Chrono Cross AI Upscaled running Beetle PSX

[Spacejaws]

Do any old games rereleased actually use AI upscaled textures?

Stuff like Final Fantasy IX having mods do the work for them seems insane. Is it too much to ask devs look into this tech or is it just way too expensive/time consuming to deal with?

I seem to hear about it all the time except with official releases where people just largely complain about messed up textures etc.

 

[Sebastian Skopek]

Can we change the default battle music as well?

 

[GearDraxon]

I continue to be amazed at how well the AI-based upscaling solutions are coming along. I've been playing FFIX with the upscaled pack (my first time playing ever!) and I've been very, very impressed. It seems like there's been a rapid increase in the quality of these projects, as of late - makes me hopeful that we'll see some further large jumps in the future.

 

[Gaia Lanzer]

The polygonal texture smoothening reminds me of what the PS2 was able to do. I used to LOVE playing CC on the PS2 with the texture smoothen option turned on. Hell, the 2nd form of the Bunyip, which was all metallic texture mapped becomes this smooth, purple chrome monstrosity, and it's GLORIOUS! That and F.A.T.E!!!

As a big Chrono Cross fan since day one, nah! :p
It always lives in the shadows of Trigger and is constantly frowned upon because of the characters and story...across online communities. Small vocal minority, maybe... but a loud one at that. XD

Same with FFVIII, I consider this two as the best PSOne RPGs (and in my case, ever); but they rarely get praised... vocally.

Click to shrink...

I was in that camp that ragged on those two games (CC and FFVIII) back in the day. My appreciation for CC grew more since then, even though I feel pretty much the same about FFVIII (one of my least favorite of the "Classic FF era", FFI-FFIX). Though compared to a LOT of the Square RPGs we got now, those two games are massive and EPIC-AS-FUCK adventures that we'll probably NEVER SEE AGAIN in a single complete form (but in a form split up into multiple installments).

 

[Einherjer]

I've seen better upscaled backgrounds elsewhere. Those don't look very good.

Click to shrink...

Yeah it's just a proof of concept, i think these: https://imgur.com/a/QIexOI9 someone posted last year on reddit are actually a bit better.

 

[Mudo]

I have never heard of Beetle PSX wow!
So will the game run great on this with the AI upscale or is this something that will take awhile to reach that state?
I would love to replay this , not on my PS1 lol.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

I have never heard of Beetle PSX wow!
So will the game run great on this with the AI upscale or is this something that will take awhile to reach that state?
I would love to replay this , not on my PS1 lol.

Click to shrink...

Beetle PSX (the HARDWARE version) is pretty much magical.

Sony - PlayStation (Beetle PSX HW) - Libretro Docs

This is RetroArch's document page, modification or development information outside of this repo may be incorrect.

docs.libretro.com

Add any top tier shader like Royale and you wont even need these upscales.

 

[Mudo]

Beetle PSX (the HARDWARE version) is pretty much magical.

Sony - PlayStation (Beetle PSX HW) - Libretro Docs

This is RetroArch's document page, modification or development information outside of this repo may be incorrect.

docs.libretro.com

Add any top tier shader like Royale and you wont even need these upscales.

Click to shrink...

Thank you!
Ok I looked at that page and....oh my lol. I have not done a ton with emulation over the years - I have some but a long time ago and I'm not umm very techie.
I just looked through your link and that all sounds fascinating but honestly I have no earthly idea what I would even need to do to get it running! I'll have my SO look at it later and see if he understands what to do, because I really would like to see CC running on this.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

Thank you!
Ok I looked at that page and....oh my lol. I have not done a ton with emulation over the years - I have some but a long time ago and I'm not umm very techie.
I just looked through your link and that all sounds fascinating but honestly I have no earthly idea what I would even need to do to get it running! I'll have my SO look at it later and see if he understands what to do, because I really would like to see CC running on this.

Click to shrink...

You will be able to run your game through Retroarch using this Beetle Hardware core. You dont need to do anything to make it work, however, once inside the game, you can mess with the options (increase resolution in 3D games, improve 2D/3D mix in mixed games such as Chrono, Finals, Residents, fix the PS1 polygon wobble, etc.)

If you have doubts, just click on the samples in that link I gave you. Those are just options, the game will launch just fine with the default settings.

If you or your SO have not done this before: watch some quick tutorials on how to run Retroach and set up the COREs (each core is like ...a system, like a PS1 system core, a N64 system core, etc.)

