EQ Classic Enhanced - AI Upscaled Zone Textures

[Jasonz]

Available now is a set of AI upscaled zone textures for all zones used on Green/Teal. This project is different because it uses the original classic textures (not the newer high-res texture pack). Visit the wiki page for more information, comparison screenshots, and a download link.
https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_Enhanced

Let me know if you notice any texture issues and I’ll fix them for the next release. Issues could be textures that are missing transparency, textures that look bad, or possibly high-trafficked areas where you think the textures could look better. There are a few things I can do to further improve textures while still keeping them looking classic.

Here’s how I ended up working on this. Recently I was looking for a fix for the texture aliasing issues with the classic textures and realized it’s because current Nvidia drivers don’t allow you to force generation of mipmaps (as far as I know) and the classic EQ textures don’t include mipmaps. I was inspired by Psycher’s post (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338573) on upscaling EQ textures and starting researching a process for improving the classic textures (as opposed to the high-res texture pack). One thing led to another and I figured I’d complete all the zone files and share them with the community. Thanks to Psycher for his inspiration, thanks to the author of EQ-Zip for making a great tool, and thanks to everyone that runs/maintains/supports P99 who contribute to making it the success that it is.

[AffEcT]

Found some strange stuff with the wall in SolB (https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/251431688821932033/648289639970635796/EQ000004.jpg?width=1248&height=702)

[AffEcT]

But i really like what you did and ill be using it :)

[Jasonz]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll post an update for Sol b when I get a chance. I guess I need to find a way to test higher level zones that I can't wander around in on the regular servers.

[Jasonz]

There's a version 1.01 update posted to the wiki that contains a major update to Sol B. For anyone who has version 1, there's a small update file that can be downloaded and installed over top instead of needing to download the whole thing again.

I ended up running a private server so that I can fly around the level and check out how it looks while invulnerable.

[Faxi]

awesome. I've been using the Luclin updated world textures which very much resemble these screenshots. How would these improve the graphics? sorry i'm not very computer savy.

thanks for your work.

[Jasonz]

awesome. I've been using the Luclin updated world textures which very much resemble these screenshots. How would these improve the graphics? sorry i'm not very computer savy.

thanks for your work.

When you say "updated world textures" I'm guessing you're referring to what most people are calling the high-res texture pack. If the S3D files in your EQ folder are mostly dated 2005-10-17 then you're using the original textures that came with Titanium, otherwise they're probably from the high-res texture pack. The textures in the high-res texture pack are a mix of original and new, which completely changes how many zones look.

This project is aimed at people who prefer the classic look with the original textures but also want to improve the overall image quality through both AI upscaled textures and the benefits of mipmapping.

Whether these improve your graphics or not depends on what textures you're currently using and whether you value the look of the original textures. You can always make a copy of your EQ folder, try them out, and easily switch back by restoring the S3D files.

Hope this answers your question!

[Baler]

@Jasonz This is very awesome thank you for working on this!
AI Upscaling the textures is a really great idea.

I like these textures over other 'enhanced' texture projects because these keep the original feel of the game. Realistic and not cartoony.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on potentially doing the same for armour/weapons in the future.

ps. https://wiki.project1999.com/Talk:EQ_Classic_Enhanced
---

@everyone give these textures a shot, they look great! Don't confuse them for the other 'enhanced' texture projects.

[slowpoke68]

Could anyone who tried this post some screenies please?

[Jasonz]

Thanks for your feedback, Baler!

EQ Classic HD (https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_HD) are working on updated character, armour, and weapon textures. As far as I can tell their textures are classic and look good. It's the only other texture mod that I use, but I really wish the textures all had mipmaps as the aliasing is very noticeable. In the future, I may consider a release of the global texture files that are AI upscaled and include mipmapping.

I've never tried ESRGAN, but that's a great question. I'm curious as to the quality of the texture upscaling and the performance of the upscaling.

There's another forum thread where they're upscaling the high-res texture pack (https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=338573). I don't use the high-res texture pack, so I'm unlikely to get involved in this.

[Jasonz]

Could anyone who tried this post some screenies please?

There are screenshot comparisons on the wiki page (https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_Enhanced#Show_me_the_screenshots.21) under the 'Show me the screenshots' heading. I can add more if you'd like.

[Kendrite]

Thanks for doing this.

I've noticed that there are a number of trees in S Ro (near where the grass meets the desert) have no leaf textures (it's just the trunk and branches surrounded by grey).

I am trying to run it with this https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_HD mod at the same time but I don't think they should clash in any way.

I've tried installing your mod twice with same results.

