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

[Echoes]

Photoshop is definitely much better overall. I used to use Gimp, then I got PS, which, to be honest was very confusing at first. For a time I went 50/50 using Gimp and Photoshop, since there were stuff I could figure out on one, but not the other. Nowadays I rarely open Gimp anymore. I have some friends that study design and stuff like that, and they assured me that PS could do everything better and to keep using it, and they were kinda right.

And here's the Top left Menu texture. I really wanted to do this one.

Edit: I can't help myself, can I? These last too texture are too shiny. I blame the inconsistencies on the original textures! they're like this too! I toned this one down a little.

[Bighead]

Looks great, I think that about wraps it up for the mismatched UI. I noticed the texture in the pack for the inventory slots is actually worse than the original. I'm gonna attempt to make a better one of that since I did all the other slot textures and have a good feel for it now.

Edit: Well, that didn't me take long. Slight improvement in quality, made the items fit better, and rounded the corners like before.
http://i.imgur.com/KzjTv9u.gif

Edit Again: A v2 because as always I find something wrong with it after I already post it. I modified the spacing a bit to better line up with the items.

[Echoes]

Not quite yet.. there's still a few left. It's just that they look so similar. I still need to do the Arts orb, the "I don't even know" one, Item screen corners, the Party Bar, the Quick travel map one, and the unity bar.

Good luck with that!

[frozenwings]

Ahhh! I missed so much today! Going to have to play catch up.

(04-27-2014, 08:05 AM)Bighead Wrote:

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". 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.

---

(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.

Okay, what are the IDs for the terrain textures and grass textures people want to get rid of? I honestly haven't messed around with too much environment stuff. Are we just ditching the entire environment folder or just all of the grass/flower/plant/dirt textures? Specific IDs? I really haven't paid much attention to the actual game this time through, just hardcore dumping everything. The only thing I've really stopped to admire that isn't UI related are Narcku's Monado textures, I'm skipping right through the story too. I'm going to be doing another playthrough that's more "for fun" after this run. I love the story in this game, the music, the world. It's a shame I've been neglecting to admire it this time. Anyway, I just want to make sure I delete anything you do, Bighead, so I don't reintroduce problem files into the pack when I send you all of this stuff.

Don't worry about the socket, then. No use getting frustrated with it; better to just move on to something else. I'll just keep using your retexture for now and maybe I'll try and mess with it myself when I get tired of dumping (because it's oh so fun and I'll never get tired of it :p).

Echoes, I agree with you and bighead. The darker one does look better, stands out more. It somehow doesn't clash with the rest of the UI like the original texture does. I think you did a great job, as with the rest of the pieces. I just loaded up my game with all of your UI pieces in, and I was grinning ear to ear over how damn good it look. Fantastic. On my 1440p I can BARELY tell the difference, but honestly the smaller one does look a little more smooth. But I really have to strain to see it, like bighead also stated.

Bighead, I deleted that gem socket/crafting meter texture. Too bad I didn't run into it first. Would have been pretty funny.

(04-27-2014, 11:58 AM)Bighead Wrote:

(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.

Is this the logo thing? I guess I don't know what you mean. I can't find a retexture of it, maybe I'm missing it or maybe this is the wrong file. (thumbnail).

(04-27-2014, 01:24 PM)Bighead Wrote: Looks great, I think that about wraps it up for the mismatched UI. I noticed the texture in the pack for the inventory slots is actually worse than the original. I'm gonna attempt to make a better one of that since I did all the other slot textures and have a good feel for it now.

No, no, no. Don't go letting him off the hook that easily. He has a few more things to finish. (They're all in that rar a few pages back, my issues pack or whatever.)

Edit: Just saw your new bar. Fricking awesome dude. Looks so much better. I was just looking earlier at it in game after getting used to your other bars. I was sitting there wondering if the regular inventory bars were even redone, but I couldn't find them dump in my dumps folder. So, it was already retextured and just looked.... less good than your new one. Got it.

