Xenogears Perfect ART Works (PAW) Retroarch Texture Pack

linnaealyn

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Nov 17, 2022
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[12/2024 Nightly v1.6 update; over 3 years of work, it is ~85% complete.]

This is a mod for Xenogears using Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement option.

Duckstation does not have a working equivalent to that option; check this post on page 2 for details regarding that. Please let me know if their texture dumping and replacement ever improves.

!! It requires the Vulkan driver, so make sure your graphics card supports it.

(It works on Steam Deck... but don't ask me for details in setting that up, I don't own one 😅)

There are separate versions of the mod for both the English and Japanese versions of the game.
英語版日本語のMODがある。

Spoiler-free screenshots are at the bottom of this post.
Any s
poiler images are in the next post of this thread under an expandable spoiler tag and go into more detail about the alternate portraits.



Mod introduction

=================

This mod replaces every single character dialogue portrait, menu portrait, & (almost 😒
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every battle portrait with their artwork equivalents. Each are cleaned up by hand or recreated by hand from scratch when there is no artwork equivalent.
It also replaces certain UI elements while keeping it true to the original look of the game; primarily to make it look cleaner and be easier on the eyes when playing on modern screens.
Some portraits aren't completely finished. Until I say it's complete, the mod is a work in progress and I haven't abandoned it.

There are what I refer to as "default" & "alt" (alternate) versions of portraits and UI elements.
Some characters have portraits edited from their original artwork to match their in-game sprite versions (i.e. unsmiling Citan dialogue). All portraits that this applies to are referred to as the mod's "defaults".
Some characters also have Perfect Works versions of their art portrait (i.e. light skinned Roni) that are referred to as the mod's "PW alts".


There are also non-canon alt portraits for various characters, just for fun.
Details on how to go about changing between default and alt textures can be found in one of the instruction files included in the ZIP.

If there is anything you don't like about it, like certain aspects of the UI, you can locate & remove/delete that file from the folder. Everything is optional.

(Note!!: If you use the PWB mod, don't apply its "Readjusted portraits" patch nor the "Graphical fixes" patch when patching your roms, as those patches interfere with several of this mod's portraits when texture replacing, as their files are renamed in the code.)
If you applied that patch and don't want to repatch your roms, you'll have to manually rename certain files in the replacement folder, listed here in this update, a little further down in this thread.




Download

==========

!! If you're using this for your first time playing through the game and don't want to be spoiled be aware that a single glance through the folder or alternate portraits folders can quickly spoil you. There is one portrait in particular that will stand out, whether or not you're familiar with the characters. It just so happens to also be one of the biggest spoilers in the game.

Nightly:(latest)
1.6
English (Not fully tested, might have some stray black/white pixels around some portraits)
1.6
日本語 (完全にはテストされていません。肖像画の周りに黒や白のピクセルがあるかもしれません。)

(〜 ̄▽ ̄)〜

Fully tested:(Fully tested in-game for stray pixels and individually cleaned up)

1.4 English

1.4 日本語



With any new updates, delete your old "-texture-replacements" folder and replace with the new.

-if you're setting it up for the first time and/or are unfamiliar with Retroarch or emulation in general and want most all of the useful settings listed out for you.
This includes information such as how to set up .cue and .m3u files, swapping discs, renaming the texture folder, Retroarch settings and Beetle PSX HW Core settings to get the mod working, settings suggestions for making a cleaner looking and faster playing XG (YMMV), and settings to fix certain emulation issues Ive come across (freezing on fast-forward, crackling audio during 3D/effects-heavy cutscenes/gameplay, blank screen during Rico flashback, etc).

Being a real-time texture replacer, it should work with any English version of XG, both base-game and modded/patched. Any fan-translated patch using the US version as a base should also display correctly unless stated otherwise (like with PWB 0.4.6).
If you come across any instances where it doesn't work with a specific mod, please let me know.


