Topic: OPplus411 - upscaled textures

[FireSoul]

So I had this idea... and I did a thing.  And this thing is really neat.
... and it's thanks to Japanese perverts.

tl;dr:
I upscaled the texture of the H&S modified version of OP+ 4.11.  It is for use with the H&S 2.5.6.4 repack and download, and should be a drop-in replacement of their "OPPlus411 - Models and Specs (compatible with the August 2019 update)".

Download link: 
OPplus411 - upscaled textures (March 2023).7z :: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApDX2T7zfhpFpEUgXiwRSstpXYXo?e=ukrWAt



Background:
I own a decent PC, NVidia RTX 3080 video card.  I've used it for other special things before, such as crunch a bit of Ethereum while I sleep at night, but the change to proof of stake as well as the massive increase of the electricity's price made me stop.

I've played CyberPunk 2077, and I've used my card's abilities for DLSS 2.0 :: interpolates and adds frames that are CUDA Neural-Network generated, aka cudNN.
More recently, DLSS3.0 has been released  :: samples and upscales lower resolution frames and generates higher resolution images.


.. THAT.. that last one, got me thinking. And I started a search. I asked around. I think it was Falconer on the H&S Discord that suggested trying "waifu2x-caffe".
waifu2x-caffe :: some dude, in japan, wanted higher resolution images of his waifus.  It's a github opensourced project.  Someone packaged a multi-language UI for it, but more importantly there's also a DOS/CMD version that I could use in a for loop.

And, waifu2x-caffe-cui supports "BMP" no problem.


The idea:
I took OP+, as well as other things out there used for SFC-OP, and I iterated through all the .BMP files.  I upscaled them 2x.
The 1st thing that I did was a drop-in replacement for the H&S release of their modifications of OP+ 4.11. I called it "OPplus411 - upscaled textures (March 2023).7z"  (theirs is "OPplus411 (August 2019).rar") and it has all the same models in the same locations as their pack.
But the majority of the BMP files are 2x in resolution and cleaned up.

See attached examples below.

This took multiple nights, a lot of trial and error. It took about a week.
I have put that package up and available for download: 
OPplus411 - upscaled textures (March 2023).7z :: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApDX2T7zfhpFpEUgXiwRSstpXYXo?e=ukrWAt


... an important side-note...
I noticed that SFCOP 2.5.6.4 HD is heavily modified. The folk who worked on it solely and only wanted to get campaign stuff going, and mangled up a lot of stuff in the OP+ shiplist. For example, this is no longer in the flavour that Taldren released the game, there's heavy balance changes that they wanted, and there was no regard at all to the extra columns that were added that allowed the Extended Shiplist missions to function and provide better, harder, more fun scenarios.


I've repacked SFCOP 2.5.6.4 HD for my personal use, and it's unreleased. It wouldnt be the same as what the campaign stuff does, but it does have their developed sprites.q3 file, and other important assets that have been moved around some.  I've got an upscaled OPPLUS 4.2 that is basically identical to the old style of OPPLUS 4.11 but with the upscaled textures.
And I'm using dgVoodoo2 to make it work good, as part of the drop in pack.


On disk, a bare classic SFCOP 2.5.5.2 went from 730mb (stock) to 1.3gb (opplus 4.11) to ....  9gb (2.5.6.4 HD with upscaled textures.)

If I ever decide to release it, I will let you know.

-- Luc
FireSoul

[Starfox1701]

I wish you had called ahead I would given you my updated Romulans to use.

Edit
As I go through this stuff I realize you just handed me all the floodlights I need for something and reminded me I owe these guys some ships.

[FireSoul]

This is not OP+ as I liked it.
This is the H&S pack, not mine. I invite you to update it and republish it as your own update.

I wish you had called ahead I would given you my updated Romulans to use.

Edit
As I go through this stuff I realize you just handed me all the floodlights I need for something and reminded me I owe these guys some ships.

[d4v1ks]

I upscaled the texture of the H&S modified version of OP+ 4.11.  It is for use with the H&S 2.5.6.4 repack and download, and should be a drop-in replacement of their "OPPlus411 - Models and Specs (compatible with the August 2019 update)".

Thank you

[FireSoul]

Yes, thank u soooo much for all the hard work you did.

Your welcome. I was afraid no one would be using it, but if someone does it will make me happy.
The Fed ships in the pack are yours, right?  I did not upscale those. I did not need to.  I only touched the models that seemed to need the upscale.