Cheers.

Edit: I'm playing on Blue and I noticed you said this is for Green/Teal - could this be the cause of my problem??

[Jasonz]

Thanks for doing this.

I've noticed that there are a number of trees in S Ro (near where the grass meets the desert) have no leaf textures (it's just the trunk and branches surrounded by grey).

I am trying to run it with this https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_HD mod at the same time but I don't think they should clash in any way.

I've tried installing your mod twice with same results.

Cheers.

Edit: I'm playing on Blue and I noticed you said this is for Green/Teal - could this be the cause of my problem??

Thanks for the feedback. I've posted a version 1.3 that fixes this issue. There's an update-only download on the page so that you don't need to download the whole thing again.

I fixed this a while ago in my local folder but somehow missed putting that one file into one of the earlier updates.

The updated zone textures will work on all P99 servers. Since they only update textures used in the zones that green/teal use they simply won't affect the other zones that Blue has.

The EQ Classic HD textures work fine with EQ Classic Enhanced since they update global texture files and not the zone texture files that I'm updating. I'm using their textures as well.

Thanks again for letting me know about the tree issue!

[Kendrite]

Updated and 1.3 has fixed it.

Thanks for all the effort - it looks great.

[Passenger]

Great job! I appreciate you working off the original textures to keep the classic look and feel. The mipmaps are a welcome addition as well. The only artifact I've encountered so far is with rock dervishes in Lavastorm. You can't tell from the still image, but the pink triangle strobes in and out.

I'm using version 1.03 of Classic Enhanced as well as EQClassicHD. I installed Classic Enhanced .s3d files first, then added the EQClassicHD files over that.

Thanks for your efforts!

[Jasonz]

Great job! I appreciate you working off the original textures to keep the classic look and feel. The mipmaps are a welcome addition as well. The only artifact I've encountered so far is with rock dervishes in Lavastorm. You can't tell from the still image, but the pink triangle strobes in and out.

I'm using version 1.03 of Classic Enhanced as well as EQClassicHD. I installed Classic Enhanced .s3d files first, then added the EQClassicHD files over that.

Thanks for your efforts!
I've uploaded version 1.04 with a fix for the Rock Dervishes. Thanks for letting me know!

[Noren]

Hello, a tree in Lesser Faydark :
https://i.ibb.co/ZdzHFL0/Tree.jpg (https://ibb.co/Y2BD1Rx)

I use v1.04

[ewjax]

Hello, a tree in Lesser Faydark :
https://i.ibb.co/ZdzHFL0/Tree.jpg (https://ibb.co/Y2BD1Rx)

I use v1.04

Same in OOT

[Noren]

Fire in CB

https://i.ibb.co/c2zxmnY/fire.jpg (https://ibb.co/r5nvWrd)

[Jasonz]

Fire in CB

https://i.ibb.co/c2zxmnY/fire.jpg (https://ibb.co/r5nvWrd)

Both are fixed in version 1.5, along with the tree in OOT. Thanks for letting me know!

[Noren]

Great, thank for your work !

[Wisteso]

Both are fixed in version 1.5, along with the tree in OOT. Thanks for letting me know!

Do you mean 1.05? The wiki does not have a version 1.5 on it.

[Jasonz]

Do you mean 1.05? The wiki does not have a version 1.5 on it.

Yep, I meant 1.05.

[rahmani]

This is a fantastic project, 10/10. The ground in North Freeport's front yard looks like it didn't get upscaled?

[rahmani]

This is a fantastic project, 10/10. The ground in North Freeport's front yard looks like it didn't get upscaled?

I meant North Qeynos.

Also, did you do this in a batch way? I am interested in contributing, and can't seem to find a way to batch unzip s3d and rezip them via commandline. (Linux)

[Jasonz]

I meant North Qeynos.

Also, did you do this in a batch way? I am interested in contributing, and can't seem to find a way to batch unzip s3d and rezip them via commandline. (Linux)

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't been in the game for a while, but next time I am I'll take a look at North Qeynos. Looking at the download, the updated Qeynos2 files seem to be there.

The wiki page for EQ Classic Enhanced (https://wiki.project1999.com/EQ_Classic_Enhanced) has a fair bit of information on how the textures were processed and any other information that I thought might be useful for people working on similar projects, especially the info about optimal texture formats and texture conversions since I had to figure much of that out myself since I couldn't find it documented anywhere. The wish list section mentions that command line tools to automate everything is the main thing that the process was lacking. I did it zone-by-zone, so it took a while, but the processing of each zone was mostly automated, except for dealing with textures that had transparency.