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Cease & desist letter incoming in 3... 2... 1...

 

[Mudo]

You will be able to run your game through Retroarch using this Beetle Hardware core. You dont need to do anything to make it work, however, once inside the game, you can mess with the options (increase resolution in 3D games, improve 2D/3D mix in mixed games such as Chrono, Finals, Residents, fix the PS1 polygon wobble, etc.)

If you have doubts, just click on the samples in that link I gave you. Those are just options, the game will launch just fine with the default settings.

If you or your SO have not done this before: watch some quick tutorials on how to run Retroach and set up the COREs (each core is like ...a system, like a PS1 system core, a N64 system core, etc.)

Click to shrink...

Awesome thanks for the infos. I will look at some tutorials first then, because I really want to see CC running on this!

 

[Nameless]

Watching that fucked me up worse than the small, brief glimmer of hope I get anytime I start to read Chrono Cross in a thread title.

HD Remasters for stuff like Chrono Cross & Vagrant Story, masterpieces with timeless art direction, would be everything.

 

[Atolm]

Do any old games rereleased actually use AI upscaled textures?

Stuff like Final Fantasy IX having mods do the work for them seems insane. Is it too much to ask devs look into this tech or is it just way too expensive/time consuming to deal with?

I seem to hear about it all the time except with official releases where people just largely complain about messed up textures etc.

Click to shrink...

The recently released Command & Conquer remaster has AI enhanced videos.

 

[John Rabbit]

Every time I see this game I like it's art direction less and less. Soundtrack is 12/10 though.

 

[Hogger]

Holy cow! Looks amazing.

 

[Dlanor A. Knox]

I tried installing Beetle PSX at some point but just gave up, it seemed complicated, didn't understand anything, tutorial was like 40 minutes long, i'm not good with these things.

Any easy tutorials out there?

 

[Zeenbor]

I never really knew of the Beetle PSX core and the fact that they fixed the PS1 fixed point wobble has me super pumped! HOTNESS!

 

[ABIC]

Probably best OST in history of JRPGs

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Probably best OST in history of JRPGs

Click to shrink...

In history of video gaming

 

[Instro]

Really hope someone does this for the Baten Kaitos games some day.

Probably best OST in history of JRPGs

Click to shrink...

It's great, but the battle theme is pretty mediocre imo, which unfortunately is what you are hearing for a large portion of your playtime.

 

[ABIC]

Really hope someone does this for the Baten Kaitos games some day.


It's great, but the battle theme is pretty mediocre imo, which unfortunately is what you are hearing for a large portion of your playtime.

Click to shrink...

Yep, but Mitsuda did write The One Who Bares Fangs at God....... B-D

 

[asd202]

Perfect time to remind everyone that Masashi Hamauzu is kickstarting a piano collections for Chrono Cross with the approval of Mitsuda.

Click to shrink...

Hamauzu on Piano doing Chrono Cross music? WTF this will be so gooood.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

It's great, but the battle theme is pretty mediocre imo, which unfortunately is what you are hearing for a large portion of your playtime.

Click to shrink...

It was a bad arrangement, which is a shame because the song CAN sound good:

 

[AuthenticM]

wow, so there really was no way to load custom textures in a PS1 emulator until very recently? That seems crazy to me. I thought PS1 emulation had been figured out years and years ago.

 

[Alice]

Keep saying it looks no worse than a Dreamcast game, but people ain't listening.

 

[Dreamboum]

I'm glad that the first thing they did is replace the texture of the most beautiful game of our generation

 

[ApeEscaper]

Just saw the trailer version of this mod


This is great and apparently GUI can be modded too can't wait for proper PS1 "remasters" now might mod a game myself too using these AI upscaling tools etc

 

[Zornography]

I've been trying to figure out how to get this to work, but I'm not having any luck. I downloaded the texture pack, but I don't know what to do after it's downloaded.

 

[Mahonay]

Am I the only one that thinks some of this looks weird and warped?

Backgrounds get real funky and the characters really stand out as being completely separate from the environment at that resolution.

 

[Tremorah]

Looks pretty damn great for a PS1 title, i remember liking the game too

 

[Kaivan]

Am I the only one that thinks some of this looks weird and warped?

Backgrounds get real funky and the characters really stand out as being completely separate from the environment at that resolution.

Click to shrink...

Not, really, no? Everything looks great and well-made judging by that trailer above.

