FF8 3D battle models update

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Qhimm

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Thanks to the FF8 battle model viewer that floated up a while ago, I was able to make some important progress on the decoding of FF8 models. I have made my own battle model viewer which improves on the original viewer in a couple of ways, most importantly the elimination of visual artifacts and correct display of transparency and additive blending.

Also, inspired by mirex' Biturn, I've tried to implement ASE exporting to the viewer, which is really the point of this topic. Now it's 7:42 in the morning here (and I'm not up early), so I'll limit the explanations to that these images are 3DSMAX renders done a few minutes ago.

ifrit_gray.png


ifrit_color.png


I shall now sleep.
 
3dmax renders? Holy sweet potatoes :D That looks so much nicer than in the game (hardly surprising mind you). Are you going to be releasing this tool?
 
Thanks to cooperation with Qhimm on FF8, Biturn will be able to load FF8 battle models too. Right now its only able to load FF8 field models.
 
Which reminds me mirex, did you manage to export bone information to ASE?
 
Damn Ifrit looks nice....so much smoother.

Good job Qhimm ^_^
 
Qhimm:  Ehhh... iirc i did (export to ASE only, not bone loading from ASE)
 
Right, I'll need to have a talk with you about that... I haven't found any solid info on how to do anything in ASE except geometry and materials.

UPDATE: Some new renders.

odin_glass.png


ultimecia_color2.png
 
That's amazing!Good job,Qhimm!
One day we could modify FF8 by ourself.
Exporting,improving,and then importing the models back into the original game data,we could get another edition  of FF8 with high definition.
Luckly, I see the good future of such work.
I will always on your back, if Square Enix, Inc. would do some frustrating on you.
 
Holy cow!

Nice job!
It seems like I have to show some results, too, to be able to compete with you...

 - Alhexx
 
wow, rendering can do nice things to 3d models
Click to expand...

Tell me about it!  It does help that you can use bilinear filtering on the textures and the models are not 'permanently' lit so some depth is managable.  The models IN FF8 look kind of washed out a bit because of that.  Hmmm I suppose if one could extract the walk meshes, one could have a bit of fun with the 'scenary' or at least make some of it.

Qhimm:
I like the miniature.. but don't you think a glass Odin is a collectors item?

Glad someone has made progress.

Cyb
 
really great work qhumm....but ehm...your renders could be a bit better :P

make sure you have a grey/white background and that the "floor" plane is also a nutral colour. try using omni's instead of a spotlight. or, if you dont mind waiting about 10 minutes for a render, put a skylight above the model, and turn cast shadows on (it might take longer than 10 mins, depends how busy the scene is and your graphics card etc..)
 
in 3dsmax change the filtering to Catmull-rom. The defaul area filter is cheap and it showld be burned in a butcket or somethin. Catmul rom will make the rendering way sharper thant what is it now.
 
really great work qhumm....but ehm...your renders could be a bit better :P

make sure you have a grey/white background and that the "floor" plane is also a nutral colour. try using omni's instead of a spotlight. or, if you dont mind waiting about 10 minutes for a render, put a skylight above the model, and turn cast shadows on (it might take longer than 10 mins, depends how busy the scene is and your graphics card etc..)
Click to expand...
Heh, I have limited materials to work with seeing as I can't modify the model materials without actually redoing them (I use multitexturing in my ASE exporter). The exception is Odin and Ifrit 1, where I completely replace the materials.

The background is black since I wanted to highlight the central object of attention, i.e. the model. Also it has the nice feature of hiding where the floor pane ends. The floor itself is lambertian white, with the models being illuminated by three omni lights set up around them, with fine-tuned attenuation distances to provide a good spectrum of colors in the model and in the shadows. The lights, floor and model are then rendered using mental ray with global illumination.

The simpler renders take 2-3 minutes on my computer, while the more advanced (glass Odin) took 15-20 minutes. Also, graphics cards don't affect offline renderers. ;)

in 3dsmax change the filtering to Catmull-rom. The defaul area filter is cheap and it showld be burned in a butcket or somethin. Catmul rom will make the rendering way sharper thant what is it now.
Click to expand...
I was not aware of this filtering technique... though could you define "sharper"?

EDIT: Ah, explains why I never saw it. Mental ray does not have any implementation of Catmull-rom, possibly due to different methods used in rendering. Catmull-rom produces sharper imagery by edge enhancement, apparently. Could be argued that it's a destructive filter then, since it shows things that aren't really there. :) Still, the images do look like they've been through an improved version of Photoshop's "Sharpen"...
 
I think he means more crisp.

If you look at the edges on ultimaceia, it does look rather soft and makes it hard to define a definate edge.
 
oooh wait a minute.... ase isnt a max native format is it? and you should still be able to adjust things within it, try for example, turning ifrits texture to grayscale, adjust the conrast a lil to make it more contrasting. then use that as a bump map.

as for the black background, place a white plane going through the floor, at a slight angle. this will iliminate the edge being seen.

sorry, it looked like a spotlight on edea.

edit: i mean ultimecia....forgive me, ive been on the bottle with a friend tonight :P
 
I think he means more crisp.
Click to expand...

Yup thats what i meant. Area filter leaves a fuzzy blurry look to the rendered scenes. Catmull-rom was meant to address that flaw. Oh i think they have another name for the filter in mental ray. I think the last one in the list has the same qualities of camull-rom.
 
oooh wait a minute.... ase isnt a max native format is it? and you should still be able to adjust things within it, try for example, turning ifrits texture to grayscale, adjust the conrast a lil to make it more contrasting. then use that as a bump map.
Click to expand...
Heh, if you look at the non-textured Ifrit model you can actually see the bump map, which was created in exactly that way (or rather, letting max do the grayscale conversion and contrast enhancements from the same image source). ;)

Oh i think they have another name for the filter in mental ray. I think the last one in the list has the same qualities of camull-rom.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tip!
 
in that case i eagerly await your improvements on this exporter. sorry for my useless and alcohol induced arguments :D

any way i can help?
 
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