There's a separate version for the Japanese version of the game. It may need some editing still with other characters' UI ("エーテル"/"気功"/"秘術"/etc), but for the most part its good to go in terms of battle UI. Let me know if you find any errors.
日本語版は別バージョンがあります。他のキャラクターのUI(エーテルや、気功や、秘術など)についてはまだ編集が必要かもしれないが、バトルUIに関しては大部分問題ない。間違いがあったら教えてください。




Changes made

==============


General battle UI and on-foot-specific battle UI:​

  • Battle portraits (except the one used for Bart's men in a couple fights; there is no artwork equivalent and its much smaller than dialogue portraits that also have no artwork equivalent, like Stein)
  • Circular battle palette, battle palette text, tags behind said text
  • Purple/white misc text: "Combo", "Return", "Enter", "Miss", "EP"
  • HP/DMG/heal/AP numbers
  • HP/AP bars
  • "Time", "fuel", "total damage", AP numbers, "1/2/3 point(s)", "cancel end"
  • ▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow icons (includes two alts; one for Nintendo ABXY button layout and one for XBOX BAYX button layout)
  • Bottom screen mid-DeathBlow ▲ ■ ✖ icons (unfortunately, there's no way to change the other mid-DB quadruple-button icons that I'm aware of)
  • Combo 1-7 & Accept icons

Gear battle UI:​

  • "fuel" & fuel numbers
  • "Fuel" popup (when using boost)
  • Fuel bars (top and left)
  • All green text/numbers
  • Attack level numbers & ∞
  • "power shut down", "camera damaged", "out of fuel", etc, statuses
  • Background UI elements: Black Gear menu backgrounds, top & bottom borders and their runes, triple red triangles, Gear "lock-on" UI (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular target reticle of this UI. there's also absolutely no way of replacing the triple red triangles' black "backgrounds" either due to its very nature- their blocky nature isn't dictated by their textures and thus cannot be altered in this way)

All other changes:​

  • All dialogue portraits
  • All menu portraits
  • Red menu selection triangle
  • All instances of red/purple selection diamonds, horizontal & vertical
  • Red/grey spheres (in the menu/loading screen)
  • ▲ ■ ● ✖ button DeathBlow menu icons (includes alt textures for Nintendo ABXY button layout & XBOX BAYX button layout)
  • Walk/Gear icons
  • L1/R1 menu icons
  • Load/save screen: "CARD 1"/"2" text, memory card icon, load/save bar/text
  • Disc 1 & 2 maps (with alt color versions; makes the area indicators harder to see though)
  • NESW compass letters (unfortunately, there's no way to change the circular compass texture)



Spoiler-free screenshots

====================================

I primarily play with Internal GPU Resolution set at 4x, but 8x makes the portraits as clear as they can be, seen in these screenshots.
The difference in clarity between 4x and 8x is pretty imperceptible in normal gameplay unless you have them side by side and look closely.


Portraits
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Save/Load screen
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On-foot and in-Gear combat
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Combat & menu buttons
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Maps
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Alternate menu selection arrow
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Japanese-version-specific UI​

日本語版UI​

======================================​


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Attachments

  • Perfect ART Works 1.4 (English).zip
    90.9 MB · Views: 1,935
  • Perfect ART Works 1.4 (Japanese).zip
    92.5 MB · Views: 314
  • PAW 1.6 EN (12-17-2024).zip
    52.4 MB · Views: 1,146
  • PAW 1.6 JP (12-17-2024).zip
    52.4 MB · Views: 169
Last edited:
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I won't be showing all portraits here; only ones worth mentioning.
The portraits shown here are the full, unstretched versions. What you get in the mod has to be stretched horizontally in order for them to appear unstretched in-game, so you lose a bit of the width of each portrait here. Say, compare the portraits of Bart in this post to the in-game screenshot of Bart in the post above; you can see the back of his head here in the original images, whereas it cuts off right behind his ear once it's stretched.


For some characters there are sprite versions of art (edited art to match their in-game sprites) & their alternate Perfect Works art portrait.​

This goes for Roni, Medena, Erich, & both Krelians. Citan has an edited, unsmiling alt for his dialogue only, to match how he appears in-game (smiling in combat and menus, not smiling in dialogue)​


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Here are portraits that have no artwork equivalent, needing to be edited from pre-existing artwork to match the sprites, or in the case of Gear-fused-Hammer and Stein, created from nothing but the in-game sprite as they have no artwork equivalent whatsoever.​


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Here are portrait alts created for fun ⬇​

Both sides of scar-eyed Bart, unscarred Bart, doctor's coat Kim with glasses, Id with Fei's color palette, Id with Fei's color palette but keeping Id's yellow eyes, & younger/older Emeralda with Fei's color palette.

