AI Upscaled Textures

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King of Worms
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by King of Worms »

Interesting read guys, Im looking forward the privateers hold test...

have you tested if sharing the normals/haight etc between various materials saves VRAM? I thought it saves just HDD space, but I never really tested it :oops:

No worries about the map, I think it will be a tough nut to crack using upscaling .)

Have fun!

PS: I overdid it with my last DREAM push and I have a slight conjunctivitis in a left eye, price to be payed for obsession lol... so I will limit my stay on PC for a while, silly me :)

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MasonFace
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by MasonFace »

So, I didn't get around to those screenshots like I had hoped. I started making "before and after" comparisons when I noticed that the new textures were REALLY dark. Turns out it wasn't the textures, but the materials- I had the metallic value set way too high! For most of the materials, all I had to do was adjust the sliders so they were easy, but for the materials that had metallic maps assigned, I had to manually alter the metallic maps in GIMP which took a lot longer. By the time I was ready to take new screenshots, my baby girl got fussy so it was time for bed. I'll try again tonight.

I only have about a dozen or so more textures/materials to complete before a demo will be ready.
have you tested if sharing the normals/haight etc between various materials saves VRAM?
I only claimed that sharing normals/height saved memory- I didn't say VRAM, although I think that's the case. I assumed that the meta data for the materials saves the references to the different textures and if different materials have the same reference, they aren't duplicated in the VRAM, but I really don't know that for sure. I might have to run some tests through the profiler to test that assumption.

I did however claim that using secondary maps saved VRAM. I'm using a low res normal map on the banners and a small repeating secondary (detail) normal map to give it a fine cloth texture when viewed up close. To get the same effect without using the secondary normal map would require a very high resolution primary normal map which would eat up a lot of VRAM.

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/Standar ... etail.html

I've also been testing what texture sizes are actually necessary. I've noticed that there isn't that noticeable difference (at least to my eye) to having lower resolution metallic, normal, and height maps, so I've saved a lot of memory by limiting their resolution in the import settings.

P.S.: I hope you have a speedy recovery!

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MasonFace
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by MasonFace »

Well, I finally got a chance to upload some screens comparing the upscaled textures with advanced materials to the vanilla textures.
Screen1.jpg
Screen1.jpg (292.12 KiB) Viewed 2124 times
These still shots don't really do it justice. The height maps really look nice when you walk past and see the bricks and ceiling beams parallax naturally.
Screen2.jpg
Screen2.jpg (250.11 KiB) Viewed 2124 times
This screen doesn't show much since the upscaled textures are so far away from the camera... I'm not a good photographer...
Screen2.jpg
Screen2.jpg (250.11 KiB) Viewed 2124 times
Also, I regret that I haven't been able to upscale the sprites yet, just textures.

You'll just have to take my work that it looks much better in game.

I'm still hoping to release a very early demo of the mod this week for some preliminary feedback. :D
Attachments
Screen4.jpg
Screen4.jpg (271.81 KiB) Viewed 2124 times

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LypyL
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by LypyL »

Those look absolutely amazing, I can't wait to try it out! :)

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VMblast
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by VMblast »

MasonFace wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 4:11 am Well, I finally got a chance to upload some screens comparing the upscaled textures with advanced materials to the vanilla textures.

Screen1.jpg

These still shots don't really do it justice. The height maps really look nice when you walk past and see the bricks and ceiling beams parallax naturally.

Screen2.jpg

This screen doesn't show much since the upscaled textures are so far away from the camera... I'm not a good photographer...

Screen4.jpg

Also, I regret that I haven't been able to upscale the sprites yet, just textures.

You'll just have to take my work that it looks much better in game.

I'm still hoping to release a very early demo of the mod this week for some preliminary feedback. :D
Woooow, I sitll cant believe that this was done digitally. I am stunned by the looks of that last image! Youve managed to pull out height maps as well and it shows super great! Wow! Now this experience would be awesome to play through. :D

Will you include heightmaps in your demoMOD as well? Tickable?

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King of Worms
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by King of Worms »

Wow, awesome results as Ive expected, this is a remake/remaster as close to vanila as possible. Great job! Im happy about this project!
Ive spent too much time on my project, I know every texture and every sprite in it, so it will be so fresh to use your mod instead of mine for a playthru .)
I think both mods have their place... always good to have more options!

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MasonFace
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by MasonFace »

Thanks for the compliments! I think you guys will really enjoy the demo mod.
Will you include heightmaps in your demoMOD as well? Tickable?
@VMBlast:

Heightmaps will be in the included materials, but I'm not sure what you mean by "tickable." I do intend to later release a version of the mod that's just the upscaled textures (Albedo) without all the other advanced texture maps to better cater to the tastes of the purists out there, but you could get basically the same effect by just installing Freak2121's upscaled texture pack (featured on the first page of this thread). My albedo textures generally use his upscales as a starting point. Some of them are slightly enhanced by blending the results with my ESRGAN and/or SFTGAN results. Some textures I've enhanced further by including detail textures to help restore detail when viewed up close.

I will publish the raw GIMP files when the project is closer to being complete so anyone can make edits. Don't worry, I'm going to keep them backed up on an external disk drive in the meantime so there's no risk of them getting lost! :)
Alternatively, if I get burnt out and I decide to take a break or an extended hiatus from the project, then I'll release what I have so others may pick up the torch and carry on.

Slightly unrelated, but I think I'm going to approach this the way KoW has and release the mods in a modular fashion where the textures are one mod, MOBs are another, Sprites/Flats/NPCs, etc.. I won't make any UI mods since I believe the KoW version is darn near perfect (we just need to fix the map :? ).

@KoW:
I've spent too much time on my project . . .
I know the feeling already, and I've only done a tiny fraction of all the textures. I understand better than most the dedication that you've brought to DFU, and I thank you for it!
I think both mods have their place... always good to have more options!
I agree completely. I'd say these textures tend to be closer to vanilla DF, but they can't compete with your remaster in terms of resolution. I think I would recommend your mod to people who started playing the Elder Scrolls series at Oblivion or Skyrim.

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Jukic
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by Jukic »

@Mason: WOW, this lost Bethesda archive has some nice stuff in :D

....no seriously....stunning!

p.s. still working with Your test sprite set, if you have any more done just give me a nudge...

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MasonFace
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by MasonFace »

p.s. still working with Your test sprite set, if you have any more done just give me a nudge...
Thanks Jukic! I'll try to get another batch ready for you after I complete this texture/material demo mod. Actually, I'll try to upscale the world map for KoW first, then send you another MOB batch.

BTW, did the format that I used last time work okay for you (three separate zip files), or would it be more convenient to do it another way?

I really appreciate your help on this. I was dreading trying to blend and cut out every frame of every enemy manually by myself! :)

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VMblast
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Re: AI Upscaled Textures

Post by VMblast »

MasonFace wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 3:51 pm Thanks for the compliments! I think you guys will really enjoy the demo mod.
Will you include heightmaps in your demoMOD as well? Tickable?
@VMBlast:

Heightmaps will be in the included materials, but I'm not sure what you mean by "tickable."
Yeah sry, what I meant was - will you make it so you can tick out (if there's going to be in form of MOD /modScreen), if you want to use heightmaps or not. Thats all. :P

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