/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6167103
Sweet. I love this guy’s work, and I’m really happy he went through the hours of trouble that he did to restore all of these tracks to studio quality, I really am. I just hope he revisits a couple of the DKC2 tracks that he somewhat botched, like “Funky the Main Monkey” and “Disco Train”. Both have missing parts and volume issues, IIRC.

>>6167103
restored to what? all I hear is static pops in the audio on that shit upload

>>6167134
>shit upload
Yeah Anon, the problem is definitely with the video that has 4K+ views and 700 upvotes and totally not with your speakers. Dumbass.

>>6167131
Did you try the downloaded versions or the youtube ones? The tracks tend to get updated in the downloads when tweaks are made, and the videos just don't get updated.

>>6167103
cant believe I didnt know about this

How far along is the project for DKC2 and DKC3? Can't believe no one made a MSU-1 version yet.

>>6167461
>Can't believe no one made a MSU-1 version yet.
For real, seems like a no-brainer.

>>6167103
If only Nintendo/RARE would remaster this game by rendering the source assets in 1080/4K. It makes me sad how we haven't seen ONE FUCKING prerendered retro game (like this series, FF7, or Resident Evil) rereleased this way because they probably didn't keep the shit they rendered it with.

>>6167490
It absolutely would not look any good fully rendered in such a style. It would reveal all the imperfections of the models. Prerendered 3D models can look fantastic because the final result can hide imperfections of 3D and be easil touched up by hand.

>>6167461
DKC2 has a decent chunk done, Mining Melancholy was the biggest struggle since precise sounds for the pick axe and other instruments coudn't be found. DKC3 less so and only has a few. DKC1 is complete though, so whenever someone with experience wants to they could easily make a MSU-1 version.

>>6167543
Look at OP's pic. I think it wouldn't be half bad at all.

>>6167103
Some of these actually sound worse uncompressed.

Maybe is just me, but the ones like Stickerbrush Shymphony were composed with teh filters in mind.

>>6167165
Ah, I knew never that. Guess I'll have to download them all now. Thanks!

>>6167103
Damn, he nailed it. MSU-1 hack using these versions of the songs when? Shit, add in a widescreen and call it DKC2 Remastered.

>>6167543
>It absolutely would not look any good fully rendered in such a style. It would reveal all the imperfections of the models.

>>6167103 (OP)
Damn, he nailed it. MSU-1 hack using these versions of the songs when? Throw in a widescreen and call it DKC2 Remastered.

>>6167543
>It absolutely would not look any good fully rendered in such a style. It would reveal all the imperfections of the models.
What imperfections? It's like you haven't seen DKC art before. Look at the OP. Even if there were any serious imperfections in the character models, obviously those could be easily fixed now.

>>6167461
>Can't believe no one made a MSU-1 version yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0

>>6167585
Try the download link version if you don't like the youtube version because of what >>6167165 said

The the deep bass of the new tracks alone makes them 10/10 for me. And instruments in a few songs that turned to garbage under compression sound recognizable now.

Also the dynamic range is good too. When it fades off into silence smoothly it feels great

>>6167680
>Throw in a widescreen and call it DKC2 Remastered.
BSNES HD can do that now at least, albeit games are gonna need compatibility patches to work properly, and most of these games were designed with items and enemies appearing as soon as the screen loads them in from the edge, so that would require a lot of reworking to balance it all out.

>>6167720
You know if there are any DKC level editors? Give me a month to reposition all the enemies and I could get it done.

>>6167103
DKC2 Disco Train sounds a bit off, feels like it works better as a low-fi song.

>>6167726
best i could find with a quick google search
http://www.dkc-atlas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=1532
loading up the game in 16:9 mode, it seems it has some sorta weird level streaming setup that really doesn't cooperate, so that would probably require reworking too

>>6167738
>feels like it works better as a low-fi song.
That makes sense, it being a disco-inspired song and all. The two things that pop out to me when I listen to this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqixz3Qk51M
are A) he used the wrong scream sound effect. I mean the screams really sound nothing like that in the SNES version. And B), the bass is way, WAY too low! It's disco baby, gotta turn the funk up.

>>6167745
The bassline and bass drum need a bit of distortion/bitcrushing.

