AI Upscaling

[Phanto]

I've been playing some older games lately like Morrowind and Deus Ex and have noticed that there are a lot of AI upscaling mods. These mods just take the original textures and use AI to de-pixelate them. Some of the results are pretty amazing. Here is an example: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46221

 

Do any mods like this exist for CoH? It seems like it would be pretty easy for the modding community to implement and could have some pretty amazing results.

[Glacier Peak]

1 hour ago, Phanto said:

I've been playing some older games lately like Morrowind and Deus Ex and have noticed that there are a lot of AI upscaling mods. These mods just take the original textures and use AI to de-pixelate them. Some of the results are pretty amazing. Here is an example: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46221

 

Do any mods like this exist for CoH? It seems like it would be pretty easy for the modding community to implement and could have some pretty amazing results.

 

[Troo]

@Phanto thanks for mentioning this.

 

results look compelling to freshen up games designed for lower graphics than available today.

 

[Zewks]

The reasoning I read awhile ago was the concept that upscaled textures mean higher resolutions, which arent compatible with the game.

 

This isnt entirely how things are done with todays "upscaling", so this shouldnt be a roadblock to preventing it. Many methods keep the end result the same resolution after details, aliasing, etc have been improved upon.  

 

I really would be neat to see something like this be an option for the game.

[TheZag]

I have an upscaling device for my old video game systems called mClassic.  It plugs into the HDMI output of your device and then the HDMI cable plugs into it.  It handles some aliasing and texture sharpening.  There is a more noticeable improvement on 480p inputs since it can be upscaled to 720p fairly easily and 1k,  2k,  or even 4k if you run some specific settings.  Playing Nintendo 64 games in 720p is pretty nice.

 

I plugged it into my computer and it worked with city of heroes at 1920x1080 with 0xAA.  Ill need to move the device over 1 more time and figure out what equivalent AA its giving but my guess is probably 4xAA.  And that is with no impact on frame rate since the mClassic takes the incoming signal and then improves it.  City of heroes could even be set to 720p and you would get the resulting increase in frame rate and then get upscaled back to 1080 with the increased frame rate preserved.

 

It doesnt work with non standard resolutions though and people running a high resolution with ultra settings probably wont see much benefit.  But it is pretty good as a hardware option to improve the look without impacting frame rate.

[Shred Monkey]

On 5/13/2022 at 10:26 PM, Phanto said:

I've been playing some older games lately like Morrowind and Deus Ex and have noticed that there are a lot of AI upscaling mods. These mods just take the original textures and use AI to de-pixelate them. Some of the results are pretty amazing. Here is an example: https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46221

 

Do any mods like this exist for CoH? It seems like it would be pretty easy for the modding community to implement and could have some pretty amazing results.

 

The irony of this post considering your profile thumbnail.  Neat stuff though.

[Cancrusher]

24 minutes ago, TheZag said:

I have an upscaling device for my old video game systems called mClassic.  It plugs into the HDMI output of your device and then the HDMI cable plugs into it.  It handles some aliasing and texture sharpening.  There is a more noticeable improvement on 480p inputs since it can be upscaled to 720p fairly easily and 1k,  2k,  or even 4k if you run some specific settings.  Playing Nintendo 64 games in 720p is pretty nice.

 

I plugged it into my computer and it worked with city of heroes at 1920x1080 with 0xAA.  Ill need to move the device over 1 more time and figure out what equivalent AA its giving but my guess is probably 4xAA.  And that is with no impact on frame rate since the mClassic takes the incoming signal and then improves it.  City of heroes could even be set to 720p and you would get the resulting increase in frame rate and then get upscaled back to 1080 with the increased frame rate preserved.

 

It doesnt work with non standard resolutions though and people running a high resolution with ultra settings probably wont see much benefit.  But it is pretty good as a hardware option to improve the look without impacting frame rate.

 

That's pretty cool.  How much did that dongle cost ya, and where can you buy it at?

[TheZag]

40 minutes ago, Cancrusher said:

 

That's pretty cool.  How much did that dongle cost ya, and where can you buy it at?

 

I got mine off Amazon for about $80.  Amazon link 

 

They are about $100 on the manufacturer website.  Marseille link

 

Those are links to the product.  Im not affiliated with either company but ive used the mClassic and it works pretty good for me.

 

The marseille link has a chart showing the supported inputs and the upscaled output.  Even without upscaled output,  it still smooths the jagged edges and improves texture quality.

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by TheZag

[Phanto]

8 hours ago, Zewks said:

The reasoning I read awhile ago was the concept that upscaled textures mean higher resolutions, which arent compatible with the game.

 

This isnt entirely how things are done with todays "upscaling", so this shouldnt be a roadblock to preventing it. Many methods keep the end result the same resolution after details, aliasing, etc have been improved upon.  

 

I really would be neat to see something like this be an option for the game.

 

For the kind of upscaling that I posted in the example, there doesn't need to be a change in monitor resolution. What they did is simply take the original texture files and have the AI clean them up. In terms of performance, the only difference is that the texture loading times will slightly increase, but it shouldn't even be noticeable on modern PCs.

[Zewks]

28 minutes ago, Phanto said:

 

For the kind of upscaling that I posted in the example, there doesn't need to be a change in monitor resolution. What they did is simply take the original texture files and have the AI clean them up. In terms of performance, the only difference is that the texture loading times will slightly increase, but it shouldn't even be noticeable on modern PCs.

Not monitor resolution... texture resolution.

 

I can load up 4k textures on my 1080p monitor, and they will display fine (and in slightly higher detail than 1080 textures), but they will be immensely larger in file size, The program using them needs to be able to handle their dimensions too. If a game isnt set to handle dimensions that large, they wont work. That was the concern with CoH.

 

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Zewks

[Phanto]

To see a lot more great examples, check out this list! https://www.pcgamer.com/AI-upscale-mod-list/

 

Considering that so many retro games can already be modded, I bet it could be done in CoH with just a little technical ingenuity.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Phanto