I've Created a WC4 HD Video Pack

ODVS

ODVS

Captain
Edit - 10th October 2020:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WING COMMANDER CIC!

To celebrate, I have new versions of all my HD Packs and a whole host of funky new trailers!

All of these got their official premieres during the CIC Birthday party, but I thought I'd add them here for reference or for anyone who couldn't make it to the party.


Wing Commander IV HD Pack V5.0 - Definitive Edition

  • All FMV footage remastered to 1080p Full HD using Machine Learning AI (highest quality yet!)
  • Low frame rate sequences remastered to full 30fps using Machine Learning AI
  • Aspect ratio of all footage fixed to standard 16:9
  • Missing audio from various DVD-version sequences restored (in full Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound where possible)
  • French and German packs available (Stereo audio only)
  • Custom batch file launcher for French and German packs (wc4dvd_FR.bat and wc4dvd_DE.bat respectively) included. Use these to launch the game with French or German UI enabled (tool tips, mission briefings, pilot bios, ship loadouts etc.)
  • Release notes document included (NEW!)
English

Deutsche

Français

Many thanks to Rufus Shinra and @wiese.hano for providing French and German translations of the release notes!


Wing Commander III HD Pack V2.0
  • All FMV footage remastered to 1080p Full HD using Machine Learning AI (highest quality yet!)
  • 15fps frame rate remastered to full 30fps using Machine Learning AI throughout
  • Improved contrast balance in all footage
  • Video compression optimised (now a single 3.8GB zip file)
  • German, French and Japanese packs available
English

Deutsche

Français

日本語



Wing Commander Prophecy HD Pack V4.0
  • All FMV footage remastered to 1080p Full HD using Machine Learning AI (highest quality yet!)
  • DVD Interlacing removed from all footage
  • Missing scenes restored and remastered from CD-ROM edition
  • English and German packs available
English

Deutsche


I also re-rendered the official WCIV Theatrical Trailer using the new HD Pack V5.0 footage:


So again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY WING COMMANDER CIC and HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY WING COMMANDER FRANCHISE! Here's to many more decades of fun times with this vibrant community 😄


Edit - 27th April 2020:
Massive thanks to @ChrisReid for officially hosting the HD video packs on WCNews! I'm updating the links throughout this thread to ease the burden on my poor GDrive and 1Drive 😝

ORIGINAL POST:
Hello all,

Total Newbie here - my name's Owen. First of all, thank you to everyone in this community - although I've only just joined, I have fond childhood memories of WC and I've called by WCNews occasionally over the years to make use of assets, patches and all the other wonderful things this community has come up with.

The reason I set up an account is I think I might actually have something to share. Having bought WC4 in the recent GOG sale, I decided to see if I could improve the DVD video. I set about using Machine Learning/AI to remaster the FMV footage in HD.

I've upscaled it to native 1080p Full HD (not just a scalar/smoothing solution - extra image data is actually added to create "true" HD footage) as well as removing the DVD interlacing, cleaning up the MPEG compression artefacts and remastering the colour of all footage. If you'd like to see the results, I put together a short comparison video which you can view on YouTube here.

Thanks to the wonderful work that's previously been done to bring the DVD footage into the GOG release, it was surprisingly easy to get the remastered HD footage working in-game. So if anyone would be interested, let me know and I'll see about sharing the remastered footage with anyone who'd like it - all you have to do is backup your original VOB folder in your Wing4 installation and drop my replacement video files in place.

Looking forward to any feedback!

Regards,

Owen

P.S. Do watch the YouTube video all the way through - YouTube's compression algorithms actually lowered the quality of the remastered HD footage and you get a better idea of the improvements if you watch all the examples - but the versions I dropped in-game are actually higher quality than YouTube displays.

P.P.S. If this proves popular, I might do the same for Prophecy :^)


 
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erm... speechless?

Looks good even on YouTube. I think the guys here would be more than willing to host your work if you'll allow.

In fact it might be very useful for some ongoing projects. And if you do go ahead with prophecy then it will complement the wcp enhancement pack project nicely!

Great work I can't wait to add it to my wc4 dvd version.

Very warm welcome!
 
Hi gr1mre4per and DefianceIndustries,

Wow, such a quick response! Thank you both so much for the feedback :^)

More than happy to share the remastered footage with anyone who would like it and for it to be hosted on WCNews if they'd like it. I'd actually be quite honoured to have it hosted alongside some of the astonishing content that's been made available here.

It's quite a resource-heavy and time consuming process to get all the video processed, so I haven't actually made it through all the content yet, but I'm about 75% done. It will probably take a couple more days to finish processing all the footage, but once it's done I'll break it up into downloadable zip packs and post links to them on Google Drive.

