Resident Evil Code: Veronica X HD

Zombie

IMPORTANT UPDATE (02/21/20) I recently released a new Dolphin utility called Phazon UI. Dynamic user interfaces for Resident Evil: Code Veronica X can now be generated with Phazon! If you'd like to create custom user interfaces, please check out the Phazon UI Dolphin post or the Phazon UI Discord for more information.

I decided to dump the textures on my last Code Veronica playthrough and see how they looked with 4x topaz upscale... the results are pretty decent. Not anywhere near as good as the prerendered textures from other RE games, but a significant improvement over the base textures on average. I've manually sorted through all the upscaled textures and tossed the (very) small number that didn't benefit from upscaling. Played through battle game and loaded up a bunch of old saves and haven't noticed any major issues... but there's probably going to be a few minor things that fell through the cracks or need fixes. Textures have had unused alpha channels removed and been optimized with optiPNG.

3/29/2019 Edit
I took some time to sort through FanBoy's REC:VX Pack and update some text in this HD pack. They did a great job with the text, and it really improves the game. I made a few minor edits (fixed some text in the controller menu that clipped in 4:3), combined upscaled faces/eyes in the menu screen with their improved menu text, and created a new default gamecube controller texture. Xbox and Playstation controller textures are still included for anyone who'd rather swap them in. I've tested the combined packs briefly over the last few days and I didn't notice any issues. If you notice any problems, please post them below.

Download Links

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

Comparisons

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

I recommend opening these in new tabs, they're 2624x1080

Known Issues
• Minor tiling artifacts in ~~~2 places~~ 1 place on the item menu from upscaling the texture with faces and a few other things
• Some of the textures with fonts aren't great (e.g. ammo boxes), but they were pretty terrible prior to upscaling... they can't be fixed without completely remaking them
• Some text has not been modified
• The primary item menu texture (pretty much the only thing in the game broken up into tiles, which gets distorted when upscaled and pieced back together)
• A few random things I missed (e.g. Steve's Battle Game page)

Revision History

Spoiler: (Show Spoiler)

the_lost · 03-10-2019, 09:06 PM #2

These look really good, thanks! Downloading now.

Kayael · 03-11-2019, 01:12 AM #3

That's a nice job you've done there, it really helps keeping the original feeling of the game. Thanks for doing this !

***Shonumi*** · (This post was last modified: 03-11-2019, 03:33 AM by Shonumi.)

So, if I understand things correctly, Topaz is an upscaling method/application that uses AI to improve the image. Some of those look really neat given the original resolution. In a couple of screens, the new textures definitely look like detail has been "restored" where compression and size reduction affected image quality in the originals. Looks good.

Piranchi · 03-11-2019, 07:21 PM #5

Good job, looks great! I planned to do this job myself, but you were the first) Thank you!
Are you planning to compress textures? I am testing png textures - stuttering occurs when the camera is changed.

Zombie · 03-11-2019, 10:28 PM #6

(03-11-2019, 03:33 AM)Shonumi Wrote: So, if I understand things correctly, Topaz is an upscaling method/application that uses AI to improve the image. Some of those look really neat given the original resolution. In a couple of screens, the new textures definitely look like detail has been "restored" where compression and size reduction affected image quality in the originals. Looks good.

More or less, yeah. Their front page gives a decent overview of the general idea https://topazlabs.com/ai-gigapixel/

For a more practical example, you can see the results pretty clearly in individual textures that contained a lot of detail but were noticeably pixelated prior to upscaling

[Image: cMlEaC5.jpg]

(03-11-2019, 07:21 PM)Piranchi Wrote: Are you planning to compress textures? I am testing png textures - stuttering occurs when the camera is changed.

I'm not sure what sort of compression you're referring to, so you'd have to elaborate. The PNGs have already had their alpha channels removed and been optimized. Compression via photoshop yields reductions that aren't worth the time required to perform (on the order of 0.5% size reduction). The best ways to improve performance are to use the DDS pack and to preload custom textures

Piranchi · 03-12-2019, 03:08 AM #7

What version of the dolphin and its settings do you use? Do you have performance problems?

Kayael · (This post was last modified: 03-12-2019, 05:55 AM by Kayael.)

Apparently someone else is doing the same thing, member Fukusatzu on ResetEra :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYgHmOqI14E&feature=youtu.be

Maybe you should get in touch with him and join forces Smile

?

Zombie · 03-12-2019, 03:46 PM #9

(03-12-2019, 03:08 AM)Piranchi Wrote: What version of the dolphin and its settings do you use? Do you have performance problems?

The only relevant considerations should be precaching and your ssd/hdd/ram/video card

PNG pack tested in 5.0-550, minor stuttering on file load, removed when precaching textures
DDS pack tested in 5.0-9620, runs fine without precaching, flawlessly when precached

Given how easy it is to install multiple versions of dolphin and point them to common save files/etc, there's really no reason to use a build that doesn't support DDS. There's a bunch of benefits and no apparent downsides.

(03-12-2019, 05:53 AM)Kayael Wrote: Apparently someone else is doing the same thing, member Fukusatzu on ResetEra :

Maybe you should get in touch with him and join forces ?

I'm not sure there's much value to that at this point, since we've both done pretty much the same thing and have pretty much finished the respective packs. Amusingly enough, I've also been looking at that HD UI pack to see if it would work well in conjunction with this pack, but haven't had much time to sort through common files yet... I've been distracted doing another pass on Eternal Darkness, which is a giant headache that's been about 10x more work than this RE pack

Zombie · (This post was last modified: 03-29-2019, 08:16 PM by Zombie.)

Main post has been updated with a new download link + information about the new pack, featuring improved HD text + UI branched from FanBoy's REC:VX Pack

I've taken some time to check compatibility and I haven't noticed any issues, but if anyone finds anything be sure to let me know.