I noticed them doing this months ago and was deeply disappointed by it. A.I.-upscaling, especially the way OGN has used it, makes the games look like some kind of smeary, strange Freddy Krueger nightmare. It makes me literally physically ill to look at it, and I think anybody who considers this a "remaster" needs to reevaluate their standards.
The strange thing is, I'm not even sure why they're doing this. While the quality of recordings for most old games on their YouTube channel isn't great, I know higher quality versions of the recordings must exist, right? There were streams in pretty darn good quality back in the day. I know this because, for a time, I received stream recordings from Baezzi that were very nice, and they still look nice on my channel like 15 years later.
Maybe OGN has lost their recorded archive? I don't get it.
On February 23 2025 09:47 NukeTheStars wrote: Horrible.
I noticed them doing this months ago and was deeply disappointed by it. A.I.-upscaling, especially the way OGN has used it, makes the games look like some kind of smeary, strange Freddy Krueger nightmare. It makes me literally physically ill to look at it, and I think anybody who considers this a "remaster" needs to reevaluate their standards.
The strange thing is, I'm not even sure why they're doing this. While the quality of recordings for most old games on their YouTube channel isn't great, I know higher quality versions of the recordings must exist, right? There were streams in pretty darn good quality back in the day. I know this because, for a time, I received stream recordings from Baezzi that were very nice, and they still look nice on my channel like 15 years later.
Maybe OGN has lost their recorded archive? I don't get it.
Long time no see! I've actually thought if they have the replays they could load em in Remastered and have software track and match movement of the observer so we get actual beautiful Remastered without having to manually observe a game. If AI becomes cheaper then maybe a better trained model can just match things closer to Remastered. It doesn't look great ur right I just saw a bit... Still I'm glad it's not totally forgotten. ^_._^
not a fan of their upscaling technique. the best quality are the original cable broadcasts that aren't compressed bitrate wise but i highly doubt that they have those lying around.
I think some will be in for a shock when they release the updated VoDs for the 1999 Tooniverse Open. The "Alien" chairs, the weird costumes & set design, and just how unrefined the meta was.
On February 23 2025 09:47 NukeTheStars wrote: Horrible.
I noticed them doing this months ago and was deeply disappointed by it. A.I.-upscaling, especially the way OGN has used it, makes the games look like some kind of smeary, strange Freddy Krueger nightmare. It makes me literally physically ill to look at it, and I think anybody who considers this a "remaster" needs to reevaluate their standards.
The strange thing is, I'm not even sure why they're doing this. While the quality of recordings for most old games on their YouTube channel isn't great, I know higher quality versions of the recordings must exist, right? There were streams in pretty darn good quality back in the day. I know this because, for a time, I received stream recordings from Baezzi that were very nice, and they still look nice on my channel like 15 years later.
Maybe OGN has lost their recorded archive? I don't get it.
On February 23 2025 12:40 Chris_Havoc wrote: I think some will be in for a shock when they release the updated VoDs for the 1999 Tooniverse Open. The "Alien" chairs, the weird costumes & set design, and just how unrefined the meta was.
they're already on youtube, check out the amazing vhs quality recordings!
On February 23 2025 12:40 Chris_Havoc wrote: I think some will be in for a shock when they release the updated VoDs for the 1999 Tooniverse Open. The "Alien" chairs, the weird costumes & set design, and just how unrefined the meta was.
they're already on youtube, check out the amazing vhs quality recordings!
idk what everyone is whining about. it looks a lot better than the other videos of that time on YT. Also releasing the replays won't help you much with watching them in SCR, as they won't work. You'd have to switch an old version of BW to the version used in the replay to watch it.
The result itself is far from ideal, but it's awesome that OGN shows love for the game, & the idea is awesome. Also, quite frankly, it's perfectly watchable, much more than the old 240p content.
