Final Fantasy IX-2 (Complete)

[Kaldarasha]

Go on and see how you manage to deal with 900+ backgrounds (FF7 has 600 so it's a fair assumption). Your biggest mistake in your calculation is the fact that somebody will do this 9h per day. Make a Kickstarter campaign and gather money then you may convince some artist to work on that, but without a payment you only get some kiddies (it's a nice project to get some skills) who would like to do it and this will not reach the quality of the original. However, if you start a campaign then you need a good layer since I doubt that SE allow that such a project exist. Another problem that exist, a team needs a team leader, else it is a bunch of people which upscale the images, but everyone with his own style. This makes it inconsistent in any possible way. As example Mayo Masters new BGs for FF7 (https://www.ff7catalog.com/threads/10913/) are different from the original and the BGs I have seen from other artist do also differ from each other in style. Now, if you start to complain about the style difference I can assure you that it is a good way to reduce the manpower for the project. But if they got money for the job then they won't be discouraged so much by these complain and may change their work.

If it would be so easy as you said then why hasn't SE did it. I tell you, that would be an enormous project that eat likely $500000 and will need years to finish. Also, as I said above the whole logistic behind this is much more important than you think and this does also take time and money. What SE did with the upscale was the best solution, since new HD BGs will not bring more customers.

But there are like four/five areas in the game with that much detail.

I am calling that the best joke ever.

 

[Lein]

First of all this topic isn't even about replacing the backgrounds, so I'm not sure why you're  hung up on that little boy. The backgrounds made by team avalance look fine, proves that it can be done with little effort. Anyway since some of you likely have no experience in creating photo realistic scenery there's no point in trying to convince you that it's possible, you can't do it in three days, that's fine, others can. Also it's not 900 backgrounds, it's 549. Me and some other guy on steam is going to attempt to recreate some backgrounds when he gets his computer working, I'm sure he's more informed on how to rip walk meshes and cameras from the game. Then we'll make you some backgrounds and you'll go woah amazing. *Kneels before masters*

 

[Lein]

Woah man, people are offering advice, not trying to pick a fight with you, we can all discuss this without name calling right?

Little boy isn't name calling, it's just my impression of the guy, nothing wrong with being a little boy.

Your box is nice, I'm not about to downplay your talents, you obviously have some experience with Rendering and some experience with modelling and texturing, though, you're also using blender, so at a guess I'd assume its a hobby and not a profession (I know 1 studio that works in Blender, also in Japan surprisingly enough).

I'll just say that there is no difference between blender, maya or 3ds max. You can model a chest just as well in blender as you can in the other programs. They teach 3ds max and maya at school that is the only reason they're used by many people and blender is not, because people are familiar with the programs. Here's a model I've been working on for a day, not sure if that qualifies as professional work or hobbyist work. Professional and hobbyist are useless titles, there are people creating cartoon figurines that are "professonals" since they're being paid for it. But are they better than the hobbyist who creates highly realistic figures? It might look good on a resume but it don't really matter.

In the original the planks are stylized, they don't have a premade texture thrown on them, each plank looks to be modeled individually (or possibly duplicated, its a little hard to tell), so I think its only an accurate comparison if you made the box the same way. Sure its a small prop but, if someone remade the bg's, why not have them at 1080p or 4k? Then we'd see all those details, otherwise all the work put in is wasted.

Duplicating planks isn't hard and some type of texture must have been thrown or painted onto them. If you have unlimited time or let's say a day you would model every one of those planks on the chest. Model as much as you can, don't rely on textures, on games it's the other way around. As for rendering the backgrounds at a higher resolution, there's no point. The original backgrounds are 960x640 and the characters don't either warrant that amount of detail, they would look out of place if they would run around on a high res background that looks like a photo with their manga eyes.

I think if this cant sway you that getting the same quality level of the original FF9 in just a few days isn't realistic then I don't think anything can honestly.

Maybe we could try it, you're a professional, maybe you could try remake a background too for fun? Then we'll see how long it takes.

Making that from scratch in Blender, Maya or 3DSMax however would take dramatically longer, and you'd need to have almost all of it in the same software so that you can confirm things line up, and that the correct renderer is used at all times, since Blender/Max/Maya's renderer is of a different quality to VUE.

