Backgrounds upscaling

[Apocrifis]

Hi all!

Yesterday I posted on Reddit the same question but realized it wasn't the right place, so:

I'm playing a bit with photoshop on baldur's background to try to give it a more modern and defined look. I know that others have already tried the same with other tools (gigapixel, esrgan) but they have abandoned for the limits of IE.

Could someone tell me what are the limits of size or weight of the images? If someone will help me I will probably manage to make a mod with "enhanced graphics".

Below a before/after attempt. The images show the original (588kb) and my modification with photoshop (18 mb). Probably doing an upscale x2 instead of x4 the image would weigh about 5mb and the results would be slightly lower.

 

Original post with better images (reddit)

 

[Jarno Mikkola]

The tile files files are .pvrz's, upto 1024x1024, but you can construct a map from multiple of them, that then are defined in other files, and that requires area moding knowledge that can be gained by asking specific questions or from tutorials, the point; game has a lots of multi .pvrz tile maps. Other answers, don't know, or don't really care. As in, this should be a start point onto it.

[lynx]

As far as I know,  @Joneleth Irenicus is still at it. He already modified NearInfinity to make conversions easier and converted a bunch of stuff. It gets tricker once you get to animations.

 

[Apocrifis]

1 hour ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

The tile files files are .pvrz's, upto 1024x1024, but you can construct a map from multiple of them, that then are defined in other files, and that requires area moding knowledge that can be gained by asking specific questions or from tutorials, the point; game has a lots of multi .pvrz tile maps. Other answers, don't know, or don't really care. As in, this should be a start point onto it.

Unfortunately I think this is above my abilities. I also ignored the existence of pvrz =(

Edited September 22, 2020 by Apocrifis

[Apocrifis]

1 hour ago, lynx said:

As far as I know,  @Joneleth Irenicus is still at it. He already modified NearInfinity to make conversions easier and converted a bunch of stuff. It gets tricker once you get to animations.

 

So, from what I understand by reading quickly, he's making some modifications to GemRB to do a 4k upscale but reading his Github it looks like he's good with static images but 0% with animations. It looks promising, unfortunately apart from a few tricks with photoshop I don't think I can help him. I was stupidly convinced that the matter was much simpler.

Edit: His Near Infinity implementations seem really good!

Edited September 22, 2020 by Apocrifis

[lynx]

You can't just stuff in bigger background pictures, since the coordinate system is tied to them. So yeah, without engine support, you're left to retouch at the original sizes.

[Apocrifis]

24 minutes ago, lynx said:

You can't just stuff in bigger background pictures, since the coordinate system is tied to them. So yeah, without engine support, you're left to retouch at the original sizes.

I'll try to see what I can get with the original sizes. Maybe somenthing more vibrant and modern. I'll be back! Thanks

[Apocrifis]

So far, exporting the pvrz with Near Infinity and editing without touching the 1024x1024 limit, all I can obtain is a overall better image (but if you zoom the resolution is still low).

before: https://postimg.cc/CZXHQsQv

after: https://postimg.cc/8jNd95ZV

What do you think?

Edited September 22, 2020 by Apocrifis

[lynx]

It just looks like you cranked up the sharpness. Perhaps some would find it nicer, can't say.