[Phredreeke]

This is the successor to my previous upscale packs for Blood. Every sprite is new, hence the 2.0, a reboot if you will. Currently it has upscaled enemies, gibs and some level decorations

The process here is similar to that of my previously released upscale pack for Duke Nukem 3D. It supports both BuildGDX and NBlood - although in the latter port you will not get any sprite tinting effects while underwater or while reflective shots is active.

Here's a few side by side comparisons




...and this is how it looks in-game (screenshot taken in latest version of BuildGDX)


Download link: https://files.fm/f/5wygxzre

[MrFlibble]

Phredreeke, on 29 March 2019 - 10:45 AM, said:

Here's a few side by side comparisons

Could you also please throw together a few comparisons with the previous version of your upscale? That was still using waifu2x, or already ESRGAN?

[Phredreeke]

From left to right: original, shaded old release (if exists), unshaded old release, Blood Upscale Pack 2.0

 tile1370t.png (80.88K)
Number of downloads: 82
 tile1485t.png (184.89K)
Number of downloads: 52
 tile1936t.png (33.88K)
Number of downloads: 35
 tile3754t.png (70.81K)
Number of downloads: 55

(the biggest difference here would be due to my new mask process TBH, not ESRGAN vs Waifu2x)

[MrFlibble]

Yes, your new masking method indeed makes a huge difference.

I wasn't able to replicate your results with the mummy sprite from Powerslave you've shown here, using the two-pass xBR method. Even though two passes help a bit with some angles, the mummy's staff didn't work out:

[Phredreeke]

I've been working on making the upscale pack PLU compatible for when Polymost can recolor palettised hightiles in shader. In the current upscale pack, sprites have had their palettes applied prior to upscaling (for comparison, in the Duke3D upscale the trooper was recolored post-upscale)

For all of these I've used custom palettes I've made where specific entries are omitted. Left or top is the current upscale, next is the WIP of the PLU compatible version with the base palette.

 tile2870t.png (34.72K)
Number of downloads: 71
First is the cultist. This is the one that takes most work and needed several separate masks for belts and hood. I've also touched up the faces further.

 tile1931t.png (27.85K)
Number of downloads: 36
I expected this to take a lot more work than it actually did. Basically the brown sections on the legs is its own mask, and same with the brown markings on the body. For frames 1897-1901 I've used another mask for the fire.

 tile2970t.png (60.47K)
Number of downloads: 33
The beast has just one mask separate mask for its hair. It's also compatible with the Spider1 and Spider3 palettes (Spider3 seen here to the right).

 tile3798t.png (33.03K)
Number of downloads: 54
The innocents reuse the script/palette used for the spider's body, no masks used. This uses the same PLU as the red spider, and I've seen this used in a few mods.

[filipetolhuizen]

Impressive. It makes everything look better while keeping most of the original appearance.

[Phredreeke]

Thank you, the goal is to maintain the aesthetic of the original at a higher resolution

BTW, for people who can't or don't want to use files.fm Sir Seizhak kindly uploaded it to freeminded

[Phredreeke]

Uploaded WIP background upscale pack. Pack contains separate PLUs for 2-10. Not all textures are upscaled (none with transparency, no asymmetrically tiling textures, a larger number of non-tiling textures missing)

https://files.fm/f/mf49pug6

Attached File(s)

•  blud0032.png (600.3K)
  Number of downloads: 80

[Aristotle Gumball]

The thing that strikes me about these is you can really see how the sprites are from clay models now. It leaves less to the imagination. Good work, but it's somewhat immersion breaking for me.

[Phredreeke]

Alright, I have been working on these for some time now, both in terms of making them "PLU compatible" as well as making the cultist faces look a bit better.

 newcultist-comparison.png (22.73K)
Number of downloads: 42

This pack only has the cultist sprites, and has been packaged as to work with the previous upscale pack released in this thread.

http://s000.tinyuplo...242385347651109

Compatible with BuildGDX and NBlood - not compatible with Fresh Supply

[mwnn]

Really like both upscale packs you've released.
The changes in Duke3D seemed quite subtle but the Blood models are noticeably improved. (it's just me - running & shooting stuff frantically - both look better!)
NBlood looks great with this @ 1080p - it's all done quite tastefully.
I see little reason to bother with Fresh Supply.

I've just replaced the new cultist textures over the old ones (re-zipped it) + added a linux bash script.
I've altered the file layout of the Duke3D pack to be consistent with this pack + added linux bash script

Nothing remarkable - you can look here if you wish:
Blood: http://s000.tinyuplo...438089384151095
Duke3D: http://s000.tinyuplo...624936859253814

Do you plan on eventually giving the same treatment to addons like Life's a Beach? Redneck, etc?

[Phredreeke]

mwnn, on 20 May 2019 - 02:31 PM, said:

Do you plan on eventually giving the same treatment to addons like Life's a Beach? Redneck, etc?

Yes. I've already released an upscale pack for Total Meltdown and Witchaven

I've also provided upscaled sprites for Alien Armageddon and the Duke Forces mods. Right now I would actually recommend the Alien Armageddon version of the upscale pack as the underwater palette changes work correctly unlike my released version.

