Eye Candy - Melee in 1080p HD

[Dan Salvato]

(WARNING: Large image files ahead.)

http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-15.png
http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-16.png
http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-17.png
http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-18.png
http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-19.png
http://oneminuteslow.com/melee/GALE01-20.png

I have a pretty good computer, so I'm able to run Melee in an emulator. The game runs almost perfectly, even at an HD resolution. So, I took a few screenshots for y'all to check out. You'll notice details you never knew existed in this game. It's pretty amazing.

I'll take requests and perhaps record some video as well.

 

[AXE 09]

GORGEOUS

Vids please!

 

[kevo]

Awww that's so cool! I love the texture on the Great Fox. I've always been impressed by how pretty Melee is and how steady it runs despite being relatively high detail. Everything just seems smooth and colorful and clean. Gotta love the Gamecube

 

[Glöwworm]

A couple pictures from my screenshots:

http://i52.tinypic.com/2n80pow.png
http://i54.tinypic.com/2r2nnu8.png

 

[Dan Salvato]

Side note: I've played Melee online using the emulator (Dolphin) with a netplay client (kaillera).

Simply put, it was awesome. Games desynched 40% of the time, but this was a year ago, and Dolphin is much better now. Maybe we can arrange something.

 

[Glöwworm]

Heh, it's not much different from what it is now.

 

[Dan Salvato]

Heh, it's not much different from what it is now.

I find that it's more reliable, more compatible, and more user-friendly. Anyway, the game would probably remain synced as long as both players never drop any frames.

 

[Destiny Warrior]

My melee on my comp only runs at 30 fps and vps on average. SO I effectively play at 1/2 speed most of the time.

Props if you can get it to work though! Melee's got to much better than what I experience on my comp...

(Surprisingly, Brawl runs faster than melee on average <_<)

 

[OmegaXXII]

Wow, those are some impressive crystal clear shots, it's so smooth and crisp, I notice the detail look way better than 480p Progressive Scan, is it the emulator itself? (Dolphin) or do you use a specific upscaler/deinterelacer?

 

[MechaWave]

@Omega: Well, you have to upscale it anyways so it's a yes.

 

[Massive]

I find that it's more reliable, more compatible, and more user-friendly. Anyway, the game would probably remain synced as long as both players never drop any frames.

Not true at all.
Any randomness based event will completely desync your game.

Wind blowing, pachyderm moving, turnip pull, misfire, any lag of more than a frame could mean a hit connects or a ledge is hogged on one side and not the other. Ice climbers are pretty much an instant desync because the CPU teammate will be react differently to minute differences in the field or an imperceptible delay in inputs.

Melee online will not be acceptable until there is memory syncing between clients.

 

[the_CAM_factor]

i thought i would never want melee re-released, but damn an hd like that /drool
please upload a video if you can find the time.

 

[Dan Salvato]

Not true at all.
Any randomness based event will completely desync your game.
...
Melee online will not be acceptable until there is memory syncing between clients.

You're right, I left out a lot of cases. However, only a few characters and stages incorporate true randomness, don't they? What would make Melee any more difficult to sync than 64?

i thought i would never want melee re-released, but damn an hd like that /drool
please upload a video if you can find the time.

I tried recording some gameplay, and I had some trouble with the visual quality. The screen was given a strange blueish hue in the recording, and the quality was also significantly reduced by compression. I'll play with the settings later and see if I can do something about that.

Wow, those are some impressive crystal clear shots, it's so smooth and crisp, I notice the detail look way better than 480p Progressive Scan, is it the emulator itself? (Dolphin)

The screenshots are entirely the emulator, just rendered at a higher resolution than 480p.

A number of textures in this game are actually quite large and effectively downscaled for the low-res Gamecube game. Playing these in high resolution brings out the original textures. Also, some visual effects which are rendered on the fly are simply rendered at a higher resolution.

On another note, notice these screenshots are in 16:9 aspect ratio. Melee does not support this, and I'm using the emulator to force rendering outside of the normal screen boundaries. Though this causes a couple of graphical anomalies, it also allows for characters to be seen for longer on either side of the screen before having to rely on the magnifying glass. (The characters still enter the magnifying glass at the same time as normal, but they can still be seen on-screen while in the magnifying glass.)

 

[Sinji]

Great thread.

 

[-ShadowPhoenix-]

What would make Melee any more difficult to sync than 64?

Not even 64 has perfected online play

 

[Anth0ny]

laser porn

 

[Massive]

You're right, I left out a lot of cases. However, only a few characters and stages incorporate true randomness, don't they? What would make Melee any more difficult to sync than 64?

