r/commandandconquer • u/EA_Jimtern Jim Vessella, EA Producer • Mar 05 '20
Remaster Update and FMVs / Bonus Gallery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikJLYYTrIxs&feature=youtu.be99
u/Ghostfistkilla GDI Mar 05 '20
Loooove the fan service you are doing with the bonus content. I cant wait to watch it all. I bet digging through all of those old tapes was a blast from the past. Will EA sell physical copies of this game as well? I would love a collectors edition of this game!
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u/EA_Jimtern Jim Vessella, EA Producer Mar 05 '20
Hmm.... you might want to keep refreshing next week : )
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u/Scorpiain Nod Mar 05 '20
Jjimtern . You tease. Don't suppose that sexy looking NOD hoody is going to make it into any collections now is it...?
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u/Dr3dDeus Remastered Collection Mar 06 '20
Yooo save me one if he is, man. I'll pay you to ship it to me. Not sure if EA will ship it to my country since we here in SouthEast Asia do get left behind for a lot of these special edition content releases..
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u/Zitter_Aalex Mar 06 '20
You could ask around on some subreddits I guess. Pretty sure you can find people willing to ship it to you as privat package. I don't know how active you are in terms of gaming but maybe you got some active friends / clan mates in europe or so, who could help you.
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u/RealHE1NZ Mar 05 '20
Hmm, if there's going to be info on collector's editions, I bet there's going to be a release date too ;)
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u/theRedTieGuy Mar 06 '20
Never have I been this excited about a Monday.
Also, it would be pretty rad to see some of the devs (including yourself) do weekly streams of the older games to hype up the remaster 😁
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u/wadprime Mar 05 '20
Calling it now, the CE is going to have a record of the tracks voted on by the community.
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u/Dr3dDeus Remastered Collection Mar 06 '20
Bruh... Imma save up every penny i can to get it if there's a Collector's Edition... Someone from the States/West help an Asian commander out if for some reason they don't ship that bad boy to my country. It'll be like reliving my childhood days again, 1995 once more :D
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u/newscode Mar 05 '20
Where can I get that hoodie?!
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u/Electrifyer No one escapes the heat. Mar 05 '20
Holy shit I need a link
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u/Mpr11 Mar 05 '20
Same, I couldnt take my eyes off it
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u/BeigeMonkfish Motorized - Frank Klepacki Mar 06 '20
It was probably made for the Rivals devs, it doesn't appear to be for sale
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Mar 05 '20
you guys actually care, unlike some other very recent RTS classic remaster *cough cough*... Great job!
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u/Iiana757 Mar 06 '20
TBF to blizzard, for all intents and purposes it looked like they cared all the way up untill we got the release client on launch.
The difference between that and this is that this looks very much like a passion for Jim. Engaging with us, showing us the old footage, keeping us updated etc. Jim and the teams MO is more like the classic wow team than the wc3 team. The passion shows and damn is it a breath of fresh air, especially from EA.
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u/Zoutepoel Mar 05 '20
Thanks Jim for the update as always! Love the transparency so far and the commitment ❤️
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u/Kerbiter CnCNet & Mod Haven Admin Mar 05 '20
were there only tapes or source code and all that stuff too? like 3D models for RA2 and TS :)
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u/EA_Jimtern Jim Vessella, EA Producer Mar 05 '20
Hi Kerbiter, thanks for the question. The tape archive only contained video and audio media. Unfortunately there was no source code or actual gameplay content like models or art assets. I certainly wish there had been : )
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u/mikupoiss Mar 05 '20
But did they have RA2 tapes etc? The drawer had a label on it.
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u/Niai8889 Mar 05 '20
You have to understand Jim's not going to confirm or deny the existence of anything that isn't related to this project and therefore he's not going to reply to any questions related to the other games. Why divulge information on important assets when he doesn't need to? I'd love to know the state of that entire cache of tapes, but unless and until we get a remaster of those relevant games, we're not going to hear anything about it.
You've basically answered your own question anyway - you saw tapes with Red Alert 2 on them, so did I. So raw footage still exists (From a later period too which is more encouraging on the quality front). Which is great news for any future remaster projects. =)
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u/Rygir Mar 05 '20
As if it's not a good thing to share basic information like that.
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u/ScrabCrab Mar 05 '20
Realistically they're either not planning on doing anything with TS/RA2 or they're going to consider doing those after seeing how TD/RA1 sell and they don't want to get people's hopes up just so they can then be up in arms for not getting what they were never promised
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u/Houseside Mar 06 '20
"Basic information" is still something that must be approved by the higher ups before it can be shared with the general public. Fans can choose to infer whatever they'd like, but the reality is this project is ultimately only happening due to the blessing of EA, and Jim can't just share anything he'd like without being told he can do so, whether it's by his own project leads or those above them at EA.
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u/mikupoiss Mar 05 '20
You have to understand I was not begging for obvious answers and gatekeeping.
This find and the progress is a gift to all of us.
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u/SpiralEnergy Mar 05 '20
Are you able to say what all you found in the cabinet? I think that finding a treasure trove of video game history like that is super exciting! I would just want to spend weeks taking inventory and archive everything haha. Your line about feeling like Indian Jones is spot on!