Recreating a scene like this would not be as difficult as you think, it looks like tons of work but a displacement texture on a subdivided wall followed by 15 min of sculpting on the displaced mesh would result in something of similar quality. I think three days is enough, much could be done in photoshop too and when it comes to texturing. If you've uv mapped the models and put some basic textures on them you could from the angle of the camera paint directly on top of them from within the 3d application. To get more of a painterly and unique look to the scene. You can also use particle systems to create moss and dirt and mushrooms on trees or whatever.

Something like this would be more time consuming, all the fine details on the walls, the stair and all the other stuff. Is it doable in three days, hmmm probably. The carvings on the walls could be done with the curve snap tool inside of zbrush or by other means. What would be most difficult would be to match the scenes perfectly to each other, when everything is circular I wonder of how much use photo matching is. But maybe they rendered all the scenes with an identical focal length. They probably did because that's likely what the real time characters are rendered at.

Back on topic, regarding the Battle UI and character menu, I'd be interested in seeing what size you're imaging for these, are you thinking just like the original PSX game?

Yeah more like the original, the reason I'm on this forum is because I gifted the game to a friend and after seeing all the issues with the game I wanted to mod all the issues away, but that's not possible yet.  :|

EDIT: Oh no some guy decided he has to approve of all my posts before they're posted, he's very powerful.  :roll:

 

[Kaldarasha]

What would be interesting would be to replace the BGs with a real 3D mesh. That would mean that you doesn't necessarily need to keep  the same level of detail. And forcing the game to run in DirectX12 mode you may could create some really nice effects. But then you need to be the owner of the textures or have at last permission to use and share them for such a project.

 

[Fraggoso]

The game isn't running in DX12.
So think some backgrounds would be even easier to draw nstead of rendering them.

FFIX has some fields where ups along looks incredible (scene with hard egdes and buildings). Flora and Fauna doesn't look so good.

And we're talking backgrounds because this would eat up the most time and you would need to redo them if you insist on swapping out models. That's the biggest grudge I've personally with the FTVII models. The backgrounds don't look good with them in it as they seem to be bizarre proportioned.

 

[Kaldarasha]

You can force unity games to run in DirectX 12. Though, FFIX doesn't run so well but my guess is that memoria could fix it if that would be needed, who knows.

EDIT:
I mean DirectX 11.

 

[sutebenukun]

This is certainly a bit off topic but still related, it would be awesome to be able to modify the character models, for example changing the Trance and the Normal models.

With the Hades Workshop, I've essentially turned Steiner into a Dark Knight and Beatrix I gave her a trance command and an "ultimate" paladin ability. I also locked the Excalibur II as a Beatrix exclusive and ultimate weapon.  So it would be pretty cool if I were able to mod it so she has a Trance form, give her a Valkyrie-esque Trance armor, and modify Steiner's existing armors to look more reflective of a Dark Knight.

 

[DLPB_]

Anyway I'm happy that you give up, it would be big if you would also acknowledge that you're wrong, but that's probably too much to ask for.

. Then we'll make you some backgrounds and you'll go woah amazing. *Kneels before masters*

I can assure you I won't be kneeling at all. "Some backgrounds" is feasible. 500+ is not. I've seen many FF7 backgrounds that I've really appreciated by some very talented people here, but I have never knelt before any "master"  - or believed for one second that even a decent fraction will be completed. But you're clearly not hearing what people are saying and I can't imagine many people will want to help someone that starts name calling at the very first sign of disagreement. If it really was as easy as you are trying to convince people, then FF7 backgrounds would all be done by now - and they aren't.  This isn't Harry Potter.  But should you prove me wrong, I will be happy that you did.  So bring it on   It isn't really anyone's job to say your chances are low, so I shouldn't have come here in the first place - I'll duly vacate the thread.

 

[Lein]

Anyway when that other guy who wanted to make backgrounds on this forum gets his computer he'll help me out with ripping the camera and walk mesh or whatever else is needed to remake the backgrounds. Then we'll see if we can remake some of them, for practice and for fun.

EDIT: Btw I find it disengenious that the mods, covarr chose to edit this very post and not allow me to explain my kneeling before masters comment. It's called sense of humor people, sarcasm, exaggeration. I wasn't asking you to kneel before me because I'm better than you, ligten up. You modded me before because I said some of you sounded autistic and then you mentioned that's not appropiate because some of the mods on here are autistic. Nothing wrong with that, but maybe just maybe that's why you don't understand when I use sarcasm, cheers.

 

[LeonhartGR]

Whatever... start making it or dump it... such fuzz for no reason folks... I wasn't able to complete a single translation in my native language though...

 

[[email protected]]

Meh, for a moment i thought this mod was real and was actually completed in my absence. Nothing to see here folks.