Let's just hope we eventually get better upscaling
On February 23 2025 22:01 LML wrote: idk what everyone is whining about. it looks a lot better than the other videos of that time on YT. Also releasing the replays won't help you much with watching them in SCR, as they won't work. You'd have to switch an old version of BW to the version used in the replay to watch it.
I don't know the extent to which that is actually true. Here is a working replay from 2001 when replays were introduced.
(I skipped through another longer replay and there were mine idle workers at the main nexus with minerals still unmined which is a clear sign of a broken/incompatible replay)
Maybe some1 with 1.08 or later install up to 1.16.1 can check the replay and see if it matches with the remastered.
I also guess there is a way to make a RepFix for remastered if the need arises.
On February 23 2025 22:01 LML wrote: idk what everyone is whining about. it looks a lot better than the other videos of that time on YT. Also releasing the replays won't help you much with watching them in SCR, as they won't work. You'd have to switch an old version of BW to the version used in the replay to watch it.
I don't know the extent to which that is actually true. Here is a working replay from 2001 when replays were introduced.
(I skipped through another longer replay and there were mine idle workers at the main nexus with minerals still unmined which is a clear sign of a broken/incompatible replay)
Maybe some1 with 1.08 or later install up to 1.16.1 can check the replay and see if it matches with the remastered.
I also guess there is a way to make a RepFix for remastered if the need arises.
colour me surprised. I'd have expected it to be pretty broken or incompatible since there was a version changer program back in the day so people could watch replays from older versions without issues.
On February 23 2025 12:40 Chris_Havoc wrote: I think some will be in for a shock when they release the updated VoDs for the 1999 Tooniverse Open. The "Alien" chairs, the weird costumes & set design, and just how unrefined the meta was.
On February 23 2025 09:47 NukeTheStars wrote: Horrible.
I noticed them doing this months ago and was deeply disappointed by it. A.I.-upscaling, especially the way OGN has used it, makes the games look like some kind of smeary, strange Freddy Krueger nightmare. It makes me literally physically ill to look at it, and I think anybody who considers this a "remaster" needs to reevaluate their standards.
The strange thing is, I'm not even sure why they're doing this. While the quality of recordings for most old games on their YouTube channel isn't great, I know higher quality versions of the recordings must exist, right? There were streams in pretty darn good quality back in the day. I know this because, for a time, I received stream recordings from Baezzi that were very nice, and they still look nice on my channel like 15 years later.
Maybe OGN has lost their recorded archive? I don't get it.
So disappointed that they are jumping on the half cooked AI train. This might be a good approach, idk 5 years from now? 10 years? 20? Who knows, but as Video Upscaling is right now, it turns the ingame clips of starcraft into some smeary garbage. It works pretty good for when they show the players though. Once again I am glad for having downloaded that giant OGN torrent all those years ago. It makes you wonder if they even bothered to compare the AI result to the original, imo the original vods still hold up just fine. Its the MBC vods that are a pixelated mess with audio straight from hell.
On February 23 2025 22:01 LML wrote: idk what everyone is whining about. it looks a lot better than the other videos of that time on YT. Also releasing the replays won't help you much with watching them in SCR, as they won't work. You'd have to switch an old version of BW to the version used in the replay to watch it.
I don't know the extent to which that is actually true. Here is a working replay from 2001 when replays were introduced.
(I skipped through another longer replay and there were mine idle workers at the main nexus with minerals still unmined which is a clear sign of a broken/incompatible replay)
Maybe some1 with 1.08 or later install up to 1.16.1 can check the replay and see if it matches with the remastered.
I also guess there is a way to make a RepFix for remastered if the need arises.
colour me surprised. I'd have expected it to be pretty broken or incompatible since there was a version changer program back in the day so people could watch replays from older versions without issues.
if you look at the minimap, it clearly shows that it is python, a map released in 2007. seems like for some reason whoever created the replay had their pc time set to 2001.
anyway from memory, anything that's 1.08 to 1.11 will definitely be fucked if it involves a zerg. other match-up's is a coin flip.
