Will High Resolution textures be include for PC Season 1 and 2 games in DirectX11 ?

[PinBalt]

Direct X11 ligting in the beta is awesome but I notice that some of the art assets (playfield and backglass art) for Season 1 and 2 games are still a bit low rez when compared to newer Season 4 tables, e.g. Addams Family. Has anyone heard if Farsight is going to upgrade the textures for gamers with PCs with monitors with greater than 1080p resolution. Direct X11 and now Flippers 3.0 is making TPA more and more awesome and I would love to have the great games in Season 1&2 brought up to the same art resolution as the newest tables.

PinBalt

 

[Just Some Guy]

As much as I would like to see higher resolution artwork if it exists, I would also like to see far less texture compression or even an option for uncompressed textures.
Tables like Cirqus Voltaire are particularly bad for this, with ugly JPEG-like artifacts on objects in plain view such as the red "shoot again" light.

 

[Locksley]

Yeah, it is not all about resolution but a bit of 'art' knowing how pixels displays combined; and then using the right compression or not using it to avoid aritfacts.

Looking at some textures on the newer tables I am hoping that they will re-explore the old ones and just touch up or even give them higher rez/non compressed textures.

Look at the metal ramp in Xenon using pro mode close up table exploration - looks absolutely stunning!

 

[CmputrBlu]

Yeah, it is not all about resolution but a bit of 'art' knowing how pixels displays combined; and then using the right compression or not using it to avoid aritfacts.

Looking at some textures on the newer tables I am hoping that they will re-explore the old ones and just touch up or even give them higher rez/non compressed textures.

Look at the metal ramp in Xenon using pro mode close up table exploration - looks absolutely stunning!

I guess it's both. I would think that in a case like this you'd scan the textures in as high res as you could and certainly not in as a JPEG.

But yeah here's hoping the older tables get improved in quality at some point. You can tell those older tables were made for devices running at lower resolution than even my Kindle Fire. Heck take a break from new tables for a bit and polish up the old ones. At the least I would hope that we can some of the more obviously bad textures replaced if nothing else.

 

[PinBalt]

Yes I would agree about the Jpeg compression. I would hope Mike might be able to pop in and atleast answer if this is in the plans. There might not be a date but is Farsight looking to improve the texture issue on Season 1&2 tables in the future.

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.

I don't know were this lies with priority with the art and production staff. Re-photographing the tables requires removing all the parts on the tables, setting them up and then taking photos.

 

[suffocater]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.

I don't know were this lies with priority with the art and production staff. Re-photographing the tables requires removing all the parts on the tables, setting them up and then taking photos.

It might be a lot of work, but it would be worth it.

 

[Locksley]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.

Shows how important optics and the sensor is.
Now a professional camera saves the file in RAW format, and that is pretty big. My traveling camera does give a bit of a smudge when it slightly compresses the image (not being true RAW format), but I found it to be in a good way - but just shows that processing takes place on allot of places when it hits the sensor.

Still, even the old photos aught to been taken in the highest resolution possible, right? So maybe some processing of those down to the right size will still bring a better and clearer texture?

This is why I wrote knowing how pixels does eventually display. And shows that resolution is not everything.

Bada bing, bada bom...

 

[chinzman93]

It might be a lot of work, but it would be worth it.

Agreed! Considering the number A+ titles in those seasons, I would hope this gets done at some point.

 

[Just Some Guy]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.
I don't know were this lies with priority with the art and production staff. Re-photographing the tables requires removing all the parts on the tables, setting them up and then taking photos.

Thank you for the reply.
Though redoing the work with a new camera would surely improve the resolution of the table's textures, it's the compression which is a bigger problem in my opinion.

Of course the source images may be that compressed (you would know better than me) but it seems like texture compression may be the problem rather than the source material?
If that's the case, it would seem to be an easier fix to release an updated table with less compressed (or uncompressed) textures rather than redoing the work.

