Messages

1

General Discussion / FF7 - Advent Children for PS2 coming late 2004!!

« on: 2003-09-26 03:47:46 »

i just hope Barret, Tifa and the others make it to this "upgrade" movie, game or not....man, can't wait for their realistic renditions.....Vincent would probably look soooo damn cool!! Unless he's not included coz he was an easter egg in the 1st game.... -_-

p.s.

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Re: 3ds max

« on: 2003-09-25 20:16:45 »

well just found a way to convert the .lwo models created by biturn to 3ds max while maintaining the colours

its done using deep exploration.

u simply convert the lwo to vrml 2.0 and then import into 3ds max and you will have the full model with the proper vertex colours.

now i just have the problem of getting the proper bones in 3ds max its not as easy as lightwave where u just choose convert skelegon to bones.

i'd like to offer advice bein one o the first who attempted this lwo>max conversion...import it by parts and rig it yourself...that way you can have an easier time than say manipulating the bones in lwo to give you a free pose so that you can bone it anew in max....coz vrml 2.0 doesn't do bones...even if it does..max won't recognise it :/

i was planning to improve upon the models in terms of making them high poly but unfortunately i hav somehow lost interest in FF7...for the time being....until "Advent Childern" comes out anyway

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General Discussion / FF7 - Advent Children for PS2 coming late 2004!!

« on: 2003-09-25 20:08:33 »

man i've just heard about this today...(they're talking about it on the polycount boards) enough to warrant a return to the "FF7 Qhimm forum flock" after a few months "tenure"....good to be back...this is something to look out for...i just hope it's a game...and not a movie....

anyone notice how Cloud's new outfit resembles Aurons?



and what's this about Squaresofts "far east asian" looks? Cloud looks like your typical prettyboy caucasian to me....nothing like "oriental mix" Tidus of FFX fame..

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General Discussion / looking for FFX art (not CG renders)

« on: 2003-03-23 16:58:32 »

exactly.

I mean it's the most "popular" Final Fantasy to date. (considering the fact that it did get a sequel...a "first" in a long line of Final Fantasy titles....what's up with that anyway?? Why not make a sequel of FF7... :z  instead.)

Not that i'm complaining. Just got the import version of FFX-2 today. (courtesy of my lil bro who subsequently accompanies my pop every once in a while to Singapore or Hong Kong for business trips...Probably won't play it though....jus wanted to see the cutscenes...lol that's me..)

When's the U.S. version due anyway?...

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General Discussion / looking for FFX art (not CG renders)

« on: 2003-03-12 19:18:46 »

does anyone here know of a good FFX site that showcases Tetsuya Nomura's take on the FFX characters (not ingame models rather his drawings)??

i'm curious as to what the "not so important" NPC's look like. (U'd probably notice that not a lot of detail in terms of facial structures went into them) Jus wanted to see what maybe Dona (very ugly ingame lol), or the other summoners look like.

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Troubleshooting / Skin Textures in FF8 PC

« on: 2003-02-03 15:28:29 »

mirex : can this extract FF8 battle models or just textures...(like Squall, Rinoa, 3d model?)

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Troubleshooting / Skin Textures in FF8 PC

« on: 2003-01-31 17:15:09 »

Griffen1: pc version. and thanks but anyone can do it.

sadly, not me :weep:

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Troubleshooting / Skin Textures in FF8 PC

« on: 2003-01-31 03:13:48 »

Mirex u da man!.....uhmm man.

If there b someone who can unlock the secrets of FF8 model extraction he b Mirex  

lol yeah that's me. After all u did such a good job with FF7 that hey new breaktrhoughs with FF8 couldn't b far behind. So are u planning to tackle the psx version or the pc version. Either way i'll wait for this. Guaranteed.

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Troubleshooting / Skin Textures in FF8 PC

« on: 2003-01-29 15:37:52 »

Ai ! I started to work on FF8 just recently ... but still i cant make sense of character 3d data block ... qhimm, can you help me ? do you still have the sourcecode ?  

