Author Topic: Final Fantasy VIII in Retroarch with additional shaders (Read 22360 times)

mikevincent · « **on:** 2018-01-19 10:23:08 »

Just wanted to show how it is possible to make old pre- rendered games look like with shaders only. No mods required, just play the game as it was meant to be played. This configuration is trying to look as close as possible to Waifu2x. Works with any ps1 game. Please look in at least 1440p.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruRwL8Zwszw

hay · « **Reply #1 on:** 2018-01-19 10:54:39 »

Haha, you went too far! This looks like a painting, not a game.

Mcindus · « **Reply #2 on:** 2018-01-19 15:51:45 »

This works great if you're using the PSX version, because currently, you can't inject tonberry into a psx emulator. It's a bit watercolor-esque, but I do like how you've given it the waifu thing. I do think it's a tad much, but much better than nothing.

I currently use all Tonberry mods from the Lunatic Pandora pack (gfx), Roses and Wine (music), GeDoSaTo (SuperSampling in 4k), and Reshade (AA, Bloom, CelShading, TintCorrection, LensFlares)

My game looks amazing. You should try it out.

mikevincent · « **Reply #3 on:** 2018-01-19 17:49:01 »

The thing is, I play alot of other old ps1 games, escpecially rpgs so thats why I want it to look good thru emulation. Here are some images with the same shaders from other games -

mikevincent · « **Reply #4 on:** 2018-01-31 22:57:39 »

Managed to sharpen everything up. Runs in native 1x res hence why the 3d models looks so bad

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #5 on:** 2018-02-01 07:32:03 »

It all looks like waterpaint... Both interesting and weird at the same time.

mikevincent · « **Reply #6 on:** 2018-02-01 11:16:45 »

It is a matter of taste indeed. Since it is running thru a good emulator in native res you also get rid of every graphical glitches wich is good. It plays like its on a ps1 except it looks like this.

hotdog963al · « **Reply #7 on:** 2018-02-01 22:41:11 »

It would be alright if you could run the pre-rendered elements through the shader, but running the entire game through it like that just looks wrong to me. The text is so distorted.

I found I had the most satisfying results with the 'CRT Royale' shader. If you haven't tried it yet, I'd suggest giving it a spin. I ended up loving it so much I got myself a PVM for the true experience!

mikevincent · « **Reply #8 on:** 2018-02-02 00:48:08 »

I understand what you mean with the text. It looks different, sure. But I wouldn't call it distorted. These images dont make it look right tough. I don't know why, but it looks better in game (not by much) than on these images. I was very careful to not mess up text.
Like I said, this is a matter of taste. I prefer detail- loss over pixelation. Some people dont like Waifu2x's look at all while some other do. I myself have never understood the thing with crt shaders. I don't miss my old tv's at all. Here are some comparisions with crt- royale.

Kaldarasha · « **Reply #9 on:** 2018-02-02 08:38:46 »

I do not understand why people use scan lines to get the old look. CRT TVs used a dot mask which results in a different look than a PC CRT monitor.

jasmer · « **Reply #10 on:** 2018-02-02 16:37:48 »

I'm diggin the painting look.

Mcindus · « **Reply #11 on:** 2018-02-02 17:08:24 »

This does look really good for being able to have as a post shader. I know how hard it is to fine tune settings in a post shader, so you've done a good job replicating the waifu look. I'm not the biggest fan due to the loss of color depth. I prefer to do a blurred gaussian pass and use it as a color overlay of the waifu image that i've 'high passed' through a filter. This gives all of the edge detail of the waifu while keeping the color gradients that waifu is excellent at decimating for getting that 'anime' look. My process is probably easily solvable with a shader as well - would be cool to look into.

mikevincent · « **Reply #12 on:** 2018-02-03 18:37:30 »

Thanx

That process is easily solved with ReShade. As long as you have the waifu2x filtered images ready, since our gpu's are way too weak to run that in real time. It's a real bummer.
The reason I prefer to make an emulator look good instead of modding a pc version is, of course, it's gonna effect all games. And ps1 has lot of great rpg's except Final Fantasy (SUIKODEN 2)

Here are some more images.

btw, checked with Afterburner, these shaders uses up to 70% of my 980Ti. For beeing ps1 emu, that sure is alot. Wonder what its gonna take to run srcnn shaders in a near future. GTX 4080Ti or something probably ...

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #13 on:** 2018-02-04 07:36:12 »

It's off-topic but I wish we could use the Octane as a rendering method in FFVII... that way we might be able to use photorealistic high quality images and models. I have the feeling I'm saying something wrong here so please correct me.

Kaldarasha · « **Reply #14 on:** 2018-02-04 11:53:02 »

Well, since FFIX use unity it is probably the only game which could make use of it.

LeonhartGR · « **Reply #15 on:** 2018-02-04 12:25:12 »

I'd love to play FFIX in such quality!

mikevincent · « **Reply #16 on:** 2018-02-04 13:16:39 »

I think next big step in emulation is gonna be with neural networks. It's gonna take a few more years but Nvidia, among others are doing alot of research and development to make these Ai's run in real time. Take this for instance

http://digg.com/2017/edges-2-cats-drawing-neural-network

It creates (wierd looking) photorealistic cats out of drawings. With more data and faster GPU's, Iam certain this will create perfect looking cats. Imagine if this technology could run in real time, as a shader over a emulated game. In theory, it would create perfect hd versions of old games on the fly.
This is probably at least 10 years away from us, but I would be very surprised if this wouldn't happen.

Neural Networks are definitely the future for gaming. And.. bassicly everything else.

In case someone has not seen this, just to show the power of NN -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3aXvYIWIq0

mikevincent · « **Reply #17 on:** 2018-05-08 16:15:45 »

Added some fake crt effect to the shader- setup I previously shown.

mikevincent · « **Reply #18 on:** 2020-02-11 01:21:14 »

Just wanted to show a new preset I made. It tries to look as close as Waifu2x as possible. I doubt its gonna get closer to a real time waifu2x than this.

gunner_1207 · « **Reply #19 on:** 2020-02-13 19:54:17 »

my brain is confused lol, i do like it tho didn't expect it to be so clean. worth a play trough on that definitely.very interesting good work

mikevincent · « **Reply #20 on:** 2020-02-14 03:51:24 »

Cant wait for real time neural network shaders (year 2040?). Probably the death of graphic upgrade mods.

And thanx Gunner. It is taken alot of experimenting to get this shader chain. It might be possible to get even closer to waifu2x, but I dont know if i can deal with more shader tinkering.

Gensoul · « **Reply #21 on:** 2020-02-14 15:47:49 »

That's not a bad way to play. For FF7-FF9 I prefer updated 3D models with AI backgrounds, but for sprite based games I sometimes like playing with filters that give them an anime/painterly look.

mikevincent · « **Reply #22 on:** 2020-02-14 17:29:42 »

The thing is I really dont like the pc versions of Final Fantasy. I also like the idea of making it look better on the fly. Nothing wrong with the mods people make, they are awesome. But like I said, i prefer the ps1 versions.

IFireflyl · « **Reply #23 on:** 2020-02-26 16:28:10 »

Beauty is subjective. For me, those shaders look pretty bad. Having said that, I'm glad you've found something you like. The important thing is that we all have a way to enjoy playing the amazing games we love.