(might add to this list later. have any suggestions? fun ideas? lmk)

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Putting a second reply here, in case I have to add more. I hit the 10k character limit and had to scale back a bit & split it between two posts lol

There we go- its fully hosted on Godsibb now. 👏👏
 
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Would this work for Duckstation standalone?
Nope, this only works through Retroarch's Beetle PSX HW core real-time texture replacement option as Duckstation doesn't have its own equivalent to that option. I'd removed the mention of it not working on Duckstation as I figured saying it was for Retroarch specifically would be enough, but I've been asked about Duckstation so much that I guess I'll put that back in.

Until Duckstation adds their own equivalent to that option, this is only possible to do through Retroarch's PSX HW core.
 
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First time playing the game with your patch as long with the Perfect Works one. But as i start the game everyone in the village have pixelated portarit except Fei, which is the only character with HD portrait. Is this intended?
 
First time playing the game with your patch as long with the Perfect Works one. But as i start the game everyone in the village have pixelated portarit except Fei, which is the only character with HD portrait. Is this intended?
Fei's is the only one that's clear whereas Chief Lee, Timothy, Alice, Dan, Citan, Yui, and Midori all have pixelated portraits; is that what you're saying?
If so that is very odd. Normally it either will work or it won't, but no in-between.
The only case where I can think of it partially working is the differences in the English and Japanese roms, but since you mentioned PWB I already know that you have to be using the English rom.

Screenshots may help, idk. Feel free to msg me through twitter if you want...if you have one. There you can spam me all the screenshots you want. If this is an issue I dont know about I wanna find a solution.
 
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Fei's is the only one that's clear whereas Chief Lee, Timothy, Alice, Dan, Citan, Yui, and Midori all have pixelated portraits; is that what you're saying?
If so that is very odd. Normally it either will work or it won't, but no in-between.
The only case where I can think of it partially working is the differences in the English and Japanese roms, but since you mentioned PWB I already know that you have to be using the English rom.

Screenshots may help, idk. Feel free to msg me through twitter if you want...if you have one. There you can spam me all the screenshots you want. If this is an issue I dont know about I wanna find a solution.
Ive played a little bit more and only Fei, Dan and Citan have the HD portraits, but not the rest of the villagers, Midori, Alice, Timothy etc... Have the original pixelated portraits. I thought it was intended since those characters dont have that much screentime. Other than that seems like everything works as is supposed to? Ive send you some texts and screenshots in the twitter dms so you could see this "problem" in more detail.
 
Figured out their issue ⬆. Its PWB 0.4.6, the latest version. Under their version notes there's "Rogue pixels on facesets have been fixed outside of the portrait mod."
"*outside* of the portrait mod", means even if you made sure to not select the "Readjusted portraits" patch, those files are now changed, thus the names of their portraits are changed when dumped.

(4/18/24 edit: This change now appears to be under both the "Graphical fixes" and "Readjusted portraits" options.)

Here are the file names to change.
1. Fei's Sad Portrait - (old name: c44361bb-b2e81840) f7511ac9-339f07ab.png
2. Adult Emeralda - (bf58561-84598680) 13d8bed6-e5bc243c.png
3. Id - (840eb794-71046228) ee7899fd-4c2afa5b.png
4. Miang - (6262da3b-148cb3e) 96aae7a8-c0acac2c.png
5. Karen - (59785951-c65ba831) 9af6b578-56affa2d.png
6. Vanderkaum - (bf418954-18cb0ded) 4e8534c1-695609b8.png
7. Shakhan - (e2784dd7-8878c18d) 8a9bf742-673e8111.png
8. Renk - (feb33c34-a11380ee) 1a9dc0f4-b44c4b88.png
9. Broyer - (dae75350-8a549e0c) 7e152c99-3d9bdffc.png
10. Stratski - (a46f7111-904bb173) 9e6b9961-cdd20b0b.png
11. Franz - (a4b08849-727a7d35) e3b464a6-79c42965.png (the dolphin, not the Gebler pretty boy)
12. Yui - (52c01ea-982180de) 4ac0ad8e-c42aba50.png
13. Midori - (11c8f769-dc78cd4e) cc676900-66241a89.png
14. Chief Lee - (d3756da8-29e124d) fffd7062-c3370775.png
15. Alice - (9b395356-b020aead) d3a44e6-b746b416.png
16. Timothy - (ae68acff-afcd026a) 95d151a0-c02a787c.png
 
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Figured out their issue ⬆. Its PWB 0.4.6, the latest version. Under their version notes there's "Rogue pixels on facesets have been fixed outside of the portrait mod."
"*outside* of the portrait mod", means even if you made sure to not select the "Readjusted portraits" patch, those files are now changed, thus the names of their portraits are changed when dumped.

