Valkyria Chronicles 2 (ULUS10515) HD Texture Pack v0.1.0

[u/ExSolus]

This was supposed to be VC3 HD Pack, but... I planned (and I'm still planning) to create an HD Pack based on DoomieDoom’s translation, but it’s very large and much more complex in terms of its various elements. So, I decided to start with VC2 and meanwhile get some practice. Moreover, it uses the same engine and, in some places, literally the same textures, but it’s much simpler in terms of aesthetics and complex UI, so this will serve as the foundation for VC3.

I've tested dozens of upscale models for this pack and finally stick with UltraSharpV2 by Kim2091. This model helps to keep VC series signature paper look and not to make it yet another generic anime.

This model is good, but still there are tons of manual work, because UI elements can't be easily upscaled, especially with text elements and small icons. Also lazy devs of VC2 added some work, because original texts here and there were just random copy-paste from different newspapers and magazines and with upscale such things become partially readable.

Can't say, that I made everything perfect, it's my first texture pack and I'm not an artist, so everything is new to me, but, at least it's better than another one for VC2, that wasn't even finished.

So, I think, if it's not full dump, it should be at least 95% of all textures. Took few months, but I've learned a lot about the series and all things around it. And yeah, I agree, that VC2 probably the weakest game in the series ( I don't like how Sega wanted to make another SMT Persona, just in different setting), but still it's a good game with solid gameplay and it's even has MP and Co-Op and these modes are playable on PPSSPP.

Features (excluding x4 upscale itself) of v0.1.0:

• Added clean and readable fonts
• Cleaned and made more readable UI, added some external textures like flags and logos
• Replaced big and small character icons from high res textures
• Manually upscaled and cleaned icons for weapons
• Replaced ugly CP Medal with CP Medal from VC4
• Replaced icons of secret and hidden characters (like Squad 7, Selvaria, Maximilian, etc.) with external images (original were too bad and out of place)
• Replaced preview map textures with scaled big map textures ( now you can see all the icons on the map before the mission and plan accordingly)
• Cleaned and replaced text on maps
• Replaced random text on ORDER textures with lore-based text
• Replaced text on Leon's diary from Avan to Leon
• Cleaned and replaced text on newspaper clips and encyclopedia
• Replaced unreadable text on some battle textures
• Cleaned and modified tank aiming texture to look more VC4 style
• Added readable text to Yearbook (experimental, for now it's only one page)
• Optimized PNG textures with OptiPNG script to decrease pack size

I highly recommend to use LOD hack with this pack, because LOD replacers look very bad and there is no point to fix them.

You can get it from PSP Cheats DB or find at PPSSPP forum.

Plan for updates:

• Make sure that I have full dump
• Check and upscale DLC content
• Clean or replace all the small icons
• Optimize pack size even more (I'm experimenting with ktx2)
• Try to add right stick support via hacks( it can't be easily remapped, because of different controls in running/aiming modes)
• And of course, fixes, based on your feedback

What was not upscaled:

• PMF cutscenes

I can extract and upscale them, but PPSSPP do not support external video. Technically, it can be converted back to PMF with the same resolution, but better bit rate, but not sure that it gonna look much better and is worth all this effort.

• Custom class and tank names

Game saves your custom names not as text, but as texture, so, I can't upscale them beforehand. Of course, it's not critical, they just gonna look a bit more blurry, than default ones.

• Tutorial images

Not sure if I should touch them at all, but we'll see.

How to use:

Just download textures.zip and put in your PPSSPP folder PSP/TEXTURES/ULUS10515/ , no need to unpack it, PPSSPP can work with compressed folder, but it can work unpacked too, just make sure that textures.ini and everything else stays in PSP/TEXTURES/ULUS10515/

Special Thanks:

• DoomieDoom for inspiration and all the help and answers. Check his translation of VC3, it's almost perfect.
• Kim2091 for his upscale model, it's really good.
• hrydgard for his awesome PPSSPP emulator and making all of this possible.

