[A BIT OUTDATED] GameCube Cutscene Ports

(NOTE: The update released on November 7th included lots of video player fixes and great h4m->vp9 encodes, but have worse audio quality due to the sampling rate being wrong. So, that's a thing now.)

Master, we're in a tight spot. The new update's cutscenes are horrible AI upscales, the old ones are awful PS2 versions. Something must be done...
This is a mod that ports the original GameCube cutscenes to the new version of the game. No gimmicks.

Made by me
HVQM4 decoder by Paul B Mahol (richardpl), part of the librempeg project

In the name of Harman...

NOTE

The update released on November 7th included lots of video player fixes and great h4m->vp9 encodes, but have worse audio quality due to the sampling rate being wrong. So, that's a thing now.

Download + Instructions

There are two versions of the mod:

• Scaled up 1080p version
  
• The original unscaled version

This is because the game scales the cutscenes using Nearest Neighbour, meaning they will be pixelated when played back. To avoid this, the 1080p version was made, and it's recommended that you use it. The unscaled version is for those who want the completely unedited gamecube cutscenes.

You can see the comparison between the different versions in the "Comparisons" section of this guide.

Download Links:

• 1080p Version (Recommended)[mega.nz]
  
• Unscaled Version[mega.nz]

Installation Instructions:

Step 1 - Download the cutscenes

Download the cutscenes from one of the links above.
(You don't need to download both, they're different versions!)

Step 2 - Open Killer7's directory

1. Right click on Killer7 in your Steam Library
   
2. Go to "Manage"
   
3. Click on "Browse local files"

Step 3 - Extract the cutscenes

Extract the folder titled "Movie" from the downloaded archive into Killer7's directory.
(Accept the overwriting/replacing of all files)

Done!

Now you have the original gamecube cutscenes.

Comparisons

GameCube Ports, 1080p Version:

GameCube Ports, Unscaled Version:

After Update Cutscenes:

Before Update Cutscenes:

Notes

• The compression artifacts you may see during playback were there in the original cutscene files on the gamecube.
  
• These videos are not meant for playback in actual video player software! The in-game video player does color range conversion during playback, which means that the files need to have a wrong color range for correct colors. This also means that if you attempt to view the files in an actual video player, the colors will look washed out.

Technical Notes (for NERDS)

• The original cutscene files are stored in the HVQM4 (.h4m) codec.
  
• For decoding them, librempeg ( https://github.com/librempeg/librempeg ) software was used.
  
• This software was used for encoding them as well.

• The port has a very bad video player, with various problems and peculiarities.
  
• Cutscenes need to be in a WebM container with VP9 video and Vorbis audio, which is different from normal WebMs (VP9 + Opus), presumably done this way so that they can keep using the previous audio decoder (previously cutscenes were in an Ogg container, with Theora video + Vorbis audio).
  
• Cutscenes need to have a wrong color range set (Limited in Full), because the in-game video player converts them during playback (Full -> Limited).
  
• The playback seems to drop frames a lot, regardless of video resolution, bitrate, or the capabilities of the PC. This causes the playback to look jittery/laggy when compared to playback in an actual video player, as if the FPS is 12-15 instead of 30.
  
• There is automatic fitting of the video to the screen, but the behavior behind it is bad. The first cutscene that is played in the session sets the fitting parameters for all the other cutscenes, so if the next cutscenes played after the first one have different resolutions, the playback becomes janky (stretched or zoomed in). This actually happens with the official update ai upscaled cutscenes in the Alter Ego chapter, as the 04010101.webm cutscene has the height of 1080, instead of 1052 due to a mistake of the developers.
  
• The VP9 decoder used seems to only support "yuv420p" pixel formatting, as using "gbrp" causes the playback to glitch out. If there was "gbrp" support, the cutscenes could've been encoded more faithfully to the original gamecube h4m files.

[(29♂)Mona ..DUSMANULdinSANITAR]

please read the note at the top of the guide, I said new "original" cutscenes as provided by the game developers in the november update, as well there's no need for the 1080p cutscenes due to the video player fixes

[iforironman]

The GC 1080p cutscenes I thought you said were better than the original cutscenes?

[(29♂)Mona ..DUSMANULdinSANITAR]

perhaps you confuse this guide with the other one that had a link to download the old textures before the october update, but I can say that the new "original" cutscenes included in the november update are fine

[iforironman]

Now that the options provide you with an option to use the "original" or "restored" cutscenes, which should we use if we've extracted your texture pack?

[Dez Kon Tent]

absolute legend

[g80]

Wow thank you man its good

[(29♂)Mona ..DUSMANULdinSANITAR]

between pre update and everything else:
more blurry, washed out colors. the first is due to them being the PS2 cutscenes, which are screen recordings of GC cutscenes that were then used in the PS2 version of the game.

[(29♂)Mona ..DUSMANULdinSANITAR]

between after update and 1080p versions:
the after update cutscene does have the sharpest look, however, look closer and you'll notice various AI artifacts:
- handsome white pearl on the right being completely destroyed by the upscaler
- same with handsome gold's face;
- the red "B" on the channel dial in top right becoming very distorted
- the upscaler doesn't seem to understand which parts are supposed to be sharp and which are supposed to be soft
you're also correct about there being issues that can't be seen by screenshots, such as the AI issues becoming way more apparent in motion, with the morphing being different every frame.
there are also more examples of the AI artifacts introduced by the AI upscaling not included in this guide, such as in this same cutscene towards the end where the upscaler considers the scanlines part of the wall and messes up badly.

[(29♂)Mona ..DUSMANULdinSANITAR]

between unscaled and 1080p versions:
there are visible pixels in the unscaled version due to how the in-game player works, while the 1080p version is smooth

[Kondiq]

Looking at all the screenshots you posted for comparison, all look the same, but the "After Update Cutscenes" look the sharpest and the most pleasant to eye. Am I missing something? Is it nostalgia to choose the older ones, or are there other issues with them that you can't see on these screenshots?