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

[hafertaler]

Thanks to all who were involved in this project so far, I've been using these textures, the game looks great and it runs smooth.

I've completed the game over a year ago on the wii and thought I should give it another try on dolphin and it was well worth it.
The only downside is that original textures stick out like a sore thumb, but I can live with that : )

[frozenwings]

(04-26-2014, 08:02 PM)Bighead Wrote:

(04-26-2014, 02:15 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Uhhhh, wow? Did you actually go through and take screen shots of every person on the affinity screen in upper bionis? That's nuts. And awesome.

I was downloading this and I was like "Eh, this is pretty big for a few affinity textures. Bighead trying to sneak a virus in on me. What a meanie." But instead I get this awesomeness.

I'm not even to upper bionis yet, but I'm going to be soon. I'm kind of excited now.

I also got to check out all of your box textures, they look really good. Even though that bigger bar gave you some trouble, it still looks way better than the original. So good job.

Those icons were actually in v2 of the affinity pack I linked awhile back. I even had a screenshot up: http://i.imgur.com/HPSev7p.png

Nobody said anything about it so I assumed they weren't liked very much, because I was uncertain myself. There's something off-putting about them to me, and I think its that the scenery behind the faces remains instead of a white background like the originals. But cleaning it out of that many pictures didn't feel worth the effort when there was so many other things I could be doing, but it is an eventual goal.

Which reminds me. I'm missing both Ma'Crish's and Talonyth's IDs so when you get there, alert me what they are. There's probably a few I'm missing from colony 6 and nopon land too so if you've been keeping those icons just send them all to me eventually. Which (also) reminds me, when you get there and are near the point a Reyn face pops in as a menu border, send me your User/Wii folder and I'll help to look for it. Or a save state, but if were using different revisions it may not work. And since I'm having all kinds of "reminds me", you never let me know how accurate the Ether Mine map was when you were there.

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Ok so with this bar, I didn't want to go through the pain and agony of the last one so I cheated. I upscaled the original one, and kept blasting it with filters until I was satisfied and convinced that image quality actually improved. Even this took more effort than I thought it would to be honest. When it started to look good I cleaned up some of the generated junk and smoothed the corners, and the result is as how Dunban would put it.. "Not Bad. Not bad at all."
http://i.imgur.com/WLkjeWS.gif

I also hate how these GIF images have like a 10%-20% quality reduction, but I do like the one click comparisons. One thing I also like about this rework is that the gem fits perfectly now, instead of how the left and right borders had some overhang.

Edit: A v2, because I'm nuts about consistency and the first box was horizontally 1 pixel shorter. Also updated the corners so they are all identical.

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Just gonna edit this post again.. Since I've been doing all these gem bars, figured I'd make a texture for the sockets. Zip with 35 variations as an attachment, original texture filesize is 716 bytes. The new texture complements the new brown bar retexture quite nicely.
http://i.imgur.com/34HgRyX.gif

And to put all this gem crafting crap to rest, I cleaned out the junk surrounding the diamond textures used for gem shards.

I somehow missed that link to the affinity pack before and somehow missed the screenshot as well. Derp. I think they look awesome, maybe people who downloaded it never played the game without them and didn't notice the difference. I love them.

Your new bar looks amazing. The "overlap" or whatever before was driving me nuts, where the gem didn't fill the box all the way. I can't wait to see it in game. I was cringing every time I had to interact with the gem screen. I wonder if that makes me a graphics whore or just plain OCD, lol...

The gem sockets were actually on the lower end of my "complain about on the forums and hope someone retextures this" list. I figured I was hounding you guys enough and I'd save that for when there was time for nitpicking to be had. Also, they do look great and match well. The only problem I have is that I think they kind of look more like a gem rather than an empty socket. Like, it protrudes out of the background instead of having depth down into it. If that makes sense. I think it has something to do with the shading. Maybe make the large, central area darker? I don't know. In regards to the gem sockets, I only have 4 new ones in addition to yours, so either there aren't a lot of them or I haven't been dumping the screen they're loading from (the more likely scenario). I'm guess they dump just from accessing a character on the party screen and revealing an empty socket. Maybe it doesn't even have to be empty. Also, I found out where the repeat gems you recolored come from: crafting. I don't know why, but every once in a while one of the gems you craft has an ID different from other gems. So far I've only found 1, an orange gem. I'll just probably include it with my big daddy pack when I send it.