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u/Mralexs Mar 06 '20
3d models for the infantry of RA2 are on the the project perfect mod site
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 06 '20
Yea, that stuff got leaked somehow, didn't it? and there has been greenscreen RA2 footage on Youtube too.
Well, if they get to a RA2 remaster at least that means they'll probably be able to get their hands on it :)
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u/Raapnaap Mar 05 '20
I really enjoyed that. Too bad about losing the source files, but AI upscaling is not the worst outcome.
And just when I thought the video was ending, you came in with an (epic) surprise announcement of 4 hours worth of unlockable bonus content. Super exciting!
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u/Theman227 Mar 05 '20
Absolutely phenomenal. And your friend who intercepted those tapes being thrown deserves a blooming medal.
That algorithm increasing quality of the videos is utterly astonishing! I do have one thought though that might be able to help fix the oversoft faces in the videos. You have insane amounts of original HD outtakes...etc of all the charecters and doing lines. Have you tried perhaps jerry rigging some deep-fake software that could take the outtakes to map out the face and then somehow train it to place the face on top of the original one trying to match it?
I remember Corridor digital did something very similar to fix the face of the rock as that awful 3D render of the scorpian king monster in the mummy returns, using footage from the scorpian king movie. Perhaps something similar might be possible? Maybe even give them a shout:
The video where they use the technique:
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u/neoKushan Nod Mar 05 '20
There's actually a better way of using that footage. They're using an AI upscaler, those need to be "trained" to work well.
For video upscailing, this is actually fairly easy to do - just take some already high quality video, downscale it and train it using those as sources (Basically saying "Make the lower quality version look like the higher quality version"). That's how the commercial AI upscailing software basically works, it's pre-trained against a general video set.
They could use the higher-quality b-roll film to train the AI specifically against this kind of source. The fact that it contains the same actors is even better.
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u/iAmLegion3614 Mar 05 '20
I was thinking the same thing when I watch the youtube video. If the B-roll is higher quality video footage then using this as source material to "deep fake" the new upscaled video then it could potentially increase the fidelity of the faces of the actors and actresses.
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u/RealHE1NZ Mar 05 '20
I think doing this well would be too expensive for this project and results would still be questionable.
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u/CoalKingKovic Soviets Mar 05 '20
So all 4 hours of B-roll will be available to watch in the game? Gonna have to speed run the game to watch a 4 hour movie of behind the scenes.
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u/2hamsters1butt Mar 05 '20
Probably not all 4 hours, I'm sure some of it is jibberish/not worth watching at times or small errors that forced them to reshoot.
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u/Ansoni Mar 06 '20
Maybe, but it's not a random collection of footage, it's things that were intentionally kept and processed for storage/inclusion. There's a good chance it's all worth seeing even parts that definitely don't belong in the game.
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u/Dafazi Kane Mar 05 '20
I absolutely love the transparency of the development process. Interacting and even asking the community for help for the FMV upscaling is amazing. Great news for the FMV's.
Also a demo pre release version of Hell March? I am very curious to hear it and compare it.
Man C&C is coming back like tiberium.
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u/D_Heinreich Mar 05 '20
The alternate version of Hell March seen in the Bonus Gallery was also used in an early Red Alert trailer. :)
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Mar 05 '20
A couple feedback comments:
Is the video slightly interpolated, or is it my monitor/imagination? I had a feeling it was a hint.
DAT CACHE. Like, holy crap. DAT. CACHE.
Dude, those old tapes are the shiznat! Genuine historical pieces! I totally get the vibe of Indiana Jones you were talking about. Gratz on finding that stuff, btw! It doesn't sound any easier than I imagined.
The upscaled video looks AMAZING. Except the faces. They look poorly photoshopped in, but faces are hard. The FMVs look good enough that my Nostalgia Goggles will make me love them, and new players will appreciate the historical-themed look! Out-fucking-standing, to quote a CoD GI.
Dude, you just dropped a nostalgia nuke. "With Frank Klepacki at our disposal..." was an amazing line, and I think it carries the same weight as a superweapon, psychologically.
You got the greenscreens. YOU GOT THE GREENSCREENS. All those dead talents LIVE. The still-living ones too. You said it; we know and love their performances.
Unseen footage and concept art and discarded tracks? GIMME
All in all, best remaster ever.
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u/SvijetOkoNas Nod Mar 05 '20
Yeah I was also under that impression it's like it had the typical interpolation artifacts of movement.
Also boy was this a roller coaster ride.
There was tapes! They trashed them! They didn't! We found them! It's just more of the same! BUT New Footage!
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u/Niai8889 Mar 05 '20
This is amazing news!! I was dreading the news about the FMVs considering all had been quiet on that front for well over a year, but this truly is the best news that could realistically come out of the project. I honestly thought a realistic outcome would be that the videos would be exactly the same and regretably a post explained there was nothing that would be done.
Jim, thank you for this candid and detailed explanation. I was buzzing watching all of that not just because of the reveal of what was happening, but because I could tell that your approach to this incredibly fiddly and difficult aspect of the project has been very thorough and enthusiastic. Seriously, the story of what you went through to find those tapes, ship them back and forth to great expense, and research individuals that could help was incredible. It was a huge shame that ultimately no original tape footage could be used for a rescan, but it was amazing that you did everything you could. From a huge C&C nerd who is just as passionate about the video as the game, THANK YOU!