Apart from the weird accelerations that sometimes the units are making is not super bad. There are many games that aged better or worse on youtube. So there are cases that the original is still better than this AI upscale. But for example i have never seen any of the early OSLs. So could be interesting to watch some of those with a somewhat decent quality.
the brightness of the other rm vids on their channel is way better, there's also this weird wiggly effect on the units/buildings that the other vids don't have
On February 23 2025 12:40 Chris_Havoc wrote: I think some will be in for a shock when they release the updated VoDs for the 1999 Tooniverse Open. The "Alien" chairs, the weird costumes & set design, and just how unrefined the meta was.
they're already on youtube, check out the amazing vhs quality recordings!
On February 23 2025 09:47 NukeTheStars wrote: Horrible.
I noticed them doing this months ago and was deeply disappointed by it. A.I.-upscaling, especially the way OGN has used it, makes the games look like some kind of smeary, strange Freddy Krueger nightmare. It makes me literally physically ill to look at it, and I think anybody who considers this a "remaster" needs to reevaluate their standards.
The strange thing is, I'm not even sure why they're doing this. While the quality of recordings for most old games on their YouTube channel isn't great, I know higher quality versions of the recordings must exist, right? There were streams in pretty darn good quality back in the day. I know this because, for a time, I received stream recordings from Baezzi that were very nice, and they still look nice on my channel like 15 years later.
Maybe OGN has lost their recorded archive? I don't get it.
Maybe there can be some sort of xBRZ filter. I have been into upscalers, that is a tier above superxbr if you have the means. Like you say, neural upscalers are lossy - they are not to be used. Super XBR 100/75 is the gold standard. PS: Man! The first game I watch, it is Leta!
On February 24 2025 19:47 GTR wrote: one thing i definitely agree on is that the non-game upscaling (so the player shots etc) are amazing quality, upscaled.
I love the old animations. The new one resembles sc2. PS: these replays are on fire! I believe they can be improved upon if the wireframes were extrapolated from a noninterlaced original a.k.a. from source material.
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
What do you mean queen rushes ? for what purpose LMAO. I will love to see a game if you can link one!
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
What do you mean queen rushes ? for what purpose LMAO. I will love to see a game if you can link one!
Do you recall there being battlereports on battle.net, images of queens ensnaring marines? Is it again one of my memory manifestations?
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
What do you mean queen rushes ? for what purpose LMAO. I will love to see a game if you can link one!
Do you recall there being battlereports on battle.net, images of queens ensnaring marines? Is it again one of my memory manifestations?
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
What do you mean queen rushes ? for what purpose LMAO. I will love to see a game if you can link one!
Do you recall there being battlereports on battle.net, images of queens ensnaring marines? Is it again one of my memory manifestations?
What do you mean by battlereports on battle net ?
There used to be battle reports there since replays weren't yet invented. Maybe they were, otherwise how would they capture screenshots?
On February 24 2025 20:10 Waxangel wrote: A ladder stocked with ridiculously long ground-path maps + Blizzard taking an agonizingly long time to nerf Mutalisk rushing...
Early StarCraft was sure cool
Oh it gets even weirder. If my memory hasn't gone bad, Zerg Queen rushes eventually become a thing later on in the 1999 Open. The ZvZ games in particular are so different compared to the standard ZvZ meta that we know.
What do you mean queen rushes ? for what purpose LMAO. I will love to see a game if you can link one!
Do you recall there being battlereports on battle.net, images of queens ensnaring marines? Is it again one of my memory manifestations?
What do you mean by battlereports on battle net ?
There used to be battle reports there since replays weren't yet invented. Maybe they were, otherwise how would they capture screenshots?
Was this an official thing or just random players reporting their games and uploading this pictures ?
Guys the 1999 looks unwatchable, idk what you guys are saying with it having souls and all. Sure the remastered 1999 doesn't look great, but its leagues ahead compared to 1999 one. At least you can make out faces. But I think that's because originals are in such low quality in first place, altho I swear when I watched some of these proleagues on tooniverse back in the day on TV, I swear it looked lot more watchable on TV.
