Akven on 26/4/2020 at 10:53
Thief 3 ESRGAN Textures & Videos Pack Optimized v2.0OverviewI finally completed or nearly completed my mod for improving Thief 3 vanilla textures by processing them through ESRGAN AI Upscale, recreating missing normal maps and upcaling all the videos.
ESRGAN models that were used (mostly from ESRGAN wiki (
https://upscale.wiki/wiki/Model_Database)):
Manga109Attempt by Kingdomakrillic
mymanga109_250000 by patrikspacek
Skyrim Misc by Deorder
Skyrim Armory by Alsa
Normal Maps by Alsa
Skyrim Alpha by Deoder
JPG (40-60%) A by Alsa
JPG (60-80%) A by Alsa
BC1 smooth 2.0 by BlueAmulet
normal generator by LyonHrt
rocks_100000 by I don't know who (It is not a nickname)
ThiefGold by me (based on EP2 textures)
ThiefGoldMod by me (based on EP2 textures)
Concept for texturesFor some reasons a lot of vanilla textures in Thief 3 were already upscaled by the developers so most of the textures were bad quality. My assumption is this was done to reduce DXT BC1 compression artifacts in DDS files. So I took several steps:
-run all textures through BC1 smooth 2.0 ESRGAN model (BC1 compression artifacts removal model)
-created a two copy of de-artifacted textures (one original size one downscaled twice)
-run two copies through 6-7 several upscaling models using ImageEnhancingUtility and its tiling option if necessary (if original texture was seamless)
-chose one good looking final result from 12-14 textures. Most of the time preliminarily downscaled texures looked better after upscaling
-manual edit if necessary by combining parts from several textures of from another upscale options. Sometime one texture had some ornament in good size which I can use in another texture with the same ornament etc
A lot of textures in Thief 3 were missing normal maps or it is broken in some way. I upscaled all the normal maps using Normal Maps by Alsa or any other model with splitting RGB channels in ImageEnhancingUtility. For diffuse textures without normal maps I used normal generator by LyonHrt or Awesome Bump program to recreate them. And finally user
snobel from TTLG specially created a tool for editing material files (MatLib) in Thief 3. So I fixed a lot of bugs in materials (material in game terms is a combination of diffuse texture (the texture itself) with normal map and any other maps and parameters - reflection, specular and so on)
Here is a list of all the material from Thief 3 and things that were changed
(
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GL3K2SvhwjzF3RE15q_sdCpPQQkly1DyrJ--uH7zJlY/edit?usp=sharing)
Concept for videosAll the BIK cinematics from game were converted to separate frames. Frames were processed by JPG (40-60%) or JPG (60-80%) artifacts removal models. Some videos (based of quality) were converted to lossless x264 files and deinterlaced in XviD4PSP 5 program to remove some lines artifacts and converted back to frames. After that all frames were upscaled using Manga109Attempt model. Frames were downscaled to 1920xYYYY size and converted to videos, slightly filtered in XviD4PSP 5 program and compressed to final result in MKV container with x264 codec. One video was edited frame by frame in graphics editor to remove artifacts.
PrerequisitesYou NEED to install
Sneaky Upgrade: Unofficial patch for Thief 3 ((
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138607)) with at list one mod enabled (I suggest briefing videos and Collective Texture Pack since we will replace completely the second one). And I don't know why would you play Thief 3 without this community patch
Installation0. Install Sneaky Upgrade: Unofficial patch for Thief 3
1. Cinematics pack. Move all videos to this folder
c:\ProgramData\Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade\Installed Mods\Briefing Videos\Content\T3\VideoTextures\
2. Textures and material labs
Content of the MatLib folder to (create \MatLib\DynamicallyLoaded\ folders inside c:\ProgramData\Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade\Installed Mods\Collective Texture Pack\Textures\Content\T3\):
c:\ProgramData\Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade\Installed Mods\Collective Texture Pack\Textures\Content\T3\MatLib\DynamicallyLoaded\
Content of the Textures folder to:
c:\ProgramData\Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade\Installed Mods\Collective Texture Pack\Textures\Content\T3\PCTextures\DynamicallyLoaded\
Content of the Menu folder:
c:\ProgramData\Thief 3 Sneaky Upgrade\Installed Mods\Collective Texture Pack\Menu & Loading Screens\Content\T3\PCTextures\DynamicallyLoaded\
P.S. You could use the mod path from any of the Sneaky Upgrade mods you installed. I just used Briefing Videos and Collective Texture Pack
Download LinksVideos/Cinematics
(
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/3Zt1/47zuLVaeS)
(You could watch them on your computer by just renaming BIK extension to MKV)
Textures
New optimized version 2:
(
https://cloud.mail.ru/public/4eck/3iUTuooJn)
Old first release, do not download this
(
https://mega.nz/#!IpNCQSzC!kKSMkMp2-d_qudQDa8sBnhCVF0qjJL8mO0-xDip_inU)
Known Problems/DisadvantagesMod significantly increases loading times. I already optimized it by resizing normal maps to be the same size as diffuses and so on. But levels and saves still loads very long. Maybe this depends on the PC.