[Bighead]

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Okay, what are the IDs for the terrain textures and grass textures people want to get rid of?

Some of the environment textures are awesome, I don't want to see all of them go. Just some of the ugly ones in Colony 9. These are the ones that I think everyone was referring to.

SX4P01_46b18e39_14.png
SX4P01_47e79178_14.png
SX4P01_50c1543d_14.png
SX4P01_66b1390b_14.png
SX4P01_300cb807_14.png
SX4P01_88359245_14.png
SX4P01_243036aa_14.png
SX4P01_a900dc3f_14.png
SX4P01_a41159d5_14.png

Edit: Also, I don't like deleting textures because personally I don't find the water that bad and prefer the dark blue, but I don't like the grass and dirt path. So there is no harm in keeping all of these as "optional" textures, because I don't like to delete textures or see anyone's work fall into an abyss.

2nd Edit: Missed 3 Some of these may be possible to edit (such as the grass, the "bushy kind") to better match the originals making them worthy candidates for remaining in the main part of the pack. Problem with it is really its just too dark.

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Don't worry about the socket, then. No use getting frustrated with it; better to just move on to something else. I'll just keep using your retexture for now and maybe I'll try and mess with it myself when I get tired of dumping (because it's oh so fun and I'll never get tired of it :p).

It looks ok in game, but it does bother me that it can be perceived either as both an imprint and a plateau. If I can get proper looking shadows in there it may help it out a bit.

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Bighead, I deleted that gem socket/crafting meter texture. Too bad I didn't run into it first. Would have been pretty funny.

LOL it was pretty funny. I went to craft a gem, and I just got a big brown stretched looking gem with the gauge inside of it.

Also, Loki is talking about the xenoblade chronicles logo. It's not textured in his one screenshot. I think it might be an issue with Dolphin not a texture ID. When switching languages I have to uncheck/recheck load custom textures to get them all to load, including the straploader screen and the logo.

[frozenwings]

(04-27-2014, 01:39 PM)Echoes Wrote: Not quite yet.. there's still a few left. It's just that they look so similar. I still need to do the Arts orb, the "I don't even know" one, Item screen corners, the Party Bar, the Quick travel map one, and the unity bar.

Good luck with that!

Haha! See, he knows he's not done. Echoes, my friend, you've really done an amazing job. I'm so glad you've stuck it out and wanted to help finish the UI. I don't know if anyone else could have. Ever since you posted those borders around a year ago, I was like man I wish I could trick him into doing the rest of the UI. I almost don't even want to leave the menus now.

(04-27-2014, 02:10 PM)Bighead Wrote:

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Okay, what are the IDs for the terrain textures and grass textures people want to get rid of?

Some of the environment textures are awesome, I don't want to see all of them go. Just some of the ugly ones in Colony 9. These are the ones that I think everyone was referring to.

SX4P01_46b18e39_14.png
SX4P01_47e79178_14.png
SX4P01_50c1543d_14.png
SX4P01_66b1390b_14.png
SX4P01_300cb807_14.png
SX4P01_88359245_14.png

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Don't worry about the socket, then. No use getting frustrated with it; better to just move on to something else. I'll just keep using your retexture for now and maybe I'll try and mess with it myself when I get tired of dumping (because it's oh so fun and I'll never get tired of it :p).

It looks ok in game, but it does bother me that it can be perceived either as both an imprint and a plateau. If I can get proper looking shadows in there it may help it out a bit.

(04-27-2014, 02:00 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Bighead, I deleted that gem socket/crafting meter texture. Too bad I didn't run into it first. Would have been pretty funny.

LOL it was pretty funny. I went to craft a gem, and I just got a big brown stretched looking gem with the gauge inside of it.

Also, Loki is talking about the xenoblade chronicles logo. It's not textured in his one screenshot. I think it might be an issue with Dolphin not a texture ID. When switching languages I have to uncheck/recheck load custom textures to get them all to load, including the straploader screen and the logo.

