BZ2 Large Textures Pack, v1.0

[GSH]

Download this for a BZ2 'large textures' pack. This contains the stock textures, upscaled with HQ2X/HQ4X algorithms and some noise added. Seems to look slightly better, especially at larger resolutions. Some textures didn't upscale so well; better to get 80% of textures better, and let modders take care of the last 20% by hand. Shouldn't cause bad assets in MP.

Notes: this is approximately a 249MB (261,719,185 bytes) download, and unpack to approximately 517MB (~543,024,424 bytes). Discrete ATI/AMD/Nvidia GPUs with at least 512MB of dedicated GPU RAM are pretty much a requirement.

After running the installer, you MUST start BZ2 with the start menu/desktop shortcut to start BZ2 in large textures mode. If you don't use the proper shortcut, it'll use existing textures. Uninstall if it crushes your system or you don't like it.

If you want to make this permanent and not use the special shortcut, copy the contents of {$BZ2InstallDir}\LargeTextures\... into {$BZ2InstallDir}\addon\...

-- GSH

[Zero Angel]

Have observed no bad asset errors or slowdown from using the textures in MP when placing them into my addon folder (though I have a fairly powerful videocard).

Aside from the textures that are blocky looking (like the rec pad texture) I did get some file clash errors that didn't otherwise interfere with my BZ2 experience. These were typically caused by my own installed mods though:

Code: Select all

ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1200   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\HighresDXTBZ2\addon\dxttex\ihrad00.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1200   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\uep\BlackRadar\ihrad00.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1205   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\HighresDXTBZ2\addon\dxttex\movine01.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1205   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\missions\multiplayer\1.3 Strategy Map Pack\DXTBZ2\MOVINE01.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1205   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\HighresDXTBZ2\addon\dxttex\palm.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1205   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\missions\multiplayer\1.3 Strategy Map Pack\DXTBZ2\palm.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1210   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\HighresDXTBZ2\addon\dxttex\TRACKS.dxtbz2
ERR |             filesys:80   |23:51:02|1210   |File clash: @rootdir\addon\VSR\Hadean\dxtbz2\tracks.dxtbz2

Not too useful of info since this won't happen using GSH's method, but I just thought I would report it.

[Purplehaze]

No clashing assets here, Zero Angel.

I've taken some comparison screen-shots on my max graphical settings 1920x1080 resolution.

New:

Old:

[Ded10c]

No clashes here either. Seems like a significant improvement.

[MrTwosheds]

Did get a bad assets warning, joining an mp game (this may be my fault).
Also noticed that some of the high contrast terrain textures actually look worse than the stock textures. More obviously pixelated than before.

[squirrelof09]

Mirror: https://bzscrap.org/downloads/Patches/B ... sSetup.exe

edit 2021-07-24: updated broken link

[GSH]

If you think you can do better in upscaling textures, by all means, be my guest. I put in some simple rules in v1.1.0.31 of BZ2DXTGen. If you can make some more intelligent rules that upscale terrain textures another way, or whatnot, go ahead and try. Just open up the upscaling .cfg included in the latest DXTGen, and read it. I'll take suggestions on how to upscale things better in the future.

-- GSH

[MrTwosheds]

Just an observation, not a criticism.

[Cyber]

If you think you can do better in upscaling textures, by all means, be my guest. I put in some simple rules in v1.1.0.31 of BZ2DXTGen. If you can make some more intelligent rules that upscale terrain textures another way, or whatnot, go ahead and try. Just open up the upscaling .cfg included in the latest DXTGen, and read it. I'll take suggestions on how to upscale things better in the future.

-- GSH

Just upscaling won't make it a better texture. The most textures are 256x256, right? Means they are sort of low quality. Upscaling makes the texture larger, but doesn't make it HQ- that's what I was trying to do, but I am not good with photoshop and that stuff (for detail reconstruction), someone else with a lot of experience has to do it.

[Ded10c]

GSH is a programmer, he knows this.

[Apollo]

Just upscaling won't make it a better texture.

The dpi remains 72 right?
Does any games use more than 72dpi?

[General BlackDragon]

It's not "improvied" it's just higher resolution, meaning supposed to be less pixelized.

[Cyber]

GSH is a programmer, he knows this.

I wasn't trying to teach him AHadley, I was trying to explain him that *this* is not what I am looking for.

[Ded10c]

Oh, I see.

I think he created this just as a base and/or proof-of-concept.

[jaydenbz2]

Personally, Imo I believe that "improving" texture size like this does nothing with a raster based file, it is created in 256 so it should stay that size, the dxtbz2 file is optimised enough, not criticising you, just putting a fact out there, unless you recreate the textures the quality will not vastly improve, adding noise and sharpening does not improve the quality, it decreases it, using a higher resolution to sharpen does however create the illusion of a large texture.

//On another note: So you are a programmer, do you think there are any chances of original textures above 256, 512 for example?

EDIT: @GSH, I will do some high res textures for the stock in the CP, I've began already, I;ll do them in 512, as with an engine that uses mostly only diffuse maps you will not notice the difference if it is 1k for example, though perhaps making in 1k would be good, so I could have the option to downscale, maybe release a "Mid-res" and "hi-res" pack.

Any thoughts guys?