[HD Texture Project] Xenoblade Chronicles (v5.0U - May 17, 2014)

[Bighead]

I ended up eating my words when I said Eryth Sea was gonna be easy. It may very well have been the most challenging one yet. All those alien like shapes and symbols that make up the islands were hard to do. The default map being garbled didn't help much, and pretty much everything was off by some margin. The islands that are shaped like poinsettias were ones I couldn't get right, but the free flow camera in Dolphin was helpful yet again. Using an aerial view I was able to get the shapes I needed. I did make smoother edges so it looks better on the map, the game is pretty generous with small inaccuracies. I did this for over half the islands, so if any of them look weird, they are supposed to.
http://i.imgur.com/VAZHQbL.gif - first image > final result, second image > trace, third image > how bad the default map really is

I used the same tactic for Prison Island on the map that I did with Alcamoth which they label "Bionis Occipital". The actual image is different than the original one no matter what perspective I took it from, but I got as close as possible. I also filled in the areas on the map that were dark because I like it that way better, it's easier to tell what is walkable and what is a solid wall (although it could be hate it or love it for some, I might make a different version where they are hollowed out like the real map). Accuracy did come at a cost this time, there is no way to modify the yellow lines that connect the transporters. I found the texture, but the game must control the paths. And for the actual comparisons...
http://i.imgur.com/qP6c3GW.gif
http://i.imgur.com/7wMIY9h.gif

And as before the maps are always here:
http://bmgcl.atspace.cc/other/xenomaps.html

Also, not sure why nobody did something like this... but staring at the maps made me notice that enemies are just blobs of red that merge together. So i made a simple small circle texture that makes them more easily distinguishable from each other, and you can actually tell how many enemies are around. It seems to work in every area up to Eryth Sea so I doubt it has multiple names. I uploaded the texture as an attachment.


Edit: Added an alternate version of the map without fill which is more like the original map. This is not my preference and not my original design decision so don't expect perfect borders.
For a difference of what I'm talking about: http://i.imgur.com/LFeXVuZ.gif

Edit Again: It seems that the texture used for mobs is also used in all kinds of other places (load screen?, health bars), and it caused all kinds of graphics issues so I removed it as an attachment... Disappointing.

[ryunohadouken]

(03-15-2014, 07:35 PM)Bighead Wrote:

(03-15-2014, 05:21 PM)esdchan Wrote: Hi there, that you for this wonderful texture, I got to the part where I moved the ID converter to the folder which I changed the name to SX4E01 and ran the converter with all the textures inside it, I typed SX4E01 and I pressed start and nothing happened. Files renamed 0 and need to rename files 0.

Try running it as an administrator and make sure the path your textures is in has your permissions.
If all else fails give this batch script I wrote a go. Copy it to the texture folder and run it.
It is poorly written and will take a couple of minutes to finish, but it should get the job done.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/1v6dpbrndpe03e8/XenoTexConvert.zip

If you have a USA disc and want to convert Europe textures (like this pack), just hit enter.
If you have USA textures and want to convert back to Europe, press E and hit enter.
Wait until it says "Finished! Press any key to close this window." before closing it.

Edit: Fixed to have error checking for invalid input and texture region verification so it doesn't create invalid names if the wrong disc region is picked. Code is still an ugly method but should be foolproof I hope.

Also, here's a texture of Bionis Leg map I've been working on in GIMP, proper name "SX4P01_5485a3aa_2.png". I have links to the new and original to compare, I'm open to any criticism. New: http://i.imgur.com/jMokGId.png Original: http://i.imgur.com/XeFL1LN.png

I tried to keep it as accurate as possible, and even improved the accuracy of some places like the cliff with the Nopon. One of the ramps is also way off than in the actual game even on the original map which I still need to fix. There's a few things I want to perfect, but it actually is coming along. So far only the lower level, I haven't even made it to the upper level yet on this playthrough. It's not on the level of some of the textures that have been posted, but before this my only experience with image editting was Mario Paint almost 20 years ago.

im having the same problem, but your mediafire link is dead. can you re-up please?! Thanks in advance!!

