[FF9PC] Background upscaling mod

[Ze_PilOt]

Awesome job Ze_PilOt, definitely an eye candy ! Merci à toi !

Is it possible to include in the memoria.ini an option for widescreen support during battles/fields only ? Something like:

WidescreenSupportField = 0
WidescreenSupportBattle = 1

Should be doable.

It's a bit annoying, but you can use alt-space to switch for now.

[kennybones]

This might not be the place to ask but I've tried to reinstall Memoria several times and it seems like its stuck on superspeed mode. Battles are atleast twice as fast, and I suspect everything else is twice as fast as well.

Btw, the backgrounds look even better now! I'm really impressed, it's like a whole new game!

[Ze_PilOt]

You can check the memoria.ini to see if something seems wrong. Probably battleFPS or battleSpeed.

[Fraggoso]

You should mention in your readme that it's vital to uncheck one specific Field in the extration of the PC Fields -> Opening-For-FMV or else HW will crash everytime.

[Ze_PilOt]

You should mention in your readme that it's vital to uncheck one specific Field in the extration of the PC Fields -> Opening-For-FMV or else HW will crash everytime.

Indeed. It's updated (as well as a better & faster way to handle overlapping layers).

[kennybones]

Just had to post this. Look at how beautiful the background are!
I'm also using a super light reshade that does very little, just some slight bloom and slight increase in saturation.

[Ze_PilOt]

The reshade is subtle and working very well ! Could you share your settings ?

They are still some artefacts around animated objects, but I have a way to reduce them quite a lot (and it doesn't need any reprocessing)

[Fraggoso]

Are you compressing your tex with DX5?
I opted for no compression ARGB and it looks better  but of course your filesize is bigger (packed it's still 2 Gigs or something). maybe you want to give that a shot as well.

[Ze_PilOt]

Are you compressing your tex with DX5?
I opted for no compression ARGB and it looks better  but of course your filesize is bigger (packed it's still 2 Gigs or something). maybe you want to give that a shot as well.

I tried ARGB but it doesn't increased the quality by a factor that justify the size of the files, and more importantly, the in-game loading times.

[kennybones]

Here's the preset:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLeVziSwonb43-W4EoXgQ0k_SOHUGM0f/view?usp=sharing

It's posted here too:
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/5520/

[Fraggoso]

Can you adept your script to take the PSX layers instead of the PC layers?
As the PSX Fields are stored in CD_X it's not as easy I guess?

I want to use the PSX Layers, Filter them and use them later on for the final cut.

Hm... If I run 1-match_pc_psx.py I don't receive the - match_PC_PSX.json but Duplicated_PC_Images.json

Error Message is:


Any clue? ^^

[Ze_PilOt]

The scripts are using the PSX layers. But some layers don't exists in the PSX version (ie. field text).
They also takes the PC version in the cases of effect layers (blending,...). You need both.

[Fraggoso]

I've both fields in their respective folder. :/
From my understanding is, that your script use the alpha from the pc version for the masking or not?

I want to use the psx masks instead.

[Ze_PilOt]

I've both fields in their respective folder. :/
From my understanding is, that your script use the alpha from the pc version for the masking or not?

I want to use the psx masks instead.

It will use the psx masks for compositing, and the PC mask for re-injection into the game. It is commented in the scripts.

As I've said in PM, for every tiff file exported from Hades, you should have a .tiff.info in the exact same folder, coming from my repository. You can easily spot missing tiff files by looking at a .tiff.info not having a .tiff file next to it.

[Ze_PilOt]

If you see a blank icon with no "image" icon next to it, you have a missing file.

It will be the same process for the PSX images.

[Ze_PilOt]

New version !

https://twitter.com/Ze_PilOt/status/1089207667304919040

Download link :

https://t.co/LtyUjPvhyC

The repository was also updated with the fixes used in that new version :

https://github.com/ZePilOt/FFIX_Upscale_Scripts/commit/e5d25cbefd7d65d557b7d292d86430995a4c591d
and
https://github.com/ZePilOt/FFIX_Upscale_Scripts/commit/73f2f52dfcab7814057702df68028f2209acdeab

[Bosola]

This is truly excellent work. It would never have occurred to me to use ML to upscale the background layers. The results are phenomenal in a game as beautiful as FFIX.

