Hello! since the cutscenes from this game (ps2 version) are horrible, basically the same as the GBA version, I'd like to know whether it is possible to replace them better quality ones if you downscale the 1.5 ones (That i own); I know the ps2 has only 32 mb, so you can't go full blown 1080p, but I'm not asking that: while some space could be saved by filling the space left by the letterbox, I'm simply asking to bring them to the quality of the FMVs from kh1 and kh2, because in comparison they look so much better (I mean resolution-wise of course, not their content) I'm asking because that is basically the only reason i don't like emulating this game on my pc, even if it is one of my favourites
Hello again everyone! Great news! I've tried to do this on my own, but NOW I need help from you experts! What i tried to do so far; so, thanks to a "tool" by KHDecoder I've been able to extract the basic files from the iso, and i noticed that there are a LOT of .pss which is a media format mainly used for game FMVs; thankfully, I tracked down a tool from 2001(!!!!), " PSS PLEX" , that extracts these pss files, and can put together M2V (but NOT any m2v, more info on this later), WAV files, and SUB files ( generally for subtitles); now, i did just that with the first pss file i found (001.pss, "this 35 second cutscene" ) ,and upon extraction i found only a m2v and a sub file. At first, it thought that the audio portion of the video was stored somewhere else in the game, since the difference between the original pss and the sum of these 2 resulting files was quite similar (7.3 orginal pss vs 6.9 the 2 files), the sub file is quite small, and no wav file was extracted. But I tried to create a pss with only the original video file and not the SUB file, recreated the iso, and the cutscene PLAYED AS IT SHOULD although with no audio, so either the sub file contains somehow the audio, or some information regarding the audio to play which is somewhere else in the iso. Anyway, while the program supports sub file, it supports them only with a profile for the game Zone of the Enders... That makes PSS Plex Crash unfortunately I followed "this guide for guitar hero 2" , though i'm gonna copypaste it in its entirety here because being it the only copy of an english guide for such an old stuff is kinda scary and I don't want to lose it, and first tried to get the video file working. No dice; TMPGenc version 2.5 thinks m2g mpeg2 video file format supports up to 480p/576p video stream (still a lot better than the crap the iso includes and i made some experiments). But here's the good part: i discovered that VIDEO FILES WITH ORIGINAL WIDTH RESOLUTION WILL PLAY, BUT YOU CAN MAKE THEM AS HIGH AS YOU WANT; if the ps2 memory supported it, it could theoretically play videos at crazy resolutions like 320*2440, and that would be no problem, because the game automatically stretches the fmv's to fit the screen; any way you'd get a blurry mess nonetheless, not worthy of the task. THAT'S great news! but still doesn't solve the audio problem :( here are some screenshot comparison of what I've achieved at the slight bump of 320*576 (better than the original 320*352); on the left there's the new video, on the right the original one. I used a badly rendered heavy artifacted version of the cutscene to be fast, but you can notice clearly spot the difference between the resolutions, especially the clothing. It is just a proof of concept Code: How to Replace Videos in Guitar Hero 2 BY SQUIRREL Introduction First off, I give credit to 'keyboardsamurai' for giving us the idea of being able to replace the videos, and for finding the specifics of the videos that Guitar Hero uses for display. These are the steps I used to make it happen, and the tools I used. Make sure that you copied all of the GH2 contents onto your hard drive before starting. Tools Total Video Converter Sound Converter (comes with windows) Audacity TMPGEnc (you can use the free version) PSS Plex Video Manipulation TMPGEnc likes .AVI and .MPG the best to convert videos to M2V, so I used Total Video Converter to do so. You can also use Total Video Converter to separate the audio file from the video file. -- Open Total Video Converter. -- Click new task, import video. Select the video you want to use. If you are converting the video, go to step 1. If you are just ripping the audio, then go to step 2. -- Step 1: Select what you want to convert it to, either .AVI or .MPG, I prefer .AVI myself. Include sound with the conversion, do not rip the audio yet, or it'll be out of sync, trust me. Then import the file you converted with Total video Converter and go to step 2. -- Step 2: Select .WAV from the selection, and hit convert now. That's it. Rocking the Sound Ok, now you have the separate video and audio. First off, let's convert the audio. -- Open the audio with Sound Recorder. Click File, Properties, and then select the Convert Now button. From the dropdown list, go all the way to the bottom, 48000 Khz, 16 bit, stereo sound. Save the file and close it. -- Now, PSS Plex doesn't like that kind of audio. So, what you do is this. Open the audio in Audacity. EDIT: NEW STEP. Down where it says project rate (Hz) change it to 47998. Select File, Export as .WAV. Make a new .WAV file. For example, if your original sound file is 'Dragon.wav', make it 'Dragon2.wav'. Then close Audacity the audio is ready. Video Encoding Now to take care of the video. -- Open up TMPGEnc and cancel out of the tutorial. Select browse on the video, and locate the .AVI or .MPG. -- Select ES (Video only) for the stream type. Now click on Setting. -- For the Video tab, use these settings. Code: MPEG2 video 640x448 size 29.97 FPS constant bit rate 8000 bit rate DC component precision is 10 (I'm going to see if 8 works, and/if is better) Make sure that everything is set to 1:1 VGA mode -- For the Advanced tab, where it says 'video arrange method', select Full Screen, NOT full screen (keep aspect ratio). -- For the Quantize matrix, make sure that Output YUV data is selected. -- Select your output filename and click start. Put the Two Together Now, you're almost there. -- Open up PSS Plex. -- Click Multiplex. Open the movie you converted with TMPGEnc and the wave file you converted with Audacity. Select your file name and click start. Now, just rename your video file to match the name of the video you want to replace in the game.