I can read all the textures, even character/battle scene ones. So wait a while 'till i finish it at least somehow usefull ...

now there's somethin to look forward to  . Can't wait actually.

Halkun: u still hav that ff8 extractor Qhimm wrote? Can u maybe put it up for download?

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 help!... compatibility issues?

« on: 2003-01-28 07:03:14 »

8.1! Bah... 'tis old! Direct x 9 is out!

cool. gotta update then. thanks for the info

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF7 help!... compatibility issues?

« on: 2003-01-27 21:05:54 »

downloading the latest version of directx might help if any...

the latest is directx v 8.1 or sumfin not really quite sure...i'm an airhead when it comes to technical stuff. :z

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General Discussion / A Different FF7 story view...or the same one..(spoilers)

« on: 2003-01-24 04:16:41 »

I'd had found it more believable if say Sephiroth WAS the son of one Vince and Lucre...then altered to suit Hojo's needs for an experiment.

U know wut? I DO remember reading about that particular issue...i just don't remember where.....(c'mon 4 years is a long time :z )

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / To sephiroth 3d...lightwave question :)

« on: 2003-01-24 04:04:05 »

thanks for the tips   , u've been a really big help, as usual. Gonna try em out now.

Man i love this forum. Must b why i visit it so much.

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / To sephiroth 3d...lightwave question :)

« on: 2003-01-23 20:32:11 »

first of, thanks for any help u can provide...

i noticed that in ur pics, when u render in lightwave u lose the pink highlighting the eyes edges (alpha-ed out right?)



how do i do that?

and how do i make it so that the light cast is balanced both back and front coz i noticed that when i load the object only the front part is lit well



thanks again...and oh btw that tip u gave me about baking the vertex colors work ...only when u bake the lighting also affects the vertex maps outcome and when i bake due to lighting not reaching the back side of the battle models it's comes out dark

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle model question...

« on: 2003-01-20 04:59:57 »

A "Vertex Map" is what Lightwave calls the collection of point color information on a model. It's not really a map. It's applied to a model, not (too much) unlike a regular map, but you can't (TIKO*) be exported as an image map.

Now that I think about it now, taking it to LW6.5/7, then creating a UV Map for the model, and "baking" the model with it's vertex colors on it would be one way to export the vertex colors as an image map. You'd just need a way to export LW's UV map info and import it into Max. (Otherwise, you'd have to manuall rebuild the UV map in Max.)

The problem is that the colors would be resolution dependant, and might loose quaility as you get closer to the model.

And Sorry, I can't teach you. I'm rather busy with school, and my webcomic. (I'm swamped with homework, and it's only the first week!!)

some other time then....i'll check in on wut u said...hopefully i'll manage to at least try to get some of it on my own

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF8 model extractor

« on: 2003-01-19 08:07:30 »

Ok uhmm...so can anyone b kind enough to tell me what file format the battle models/field models in FF8 are...can they be converted into any other 3d format to date...
like i dunno raw 3ds...

ok thanks

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle model question...

« on: 2003-01-19 07:56:09 »

nice.

as for me i've put my "FF7 to 3dsmax" retexturing on hold. Gotta wait for Mirex. Can't wait to see what he can come up with next. Man...I'm so excited.  

Equally as exciting as waiting for Devil May Cry 2 to b released for PS2...Wahoo!!

a-hem (collects himself)...anyway...

Sephiroth 3d: i remember u mentioning in another thread that u could save the vertex colors into a "vertex map" in LW 6.5+

so does this mean that u've successfully managed to seperate the textures now?

If u could can u teach me how? I'm still not that "proficient" when using Lightwave -_-

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General Discussion / Hunting for "Story" people

« on: 2003-01-17 06:03:55 »

ah, so it's like a prequel of sorts...something like what they were doing before the game itself.

errmmh...i haven't played FF7 for the longest time (try 4 years) and do correct me if i'm wrong, but, most of the characters aren't exactly doing anything at that time ....but hey that's the nice thing about creativity/free reign...u could certainly make them do something.