Yeah, the gem socket does look good. But, as you said, it depends on how you're thinking about it. Sometimes it looks fine, sometimes I think there's a gem in it :p

Ah, okay. No big deal. I've had to do it a couple times myself. I honestly couldn't see his screenshots, maybe I was doing something wrong. I was in a hurry earlier though and didn't have much time to mess around with anything until just now.

Also, I edited my last post in case you didn't see it (happens a lot, people were posting while I was typing mine out and I got behind).

Yeah, I agree. You shouldn't delete them, I guess I was implying to making them optional. I meant delete out of the main pack, blegh. It's late and been a long day. No one's hard work should go to waste. I just moved those IDs you listed to a separate folder for now so they don't get mixed back in later.

[Bighead]

I edited my previous post as well because there's a few I missed.

Edit: Actually now that I think about, the bushy grass texture isn't worth editing. After comparing it to the normal grass, poweredbykimchi and narcku are right it just doesn't match.

It goes from this... to this...
>>

Certainly there's a better match somewhere in the world. There is a point I want to attempt to whip up some environment textures because honestly, when you do compare these 2 pics, it makes it look like a whole new and better game. There is just better choices for some of them.

http://i.imgur.com/GMcsmCM.gif

[frozenwings]

Oh yeah, well I double edited. Lol. Sometimes this thread moves way too fast.

Anyway, I was thinking earlier. Maybe once we get the next pack out, we could distribute a separate rar/zip/whatever file with the script you made to pull out certain files out of the dump folder. Obviously it would be optional, but people could help contribute to the pack if they want to, and the script makes it super easy.

We could put it under the main pack on the front page, and provide some basic instructions. Tell them how to start the game with Load Textures on (but dump textures off), then turn dump textures on when you get to the title screen. This way they can dump any new textures while keeping their dump folder free of duplicates (similar to what we do now, but obviously some new guy won't get it.) That way they'll automatically dump any new IDs while playing, and all they have to do is run the script and then upload the IDs in rar/zip file for us to retexture. We can sort out the garbage. I doubt many people will even bother, but still there might be a few out there that want to contribute but aren't too savvy with PS and GIMP (pretty much people like myself :p).

[Echoes]

Yeah, I plan on doing... pretty much all I can, unless something comes up.

This one was easy enough to make, especially after doing that last one. This is the Quick travel... map title bar thing. LOL

Edit: Maybe changing the saturation of those textures would help make them match the game... Seems unlikely, but who knows.

[Bighead]

(04-27-2014, 02:33 PM)frozenwings Wrote: Anyway, I was thinking earlier. Maybe once we get the next pack out, we could distribute a separate rar/zip/whatever file with the script you made to pull out certain files out of the dump folder. Obviously it would be optional, but people could help contribute to the pack if they want to, and the script makes it super easy.

I was actually thinking about doing that, just didn't say anything because I'm not sure of the approach yet. The last pack I included a "Software" folder with the 30FPS patch for the Europe release and any title converter. I was thinking about just tossing a zip with instructions into that folder titled "How_You_Can_Help" with some implicit instructions on the methods that we've been using everyday for the past however long now lol. And of course that texture renaming batch, since it's already had 54 downloads and has been buried in this thread for some time now. Makes me think people are having trouble with any title id renamer and seek pages looking for an answer without posting.

Edit: In addition to that idea, I was actually thinking of instead making two packs - one that have the textures organized, the other one folder with all of them, to instead just make it like before, just all in one folder. But, include a "texture organizing" script that can both rename the textures and separate them into folders in one run, depending on picked options. We'll see how realistic that becomes down the road, but it shouldn't be hard to do at all.

Edit one more time: I've also been keeping track of all new textures since v4.5U, and made a sort of collage of them. When you see how many there are so far all at once, it's impressive.
http://i.imgur.com/W4xjTn0.png