Play Station Twinsen models on the PC

[Battler]

OK, investigating into this .BLK file so far, so far I can determine that it's not a .HQR-type archive file. It is an archive file, but of a different format. Still trying to understand its specification.

[Battler]

OK, now I doubt the models are in that file. According to The ASSEMblergames.com Forum, .BLK is a container for audio SFX files, and the first few files I've seen LBA 1's .BLK file seem to confirm this.

[Jast]

Originally Posted by Battler

OK, now I doubt the models are in that file. According to The ASSEMblergames.com Forum, .BLK is a container for audio SFX files, and the first few files I've seen LBA 1's .BLK file seem to confirm this.

41mb's of sound effects?

[Battler]

- Jast: Quite plausible if they're in better quality than the ones in the PC versions. And if you consider that it likely has the sound effects for the movies as well, it becomes even more plausible.

[Jast]

Originally Posted by Battler

- Jast: Quite plausible if they're in better quality than the ones in the PC versions. And if you consider that it likely has the sound effects for the movies as well, it becomes even more plausible.

It's not likely, the videos have their own audio. All 16 bit, 18.9/37.8 khz, two or three are stereo. Resolution is 320x192, except NIEGE2.STR (307x192) and DRAGON4.STR (320x240). This all according to PsxTulz, the only program I've found thus far that can read them, albeit far too slowly. STR is a standard PSX video format though, so converting them shouldn't be too difficult.

EDIT: Never mind, this utility can play and convert them perfectly, and it's written in Java so cross-platform.

[Jast]

I've had a lengthy second look at the videos and, using jPSXdec and LBA Screen Viewer, can now compare the two versions. As far as my eyes (which may be faulty) can tell, the FLA (PC/DOS) videos mostly have the upper hand in overall quality, whilst the STR's (PSX) have smoother shading and 20% more frames, so they run at 15fps (versus 12). The trade-off is a faint grain/blur which I imagine is attributable to the original compression (as it's only present on some of the movies; if it was the program I'm using it should be on all).

So the cutscenes that are (according to my eyes) superior on the PSX are BAFFE, BATEAU, BATEAU2, NAVETTE and TEMPLEBU. It would definitely be worthwhile replacing these alongside the more exciting audio and models. (although getting them to play at 15fps in-game might prove tricky)

Attached is a quick (made in Paint) side-by-side comparison of BAFFE and TEMPLEBU.

[Jasiek]

Could they possibly be used in the PC version?

Would be great to get any superior material out from it and into the PC version.

[xesf]

Its difficult to upgrade Twinsen model from PS1 to PC version without changing its code or hack the model, but I won't say impossible.
The new model presented in PS1 has the same format as LBA2 has which is different from LBA1. PS1 version came out at the same time as LBA2 and they share few things.

I remember looking at PS1 HQR versions and they were very different from PC.

[Jast]

Alexfont, is the requirement that frames imported into .fla files be 256-colour bitmaps a restriction of your LBA Screen Viewer or of the format itself? If the latter then it is probably impossible to get the better quality video in the game