With BC7 native texture compression support a real thing now, all of the existing custom texture packs that are supplied with high quality PNGs can be converted which will greately increase the in-game quality, and with the native support, not only will the textures be lesser size on disk, they won't be expanded/decompressed, so the memory footprint would be exactly the same.
But I do not expect all of the original authors to get back on this right away and I would suspect not all of them to be around anymore or have the time to do this.
Fortunately, anyone can do this, but I see a problem, what if many people independently try to convert the same exact pack while they don't know of each other doing it, this would amount to waste of time and probably just meh.
So I suggest if somehow people could be referred to a special thread where this could be cooperated, with a list of things already in progress, things that need volunteers, and vacant.
Additionally the workload could be shared, let's say 2 guys do each half, for example(makin sure exactly same settings are used and tested before)
Even the existing DDS packs aren't completely fine, for example the Hypatia's Zelda WW HD DDS version sports around 1000 PNGs which amount together some 15 megs, those 15 megs get expanded to around 300 MB when loaded by dolphin.
Welp, time to go legal boss lady here!
Technically, assuming the author(s) did not abuse someone else's copyright, by default a copyright was made when they created the pack and the copyright is owned exclusively by the creator(s).
That means that unless the author(s) personally tell you can redistribute their texture pack or the author(s) allow redistribution in a license document included in the pack, you will not redistribute that texture pack on this forum, and if you do so we will have no choice but to remove the links and warn you for it.
Note that the author simply stating "it is fine to redistribute this pack" on the pack page itself is not enough; that is not legally binding as it is too open to interpretation - you might use it in a way that don't want you to and they can then say you are in violation, at which point you will be and have to take it down. To be legally safe, there must be a license document, or them specifically saying to you personally that what you are doing is ok (note that even if they give permission they can still revoke that right at a later date - license documents are really important!).
Also remember that legally speaking there is no such thing as "abandonware" and the fact the pack is a few years old does not change anything regarding the author's copyright. For example, in the United States the legal standard for copyright term is Life + 70 years (Life + 120 years for a corporate entity). Yes it's ridiculous, but those are the rules. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Of course, all of this is related to redistribution. You can download a pack, change it to BC7, and use it yourself as much as you want! (depending of course on your local fair-use/fair-dealing laws).
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So unfortunately Renazor, all of this legal stuff pretty much prevents any organized effort to convert a bunch of texture packs. Most of them don't have license documents and many of the authors may not be accessible to ask permission anymore. It sucks, but in that situation you simply can't redistribute the pack. Only if you contact the author and they agree with you converting and redistributing it, or if they have a license document granting redistribution, THEN it is totally fine if you do so. And if you got permission from them or there was a license document and you decide to redistribute the pack, when you post the redistribution on this forum please make sure you include a note about the license or permission in the text of the post, and the full license or permission in the redistributed pack itself.
I should have probably posted this to the custom textures section, but I thought it was only for official release threads.
Anyway. For example the "Hypatia/onthegreatsea" Zelda Wind Waker high quality texture pack for the original GC version doesn't really have an official thread, that's just some guy posting a link
The thread starter basically never finished his english version it seems so that's out of the game.
So, the possible way I see is this: To contact Hypatia/onthegreatsea and ask whether:
- wants to do a BC7 pack fully with no help
- or wants to release PNG source of the full pack which I can't find anywhere anymore (I remember I had it but can't find it on my PC, probably deleted) and give rights to someone to do BC7 conversion then
-- host it on the site alongside the DXT pack
-- or give someone else rights to host it
- or what..
But I would be disappointed if it turns out that full original PNGs were lost. If they were released as I suspect, only chance if some old link is found somewhere or some people start doing some searching on their PCs. Without original PNGs the conversion to BC7 is pointless.
https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-th...wind+waker
I don't know why you linked to the "Wind Waker HD" pack at the bottom, as that has nothing to do with Hypatia and her pack, but ok.
Looking at the contents of the pack, there isn't a license document. So you need to contact Hypatia and ask directly. If she gives you permission, you can convert it and post it here. It's simple as that really! ...though please post that she gave permission and ideally post what she said when you put the pack on the forum, though, just to be safe!
Okay
I linked the thread because it's the only one and that's where I and probably a ton of others found about that pack for the first time.