ScreenshotsExample of textures
(
https://imgsli.com/MTExNTY)
(
https://imgsli.com/MTExNTk/0/2)
(
https://imgsli.com/MTExOTQ)
Example of fixed normal map
(
https://imgsli.com/MTEyNzk/2/4)
Example of restored normal map on the face
(
https://imgsli.com/MTIyNzY)
Example of improvements in HUD
(
https://imgsli.com/MTE4Njg)
Example of edited cinematic
(
https://imgsli.com/MTEyMDk)
New screenshots:
Normal map on the beard was restored while normal map on the chest was fixed in matlib to match diffuse texture
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE)
Normal map for wall texture was absent. I restored it.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/2/3)
Nothing special. Most textures in Thief 3 are so ugly that they do not improve much from ESRGAN. Normal map was restored on door
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/4/5)
Improvements visible mostly on wood textures. Some of them were lacking normal maps as always I think
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/6/7)
Better looking windows. Different in sign colors due to material change (from unassigned to metal or something like that). If it was metal when env_map was added.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI)
Not so blurry portrait, improved wood and improved normal map on the bricks (less square bugs)
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/2/3)
Normal map improved on the wall and wooden structure (I think there was no normal maps in the materials for this diffuses).
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/4/5)
You can clearly see the original flat (missing) normal map of the wall. Especially on the wooden planks.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/6/7)
Better portrait and restored normal map
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/8/9)
I cannot say if it is right that visual style changed so much because a lot of bump details were missing in the vanilla. But for the last screenshot - both diffuse and normal maps were present in game, I didn't invented anything, developers just didn't made a proper connection in matlib file. So it was most likely a bug. Overall the quality of the original game is not so good with a lot of things that were forgotten or weren't activated or were confused.
Special thanksTo users
Glypher and
snobel from TTLG forums for providing feedback, technical details and coding material editing utility
Akven on 2/5/2020 at 10:14
New screenshots:
Normal map on the beard was restored while normal map on the chest was fixed in matlib to match diffuse texture
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE)
Normal map for wall texture was absent. I restored it.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/2/3)
Nothing special. Most textures in Thief 3 are so ugly that they do not improve much from ESRGAN. Normal map was restored on door
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/4/5)
Improvements visible mostly on wood textures. Some of them were lacking normal maps as always I think
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTE/6/7)
Better looking windows. Different in sign colors due to material change (from unassigned to metal or something like that). If it was metal when env_map was added.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI)
Not so blurry portrait, improved wood and improved normal map on the bricks (less square bugs)
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/2/3)
Normal map improved on the wall and wooden structure (I think there was no normal maps in the materials for this diffuses).
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/4/5)
You can clearly see the original flat (missing) normal map of the wall. Especially on the wooden planks.
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/6/7)
Better portrait and restored normal map
(
https://imgsli.com/MTU1NTI/8/9)
I cannot say if it is right that visual style changed so much because a lot of bump details were missing in the vanilla. But for the last screenshot - both diffuse and normal maps were present in game, I didn't invented anything, developers just didn't made a proper connection in matlib file. So it was most likely a bug. Overall the quality of the original game is not so good with a lot of things that were forgotten or weren't activated or were confused.
If only anyone could do something with the long loading times...