[Bighead]

Sorry, thought I fixed the link. Anyway I updated it one last time since I originally typed it quickly for esdchan rather than make anything significant, and there could potentially be some issues. First, it was easy to just skip through so I added double verification and extra info so there is no mistakes. One issue was it only checked the prefix of the first texture it found, so if there was accidentally multiple textures with different region prefixes it would rename it something like "SX4E01SX4E01_ffa55185_9.dds" for example. This should be fixed now as all textures are checked, and if it finds two different regions (or an invalid name) then it will move those textures to a "FAILED" folder.

Just be careful when picking your options. If you pick the wrong Disc ID, and it searches for the wrong country for textures (like picking Europe for disc with Europe textures), it will do nothing and just move all your textures to the FAILED folder. This can be annoying and is the reason I added verification, but it beats the alternative where it was naming them wrong.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/9voca8dc0c1bh0q/%5BXbC%5D+Texture+Converter+vFinal.zip

Edit: Rather than make a new post I'll just edit this one. Mostly finished Alcamoth, the highest level I'll do once I progress some more. Gotta love symmetry, half the map is the full battle. I fixed some borders that were incorrect and added a few details on both levels that weren't on the original maps. They aren't perfect, but few things in life are. http://i.imgur.com/4DL4kNa.gif --- http://i.imgur.com/oMOpmD5.gif

[ryunohadouken]

(03-30-2014, 09:07 PM)Bighead Wrote: Sorry, thought I fixed the link. Anyway I updated it one last time since I originally typed it quickly for esdchan rather than make anything significant, and there could potentially be some issues. First, it was easy to just skip through so I added double verification and extra info so there is no mistakes. One issue was it only checked the prefix of the first texture it found, so if there was accidentally multiple textures with different region prefixes it would rename it something like "SX4E01SX4E01_ffa55185_9.dds" for example. This should be fixed now as all textures are checked, and if it finds two different regions (or an invalid name) then it will move those textures to a "FAILED" folder.

Just be careful when picking your options. If you pick the wrong Disc ID, and it searches for the wrong country for textures (like picking Europe for disc with Europe textures), it will do nothing and just move all your textures to the FAILED folder. This can be annoying and is the reason I added verification, but it beats the alternative where it was naming them wrong.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/a1fldzh0b4w04ea/%5BXbC%5D+Texture+Converter+v3.zip

Edit: Rather than make a new post I'll just edit this one. Mostly finished Alcamoth, the highest level I'll do once I progress some more. Gotta love symmetry, half the map is the full battle. I fixed some borders that were incorrect and added a few details on both levels that weren't on the original maps. They aren't perfect, but few things in life are. http://i.imgur.com/4DL4kNa.gif --- http://i.imgur.com/oMOpmD5.gif

thanks, but i found a program called bulk rename utility off Cnet...works like a charm and super fast...the UI is scary at first look, but play around with the values to see how it works...and it gives you a preview of what the new name will be before you commit to it

[Bighead]

(03-31-2014, 11:43 AM)ryunohadouken Wrote: thanks, but i found a program called bulk rename utility off Cnet...works like a charm and super fast...the UI is scary at first look, but play around with the values to see how it works...and it gives you a preview of what the new name will be before you commit to it

Glad you got it worked out. I downloaded it and checked it out. You're definitely right about the interface, that's a ton of options! I didn't even try to understand it before I closed it.

FWIW I made one last update for those who don't want to fiddle with something like that. It should be perfect now with no remaining issues. Now if it finds textures that are already in the correct format, then it will just keep them in place unmodified. To those who are discovering it for the first time, just copy the batch into the folder with the textures and run it. If you are converting them to USA (from Europe like the texture pack), then you can just smash the Enter key twice.