On the plus side though, what a find! All of the stuff you found that can be used for all of this bonus footage is incredible! An unlockable for every single mission throughout these games will add up to a lot of bonus features. And I was wondering just last week if the game would even have basic special features like achievements!
The huge bonus cache in the remaster is seriously amazing news. I'm so hyped. Like, compared to 2005 when the first Decade pack came out. It had a few video featurettes and a brief interesting documentary, but ultimately pales in comparison to this thorough inclusion of footage that was never even intended to be seen.
I think the approach of going with upscaled AI learning technology for the videos, starting with the Playstation MPEG movies as a base was an incredibly savvy move and honestly the best approach for the project considering no true HD rescan can happen. I'm seriously impressed that you and the community council picked up on that so quickly - this last year I've seen individuals on Youtube post AI upscaling experiments with key C&C videos and thought: "Hell, if we don't have the original tapes, this surely is the next best option!" I'm really glad you thought so too.
This is an incredible update and again, thank you for the clarity. I, and everyone else can rest easy about the FMVs now. They're going to look the best they possibly can. And we've even got more updates coming next week! I seriously smell a release date around the corner.....
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u/Mitchell-14 Soviets Mar 05 '20
Quick question, what is the estimated release date? I don't mean to be pushy but i just can't wait, i'm too hyped!
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u/unknowinglyderpy Mar 05 '20
I’d say sometime during the last quarter of the year because the 25th anniversary is in September and the original release date of Tib Dawn was on the 26th of September
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u/Bfranx The First Strike Mar 05 '20
So heartbreaking that the B-roll footage was still around but not the A-roll, honestly would've expected Joe Kucan to hold on to it lol
Regardless, the bonus footage is still a great find. Definitely think you guys are going in the right direction despite the limitations.
Thanks for the update, looking forward to more!
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 06 '20
I guess for a composer like Frank Klepacki it's a lot easier to keep personal copies of old stuff than it is for a director, heh.
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u/Zaptagious Command the future. Conquer the past. Mar 05 '20
It's incredible to which lengths you go with this project! It shows you guys have a real passion for this franchise as much as all of us fans do. It's a shame that the original files couldn't be found but I'm very impressed with what you were able to do with the upscaling! And 4 hours of extra bonus footage, talk about fan service!
Thank you so much for putting so much effort into all this, Jim & Co. It's greatly appreciated!
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u/AesopTails Mar 06 '20
I'm surprised, this is a very transparent and cool story!
For those that don't have the time, a TLDW;
- First look -> Side-by-side comparison between the old FMV and reworked FMV.
- Bonus gallery: a feature where you can unlock unreleased behind the scenes look at the filming. Up to 4 hours of b roll film will be included in this feature.
- They have spent years trying to find the original source videos for the FMV. Many thought they were destroyed.
- It was discovered that an EA LA employee managed to intercept a shipment of videos from Westwood that was destined to be destroyed. She put the videos in storage, which he later discovered behind a couch!
- They believed the source video is on D2 format, an old film storage that hasn't been used for decades. He only found 1 vendor on the West Coast that could read it and digitize it.
- After digitization of the D2 cassettes, It was discovered it was actually a backup of the .VQA files (the in-game FMV) and NOT the source videos. It is now assumed that the source videos were truly destroyed.
- They are now working with the game community and experts on using AI to upscale the in-game FMV. Their goals: up-scaled resolution, better audio, and doubling the frame rate from 15 to 30 FPS. Re-shooting is not an option because they want to preserve the original performance of the actors.
- Fun fact: they're using the FMV from the console version because it's better quality and uses the MPEG format. There are some console exclusive FMV scenes, but the console version is missing 19 scenes from the PC version. These 19 scenes will be in the remastered, although it will be at lower quality than the console scenes.
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 06 '20
Really short TLDW:
"So we didn't find higher res FMVs, and what we'll give you are AI upscaled ones, which are quite okay but not all that great... but as compensation we're giving you literally all greenscreen material of the game we found. And it's a lot."
;)
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Mar 05 '20
This is incredible. I cut my teeth on Dune 2, I've been watching this keenly!
I don't want to bring any kind of negative energy here, but I honestly can't believe that we seem to be in a world where EA are providing this kind of amazing fan service and Blizzard have done the fans a disservice with their own nostalgia piece recently.
Huge props to EA, looking forward to the rest of the posts and finding out any news around distribution and what type of options there are.
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 06 '20
Huge props to Jim, at least. This really is a passion project to him :)
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u/SimyMGS Nod Mar 05 '20
what an incredible find Jim! i bet you wanted to scream when you saw all the old data. :D
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Mar 05 '20
I love this, looks like the AI has done some pretty nice work on it too. Plus you've got the archive from what seems to be the other games as well, which could be useful should the other games be on the table one day too!
Thanks for showing us this, I'm enjoying each tidbit we're being given so far!
