Final Fantasy Hacktics

Hey everyone. This is my first post, but I've long been a fan of the work done at these forums; FFT's among my favorite all-time games and I love having new ways to play it. It seems like most modding action happens on the PSX version of the game, which makes sense, but the PSX version's main downfall for modern gameplay is the lack of non-stretched widescreen support. If I recall correctly there's a patch for WotL to make the 16:9 look better than it did originally (alongside the slowdown fix).

Anyways, I was hunting around for patches and found out that just a few weeks ago, someone seems to have discovered a widescreen patch for the PSX version. You can find the original post here.

This guy has a (Russian) webpage where he has some of his codes assembled into patches -- which means he also has a Final Fantasy Tactics PSX widescreen patch! (You'll need some kind of translation in place if you don't speak Russian, but the patch is the fourth download link listed and is for the US version.) Buuuut the patch is called "Nose Version", because... the guy also wanted to add noses to every single avatar in the game.

I love the widescreen, but hate the noses -- so after first asking for help, I've instead taken some time to build a PPF that just applies the widescreen codes, but maintains the original profile images. This in combination with any of your favorite PSX mods should create a really nice version of the game to play on modern screens, on your handheld emulation device, etc etc etc!

PPF attached; let me know if you run into any issues. This is my first time trying to do something like this, so it's entirely possible something's wonky here or there, and plus I'm just building off the shoulders of someone else's great work.

Quote from: kybard on September 23, 2022, 12:15:23 pmHey everyone. This is my first post, but I've long been a fan of the work done at these forums; FFT's among my favorite all-time games and I love having new ways to play it. It seems like most modding action happens on the PSX version of the game, which makes sense, but the PSX version's main downfall for modern gameplay is the lack of non-stretched widescreen support. If I recall correctly there's a patch for WotL to make the 16:9 look better than it did originally (alongside the slowdown fix).

Anyways, I was hunting around for patches and found out that just a few weeks ago, someone seems to have discovered a widescreen patch for the PSX version. You can find the original post here.

This guy has a (Russian) webpage where he has some of his codes assembled into patches -- which means he also has a Final Fantasy Tactics PSX widescreen patch! (You'll need some kind of translation in place if you don't speak Russian, but the patch is the fourth download link listed and is for the US version.) Buuuut the patch is called "Nose Version", because... the guy also wanted to add noses to every single avatar in the game.

Love the widescreen; hate the noses. Does anyone here have any interest and ability to use patching tools to create a PPF patch that just applies the widescreen fix? Having this, in conjunction with any of the comprehensive QoL improvement patches we have these days (Lion War, Cerabow), could produce the best possible versions of FFT available barring, say, decompilation or remaster (and I don't have a lot of faith in the quality of a remaster).

I'd do this myself but dabbling with some of the tools required makes it clear I don't really have the time or baseline skillset to pull it off, so I wanted to share the info in hopes some enterprising someone takes an interest...

Protip: Literally never end or start any request or ask with "I'd do it myself but don't have the time" No ones time is any more valuable than anyone else's.

That being said, maybe someone will find use for this, but being that i play PS1 games on a CRT, I have no interest in this personally.

Fair! I will take another stab at learning the tools and trying to create a patch, but I did also just want to make sure this stuff was known/available to the community in case someone else wants to use it. Seemed weird that it was, as far as I could find, kind of buried inside of a single hundred-plus-page thread on a forum for PCSX2.

I figured it out, thanks to a little kick in the pants (thanks Elric). See edits to top post for download link and some screenshots!

Just FYI, you can find paul_met on romhacking.net in the future if you want to ask him questions. You'll often find the same people pop up everywhere; it pays to google usernames.

Ahh thank you. Years of not being on proper forums/communities because of twitter and reddit have really rotted my "people surely exist in more than one place" instincts. I'll definitely reach out to him; have been discussing in the Discord some weird visual issues with the patch and am wondering if there's any tweaks that could be made by someone who better understands the underlying changes...

Quote from: kybard on September 23, 2022, 12:15:23 pmHey everyone. This is my first post, but I've long been a fan of the work done at these forums; FFT's among my favorite all-time games and I love having new ways to play it. It seems like most modding action happens on the PSX version of the game, which makes sense, but the PSX version's main downfall for modern gameplay is the lack of non-stretched widescreen support. If I recall correctly there's a patch for WotL to make the 16:9 look better than it did originally (alongside the slowdown fix).

Anyways, I was hunting around for patches and found out that just a few weeks ago, someone seems to have discovered a widescreen patch for the PSX version. You can find the original post here.

This guy has a (Russian) webpage where he has some of his codes assembled into patches -- which means he also has a Final Fantasy Tactics PSX widescreen patch! (You'll need some kind of translation in place if you don't speak Russian, but the patch is the fourth download link listed and is for the US version.) Buuuut the patch is called "Nose Version", because... the guy also wanted to add noses to every single avatar in the game.

I love the widescreen, but hate the noses -- so after first asking for help, I've instead taken some time to build a PPF that just applies the widescreen codes, but maintains the original profile images. This in combination with any of your favorite PSX mods should create a really nice version of the game to play on modern screens, on your handheld emulation device, etc etc etc!

PPF attached; let me know if you run into any issues. This is my first time trying to do something like this, so it's entirely possible something's wonky here or there, and plus I'm just building off the shoulders of someone else's great work.

spoiler: Screenshots

Is there any way to merge this with The Lion War of the Lions?

Given that this doesnt actually work, and should prolly be removed outright. No