Port Beyond Good & Evil HD textures to Dolphin?

[HeliosMagi]

Beyond Good & Evil got an official HD Remaster on PS3 and Xbox 360, but it was never ported to PC. Would it be possible to extract the updated textures from the PS3/360 version and turn it into a texture pack that Dolphin can use? How difficult would this be to do?

On a similar note, are there any ongoing efforts to make this game render correctly in 16:9 without any abnormalities (objects disappearing at the edges of the screen, certain effects not being applied to areas of the screen outside the 4:3 window, etc.)

[ExtremeDude2]

(07-17-2019, 06:30 AM)HeliosMagi Wrote: Would it be possible to extract the updated textures from the PS3/360 version and turn it into a texture pack that Dolphin can use?

Probably, you wouldn't be able to distribute the textures however.

[HeliosMagi]

(07-17-2019, 06:43 AM)ExtremeDude2 Wrote: Probably, you wouldn't be able to distribute the textures however.

So I'll have to do it myself, eh? Any good tutorials on how to extract textures from games and convert them to a form Dolphin can use?

[MayImilae]

That's tricky. If the game is using a well known engine it's possible to rip from the game files, but it's prooobably not, in which case you'd need to use an intercepter/tracer/debugger. GLIntercept, APITrace, vkTrace, etc. Also there are GPU/driver specific tools like Nsight. What's best for your workflow will depend on a LOT of factors! I haven't done this in a while, but personally I'd recommend APITrace as a good starting point: it's open source, has wide API support, it's well documented, and is still actively developed. Nsight is stupid powerful and about as friendly as this kind of software can get, but you'll need an account in the "Nvidia Registered Developer Program" (which should be free, just annoying). Still, it's a good first choice too, if you are on Nvidia hardware.

I should warn you though. These are developer oriented softwares, so they are crazy powerful but crazy difficult to use! You're going to have to commit to climbing a very harsh learning curve!

[HeliosMagi]

Sounds way more complicated and time-consuming than I'm willing. Are there any good widescreen patches at least? The widescreen hack built into Dolphin cause some really jarring visual bugs, and I was unable to find any Gecko codes or such for a better implementation of widescreen.

[mbc07]

Why not get the PC version instead? It's available on Uplay, Steam or GOG and is super cheap. Although you won't have any better textures than the GC/PS2 ports, you'll have out-of-box support for higher resolutions and there's a widescreen patch that you can apply very easily and that doesn't cause issues like the widescreen hack in Dolphin does...

[HeliosMagi]

(07-17-2019, 01:18 PM)mbc07 Wrote: Why not get the PC version instead? It's available on Uplay, Steam or GOG and is super cheap. Although you won't have any better textures than the GC/PS2 ports, you'll have out-of-box support for higher resolutions and there's a widescreen patch that you can apply very easily and that doesn't cause issues like the widescreen hack in Dolphin does...

PC games from that era have iffy compatibility with modern hardware. Not to mention the PC version has no support at all for controllers.

[mbc07]

Well, although I never tried the GC/PS2 ports, I do have the Uplay version of Beyond Good & Evil on PC and after applying the widescreen patch I mentioned earlier, it works perfectly fine on the laptop from my signature and it has controller support too (but apparently only on the Uplay version)...

[Tayyo]

The game runs on the same engine as original PoP Trilogy did. Way way waaaaaaay back I've seen a pirated copy of Warrior Within PC version without its music, videos etc. So the files in the engine must be rippable but I don't know if the tools are propriety tools of the piracy groups.

I suggest get both HD XBLA version and the PC version and start exchanging files between them.

However I wouldn't really bother. On PC some effects cause slow downs, its aspect ratio is quite strange something like 54:42 or some BS because the guys who ported it to PC got kidnapped in a trunk by the Italian mafia and couldn't do their jobs in time (no joke, true story).

And on HD XBLA, there's no much of a difference with the PS2 PCSX2 uprendered version.

I have them both and I am too lazy to turn on my Xbox 360 to play it, when I feel like I'm just firing up PCSX2.

[MayImilae]

If you just want to play Beyond Good and Evil on PC, then you'll want the Uplay version. It has proper widescreen and resolution support, and now controller support too.