PSO High Resolution Project - Font

[tamashii]

Hello everyone,

I'm a regular player here on this server, but never wrote on the forum.

I was a player on that-other-PSO-server-we-all-played-in, and back then I was pretty active in research to make the game look a tiny bit better in our high resolution screens. So, in 2012, I created a font, which forces the game to accept a higher resolution texture. As far as I have tested it, I haven't experienced a crash, with the S--thack or the Ultima clients.

What this font file does:

It will replace the font used for HP/MP amounts, Level, and PB charge, damage given and taken, EXP/TP/HP/Meseta given by healing/special weapon hits and changes the main menu font.

What this font file won't do:

Change the text font used in chat or other stuff (like stats) on screen (the one you configure with your system fonts), or make it look better (less blurry).

Screenshots (they're very old, from that-other server) for your viewing pleasure:

Download link:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/6dl6wdk95o9otzh/texture_e_HRGUIProject.xvm

Be sure to use the Personalization option in the Launcher to select the font file, don't replace your original file as the update process will revert it to the original version.

Other stuff of interest I worked while working in the High Resolution pack:

Along with this I created some files to revamp the character creation screens, as shown in these screenshots:

And a Pioneer 2 City High Resolution pack (which you might have seen before, or added in lists of mods/skins):

Turning this blurry mess:

To this:

Along with other random signs and texts around the place. It has a slight chance of crashing the game, specially with old hardware, but so far I've tested it with no issues whatsoever.

If the interest in these things is high, I might host them again somewhere (specially since the Pioneer 2 City thing was done back in 2009).

[Lemon]

I am very interestes in the p2 skin.

[Fyrewolf5]

I already use your hi-res pioneer 2 city skin since ages, it's quite nice. I got it off of univers-ps probably. Nice to see hi-res stuff expanded upon. Good Luck!

[tamashii]

Thanks for your words and reputation, everyone.

I do hope to work more on this.

For now, @Lemon, I can give you this link for the last release of the Pioneer 2 City HR Project.

I'd have to fix stuff around and make it better, without crashing the game engine.

[Varista]

You guys make it seem like mentioning that you played at schthack is such a horrible thing.

I like this text mod, but I don't really understand why you cant change the text bubble resolution as well?

[tamashii]

Sorry for putting it that way @Auroboro, but if you look back in history Schthack was just a hacked together mish-mash of random stuff in the name of a server. The data loss was just the tipping point.

Right now I can't vouch for anything, I just don't care about them anymore (after pouring more than 4 years into it and losing everything).

Either way, about the text bubble font rendering. I've done my research and it is something really complicated. In the console ports of the game, SEGA used a standard font, in Dreamcast they used one that was embedded in the BIOS, and in the GC one they loaded one on boot (one that macthed the Dreamcast one pretty well).

For the Windows version, they had to resort to a hack where they create a fixed size texture with the glyphs (individual letters) of the font you've selected. That fixed size texture routine seems so delicate, specially since the PSO client IS prone to memory overflows and other bugs whenever it gets something a little beyond what it expects.

IT would need some heavy reverse engineering to make it work.

[Lone Ranger]

 I love everything about this lol.  I honestly thought it would be silly of me to bring up something so minor, but I have always had issues seeing my name or things i type in pioneer 2 cause of the background colors clashing and blocking my text.  Thanks for all the hard work and dedication, it's much appreciated.

[tamashii]

I'm glad you like it @Lone Ranger.

I've been researching a little bit once and again, and the HUD (which is one of the things I really want to do) is impossible to turn High Resolution (or at least more clear), unless there's a new breakthru in the client executable (the game just out and crashes at the title screen).

I'll try to work on a new version of the Pioneer 2 City HR project, specially some random textures here and there. Wish me luck as I don't want to crash this stupid thing.

[Lone Ranger]

Good luck lad, and keep up the good research.

[Yannv]

.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Noob Saibot

[Aeroprism]

Ooohh that is nice craftmanship!  I'm getting the P2 skin as soon as I can tonight!  Good job!!

