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A FULL high-res AI upscale mod of Final Fantasy VII came out today, and for the first time ever, it's a cinch to install!

CHC

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
Satsuki is a bit of an under-the-radar modder who has, for a long time, been making AI-upscaled assets for Final Fantasy VII, and today he launched the latest version of his upscale project. Previously, modding FFVII has been a huge pain to say the least, requiring weird stuff like duplicating your install in a new folder, downgrading the Steam version to the original PC CD-ROM version, or using launchers and downloaders to make mods work.

For the first time ever it's now very easy to install, and can be done right to the base Steam version without any other mods or tricks.

TRAILER:




SCREENS:

HmuruEA.jpg

L3fQhqo.jpg

LY5LSXA.jpg

KkvTfFz.jpg

DkpQv7F.png

Ew8x91I.png

J46bfoJ.png




Also highly recommended steps for the true "enhanced PS1 version" experience:​

  • Disable the options "HD Battle Magics" and "Modern 3D models" in the mod installation menu
  • Enable PSX Battle Shadows
  • Enable Hide Vanilla Models
  • Disable Transparent Dialog and Battle Boxes
  • Keep everything else default / enabled (see the last image above for the "PS1" settings)

Been having a blast with this, it now looks just like my mind interpreted it was supposed to way back in the day. Enjoy!


 
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jph139

jph139

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,365
Oh, that's cool - I was actually looking into playing FFVII on Steam a couple months ago, and bought a copy, but the modding stuff seemed like a headache so I put it off any never got around to it. I assume the "Modern 3D Models" toggle lets you revert back to the chibi ones? That's definitely my preferred aesthetic.
 
OP
OP
CHC

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
jph139 said:
Oh, that's cool - I was actually looking into playing FFVII on Steam a couple months ago, and bought a copy, but the modding stuff seemed like a headache so I put it off any never got around to it. I assume the "Modern 3D Models" toggle lets you revert back to the chibi ones? That's definitely my preferred aesthetic.
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Yep it's a simple toggle, I have the same preference. The animations and the scale of the backgrounds were made for chibi. I put a list of tweaks at the bottom to play it basically as close to PS1 aesthetics as possible.
 
Agni Kai

Agni Kai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
6,853
I have a soft spot for the chibi blocky characters in the overworld, so I'm happy there's an option to use those ones as well.
It looks fantastic!
 
Serene

Serene

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
52,522
I just started the Steam version of FF7 a week ago and installed The Reunion so... whoops. lol
 
Mortemis

Mortemis

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
7,412
I was just thinking about FF7 upscale mods after that thread yesterday about LoM. Cool to see an easy one is out.
 
Jroc

Jroc

Banned
Jun 9, 2018
6,145
Oh god, the new character models don't match the proportions of the background renders.
 
J75

J75

Member
Sep 29, 2018
6,597
Liking this new trend of Machine Learning AI upscaling mods in games.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,337
Presume you can just disable the out of proportion big character modes when installing the mod
 
Yuli Ban

Yuli Ban

Member
Feb 1, 2021
391
With AI, we're soon going to make a photorealistic FFVII that even has the emo boyband aesthetic of FFXV

I give it three years.
 
Jakenbakin

Jakenbakin

Member
Jun 17, 2018
11,794
Will this run on a potato? I'm tired of getting subpar port experiences on consoles, but all I have is an old laptop.
 
OP
OP
CHC

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
Just uploaded my own screenshots with chibi models, everyone happy?

lol
 
100mega

100mega

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,158
Generally speaking in some scenes the AI upscales look good and in others it loses some of the texture of the backgrounds. If you know what the AI enhanced stuff looks like it can stand out especially in more organic looking areas. At least here it seems like they have intended to handle certain backgrounds individually. However, here's an example from the website that I think looks tragic:

BWieqhT.jpg


Considering what assets we have to work with from these older Squaresoft games sometimes I wish they'd just remaster these games in official releases with badass CRT filters. That would take care of everything for me. I just want them to look like how I remember them. I'm still going to have to try this mod out if it's actually easy to setup.
 