A couple of examples from Cirqus Voltaire:

Note the ugly edges/mosquito noise around the diamonds and the colored artifacts around the "shoot again" light, which are typically signs of too much compression. (generally shows up on red first)

And something like NNEDI3 scaling may be a solution to "up-res" the older textures without having to re-shoot the tables - or at least until you can dedicate the resources to doing so.
I think it would work quite well for the type of images typically seen on the table art as it tends to have an anti-aliasing effect on strong lines.

Here is a comparison I found online which demonstrates how well it can smooth out lines from low resolution images:
Normal scaling
NNEDI3 scaling

Diagonal lines in particular seem to look a lot better after the NNEDI3 scaling.

 

[lettuce]

Would it be quicker just redrawing/touching them up these??

Or just get the art team to do 2 tables for each new release??...i mean Tales of the Arabian Nights and Medieval Madness could defo do with a face lift

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Would it be quicker just redrawing/touching them up these??

Or just get the art team to do 2 tables for each new release??...i mean Tales of the Arabian Nights and Medieval Madness could defo do with a face lift

It's not just the art team who would be involved though... whoever is responsible for stripping down the tables and putting them back together again would need to get involved, and that's clearly a painstaking task. You can't "touch up" the original photographs if you want improvements, you have to take new ones. Trying to make things better using Photoshop will likely end in tears.

 

[mpad]

There are pretty good redraws out there done by people who didn't even see the real table.

 

[p6800]

The sad thing is we have Xenon, a table no sane person will play again after getting the wizzard goals, looking top notch, while the good stuff feels like a generation behind...

TPA2 is needed! 1 New table + 1 new rererelease each month!

 

[SilverBalls]

The sad thing is we have Xenon, a table no sane person will play again after getting the wizzard goals, looking top notch, while the good stuff feels like a generation behind...

TPA2 is needed! 1 New table + 1 new rererelease each month!

Hey I play Xenon again and again, but enough said I guess

 

[shutyertrap]

Man oh man, if they had to strip everything down again...that'll keep Norman busy for months!

 

[pm1109]

Man oh man, if they had to strip everything down again...that'll keep Norman busy for months!

I wouldn't want to be Norman than lol
But hey im sure he loves this kind of stuff

 

[nudnick]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.

I don't know were this lies with priority with the art and production staff. Re-photographing the tables requires removing all the parts on the tables, setting them up and then taking photos.

I'd much rather see the backglass DMD\Score Displays working on:

Big Shot
Black Hole
Black Knight
Bride of Pinbot
Central Park
Fire Power
Fun House
Genie
Goin Nuts
Gorgar
Ripley's
Theatre of Magic
Tales of Arabian Nights

Wonder how much work it would be to get those backglass functions working? I don't like playing with a HUD as I always play in portrait mode and the HUD takes away from the sim experience and just gets in the way. With the NoEx mod, being able to set up views where the actual table's DMD\Score Displays are in view, is just awesome. Hybrid views are the way to go. There are so many tables where the DMD is just right above the playfield so adjusting the camera so it comes into view is a no-brainer.

 

[Metalzoic]

It's not just the art team who would be involved though... whoever is responsible for stripping down the tables and putting them back together again would need to get involved, and that's clearly a painstaking task. You can't "touch up" the original photographs if you want improvements, you have to take new ones.

And you know what would happen. People would say "Wow these older tables look awesome now!.. Are you guys going to re-do the newer tables to look as good?"

 

[Jeff Strong]

The textures in S1 and S2 are the same resolution as S3 and S4. The only difference is those tables were photographed using a different camera. We later switched to a much better camera, which is why the textures look better in recent tables.

I don't know were this lies with priority with the art and production staff. Re-photographing the tables requires removing all the parts on the tables, setting them up and then taking photos.

I may be imagining this, but didn't the older table textures get updated for PS4? If so, are those already in the PC version?