[PC] Field background editor - Palmer (0.8b)

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I'm familiar with the concepts and how the language works, but I mostly do D and Java, with some C++ on the side. I haven't actually coded anything in Python
I'll print out some documentation on it. If nothing else, I need to learn a good interpreted language besides Java.

I'm going to be gone until Thursday; should I print out documentation on Python 2 or 3? I would just get a book, but the public library is closed on Sunday.
 
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Just to come back to resizing the original backgrounds to higher resolutions: I think with this Fractals Plugin it would really look 1000 times better than with the simple upscaling as it is done in the game at the moment!
Another idea I've thought of would be that we could also resize the videos! It would be a bit complicated and maybe quite much to do, but I think it would be cool :) We would have to extract every frame from the video, resize it with the Fractals Plugin and then make a video out of these frames again!
With both backgrounds and videos in higher resolutions, I think the game would look pretty damn good ;D
 
To do as you suggest would take a bit of effort but is doable.  The frames would have to be extracted from the PSX version (which was used to make the PC one).  Movie encoded into a lossless codec like Lagarith.  Then from there into Virtualdub which can extract all frames in 1 go.

From there, they would need to be batched in photoshop and then remade into a lagarith file in virtualdub and then encoded (to something like h.264).

It would work and is a good idea.  I will test it soon with an FMV.  I have a bit of experience with editing and will use sony vegas too.

There may be an even easier way than this and I will look into it

A better way would be square releasing the original files.  So they can look like this>

sephiroth%20fire.jpg
 
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Actually, I've heard there is program called Video Enhancer from thedeemon.com that resizes video. But, say, doesn't this onOne Software (producer of Geniune Fractals) produce a video resizing tool?
 
I think fractals is for photoshop...  I don't think so.

But fractals is the best when it comes to enlarging so I will now test a movie [resolution 2 X] :)  Will post it here soon.
 
I have now made a file which is 2.5X the original size.

800*560

The results from that program you sent me are great.  Much better than normal resize.

Now I will see what happens when I use fractals and upload both.
 
Fascinating.

Looking a few pages back, there are several things that I'd like to comment on. I dont beleive the game needs any color correction, it blew everyones mind 10 years ago, and successfully upscaling will do just as well. (to be honest the new style looks a lil less genuine) As to remaking all the backgrounds in 3d... its doable... I could do them fast enough but the real issue with changing the game objects, backgrounds etc. is the scale and style issue. In field, there is a chibi style, in battle and cinematics... no. Things like that must be maintained or you'll have something like the PRP project (which i think looks rather silly). Remaking them in 3d and rendering a background makes it difficult to match up the scale perfectly and would take half the development time on its own. If you can batch upscale the backgrounds thats awesome, if not then I'll be glad to help with a certain chunk of them. As for cinematics... I'd find a great deal of fun remaking those in 3D, mainly so the characters wouldnt look terrible (i accept armature-less models in game... but its attrocious in their "high" poly models).

to Aali, can you get the images back into ff7? If so can we see an upscaled comparison. if not... it up on the priority list?
 
Here is videoenhancer (with no added filters such as sharpen):

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/Aftervideoenhancer19.png

here is Fractals (no added filters)

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/fractals-1.png

Fractals with sharpen:

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg129/SeiferAlmasy2008/fractals.png


There doesn't seem to be much between fractals and the enhancer, except less pixellation perhaps.  The sharpner would prob work just as well on enhancer too....  so no real score between the 2

Edited.  Uploaded wrong pics
 
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There is no real way of making a sh*tty res picture look much better.  There is noise, artiacts, blur....and if you try to take 1 away you end up losing something else.  The best we can hope for is enhancer with a sharpen filter and possibly 1 or 2 artifact reducers.