True randomness is introduced by the transmission method. If a packet gets lost (which happens eventually when you're sending millions of packets) it can completely alter the game state. If your machines play/load at even slightly different rates, transmitting controller information (the way gamecube online play is currently set up) will desync almost immediately because the game clock will be slightly different. After that as soon as one person's machine registers a hit and the other's doesn't, the match is irreparably altered.

Without knowing exactly how N64 online play is implemented I can't say with any certainty how it (exactly) works. However, I will say that finding and isolating state information from 4MB of active memory (N64's RAM size) is far easier than doing the same from 43MB (Gamecube's RAM size).

 

[choknater]

wow, this is hype. the quality looks amazing. could this be the future of melee? as our discs get scratched, our non-HD tv's die, our cubes stop reading discs, nintendo stops selling wii's.....

the future!!!

 

[Spelt]

Look at all of those pixels.

 

[Anth0ny]

True randomness is introduced by the transmission method. If a packet gets lost (which happens eventually when you're sending millions of packets) it can completely alter the game state. If your machines play/load at even slightly different rates, transmitting controller information (the way gamecube online play is currently set up) will desync almost immediately because the game clock will be slightly different. After that as soon as one person's machine registers a hit and the other's doesn't, the match is irreparably altered.

Without knowing exactly how N64 online play is implemented I can't say with any certainty how it (exactly) works. However, I will say that finding and isolating state information from 4MB of active memory (N64's RAM size) is far easier than doing the same from 43MB (Gamecube's RAM size).

I think if Dolphin programmers focused on getting Melee online working properly, it could be done.


But I doubt it's a priority of theirs.

 

[Massive]

I think if Dolphin programmers focused on getting Melee online working properly, it could be done.


But I doubt it's a priority of theirs.

I don't disagree.

I could probably do it if I ever got motivated enough, lol.
It involves sifting through an active state 20MB memory dump looking for HEX game state information... which not exactly my idea of fun. Especially when I have Dark Souls sitting in my living room and I've already been programming all day.

 

[ajp_anton]

There's no AA... =)

 

[Dan Salvato]

There's no AA... =)

Forgot to turn it on.

I don't disagree.

I could probably do it if I ever got motivated enough, lol.
It involves sifting through an active state 20MB memory dump looking for HEX game state information... which not exactly my idea of fun.

That's my idea of fun. Care to point me in the right direction - tools, etc.? Does Dolphin have everything I need built-in? Debugging and such?

 

[Glöwworm]

Massive, I'm sure if you make a thread for donations for an incentive to make this happen, people WILL donate/pay; myself included

 

[Mr.Jackpot]

It's beautiful *sniff*

 

[The Upholder]

question, how does brawl online work? By syncing memory? Because that has all the same random bits.

Also, why are people getting hype over 1080p pictures? I recall a thread from... years ago, showcasing melee 1080p.

Also, melee HD rerelease would only happen on the wiiu, which means that gamecube controllers wouldn't be supported for it. You would either have to get used to the classic controller(which isn't tooo bad) or pray that nintendo released a GC controller version of the classic controller, which is probably very unlikely.

So while we can dream, it's not likely to happen D:

 

[kevo]

This inspires me to study hard in school, rise to the top to become a powerful business executive, and buy Nintendo to force them to re-release Melee as PC freeware with HD support.

Then when people complain about game mechanics they can go "KEVOOOOOOOO"

 

[Dan Salvato]

question, how does brawl online work? By syncing memory? Because that has all the same random bits.

Since Brawl was designed for online play, this becomes much easier. The "randomness" is likely based upon a synchronized clock or some other variable that both games can see.

I doubt the game simply looks at raw memory and syncs it; since they developed the game as well as the online play, they can "code" the syncing of the variables right into the game.

 

[bertbusdriver]

This inspires me to study hard in school, rise to the top to become a powerful business executive, and buy Nintendo to force them to re-release Melee as PC freeware with HD support.

Then when people complain about game mechanics they can go "KEVOOOOOOOO"

switch to computer engineering/CS. invest 1000 man hours in it. do it yourself. nintendo sends a cease and desist. you just wasted 1000 hours of your life. congratulations.

working on dolphin so it'll be able to support good online melee is one of many fantasy pet projects that I don't have time for.

 

[Sinji]

We need to get aj paton for this

 

[Avalancer]

Whoa. Does it look this good in motion?

 

[Dan Salvato]

Whoa. Does it look this good in motion?

Honestly, it looks better in motion. I tried my best to get shots that represent it.

 

[Glöwworm]

I've been trying to record some good quality footage but I can't seem to find a good encoder that shows the quality I see without having files in the Gigabyte area.

 

[Terry]

So beautiful ;-;

 

[Dan Salvato]

I've been trying to record some good quality footage but I can't seem to find a good encoder that shows the quality I see without having files in the Gigabyte area.

I tried to do the same. DivX is failing me hard. Maybe I'll look up how big-name torrent providers do it. =P