Question, anyone got an editor for the weird fonts files formats?
.BTF
Would be cool to fix up those.

Also,
I have not been able to upscale the game's mouse cursor files, which is a shame.  I can certainly convert them to BMP/whatever and upscale that, but this conversion loses information: what parts is transparent. Otherwise we'd have a square. Also, I did try to just replace it with a larger resolution square icon cursor file, but it fails to load. I think we're stuck with the iffy 64x64 cursors.

[d4v1ks]

Question, anyone got an editor for the weird fonts files formats?
.BTF
Would be cool to fix up those.

Not at the moment.
But i did created a project to open all the SFC fonts (decode and display them).
So, it could be something that we could add to our current toolset.

We still working on SFC as a hobby.

We do have a new server incoming, which beside having persistent planets and ships (which keep their cargo and damage between missions and are able to repair and resupply themselves) we will now have also persistent maps that can be used to customize, in the fly, certain hexes, like our solar system (something that we can visit every time we wish). We will also have our planets 'rotating' (twice per hour). A better economy, that will be influenced by the number of planets, bases, and cargo ships we have, or travelling around in the campaign map (anything we destroy or create will have an impact, and 'resources' will need to be carried to planets). Prices will fluctuate as consequence. We also implemented a fog of war concept (what is seen will depend on the race, what is deployed in the campaign map, and ship class). Shipyards will be tied to specific planets and bases (certain things will only be made or bought somewhere). The number of planets will also influence the number of ships, marines, and fighters that can be made\bought. And one or other additional detail...
Tar also improved the AI a lot and fixed some additional stuff.
And Adam is creating a new planet mod, probably the best 100+ ever seen in SFC, along side his personal ship mod.

It is cool to see someone still doing something for SFC


Edit: All ships\bases we bid in the shipyard UI will also be tied to a specific planet\base or ingame shipyard. Therefore, any enemy will be able to target those places, destroy or capture them, and reduce\eliminate our ship production dramatically, during the time those assets are being 'built'.

[TarMinyatur]

If players want better, harder, and more fun scenarios, novel columns in the shiplist are irrelevant. 500 ships per empire to choose from are irrelevant. Why?

If a K-F5D can easily defeat a H-DE with slow drones, the game is neither good, fun, nor logical. We need the AI to be competent to truly make a difference in the player's experience. Flipping hexes against inept AI is a waste of a player's time, is it not? 2.564 barely scratches the surface in addressing the flaws of Interplay's AI, which is authorized to do 1/6th of a point of damage with its long-range defensive phasers, for example, before eating drones for lunch.

2.564.2.1x has enhanced AI, roughly matching that of a novice/intermediate SFB player when it comes to direct fire and seeking weapon decisions. (Modifying the flight vector and energy management of the AI is extremely hard without source code. It's all done via assembly opcodes in a disassembler.) Adam, d4v1ks, and I may repackage our server, texture, and mechanical work as 2.565 this year to recognize the leaps we have made over 2.564.

As far as 2.564 vanilla, the game is neither mangled nor heavily modified, in my opinion. The SFC Editor can easily change most data to satisfy the habits of those devoted to 2.552's time-capsuled flavor. Spec files are two easily replaceable text files, and we expect players to pop in their favorite rosters. (We warn them to not include SFC1/EAW-style pirate prefixes. The "O-" prefix will crash most campaign missions. "N-" does not crash them.) Old tools that relied on a familiar 2.552 directory, will need to be updated. Those who built those old tools presumably have the skills and desire to update them accordingly. The makers of ShipEdit could add an AMD-C button or TRBL/H buttons, however, we don't do everyone's work for them. Like everybody, we have limited time and patience to fiddle with a very old game that is nearly forgotten.

[FireSoul]

If players want better, harder, and more fun scenarios, novel columns in the shiplist are irrelevant. 500 ships per empire to choose from are irrelevant. Why?

Oh sure. Toss hundreds of hours of effort away.

Because if I want to make a battle tug scenario, I can.
Because if I want a mission that involves an actual scout or survey ship, I can.
If I want to tell it and try to generate a "deep strike" mission that involves a fast cruiser (this is what they were used for) or Light Dreadnought, I can.
Why is there an Andro fest multiplayer mission? Because of this.
Coopace? It only works because of the enhanced shiplist.

None of these have to do with the work you're doing: the dynaverse map feeds the ships selected to the missions. But you didn't have to come and disrespect the work I've done, and then crap on it. There's more to SFC than campaigns all the time.