It looks like a proper remaster to me if SE actually made the effort into it.

 

[Mahonay]

Not, really, no? Everything looks great and well-made judging by that trailer above.

It looks like a proper remaster if SE actually made the effort to me.

Click to shrink...

Probably just dumb nolstagia making my brain prefer the old shitty blurry PS1 graphics. I don't really like what the AI upscaling does to some PS1 era games.

A E S T H E T I C

 

[alpha]

That looks decent to me. And goddamn did Chrono Cross have a godlike soundtrack. That and Xenogears are GOAT status, Mitsuda is too good.

 

[GrantDaNasty]

Am I the only one that thinks some of this looks weird and warped?

Backgrounds get real funky and the characters really stand out as being completely separate from the environment at that resolution.

Click to shrink...

The contrast of 3D models on the background maps does become more evident with higher resolution polygon models, upressing the background art only goes so far, at a certaon fidelity the intended visual trick is no longer viable (example: OG Re games having upscaled backgrounds and proper resolution 3D models)

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

Wow yeah, it looks super nice! Man, Chrono Cross is so underrated just because it wasn't utterly peerless like Trigger. It's still excellent in its own right.

 

[erlim]

Good god, developers need to start the widespread use of AI up scaling and sub-pixel accuracy and start remastering PS1 and Saturn games like there is no tomorrow.

 

[Radec]

I love this game when I was a kid.

 

[ApeEscaper]

Probably just dumb nolstagia making my brain prefer the old shitty blurry PS1 graphics. I don't really like what the AI upscaling does to some PS1 era games.

A E S T H E T I C

Click to shrink...

They often use PGXP feature in the emulator which remove the unique psx wobbly pixels whatever you call it like in this vid, if you leave that off while playing with ai upscale it atleast more reminiscent to classic PS1 look

 

[Slaythe]

Confession time : I have not played this more than one hour.
Lots of technical issues soured me.

But I think we are far enough that almost all of them are fixed through emulation.

I'm a big chrono trigger and nobuteru yuki fan.

So this may turn out to be one of my favorite games ever ? :p

Am I the only one that thinks some of this looks weird and warped?

Backgrounds get real funky and the characters really stand out as being completely separate from the environment at that resolution.

Click to shrink...

That's why you use the crt filter.

With sub pixels being fixed, the models look great, with super sampling and crt they are perfectly blended with the backgrounds.

Those games were never meant to be seen without blending. Not because of lack of HD, but because they were designed to take advantage of CRT technology. That's why a lot of games look so bad on your hd monitor.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

After making HD versions of FFVII-FFVIII-FFIX.. I just don't get it why SE give the same treatment to their other PS1 classics like Chrono Cross ( which looks gorgeous in the video ) Parasite Eve 1 and 2.. Xenogears and Threads of Fate?

They are neglecting other old beloved IPs in favour of FF ( which is my all tile favourite franchise but come on give some love to other games as well ).

 

[mute]

It looks nice in some places and not in others. It would take some selective usage and overall massaging to get me to play something like this over the original. I don't actually mind the pre rendered backgrounds when they aren't smeared with a bi linear filter. Blocky PS1 I can appreciate.

 

[Slaythe]

It looks nice in some places and not in others. It would take some selective usage and overall massaging to get me to play something like this over the original. I don't actually mind the pre rendered backgrounds when they aren't smeared with a bi linear filter. Blocky PS1 I can appreciate.

Click to shrink...

It never looked blocky.

The hideous way it natively looks on emulator does not reflect how the backgrounds looked on CRT.

But luckily now you have options to display them properly without that upscale thing.

 

[mute]

It never looked blocky.

The hideous way it natively looks on emulator does not reflect how the backgrounds looked on CRT.

But luckily now you have options to display them properly without that upscale thing.

Click to shrink...

I know, just saying I prefer the native look on a LCD-type screen than something attempting to recreate how it looked on a CRT. Be that by blurring/scanlines/whatever.

 

[Akelisrain]

After making HD versions of FFVII-FFVIII-FFIX.. I just don't get it why SE give the same treatment to their other PS1 classics like Chrono Cross ( which looks gorgeous in the video ) Parasite Eve 1 and 2.. Xenogears and Threads of Fate?

They are neglecting other old beloved IPs in favour of FF ( which is my all tile favourite franchise but come on give some love to other games as well ).

Click to shrink...

Parasite Eve is most likely due to licenses, they are not the original creator as it is based off of a novel.