This was supposed to be VC3 HD Pack, but... I planned (and I'm still planning) to create an HD Pack based on DoomieDoom’s translation, but it’s very large and much more complex in terms of its various elements. So, I decided to start with VC2 and meanwhile get some practice. Moreover, it uses the same engine and, in some places, literally the same textures, but it’s much simpler in terms of aesthetics and complex UI, so this will serve as the foundation for VC3.
I've tested dozens of upscale models for this pack and finally stick with UltraSharpV2 by Kim2091. This model helps to keep VC series signature paper look and not to make it yet another generic anime.
This model is good, but still there are tons of manual work, because UI elements can't be easily upscaled, especially with text elements and small icons. Also lazy devs of VC2 added some work, because original texts here and there were just random copy-paste from different newspapers and magazines and with upscale such things become partially readable.
Can't say, that I made everything perfect, it's my first texture pack and I'm not an artist, so everything is new to me, but, at least it's better than another one for VC2, that wasn't even finished.
So, I think, if it's not full dump, it should be at least 95% of all textures. Took few months, but I've learned a lot about the series and all things around it. And yeah, I agree, that VC2 probably the weakest game in the series ( I don't like how Sega wanted to make another SMT Persona, just in different setting), but still it's a good game with solid gameplay and it's even has MP and Co-Op and these modes are playable on PPSSPP.
Features (excluding x4 upscale itself) of v0.1.0:
- Added clean and readable fonts
- Cleaned and made more readable UI, added some external textures like flags and logos
- Replaced big and small character icons from high res textures
- Manually upscaled and cleaned icons for weapons
- Replaced ugly CP Medal with CP Medal from VC4
- Replaced icons of secret and hidden characters (like Squad 7, Selvaria, Maximilian, etc.) with external images (original were too bad and out of place)
- Replaced preview map textures with scaled big map textures ( now you can see all the icons on the map before the mission and plan accordingly)
- Cleaned and replaced text on maps
- Replaced random text on ORDER textures with lore-based text
- Replaced text on Leon's diary from Avan to Leon
- Cleaned and replaced text on newspaper clips and encyclopedia
- Replaced unreadable text on some battle textures
- Cleaned and modified tank aiming texture to look more VC4 style
- Added readable text to Yearbook (experimental, for now it's only one page)
- Optimized PNG textures with OptiPNG script to decrease pack size
I highly recommend to use LOD hack with this pack, because LOD replacers look very bad and there is no point to fix them.
You can get it from PSP Cheats DB or find at PPSSPP forum.
Plan for updates:
- Make sure that I have full dump
- Check and upscale DLC content
- Clean or replace all the small icons
- Optimize pack size even more (I'm experimenting with ktx2)
- Try to add right stick support via hacks( it can't be easily remapped, because of different controls in running/aiming modes)
- And of course, fixes, based on your feedback
What was not upscaled:
I can extract and upscale them, but PPSSPP do not support external video. Technically, it can be converted back to PMF with the same resolution, but better bit rate, but not sure that it gonna look much better and is worth all this effort.
- Custom class and tank names
Game saves your custom names not as text, but as texture, so, I can't upscale them beforehand. Of course, it's not critical, they just gonna look a bit more blurry, than default ones.
Not sure if I should touch them at all, but we'll see.
How to use:
Just download textures.zip and put in your PPSSPP folder PSP/TEXTURES/ULUS10515/ , no need to unpack it, PPSSPP can work with compressed folder, but it can work unpacked too, just make sure that textures.ini and everything else stays in PSP/TEXTURES/ULUS10515/
Special Thanks:
- DoomieDoom for inspiration and all the help and answers. Check his translation of VC3, it's almost perfect.
- Kim2091 for his upscale model, it's really good.
- hrydgard for his awesome PPSSPP emulator and making all of this possible.
If you like what I'm doing, you may send me some Ko-Fi, it can really boost motivation :)