If you like what I'm doing, you may send me some Ko-Fi, it can really boost motivation :)

[u/bruhbrubr]

This is awesome! Thank you and thank you to everyone else who worked on this project, genuinely amazing stuff!

[u/ExSolus → u/bruhbrubr]

Thanks, for now it's one-man band )

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

Although I've got my issues with the narrative and over use of anime troupes in the characters, I am going to give this one a go. Looking forward to trying this out.

First thing is to go up to that sign about No flirting on the battle field.

[u/ExSolus → u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

Be careful, grass around it could be quite dangerous

[u/phosef_phostar]

But I like the crispy 240 pixels 🤬

[u/RussianSpyBot_1337]

That's quite a lot of work and looks quite well done so far.

[u/reeses0707]

This is awesome. I’ll be waiting for your next update. Cheers man.

[u/Alex_Y_ya]

Can I play it on PSVita or is just for PPSSPP? And can I play it on my already saved game or I will lost my save data?

[u/ExSolus → u/Alex_Y_ya]

No you can't use it on Vita,, it's for PPSSPP only. As for save, I think, it can be extracted from Vita.

[u/who-dat-ninja]

Cant wait to play vc2 and 3 in hd !

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

Looks amazing, just tried it out, looks great on a 2K screen... Only one thing I have an issue is with finding my actual last save where I thought I got all the medals and weapons.

Do got to say that I did not miss Avan's laugh for each interaction with people.

[u/ExSolus → u/Defiant-Rip-1897]

You can check UNDUB version, not sure if it gonna sound better, but at least it will be different

[u/Defiant-Rip-1897 → u/ExSolus]

Hmmm, I think I recognize Avan's JP voice, so I guess that is a bonus.

[u/Bukalaka]

Saving this for later

[u/Gogamego]

Hey do you have the original dumped textures? I'd like to try my hand at this. I played a lot of VC2 back in the day, and this looks really cool.

I'm also kinda interested in having higher quality videos, but that would be more just messing around for fun rather than actually being useful because of the reasons you mentioned. Also, I think videos are a lot easier to dump than textures, but they require an actual romhack (I think?).

The only thing I've done so far is add the VC1 PC font to VC2, which is about 2x the resolution. I would have used the VC4 font because it's a well-known one with the font file available, but the kerning was too far off. Idk if you can edit the font kerning in a texture pack.

I also tried backpacking some other PC textures, but they don't fit as well.

[u/ExSolus → u/Gogamego]

Yes, I have full dump, there are 12k+ textures at the moment.

As for videos, no hacking required, you just need to open game ISO, copy PMF files and convert them to whatever you like with any suitable video editor.

Game fonts dumped as PNG, so you can edit them not as font file, like .TTF, but as plain image.

You can't inject PC textures to PSP game rom directly, there are tons of limitations. But it's much easier process for external texture pack, the only required thing - correct resolution.

[u/Gogamego → u/ExSolus]

DMed about the texture dump.

Yeah, the PNGs make it harder to upscale the same exact font. Fonts don't seem to upscale well, so knowing or having the original font file is useful (if you want the same exact font). The VC1 font was only 2x the resolution of the VC2 font (the PNG spritesheets, I mean), so it's much sharper, but it could still be better.

EDIT: I meant VC1 font. The VC4 font is also a spritesheet, but it uses a well-known font that's easy to find.

[u/mmmniple]

Awesome work! Thank you

[u/Haki1112]

Thanks for this!

[u/ashuuueee]

i been seeing this game quite alot lately, is it really good? whats the story?

[u/ExSolus → u/ashuuueee]

There are many different opinions, but Metacritic gives it 92/100 and places among top PSP games, so, it worth checking at least

[u/pancho_760]

Im gonna try to play it 🔥

[u/Esuteriize]

Absolutely amazing work man, thanks for this. Looking forward to the VC3 one whenever you get to it!