If WCNews would like to officially host it, I'd appreciate it if someone would let me know, so I can then remove it from my GDrive. I'd currently estimate that the eventual total remaster will take up somewhere around 8-10GB of storage.

That being said, I'm currently prioritising speed of process over total quality in the video encoding. There's a good chance that once I've completed the conversion, I'll actually be able to squeeze more quality into the footage without impacting file size or performance. The downside it that it would take a lot longer to encode the video on my end. Still, with the world in its current state, it's not like I have many other demands on my time!

For now, we should probably consider this a 1.0 version of a WC4 HD Video Pack - I can always revisit later to create higher quality versions. A second run would take less time than the first, since the actual remastering has already taken place - it's just a matter of encoding it at higher quality. The uncompressed remastered footage currently takes up over 500 Gigabytes and growing!
 

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The YT video indeed looks great. I don't know how you did it, but it's great. I wish I had something like that for the German version. ;) ;)
 
Hi @gr1mre4per and @DefianceIndustries,

Many thanks for the warm welcome! I did send a response to your messages, but it's currently awaiting mod approval for some reason...

wiese.hano - I see the winky faces! I tell you what - if you can find a way to send me your VOB files, I'll be able to extract the audio stream and remux it with my remastered video streams. That's actually a far simpler process than remastering the footage in the first place, so I'd be able to turn that around for you with about three hours of actual work :^)
 
Looks Great! I would definitely like this when it is finished. If i may, I would like to see the Dolby Train trailer as well. I read that there were three different versions. Here is one I found. I don't know which was the correct one on the original CD release. Maybe someone here knows.

dolbytrain.zip - Download Dolby Digital - Train Demo Trailer - dvdloc8.com

Download Dolby Digital - Train Demo Trailer - dolbytrain.zip
dvdloc8.com dvdloc8.com

PS I think this is the PAL version.
 
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Hi Shades2585,

Holy moley, that takes me back! I actually had the CD-ROM version of Wing 4 back in the day and I'd entirely forgotten that until I heard the steam engine fire up!

I don't believe that is the version from the copy I had (it was the sound that sent me down memory lane, but I think the visuals were different). Still, your wish is my command ;^)

 
Excellent work. A definitive improvement over the DVD videos.
By the way: Could the same techniques be used to upscale the missing Speradon Shipyard sequence?
 
Hi FekLeyrTarg,

I'm afraid we're possibly delving a bit deeper into WC Lore than I'm aware of!

If you can provide footage (or links thereto), I can have a good try at remastering it. However, if we're talking about adding cut content back to the game, I suspect it would take someone with a better understanding of the game's code than I to patch it into the game.
 
That looks very nice. I like how well the fine details like hair have improved as well as the lightning and color seams to be a tiny bit more natural. Espacialy skin tones seam better in some scenes. Also small writing is clearer.

Overall I like it and I would like to see Prophecy getting the same treatment. Do you think it would be possible to use similar technics on WC3 footage?
I mean its even more compress and smaller in scale then WC4 IIRC. Mh that makes me wonder...what would happen if you take WC1 or WC2 footage and try to scale it up with maschine learning. Would it try to fill it up with more pixels to get a more cartoon/drawn like look like Wing Commander Academy TV show? That would be fun to watch.
 
ODVS said:
Hi FekLeyrTarg,

I'm afraid we're possibly delving a bit deeper into WC Lore than I'm aware of!

If you can provide footage (or links thereto), I can have a good try at remastering it. However, if we're talking about adding cut content back to the game, I suspect it would take someone with a better understanding of the game's code than I to patch it into the game.
Click to expand...

That scene is part of the original CD-ROM and PSX-versions. For reasons unknown to me, the DVD-version only includes the part with the Intrepid entering the system.
I can't find it in the video archive, so I'm linking this YT-video here:

@ChrisReid or anyone else from the staff:
Could someone provide the PSX- or CD-version of the Speradon intro, please? It's missing in the video archive.
 
gevatter Lars said:
That looks very nice. I like how well the fine details like hair have improved as well as the lightning and color seams to be a tiny bit more natural. Espacialy skin tones seam better in some scenes. Also small writing is clearer.

Overall I like it and I would like to see Prophecy getting the same treatment. Do you think it would be possible to use similar technics on WC3 footage?
I mean its even more compress and smaller in scale then WC4 IIRC. Mh that makes me wonder...what would happen if you take WC1 or WC2 footage and try to scale it up with maschine learning. Would it try to fill it up with more pixels to get a more cartoon/drawn like look like Wing Commander Academy TV show? That would be fun to watch.
Click to expand...


