any errors, please tell us..

Right now, I'm currently working to darken all of Zack's low-poly hair so it's consistent with his high-poly and looks less grey.

I'm also trying to make this view look better and more realistic:

31

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-16 18:09:42 »

Welcome back, I've been a bit busy too lately.

I think we'll let Zakkura work on the train station and basement lab until December, then all do Shinra Building that month.

I think I'm going to fix some transparency issues around Shinra Building and remove some CA in Nibelheim soon.

eqprog, if there's something I really think you could do if you're up to it, is redoing the Shinra directory:

https://i.imgur.com/PAOJfBl.jpg

The text is hard to read (should be less transparent and enlarged), that Sector 8 instead of Sector 0 thing is still there, and the map is off-center. If it's too daunting, I could take a look at it.

32

WIP / Re: Before Crisis Remake

« on: 2020-11-16 04:47:14 »

Those background pics are nice.

I'm just waiting for obesebear to push the project forward. I'm always at the ready for creating sprites. I've just been busy polishing the Crisis Core HD project for the past few months, but I'm pretty much done now with most of my work on that now.

I'd also be up for getting on Discord to make this Before Crisis remake project go faster.
At first, I was hesitant on Discord because I thought it wasn't needed, but I've now seen how much faster things go with people in tandem.

33

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-09 01:43:42 »

I added a "mods" folder to the main branch since people might like them and they're low-size.
I've been adding my texture edits to both the main branch and dev branch.
Zakkura should start putting the edits to dev, then doing pull requests if you want them to be consistent, eqprog.

Anyway, here the the three mods:

ZONE GEM REMOVAL


Removes the zone gems that appear when entering rooms so the game has a more realistic feel.
This only applies to removes you can enter, not blocked rooms which have red zone gems, so you don't have to worry about invisible walls.

TRANSPARENT UI



The battle HUD in the bottom right is semi-transparent for a cooler look.
It also removes the unnecessary "NEXT" icon.

SLASH REMOVAL

https://i.imgur.com/nTFJWb6.mp4

Makes it so that when Zack attacks, you don't see huge giant swirls which look a bit unrealistic and silly.
You still get a flash of light and sparks.
Unfortunately, removing the light flashes removes glows from other parts of the game so I just had to settle with the swirl removal for now.

34

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-03 22:13:03 »

It's okay, best of luck.

Zakkura, once you're done the train station, I think it'd be a good idea to do the underground lab in the Shinra manor because it's the worst place in the game imo. All the textures got dumped in the upscaling deep fryer. I think it's important we do this room before the Shinra Building in order to even the overall quality so if people decide to play, they don't see how jarringly bad it is compared to the rest of the game.

You can get to it using the "See You Soon" save in my original save file pack. Go wild, I trust you and thanks.

35

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-03 21:04:59 »

I think I see what you mean with the ropes. Still, the folder is just too disorganized for me, there's not a lot I can do about it. I also tried copying over Sephiroth's face, for example, to both the sephiroth and priority folder, but nothing got replaced.

You don't have to create an independent project, you can help us, I didn't mean to discourage you. All you have to do is send stuff in a way that works and meshes with our system, and the structure we've established.

The thing is tho, I'm tired of working on collab projects where someone's feelings get hurt somehow, and they decide to take down the whole project with them, which could happen with you from 6 months or something if you did help us out, since you're so eager to start your own project and not allow us to use your wagon textures, just because I'm having difficulty trying to merge your work.

Just think about this if you want to reconsider. If not, I'll have to upload some new upscaled wagons myself soon.

36

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-03 20:21:30 »

I don't think they're entire compatible.

For example, in our project, in the sign folder, this is the rope block:

00000000d9034ac76bbcf50f

https://github.com/eqprog/FF7CCUP/blob/master/textures/environment/sign/00000000d9034ac76bbcf50f.png

In your folder, it's 000000002d164594828aa3d5

If I try to copy over the entire enemies folder, nothing gets replaced.

I was able to copy Aerith's wagons at least, those were compatible.

I also don't really see much salvagable with your character edits either. They seem based on very old versions, or they're missing animation frames that would clash with ours and be a strange quality difference.

While I would like to copy your textures over, there's not much really feasible I can do with it given the organization. I should be able to copy the rope block over I posted above, that should be easy. Is there anything you think I should be able to easily copy over that you put a lot of effort into and think it's a good enough quality upgrade? And if so, where can I find it in the game (since I'll need to locate the texture addresses)?

37

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-03 17:28:16 »

Damn, I had no idea you working on so many textures, that's like 200 in the file.

The issue is, we can't just add all those texture.ini lines or else our upscale project is going to get complicated and disorganized (and have duplicate files, making the file size unnecessarily bigger than it already is), plus I don't think the codes of the textures is compatible with the NTSC-U version. It needs to be compatible with our hash algorithm.

