[FF7PC-98/Steam] FMV Restoration (Discontinued, use Steam FMVs)

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Now I could be wrong here but that sounds like a codec problem.  Are you sure the plugin that's beige used for playing that video supports that codec.  There are lots of reasons a codec might not be working right and I doubt aali's current driver supports most codecs out of the box.
 
Well latest test I did it seemed to be OK again...  I think it is an audio setting or 2 that the decoder does not like...

edit

The issue is solved.  Will upload new opening soon.
 
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Well I have been looking about with new tests and that's when I went back to Genuine Fractals.  The results are even better when I use it, but that means exporting every frame in every movie.   The quality difference is such that I can't really ignore the possibility that I may have to encode these files by extracting every single frame and then applying vegas encoder later.  Not to mention that there is a Super Resolution plugin somewhere which could possibly also increase quality.

The issue is that a video editor enlarges the video from 320*224 with a simple algorithm...  It does not try to keep the information whereas fractals does. 

The following is the sephiroth video with flames again, this time after fractals + enhancement.  It is the best I think is possible tbh.  The process is as follows:

1.  Use PsxJ to decode the movie from the PSX game
2.  Extract every frame with virtualdub to PNG/BMP
3.  Use Genuine Fractals on every frame
4. Use virtualdub to place files back into a video file (at 15 fps) with lossless encoder lagarith
5.  Place new video file into Sony Vegas and add a detail enhancer filter I have to it.
6.  Place original audio to the video
7.  Output vegas file with h.264+AAC encoder.

As you can see this is a sh*t load of messing about.  Not to mention harddrive and CPU resources.

An example of resulting quality is below:


https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1...NGM2YzhlYjgyNjdl&sort=name&layout=list&num=50


Well, looks like fractals option is by far the best of all.   Better than any other method. Sadly it is also the hardest of all.

-----------edit

This is the FIRST video to be replaced with new method.  And the beginning of this project:

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1...MjVkZDc1OWMzNjcz&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Go to junon and test the airfield elevator out (Upwards) and then try downwards and see the difference.  At 800*600 window mode, these fmvs are now better than the prerendered backgrounds.
 
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Wow

The difference in quality is staggering.

I have a hexacore CPU which is not doing much ATM.  If you're interested, send me a PM and a detailed method on how to properly extract from PsxJ, use virtual dub to extract to PNG, apply the fractals and repackage the movie and I'll do that for the files you want me to do.

By detailed method I mostly mean which software version, which settings, etc to keep consistency and get the best possible results.

I'll let the vegas part up to you though as I don't have the software and don't plan to buy it.
 
Thats ok, I will get back to you when I need to do the opening movie and the ending.  You will need:


Virtualdub
Photoshop
Genuine Fractals (latest)
Lagarith codec

Once you have the resulting lagarith encoded video, thats what I will need off you.  The resulting video for the opening alone, will be pretty large.  We can work this out at another time.  It may take 2 hours to encode the opening movie with even your computer.  The ending could take 10-20 hours.


I will give you a bat file which will do all the decoding (of PSX) for you without you having to mess with command line.
 
Wow so do you actually have to open every frame in photoshop, apply genuine fractals, save, rinse, repeat?  That seems like a lot of work in just opening, saving etc.  Is there anyway to make a batch that could knock out this operation for all pngs in a folder?
 
Yes, he's using a batch operation. So he said in teh irc.
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Except it still takes ages for it to do the batch but yes that's exactly what I am doing.  Good results have never come cheap,  nothing worth doing is as easy as telling sony vegas to go encode.

Big studios frequently have people working around the clock brushing individual frames.
 
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Big studios frequently have people working around the clock brushing individual frames.
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!! wow, i never knew this. I'd hate to spend years of schooling just to touch up individual frames of animation for a living! Certainly the folks who do this have much greater talents!
 
Well take star wars for example.   The camera frequently shows up in CP30's metal, someone has to go through all those frames manually getting rid of it. [saw it on official documentary] And of course they are probably paid crap loads for the effort.

Sci fi likes you to believe its as easy as applying a filter.  It isn't.
 
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At 800*600 window mode, these fmvs are now better than the prerendered backgrounds.
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Perhaps using Genuine Fractals on the matching pre-rendered background would help towards your goal of blending to the field graphic better?
 
Is this using your second/longer method?
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Yes, but of course even with that, the result will not be perfect and at times there are serious pixeallation effects due to the original PSX FMV sucking so much.

Perhaps using Genuine Fractals on the matching pre-rendered background would help towards your goal of blending to the field graphic better?
Click to expand...
It can't really be done because any matching up at that resolution will make the FMV slightly different to the blocky background (in game).  But so what :)
 
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OK, 1 last FMV, the Opening.  Now with new method and I have hand painted "Midgul" on the car to "Midgar" (not amazing...  but it isnt even seen it goes that fast).

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B1...ZGIzZTBhNjA4NTI3&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

The opening video fares badly because the original PSX vid encoder did not do a good job with it (lots of action and motion).  But this video is still an improvement over other methods.

New Method in full:

1.  Copy FMV from Playstation disc
2.  Use http://kenai.com/projects/jpsxdec/pages/Home PSX FMV converter tool (at highest settings), to get the FMV into uncompressed video
3.  Place video into virtualdub and extract all frames to PNG
4.  Run batch encoder in Photoshop with Genuine Fractals to enlarge the  frames to 1280*896 and place back to PNG
5.  Place PNG's back into Virtualdub and export to a lossless video with Lagarith
6. Lagarith Video goes into Sony Vegas where a Detail Enhancer by NewBlue Essentials 1 is applied.
7.  Original sound (from PSX Video) is placed with the video.
8.  Video is exported into H.264 with AAC at high settings and average bitrate of 3000KB/s


The opening vid will be out of sync until Aali corrects issue with driver, or we change a few things in the file.

I also suggest you play the game at 800*600 window, as the videos look pretty decent at that res.
 
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I have hand painted "Midgul" on the car to "Midgar" (not amazing...  but it isnt even seen it goes that fast).
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Haha that's pretty cool. Makes me wonder what else can benefit from being touched up manually.

Looking at your jenova_e.avi video, for the subtitles, it may be possible to simply paste a higher res font on top of the existing one.
Or possibly a high res FF7 logo on the opening?
 
Sir, this looks fantastic. Miles better than the horrible opening on the PC version.

At first, when I tried it in Media Player Classic, it was also playing a midi of "Open Your Heart" from Sonic Adventure. Turns out, I had another file in my downloads folder, opening.mid, and MPC was automatically playing that at the same time because it was in the same folder with the same filename. Like you'd expect it to do with external subtitles, only with a freakin' midi.

edit: A couple of side-by-sides. Link'd because they're pretty big.
 
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I have hand painted "Midgul" on the car to "Midgar" (not amazing...  but it isnt even seen it goes that fast).
Click to expand...
Haha that's pretty cool. Makes me wonder what else can benefit from being touched up manually.

Looking at your jenova_e.avi video, for the subtitles, it may be possible to simply paste a higher res font on top of the existing one.
Or possibly a high res FF7 logo on the opening?
Click to expand...
I tried it.  But would need the exact font and even then it would be a task in vegas, plus there are compression artifacts around the writing.  If you can work out the exact font, I will try again.
 
I tried it.  But would need the exact font and even then it would be a task in vegas
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In Vegas? I was thinking doing it directly on the PNGs before they are put back into vdub.
But yeah the font thing is an issue. Oh well just throwing out ideas.
 
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