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Aether

Aether

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,421
come on square. Your turn. Make a free update for all versions with menu option to switch between upscaled and original.

100mega said:
In some scenes, the AI upscales look good and in others, it loses some of the texture of the backgrounds. If you know what the AI enhanced stuff looks like it can stand out. Sometimes I wish they'd just remaster these games in official releases with badass CRT filters. That would take care of everything for me. I just want them to look like how I remember them. I'm still going to have to try this mod out if it's actually easy to setup.
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Yeah, recently experimented with an old crt... and just once again realised how different of a visual effect stuff had on it. the way it glows, how the dots are less sharp which helped the image feel analogue and smothen them over...
it is hard to emulate with TFTs.
 
whiteninja

whiteninja

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
1,794
Is anyone doing an AI upscale for FFVIII? Played through switch recently and the blurry backgrounds were so jarring.
 
AuthenticM

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,015
I just recently finished a playthrough of FF7 New Threat 2.0 using Satsuki v4. It looked really good. Version 5 seems to look even better.

I'll wait for 7th Heaven to be updated with native support of the required FFNx release necessary for Satsuku v5 before playing again. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
 
the_wart

the_wart

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,261
Does anyone know if/how you can combine this with Reunion? The new translation and 60fps battles would be certainly be nice, but it seems like the author of this mod and the Reunion people hate each other...?
 
Quinton

Quinton

Specialist at TheGamer / Reviewer at RPG Site
Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,255
Midgar, With Love
L3fQhqo.jpg


99.9% of Remake's classic retread moments are peerless. This is the 0.1%. The chef asks you to take a seat but as far as I could tell you can't actually do so. I'll never be able to order the strangely wall-breaking Korean BBQ Plate again.
 
AuthenticM

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,015
Here's a comparison between the vanilla game and what it looks like when you install satsuki and some other mods, such as Ninostyle's chibi models:

IwsrxRc.jpg


GZYzlyF.jpg
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,208
Do the menu framerate mods still provide jank? I keep reading about how the battles still have jank even with the framerate modes for FFVII-FFIX, which keeps me attached to the PS1 games in emulators.
 
OP
OP
CHC

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
AuthenticM said:
Here's a comparison between the vanilla game and what it looks like when you install satsuki and some other mods, such as Ninostyle's chibi models:

IwsrxRc.jpg


GZYzlyF.jpg
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Click to shrink...
I love those models but I just want to wait until the mod is more complete. It'd feel so weird seeing unmodded NPCs near the modded ones
 
AuthenticM

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,015
CHC said:
I love those models but I just want to wait until the mod is more complete. It'd feel so weird seeing unmodded NPCs near the modded ones
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I did my recent playthrough with the latest version of Ninostyle's mod, and honestly, the contrast wasn't weird. This is subjective so YMMV, but I wasn't bothered by the juxtaposition of the new models and the vanilla ones, when it happened.

It's going to take Nino still a long time to finish the mod, and I just didn,t want to wait to play the game lol.
 
OP
OP
CHC

CHC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,246
AuthenticM said:
I did my recent playthrough with the latest version of Ninostyle's mod, and honestly, the contrast wasn't weird. This is subjective so YMMV, but I wasn't bothered by the juxtaposition of the new models and the vanilla ones, when it happened.

It's going to take Nino still a long time to finish the mod, and I just didn,t want to wait to play the game lol.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yeah I might give it a shot - they really look good, such a great way to update the classics.
 
Shiryu

Shiryu

Member
Sep 6, 2019
237
Eh, it doesn't look good, the upscale makes the backgrounds look like plastic and too clean, it doesn't look coherent and organic at all like it's supposed to be.

This game displayed at it's true 240p resolution through RGB signal on SD CRT is the only definitive/intended way.
 
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