Qhimm.com Forums
Miscellaneous Forums => Troubleshooting => Topic started by: Richard Kain on 2004-08-16 23:40:16
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Okay, I am not a L33T programmer, but I know most of the basics. I do know a considerable amount about 3D modeling (especially for games). I have a question / querry about Final Fantasy 7 (for the PC). FF7 uses very few textures. But it does use textures. Most of the textures that it uses are applied to the environments. The World Map is textured, as are most of the elements in the Battle screens. The in-game models use almost no textures at all, but they also use them in at least one place. The eyes. The eyes are textures, which means that the character's heads must be texture mapped. My question is this. Would it be possible to texture the rest of the in-game models? When FF7 PC first came out, the approach they took was better for the hardware on hand. But with today's (and even yesterday's) 3D cards, the FF7 engine could probably handle fully-textured models easily. Could I take the higher-polycount battle models, for instance, and texture map them? What kind of additional programming would it take to reference the texture once it is created? Keep in mind I am asking this from a programming perspective, I already know how to texture map 3D models.
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It wouldn't work. The engine is very pick about the data fed into it, and it will only accept so much data for a model.
The models are vertex shaded. This was most likely done because of the limited memory available on the Playstation. The eyes are textures, but not the heads. When they ported it they didn't bother making textures because they either didn't need to (which they really don't, Direct3D supports it) or because Square did not want them to change anything. Also, cards of the era did support texture mapping. Look at GLQuake.
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I think it would be possible, but so far we do not know how to write modified .P (3D) files that engine would handle.
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Ah, mirex, so that is why there haven't been redesigned models built for the game yet. No one knows how to generate .p 3D files. So basically, there is no 3D exporter for .p files yet. Thats sad. I really wanted to make a higher-polycount super-deformed model that I could replace the world models with. Although I think textured models could really improve the graphical quality of the game, I have always liked the vertex shading they use, especially for some of the higher-polycount summons. (Bahamut... drooool)
Is anyone working on a model exporter for .p files? I'm pretty sure that I saw somewhere on these boards that someone had made a plugin that would allow you to import .p files into 3D Studio Max. I don't have 3DSMAX, but I use another 3D program (Blender), and it can import and export an enormous number of files. I have a decently powerful 3D card and I would love to take advantage of its resources in game.
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Ah, mirex, so that is why there haven't been redesigned models built for the game yet. No one knows how to generate .p 3D files. So basically, there is no 3D exporter for .p files yet. Thats sad. I really wanted to make a higher-polycount super-deformed model that I could replace the world models with. Although I think textured models could really improve the graphical quality of the game, I have always liked the vertex shading they use, especially for some of the higher-polycount summons. (Bahamut... drooool)
Is anyone working on a model exporter for .p files? I'm pretty sure that I saw somewhere on these boards that someone had made a plugin that would allow you to import .p files into 3D Studio Max. I don't have 3DSMAX, but I use another 3D program (Blender), and it can import and export an enormous number of files. I have a decently powerful 3D card and I would love to take advantage of its resources in game.
It's more than just the .p information you might need to deal with the HRC and skelton information. If you keep the same number of bones it's not a problem. As for what program to use, you could use GMAX (it's discreets free version of 3ds). It works pretty good for NWN tile sets.
However increasing the poly count might not be all that useful, the engine is old enough that I think it would be a problem. I suppose if enough of the data formats are found in FF7 (http://forums.qhimm.com/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=75a6b8711553699cadc0e076be3bf3d9<see Tech forum>), then perhaps a new FF7 engine compatible with the old data set is possible (and further tweaks and enhancements are possible).
Cyb