How about using HQ2X instead of 2xSAI for high res textures?

[Khakoyzter]

HQ2X seems to be much better at upscaling textures than 2xSAI as evidenced by the tests at its official homepage (look at the bottom of the page). Could it be used instead?

[ScottJC]

Yes it could be, but Jabo has to implement it so don't get your hopes up, if you want that now you'll have to use another video plugin, rices video plugin has that.

[Smiff]

Jabo says what he's implemented works best. i don't know, but i'd trust him on that. a couple of points: N64 emulation is not the same as SNES emulation, you don't normally have clear sprite edges to work on (which is what these filters are mostly all about). 2nd, the performance hit from enabling super2xsai can already be severe, i suspect a lot of people are turning it on, assuming it's better (which it isn't always, e.g. look at BanjoTooie ground - just looks blocky) and not realizing it's what's causing their game slowdown (AND looking possibly worse). i personally do not use any filtering (except for bi/trilinear) and would not even with an inifinitely fast computer.

[Khakoyzter]

Of course I trust Jabo to have implemented the best option, that's why I formulated the thread title as a question rather than a request. And your points about using 2xSAI and not HQ2x are invalid, the two filters are intended for the same thing (upscaling a picture) and therefore have the same advantages and disadvantages on any given application that uses them. In any case, maybe HQ2x could be included as an alternative to 2XSAI...

[Smiff]

maybe Jabo will come along and say "i didn't implement HQ_x because.." (i didn't ask) there are lots of possible reasons.

my points, which were not backed up in any way, were:
1) it won't look very good
2) it'll be even slower

try applying hq2x to some n64 textures and see what it looks like (serious question, i don't know). i was not around for this stage of pj64 development. i understand the topic is of interest to many users.

edit:
um, the way the algorithm works is highly relevant, you have to pick the right method for the right content, i know HQ series do not work well on smoothly graduated textures.
from the Hq3x page:

The filter was not designed for photographs, but for images with clear sharp edges, like line graphics or cartoon sprites. It was also designed to be fast enough to process 256x256 images in real-time.

that's *one* 256x256 image about 30 times a second. now think what an average n64 texture looks like (more like a low res photo designed for tiling, than a sprite), and how many of them there are in a typical game scene, and you start to see the problem. imho something like Rice's high res re-texturing is more the way to go with this... of course some games are 2d with cartoony sprites (paper mario perhaps?) and they might benefit from hq2x, but it's not many and will take great intelligence to apply properly in the right places (Jabo already tries to do this with Super2xSAI). another reason i'm not keen is when these "better quality than the real thing" options are implemented, users tend to just turn them on without thinking too much. (right now i bet there's lots of pj64 users out there getting worse looking games and lots of slowdown because they turned on super2xsai when they saw the option and didn't think about it again).

this is getting long but:
a lot of the problems remaining are to do with the *edges* of sprites, where they're transparent and often overlay high res parts of the scene. filtering does not help with this (actually forcing filtering is one thing that consisently makes it worse in jabo's plugin), it's a different and larger issue that should probably be tackled first imho.

[sir_eot]

Hi smiff , I just wanted to say , 2x textures help in zelda oot ALOT
especialy in the cloud textures , and the ability in rice to use just 2x size
textures and smooth filter makes the sky look damn good on 6800Ultra
also the smooth filter smooths the text.


Another big thing I wanted to ask , is every time I try to find this rice1964
fellows home page it just doesn't exist , and all links point back to here
does rice exist here or what ?

where can I get in touch with this rice fellow ?

I'm the one who posted the Rice Beta 10 - 6800 Ultra post you closed out
because you felt it was in violation of the forum rules and had to do with development and not just general questioning ...

so I ask you where is this rice person who made that plugin ?

I'm a decent programmer when I wanna be , help me out here
help me find what I need so I can recompile his free source
and fix it like it's supposed to be...

[Googol]

Rice posts every so often in the 1964 forum here at Emutalk, particularly in High Resolution Textures. You could probably PM him if you want to get in touch. As to the filter thing, I agree with Smiff.