Biggest obstacle for SC2 recruit like me from watching these old games are its quality and I'm glad OGN is remastering them, even if the letters look off.
On February 25 2025 06:51 TT1 wrote: just watch the original games on CRT monitor, problem solved
I used to think that, but these remasters prove I love the old colors. The new game looks oversaturated lcd and the old looks like greyed out crt, perfect greyscale, you know what I mean? I'll drop starcraft remastered in a heartbeat just to watch these anew.
On February 25 2025 06:47 jinjin5000 wrote: Guys the 1999 looks unwatchable, idk what you guys are saying with it having souls and all. Sure the remastered 1999 doesn't look great, but its leagues ahead compared to 1999 one. At least you can make out faces. But I think that's because originals are in such low quality in first place, altho I swear when I watched some of these proleagues on tooniverse back in the day on TV, I swear it looked lot more watchable on TV.
Biggest obstacle for SC2 recruit like me from watching these old games are its quality and I'm glad OGN is remastering them, even if the letters look off.
I agree, and this isn't something a crt will fix. This is a camera pointed at a projection and is at most 240p. 1.16 on CRT was amazing, I agree, but if this is the best way to preserve these old games so be it, hopefully the old versions stick around without OGN going after them.
Honestly this could be fixed if dual stage upscaling was used. Superxbr is great at upscaling, however it isn't much good adding lost resolution - that is what neural filters do best. One is good for luma, the other for chroma, although I'm having my doubts as is. Make a custom filter for the wireframes and deinterlacing. Maybe somebody would help from the madvr & avsforums.
Oh wow this is amazing! I have to agree that while its not perfect, its way better than what we had before. I would hope one day to rewatch the Bisu vs Savior series after upscaling.
On February 25 2025 06:47 jinjin5000 wrote: Guys the 1999 looks unwatchable, idk what you guys are saying with it having souls and all. Sure the remastered 1999 doesn't look great, but its leagues ahead compared to 1999 one. At least you can make out faces. But I think that's because originals are in such low quality in first place, altho I swear when I watched some of these proleagues on tooniverse back in the day on TV, I swear it looked lot more watchable on TV.
Biggest obstacle for SC2 recruit like me from watching these old games are its quality and I'm glad OGN is remastering them, even if the letters look off.
Those upscales are probably not from "original" source ? If anyone remembers "emperor of the terran" (Boxer DVD) which also contains games from 2002 i think - - that what its ("old games re-releases in 2025") probably should at least look like.
On February 26 2025 02:36 npnl19 wrote: Those upscales are probably not from "original" source ? If anyone remembers "emperor of the terran" (Boxer DVD) which also contains games from 2002 i think - - that what its ("old games re-releases in 2025") probably should at least look like.
yes these are definitely the highest quality i've ever seen from starcraft matches in the pre-sc2 era. however i don't have the iso anymore and i'm not sure if anyone has a copy of the videos i ripped.
from memory even the korean warez scene didn't even release pure ts/tp files of starcraft games; they were always compressed down with xvid back in the day (shoutouts to oskyloveo)
On February 27 2025 22:08 Chris_Havoc wrote: I would love that after all the '99 Tooniverse vods come out, that Tasteless & Artosis cast them, hopefully without having seen them previously.
As a way to show just how far the meta has morphed & evolved over the last 26 years of course.
That would be hilarious. I kind of both want to watch it with 'forgiving' Artosis and 'this is not how you're supposed to play it' Artosis.
I think it depends on how you look at it, resolution seems quite fine but the image is so unstable with all the texture fizzling that I cannot watch it for more than 2 minutes before getting sea sick.
But everything outside of the gameplay looks so sick and funny, like the extremely detailed chairs and desks that look extremely uncomfortable. Makes me nostalgic, even though I'm not much into bw and was three years old at the time of recording lol