Barret : no problem he has a lot of back story to cover, all the way to his old mining town whatsisname.

Tifa : has had close ties with Avalanche in general...so  pre-adventure/ acts of terrorism/ roughousing couldn't be far off..even before Cloud joined in.

Although as an alternative u could probably tap on young Tifa and one of her adventures while training with her martial arts teacher. (again, i'm basing this on what little knowledge i hav left after a 4 year hiatus from the game...and countless other RPG gamings later so my memory could b sketchy at best)

Aerith : life as flowergirl...hmm...all i can think off at the moment   -_-

Red XIII : maybe something on the events that lead to his capture?

Yuffie : Ninja Clan. Attitude. Kleptomaniac. with her kind of lease on life she most likely would get into all sorts of fn situations not to mention stupid ones  :z

Cait Sith : can't think of anything on this one...unless u'd prefer a story about the person who controls the oversized moogle and weird looking Cat.

Cid : life as one of the best aviation pilots ever to grace the whole of the FF7 planet...lotsa possibilities.

Vincent: life as a Turk...man Vincents past has been tapped on so many times by fanfic writers that it would b impossible not to get any beef on him.

but i'm sure u guys hav thought of every single one of these before...in a way, it's like a refresher course for me..trying to remember this an that heh.

although, personal opinion, i think a "sidestory" instead of a "back story" would be a better way to go...for one, it's simply tapping into a readily built aspect of the FF7 continuity, their attitudes, outlook, and whatnot are established as opposed to making a story before they actually joined the crew. And they're all there

It'll be more like an episode...a lost episode that never made it to the actual story per se. Where the cast were momentarily deviated from their tracks to deal with an "unknown terror"...lol.

as u can see i've obviously put a bit of thought into this one...with lack of better things to do...anyway....it was fun. Thanks for listening .

19

General Discussion / A Different FF7 story view...or the same one..(spoilers)

« on: 2003-01-17 05:38:02 »

A Different Look at FF7's Story  

by Bart  

Okay, this is my first editorial, so bear with me while I do the obligatotry introduction. My name is Bart, and I love RPGs. I am not an old-school or a new-school gamer, I just like to play the games. Anyway, I wrote this because I've seen a lot of people talk about the story of Final Fantasy VII and very few, if any of them, seem to realize what I'm about to point out. So, without further ado, here's the editorial:

Lets start off with a little quiz here, to refresh your memory in case you haven't played the game in a while:

1) When is the first time, outside of the flashback in Kalm, that you see Sephiroth in the game?

2) Who did Cloud give the Black Materia to at the Temple of the Ancients?

3) Were you upset when Sephiroth killed Aeris?

Now, I know you think these are very simple questions, and here are the answers most people probably gave. 1) The boat from Junon to Costa del Sol. 2) Sephiroth, and 3) yes. However, every single one of those answers is wrong. Sephiroth was not on the boat, or at the Temple, and he did not kill Aeris.

But wait, you say: I remember all of those things happening. And yes, you saw them, but you probably did not think about them enough. The real answer to number 1 is the North Crater, just before the Weapons are released. Prior to that scene, it is not Sephiroth you see, but Jenova. How many of you remember this quote, "The ability to change one's looks, voice, and words, is the power of Jenova." It is given by "Sephiroth" in the Crater, while Cloud is being shown his "true" past.

Once you realize that it is Jenova you are chasing everywhere on Discs 1 and 2, a lot of things in the game begin to make more sense. Going back to answer 1 above, do you remember how Sephiroth didn't remember who Cloud was in that scene? That's because it was Jenova there, and she had to reach into Sephiroth's memory to see who this person was. When you meet again in Nibelheim, she knows who you are. Jenova is also responsible for the massacre at the Shinra Building, the killing of the Midgar Zolom, and many other acts attributed to Sephiroth in the first half of the game.

