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sl1982

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Well im hijacking my first post here to tell you guys that im releasing sl1982's Font Mod v0.1

Some things had to change for this release:

Shadows caused graphical glitches so the were removed
Numbers for the clock and the hp/mp bars are not modified in this release.

Instructions:

1. Download file http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8UVXP4UY
2. Extract files from archive
3. Locate menu_us.lgp and extract them using your favorite LGP program into a folder
4. Copy the two .tex files from the downloaded file into the folder you extracted menu_us.lgp into
5. If it asks to overwrite select yes
6. Create a new menu_us.lgp file from this folder
7. Copy the new file back into the original location.
8. Copy all files in textures into the textures folder in your FF7 folder (if you dont have this folder you either dont have Aali's custom driver, or an old version of it)
9. Play the game  :-D

Enjoy everyone!


old post: Hey guys I've been lurking here for about a month and thought i would try to contribute something to the community. Since im not a modeller or a texturer i figured i would see if i could tackle something else. My idea was to try to make the menu's high res. So my question for anyone that may know, I have not found any menu stuff in the menu_us.lgp other then text and avatars. Are the background menus textures like everything else, or are they dynamically generated?
 
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Since the new driver was able to smooth out the blockiness of the menu's color, my guess would be it is generated.

If you are interested, however, the text needs a definite overhaul.  It would be somewhat tedious and very trial-and-error to get it looking right, but I'm sure EVERYONE would appreciate some smooth text.
 
I was actually thinking about that and i would be glad to put some time into it. But i think i need some more information. I know that the textures for the fonts have a palette that shouldnt be changed, but can i use a higher resolution texture instead of the 256x256 ? And how does the program know what letter is which? Is it by the coordinates for the letters? If it is that may make a higher resolution texture impossible.
 
It is by coordinates, therefore I think using anything other than the supplied 256x256 would be pointless.

It's been a while since I looked at it, but if I'm not mistaken, the font could have been a better resolution than what was used.
 
If it's using the same sprite system as FF8, it won't do well with a larger .tex file.

However, you can use the custom drivers texture replacing feature to get any size to work.
 
If it's using the same sprite system as FF8, it won't do well with a larger .tex file.

However, you can use the custom drivers texture replacing feature to get any size to work.
Click to expand...
Right, but what about the game using certain locations on the texture for picking out letters?  Would they not still be the same location no matter if it's a 256x256 or 1024x1024?
 
Maybe some sort of patch to the game? Im not really a programmer but if someone could find the call for the textures they could just add a function to multiply it. As long as the new texture was a multiple of 256 it might work.
 
If it's using the same sprite system as FF8, it won't do well with a larger .tex file.

However, you can use the custom drivers texture replacing feature to get any size to work.
Click to expand...
Right, but what about the game using certain locations on the texture for picking out letters?  Would they not still be the same location no matter if it's a 256x256 or 1024x1024?
Click to expand...
Texture coordinates are usually (always in FF7/FF8) in normalized floating point format (0.0 to 1.0). FF8 and probably FF7 too calculate these texture coordinates using the size information found in the .tex.
 
Sorry for the stupid question but does that mean it will grab the right spot no matter the texture size?
 
Not if you replace the .tex file with a larger one. However, the custom driver can sidestep FF7 and replace any texture with an arbitrary png image. Since the sprite system does not know about this it will generate the correct texture coordinates.
 
How does one go about getting the custom driver (which is awesome btw) to load up .png's instead of the tex files?
 
There's no tool that can do this yet, but you have to put a special marker at the beginning of the pixel data in the .tex file.

Specifically, the first 3 bytes of the pixel data must be "EXT" followed by a name. This name will be used to find a png file in the textures/ directory, based on the following template: <name>_<palette index>.png
 
Sounds way over my head lol. Lets say for example im replacing the usfont_a_h.tex. The png would have to be usfont_a_h_(whatever palette is).png? And how do i modify the tex? Hex editor? And how do i know what the palette is? Sorry for my noobishness, and thanks for all the answers.
 
Well ive been messing around with this for a bit and ran into a bit of a snag. Biturn doesnt like to convert bitmaps back to ff7 .tex files properly. I read around and the general consensus seems to be to use omega. The only problem is that the link on the wiki is no good. Anyone have a working link for this program?
 
look for borde's image2tex, its in the programming feedback forum i think
 
Ok that seems to work. Except the palette is all goofed up now. All i did was open the bmp in photoshop (keeping original palette) and modify one letter to test it out. Used img2tex to make back into tex and inserted back into the lgp and when i run ff all the letters are different colors. Did i do something wrong?
 
Woot ok we got some progress. 512x512 tex seems to work ok without trying to figure out .png injection. The palette is still all screwy though. Any ideas? Im sure many people would like to have some higher resolution text in the game. Hopefully we can make this work

edit: 1024x1024 does as well, also 24 bit
 
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Easiest way would be to just take an already made font and slap it into the textures. Anyone have any good ideas for fonts? Or do we want to remake the one in the game?
 
I think we should stick with the original fonts... take another font would get off the 'originality' of the game.

We just need hi-res anyway... well.. IMO tho
 
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