Edit: I thought a lot about you mentioning speed. My code was bad and it took a long time, and that bothered me once I thought about it. So one final version, a complete rewrite. I did a comparison in time to finish. Results are.. v4: 3 minutes 6 seconds , vFinal: 18 seconds - to convert 15697 textures. No more time spent on this.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/9voca8dc0c1bh0q/%5BXbC%5D+Texture+Converter+vFinal.zip

[teh_speleegn_polease]

Why not just open command prompt and type in "ren SXE01* SXP01*" or whatever you're trying to rename? This will take all the files starting with the first argument (SXE01 here) and change them to start with the second argument (SXP01). And ignore any other files. And does not require any downloads.

[Bighead]

That's pretty cool, I didn't know that was possible without a loop. I wish I knew that before. As for maps, finished the last layer of Alcamoth and did the High Entia Tomb as well. Fun fact about the tomb: the cursor position on the map and minimap are different, they made the map more accurate. I chose the minimap. Been at this for awhile so gonna take a break for a few days and catch up on some things. I've also been dumping textures for awhile now and found some new names (about 20 for each icon) that were missed for the menu that comes up when you press minus. I've also been experimenting with other textures as well such as the system save: http://i.imgur.com/CSAa7Be.png and some environment textures in eryth: http://i.imgur.com/IpcTtal.gif . The grass is a pic of somebody's lawn, the sand was a free texture i recolored, and the walls I made seamless from an image of some mountainside. I still have a long way to go when it comes to the transition textures, and I don't really care for the grass texture too much.

[teh_speleegn_polease]

@bighead: I'm pretty sure the "ren" utility uses some kind of loop, but the difference is that it's already implemented, doesn't have any bugs, simply renames the files required (BTW, you can just pass "SX4E* SX4P*" since the * acts as a wildcard, and only the E and P must be changed) without any risk of messing anything up OR moving the files to another folder, and also it's packaged with windows.

(Also, I'm not posting it every time, but I am following your progress and downloading all your maps. Thank you for doing them!)

[Bighead]

(04-03-2014, 01:01 AM)teh_speleegn_polease Wrote: Also, I'm not posting it every time, but I am following your progress and downloading all your maps. Thank you for doing them!

Np, I have been enjoying doing them and its prolonging my Xenoblade experience so it's a double win.

Just finished the first visit to Prison Island. Also, I am posting an update to the texture pack. It includes 690 textures, most are interface textures that are missing from the pack. Rare names come up in different cirumstances, such as when switching between certain areas. Such as, if you warp from Inner Bionis to Makna Forest, you may get different names than if you walk through the door. It's probably still not a complete list, I'll make more updates as I progress through the game and find more texture names. There are a few new textures in the pack I made for some things such as the climb icon and the map arrow door thingy. They aren't fantastic since I'm still learning how to do things like airbrush. I am not including the maps in this update pack because they are not ready yet, I still want to go back and fix some things in some of them and make a few more. Bionis Leg and Colony 6 I want to eventually remake because they were made before I improved my skills and used better techniques, and don't fit my now higher personal standards.

Update Pack 1: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0h9lm8c57slce35/%5BXbC+HD+Retexture%5D+v4.5+Update-1+%284-3-2014%29.7z
HD Maps (Again): http://bmgcl.atspace.cc/other/xenomaps.html

New in this pack: (Show Spoiler)

[Ludamister]

Hey everyone, huge fan of everyone involved! That being said, I do have a question. I'm running the HD pack and playing the game on my Nvidia Surround setup and asides from the obvious stretching of UI, everything else is flawless and looking gorgeous. My only concern is that the game only renders objects in the main screen. Anything object that is outside of that screen doesn't get rendered until it gets put into focus.

Here's an example.

http://puu.sh/7L97K

I'd like for each side to render objects. I understand this might be far beyond the scope of this project, however, the individuals that participate in this may have some knowledge about this that I wish to try prying from their hands lol.

If I can get it to render in all of the screens, I'll very well be playing it like this. If not, well, I can always just play on one screen.