Also, thanks for cleaning up the gem shards. They look way better now.

I'll try to find the IDs for Ma'Crish and Talonyth. I haven't done really any sidequests this game; mostly just dumping the IDs. My next playthrough will be a super long "do all the quests, see all of the things" playthrough in order to catch a few more missing IDs. Also, finding that "Reyn corner" is high on my to do list. I'm going to find it, so you don't have to worry about it.

(04-27-2014, 12:21 AM)hafertaler Wrote: Thanks to all who were involved in this project so far, I've been using these textures, the game looks great and it runs smooth.

I've completed the game over a year ago on the wii and thought I should give it another try on dolphin and it was well worth it.
The only downside is that original textures stick out like a sore thumb, but I can live with that : )

Yes, some of the environments look especially blurry and gross looking. I'm not sure if anyone here has experience with terrain textures though. They're often fairly complicated compared to UI retextures (which are still difficult for noobs like me).

If you're referring to how sometimes things are textured and sometimes they are not (menus, portraits, etc.), we're going to be having a HUGE update to those missing textures coming up. We're also adding retextures of all of the "borders" that pop up in various spots in the game. Obviously it's impossible to snag all of the repeating (or duplicate, however you want to call them) IDs, but we're finding a ton more. I just hope that ID generation isn't effected by different dolphin builds preferring certain IDs over the other, etc. There will also be some other miscellaneous UI retextures thanks to Echoes and Bighead's work so far. And Narcku has redone some faces/hair, as well as some optional Monado retextures. Going to be a big pack.

(04-26-2014, 07:49 PM)oblivion254 Wrote: When I use OpenGL and Load Custom Textures it doesn't load the custom textures.
http://i.imgur.com/fuWe9PT.jpg

Did you ever solve your problem, Oblivion254? I noticed in your pic that you have XBox controller buttons, so you must have loaded custom textures. But, you're correct in that the minimap/clock frame is the non-retextured version. Unfortunately it's impossible to find all of the IDs for textures since Dolphin assigns them base on variables that are sometimes out of our hands. No one knows how many IDs there are, all we can do is dump the ones we find to limit old textures popping up. See the above reply in my post for more info about that.

EDIT: SUCCESS!



The file to delete from Reyn's tension portraits:

SX4P01_cc73758e_9.png

[hafertaler]

(04-27-2014, 03:14 AM)frozenwings Wrote: If you're referring to how sometimes things are textured and sometimes they are not (menus, portraits, etc.), we're going to be having a HUGE update to those missing textures coming up. We're also adding retextures of all of the "borders" that pop up in various spots in the game. Obviously it's impossible to snag all of the repeating (or duplicate, however you want to call them) IDs, but we're finding a ton more. I just hope that ID generation isn't effected by different dolphin builds preferring certain IDs over the other, etc. There will also be some other miscellaneous UI retextures thanks to Echoes and Bighead's work so far. And Narcku has redone some faces/hair, as well as some optional Monado retextures. Going to be a big pack.

Sounds promising, I'm looking forward to that update : )

And yes, I meant those not retextured parts popping up here and there, but like I said, I'm really grateful for the work people put in so far. Not even considering the difficulties identifying the missing textures, the amount of work is massive I assume, so I'm far from complaining : )

[frozenwings]

No worries, it didn't sound like you were complaining

I was just pretty much letting you know that we're addressing your concerns to the best of our abilities. So keep an eye on the front page for the next update!

Edit:

Changed this texture, it's also used in a couple other spots (although only one ID, I think, located in UI-Misc). The new retexture didn't make much sense. I used Flanqer's Area Maps menu palette icon, just grayscaled it since it used roughly the same icon as the original Area Maps icon. Hope he doesn't mind.





Also, in case you didn't see, Bighead, I found the Reyn corner issue as noted in the above post. Just want to make sure you delete that file so there aren't any problems down the road.