If a K-F5D can easily defeat a H-DE with slow drones, the game is neither good, fun, nor logical. We need the AI to be competent to truly make a difference in the player's experience. Flipping hexes against inept AI is a waste of a player's time, is it not? 2.564 barely scratches the surface in addressing the flaws of Interplay's AI, which is authorized to do 1/6th of a point of damage with its long-range defensive phasers, for example, before eating drones for lunch.

I absolutely agree that a better AI is fundamental.
But that has nothing to do with the ship selection enhancements.

[FireSoul]

The repatching of the game to be able to work on modern rigs has always been based on 2552. It was never intended to be based on your work. We understand that your work is important but the reality is, it’s a mod based on 2552. If people want to use your mod, they will have to keep it under 2552 to be able to utilize your shiplist and other modifications. We encourage modders to update their mods in accordance to the newest patch. Remember, the changes aren’t to diminish other people’s work but rather consolidate and prevent errors, ctd’s, etc…
I enjoy variety bc that’s what I do. I kitbash and mod. So I understand your viewpoint. Tim and others prefer more balance, harder AI and consistency based on consolidation. I understand that too. Hence when I start my TNG mod it’ll be based off the new modifications. Not old ones. Even though I’ll miss some missions, that will only work with specific ship lists. But in the end it is what it is.

The shiplist and the patching are apples and oranges, unless you patched something that made the shiplist invalid.  As it is, I am playing with my mod without any issues whatsoever. I can't even find the problem with the O- ships you've described.  This invalidation of the work just does not make sense to me.

The point I’m trying to make is no one purposely or willfully wanted to crap on you. Your mod and others is what made me fall in love with the game and with learning to kitbash and mod myself. Why would you think that. Makes no sense. Truth is the direction of the work wasn’t based on 411 but rather just trying to improve the stability. And also allowing it to play on new computers.
Your original post was almost as if you were implying that we purposely sabotage your previous work. Lots of they and no regard and stuff. Comes off a bit adversarial.

Sure. Noted.

Keep in mind, our repatching and our shiplist is not meant to discourage others from using your stuff. Unfortunately, if they choose to play your mod they will have to use a previous patch. But there many Star trek games that have many mods and compatibility has always been an issue. That’s why some mods in the readme state patch to this number. Don’t use this. Or don’t use that. Etc… please don’t feel like we crapped on you. 411 was never meant to be enhanced by our work. It was always intended to be separate.

"If they choose to play your mod they will have to use a previous patch"
Again, I have had no issues (in single player mind you) whatsoever. I just simply do not see the issues you're describing.
This is on the 2564 binary.

The only thing that I *will* acquiesce on is that for a D2 campaign, you don't want the same mission sets and shiplist. I can see tweaks being made by the community for its uses. That's what you got. I actually encourage that effort.  It's not the same shiplist, for the same purpose, and that's okay.  I'm fine with that. Carry on with it.

I hope you continue to update bc it would be nice to have everything on the same page sort of speak but I know how much is involved. It’s not pretty. Trust me. I know. To have to go back and redo sh*t. And convert etc. it’s a bitch. But I’m confident that a middle ground can be achieved to keep the unity intact. Luc, no crapping on no one’s work. I literally have an entire folder of previous mods and missions and everything archived. It’s one of my important things I do with every computer I get. Make sure I keep all the good stuff. There was no malice. At all.

Hope that makes sense.

What I've got running locally is a full 2564, OP+, EAW campaigns rebuilt for OP, Enhanced missions.
I've been playing as Lyran. The Lyran vs Hydran fights in Late era are epic.  Upgraded fighters and PFs everywhere.

I do have 1 comment and curiosity to discuss:
ONE thing I've done that I don't see mention of is that I have made a .reg file so that the various parts of the game knows where SFC is.  Many of the missions look into HKLM to see where its parts it, and not the current working directory.  I've found that on our modern 64-bit system, the Registry path is changed (because it's a 32-bit game).  I didn't see anything that does the same in the 2564 downloads.

Is there a story there?
I'll even attach it to this post. It's just a text file, so I'll rename it to .txt extension to prevent accidental import.
I have SFCOP under "C:\SFC\Starfleet Command Orion Pirates\", and this is reflected in this manually created/exported registry. See attachment.

[FireSoul]

Oh. So there isn’t a problem with the compatibility of your shiplist/mod using our newest 2564. I’m sorry. I stand corrected. I was under the impression that the removal of certain columns were making your mod obsolete. But if you are not having issues then why say we mangled things up.

