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

[poweredbykimchi]

(03-20-2014, 04:27 PM)Nomado Wrote: @poweredbykimchi Hi. I been following this project back when in 2012 now i saw it continued again. But version is already 4.5 and i don't know what changed since when i finished the game. Will you please add some changelog thing with pictures maybe in first page etc? I need some visual cue about what textures changed to HD.

There isn't a very strict numbering system I use. I jumped from 4.1 -> 4.5

I move the version number up by 0.1 if it's very minor, change to 0.5 if it contains a good amount of new things, and change to +1.0 if something big changed.

Since I was not the one who packed the last one, I don't know the details 100%. If you look at contribution list, you'll find what's new:
SolarNova Terrain + Water Textures
lenoxseer HD Grass Textures
Yami 2b HD Wii Home Menu
frozenwings Tons of Textures and Re-Textures
ScorpyX Colony 9 Metal Floor + Monado Lab Brick Wall
Flanqer HD Maps of Colony 9 and Tephra Cave + Icons
Shuls Fixed Textures + Title Screen Text
lolmetimbers Compilation of textures added to the pack

But, I'll try to add some pictures if those images are still around.

EDIT: I added links to the posts that contains the screenshots. Reason I'm linking is that the first post is already pretty cluttered as is.

[teh_speleegn_polease]

(03-16-2014, 09:18 PM)Bighead Wrote: 3-21-2014 - Finished Satorl Marsh. This area is immense and is currently where I am at in my playthrough. There's two things I want to do: better bridges, and fix up the area around Sororal Statues (platform above water isn't so round). Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it and am uploading it now if anyone has an immediate need for it like I do now.

If you think this area is immense, and haven't finished the game before, then wait till you get to the later areas. It's about medium-sized for the game actually.

And BTW, have you finished the game before? I'm not sure, and I don't want to spoil anything by accident. But maybe you're playing NG+ (or just a normal second playthrough).

[Bighead]

Yeah I've finished everything you can possibly do and more a few years ago. My first playthrough had a little over 180 hours into it lol. It's just a normal second playthrough, I probably still have my save file in an old dolphin version but didn't bother to copy it over. I figured this way it will give me another reason to play it yet again. I'm prepared for NG+ already though, I found a bunch of cheats to reset everything back to level 1 and combined it into a single, humongous cheat (besides the affinity coins because I'm not sure if they can be set back to 0 before anyone enters the party). It's here if you're interested: http://bmgcl.atspace.cc/other/XenoNGPlusCheat.txt

Those are the only cheats I loaded into Dolphin. I'm also playing this playthrough at only 25% experience gain which seems about perfect because I'm OCD and knock out every single quest along the way and try to build up the affinity chart. It definitely makes the game a whole lot more fun than the first time I played and started to out level everything at this point.

Also I know there are much larger areas like Eryth Sea which would be rather simple to make an HD version of (although that castle will be a challenge because I'm still a novice), but most areas are broken into multiple maps which is easier on the brain. Satorl Marsh just had a bunch of small details that were hard to get right, and a lot of maps don't have that many. The only other one I can think of off hand that will be harder to make than Satorl Marsh is Makna Forest with all the cliffs, paths, and bridges.

[teh_speleegn_polease]

(03-22-2014, 08:13 AM)Bighead Wrote: Yeah I've finished everything you can possibly do and more a few years ago. My first playthrough had a little over 180 hours into it lol. It's just a normal second playthrough, I probably still have my save file in an old dolphin version but didn't bother to copy it over. I figured this way it will give me another reason to play it yet again. I'm prepared for NG+ already though, I found a bunch of cheats to reset everything back to level 1 and combined it into a single, humongous cheat (besides the affinity coins because I'm not sure if they can be set back to 0 before anyone enters the party). It's here if you're interested: http://bmgcl.atspace.cc/other/XenoNGPlusCheat.txt

Wait, you mean a cheat for playing NG+, but resetting everything? What's the point of NG+ then?

Bighead Wrote:Those are the only cheats I loaded into Dolphin. I'm also playing this playthrough at only 25% experience gain which seems about perfect because I'm OCD and knock out every single quest along the way and try to build up the affinity chart. It definitely makes the game a whole lot more fun than the first time I played and started to out level everything at this point.

I should really start a second playthrough (non-NG+): on my first one, I was rushing through the story, barely paying any attention to NPCs and sidequests. I guess that's how I managed to finish the game in 50 hours. And why I was severely underlevelled every time I rushed through an area too quick without fighting a bunch of the mobs and grinding out some levels. XD

Boghead Wrote:Also I know there are much larger areas like Eryth Sea which would be rather simple to make an HD version of (although that castle will be a challenge because I'm still a novice), but most areas are broken into multiple maps which is easier on the brain. Satorl Marsh just had a bunch of small details that were hard to get right, and a lot of maps don't have that many. The only other one I can think of off hand that will be harder to make than Satorl Marsh is Makna Forest with all the cliffs, paths, and bridges.