So, does this mean Sephiroth is blameless in everything that happens? No, it does not. He chose to destroy Nibelheim, he chose (or agreed with Jenova) to try to absorb the Lifestream. It was Sephiroth who summoned Meteor. But he was killed in Nibelheim, by Cloud. It was only his great will that kept him from joining the Lifestream. Jenova was merely using his form to travel around because she knew it was powerful and would have a great psychological impact on people she met.

edit----i dunno if u guys saw this editorial already...but i jus got to find it quite by chance while looking for an FF7 story i could read to refreshen my memories about the actual storyline of the game (4 year absence from it)...it makes a lot of sense...storywise and it's something i never even thought of before i read the article ( i know...i know...a bit daft..yeah?)

thanks.

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General Discussion / Hunting for "Story" people

« on: 2003-01-16 18:11:08 »

forgive me if i made a mistake...

i kinda understand that there's a policy here about old/dead threads being
dug up again...anyway...

i haven't been here long but i've read about this remake as far as a few months back. I jus wanted to inquire about a few things.

Is there any specific time in which u guys want this "side story" to take place...i read that this wouldn't exactly be a sequel but more like an extra story...i'm guessing here but i think u'd place the new story  somewhere within the FF7 story itself.  

If u guys permit me a small suggestion which i'm sure someone already suggested before me....go with the FF7 fanfic writers i know most of the fanfics released are after the actual FF7 story but they're good stories translating to good writers nonetheless.

I'd be happy to contribute if u'd let me...new character designs anyway say, new antagonists, that would bar the way from certain points of the story for the Avalanche crew (hopefully Aerith included)....like an episode per se lol. Thanks.

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General Discussion / FFVII-2??

« on: 2003-01-16 17:55:08 »

i definitely think a sequel would b great...i mean..think of all the possibilities....Storywise...i'm sure Square will think something up...they always do...i mean c'mon it's Squaresoft we're talkin about here..

Xenogears, Chrono Trigger. Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, FF series (except FFVIII and that gawdawful movie)...flawless.

Graphics : hopefully improved...and new character designs/costumes/hairstyles (FFX-2 anyone?) if they intend to use the original cast...which i hope they do...WOW!!

can't wait for that...a remake of the best RPG of all time (for me anyway)

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General Discussion / FF10 for PC...or not?

« on: 2003-01-16 09:55:57 »

The biggest thing needed is not money, but VISION.  Vision or having a concept that is compelling is hard to get these days with instant gratification in everything including program developement.  Bottom line is RPG's are stories, they need to be as good as a novel with the interactive twist.

Square has done OK recently but I think they could do better.

AMEN. Bruder. Glitz is one thing...having come up with an actual good story is another.

good RPG storytelling seems to be having quite a dry spell lately.

P.S. I actually liked both Soul Reaver games (having not played the original Blood Omen) an am eagerly awaiting the next installment...i hated Blood Omen 2 though...the graphics sucked and so did the story...to depressing for me.

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / FF8 model extractor

« on: 2003-01-15 13:07:27 »

excuse me...Eight? that a program or sumtin?

edit :

nevermind-- jus found out...

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle model question...

« on: 2003-01-15 13:04:20 »

I think that summons are in magic.lgp, and highwind should be in world.lgp. But summon models cannot be viewed completed, only by parts. They have different fileformat i think. Haven't checked on it yet.

different format? does that mean i can't open them in biturn? (Hopefully support in future versions  )doesn't matter if they're in parts...i'd probably end up rebuilding them either way. thanks i'll check em out

-- edit --
Now i see that vertex colours can be done in MAX ... so i will work on it

YAY!!

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Scripting and Reverse Engineering / Battle model question...

« on: 2003-01-13 05:39:27 »

summon battle models anyone? i can't seem to find them in the battle lgp folder.

and Cid's Highwind...is there a model that can b found?