Hi everyone! The release date for Trails from Zero is inching closer, and we want to share more about the development of this new version of the game. I initially just intended for this to be a one-off post like we did for a few other releases, but there's more to cover here than there ever was before so instead this will be a multi-part affair. In this first part, I'll primarily talk about [b]new in-game features[/b], while future parts will focus on the improvement to in-game assets, bug-fixes, some platform support information, and maybe even more minor features I can't get to today. [h1]Background[/h1] For both this look at features and future discussions of assets, it helps to have some background knowledge of the release history of Trails from Zero. [expand] The game was originally released for [i]PSP [/i]by Falcom, with a Chinese PC release licensed to the company [i]Joyoland [/i]following soon after. This release was eventually used as the basis for a fan translation by the "[i]Geofront[/i]" team. Independently, Falcom much later on developed a Playstation 4 version of the game known as "[i]Kai[/i]", which serves as the basis for our version. That version did not include everything that was in the Joyoland version, or that was eventually added by the Geofront modders, so it fell to us to adopt or sometimes recreate these contents. I'll refer to all of these versions as "PSP", "Joyoland", "Geofront" and "Kai" respectively. [/expand] The short of it is that the most recent Falcom version - PS4 Kai - is the source for this port. [h1]Aspect Ratios, UI and Mouse Support[/h1] One of the more significant challenges when porting a game from console to PC is dealing with aspect ratios, especially in older games with lots of hand-crafted UI. In a similar vein, fully supporting mouse input in such games frequently requires a lot of work on individual menu screens and UI elements. I'm happy to report that we were able to tackle this challenge [b]in full[/b] for Trails from Zero. [h2]Aspect Ratios[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/6faaa634c31bf0f652b9f99d38b69081b0d915cb.jpg[/img] In games with a fixed camera perspective such as Trails from Zero, supporting ultrawide aspect ratios can be particularly difficult. Often, the original game optimizes level assets by not including anything which can't be seen by the original (16:9) camera. In our previous release of The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails, we [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1668530/view/3129434881289132266]tackled this issue[/url] by trying to constrain the camera, per-level, to areas that are visible. For Trails from Zero, we re-implemented this approach -- as you can see above -- but also managed to go one step further in many situations. We created some tooling to extract and edit the original level geometry, and one of our wonderful QA testers was able to fix many smaller geometry issues in maps with this tool. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/53e5d58f301de2157544c28455b8a1a9038033c0.png[/img] [h3]Aspect Ratio and UI[/h3] This takes care of the 3D rendered aspect of aspect ratio support, but still leaves open the question of UI. Here, we opted to keep a letter- or pillar-boxed layout for menus, while adjusting the implementation of all floating [b]HuD elements to anchor them[/b] to a screen location which make sense for each element. This allows us to support anything from the venerable 4:3 to ultrawide, of course including 16:10 as found on the Steam Deck. [expand] From very wide: [url={STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/8e2beb9e31801aca6a06d659880ff97bfe7342bb.png][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/83e843a2b800f6e8de7f7422d42a405497b87c0f.png[/img][/url] ... to very tall: [url={STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/8c56a11ef43ab591956dd0c58d2a833b16f34e4e.png][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/6bc8ff7e8acb769b59f1de4f495773bc8a46c4cf.png[/img][/url] Note that there were lots of sometimes very subtle UI changes to accommodate arbitrary aspect ratio support, such as changing some UI animations in battle or adjusting textures in minor ways. [/expand] [h2]Mouse Support[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/5cbf41a029cb982853f71299e4940000f796c6c6.png[/img] Mouse support in Trails from Zero is very complete. In fact, the entire game could feasibly and rather comfortably be played using only the mouse! Even the mini-games are fully supported. To this end, we've implemented the following: [list] [*][b]Mouse Menu Navigation[/b], which includes the ability to naturally select elements such as tabs in menus and characters in the equipment screen by clicking their portraits. It also includes mouse wheel scrolling in item menus -- actual scrolling, not moving your cursor (a distinction I need to mention since it's a pet peeve of mine). [*][b]Mouse Movement[/b], implemented as click-and-hold, similar to earlier PC Falcom games, or most mouse-driven PC ARPGs for that matter. This includes lots of customization options, which should be sufficient to make it feel right for almost everyone. [/list]These options can be individually enabled and disabled, allowing you to use any hybrid mouse/keyboard input method you prefer. [h2]Other UI Options[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/88bdf3bb25955a0ba3c72219f59447f27f93da2c.png[/img] We have implemented some more UI options to make the game more configurable to your preferences, and to better support different output