Also, ali, what resolution would you desire with movies.  The psx original is 320 * 224
 
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There doesn't seem to be much between fractals and the enhancer, except less pixellation perhaps.  The sharpner would prob work just as well on enhancer too....  so no real score between the 2
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The method with fractals seems to be more work for the person doing this. If it's really much more work, then we should stick to the Video Enhancer. If possible I think we should do the resizing of the videos with Fractals, because it IS better. The pictures are sharper and more detailed even without applying sharpening. But as I said it depends on whether it is much more time consuming than Video Enhancer ;)
 
There doesn't seem to be much between fractals and the enhancer, except less pixellation perhaps.  The sharpner would prob work just as well on enhancer too....  so no real score between the 2
Click to expand...
The method with fractals seems to be more work for the person doing this. If it's really much more work, then we should stick to the Video Enhancer. If possible I think we should do the resizing of the videos with Fractals, because it IS better. The pictures are sharper and more detailed even without applying sharpening. But as I said it depends on whether it is much more time consuming than Video Enhancer ;)
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The difference is absolutely minimum... it isn't worth the effort for that kind of increase.  The res of the ff7 movies is too low to begin with.  But Enhancer + sharpen + artifact filter may prove useful.  I will do some tests when I get back.
 
Resolution of movies should just be doubled, so it matches the original resolution of the game.
 
is the NTSC version of the game resolution of 320*224 ?  I am assuming so.
 
Resolution of movies should just be doubled, so it matches the original resolution of the game.
Click to expand...
I think it would be better to go four times the original resolution of the video (which means 1280x960 pixels), because many of the people here are playing FF VII with the high resolution patch. And then 640x480 would again look pixelated. But the other question is whether the videos in 1280x960 pixels wouldn't be too big in size -- on the other hand, with todays computers, size doesn't matter that much anyway ^^ It might also depend on the codec... when we have to use TM2 again, the videos might get quite big, if we wan't them in good quality. If there would be a way that we can use H.264 or something like that, then the size maybe would also be not too big.
With Video Enhancer resizing should be quite easy, so to satisfy everybody, we could also make two video packs, one in 640x480 and one in 1280x960 resolution.
 
I don't like the idea of making 2....it is a bit half assed.

But H.264 may be a requirement.  I don't think anything else will suffice.
 
Resolution of movies should just be doubled, so it matches the original resolution of the game.
Click to expand...
I think it would be better to go four times the original resolution of the video (which means 1280x960 pixels), because many of the people here are playing FF VII with the high resolution patch. And then 640x480 would again look pixelated. But the other question is whether the videos in 1280x960 pixels wouldn't be too big in size -- on the other hand, with todays computers, size doesn't matter that much anyway ^^ It might also depend on the codec... when we have to use TM2 again, the videos might get quite big, if we wan't them in good quality. If there would be a way that we can use H.264 or something like that, then the size maybe would also be not too big.
With Video Enhancer resizing should be quite easy, so to satisfy everybody, we could also make two video packs, one in 640x480 and one in 1280x960 resolution.
Click to expand...
Doesn't Aali's driver support h.264?
 
Resolution of movies should just be doubled, so it matches the original resolution of the game.
Click to expand...
I think it would be better to go four times the original resolution of the video (which means 1280x960 pixels), because many of the people here are playing FF VII with the high resolution patch. And then 640x480 would again look pixelated. But the other question is whether the videos in 1280x960 pixels wouldn't be too big in size -- on the other hand, with todays computers, size doesn't matter that much anyway ^^ It might also depend on the codec... when we have to use TM2 again, the videos might get quite big, if we wan't them in good quality. If there would be a way that we can use H.264 or something like that, then the size maybe would also be not too big.
With Video Enhancer resizing should be quite easy, so to satisfy everybody, we could also make two video packs, one in 640x480 and one in 1280x960 resolution.
Click to expand...
Doesn't Aali's driver support h.264?
Click to expand...
It does. :)
 
Doesn't Aali's driver support h.264?
Click to expand...
It does. :)
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Sounds great ;D So even 1280x960 pixels might be relatively small in size then. But for users with older PCs we still might do a 640x480 version, because H.264 needs a rather fast processor!
 
Wonder how we moved from editing fields to editing movies haha.

Though since this is about Aali's field background editor (a la Palmer) Should we move this to another topic?
 
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