Hi gevatter Lars,

I don't think it will be possible with Wing3 footage, sadly - as you said, it was far more highly compressed than even the CD-ROM version of Wing4 and since it was never released as a DVD-Video version, the video files will most likely be some kind of proprietary video codec specific to the game. The AI routines really do work on a "Garbage In, Garbage Out" basis - I recall the Wing3 footage being pixelated to all hell and having a lot of ghosting/trail artefacts from the heavy compression, and I don't believe there would be a lot I could do about that.

On top of that, even if I did try to remaster the footage using the h.264 codec, I don't think there would be any way to get it to play back in-game. Similarly with the animatics from WC1 & WC2.

Given the response, though, I think I'm definitely going to move on to WCP once I'm done with Wing4 :^)
 
FekLeyrTarg said:
That scene is part of the original CD-ROM and PSX-versions. For reasons unknown to me, the DVD-version only includes the part with the Intrepid entering the system.
I can't find it in the video archive, so I'm linking this YT-video here:

@ChrisReid or anyone else from the staff:
Could someone provide the PSX- or CD-version of the Speradon intro, please? It's missing in the video archive.
Click to expand...

Hi FekLeyrTarg,

I'm downloading that now and I'll see what I can do :^) The PSX footage is much lower quality than the DVD-Video version (and it looks like the frame rate is lower), but I'll see what I can do about that.

My concern would be that the DVD-ROM version might have re-used one of the standard Interpid Jump Sequence videos at that point in the game (so if I edit this sequence in, it would play every time the Intrepid jumps into any system). I'll look into it, though, and let you know if I have any luck :^)
 
ODVS said:
I don't think it will be possible with Wing3 footage, sadly - as you said, it was far more highly compressed than even the CD-ROM version of Wing4 and since it was never released as a DVD-Video version, the video files will most likely be some kind of proprietary video codec specific to the game. The AI routines really do work on a "Garbage In, Garbage Out" basis - I recall the Wing3 footage being pixelated to all hell and having a lot of ghosting/trail artefacts from the heavy compression, and I don't believe there would be a lot I could do about that.
Click to expand...
The PSX-release of WC3 has higher quality versions of the cutscenes, which aren't compressed that terribly.

WC3 Movie Index - Holovids - Wing Commander CIC

Wing Commander CIC
www.wcnews.com www.wcnews.com

(Fun fact: The upscale of the C&C cutscenes for C&C Remastered is also based on the PSX-videos.)

ODVS said:
My concern would be that the DVD-ROM version might have re-used one of the standard Interpid Jump Sequence videos at that point in the game (so if I edit this sequence in, it would play every time the Intrepid jumps into any system). I'll look into it, though, and let you know if I have any luck :^)
Click to expand...
Actually, that sequence is in its own file (https://download.wcnews.com/holovids/wing4/index/SC_2570A.mp4) even on the DVD-version, so replacing it with the full sequence wouldn't be a problem.
 
ODVS said:
Hi FekLeyrTarg,

I'm downloading that now and I'll see what I can do :^) The PSX footage is much lower quality than the DVD-Video version (and it looks like the frame rate is lower), but I'll see what I can do about that.

My concern would be that the DVD-ROM version might have re-used one of the standard Interpid Jump Sequence videos at that point in the game (so if I edit this sequence in, it would play every time the Intrepid jumps into any system). I'll look into it, though, and let you know if I have any luck :^)
Click to expand...

Hi @FekLeyrTarg@,

I had a go, but I'm afraid the image quality just isn't high enough to give the AI routines much to work with. I tried three different methods, but they all look pretty bad. You can view the results here. I didn't bother muxing the audio back in to the upscaled video streams, because I didn't really think it was worth the time.

I did manage to get the frame rate up to 29.97 FPS to match the other footage in the game, though - but the image quality really isn't up to par.
 
FekLeyrTarg said:
Actually, that sequence is in its own file (https://download.wcnews.com/holovids/wing4/index/SC_2570A.mp4) even on the DVD-version, so replacing it with the full sequence wouldn't be a problem.
Click to expand...

Ah, thank you - I tracked it down and it looks like I've already upscaled it. If anyone can manage to source a "nearer DVD quality" version of the Speradon Shipyard sequence, I'd be happy to run it through the Remastering process and edit it in alongside the Intrepid Jump Sequence :^)
 
FekLeyrTarg said:
Hmmm..... could YouTube's compression algorithm have caused problems?
Click to expand...

Partially, but I think the main issue is just the very low resolution of the video. With the DVD version of WC4, we have video at a resolution of around 640x480 to work with - but PSX video is way down there at 320x240 - and even smaller when I crop out the black bars. It's just not a lot of pixel data to work with.
 
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