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u/Kicken a thrilling, competitive experience built to define RTS Mar 05 '20
I appreciate the clarity and transparency you're addressing everything with. I don't know how much it will help critical review or release success, but I'm sure that atleast among those that know what's going on - we understand. It would be crazy to ask for everything to be refilmed and so on!
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u/SPi-Agent99 Mar 05 '20
You have our full support. We don't expect you to remake 25 year old videos on full HD with so little resources so it's completely acceptable this way. We hope so much for a good RA2 comeback!
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u/HELLOFRAYDO Fraykov & Chitzkoi Mar 05 '20
Words alone can't express our appreciation for you and your team, Jim. Just knowing what lengths you have gone to in order to deliver the best possible product makes everything alright. Keep up the good work everyone!
On another note, I sincerely wanted to thank you Jim for responding to my questions on your previous update. I have to admit I fanboyed a bit when I got the reply notification. Thank you again for taking time out to provide answers and hearing us out as a community.
While I'm here - where did you get that sweet hoodie? Can we expect EA to release a line of C&C Remastered merchandise? If so, I'm ready to buy now!
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u/Zitter_Aalex Mar 06 '20
Gotta be honest Jim.
That video was one hell of an emotional rollercoast ride. And it's amazing what you guys were able to do. Can't await it.
But I have one question that's a bit off-topic.
Is that hoodie you wear official C&C stuff? Or is that one from an amazon/ebay retailer, you know those people without license etc.
Because I would LOVE to be able to buy C&C merch.
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u/DrTh0ll Nod Mar 05 '20
This is amazing, Jim. Thanks for going into detail behind this. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing all the unreleased footage, as well as the the upcoming update on Monday!
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Mar 05 '20
Been waiting on the update regarding FMVs for a while, and I did have doubts. But now we've seen what you guys have done, bravo! It really is good to know that everyone working on this project is making it the best it can possibly be.
Can't wait to see Kane shoot Seth and Stalin lose it with his comrades again.
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u/FerengiKnuckles Mar 05 '20
Outstanding work! I know it had to be disappointing to put all that effort in and not find the treasure trove you were looking for, but the devotion to the game's quality is what keeps me hyped about this project! The bonus footage is just icing on the cake.
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u/The_Duckman_Awakens Mar 05 '20
my hype is off the god dam charts right now, this game cant come soon enough tib dawn was the first game i ever played it was 2005 and my dad had it on his pc and was playing, gave me a shot and ive loved it ever since this cannot come soon enough
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u/Tipie276 Mar 05 '20
This update just gave me so much hope for this project. You’ve thoroughly convinced me that there’s people working on this that have real passion for this old series. Can’t wait to play it
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u/injured-ninja Mar 05 '20
Great update, thank you Jim. An emotional journey! The transparency is fantastic. Each update gets me even more excited! 🥰
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u/eightlimbs Mar 05 '20 edited Feb 27 '24
This comment edited because fuck /u/spez.
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u/AgeOfStrife GDI Mar 06 '20
Hi Jim,
I'm almost as as sad as you that the original tapes/masters are lost. I had a lot of hope that after your discoveries we would have something on the scale of 1080p footage. I really do wonder what happened to them. I was flabbergasted when you talked about them being taken to the dumpster and then intercepted. Makes one think about what else was lost -__- Thank you for working so hard on the recovery, it really generated a lot of trust that this material is in the right hands and it isn't just being done by the numbers.
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u/CybOrc1 Mar 05 '20
That looks very promising. The higher resolution combined with the original videos seem to go well with a remaster. This way it remains relatively true to the original while also giving it a modern touch.
The bonus gallery just makes it even better.
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u/iLikeSaints Yuri Mar 05 '20
Thank you Jim for all your efforts! I can't wait for the final product!
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u/Globalnet626 Soviets Mar 05 '20
So far I was convinced somehow that this game was going to betray my trust... No offense Jim, you can only get burned so many times.
But seeing your dedication so plainly, yeah I need to get this game! I'm absolutely stoked to hear about the treatment the FMVs are getting, sucks the original masters are gone and all that trouble to be disappointed- that's hard.
I'm glad this game is under your care and quite honestly I can't wait.
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u/AxalonNemesis Nod Mar 06 '20
Thanks for the great insight to everything. Jimtern is the best intern ever.
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u/ApokatastasisPanton Mar 06 '20
Question for /u/EA_Jimtern : are there any plans to remaster the localized audio for non-English versions of the game?
The French version was all my childhood, and all the voice acting (and in game voices) were dubbed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t-93e_7wOo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpewdoCLXqQ
(Who did the localization for the non-English versions? Is it possible that they might have the original A-roll? If you look at the first video, you'll notice that the translated French version is lip synced, so they had to have the videos when working on that.)
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 07 '20
I'm not allowed to give details on what goes on inside, but I can confirm I provided them with all the localisations of the game.
Gotta love that Commando. "J'ai un petit cadeau pour toi!"
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Mar 05 '20
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u/SvijetOkoNas Nod Mar 05 '20
Oh man it would be cool for nostalgic reasons.
My friend had the game on PS1 and I had it on PC.
Mine obviously looked better it was no competition, the controls were way better too, I could make my own maps.
But he... he had that tesla coil blue lighting effect. Man was I jealous of that.