 

[DanTsukasa]

Anyway when that other guy who wanted to make backgrounds on this forum gets his computer he'll help me out with ripping the camera and walk mesh or whatever else is needed to remake the backgrounds. Then we'll see if we can remake some of them, for practice and for fun.

I look forward to seeing these, and, if by the time anyone starts such an endevour, if I'm no longer uptomy neck in freelance and fulltime job deadlines, then I'll chip in too, as its good for portfolio, and it'd be an enjoyable experience.

Btw I find it disengenious that the mods, covarr chose to edit this very post and not allow me to explain my kneeling before masters comment. It's called sense of humor people, sarcasm, exaggeration. I wasn't asking you to kneel before me because I'm better than you, ligten up.

Sarcasm and exaggeration come across well tonally, because they're verbal forms of humour, they don't come across so well in written form.
I don't know you at all and I read the 'kneel before your masters' thing as a little humorous yes, but also very arrogant, and unfortunately for many others, the arrogance, intentional or not, held a lot stronger.
It may not be how you intended it, but it came across well, there are few situations where you can type 'kneel before your master' and have it go down particularly well if its not in verbal communication.
Thats the unfortunate caveat of written communication, and the rest of us work around it, not... always so perfectly though.

You modded me before because I said some of you sounded autistic and then you mentioned that's not appropriate because some of the mods on here are autistic. Nothing wrong with that, but maybe just maybe that's why you don't understand when I use sarcasm, cheers.

I'd imagine its not appropriate because its a needless insult and its combative honestly.

If mods are regularly editing your posts, the best course of action would be to type things that can be read exactly as intended.
Calling someone autistic isn't sarcasm... its just an insult, whether the person is or isn't autistic is beyond the point really, its just an insult, taken as so and intended as so. There is no 'sarcasm' in that.

This MAY be a language barrier too, I say this not knowing if English is your first language, it may well be, outside of your use of the term sarcasm nothing suggests English isn't your first language.
If it IS your first language, then I apologise wholeheartedly. In which case it may just be an 'American vs non American' thing, (if you were American that is, I honestly have no idea), with American sarcasm being... very different from European sarcasm in that its usually just mean/rude or just straight faced lying as opposed to passive and backhanded the way Europe would use it. Again this would change depending on the language its used in, example: I use Japanese all day every day in daily life, and whilst my Japanese isn't great by anyone's standards, it is a language, like a few others, where the concept of sarcasm doesn't exist at all.

Going back to the project however, you have a detailed list of things you want to change, what do you intend to start with first, since as discussed, things like characters, backgrounds and animation would take a very very long time.

Will you start with the dialogue rewriting and scene reordering instead since those two are the easier of your list.

 

[[email protected]]

He really called people autistic? Sorry, but this thread doesn't deserve to exist anymore, it's just too much for my poor intelligence.

 

[Fraggoso]

I don't know why people are still writing in here.
He explained that he would not work on this. I say close.

And the problem about sarcasm is, like DanTsukasa said, that it really doesn't work in written form.

 

[Lein]

Going back to the project however, you have a detailed list of things you want to change, what do you intend to start with first, since as discussed, things like characters, backgrounds and animation would take a very very long time.

I'll just try doing one of the backgrounds for the same reason that you said you might try do some work on them, it'll be fun.

He really called people autistic? Sorry, but this thread doesn't deserve to exist anymore, it's just too much for my poor intelligence.

Yes I did, not in this thread though. Some person replied to me in such a manner that I had to mention it. That post was edited because apparently moderators on this forum are autistic according to some guy and because they are it's innapropiate to point out that they sound like it. If anything the people who want to censor me for calling the black guy black are the ones who are being offensive. Personally I don't feel there is anything wrong with being autistic, it's an actual medical condition. I wonder if these same people would want me censored if I said that someone is sounding black, nothing wrong with being black or autistic, why does it need to be censored?

Anyway we're going off topic, Dan I look forward to seeing you work on one of the backgrounds, maybe you know how to line up the camera perfectly so the backgrounds matches the original backgrounds?

 

[Covarr]

Lein has done nothing but pick fights with people for weeks, and I simply do not have the patience to deal with it anymore, and no amount of backpedaling and pretending his insults and asshattery were just pointing out facts is going to change that. Ban issued, thread locked.

P.S. As of now, I'm going full hard stance on drama and on the "Don't be a d*ck rule". Don't start shit. Anyone. ~Covarr