I will be very happy to explain the extra columns, and what they do.
Bottom line, the SFC game itself? It doesn't care. It doesn't load them.

The missions however, are semi independant binary .. entities. I think of them as DLLs.  If you're using one of those "enhanced" missions, it DOES load the columns independantly from SFC itself.

Background:
Magnumman originally wrote a shiplist API library for missions to use. It allows for a clearer and cleaner ship selection from a subset of the shiplist.
I had expanded on his work, added a lot more filters, and eventually added columns for anything would be useful to make superior missions, without breaking the base game.

If those columns are incomplete or missing, those missions may misbehave on you, maybe even barf on you and crash the game.


Some examples:
There are more races. I can generate LDR or WYN missions.
There are more hull types.
A ship can have 2 role slots.  (For example, it's possible possible to have a Scout and be a Carrier at the same time.)

The API sources are on my site and can be found fairly easily, if you ever wanted to see it.

We do have choices:
- Do nothing. Continue with what you have.
- I take your shiplist, the one that's for your needs and I complete the columns again.  The base game really won't care.
  - I would run it through my tests and it would tell me what's missing. I still have all of those tools.
- Worst case, don't use enhanced missions. Avoid crashes.

[d4v1ks]

I do have 1 comment and curiosity to discuss:
ONE thing I've done that I don't see mention of is that I have made a .reg file so that the various parts of the game knows where SFC is.  Many of the missions look into HKLM to see where its parts it, and not the current working directory.  I've found that on our modern 64-bit system, the Registry path is changed (because it's a 32-bit game).  I didn't see anything that does the same in the 2564 downloads.

The registry part was always taken care by the 'SFC Launcher' since we released the 2564 mod.
And it takes in account if the operating system is 32 bit or 64 bit.

[FireSoul]

Now I get you. That makes more sense. Thank you for the breakdown.
Quite a conundrum. I see why preserving these old scripts are important to you and the whole community in general.
And having to redo and add the columns seems like a tedious and long task. Hmmm.
Will, if you redo the columns, it be necessary to consistently repeat this process every-time another altered or modified shiplists is made. Or is that a one time thing.

I am in the best position to fill in the missing columns.
I practiced TDD for the shiplist - test driven development.  It'll tell me what is wrong through detection.
See old notes:  https://klingon.lostexiles.net/mediawiki/index.php?title=OP%2B_and_Test-Driven_Development#Verbose_output.2C_all_coded_tests

Code: [Select]

ok 70 - SpecialRole T are tournament ships
# Check that specialrole 'V' are CARRIER in enhanced shiplist, and they have fighters/PFs
ok 71 - SpecialRole V ships are carriers
# check that excess ?-PE homeworlds are 'R'estricted
ok 72 - Excess -PE homeworlds are 'R'estricted
# Check that all ships have Enhanced Class Type column, and that it is sane.
ok 73 - Enhanced Class Type column is sane
# Check that all ships have Enhanced Production Availability column, and that it is sane.
ok 74 - enhanced Production Availability column is sane
# Check that the enhanced role columns have at least 1 role, and that they are sane.
ok 75 - enhanced role columns are sane
# Check that the enhanced xtech column is sane, and that Xships should have xtech level defined
ok 76 - enhXtech x1 and x2 ship entries are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type FREIGHTER are Freighters in the shiplist
ok 77 - Enhtype freighters are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type CARRIER have fighters, and the fighters are valid
ok 78 - Enhrole carriers are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type PF_TENDER have PFs, and the PFs are valid
ok 79 - Enhrole PF Tenders are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type CARGO have cargo boxes
ok 80 - Enhrole cargo ships are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type REPAIR have repair boxes
ok 81 - Enhrole repair ships are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type BASE are really bases
ok 82 - EnhRole bases are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type LISTENING_POST are really listening posts
ok 83 - EnhRole listening posts are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type PLANET are really planets
ok 84 - EnhRole planets are sane.
# Check that all defense platforms are enhrole LOCAL_DEFENSE, enhtype PLATFORM and have ?DP UI
ok 85 - EnhRole Defense platforms are sane
# Check that all FRDs are enhtype FLEET_REPAIR_DOCK, enhrole REPAIR and have XSS UI
ok 86 - EnhType FRDs are sane
# Check that all enhanced shiplist roles COMMANDO are indeed commando ships and are sane.
ok 87 - EnhRole COMMANDO ships are sane.
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type SHUTTLE are indeed shuttles.
ok 88 - EnhType SHUTTLE entries are sane.
# Check that all enhanced shiplist type ASTEROID are indeed asteroids.
ok 89 - EnhType ASTEROID entries are sane.
# Check that all enhanced shiplist types for monsters are indeed monsters.