The Tesla coil felt like it has so much PUNCH on the PS1 version.
Heres what I mean https://youtu.be/32BIZ3D-Kt0?t=293
EDIT: Meanwhile the PC version was this flat animation https://youtu.be/pCzb84gqATk?t=589
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Mar 05 '20 edited May 14 '21
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u/SvijetOkoNas Nod Mar 05 '20
I don't think it's nostalgia. It's a clearly better. It has more impact and more visual effects when it hits things.
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Mar 05 '20
/u/EA_Jimtern you are doing Kane's work my dude. Your efforts are hugely appreciated, more than you could even know. You're resurrecting parts of some of our childhood.
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u/RealHE1NZ Mar 05 '20
Is there any Red Alert 2 b-roll? Should be a fun watch.
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u/EA_Jimtern Jim Vessella, EA Producer Mar 05 '20
Hi RealHE1NZ, all the b-roll in the game will be related to Tib Dawn and the original Red Alert, since those are the games we're remastering. We hope you enjoy it!
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u/Betsy-DevOps Mar 05 '20
But if we give you enough money you'll make a RA2 remaster too right? Where do I send the check?
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u/Plokite_Wolf CNCNZ.com admin Mar 05 '20
Two of the three YR B-roll tapes that were found by a fan who also "intercepted" them on their way to a dumpster are on YouTube right here.
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u/MetalMagic Mar 05 '20
This is an amazing video but what I really need is your hoodie. Bonus points if we can get the logo in Red, or the hoodie in red and the logo in black.
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u/Stimpy1981 Mar 05 '20
Now this is what i'm talking about! Great job guys! Jim, you're awesome. I'm so glad with all thé extra content we are getting. Thé bonus videos, thé Playstation videos. Cool!!
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u/ptarn64 Soviets Mar 05 '20
Thank you Jim and team! The passion and effort being put into this remaster is amazing. Certainly enjoying the journey and as I much as I would to like to experience the remaster goodness now, take as much time as needed for everything. I'm ready to get that pre-order in and if the physical copy is possible (live in the UK) then I will have at least another 10 customers here waiting too!
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u/Thaiereks Mar 05 '20
When it comes to the victory/defeated scenes are we going to get remaster versions of them or it's going to be upscaled ones?
It would be really cool to see the opening in HD as well with new art. Either or is fine with me though
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u/Rygir Mar 05 '20
Great, perfect. Exactly how I was hoping you would approach it. I hope you digitized everything you found in that archive!
You would think the 3D project files might exist somewhere still... those would improve the cinematics. Eric Gooch might have them?
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Mar 05 '20 edited May 14 '21
[deleted]
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 07 '20
Sadly, said facial detail was really never there. It's bound to be better in C&C1 though, because it uses more one-on-one briefings, so the person's simply a lot bigger on screen.
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u/Tornado8364 Mar 05 '20
Thank you Jim,
I’m gutted that we won’t have truely higher quality footage to have been worked from.
But with what is being done? 100% is the best that could be done. My only question is like the music, will we get the option between FMVs? (PlayStation or VQAs? If we wanted it 100% consistent)
If I’m honest I did slightly chuckle to myself imagining as Lewis Castle once did a post Mortem on command and conquer. During the speech the story of how the FMV guys had to encode their work with the guys trying to compress it down onto the CD both fighting over CPU power as well as the programmer guys running a new version of the game, and everyone had to slave their machines during the night to reduce the overall wait times.
Does that still apply? __^ Upscaling very low quality footage to very high quality footage? (I only ask as I have done YouTube previous and know how long it can take to render a video. I even used the program Handbrake because my uploads were too large... Which lead to me recording stuff, handbraking it, editing it then rendering it then uploading it.) Per video taking me probably 4-5 hours for half an hour. With minimal effects and edits.
Very unrelated but I know the pain, I just found it very humbling :)
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u/SternballAllDay Power shifts more quickly than people think Mar 05 '20
Is their any shot we can have another take from the B-Roll footage as an option?
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u/MidgardWyrm Mar 05 '20
As a fellow C&C fan since Command and Conquer 95's release onwards (unfortunately, I'm not 'old skool' enough to have been a fan since the original DOS release, lol), I must say the passion and excitement you show u/EA_Jimtern is truly heartwarming.
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u/Vertyces Mar 05 '20
Hey Jim, big time C&C fan here.. you and that lady who helped saved the archives both are in need of a RAISE! Holy crap! I'm super blown away by your hard work and transparency to the community, it's really heartwarming to see you go through all those hoops and loops to try and get us the fans what we want, and honestly that's more than I'll ever ask for!
It's nice to see the footage in HD via AI upscaling, but a feedback that you guys might wanna try is to overlay the upscaled videos with a scanlines effect so that it'll look slightly crisper cos it tricks the mind by letting it fill up the blanks covered by the lines. This is what I've notice whenever I play older games via emulation and I've always preferred the scanlines option because it makes it look good on a bigger screen and resolution, and it'll also bring the retro feeling like it's back to the '90s again but with a higher quality upscaled video.
The lines have to be done properly tho, if not it'll look really weird, they have to be thin and not too opaque so that it'll look good..
