They sort of are smeared. This is, as I said, still in progress, and I haven't done any manual editing. I'm running all the sprites and textures through several different trained models and selecting the best (or sometimes the least bad) results produced between them all. In some cases, including the sprites, no one model produced good results for the entire image. In these cases, I've averaged the output of two different models that did better at different aspects of the image. For the pinky demon, there was one result that was extremely detailed, but had visible over-sharpening artifacts, and another that was clean, but lacked detail. For the former humans, one model produced excellent result for most of the sprite but mangled the head. Another got the head just about right, but had less detail for the body. The averaged results blend away the more glaring flaws, but can tend to get mushy in the process So that's what you're seeing for the enemies shown here. These are placeholders so that I can get an idea of what's going to work and what isn't. What I'll do later on is go back to the original output from these different models and retouch them by hand to fix the artifacts (e.g. the Demon) or stitch together the better parts of multiple results (e.g. for the zombie soldiers).
Are you going to provide a pack or something later on? Or does everyone needs to do this for himself?
Assuming I end up with something worth sharing, I'll eventually put it up somewhere. It's promising, but it's got a long way to go.
AAAAARGGHH!!! Got my FXPak Pro today after nearly two weeks of waiting (obvious pandemic is obvious), and I get the cart...and no instructions. So okay, I assume I just need to plug it into the Analogue Super Nt that I have and it'll give me a menu or something. I download the update file from the Project SD2SNES site, put it on the MicroSD card, put the MicroSD card into the very tiny slot on the FXPak Pro, put it in my Analogue Super Nt, aaaaaaaaaaaaaand... Nothing. Turn off the console, try again. Nothing. Third time? Not happening. At this point I get miffed, so I try to google an answer to my problem. I go to the Everdrive website, except it's down, so that's bullshit. So I'm spending about a good twenty minutes trying to find ANY semblance of step-by-step instructions for this thing, and I get nothing. Oh, there's a micro-USB port on it, but I don't have a micro USB cable for it, so I'm SOL there. I'm just gonna return it, I don't want to bother with this crap anymore.
I remember really preferring Double Dragon II The Revenge to the original, but after beating it on Super Master I can't fathom why. If not for Rewind and Save Scums on the Switch I would never have beaten this thing before. Maybe it was the box art. The game has decent looking graphics and mechanics, but enemy AI for the big bruisers. Jump Kick is the only way to really deal with these bastards half the time. And they can hit you like a truck and combo you until you are dead. At least if you got enough points in the original you could get extra lives. Why did they get rid of that and the continue function? Oh well, I played it, I beat it. If I wanted to buy it I guess I'd have it on the 3DS or something, but damn is it one of those irritating games. Music is nice though.
Hm I pre-ordered some time ago Streets of Rage 4 on Limited Run Games. Now there's an european physical release planned as well, which is also cheaper overall. Only thing I don't know is, at what time the LRG release would arrive here. Actually it doesn't matter than much, as I have sooo much games already on my PS4, I could probably still be playing PS4 when the PS7 inevitably releases But somehow I still would like to just have it in hands, seeing how everyone else is already playing the digital release.
For those that wanted the TurboGrafx 16 mini but didn't want to try ordering through Amazon Japan, looks like the NA release is pushed forward from December to May 22nd. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QD9GQ9J/ref=cm_sw_r_taa_uTDVEbBZ90XB2
I get the appeal but at $100 its pretty much worth it to just get a turbo everdrive and a cheap hdmi adapter if you already own a tg16 and just want more games.
Yesterday I finally took some time to look into some games of the CoreGrafx Mini. I really like the sound and the games are awesome, too. Now if their six button avenue pad were released as USB and I could put Street Fighter 2 on it... that's the one game that's missing.
Pinky looks pretty good aside from the edges, wouldn't take much for somebody who knows their way around photoshop to get rid of the strait and smooth lines so he doesn't look like he was cut out with a pair of scissors. Not so much Zombieman though, gun and head are rough.
Yep. He has mittens for hands too. Just showing how they've progressed. (They don't look too bad when they're actually moving around though) All of the pre-trained models I've tried have a pretty hard time interpreting the tiny pixel faces on the former humans. You get detail or accuracy, but never both. Nearly all of them end up without noses. I had to piece together bits from three different models just to get to this point.
Double Dragon 2 was a fun two-player game; my brother and I used to rent it for our NES. Back then, we preferred it over the original. I never owned either game until my early 20s when a friend bought me both DD1 and DD2 as gifts (way before the retro-gaming bubble). It was then that I realized DD1 was a far more balanced game, where as DD2 seemed unnecessarily difficult and frustrating with its all-to-frequent platforming areas. Billy and Jimmy are not meant to jump around like Mario and Luigi. It’s worse than jumping in a NES Castlevania game. Special moves in the original also respond far better to input; I know what the outcome is going to be when I press the A B buttons or D-pad. If I try a special move in DD2, I never know if it’s going to work or not. I’ve beat DD1 a few times, but never DD2 because of the platforming. Using the rewind feature on the Switch is a great idea! Looking forward to trying it.
Sega Genesis mini had a price drop to $50 but it's already sold out. I was tempted but didn't jump in time. I might get turbo grafx 16 mini.
Checked in on the Mario 64 port and things are progressing nicely - Modern camera controls - Draw distance - Not part of the mainline repro, but somebody has rolled a higher poly Mario that looks like the box art -
These are amazing improvements in their own right, but the best part is that Nintendo's own rumored remake is going to have to outdo all of it
That's one of the first things I thought when it came out, Nintendo are going to end up looking silly if they turn up with anything less then an actual remake now as nothing they do with the original version is going to be better then what a community project with decent support can produce. It's not there is much excuse for not doing a remake either, they must be able to round up like 90% of the assets they'd need from current gen Mario games and i'd imagine that rebuilding the game in the Odyssey engine would be almost trivially easy for their level guys.