I'll have to spend some time manually checking which texture corresponds to what and where. The characters and enemies should be fine, but that's still 150 textures I need to double check.

In the future, I think you should just use our pack and an NTSC-U copy of the game, and edit the textures in the folder that comes with our pack, and when you upload textures for us in a .rar, be sure to keep the folder structure in place like (textures > environment > sign). Also, it might be easier to just drop vierock's mod entirely since stuff like Banora and Nibelheim are going to be upscaled in the future by us, so you won't need to sort.

You should also learn the method we use the identify textures (rename textures folder to texturess, texture dump with a save state, look in the new folder, then edit the texture in the corresponding upscale folder, and rename texturess back to textures).

38

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-02 21:42:07 »

Train looks excellent, great work. Can you do a favor and brighten the Shinra logo on the train so that it looks natural? I think I accidentally made it a bit dark. Thanks. I also found some other issues that bug me a bit:



CA on the brick wall, a poorly upscaled lamp, and on the floor, there's a little bright light on which looks unnatural.

I duplicated the quality of the Shinra logo on the wall so it's not as pixelated (since there's a close-up of it at the beginning of the game) and I also brightened the shadow on the yellow warning sign since realistically, it wouldn't be that dark.

I just finished some work on a minor mod pack I plan to unveil in the future.

39

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-11-01 18:14:08 »

As much as I'd like to replace the low-poly with high-poly, I don't think it's possible because the two models animate very differently. If it was somehow done, then I imagine the high-poly models wouldn't be able to open their mouths or move their facial features at all. The only thing we can do is polish the low-poly as much as possible, possibly using expressions captured from the high-poly, with a lot of editing to make it look consistent.

GameCore, the base textures of Banora look good, although like I said, we'll have to do a coloring tint job. It looks like you're using vierock's textures as well (like the floor and maybe some foliage). Please keep in mind, we are not allowed to use vierock's textures at all. They came to the forum and left without much explanation, and if we did, we'd be using it without permission. Unless they come back and give us the OK, we can't use them out of respect. So basically, you should separate your textures from vierock's. Even if you edited a texture, if it uses vierock's as a base, we still can't use it. As annoying as it is tho, if you want to make a new version of anything vierock has done, you're welcome to. I do think the wreath is looking better. And vierock, if you happen to be lurking this topic and see this, we'd appreciate it if you did let us integrate your textures into our project.

40

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-30 20:14:44 »

All collaboration is welcome.

I think I've found out how to merge pull requests from dev to master, it's really easy.

-All stained glass is updated in the church, I'm going to move on from the church now, especially now that I'm done the floor and flowers. I know that the black outlines in the stained glass are very dark so I can always brighten them in the future. I also reverted the main ones to the original since I felt the stained glass was too pretty to be covered up, and it's more consistent with the ending FMV, even in spite of the remake.

- Something I did was redo the floor during Sephiroth's and Cloud's Limit Breaks:






Something I'd like to do in the future is redo the eyes of all the low-poly chars, as seen by one of the eyes here:



Unfortunately, it would be such a time consuming process so it's going on hiatus.

Once Zakkura finishes the train, I'd like to dedicate all of November to the Shinra Building since it's arguably the most important location in the game, then December can be our month to start doing a basic playthrough starting from the Wutai mission and onwards.

Also eqprog, just wondering, anyway to send me the Discord link to my forum inbox instead of email?

41

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-22 21:03:07 »

Yeah, I admit, I honestly have no idea how to merge branches much, so I guess I'll just submit my work to both branches for now...

I finished the church floor, the seams aren't totally perfect, I tried fixing them, but it was one of those "hell" seam ones so I decided to leave it. The church floor is a little darker which should hopefully hide the seams.

The top pic has as much details as Cloud's apartment door from the remake:







I'll also send you an email soonish.

42

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-21 18:02:11 »

Hi GameCore, thank you for your efforts.

I think those edits look good for the most part, but their coloring is off. This can be easily fixed using filters in Photoshop (I can do that).

I also think we need a better flower wreath than that, it looks too different imo.

It seems you're doing work around Banora, so you can finish up, then put all the textures in a .rar and upload it to filebin. I can edit the coloring and upload it to the project once you're done.

43

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-19 13:33:54 »

Yeah, those AC things really bug me, thanks for doing them.

People should be able to see Aerith's and Zack's recent edits now.
I found 4 missing Aerith animations during your date with her, they've been done and added to texture.ini:

00000000261f8f93b9efd5e7
00000000261f8f9327b64ace
00000000261f8f93a2cea9b1
00000000261f8f933a7a34b5

I deleted all the DMW flashbacks in all folders other than the flashback folder, and I think I deleted all the redundant lines in texture.ini. It should be fine, but if anyone notices a pixelated flashback, let me know.