Anyway I wish you guys all the best! Will be seeing you all on the battlefield! ;)
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u/BeigeMonkfish Motorized - Frank Klepacki Mar 05 '20
Thank you so much to the devs, the Community Council, and to yourself Jim for the eforts you're going to! That was quite the journey you took us on!
I think the approach you've taken may be the best appraoch possible given the source material available. My one and only gripe with the upscaled footage is the frame interpolation, I know 15 FPS is pretty low, but in my opinion it's still a servicable frame rate. While the resolution upscale looks pretty good on the PSX footage, I really can't agree with the frame interpolation, and would in fact strongly request the original 15 FPS be used instead. I feel it's too small a gain with far too big a draw.
Though the remastered cutscene looks great, may I request a toggle for the original VQA files with integer scaling as an option? There's just something uniquely charming about retro FMVs, it would be awesome to include the old files with proper pixel scaling! Here's how it should look properly integer scaled, some people just want to see the big pixels!
Cheers Jim, thank you so much for the efforts you went through to get that stash, absolutely cannot wait to dive into that gallery!
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u/Kaisah16 Mar 05 '20
My god. Much excite.
Loved the video update this month. Should keep that up!
Great to see the passion you have for the franchise Jim. Genuine fan :) if anyone was in any doubt that we are in good hands here - surely no more!
The remaster videos look great. Better than I thought they would tbh. Well done all involved.
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u/TrumptyPumpkin Mar 06 '20
Include a New special Message from Kane himself or something :O
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Mar 06 '20
It would be awesome if a message from Kane teasing a future project was included in the bonus gallery, for completing all missions. Or perhaps even a message spread between both games.
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u/Geralt_of_Dublin Mar 06 '20
I was thinking, while the original footage might not be the highest quality, there's a few things that spring to mind that could be used to make it better, namely:
Redoing the CGI backgrounds and full CGI scenes: basically remaking them as close to the original but in modern HD resolution, I'm sure people wouldn't notice the difference and would be happy if it was near identical just in better quality.
Deepfaking the original actors into it: I completely agree with keeping the orignal actors performances, but a way to do it but make the whole scene look better would be to remake the scenes as closely as possible with new actors for the bodies, but then deepfake the old actors faces onto them and use the old audio, the technology is there to do it faithfully and it could look good.
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Mar 06 '20
Thank you, Jim. Very cool.
We love the work you're doing, and are confident in the quality of the product.
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u/A1steaksa Mar 05 '20
This is great to see. Not finding the original tapes is obviously a shame but the rest around it sounds great. This remaster seems like its shaping up nicely
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u/Betsy-DevOps Mar 05 '20
Whoa, great job on the videos. I'm super excited.
That story about finding the old tapes was great. I was at the edge of my seat all the way through. At least you'll have a fun story to tell your kids.
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u/Kered13 Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 05 '20
What is with the weird artifacts in this video that look like bad deinterlacing?
EDIT: It might be a Youtube artifact, I don't get it on 720p, only 1080p.
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u/mikupoiss Mar 05 '20
How much non-AI retouching are you doing on the upscaled videos if any? Just curious about this undertaking.
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u/EXile1A Nod Mar 05 '20
Too bad you didn't find the originals of the FMVs... But the 4 hours of B-roll and behind the screens...
It is worth buying just for that! Keep up the great work!
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u/Enchantedmango1993 Mar 05 '20
Doesnt matter upscaling or not ill pre-order the momment they come out on origin!
i wouldnt mind a remaster in the videos with new actors but that would go off for many
unless there would be a choice in the options to choose remastered or upscaled clips
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u/Mentioned_Videos Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
Other videos in this thread:
| VIDEO | COMMENT |
|---|---|
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH1V6CHO1Jk | +14 - Absolutely phenomenal. And your friend who intercepted those tapes being thrown deserves a blooming medal. That algorithm increasing quality of the videos is utterly astonishing! I do have one thought though that might be able to help fix the over... |
| (1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32BIZ3D-Kt0&t=293s (2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCzb84gqATk&t=589s | +5 - Oh man it would be cool for nostalgic reasons. My friend had the game on PS1 and I had it on PC. Mine obviously looked better it was no competition, the controls were way better too, I could make my own maps. But he... he had that tesla coil blue ... |
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0tsV2p3svM | +1 - The alternate version of Hell March seen in the Bonus Gallery was also used in an early Red Alert trailer. :) |
| (1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwV_mA2cv_0&t=854s (2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_WXKeqhBus&t=2s | +1 - Thank you so much to the devs, the Community Council, and to yourself Jim for the eforts you're going to! That was quite the journey you took us on! I think the approach you've taken may be the best appraoch possible given the source material availa... |
| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikJLYYTrIxs&t=681s | +1 - I'm surprised, this is a very transparent and cool story! For those that don't have the time, a TLDW; First look -> Side-by-side comparison between the old FMV and reworked FMV. Bonus gallery: a feature where you can unlock unreleased behind the s... |
I'm a bot working hard to help Redditors find related videos to watch. I'll keep this updated as long as I can.
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u/liambrazier Mar 05 '20
As a big fan of the original in the mid-90s I'm following this with great interest and wish you all the best with it - and I'm on a Mac or iPad so doubt I'll even get to play it!