>>6167738
Funky The Main Monkey sounds way off as well.

>>6167745
Sound like the scream pitch is a little lower in the download version but its still a note off

It's never going to be perfect. Sometimes he can't get the same sample or figure out exactly what was done to reproduce an effect.

>>6167759
Yep. It's missing a guitar part at 0:45, and the 'woo' sample is much louder in the original.

Original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTkFXv-VTc

Restoration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbiUDWtR7Mo

>>6167763
There’s also dealing with the minds ear impacting how it sounds

>>6167134
Check your DPC latency during playback. If you're getting spikes, pinpoint the driver responsible and have fun going down that rabbit hole.

>>6167461
A complete version of DKC MSU-1 with the restored music exists: https://www.mediafire.com/file/mx1v6bqotzedbea/DKC1_Restoration_MSU-1_Final.7z/file

Still would love updated 3D assets but from what I;ve heard, they're all lost

>>6168194
Well, hard drive space is a premium especially back then. Nobody thought "oh yeah decades later we can sell this again". They thought "oh shit we gotta use these computers to make ANOTHER game."

>>6168185
tutorial?

When comes vinyl version?

>>6168194
You could probably ai upscale it to 480p. The results wouldn't be perfect but throw a good CRT filter on it and it would probably look great

>>6168291
Yea how do you play this

>>6168396
If fucking only

>>6168291
>>6168681
Download the MSU-1 pack
Get the patch here and apply it to the game http://www.zeldix.net/t1484-donkey-kong-country-1#21731
Rename the rom to dkc_msu.sfc and all the "track-X.pcm" to "dkc_msu-X.pcm"
Load the rom in a SNES emulator that can play MSU-1 and enjoy

>>6169494
msu-1 playback in emulators always sounds fucked

things I notice right away:
>incorrect aspect ratio
>scanlines on a highly compressed youtube video
fuck me

>>6167461
>>6169494
https://www.mediafire.com/file/sr2hr6lpn4c64qt/DKC1_msu1.7z/file
Keep everything in the same folder, and just load dkc_msu.sfc on the latest version of bsnes/higan or snes9x. Tried it on the snes9x core in retroarch and it worked just fine.

>>6169494
it's glorious
>>6169662
>Tried it on the snes9x core in retroarch and it worked just fine.
can confirm. however snes9x on its own didn't work for me.

>>6169673
>however snes9x on its own didn't work for me.
Stable build looks a bit old, might need a dev build
https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/er0remvlbyf0o44s/artifacts/snes9x-1.60-191-g0a89725-win32-x64.zip

>>6169494
>>6169662
Thanks guys

Works for me, but was jungle groove originally this quiet?

>>6169840
Are you sure everything is set up properly?

>>6167103
>restored
but it was never diminished. There was no orchestra being used to write music, all of it was written in a tracker after preliminary notation software.
>>6167131
>studio quality
it was never recorded in or meant to be heard in a studio quality, the originals are its highest format. Anything else is a remix.

>>6170616
Anon they absolutely were diminished. They were made with samples and instruments that were compressed to fit on the SNES. These are the uncompressed samples.

>>6170872
Except most of them aren't even the original samples or at the very least at the same pitch as the original tracks.

>>6170942
Yes they are, dude contacted David Wise and got the same equipment he had. If you look in the video description he lists the synths used.

>>6170872
>>6170962
dumb as bricks

>>6171241
For posting facts? Try actually looking things up instead of pulling shit out of your ass. Fucking idiot.

i like the PPF version to be honest famalams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0No1WPXWEis

>>6170559
What needs to be set up? Running with bsnes

>>6170616
I don't know guys, I think this poster might not be an anime girl

>>6171241
Dumb Anime Girl poster

>>6171249
>what for my fucking facts i posted?!
nice facts you posted lol.
the game was never recorded in or produced in an orchestra, it was written in a tracker after preliminary notation software.

>>6170962
These posts already proved that Sam's uploads aren't as accurate as you claim they are.
>>6167738
>>6167745
>>6167759
>>6167763
>>6167764
Besides, I can't find anything that verifies your claim that he "got the same equipment he had", at best he used a few softsynth sounds that kinda could've been what Wise used and I've listened to everything he uploaded thusfar. So much for your bullshit being 'facts'.

