plusnine's Punch-Out!! Wii HD-Ready Project (updated September 8, 2016)

[plusnine]

• Before and after gallery
  
• Download v. 0.6 (September 8, 2016)
  

Having familiarized myself with Dolphin's texture dumping process, I thought i'd take a crack at one of my favorites for the Wii, Punch-Out!! For the most part the game already looks fantastic in 1080p and true to the NES and SNES classics, it plays like a total dream and is a fun challenge for players who like boxing games.

I am working with the NA version of the game (R7PE01), and have not tested it with any other editions.

Originally, I intended to only grapple with the title screen, UI, and HUD, but after seeing the textures all stream in one by one, I ended up giving most of the in-game particle effects a nice scale-up, too. I also started replacing character portraits to match the spiffy new UI theme, and did a few things to upgrade the arenas and a few other odds and ends.

Dust off your Wii DVD or find at your local used games store and Enjoy!


v.0.6 (released 2016-09-08)
==========================================
[color=#ff3333]IMPORTANT:[/color]
- BE SURE to delete your old RP7E01 folder if you're upgrading from v.0.5
- i have re-filed a lot of textures into new/better/correct locations
- i have un-included any unaltered textures

UI:
- added title screens in lieu of the controller warnings. (hype!)
- added metal gradients load screen wbva emblems
- fixed menu icon emblem appearance for better uniformity
- fixed menu selection effects

WORLD:
- added major and world circuit title belts
- added wood textures
- added corner crash bags and stadium seats
- added world circuit banner (fixes repeated letters from the default game)
- added marble relief sculpture
- fixed major circuit mat shadow placement

FIGHTERS:
- added hd-ready hair textures for lots of fighters
- disco kid has a new disco ball
- tweaked piston hondo's tamagoyaki
- king hippo is sporting new pineapple textures
- king hippo is wearing hippo-themed boxers
- king hippo (title defense) has a new manhole cover and duct dape
- king hippo (title defense) has a new crown
- great tiger (title defense)'s magic swirl has been given new coloration and detail
- super macho man is now packing benjamins instead of single dollar bills

TO DO:
- Find Donkey Kong's other assets. Hopefully I can save-ram spoof this.
- Find any Giga-mac related assets.
- QA pass everything

[NeverExists]

I can see you added some shine effects to the title, and the bulbs look amazing. Can't wait to try this..

[ewzzy]

That's amazing! Very clean. It looks so official.

Have you done anything with the cutscenes for the fighters? Or are those stored as videos?

[NeverExists]

I've started working on upscaling most of the textures if you need help.

[plusnine]

I've started working on upscaling most of the textures if you need help.

hey, slick. i may get in touch! i have the light, battle effects, almost all of the ui, and have started in on other visual improvement to the arenas like the lighting, walls, ropes etc. the mats are looking really good, thought i'm toying with the idea of making some 4k textures for those if dolphin will support them.

i did manage to get a few more screenshots of new stuff that's been done, i'll see if i have anything worth sharing. would love to see what textures you're addressing.


sady, my 3-d card died in my computer today, so i'll be out of commission for a few days until its replacement arrives in terms of looking at anything in-game, but there's still plenty of drawing to do.

the one texture that's a behavioral mystery so far to me is the red white and blue ring skirt for the major circuit - that texture is applied real weird, or something else funky is going on with it.

[NeverExists]

hey, slick. i may get in touch! i have the light, battle effects, almost all of the ui, and have started in on other visual improvement to the arenas like the lighting, walls, ropes etc. the mats are looking really good, thought i'm toying with the idea of making some 4k textures for those if dolphin will support them.

i did manage to get a few more screenshots of new stuff that's been done, i'll see if i have anything worth sharing. would love to see what textures you're addressing.


sady, my 3-d card died in my computer today, so i'll be out of commission for a few days until its replacement arrives in terms of looking at anything in-game, but there's still plenty of drawing to do.

the one texture that's a behavioral mystery so far to me is the red white and blue ring skirt for the major circuit - that texture is applied real weird, or something else funky is going on with it.

Yeah I've got some textures I've used that were 16 mb unoptimized lol so it should be ok to have some 4k textures. The game does look pretty amazing as it is so I can only imagine what it will look like with your textures. So far I've just done some recoloring and sharpening to some textures that weren't as colorful. I aslo upscaled some of the font and hud elements. I can't draw to save my life but I can do pretty much everything else. Sorry to hear about your card, May it rest in peace.

[plusnine]

i've released a download of the pack, if someone would care to move this to the HD texture project group, that'd be swell. enjoy, everyone.

I will be streaming myself playing using the pack for a short while this morning: https://www.twitch.tv/plusnine_tvb

[StripTheSoul]

Hey, very nice job! I'm actually glad I'm just right in the middle of it. Will be fine to have it a bit tuned up for the rest

About 4k textures: Sure, Dolphin supports them, however, there WILL be stuttering when the game (or rather Dolphin) tries to load them (even after converting them to DDS files) because they're just so friggin' big that the GPU's texture bandwidth just ain't enough to send it through quickly enough. Or at least that's what I remember Tino explaining
Surely, the bigger the file the better to work with it. For the final pack, however, you might want to consider shrinking them by 50% or so. On most monitors you won't be able to spot a difference anyway. Or users will just have to do that, whatever

[plusnine]

About 4k textures: Sure, Dolphin supports them, however, there WILL be stuttering when the game (or rather Dolphin) tries to load them

i will consider that. i've got a similar video card to yours and have only ever noticed the mildest of stuttering. over-doing it on the particle effects seems to be the biggest impact on performance, but since most everything for a given fight is pre-loaded, performance has been rock-solid for me. i'm only aiming for looking good in 1080p, really, and am not bothering with 4k monitors, as i do not own one.

if users are having difficulty, please report where stuttering occurs with a screenshot if possible and i will look into those specific textures for the next release. in my twitch playthrough of the game, i found several things i'd like to improve and fix for next time.

[plusnine]

v.0.6 (released 2016-09-08)
==========================================
IMPORTANT:
- BE SURE to delete your old RP7E01 folder if you're upgrading from v.0.5
- i have re-filed a lot of textures into new/better/correct locations
- i have un-included any unaltered textures

UI:
- added title screens in lieu of the controller warnings. (hype!)
- added metal gradients load screen wbva emblems
- fixed menu icon emblem appearance for better uniformity
- fixed menu selection effects

WORLD:
- added major and world circuit title belts
- added wood textures
- added corner crash bags and stadium seats
- added world circuit banner (fixes repeated letters from the default game)
- added marble relief sculpture
- fixed major circuit mat shadow placement

FIGHTERS:
- added hd-ready hair textures for lots of fighters
- disco kid has a new disco ball
- tweaked piston hondo's tamagoyaki
- king hippo is sporting new pineapple textures
- king hippo is wearing hippo-themed boxers
- king hippo (title defense) has a new manhole cover and duct dape
- king hippo (title defense) has a new crown
- great tiger (title defense)'s magic swirl has been given new coloration and detail
- super macho man is now packing benjamins instead of single dollar bills

TO DO:
- Find Donkey Kong's other assets. Hopefully I can save-ram spoof this.
- Find any Giga-mac related assets.
- QA pass everything