Something I'd like for eqprog to do is to move the "edits" (714mb) and "masterdumps" (143mb) folders to another branch or project somewhere else on Github.
This would make it so people who download the project can save nearly a gigabyte.

I spent an hour touching up these flowers just because they irked me too much:





I think my next major thing I'm going to do is the church floors.

44

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-13 05:11:59 »

https://www.mediafire.com/file/urdzwzoopobxpoq/SAVEDATA.rar/file

The right folder ends at DATA7, then you just walk over to the trains.

I'm doing a bunch of little side projects right now such as:

-Church floor
-Church stained glass
-Remodeling Zack's sword
-Aerith's hair
-Better hairlines for everyone who needs them

Funny enough, the devs seem to have accidentally made the end of Aerith's ponytail a different shade:



Trying to do this hairline and one part inside her hair was oddly lit:



A WIP of the sword (I can't get a close look at the symbol, so I'm just going to go with what Birth by Sleep does and make it the SOLDIER symbol):

45

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-11 18:32:54 »

Alright, thanks. I took your advice, here's another version:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/9E2MJNNU

Brightened the eyes a little, readded 3D lips, hair wisps, defined one of the eyebrows more, and widened an eye just a little bit. The difference is really noticeable when you switch between 1 and 3.

46

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-11 17:07:45 »

Looking good, that's great now, love it.
And yeah, I know coffee shop sounds more natural, but I want to respect the original here.
I think "CAFE SHOP" has a bit of a Japanesey Engrish vibe which I think is very suiting to the world of Midgar, since it's a world that combines Japanese and English into a single city. I think it sounds cuter in a good way.

I just repainted Aerith's DMW face, I was never really wholly satisfied with it, she always looked a bit "off" - doll-like and not human. It's been almost a year since I first did this, so revisiting it with a clearer mind and fresher eyes (and playing the remake) has allowed me to focus on makes Aerith "Aerith".

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/7GPGPNNX

-Darker hair
-Thinner yet more defined eyebrows
-Less shiny eyes and less of her eyes hidden by her hair
-Smaller and brighter lips (less duckfacey)

I hope people like the newer face, if for some reason people prefer the old face, let me know.
I'd like to hear opinions.

I also did some minor touch ups on the rest of the cast.

Zakkura, I think I'll let you get a head start on the train station, so take a look at it and feel free to update what you think needs updating. Just remember, the train appears at a certain point in the game so let me know if you need a save file. Then me and eqprog can analyze and give our thoughts later.

47

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-11 09:36:58 »

That Three Stars sign looks good but I have some issues with it. I think you should be careful to stick a little truer to the original.

For example, you curved the text, changed "CAFE" to "COFFEE", duplicated the black top corners into the bottom corners (making the THREE and SHOP harder to read), and you got rid of the "FROM COAST TO COAST" text at the top.

Think you can re-do it? Of course, if you lost the .psd you used, we can move on, it just irks me a little.

48

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-10 09:09:58 »

Everyone just about ready for the train station?

I'm almost done HDing the flashbacks.
Sadly, Square never released HD FMVs so we have to rely on filtered cutscenes or art.

I'll have to delete all the redundant flashbacks through the various folders, then delete all the redundant lines in textures.ini later.













One of them was too poor-looking so I just changed it to a pic that conveys the same intent (Angeal looking out for Genesis).

49

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-08 15:45:34 »

Here's some samples of Zack's and Aerith's redone models, and closer shots of their new eyes.
I hope to roll them out by the end of the month.



Apart from the eyes, his eye whites have been brightened for a more realistic look, and his hair has been darkened (-50 brightness) because it looks too greyish.



Aerith will be given a new hair shade color closer to her art and remake.
If you look closer, you can also see that I made the lower eye outline less prominent for a less eyeliner look which makes her look more realistic.
Desaturation, warming filter 2 (uncheck lumi, slider 100) -10 hue, -20 saturation is the formula.

These changes are a bit minor individually, but all together, they add up.
I hope this makes the player identify them more as "human" and less like "virtual fantasy dolls".
Even a little change, like making Zack's pupils bigger, can subconsciously make him feel more friendlier.

50

Releases / Re: FF7 Crisis Core Upscale Project

« on: 2020-10-07 04:02:30 »

Thanks for adding the floor grit, it's something I wanted to but got lazy about doing.
Shinra Building is also looking more real.

I'm actually having a bit of artist burnout so I'll take a few days to relax.

By the 10th, I think we should work on the train station.

And it's not possible to edit models, only textures, AFAIK.