I don't really give a shit about this, but I'm happy you guys are happy.

>>6167461
What about DKC3 GBA

>>6169532
Those aren't proper scanlines with subpixel emulation or variable beam width, so compressing them isn't going to hurt the image. Looks like the typical partially transparent black lines every other pixel with bilinear filtering.

What about this, which is over a year old?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6257KUeIA

>>6174521
It's not hard to get the same kind of roland synths game developers were using in the 90s anon.

>>6168194

A long time goal of mine has been upscaling DKC2's assets via ESRGAN.

The problem is that squeezing all those assets into an SNES cartridge destroyed so much of the fine detail that it doesn't have anything to work with. Like a JPEG at 20% quality. The inherent blurriness of a consumer CRT does a lot to mask it.

>>6174820

Levels that are relatively low-frequency in terms of detail actually look decent, especially if you train a separate ESRGAN model to deband images and run them through that beforehand (pic related). Others, like the ship and swamp levels, turn into a lookinggood.jpg tier mess.

ESRGAN won't be the SotA for AI upscaling forever, maybe a future tool will be able to make the DKC trilogy convincingly HD.

oh boy, its the 'I personally know David Wise and sucked his dick to know what key forest interlude was in, legit.' the thread.

next.

>>6174831
That's a very oddly specific thread Anon

>>6174831
I heard he didn't even ask you to suck it

>>6167103
Im fucking wet bro this is so good

>>6174692
Some arrangements exist, but nobody's bothered to put in the effort of doing a restoration to the entire GBA soundtrack. This Stilt Village cover's pretty good at least https://youtu.be/BvfXPgFWtTw

>>6174692
The songs haven’t been converted to MIDI yet afaik, and people don’t really know what instruments were used for them

So sadly no

>>6175396
>Im fucking wet
L O N D O N
O
N
D
O
N

Pokey Pipes is the next one

>>6167543
>>6167490
I agree about DKC not needing hd. Resident Evil or FF7 backgrounds redone in high def would be dank though. Those neural network upscales looked alright

>>6177713
RE1 is really fucking bad in some places.

>>6178005
God damn, is that real? That looks awful.

>>6174692
I'm legit mad at how bad the GBA's sound quality was. Headphones exist and you should put something other than farts on the circuit board

>>6180385
>how bad the GBA's sound quality was
It wasn't; just turns out most video game composers are not as competent as Junichi Masuda

Wait are these just some guy messing around in FL studio until he finds sounds that are "close enough"? I checked out some of his videos and that seems to be what he's doing. That's not a restoration in my opinion, he's recreating the tracks from scratch. Also as some others have mentioned, it sometimes takes the soul out of the tracks, I'm sure the composers were aware that they would have to be compressed and took that into account while writing the music.

>>6180415
>FL studio until he finds sounds that are "close enough"?
No, these are the actual instruments that were used to create the originals in the first place. From the exact same synths. That's why it takes forever for some to be recreated, and some aren't even possible yet, because their instrument sources haven't been found yet.

>>6180423
so why are all his videos in FL studio?

>>6180429
To recreate the songs Anon

>>6180430
Ok thanks, sorry I just wanted to be sure he wasn't just creating the synths in FL studio, I feel better about all this now.

>>6170616
>I assure you it wasn't broken. What was there to restore? All of the DKCx tracks were composed, arranged and programmed directly on to the SNES soundchip These are the original versions. Nothing ever needed to be converted and nothing ever needed to be compromised.
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxAZfLenfa0&lc=UgxfA6efjEeEZT3OfnF4AaABAg.92e0-Xz5SDf92eRKQ1oLyY (see comment)
David, is that you?

>ugly shaders
>gratuitous use of save states and rewind function
So this is the type of person who would want to restore a soundtrack like this, interesting....

>>6171260
They probably have that much food on their face, though.

Pokey Pipes restored

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5StHcGqO3kI

>>6182901
Not one of Eveline Fischer's better songs, imo

>>6182935
She's not as good as Wise anyway

>>6183858
How did I know that an innocuous comment about one of her songs would be used to compare her negatively to Wise? She's responsible for some of the most memorable and atmospheric tracks in the first game. Simian Segue, Ice Cave Chant, Voices of the Temple, Forest Frenzy, Tree Top Rock, Northern Hemispheres? All hers.