[Phredreeke]

alright this really blew my mind

[Radar]

And here I thought the sprites were so detailed that it had to be a real person dressed up. Since it's actually a clay model, there's a chance upscaled sprites wouldn't look good even if downscaled from the original source images. But yes, mind equally blown.

[Venom]

Hi there Phredreeke,

firstly, your work of upscaling of Blood is amazing, thanks for that very hard effort.

I wanted to ask, have you created a Moddb page with your work already? Also, can you please post links to your very latest version of all project such as Blood Background Upscale pack and regular Upscale pack (enemies, weapons etc)? I am bit confused and it will be very helpful to have all of them in one place, such as mentioned Moddb, thanks and keep it up!

[Phredreeke]

In regard to background upscale pack, the new version is incomplete and the old one isn't of a quality I am happy with anymore. I am also waiting for ports to allow in-game palette swaps of high res tiles as to reduce the size of the upscale pack

The old upscale pack have weapon upscales, but I haven't updated those for the new upscale pack yet.

Currently, the best version would be the one mwnn posted above in the thread.

I'll post the next version on moddb.

Edit: I put a link in my signature to a page with links to latest versions

[Venom]

Thanks for the response, currently, I am using your v7 Upscale pack plus latest Background Upscale pack and I am very satisfied with them but I can not wait for your next releases, I am very excited about your work...

[Phredreeke]

A few clips of Death Wish running with my upscale pack (shows new palswaps and a few first person weapon sprites)



Had sent this around to testers, not really received anything back other than a comment that the colors are being a bit off on tinted enemies (something that can't be helped given how the tint definition works)

[Phredreeke]

Latest version of upscale pack is released - new are upscaled weapons and improved compatibility with addons such as Death Wish

A version compatible with Fresh Supply is also available. This has a limited selection of sprites and no addon support. It will also run in NBlood with the classic renderer or with palette emulation in Polymost!

[Poorchop]

Interesting stuff Fred. I would've thought that this would clash with the textures in game but it looks fine in your screenshot.

[Phredreeke]

I've been working on PLU compatibility for a lot of sprites as well as background tiles


These are all generated from the top left image. Some of these colors may seem odd, but this was the case in the original as well

Here's the grayish, spider1 and spider 3 palswaps compared to the original texture (bottom)

[Phredreeke]

I've uploaded a new version of the upscale pack

https://www.moddb.co...pscale-pack-206

No new sprites but several cultist frames have been updated, and the pack is now compatible with the latest BuildGDX. Under the hood the DEF file is entirely new, no longer built on top of the 2+ years old definition file from the original upscale pack.

[mwnn]

Great stuff as always.
Those FMV's are looking good as well; been playing about with ffmpeg recently too, de-interlacing some PAL DVD's to x264 with -vf bwdif and a few other bits and pieces.
I guess you can't just generate frames you don't really have even with -r 30 and -vf fps=fps=30 - hence the double image problem.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was something out there which could look at the difference between two frames and generate a suitable new frame in the middle.

Myth 2 - one of my favourites - has some high quality remade cutscenes - a shame you don't have access to the original materials as they do.

[Phredreeke]

Did some edits to the butcher.

 spritesheet.png (56.59K)
Number of downloads: 23

Slideover comparison

[MrFlibble]

Is that by manually editing or with some new/interpolated models?

[Phredreeke]

Same manga109attempt upscale, but run through a custom interframe blending script, which I then edited back into the regular downscale.

Here's an example of a raw manga upscale vs. the interframe blend https://imgsli.com/NzMyMQ

I used the same method for some of the cultist faces in the latest upscale pack.

Edit: Another slide-over comparison of raw manga upscale vs interframe blend https://imgsli.com/NzMyMw

[MrFlibble]

Phredreeke, on 08 October 2019 - 08:48 AM, said:

Same manga109attempt upscale

Doesn't Fatality produce better results?

The interframe blending result for the axe zombie appears kinda blurry.

[Phredreeke]

Yeah, only going to use the head for the axe zombie

As for fatality providing better results - maybe? But not to the point of starting over. Most of the problem cases are the same in both models (the goddamn cheerleader in redneck rampage!) I would suggest fatality over manga for people doing their own upscales though.

[MrFlibble]

Here's the same axe zombie frame upscaled with Fatality/Rebout 0.5 interpolation and no pre-processing, the same scaled down to 2x, and the original blown up to 4x with nearest neighbour:

I think it's pretty decent especially considering the tradeoff of not having to do any pre-processing or separate masks.

Phredreeke, on 08 October 2019 - 09:35 AM, said:

Most of the problem cases are the same in both models (the goddamn cheerleader in redneck rampage!)

What's with the cheerleader? Is it a specific frame? I picked a random one showing her face and the result is rather decent (sprite edges need some cleanup though):

Spoiler

This is the same interpolation as above, and no pre-processing.

[Phredreeke]

Comparison between yours (I only applied the Blood palette and made the transparent color black) and my edit

https://imgsli.com/NzM1MA

As for cheerleader... 6678, 6860 are some problematic frames