Chrono Cross Backgrounds

[Kodokami]

I saw these in the wild. Someone ran all Cross backgrounds through I think Topaz Gigapixel.

https://imgur.com/a/o17a5At

Man, those are great. I'm noticing some details I never saw before, particularly in houses. Like those bats and skeletons in the Marbule house, or the fish head sitting on the desk in Arni's fisherman's house.

[Kodokami]

Looks like someone found a way to upscale the textures after all. Check this out.

User Tiriosaurus in a comment says he/she:

Modified retroarch's beetle psx core to replace chrono cross' textures. Dumped the textures from the isos using various community tools and upscaled 4x with waifu2x, gigapixel, and esrgan (using some of the models on the wiki).

The texture pack right now is 5GB, but it's a bit bloated because it's using pngs. If anyone wants to try it out there are core binaries on github with instructions and here's a mega link for the texture pack itself. Probably not the best place to host this.

If anyone wants to try their hand at a better upscale let me know and I can share some tools that would be useful.

Hear me out. Since Square Enix won't even bother porting Chrono Cross to any modern system, I would love to create an "ideal" version of the game. At the very least, it would have upscaled textures just like this, along with known bug fixes (the Pip evolution bug, missing text?, etc.) and QoL updates (single disc game file). If we could do that, I'd then love to explore more changes, such as those Prizvel and Danetta were working on or the many changes being discussed in Mr Bekkler's topic.

For those with the technical know-how, what would I need to do/start with to make this happen?

[Mr Bekkler]

That's exciting! Even at 5gb that's not much more than a standard single layer DVD. Sounds reasonable enough if it works. And+1 to that one-stop-shop idea, Kodokami. Even if heavy changes weren't considered and it was just upscaled textures, single disc, and bug-fixed. Call that version Chrono Cross HD Vanilla and maybe it can be used as a starting point for more ambitious hacks.

[Kodokami]

Right? Having an updated version of the game to use as a starting point for those more ambitious hacks would be wonderful.

[Tirion]

Hi, I made that upscale, but I've just kind of been sitting on it for months since I wasn't sure if I should wait for official texture replacement support in beetle.  I used a lot of tools from the modification section here, most notably the roomviewer and egfx stuff.  Let me know if you have any questions.  It's better to ask here than reddit, since I can't seem to actually post there.

[Schala Zeal]

I did find a youtube video where someone ran the Cross FMVs through a neural network AI that was able to make it 4k. Perhaps the backgrounds were done the same?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH5hl1fho2s

[Kodokami]

Hi, I made that upscale, but I've just kind of been sitting on it for months since I wasn't sure if I should wait for official texture replacement support in beetle.  I used a lot of tools from the modification section here, most notably the roomviewer and egfx stuff.  Let me know if you have any questions.  It's better to ask here than reddit, since I can't seem to actually post there.

Wow, hi Tririon! Welcome tot he party.

First off, thanks for the wonderful demonstration with that video. I guess you can see from my previous comment what I'm hoping to accomplish, I'm just not sure how to get there.

So, Retroarch is the emulator you're using, and Beetle is the "core" of the PSX, am I correct? Upscaling the textures themselves seems simple enough, though it sounds like you re-injected them into the Chrono Cross ISO. Or is that a trick of the emulator instead?

If it really is an re-injection of the textures into the ISO, then that's perfect. I'm hoping we could use that upscaled ISO as a baseline for future projects.

I did find a youtube video where someone ran the Cross FMVs through a neural network AI that was able to make it 4k. Perhaps the backgrounds were done the same?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH5hl1fho2s

I did notice that the FMVs in Tirion's video weren't upscaled, so maybe they can be upscaled and re-injected the same way?

[TheMage]

Bekkler, do you know how HAPPY it makes me to see you active here? I've missed you, buddy. For real.

I missed you too, man. This place will always be important to me whenever I'm here or not, but I'm trying to stick around.

Gasssp! Bekkler, Boo! I missed u both!

[Tirion]

So, Retroarch is the emulator you're using, and Beetle is the "core" of the PSX, am I correct? Upscaling the textures themselves seems simple enough, though it sounds like you re-injected them into the Chrono Cross ISO. Or is that a trick of the emulator instead?

I modified the emulator to replace textures at runtime based on their hash, so the discs are unmodified.  This also means they're not limited to 256 colors like the originals.

Upscaling the rooms themselves is a little tricky because they use tile maps, and not every pixel maps to a unique tile.  Also, some of the layers interlock with each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, so those edges need to be maintained to prevent seams.

I did notice that the FMVs in Tirion's video weren't upscaled, so maybe they can be upscaled and re-injected the same way?

Replacing FMVs definitely seems possible, and now that more general texture replacement is being worked on it's probably just a matter of time.  Once that work is done hopefully any upscale pack will just use that instead, but for the moment it's still private and incomplete so this is what's available.

[Mr Bekkler]

Gasssp! Bekkler, Boo! I missed u both!

Mage, it's been too long! Missed you too. Lots to talk about!

Kodokami, once we kinda understand how to replicate the texture injection, it might be cool to start a new thread about the HD baseline ISO idea. I have kind of a short list of possible extra ideas for a definitive edition that I would want.

• Upscaled textures
• Bug fixes
• Single disc
• Widescreen hack?
• Upscaled FMV?
• Typo/dialogue correction?
• Magus Unmasked hack? (Wouldn't really be vanilla anymore)
• Edit title graphic or add text to screen during title sequence? ("Chrono Cross HD")

But I don't want to derail this thread, as I also don't really know anything about this stuff.

Tirion, your video brings me hope.

[Kodokami]

I modified the emulator to replace textures at runtime based on their hash, so the discs are unmodified.  This also means they're not limited to 256 colors like the originals.

Upscaling the rooms themselves is a little tricky because they use tile maps, and not every pixel maps to a unique tile.  Also, some of the layers interlock with each other like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, so those edges need to be maintained to prevent seams.

Ah, so it's the emulator that's sort of replacing the textures on the fly (or at least when the ISO is booted up)? That actually sounds like it's easier to work with.

Kodokami, once we kinda understand how to replicate the texture injection, it might be cool to start a new thread about the HD baseline ISO idea.

Yeah, good idea, Bekkler. I'll start a new thread so-as not to derail this one further.