[FireSoul]

The registry part was always taken care by the 'SFC Launcher' since we released the 2564 mod.
And it takes in account if the operating system is 32 bit or 64 bit.

Good enough. Thank you!

[d4v1ks]

I have not been able to upscale the game's mouse cursor files, which is a shame.  I can certainly convert them to BMP/whatever and upscale that, but this conversion loses information: what parts is transparent. Otherwise we'd have a square. Also, I did try to just replace it with a larger resolution square icon cursor file, but it fails to load. I think we're stuck with the iffy 64x64 cursors.

The SFC cursors are actually 32x32.
They are very similar to the standard ones, but with some extra twists (I suppose the developers didn't wanted people to mess with them).
But, after looking at it today, and my old BFT project, I'm confident that I'm able to write tools to modify these things, as I already know how they are structured.
But I'm not sure if the cursors can be scaled up. At first look their width apparently seems limited to 32 pixels. Not sure about their height. But I haven't fully tested it yet.
Was curious about these. Never tried to customize them...

[FireSoul]

I have not been able to upscale the game's mouse cursor files, which is a shame.  I can certainly convert them to BMP/whatever and upscale that, but this conversion loses information: what parts is transparent. Otherwise we'd have a square. Also, I did try to just replace it with a larger resolution square icon cursor file, but it fails to load. I think we're stuck with the iffy 64x64 cursors.

The SFC cursors are actually 32x32.
They are very similar to the standard ones, but with some extra twists (I suppose the developers didn't wanted people to mess with them).
But, after looking at it today, and my old BFT project, I'm confident that I'm able to write tools to modify these things, as I already know how they are structured.
But I'm not sure if the cursors can be scaled up. At first look their width apparently seems limited to 32 pixels. Not sure about their height. But I haven't fully tested it yet.
Was curious about these. Never tried to customize them...

right. 32x32. my bad. I misremembered my own tests.

[d4v1ks]

I have not been able to upscale the game's mouse cursor files, which is a shame.  I can certainly convert them to BMP/whatever and upscale that, but this conversion loses information: what parts is transparent. Otherwise we'd have a square. Also, I did try to just replace it with a larger resolution square icon cursor file, but it fails to load. I think we're stuck with the iffy 64x64 cursors.

The SFC cursors are actually 32x32.
They are very similar to the standard ones, but with some extra twists (I suppose the developers didn't wanted people to mess with them).
But, after looking at it today, and my old BFT project, I'm confident that I'm able to write tools to modify these things, as I already know how they are structured.
But I'm not sure if the cursors can be scaled up. At first look their width apparently seems limited to 32 pixels. Not sure about their height. But I haven't fully tested it yet.
Was curious about these. Never tried to customize them...

right. 32x32. my bad. I misremembered my own tests.

After some testing it appears that the cursors are stuck to a size of 32x32.
When trying to save them in any other size the game fails to load them.
Don't know if anyone was ever able to customize them in the past, but at least, that is possible now, with the transparency working correctly.

H&S bitmap to cursor converter:  https://hotandspicyforums.com/bitmap-to-cursor-converter-t42347.html

[TarMinyatur]

Luc, when 1000's of hours of other folks' work are described as "mangling" or are implied to be neglectful or myopic, don't be surprised to receive less than admiration in a subsequent comment. And I'll leave it at that.

Anyways, I have AI behavior to work on. The K-D6M's education is underway... 

[FireSoul]

Luc, when 1000's of hours of other folks' work are described as "mangling" or are implied to be neglectful or myopic, don't be surprised to receive less than admiration in a subsequent comment. And I'll leave it at that.

Anyways, I have AI behavior to work on. The K-D6M's education is underway...

You're right. I should not have done that.

However, I thought this was a completed conversation that didn't need to be resurrected.
In addition, I put in thousands of hours in SFC too.  You need to understand my position as well.

Do us all a favour and let's go back to "this is past now".

[FPF-DieHard]

Where da white women at?

Somebody dig up Dizzy so we can do Slave Girls 2023.

[d4v1ks]

A BFT encoder\decoder for the ones with patience to enhance\fix the SFC2OP fonts.

Link to the original post:  https://hotandspicyforums.com/bft-encoder-decoder-t42425.html