Krystal Mod for Dissidia Final Fantasy
Shadowlugia2009 has made a Krystal character mod for Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, a 2011 3D movement fighting game for the PSP featuring Final Fantasy characters. The character Krystal replaces in this mod is Prishe, a FFXII NPC, who has a lot of punch and kick moves, as well as mental energy energy attacks, from the looks of it.
Shadowlugia2009 went to the trouble of modding the mesh and textures to turn the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trophy into the Armada Fan-Based Flight Suit. He even replaced the character's profile picture. This is an excellent mod that fits well with Krystal's character!
Shadowlugia2009 posted the mod download on the YouTube video's description. I'm still attempting to contact him about it. He didn't provide instructions on how to use the mod, but there appear to be instructional videos for modding this game on YouTube if you're interested.
Live Podcast Recording in One Hour
Here it is, the countdown to the next episode of the Krystal Archive Podcast. This is my first time using the YouTube streaming system, so there will be hiccups, please be patient with me.
Watch on YouTube to access the chat.
Star Fox Wii U Will Beat Zelda Wii U Launch
During last night's Game Awards 2014, there was a special segment where Mr. Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma showed off a lot of gameplay footage from the massive open world of The Legend of Zelda Wii U. You should watch the whole thing, because it's amazing!
During their conversation, however, Mr. Aonuma asked Mr. Miyamoto how Star Fox Wii U was coming along. Mr. Miyamoto replied that Star Fox development was coming along well. He said that the game's use of the Wii U gamepad really feels right, and that the game should launch before the new Legend of Zelda Wii U game. You can hear that part of the conversation at 3:18.
Thanks to Dogman15 and Kevin for the heads up!
Podcast Incoming Sunday
Sunday evening, around 7PM Central (5PM Pacific), I'm planning to do the next podcast episode as a live YouTube event! I've got a few updates on what's been going on behind the scenes, site speed issues, and upcoming stuff for the Furry Fiesta panel. I need to do a bit of experimenting with YouTube's broadcasting system so I can be prepared, but once I know more details, I'll post them here. Looking forward to it!
Debugging Site Speed
I've noticed a huge slowdown in the site lately. I'm currently attempting to debug. I apologize in advance for any issues you run into.
Warpaint Krystal Speedpaint
UndyingNephalim commissioned FoxInShadow to paint the alternate costumed Krystal from his fangame, Star Fox: Event Horizon. It's been a while since we've had a nice speedpaint of Krystal, and the choice of music is very rousing and epic. You can check out the finished commission too!
Star Fox Cameos in Smash Wii U Show Up, Krystal Curiously Absent
GameExplain shows off a video of some (all?) Star Fox easter egg conversations on the Star Fox Assault: Orbital Gate level in Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U. Curiously, not only is Krystal completely absent from the level she should have been in, but there are only 3 Arwings flying around. In EVERY Star Fox game, there are ALWAYS 4 Arwings, unless one is in for repair, I suppose. The Star Wolf team didn't appear in this level either, even though they show up in the Assault level. It's more than a little curious that none of those characters show up at all anywhere in the game except for past references in older levels.
What does this mean? Krystal content blocked by embargo dates? Krystal DLC planned for later? An attempt to remove Krystal (and Star Wolf?) from series canon? LOL, ok, that last one was ridiculous. Smash Bros. has never been canon about anything.
As for the cameos themselves, there's positives and negatives...
Positive
- The dialog is designed to be more specific to what the characters are actually doing, rather than being super generic about the fact that there are brawlers on their ships
- It's got that corny sci-fi flavor
- Falco's voice
- ROB's voice
- Fox's voice (barely)
- Aside from the lack of Krystal, the level is surprisingly accurate to what happens in the actual Assault level
Negative
- Ok, maybe the dialog is a bit TOO corny sometimes :D
- No dialog from the Cornerian military (Dog Soldier) or Beltino
- Slippy's voice (barely)
- Peppy's voice (seriously, what?)
- WHERE'S KRYSTAL?!