devices or play styles:[list] [*]A [b]UI Scale[/b] option. The default setting, which is what you've been seeing in the screenshots so far, is more suitable for playing on a PC monitor or large TV. There is also a "Large" UI setting, which mimics the original PSP layout and sizes more closely and is great for portables such as the Steam Deck. [*]We've added the ability to [b]hide the status display[/b] depending on your characters' current state. You can choose to e.g. hide the status information when every party member has full HP, or only if all of HP, EP and CP are full. [*]We also included the option to only show status condition icons for the currently selected character in battles, a setting which was originally only available in Trails to Azure. [/list][img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/78b3f2887baed6051b9b20781ddc81d659bc232c.png[/img] The screenshot above shows the large UI setting - if you look at it in full screen you might see how it can be overbearing on a standard modern monitor or TV setup, but it's great for smaller screens. [h1]The Message Log[/h1] Modern Trails games and many other JRPGs frequently feature a message log, which allows you to see previous dialogue and in-game messages, and re-play voice lines. No previous official release of Trails from Zero had this feature, however, the fan community added it in the Geofront release. We couldn't re-use this implementation directly, but the feature was really popular with fans and one of the more frequent questions about our release was whether it would include a message log. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/6d1d52b7028923736bf652ce0838299d04474dd9.png[/img] So far, I had to tell people not to concern themselves with this for now, but that only made them more curious. Now, I'm happy to confirm that we implemented a message log feature from scratch, with all the expected functionality. You can see it in action in the screenshot above. Talking about messages, we also backported a new feature which was added in Trails to Azure later which allows you to hide dialogue with a button press. [h1]Rendering and Graphics[/h1] Unlike later full 3D games, where there is a lot to improve regarding the rendering quality of existing assets and effects, the most major improvements in a game like Trails from Zero must come from improvements in the assets that are used. We'll provide more information on that topic in a future post, but for now there are still a few technical improvements to discuss. [h2]Increased Draw Distance[/h2] Everyone who follows our ports knows that draw distance is a recurring topic. Personally, I'm always saddened when I play a PC port (or new console remaster) of an old or relatively low-tech game, and still encounter pop-in that should be easily rectified on the newer hardware. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/456dbbf8056e67839cf2323fbea83acf72089ad8.png[/img] The image of Crossbell Square above is cropped from the far background of two screenshots - so don't pay too much attention to the overall environment - and shows how two NPCs are being distance culled in the left case and not on the right. To make things clear, those NPCs are there in both versions, but in any previous release they pop into (graphical) being if you move backwards a few steps. In short, [b]distance pop-in is completely eliminated[/b] in our release. [h2]High FPS Support[/h2] The PSP version of Trails from Zero was designed for and ran at 30 FPS, and the later Kai release increased this to 60. While the Geofront fan release allowed for higher FPS settings, it could not circumvent the basic design of the game expecting a fixed framerate, and thus slowed down unless the FPS target was maintained consistently. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/9425dd33dc5aad152aec52e24e183044fe4c8008.png[/img] We went in and fully made Trails from Zero compatible with [b]variable framerates[/b]. With our release up to 144 FPS will be fully tested and supported, which also included fixing several smaller issues related to collision and animations. Interestingly, some of these already existed in previous 60 FPS versions, but none of them were critical or widely reported. [h2]Anti Aliasing and the Rest[/h2] [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40784458/67effb70b53319a2db584bf09b908f158fa40ffb.png[/img] Regarding the basics, we support MSAA (up to 8x) and FXAA, as well anisotropic texture filtering. Refresh rate and frame limiting can be configured independently. [expand] This one is really obscure and will not interest most people, but did you notice that the "Monitor" selection says "CF791" in parentheses after "Display 1"? That's the model ID of my monitor. I always wondered why games with explicit monitor selection options (which already seem like the minority) almost never display the model name of a display, but rather just its numeric ID. Well, I now think the answer is because Windows makes it a bit too annoying to bother getting this information for a very small improvement only a subset of the audience benefits from. Anyway, yeah, we have that. [/expand] [h1]Conclusion[/h1] I think that's enough for now - in fact, if any of you made it through this entire post I salute your dedication. Before the release, in some subsequent posts, we'll talk about other facets of the PC version, including game assets, some platform features that didn't make it into this part, perhaps some bug fixes, and even - surprisingly - optimization. Until next time, Peter "Durante" Thoman, CTO, PH3