Yeah... Afair Valak Mountain was pretty damn big, and hat a ton of small cliffs, overhangs, and stuff like that. Probably still not as much as Makna Forest or Satorl Marsh...

Although the Mechonis Field, spanning about 10(?) levels, and consisting solely of various platforms and pathways and walkways connected into a multi-level mesh, might be tricky too.

[Bighead]

(03-22-2014, 08:57 AM)teh_speleegn_polease Wrote: Wait, you mean a cheat for playing NG+, but resetting everything? What's the point of NG+ then?

Your level + everything else carries over and the monsters don't scale. It gets pretty boring one shotting everything especially if your previous playthrough has level 99 characters. I can't play anything that doesn't present a challenge. I don't want to post any spoilers, so I'll just say there's also that special something you only get in NG+ that could make it worth playing over just for the sake of playing over with it, especially a fresh start.

I was correct in assuming that Makna Forest would be a real headache. One thing I noticed is that the accuracy of this map was awful. I remember it being bad, but it's hard to notice until you are really eyeballing every small detail. A lot of the boundaries and bridges were way off. There's even a few areas you can walk beyond the boundaries like this:
http://i.imgur.com/fKObbF7.png

It took almost my entire weekend but I did manage to come up with a map that should be a lot better than the original. Here's some comparison screens:
http://i.imgur.com/WY3Cv9K.gif
http://i.imgur.com/1AaywgH.gif

I may fine tune some things in time but it's good enough for now and I just want to move on. I know there's still some boundaries that are incorrect in the eastern portion of the map, but none as bad as that one screenshot. Also, I am now uploading the maps to here so it's easier to update/preview/download them:
http://bmgcl.atspace.cc/other/xenomaps.html

[teh_speleegn_polease]

(03-24-2014, 06:50 PM)Bighead Wrote: Your level + everything else carries over and the monsters don't scale. It gets pretty boring one shotting everything especially if your previous playthrough has level 99 characters. I can't play anything that doesn't present a challenge. I don't want to post any spoilers, so I'll just say there's also that special something you only get in NG+ that could make it worth playing over just for the sake of playing over with it, especially a fresh start.

There's a spoiler tag, and also this topic is declared to contain spoilers on the first page. =P

I don't remember anything... Unless you mean the Monado III. And I don't quite see why it would make worth playing NG+ by itself, especially since you say that you like challenges and that monado has 75% crit rate and insane attack stats.
Edit: Unless you mean something you get during NG+? I haven't played through it (only the normal game), so that might be something I don't know about.

[Bighead]

Yes the Monado III. The game can still be a challenge if experience is nerfed, the stats wont make a huge difference. It is worth playing to the completionist who must have everything. But rather than discuss NG+ and personal preferences, I'd rather stay on topic. I've finally made my way to Eryth Sea. Although I have yet to start working on it. My primary concern was Alcamoth on the map. Fortunately, it is its own texture and is not part of the map texture. I know I wasn't capable of drawing a good one, and there really wasn't anything I could find on the web that could replace it. But then an idea struck me. Using Dolphin's free flow camera, I was able to take a snapshot of the real Alcamoth from a distance, convert it to grayscale, and come up with a great result. The hardest part was getting the correct angle.

[poweredbykimchi]

(03-28-2014, 04:33 AM)Bighead Wrote: Yes the Monado III. The game can still be a challenge if experience is nerfed, the stats wont make a huge difference. It is worth playing to the completionist who must have everything. But rather than discuss NG+ and personal preferences, I'd rather stay on topic. I've finally made my way to Eryth Sea. Although I have yet to start working on it. My primary concern was Alcamoth on the map. Fortunately, it is its own texture and is not part of the map texture. I know I wasn't capable of drawing a good one, and there really wasn't anything I could find on the web that could replace it. But then an idea struck me. Using Dolphin's free flow camera, I was able to take a snapshot of the real Alcamoth from a distance, convert it to grayscale, and come up with a great result. The hardest part was getting the correct angle.

[img]

Brilliant. Well done.

[teh_speleegn_polease]

(03-28-2014, 04:33 AM)Bighead Wrote: I've finally made my way to Eryth Sea. Although I have yet to start working on it. My primary concern was Alcamoth on the map. Fortunately, it is its own texture and is not part of the map texture. I know I wasn't capable of drawing a good one, and there really wasn't anything I could find on the web that could replace it. But then an idea struck me. Using Dolphin's free flow camera, I was able to take a snapshot of the real Alcamoth from a distance, convert it to grayscale, and come up with a great result. The hardest part was getting the correct angle.

Wow, that's pretty genius! Looks amazing too.

[moosehunter]

If anybody needs saves, I've posted 381 save files at all different points in the game. I also wrote a program that will extract various information about each save and rename it accordingly. (Area, play time, time saved, party members, guest party members, level, etc.)

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/9jdbd1xwmi6gw/Xenoblade