>>6183953
>>6183953
Northern Hemispheres is her best from DKC1 by far.

>>6180450
it still takes the soul out of the song because david wise did took the spc700 lower fidelity into account and some instruments sound different in the restored songs due to this.

>>6180681
if the tracks were supposed to sound better, they would sound better in the cd soundtrack.
but guess what, they sound the same. the songs are supposed to sound like that, no restoration needed.

>>6167745
>>6174521
Some of these are old, he's gone back and redone a bunch of them. he seemed to be systematically going through DKC1 for a while, probably to fix up the imperfect ones.

>>6185847
I thought dkc1’s album release actually was more than just a game rip

>>6186310
track 5 of dk jamz is an arrange of dk island swing, but that's about it. all the other tracks are game rips.
the dkc2 and 3 soundtracks are only the game rips.
strangely enough the dkc 2 soundtrack is missing mining melancholy.

>>6186387
>strangely enough the dkc 2 soundtrack is missing mining melancholy.
this was due to a legal dispute at the time that it had mimic'd/stolen a riff from a phil collin's song that wise was 'inspired' by.

>>6180385
golden sun exists.
and talking about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqpJLT4I5_E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhL0QCFX78E
https://www.reddit.com/r/GoldenSun/comments/4cdtqb/golden_sun_soundtrack_remaster_project_its/

>>6186518
Really? I thought that was forest interlude? Is there any documentation about this?

Fuck that, original SPC or bust.

>>6185847
>if the tracks were supposed to sound better, they would sound better in the cd soundtrack.
>but guess what, they sound the same. the songs are supposed to sound like that, no restoration needed.
The tracks in the CD are game rips.
It's not that they were always meant to sound like the "restored" versions, they're just restored in the sense that these are the original samples that were used or as close to it as possible and that is what the music would probably have sounded like if not for limitations of the time.

>>6187050
>if not for limitations of the time.
anon, cd's have never had limitations.
that's why I'm saying that if they wanted to they could have released the music with better quality. they didn't because the music was made to sound like that.

>>6187090
That's not how it works. The original tracks were still made strictly for the SNES. All of the samples used were compressed for use in SNES hardware and then the songs were made specifically to be playing on the hardware. It's not like there was a computer somewhere with all of these "restored" versions on it and they just compressed the fuck out of it and slapped it in a SNES cartridge.

Someone can probably explain it better than me. These "restored" tracks are basically just redoing the songs with the original, high quality samples and seeing how they sound.

>>6187095
>The original tracks were still made strictly for the SNES.
thanks for proving my point.
the music was made to sound like that. there is nothing to restore if the soundtrack was made like that.

>>6187108
Anon are you being intentionally obstuse or just shitposting? You obviously get what the Anon is saying.

>>6171257
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSqYgIHgqFI
My body almost decided to die peacefully to this.

>>6187197
yes, I get it.
but I wanted to get my point that you can't restore something that is already sounding as intended.

>>6187257
>I wanted to be a pedant for no good reason

>>6186576
It is Forest Interlude that was inspired by Collins, that Anon is confused.

>>6186550
Cool. Any idea how he made this? Did it involve finding the originals samples like the DKC restoration guy did, or is there a way to somehow emulate GBA's audio so it that does not sound like ass?

>>6171257
>>6187247
PPF is based.
>>6187108
Why are you so upset about this, Mr. Wise?

Is there a download so I don't have to click every video separately? I thought he used to have a folder, but seems like each video only links to one song.

>>6187839
The link to the dropbox should be right in the description

>>6187270
that reddit post has all the info and download.
but TL;DR, yes. he did technically same as the dkc guy.
but he was smarter and crafted a sf2 soundfont to use with the original music extracted from the game instead of dicking around with fl2 reconstructing the songs by hand. less margin of error too.
I'll spare you the visit to reddit to get the link too.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_O4xKWEcp5OaUQ4al8xbTJvQnM

>>6167103
Actually searched this up a short while ago.
That sounds fantastic!

>>6167490
They lost all of it, would have to be completely remade.