Felis (he/they)

You will need:

FFXIV TexTools

Photoshop (I use CC 2022)

NVIDIA DDS Photoshop Plugin

Waifu2x Caffe

Export the normal and multi texture maps as DDS from TexTools.

Open them in Photoshop, save the RGB and alpha channels as separate PNG files.

To grab the alpha:

Click alpha channel name

Ctrl + A to select all and Ctrl + C to copy alpha

Click RGB channel name

Ctrl + V to paste alpha

Add these 4 PNG files to a new folder, name doesn't matter.

Open Waifu2x, drag the folder into the Input path (Export path will auto generate).

These settings have given me the best results. Do either 2x or 4x (I do 4x). 3x will not give you a compatible size for TexTools. Level can be 2 or 3. I like 3 for hair, 2 for clothing usually. 1 looks like butts.

Drag all your new upscaled images into Photoshop.

OPTIONAL POST PROCESSING STEP IF YOUR TEXTURES ARE STILL CRUNCHY: For each RGB, add the following filters in this order: Denoise, Surface Blur, Smart Sharpen (recommended settings below)

These can be tweaked manually for best results. Sometimes I will add more Denoise to a specific channel, or add filters separately to each RGB channel.

On the alpha channel PNGs, add Contrast or adjust Levels to minimize gray areas. You want as little fading as possible but still have nice soft lines.

You can download the Photoshop Action preset I made for these here: Google Drive

Go back to the original DDSs and Ctrl + Alt + I to resize 200% or 400%, whatever you put in Waifu2x (this is also in the Action preset I linked above)

Ctrl + A and Ctrl + C each PNG one by one and Ctrl + V into their original locations. (you can also create an alpha channel on the RGB PNG and paste the alpha PNG in there, but I like doing it this way)

XIV textures can be real crunchy sometimes, and you might have to manually smooth out some lines with the Smudge Tool on both RGBs. I usually use a brush size of around 7 px, hardness ~50%, and strength of ~25%.

Topaz Studio 2 is also a good optional Photoshop plugin with advanced denoising filters. It helps minimize the manual smoothing and gets that deep c r o n c h.

Save as copy, select DDS and choose 8.8.8.8, make sure 'Both' is checked for color and Alpha.

Import them into Textools and YOU DONE.

Here is the before and after (again):

And here is an example of a REALLY CRONCHY hair that needed to be manually smoothed with the Smudge Tool and a prayer:

Hair still cronchy in some places?

Sorry, you gotta smooth them out manually most likely. It do be like that sometimes.

Blurring or weird artifacts near edges?

Too much gray in your alpha channels, add more contrast to it on the normal texture map.

Hair texture is too flat?

You might have lost some details or contrast in the RGB channels, this happens more often when you Denoise too much. Adjust the levels of both RGB channels until the lights and darks match the original image more. Keep the middle arrow in the center as much as you can.

How do you do this in Gimp?

I have no idea. 😭 BUT you can use Photopea! It's a free web-based Photoshop clone: https://www.photopea.com/

How do I upscale gear textures?

It's generally the same process, with a few IMPORTANT differences.

The normal texture map will give you the most trouble:

Treat the blue channel as an alpha channel (because that's what it's doing)

The actual normal alpha channel is directly linked to colorsets.

Do NOT add filters to this channel that alter the shades. If you are denoising, make sure it's lightly to minimize bleeding.

When scaling the original normal DDS, you can use Nearest Neighbor or Preserve Details 2.0 and ignore the alpha channel completely if you don't wanna mess with it (wise).

You may have to retrace some areas. I recommend Bizu's guides if you go that route. Because that stuff is Alot.

I've had better results applying filters to the individual channels, it's also easier to see that way.

To edit colorsets in Penumbra, go to Advanced Editing and then Materials. Choose the material ending in "…_b.mtrl". The beginning will look like "GEAR_NAME/CHOICE_NAME/…". There may be several depending on the size on the modpack, so read them carefully.

You CANNOT revert back to the original colorset after you save, you have to reimport the mod for that. This is the macro I use for Penumbra Redraw:

So when you're doing a hair mashup, you're gonna have a bunch of vertex groups that don't do anything after joining onto another skeleton, because the bones don't exist anymore. This is a quick guide on how to rename your vertex groups to match your hair skeleton, then join it onto that skeleton. So your hair weights work! Woo! The UV part is only necessary when working with non-XIV models. All models exported from TexTools will have correctly named UVs.

Keyboard shortcuts used:

DEL - delete menu will pop up

CTRL + left click - select multiple meshes (always select the mesh you are merging to last, it will be yellow)

Default bones in every hair skeleton:

j_kao - base head bone (all bones branch from this)

j_kubi - neck area

j_kami_a - first ponytail/long hair bone

j_kami_b - second ponytail/long hair bone

j_kami_f_l - hair on left side of head

j_kami_f_r - hair on right side of head

Naming conventions for bones in extra skeletons: (h0001 used as an example)

j_ex_h0001_ke_f - front of hair

j_ex_h0001_ke_b - back of hair (similar to j_kami_a)

j_ex_h0001_ke_l - hair on left side of head (but custom)

j_ex_h0001_ke_r - hair on right side of head (but custom)

j_ex_h0001_ke_u - usually small random sections, like a little ponytail or tuff of hair somewhere