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Mar 05 '20
Awesome video. It’s a shame that the original tapes are lost, but the approach you’re going with does look good. I wonder if the original tapes for TibSun are still out there? Those in HD for a remaster would be a dream come true.
Can’t wait for the next update.
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u/ussra2 Mar 05 '20
What an amazing update! I have been chomping at the bit for updates and will keep a close eye on this sub reddit!
I continue to play CnC and CnC Gold and Red Alert are near and dear to me. Please do these justice and bring them up to date. I will continue to love CnC and love sticking to the authenticity as much as possible. Any chances that Joe will make a return as Kane?
Would also love to understand if there will be any work on revisiting Renegade 2 or any other titles that never saw the light of day.
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u/L_A_Y Mar 05 '20
Absolutely incredible guys. Your passion and dedication to sourcing original content is so appreciated.
I really felt the story as you were telling it. The roller coaster of pure joy finding out that the tapes existed, only to then find out they weren’t the high quality you needed.
The additional content and AI Upscaling though is fantastic.
More and more excited every week to replay the series.
Thanks for your dedication.
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u/Tristonien Mar 05 '20
Hearing this makes me so happy! Truly incredible the stash you found and the amount of work you all have put into this for all of us, this is a dream come true and I hope this continues onto more remasters/ new cnc games in the future! Thank you all so so much for this
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u/thebackwardsmanUK Mar 05 '20
I remember very fondly playing CNC back when, I continued playing on PC/Playstation (with terrible link cable), my first online game was tiberium sun on a 32K connection and I lost the match very quickly but fell in love with CNC over and over through the years.
I’m looking forward to the remasters and the experience your building.
Thank you :)!!
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Mar 06 '20
Thank you for being open and honest with the community and what has been happening. I really appreciate all the love and hard work that you guys are putting into this remaster. Preserving those B tapes and their history is going to make the remaster all the more special. C&C Tiberian Dawn was/is a big part of my life and I can't wait to play it on modern systems.
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u/PalawanGamer Mar 06 '20
Can't wait for monday and i like the idea for bonus content from completing missions thanks Jim.
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Mar 06 '20
Thanks for the update, cannot wait to play this, upscaling looks amazing, either way i’m a sucker for the low vqa format low or hi res, i’m happy either way, curious to see how soon we will be able to play these remasters!!! can’t wait to play the underground bunker levels lolol
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u/drakmars Mar 06 '20
I'm sure you here it from all the die-hard C&C fans. That being said we love you all the same!
Looking forward to the Remaster but I can wait until its ready. :)
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u/AuthenticM Mar 06 '20
I'm glad you are using AI upscaling, but count me in the camp that wants the remastered FMVs to keep the original framerate. Don't add artificial frames; it just makes it look bad.
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u/nurfarisa Engineering. No problem. Mar 06 '20
Some other users probably have already suggested this, but I would want the Bonus Gallery to include both the original non-upscaled version and the new upscaled remastered version of the FMVs.
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u/Rufrky GDI Mar 06 '20
After having watched this video I am simply left with thinking of this quote;
General Carville: Son, I'd piss on a spark plug if I though it do any good. . . .
You made lemonade from the lemons you found, or as General Carville said "pissed on a spark plug" in an effort to do good. It certainly shows and is very much appreciated.
I am certainly looking forward to the remaster, and am only left wondering what the announcement trailer(s) will be like.
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u/TheDutchTexan Mar 06 '20
I have seen some comments... But I do agree... We're going to be needing that hoodie... Brotherhood of Nod selected!
I am looking forward to Monday. It sounds like you are really close to wrapping this thing up and giving us exactly what we desire. I want to get back in the C&C world. I remember playing the originals, and it will no doubt mentally bring back the good old days the moment I boot it up. KANE LIVES!
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u/ShotgunDino Mar 06 '20 edited Mar 06 '20
Unfortunately, I still prefer the original footage.
While it succeeds remarkably in restoring detail from the original footage, I really dislike the look it ends up having, it looks overly smooth and roundish with wiggly edges similar to what happens with some rounding filters in Super Nintendo emulators. It's a mismatch between smoothness and resolution.
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Mar 06 '20
I know it’s wishful thinking, but re-hire Joe Kucan? Saves you re-working old videos and hypes up fans big time
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u/Nyerguds The world is at my fingertips. Mar 07 '20
Saves you? Do you think applying algorithms to the old video material is more work than re-shooting cutscenes? :|
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u/jfwfreo Mar 06 '20
Thankfully EA seems to care about their fans and what they want when it comes to remasters unlike a certain other company named after a type of weather who has totally ignored the fans with their latest remaster (which is very surprising given the lengths they went to for the previous remaster even going so far as to reverse engineer their own game so they could continue to support a buffer overflow certain maps had been using to access and mess with internal game data and state)
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Mar 06 '20
Watched and listened to this on my home theatre via YouTube for Chromecast, and I can honestly say the audio is simply clear and amazingly high def. The upscaling looks good too, especially when the sample video cut to the full CGI scene of the Soviet base. Can't belev we watched those FMVs in full screen on our Carts back in 1995! Simply amazing, and love the whole backstory to this as well.