Here are the file names to change, in the spoiler.
1. Fei's Sad Portrait - (old name: c44361bb-b2e81840) f7511ac9-339f07ab.png
2. Adult Emeralda - (bf58561-84598680) 13d8bed6-e5bc243c.png
3. Id - (40eb794-71046228) ee7899fd-4c2afa5b.png
4. Miang - (6262da3b-148cb3e) 96aae7a8-c0acac2c.png
5. Karen - (59785951-c65ba831) 9af6b578-56affa2d.png
6. Vanderkaum - (bf418954-18cb0ded) 4e8534c1-695609b8.png
7. Shakhan - (e2784dd7-8878c18d) 8a9bf742-673e8111.png
8. Renk - (feb33c34-a11380ee) 1a9dc0f4-b44c4b88.png
9. Broyer - (dae75350-8a549e0c) 7e152c99-3d9bdffc.png
10. Stratski - (a46f7111-904bb173) 9e6b9961-cdd20b0b.png
11. Franz - (a4b08849-727a7d35) e3b464a6-79c42965.png (the dolphin, not the Gebler pretty boy)
12. Yui - (52c01ea-982180de) 4ac0ad8e-c42aba50.png
13. Midori - (11c8f769-dc78cd4e) cc676900-66241a89.png
14. Chief Lee - (d3756da8-29e124d) fffd7062-c3370775.png
15. Alice - (9b395356-b020aead) d3a44e6-b746b416.png
16. Timothy - (ae68acff-afcd026a) 95d151a0-c02a787c.png
Note: I could not find the ID file in the main texture pack folder (Line #3) so I pulled it from the Alternate Portraits folder. I am starting a new game to test this, so it will be awhile until I get far enough into the game to test this.
 
Note: I could not find the ID file in the main texture pack folder (Line #3) so I pulled it from the Alternate Portraits folder. I am starting a new game to test this, so it will be awhile until I get far enough into the game to test this.
Thanks for pointing that out! Somehow I missed copying the 8 at the beginning of the file name into that post, "840eb794-71046228"
 
No problem! I had a feeling that was the issue, but I was not sure, so I figured I would post on the forum.
 
New silly "DLC texture pack"!!
Alternate portrait for Citan!

Chiitan edition. ( •̀⩊•́ )

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Also, there's another for Chu-Chu specifically, because why not.

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If you're gonna shitpost you might as well go all-out, right?

Download: Chiitan
Download:
Chuutan
 

Attachments

  • [.CUE OR .MKU FILE NAME HERE]-texture-replacements.zip
    2.3 MB · Views: 150
  • [.CUE OR .MKU FILE NAME HERE]-texture-replacements.zip
    1.2 MB · Views: 176
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New unhinged texture pack DLC!
Xenogears (USA) (Disc 2) -Perfect Works Build 0.1.4 patched-240928-025859.png

(note: Image shows off the portrait, but its an edited together screenshot just for fun. This is made for Chu-Chu, not Myyah!Elly, and doesn't change character sprites nor does it alter the script 😂)

Download: MyyahChu
 

Attachments

  • MyyahChu.zip
    773.1 KB · Views: 175
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I woke from the dead to say I'm here because I saw you posting on Bluesky and this is such a cool project! Over the winter holiday I'd like to give it a shot!
 
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I woke from the dead to say I'm here because I saw you posting on Bluesky and this is such a cool project! Over the winter holiday I'd like to give it a shot!
Thanks! hmm, perhaps I'll do a few more portraits and release a 1.6 before then so everyone can have the finished UI textures. I'm pretty sure I'm done improving the UI now.
Make sure your GPU is compatible with Vulkan!