[Loki_]

Guys, first of all thanks for the big update you are preparing and for time and skills you spent for keeping alive this awsome project

Just a question, a while ago i notice this issue about loading textures

(04-11-2013, 03:57 AM)Loki_ Wrote: Hi there, first of all thanks to everyone who give efforts to this project

Btw i notice some "bugs" with hd textures too, my copy is SX4P01 version but when i set "italian" lenguage into dolphin settings a lot of textures didn't load up..basicly i can't see HD bar menu and icons, HD numbers, HD portrait at start of game, HD title "Xenoblade", HD avatars.. suppose there will be something more that for the moment i not notice yet.

If I set english instead things work better but still some errors, i can't see HD numbers and HD menu bar with icons show up only if i load a save game a second time after i start the game, but as chain_smoker reported this works only for a while, after a few minutes (or after a respawn if i die into the game) it went back to origianl textures. here some comparison screens:

ITA LENG




ENG LENG



So, is there a way to fix this? I have to rename something or set some specific settings..don't know, thanks for everyone will help

Do you know if really lenguage selection has something to do with loading textures? Can you check yourself with latest updates you have (set italian language in wii menu in dolphin settings) please?. For example, with italian leng i never rush to load up hd menu icons and HD title "Xenoblade" at start of game. Things that instead with english lenguage work good.

[poweredbykimchi]

(04-26-2014, 06:55 PM)narcku Wrote: Edit: Man.. just installed 4.5U pack. Who made that ugly grass..? Now I can't even "undo" the grass change because I have no idea which file it is among 19k+ textures -_-.
Edit 2: Nvm.. found it. leonseer's grass is the culprit.

Yeah. The grass and water textures need to go. They don't fit XB's artstyle. I take the blame for not filtering it out.

[Echoes]

Alright, I'm done with this one. I noticed that the original texture is considerably darker than the boarder pieces, so I made two versions. One darker to match the original look, and one browner so it matches the corners. I personally like the darker one much more, but I'll let everyone choose which they like best.

Edit: Also, I'm thinking this texture is too big. The original retexture was 3X (888 X 168) the original size, but I followed my usual 4X (1184 X 224) the size for it. Not sure if it was the best idea, it may look jaggy in-game as a result.

Edit 2: Added smaller versions (888X168). Do they look better, or is it just me? I especially would like to know if these look blurry (or bad/worse) at resolutions higher than 1080p.

[Bighead]

frozenwings Wrote:The only problem I have is that I think they kind of look more like a gem rather than an empty socket. Like, it protrudes out of the background instead of having depth down into it. If that makes sense.

It does make sense, and I actually thought the same thing just didn't have a lot of time so I rushed it. I'll see what I can do about that now.

frozenwings Wrote:I used Flanqer's Area Maps menu palette icon, just grayscaled it since it used roughly the same icon as the original Area Maps icon.

Yeah that looks much nicer and fits much better.

frozenwings Wrote:The file to delete from Reyn's tension portraits:
SX4P01_cc73758e_9.png

YAY.

poweredbykimchi Wrote:Yeah. The grass and water textures need to go. They don't fit XB's artstyle. I take the blame for not filtering it out.

I think the water is actually higher rez, the color can be shifted to match the "real water". << (Nope its just colored differently.) The Colony 6 grass is ugly and it's also not HD. I also think the dirt path looks pretty ugly as well and should go.
http://i.imgur.com/OxGCXPU.png

Also, thanks again Echoes for your amazing work. I tried to make something 3D yesterday (the gem crafting meter) and ended up beating my head off the table. It came out ok I guess, but there's no way I'm showing it to the world until I can get it to look better. I will thank you for the heads up on the bevel/emboss filters, but I have yet to master their functions in their entirety.

Edit: I changed my mind, screw that gem socket for now. I can't get the perspective right. It keeps ending up being one of those brain benders like this...


I can't make it convincing enough that when you look at it, you see a crevice and not a plateau at all times.

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(04-27-2014, 06:39 AM)Echoes Wrote: Alright, I'm done with this one. I noticed that the original texture is considerably darker than the boarder pieces, so I made two versions. One darker to match the original look, and one browner so it matches the corners. I personally like the darker one much more, but I'll let everyone choose which they like best.

