SSX 3 HD TEXTURE PACK

SSX 3 HD TEXTURE PACK v1.0

• Tested on  SSX 3 for Gamecube, NTSC-U and PAL (GXBE69 , GXBP69) with Dolphin Emulator. Upscaled with Topaz A.I. Gigapixel 4.

• Is a UHD/4k DDS Textures with BC7 (BC = Block Compression). Another download option is FHD/1080p. IMPORTANT! For this DDS textures you need a DirectX 11 capable GPU , below are the PNG textures links if you have any issues with the DDS textures.

• Fonts, HUD, and some Game Menu elements are DDS with the (uncompressed) ARGB32 format.

• You can use the UHD pack on lower resolutions like 1080p or 720p and is the recommended download for DirectX 11 capable GPU's. DDS textures loads pretty quick, but you can experience some very random "hiccups" (Stuttering) depending on your situation, like a slow Hard Drive, fragmented Hard Drive, a external HDD or SSD via USB 2.0, etc. The UHD version have a upscale factor of 6 (the original resolution), but many textures like the backgrounds have a upscale factor of 12 (Yup). If you have stuttering, prefetch or pre-load the textures on RAM. IF you are low on RAM and can't prefetch, or you are planning to use this on a mobile device that supports DirectX 11, the FHD / 1080p version is a good alternative. The FHD version are downscaled textures (to a factor of 4) from PNG's of the UHD version, don't worry, PNG is lossless, so you will get a good quality product. Then, I converted those to DDS.

-Downloads-

SSX 3 (UHD /4K) DDS Recommended
Size on Storage: ≈ 3.9 GB
VRAM / Prefetch (RAM): ≈ 4 GB
Download Option #1 (Google Drive)
Download Option #2 (MediaFire)

SSX 3 (FHD /1080p) DDS Alternative

Size on Storage: ≈ 1.6 GB
VRAM / Prefetch (RAM): ≈ 1.65 GB

Download Option #1 (Google Drive)
Download Option #2 (Mediafire)

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SSX 3 (UHD /4K) PNG - Not Recommended (Use only if DDS Textures fails)
Size on Storage: ≈ 3.4 GB
VRAM / Prefetch (RAM): ≈ 13.3 GB (Yup, that much)
Google Drive Download


SSX 3 (FHD/1080p) PNG - Not Recommended (Use only if DDS Textures fails)
Size on Storage: ≈ 1.7 GB
VRAM / Prefetch (RAM): ≈ 6 GB 
Google Drive Download

How to use?

1. This is for Dolphin 5.0 Emulator, use the latest development release, older versions of Dolphin 5.0 (older than 5.0-3506), or the Stable release don't support BC7 

(Dolphin Download):  Go to Site

2. If you downloaded the DDS textures, move the zip file to:

a.) Windows ..\Users\"UserName"\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\ResourcePacks
b.) Linux ~/.local/share/dolphin-emu/ResourcePacks

3. Open Dolphin and go to the "Tools" Tab / "Resource Pack Manager". If you don't see the Pack, refresh. I you still don't see the Pack, make sure you moved the zip file to the right directory, when you see the Pack, Install it. 

When everything is finished, you will see a green mark on the Pack.

If you downloaded the PNG textures, extract the "GXB" Folder to:

a.) Windows ..\Users\"UserName"\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Load\Textures
b.) Linux ~/.local/share/dolphin-emu/Load/Textures

If there is a previous folder named GXB with DDS textures, delete it before the extraction.

4. In Dolphin, go to "Graphics" / "Advanced" Tab, and enable "Load Custom Textures"

5. If you are using the UHD version and have 4 GB of available RAM and want to load the custom Textures from there, enable "Prefetch Custom Textures". For PNG textures you will need about 13.3 GB of available RAM

6. Experiment with which API you have the smother emulation experience (In Graphics / General Tab), (OpenGL,Vulkan,Direct 3D 11/12). In my case, Direct3D 12 result in a consistent 60 fps on Dolphin, no stuttering (For this game GXBE69).

7. (EXTRA) If you don't see the Sun, or see some Lens Flare disappearing, initiate the game and go to "Graphics" / "Hacks" Tab, and uncheck the "Skip EFB Access From CPU" option. Be aware, that can cause Stuttering when you are near a Lens Flare, or when the Sun (Another Lens Flare) is present on your camera view (All depends on your hardware capacities.) This also is a problem in SSX Tricky.

8. (EXTRA) To use Widescreen, go to "Graphics" / "General" Tab, and choose: "Force 16:9", after that, go to the game title, and press the "Y Button" (Gamecube Pad), is the "X Button" if you are using the Xbox gamepad. Co to "Game Options", and set the Widescreen to "Anamorphic".

 Demo/Gameplay with this HD Texture Pack

A LOT of time and effort were put in this.
If you liked my work and want to donate, thanks!

CONTRIBUTORS: Thanks for your donation!

1. tj3k from Reddit 

Additional Info

For a reason I don't remember, I wasn't interested on the SSX series. Just a few months ago, I gave a try to SSX 3, and for my surprise, I missed a Masterpiece! But never is too late to play and enjoy a good game. (Also, I'm trying SSX Tricky)

What is NOT upscaled in the pack?