[Larva]

On 10/5/2016 at 9:16 AM, tamashii said:

Thanks for your words and reputation, everyone.

I do hope to work more on this.

For now, @Lemon, I can give you this link for the last release of the Pioneer 2 City HR Project.

I'd have to fix stuff around and make it better, without crashing the game engine.

Downloading right now the file for p2 thanks.

[tamashii]

On 24/10/2016 at 11:07 PM, yanvbraz said:

Hello tamashii, I am really enjoying your font and skins for Piooner 2. Keep up the good work!

Do you have in mind more projects related to skins for PSO?

Sorry for taking so long to answer @yanvbraz, but for now I'm trying to figure some stuff about the file formats, specially since the PSOBB executable is so prone to crash by random causes. In example, I just added another HR texture for Pioneer 2 (a wall texture) and it flat out crashed. So, I have to determine what are the limits of the engine.

I wanted to add more textures to the Pioneer 2 HR project before I move on to other parts of the game, but as it stands right now, it is kind of hard.

Also, thank you everyone for your interest in this project. Hope you enjoy it.

[tamashii]

Hello everyone, and sorry for the lack for updates.

I have been working slowly on the Pioneer 2 Retexturing Pack. However, I'm stuck at something as it stands right now, as I mentioned in my previous post.

First, I have to explain myself a little bit: I'm only making some textures twice the resolution. That means I'm turning 128×128 textures into 256×256 size (redrawing them 100%). That means, PSO ends up using 4 times the size for each texture. While I haven't seen an impact on frames per second (and why would it have a problem?), the game engine seems to be getting a little angsty lately, crashing for the most random situations ever. So, I figured I could really use some help from you all.

So, here's the deal. Please download this file I'm linking, backup your original (or previous HR release) map_city00.xvm file and replace it with this one.

What did I change? I retextured 6 materials visible from the Hunter's Guild and 2 others visible from outside (the diamond plate stuff thing).

Try playing Episode 1 (Normal to Very Hard, I didn't make one for Ultimate), by yourself and/or with company, and let me know if your game crashes, and if so, when did it crash.

Did it crash after you were transported to Pioneer 2? Did it crash while exiting the Hunter's Guild? Or after you selected a Quest? Or while entering the Hunter's Guild again? How many characters were in your party? What are the basic specs of your PC (processor, RAM, video card and video memory)?

Oh, and one last thing... Do not redistribute this file mindlessly. I'm still checking what can I do so that the game doesn't crashes.

Thank you everyone!

[Larva]

On 11/7/2016 at 0:54 PM, tamashii said:

Hello everyone, and sorry for the lack for updates.

I have been working slowly on the Pioneer 2 Retexturing Pack. However, I'm stuck at something as it stands right now, as I mentioned in my previous post.

First, I have to explain myself a little bit: I'm only making some textures twice the resolution. That means I'm turning 128×128 textures into 256×256 size (redrawing them 100%). That means, PSO ends up using 4 times the size for each texture. While I haven't seen an impact on frames per second (and why would it have a problem?), the game engine seems to be getting a little angsty lately, crashing for the most random situations ever. So, I figured I could really use some help from you all.

So, here's the deal. Please download this file I'm linking, backup your original (or previous HR release) map_city00.xvm file and replace it with this one.

What did I change? I retextured 6 materials visible from the Hunter's Guild and 2 others visible from outside (the diamond plate stuff thing).

Try playing Episode 1 (Normal to Very Hard, I didn't make one for Ultimate), by yourself and/or with company, and let me know if your game crashes, and if so, when did it crash.

Did it crash after you were transported to Pioneer 2? Did it crash while exiting the Hunter's Guild? Or after you selected a Quest? Or while entering the Hunter's Guild again? How many characters were in your party? What are the basic specs of your PC (processor, RAM, video card and video memory)?

Oh, and one last thing... Do not redistribute this file mindlessly. I'm still checking what can I do so that the game doesn't crashes.

Thank you everyone!

Tested and i didn't notice any change in the textures .

and it didn't crash.