Grim Fandango Deluxe - Original Thread [Locked]

somaen · Post by **somaen** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:14 pm

If you could create avisynth-scripts for generating the videos, THOSE could be distributed.

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:43 pm

That's a good idea! I'll work on putting together a package. It's rather slow though... around 2-4FPS on my Q6600 at 3.6GHz.

Pirateguybrush · Post by **Pirateguybrush** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:58 pm

Jumba, as far as I know, no-one's been doing that, but it sounds excellent. I'd love to see how they look. I wouldn't get too far into it until we can confirm it's possible for us to stick upscaled videos and backgrounds back into the game though. That said, great work - I'd love to see it. Has anyone looked into this yet?

On the legal side of things, I doubt redistributing the assets would be a major issue. Unless LucasArts are already planning on releasing a HD version, I'd be pretty confident they wouldn't care too much, considering the entire game is on youtube already.

somaen · Post by **somaen** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:30 pm

Well, we might not have it posted up in the same way that ScummVM does, but their rule #0 applies here too, so please don't share Grim assets through this forum in any way. (diffs might be something we can discuss though.)

Whether they care or not, I'd rather be on the safe side, because IF they care, then the trouble comes raining down on the entire project. (Yes, I know I'm strict, but someone has to be, I like the project and the idea, I just want you guys to take care, not to become the next in line for a Cease and Decist-letter, when that can be avoided). The most important bit is anyway that you guys must package the stuff in a way that REQUIRES ownership of the original game to be playable through ResidualVM.

Adding in upscaled backgrounds shouldn't be too hard, whether it can be done in a way that is compatible with the original game, remains to be seen when some data is available for testing.

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:55 pm

I completely understand and respect your position on this. I suppose if I share the Avisynth scripts then no harm done. I would like to show you what the end result looks like... would sharing the (upscaled) intro video be frowned upon, considering it's widely available on the net as it is? I could post a couple of screenshots but they don't quite convey the full picture.

somaen · Post by **somaen** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:54 pm

Well, there is already the widescreened first-scene video in this thread, so I guess a suitable portion of it, delivered through youtube or something similar (that doesn't have download-capacity) would be ok, although, preferably not the full video.

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 4:36 pm

Here you go, some screengrabs...

http://www.mediafire.com/?3x8komb6cqetl9q

Am still working on the scripts, there's room for improvement in the gradients etc.

somaen · Post by **somaen** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:06 pm

Some of those look really good, while others are a tad over-sharpened for my taste (for instance the very first one). Then again, the source-material isn't really the best, image-quality-wise.

Pirateguybrush · Post by **Pirateguybrush** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 7:22 pm

Those look great, especially considering the source. As for sharing Grim assets, what exactly counts as an asset? If we're going to upgrade the models and textures, for example, are they considered assets if they're based on the original file? After all, they're the same characters, and the same textures - just improved on. Same with movie files. It's all pretty grey. Distributing scripts to re-encode the movies yourself is pretty cumbersome, after all. Perhaps we could compress/encrypt an installer that requires one of the original files to be recognised via hashtag in order to allow installation? Or hey, maybe we could ask LA for permission?

If we can't share assets, I don't see how this project can go ahead at all, unless we don't provide any, write up a tutorial for how to remodel and retexture characters, re-encode the movies, then stick them back in so the game recognises them. I'm sure that guide would only be about 4000 easy steps.

somaen · Post by **somaen** » Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:30 pm

Hey, I'm not saying what you should or shouldn't, but that you should avoid doing any of that on this here, on the ResidualVM-forums, we HAVE to be strict about game-assets. We might end up having support for the stuff, but we can't thread on any fine line regarding game-data.

As for safeguarding, I'd say distributing each file as either an xor, or a diff against the original data should give you all the requirements you need for the original data. (We already have a few diff-patches for the scripts in-engine, like the fixing of the hidden dialogue).

Then again I like to keep on the safe side of things, but I haven't got any final word in this case at all. (And for that matter similar cases exists for for instance Duke Nukem 3D, the High-Resolution-pack that exists there is distributed freely, and I know the game is still being sold).

The game will also require the scripts, sound-files, and music-data from the originals to play, so, well, you might have a point.

Pirateguybrush · Post by **Pirateguybrush** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:06 am

Yeah, it's not like it will be useful data without the game anyway.

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:15 am

Okay, hold that thought. I'm going to pick the brains over at doom9.org to see if anyone can offer advice on improving the script. I agree that it looks over-sharpened in some areas - I just need to find a good solution to removing noise without losing too much detail; and enough sharpening without causing artifacts.

Getting there slowly.

On another note, does anyone know the format of the audio in the video files? I have extracted the .wav from the original intro video but can't seem to be able to read it/play it.

Pirateguybrush · Post by **Pirateguybrush** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:32 am

Do we need to extract the audio? As long as it remains in the file, the engine should play it.

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 7:43 am

Well, I would like to add the audio to the upsized videos. I'm not re-encoding back to the original format, so I'll need the audio tracks to be extracted in order to be re-dubbed into the new container.

So a usable .wav file would be preferred...

Jumba · Post by **Jumba** » Mon Jan 30, 2012 8:38 am

Managed to find this... http://wiki.multimedia.cx/index.php?title=VIMA

Although I don't understand a word of it.

Any help would be much appreciated.