My only concern - and I don't really want to add a sour note to this discussion - what's the position of anyone who distributes artwork that's transformed from SE's original assets? Are ML manipulated backgrounds treated as a transformed work? I wouldn't want any HD pack to be stymied by legal problems.

[Ze_PilOt]

This is truly excellent work. It would never have occurred to me to use ML to upscale the background layers. The results are phenomenal in a game as beautiful as FFIX.

My only concern - and I don't really want to add a sour note to this discussion - what's the position of anyone who distributes artwork that's transformed from SE's original assets? Are ML manipulated backgrounds treated as a transformed work? I wouldn't want any HD pack to be stymied by legal problems.

I've asked SE directly, but got the usual answer : We can't endorse it, please follow the user agreement.

It's clearly in breach on that agreement on two points :
- Don't re-verse engineer the game
- Don't (re)use assets

For the first point, I'm living in Europe where such clause is illegal (https://www.worldcadaccess.com/blog/2012/05/eu-court-legalizes-reverse-engineering-of-software.html)
Anything for inter-operability is legal.

For the second point, I believe my work can be considered as fair used :
- It's educational (I'm releasing the whole process in open source), and cultural (restoring lost art).
- I do not sell it and have no commercial advantage.
- It's partial (it's only the background of the game, not the whole game) and derivative (restoration is considered derivative)
- It doesn't hurt their business (on the contrary, they can sell more games because of it)

Of course, if they send me a cease & desist, I won't fight against it, but I don't think they have any interest in doing so.

[kennybones]

The waifu background mods have been available for years for all FF games though. The only difference here is that an AI has learned how to paint.
If anything, mods like this will help sell the game! It brings more attention to the games and it's never looked better.

I mean, I bought the steam edition JUST to use this mods.

Edit: Looks like you're getting some attention Ze_PilOt
https://www.pcgamer.com/modders-are-using-ai-to-upscale-pre-rendered-ps1-backgrounds-with-phenomenal-results/?ns_campaign=article-feed&ns_mchannel=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0#comment-jump

[MattST]

Hello,

I've been trying to replace the download with the files in the FFIX steam installation folder, following instructions, but because I'm a real ignorant at these matters, something's wrong and I see all messed up crazy lines. I stayed up all night trying to make changes and figure something out. Could you please explain me from scratch how to install this mod? Sorry for this boring question and thank you ^^'

[PureRok]

It's been a while since I last played, so I don't know if I had this issue previously, but after installing this mod the game treats all of my button inputs as though I've hit the button several times.

If I press pause it will pause/unpause several times in quick succession. Same thing happens with other buttons and navigating menus. The game is running at 30fps, so I don't think it's running fast.

Edit: After further googling I found a fix for this. Seems to be an issue with the game and just starting the game without the controller plugged in fixes it.

[Ze_PilOt]

For my FF IX mod, I end up adding a lot of pre and post processing (de-dithering, sharpening, denoising) that took a long time to process.
So I'm retraining a ESGRAN network with the original background (no process) as input and the current version of my mod as output, and now, I will have a network that can get rid of dithering artefacts and have more details than the original process :

https://twitter.com/Ze_PilOt/status/1092709418276438016

I'm not sure that network will be usuable with any other kind of texture, but as many people use manga109 for stuff that are not drawed, it might work (probably for PSX textures)

[jasmer]

I peeked at your twitter link and my jaw literally dropped (I sound like a bad clickbait article now) when I saw one of the before and after sets. Absolutely fantastic.

[Fraggoso]

Are you going to add different methods to your mask?
I tried your mod and the only grudge so far is really the horrible PC mask. xD

If you want, I've a better method of processing the masks.

[Ze_PilOt]

Are you going to add different methods to your mask?
I tried your mod and the only grudge so far is really the horrible PC mask. xD

If you want, I've a better method of processing the masks.

I still don't get why you are saying that the PSX alpha are better.

The PC alphas are actually the PSX alpha rescaled + potraced.
As the game only support black & white alpha (no AA), it's the best way to manage them.

The main problem is that the PSX alpha are a bit off. At PSX resolution it was okay, but not at PC resolution.


Do you have any example of PC vs PSX ?