Hi all,
I just started playing the Steam version of FF8 and the characters and objects look nice and crisp but the backgrounds are so pixelated that it makes me die a little on the inside. When I had that feeling playing FF7, I resized them myself with long-handed photoshop algorithms, but I could conveniently rely on Aali's driver doing the import nice and clean.
However, with FF8, according to Aali (in response to Mcindus' Triple Triad HD project),
FF8PC emulates the playstation GPU for most parts of the game. Thats bad news for several reasons but just to name a few it means the game has limited memory available for textures, doesn't use relative UV coordinates and does not readily accept textures in any other size or format than it was designed to. I don't think you'll have much luck, unfortunately.
My problem is that I'm so obsessive that I can't take no as an answer. I know that if I take the game apart myself binary bit by bit, I can build it again, theoretically, so that it will work however I want it to, given an infinitum of time. My question for those who have the knowledge of game engines, gpu architecture, executables, drivers, etc, what is the path of least resistance to allowing this game to accept larger textures? This may include some reverse engineering, recompiling executables, creating DLL's, etc.
Please use this topic as a place to sound off and throw your ideas around.
My hope is that when I have time on my hands in about a year, this question will be answered, or at least someone can provide me with the right direction to learn the things necessary to complete this task. I really believe it is a step-by-step endeavor, but right now the steps are not clear to me.