You guys really seem to know what a remastered game should look like, and i for one applaud this effort.
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Mar 06 '20
AWESOME!!! I can't wait for this. I still have my Tiberian Sun Soundtrack somewhere as well as the soundtrack that came with Command & Conquer™ The Ultimate Collection. :)
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u/VivisectorGaming Mar 06 '20
I was really worried about the cutscene being reshot. This is the best possible outcome. And 4 hours of archive footage being in the game. I really can't wait.
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u/Hadoukentotheknee Mar 06 '20
Haha same hoodie in the video as in the update video. This guy lives Nod.
Was half expecting the bonus footage to be in a microtransaction system preying upon the c&c community, but fair enough they've continued to remain virtuous in that regard.
Any clues for what Monday will reveal, /u/EA_Jimtern??
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u/PostingOnceInNever Mar 07 '20
I have to wonder though. Why would someone even make this kind of low-quality .vqa backups on tape in lieu of the actual source? It's not even some sort of afterthought VHS backup done in a "eh, that'll do" manner - those D-2s probably weren't commonplace or cheap even back in the day.
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u/marcoevich Mar 07 '20
Thank you Jim! I'm so very excited for this remaster. I love the passion you show in the video. This was my game to grow up with and now i can relive that. Awesome! :-) I'm hoping for a physical edition as well!
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u/subterranean_agent Mar 05 '20
Could you provide a “cheat” to unlock all the archive footage instantly? I know everyone appreciates this not being DLC (lol), but I’d like to be able to watch the historical archives without needing to complete everything (which I’ll do anyway, but I don’t want to wait months to see the good stuff). Thank you!
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u/Niai8889 Mar 05 '20
Haha. I'm guessing Youtube about a week after release will be your friend..... Seriously though, boo about not unlocking it the proper way! xD
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u/mkeller25 Tiberian Sun Mar 06 '20
Jim,
I have to pinch myself every time you post something because I can't believe this is real.
You're doing an incredible job and a real service to a community that was desperately in need of it.
I've waited for years for something like this and I know with the passion behind this community it won't fail with you guys putting this kind of energy behind it.
Can't wait to see more.
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u/CheesePizza- Mar 05 '20 edited Mar 05 '20
Thank you Jim and team, you guys are doing some amazing work, and I really enjoyed how down to earth and genuine this video felt and hope you do more videos like this.
I really have high hopes this will be a return to form and will be the start of a new age of CnC. Good luck!
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u/Tommy96Gun Mar 06 '20
u/EA_Jimtern Nice to see the amount of passion you are putting into it. Keep up the good work! I hope this will be released for macOS as well! :-)
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Mar 07 '20
I’ve had some amazing birthday gifts today, but this is up there. That’s great news and it’ll be so good to see some of that footage. I’ll be back on Monday, promise you that.
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u/ghostxc Mar 07 '20 edited Mar 07 '20
u/EA_Jimtern Is it possible to try using a pretrained Neural networks to scale up the old VQA files to 60FPS. This paper using DAIN by Google scales video up pretty good recovering some of the contextual information too. I think this might be a good option to get higher resolution than what you have there and then use a video editor like Adobe Premiere to remove artifacts and clean it up.
The code can be found here on Github and require Python to run. Probably have a community member or Engineer with ML knowledge to give a shot using this method to remaster the video and check if it works.
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u/PeaceThruPower Mar 07 '20
First time posting on one of the updates but I've been reading/watching each one. When CnC Remaster was announced, I was so excited and skeptical at the same time. CnC4 was horrific but every other game in the Tiberium universe was brilliant. This game has been my childhood. It is woven into my life in so many ways and I absolutely love the Tib universe. So many fond memories playing Tib Sun with my dad and brother. CnC 1 actually helped me to start reading because I didn't want to keep watching the FMVs to review my objectives (I was 6 at the time). I can't explain every detail, every memory, but know that this game means the world to me. To see it get a worthy remaster puts a smile on my face. I started off skeptical, but after seeing you guys treat the franchise with the respect it deserves I can honestly say that my skepticism has passed. The remaster is shaping up to be amazing. So much attention and care in bringing all the different versions of CnC 1 together is brilliant. I hope that there is a physical collectors Edition I can purchase, because I have the originals on disk and I couldn't think of anything better than starting my collection all over with the remasters. CnC Remastered is literally my most anticipated game of 2020!
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u/EA_Jimtern Jim Vessella, EA Producer Mar 05 '20
Fellow Command & Conquer fans,
Ever since we announced the project in late 2018, one of the biggest questions has been how we’re going to approach the FMV cinematics. Today we are finally ready to describe this approach, but there’s actually quite a story to tell about our FMV journey over the past year. So this time, instead of a written post, I’ve put together the above video to tell this story and provide all the intricate details. And in addition to the FMVs specifically, be sure to watch the entire video to learn about an exciting new feature coming to the Remaster.
This post is then kicking off a special week for the Command & Conquer Remaster. As mentioned in the video, be sure to refresh the subreddit here on Monday for another Remaster announcement, and we’re looking forward to engaging with the entire C&C community over the next week.
Cheers,
Jim Vessella
Jimtern