Non HD RPGs... in HD.

[Panda_Samurai]

So, I just built a new rig, and it's pretty powerful, and the first urge I got with this new found power was to try out all my old (and some new) games on emulators, force a ton of anti aliasing/whatever other fun image enhancers/filters my video card supports on them, and share them with the world. I'm in the process of ripping my whole PS2 library to my computer, but here are a few to start out with. Perhaps I'm the only graphics whore here, but ah well, I hope a few of you enjoy them.

I own a decent number of RPGs, so, guys, if you wanna see any game with particular settings, I'm totally open to requests. ToTA and ToS look especially great compared to just playing them on a PS2.

Odin Sphere/Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/MURAMASA!

http://img150.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=37699_Screen01_122_576lo.JPG

Arc Rise Fantasia: I've heard this game looks terrible, and, in standard resolution, it really does.
 Luckily, a ton of anti aliasing, anisotropic filtering, and a much higher resolution fixes that.
http://img250.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=45245_SS-2009.10.24-21.19.17_122_12lo.jpg

But with 16x AA, even with a GTX 275 and an i5 OC'd to 4 ghz, I can't get more than 25 fps

[Wildwurger]

Whenever Arc Rise Fantasia comes out here, I'll be playing it on a 52" HDTV with Component. It's going to be EPIC.

PS2 games with sprites look pixelly as hell in HD. Super Robot Wars Z, for the most part, though, doesn't. The map sprites do, but the actual battle scenes look frigging fantastic. I bet the game was built to be as compatible as possible with HD. Even on the status screens, I can't see every little pixel of the robot like I can in SRW Alpha 2 or 3.

Well, good luck with that, man. I'll be rooting for you.

[Panda_Samurai]

Hmm, the problem with that man, is that, you can't use a PS2 or a Wii to play games in HD, those systems don't support high definition output (hence the pixellation you mentioned)

If you were playing over component, you'd be playing the game in progressive scan and widescreen on your HDTV, but not in a high resolution (which is what hd is). I'm using emulators with legally owned games for these screens, that's why it's not pixellated. If I were to upscale instead and post a 640 x 480 pic (what you'd be playing at on your TV) it would also look pixel-y as hell.

[Wildwurger]

...I'm not even sure what my original point was. I'm just sorta relating some stupid experience of mine to try to make conversation. Don't mind me. I'm just some loser.

[Dimentionalist]

I'd like to see ToS, TotA, and ToS: DotNW in HD if possible.

[Panda_Samurai]

Done.

So tales of symphonia is a little glitchy, but only sometimes. I can't figure out why. Like, in the shots I posted, you'll notice there's a graphical glitch when Lloyd hits an enemy. Definitely looks its best with the Botta scene though.

TOS/Shadow Hearts Covenant/TotA (still updating that last one..)

http://img158.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=98822_Screen02_122_1085lo.JPG

[dragurd]

Ahh I think I know what is wrong with ToS there. In the graphicks options you should make sure you use safe texture cache.

Also quite a few PS2 games are amazingly beautiful with some AA and higher texture resolution as well.

[Panda_Samurai]

Yeah, they certainly do. I tried Valkyrie Profile 2, but there's a display driver glitch when one enters the forest area, and I don't feel like going through it in software mode.

Anyway, Tales of the Abyss screenshots really don't do justice to how it looks, but, anyway

(heh, first one's actually VP2, by accident)

http://img255.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=69155_Screen01_122_510lo.JPG

[DeadlyAnGeL91792]

dude those all look beautiful i cant wait for my asus to get here.

[Panda_Samurai]

Heh, thanks, glad you enjoyed them, they're half the reason I built this machine.

Any other requests, anyone? I would do DotNW but I only had a copy from gamefly, so :/

However, there are some YT vids of it in 1280x720 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-q1cX9CFek (I have a feeling his rig is pretty weak, I've yet to experience that kind of hang, except for with ARF.)

[Cless]

For some reason I only get horrid image quality using PCSX2, no matter what my settings are; even increasing the internal res with GSDX. Haven't tried the latest of releases, though... But I remember running ToA and Dragon Quest 8, and screwing with settings for a long time. The result was always same: everything looked very blurry and ick. Had no problem with IQ using Dolphin, however. My hardware is a Radeon HD4850 and a Core 2 Duo E8400, so it's not like I'm using a dinosaur here...

[Panda_Samurai]

Hmm, Cless, do you recall how long ago that was? For ToA I think you could get full speed with that setup, maybe you'd need a slight OC. But, I've tried it on several machines now, so long as you're using GSDX, native resolution isn't checked, and the internal res is that of your monitor/higher (I have mine set at 3840x2160) I'm not sure why the image quality would be bad. Unless in one of the old versions you were using an internal res that didn't match/wasn't a multiple of your monitors? I remember a year and a half ago I tried that and got terrible image quality for disgaea 2.

You should try it again when you get some free time, with that rig, it'd be a blast to play.
VP2 is also incredible looking. There are some geometry problems that occur for me though. And even with my 4.0 ghz i5 (granted, it's essentially the same as a 4.0 ghz c2d here) I can't get 60 fps all the time.

[DeadlyAnGeL91792]

hey panda if you get the chance would you mind doing star ocean 3 and ffx? i would love to see those with AA and upscaled sexiness

[pedrocasilva]

With due respect.... your tv must be pretty bad.

Arc Rise Fantasia looks fine on my TV set, way better than I expected it to (judging from the screenshots released by the dudes I expected it to be very aliased, and it was much better looking than that).

Also I can't stress enough that even if you play them that way... those games deserve to be bought.

[Panda_Samurai]

I mean, it's a decent 50 inch sony. Not a fantastic TV in 2009, but, it's not a bad one either. And on that 50 inch screen, ARF really doesn't look good. What are you playing it on? Anyway it seemed like there was some confusion about this in your post pedro... I have purchased all of the games I've posted screens for.

[Cless]

480i/480p games regardless of system also look pretty terrible (very blurry) on my 46" 1080p Samsung A650 (it's only a year old), with all the image enhancement features off (it looks worse with them on). You have to sit really far away for it to not be very noticeable. Funny thing is, I find 240p games far more tolerable...the TV doesn't seem to smooth those. Instead, it just blows them up nearest neighbor, so it looks like a PC emulator running without image enhancements (except with some interlacing artifacts due to the TV deinterlacing it for some stupid reason).

Since emulation is in most cases still has a ways to go for last-generation systems and the Wii, I'm probably going to end up buying an HD Box Pro, and hope that improves things.