Edit: Also, I'm thinking this texture is too big. The original retexture was 3X (888 X 168) the original size, but I followed my usual 4X (1184 X 224) the size for it. Not sure if it was the best idea, it may look jaggy in-game as a result.

Edit 2: Added smaller versions (888X168). Do they look better, or is it just me? I especially would like to know if these look blurry (or bad/worse) at resolutions higher than 1080p.

Just tested them all in game now, and the dark one definitely looks better IMO, makes it stand out more. Everything being the same color is just meh. As for the bigger/smaller, the difference is almost inconceivable to me. The smaller one is less jagged if I look reaaally close.

Edit: frozen, u may want to delete the one gem socket: SX4P01_bdc84aa8_9.png. Lol that's the gem crafting meter. It somehow snuck into the folder when I was batching them. Been making way through Agniratha so I can start mapping it out, every once in awhile I craft a gem to see if I can mix up the IDs a bit. I'm also attaching the gem crafting meter I made, I made it a little better but it's missing some details, it's nowhere as good as it can be but meh.. I'll try to make it better down the road.

[Echoes]

What I do for these textures is, I first make the shape, and then make a duplicate. To that duplicate I add a stroke effect (in this case I make them yellow/brown/gold). I then use the selection tool to select everything except the stroke effect and convert the layer to Smart object (so that the stroke effect becomes part of the layer,and editable). After that, I edit>clear selection, leaving me with a layer that is just the outer part of the image, the stroke effect. That way I can edit the "inner" and "outer" parts however I want, until I get a realistic/good looking effect. Basically, I try and make the effects work for me. I'm not great at explaining stuff, but basically keep trying and you'll hopefully find a way to make it work, hahaha!

And good to hear that they don't mess up at higher res. In any case. we should stick with the Darker, higher res one.

I actually got into a similar perspective problem working with this next texture. The middle inner parts gave me some trouble. If I tried increasing the effects more, it would break the 3D perspective completely. This is the best I could do. LOL

Anyway, here is the Collectopedia UI piece bar.

[Bighead]

Love it as always! (glares in envy) Looks great in game compared to the silver one, much more fitting. I'm loving the way the UI is looking now with all your textures, especially with the borders and other UI textures. It's always disappointing to find a new border ID, I'm like "Aww man I want to see the good one."

I really should learn how to use photoshop, from what I've read online when comparing it to GIMP, it's definitely much more powerful (but confusing). I'm sure after awhile I could familiarize myself with it though. I've been using GIMP for everything because it was really easy to understand and get into, and it did exactly as I needed for the maps. The paths tool was perfect to create the borders which is basically 95% of the work involved. The rest is filling in the blank spots and merging varying alpha levels of white. Learning how to do them though, really jump started my ability to create anything. Before I was lucky to animate a stick figure using paint images and a GIF.

I'm sure GIMP can be used to create fantastic works of art, but looking into it, photoshop's version of filters like emboss seem to be much better. Now that I'm starting to attempt more difficult things, maybe I need better tools. Why pound in a nail with a hammer when I could grab a nail gun and poof. I can always switch between the two if I find one more fitting than the other for whatever needs. Plus I need more experience, as I've only been at it a little over a month so I am accepting of my noobishness.

(04-27-2014, 06:19 AM)Loki_ Wrote: Do you know if really lenguage selection has something to do with loading textures? Can you check yourself with latest updates you have (set italian language in wii menu in dolphin settings) please?. For example, with italian leng i never rush to load up hd menu icons and HD title "Xenoblade" at start of game. Things that instead with english lenguage work good.

Hmm this is not happening for me, it works no matter what language I pick. I will point out that there are 2-4 IDs of almost every texture that there isn't 100s or 1000s of. So far I have just about everything that there is 2 of, including title screen text but not the logo. If you can, will you please dump it when that happens so you can retrieve the IDs?

Also, try unchecking/checking the "Load Custom Textures" box when the game is loaded. This often needs to be refreshed for me for some odd reason.