FINAL FANTASY IX (PS1) Classic Menu Overhaul [Retexture]

[GreenTea]

Hey everyone,

I've been lurking on RH for a while and I'm such a fan of romhacks that facelifts or enhances games, or both combined with awesome translations.

Every since the release of the latest Beetle PSX HW core for RetroArch, I've been working on my own sort of modification for FINAL FANTASY IX.
It's not really a romhack in the sense that it doesn't alter code, but rather a retexturing project of mine.

The idea is to make the FFIX menu's look closer to the classic games of the series. For example, I never liked the font they chose, it's rather too cartoony. FFIX was supposed to be a throwback to the retro era, so that's where I'll be going at.

Among changes are:
- Title screen menu entries redone.
- Original fonts replaced with Chicago and Avant Garde Gothic/Century Gothic font sets (also slightly modified to fit their container boxes).
- Some icons redone (Gil, clock).
- Menu background pattern removed.

There's still plenty left to alter. More icons (HP, MP, stats, equipment, etc.), stone icons.

I wasn't sure if this is the right place to share retexturing projects, but just in case anyone likes it, I'm willing to share  .

[ArkthePieKing]

Ooh that looks slick as hell, I love this. It looks way better than vanilla's menus that's for sure.

[mobosinco]

Any updates? I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out!

[nanashi89]

I love it! Don't give up on it!

[GreenTea]

Ooh that looks slick as hell, I love this. It looks way better than vanilla's menus that's for sure.

Any updates? I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out!

I love it! Don't give up on it!

Thanks guys, it feels good to know there's some support for this project.
I've been trying to make some progress, but the summer heat is not helping (soaking behind the computer).

A major change I've made is the use of bitmap style font. The idea of this project is to make the menu and dialogue text resemble the classic FF more, so using bitmap style makes more sense.

Right now, I'm deciding whether to use both TrueType/Bitmap, or keep everything bitmap.

[Queue]

If you want the UI to look good, apparent pixel size needs to be consistent within the UI. Based on your pictures, that would mean the bitmap-style font fits the UI much better than the truetype-style font.

The truetype-style font, when not tied into the UI, for example, damage numbers floating over 3D models in combat, appears to look fine (essentially because its pixel size matches the 3D render pixel size).

Not sure if related to your work or just an aspect of the game's rendering, but the chat bubble drop shadows appear to have some issues. They seem to be at render resolution instead of UI resolution, and sometimes have gaps. Them being at the render resolution isn't necessarily an eyesore, but those gaps (and shadow overlaps?) aren't great.