Some Icons / Outfit / Equipment: I upscaled all outfit and equipment of all Peaks Lodge Shop for all characters, but those you win are not upscaled. Remember, to dump the textures with Dolphin, actually you need to play the game, and playing with all characters and do all Peaks and events will take to eternity with my limited time window.

(Art / Posters / Toys / Trading Cards) There're so many images you wont constantly see, that is not worth the significant increase in the texture folder size. For a next version, I can make an "Extra" download option to add them.

Lightmaps: Lightmaps are "Baked" images of pre-calculated light and shadows (Brightness) on the scene non-movable objects, and is a VERY important part on how good this game looks (like the Backgrounds). Sadly, upscale algorithms in A.I Gigapixel or ESRGAN and its models (to the date) can't be very precise on Lightmaps in so small resolutions, trying them, only will end in having too many light / shadow bleeding, and another weird artifacts, for now, we have to leave the original low-res Lightmaps in any Retro-3D Game.

This article of John Linneman (Digital Foundry) mentioned that the Playstation 2 SSX 3 used "a subtle bloom effect". You can use Reshade to add "Bloom" or other cool post-processing effects to Dolphin or other emulators / PC Games.

Reshade Download: Go to Site
Reshade Tutorial: Go to video

What is the work involved in this pack?

Simple ... A LOT ... We're talking about denoising,retouching,experimentation, and redoing so many things manually, this are some situations (Not all of them, but the most problematic).


FONTS: This is an example, you can see below the new HUD fonts. Upscaled original fonts are horrible, so this has to be done from zero. Fortunately, the "Base Font" is "Neuropol X" ... I only completed the missing parts. 

Upscaled Fonts (Pretty bad for the purpose)
(Click or touch the images to enlarge)

Completely new Fonts based on Neuropol X

Reflections and some textures with transparency: Some surfaces like ice or other things have "reflections" in this game. As you remember (if you played this game), the Peak 3 have lots and lots of ice surfaces. And guess what? All of them uses this very cool "Reflection" effect. ALL those textures have some transparency, and soon you will see why.

"Reflections" on ice (Snow Jam) with the original textures

If you modify with Photoshop, GIMP, etc, or upscale this kind of texture, some areas of the Mask on the Alpha Channel will be set with a "K" of 100%, and you will have areas fully transparent. The thing is, the original textures Alpha Channel don't have any areas with "K" (Key / Grayscale) at 100%, that will make the layer fully transparent. (Opacity = 0%) In terms of RGBA (8 bit Alpha = 2^8 = 256) , a 100% "K" on the Mask is (A=0) and 99% "K" on the Mask is (A=3) Or rgb(3,3,3) ... I will continue to use the "K" value terms from now on.

So, I decided to make this textures fully opaque for upscaling, and copy the Mask from the Alpha Channel of the original textures to the upscaled texture.

And what happened? This ... The Mask ended with a value of "K" at 100% in some areas, the black zones on the right are telling us,that zones are fully transparent, and the game can't show a fully opaque texture like the image on the left with the original texture. The transparent zones are replaced with black.

The technique from the game developers on this kind of textures is ... As less "K" percentage from the Mask on the Alpha, more "reflection" effect you will get on that area. ... With more "K" percentage from the Mask on the Alpha, less "reflection" effect you will get on that area. The second part of this technique is ... In the game, the texture will be fully opaque, even if you have a 99.9% "K". So, the Mask on the Alpha is not for the texture itself ... as I wrote, is to control the "reflection effect" intensity.

Photoshop or GIMP don't use fractions (decimals), or the "exact percentage" for "CMYK" or "K" on some parts of the original texture Mask, and "rounds" any 99.8% or 99.9%  to 100% "K" ... and that is completely WRONG for the final result.

The Mask works well if you are using the original texture, even if Photoshop tells you there are some areas with Opacity at 0% (Mask 100%"K").

But in the moment you do any modification, like "Transform" to change the size ... or even opening the original texture as a layer of other new project ... Say goodbye to the Mask on the Alpha, Photoshop will "round" some values to 100% "K".

This is a test, on the left is Adobe InDesign, on the right Photoshop, InDesign use fractions to get the exact "CMYK" percentage value, I used a  99.9% "K" ... And what happened to this image export in Photoshop? It rounds the "K" value to 100%. Thank you Photoshop ! 
(sarcasm).

Not convinced yet? See this:

To solve this problem I can use the "Alpha Manipulation Tool" of the amazing "Texture Tool" version 46.2 of Bighead on Dolphin Forums. 

Now I can do any modifications or upscale the texture without problems on the Alpha by not having any areas with "K" = 100% (full transparency)

("Bighead" Texture Tool)  Go to Site
Important: Download the update (46.2) Download

For the Mipmaps (That files named "768x768_yourtexture_mip1.png / 768x768_yourtexture_mip2.png " ... More Info) don't worry, remember the Bighead Texture Tool from Dolphin Forums?  His amazing "Texture Tool" can make them for you on the fly. In my case, the game uses a maximum of 3 Mipmaps on almost every texture (not all).

AND THAT'S IT! Now we have good textures to use ... Lets see the final results:

If you wonder what will happen when we use a mask with a 50% "K" on the whole mask area ... well ... this:

Remember the reflections of the original ice textures on the Snow Jam video?

Now the reflections looks like this on the ice upscaled textures 

Well, that's all ...Enjoy