- WHERE'S STAR WOLF?!
Thanks to Jordan who sent this in.
Update
These are not new voice actors. They are all returning actors from Star Fox 64 3D, see the comments.
Star Fox: Event Horizon Needs Voice Actors
UndyingNephalim has just published a video of his vision of the events prior to Star Fox and Star Fox 64: The betrayal of Pigma and the end of James McCloud (or so everyone thinks). This playable scenario looks good and feels very complete. UnyingNephalim also tells me he has an interactive tutorial for the game, which leads to his new needs...
At this time, the Star Fox: Event Horizon project needs five male voice actors (or at least five different voices). The roles yet unfilled are: James McCloud, Peppy Hare, Pigma Dengar, Andross, and General Pepper. If you think you can do any or all of these voices, please email UndyingNephalim with your samples. He prefers actual adult voices as these characters are well into adulthood.
Remastered Video Comparison
What are the odds?! The same weekend I decide to try out my 60 fps capture device, YouTube announces support for 60 fps video!
After a bit of compression trial and error, I've figured out what to do to get a truly full quality video uploaded. This is a great comparison of the best in 2014 consumer video capture technology versus the same thing from 2007.
Back in 2007, the best I could do was record 480i video at 30 fps through an analog capture device, deinterlace it, and heavily compress it using the very early h.264 algorithms.
The new setup allows an all-digital, 1080p up-rezed 480p capture at 60 frames per second using 60 mbps. The video is (slightly) zoomed to fill the whole screen, making it conform to modern video aspect ratios. I also ran a color enhancer that will pull out some of the details from the game's rather dark rendering style. (The latter two changes help mitigate some of the artifacts of the way old video game consoles output analog video.)
Check it out! Be sure to select the highest quality setting available in the gear menu.
Pretty good, huh? Compare that to the original upload garbage.
The change is so drastic that I've decided to remaster all the Krystal cutscene videos from both Adventures and Assault. This is THE best quality you can get without emulating the games to run at a different resolution. I've already recorded almost all of the Adventures cutscenes. It's just a matter of cutting up the parts, compressing them, and uploading them to YouTube. As always, the full quality versions will be available for download here. That way, you can see the video's quality before YouTube recompresses it to a lower bitrate.
Finally, I am planning on doing a midnight stream of the Star Fox parts of Super Smash Bros. Wii U once I get it on November 21st. More details coming soon.
Update
I've made an image comparison of the same frame using different capture techniques. After looking at it again, I think I'm going to go with the Remastered (widescreen) version.
Capture Device Preview
I bit the bullet and purchased the ExtremeCap U3 capture device and the Wii to HDMI Converter. The ExtremeCap allows me to record 1080p HD video at 60 frames per second using 60 mbits per second. It's real-time too, so I can actually play games using the preview window, no noticeable lag. Meanwhile, the Wii to HDMI converter allows me to play GameCube and Wii games at 1080p resolution through HDMI, which I then capture with the ExtremeCap. This means: 1080p scaled GameCube games with no emulation.
I didn't think it would make all that much difference, but it really, really does! Just look at this comparison!
First, the old, compressed capture, using the best possible in-game lighting conditions and a relatively high bitrate. The result is a very compressed looking video at 720 × 480.
And then, the upscaled version recorded fully digitally. Even though the lighting is terrible by comparison, you can still see almost double the detail on the staff, in Fox's fur, and his wrist computer. You'll have to click the image to see the full resolution (1862 × 1011, cropped 1080p).
This is amazing, but I'm sure you're wondering, "Why now? What is he recording this for, and what's that little red bar in the Staff energy bar?" Excellent questions. I spent my entire evening testing out the ExtremeCap on my Star Fox Adventures Preview Disc, the disc they put in store kiosks. I will soon use this footage to make a video about the differences between the final game and the preview version. There are a lot of subtle changes, and a couple of mysteries solved. This is a video I've been wanting to do for years, and now it the perfect opportunity. Keep a lookout for it!