GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Talk about the 1990s number 1 video game show GamesMaster.
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SeeNoEvil
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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by SeeNoEvil »

houseofpants wrote:
Thu Dec 05, 2019 7:17 pm
Hey seenoevil, great to see the forum is still around. Your work years ago on the DVD sets were fantastic - must be approaching ten years ago now?
It'll be ten years since I first began the DVD project in this coming April. That was so much work! Hope people still get kicks out of seeing it all these years later!

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by houseofpants »

It was fantastic the amount of effort and care you put into it back then! Considering the challenge, I think we did pretty bloody well to assemble virtually 99.5% of its history! Hope all is good.

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Roareye
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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »

EDIT: OH WHAT!? Ten years of GamesMaster Live by SeeNoEvil? Congratulations my man. Now let's take your superb work and kick it up a notch with my latest update ;)

Okay guys, it's been all quiet on the British front lately. I've finally been made redundant and am now able to use my time more effectively on this project.
I've been testing a whole bunch of stuff. My previous restoration methods have all been to do with video level mastering, which is great and has achieved some nice results. However my work on the Super Mario Bros Archive's work has led me to someone (Garrett Gilchrist) who's shown me new ways to restore footage.
gmupscaletest004.jpg
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This is a still of Dexter Fletcher in Season 2. I stole it from a Google Search, it's compressed, it's not very clean but that's what makes it such a tasty subject. I promise you, absolutely swear on my life, that ONLY this image has been used in the following up-conversions. I would apply these processes by saving the entire video as stills and processing them as still images, then rebuilding the scenes in a video editor - so this process is easily applicable to the actual episodes too. It's at 480x360p in size.
gmupscaletest004-upscale.jpg
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This is a Photoshop upscale. At the best quality Photoshop can provide. I put the image in, Resized to 2160 height (4K resolution) and set the Resample rate to "Preserve Details 2.0" with a 30% Noise Reduction - that was as clean and as high quality as Photoshop was able to do. It's essentially what we expect from our TV Scalers, video program scalers etc.
gmupscaletest004-topaz.jpg
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This is the first image applied through a specific AI Upscaler called Topaz. As you can see, the image is far better. You can see individual hairs on Dexter's head, you can see the individual links in his neck-chains, the jumpsuit and GamesMaster badge are more defined and the GM's Yellow colour bleeds less. Also the background, absolutely awash with macro-blocking in the Photoshop upscale (The colours become large square-formations) has been wonderfully resolved here.
gmupscaletest004-remini.jpg
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This is the first image again (all of these are from the tiny, low resolution source) via an AI Upscaler called Remini. The face. That. FACE. It's almost HD! The hair at the front of his head is also better resolved than it is with Topaz. This level of facial reconstruction from a lower-than-VHS source is unbelievable. There is a problem with Remini, however. It absolutely sucks at almost anything but faces. Outside of Dexter's face, the rest of the image is no better than Photoshop's upscaling.

How to resolve this...
gmupscaletest004-4KMaster-Concept-hair.jpg
gmupscaletest004-4KMaster-Concept-hair.jpg (2.38 MiB) Viewed 4164 times
So this was a very quickly done version of what would be possible in the actual project, so this isn't perfect. However the benefit of having these files in still frames is the ability to use Photoshop for what it actually does best - editing and correcting. This shot is a composite. The face and front of the hair are from the Remini upscale (as is the background actually, though that can be switched easily). The back of the hair (which is way too soft focus on Remini) and Dexter's body are from the Topaz Upscale. This composite has been done somewhat rushed so there are imperfections here, but I'd be much more careful when doing the actual frames of the image.

So what do you guys think? Fancy a GamesMaster HD like this? I think I have the tools, the knowledge and now the time to get something done! I was very excited at these results, and I'll do all in my power to ensure there's no excessive use of DNR or anything to scrub away the finer details and quality of the image. Scene to scene this process will vary in quality, but overall I think we're looking at a VAST improvement over the source material. And this is with a 360p JPG from the internet. A 576i or 576p still that hasn't been compressed for the internet should hopefully yield even better results. I'll give it a test run on the DVD of the final episode - there is no better quality GM footage and it'll be a good indicator of what it can do with footage at GM's best.

Exciting times methinks :D
Last edited by Roareye on Sat Apr 25, 2020 1:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »

Okay, I've REALLY got to head for bed, it's now 2am haha!
I've just converted all of the Final Episode DVD to JPEGs and organised them in manageable chunks, however here's an upscale using just Topaz of one of the frames of Robocop ("Somewhere there is a crime being committed"). Upscaled from 576p to 3456p. 4K is 2160p, 6K is 3240p, 8k is 4320p. So this is a roughly 6K Master based on the original 576p still frame from the official DVD.
Untitled_003051.jpeg
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Here's the original 576p still ripped as cleanly as possible from the DVD. No work done to it at all.
Untitled_003051-6xTOPAZScale.jpeg
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Here's the Topaz upscale. This is unbelievably detailed considering the source! Look at the chest plate on Robocop, you can see where he formed the plate in sections. You can see marks on the left side of the image where he's scratched the suit. Dom's hand is crystal clear, with the flecks of "feathers" of his bracelet clearly defined. And there's zero loss of detail from the back (usually scrubbing tools etc will destroy out of focus detail as it doesn't know what to do with it). It's all still here. And then some. Someone once told me not to bother with the DVD, as it's good enough and won't ever be bettered. With this example I seriously beg to differ.

Yea boi.
Just as an aside, I'm trying to fund my first feature film. If you guys wish to support me, whilst entertaining yourselves in the process, the short film I made in 2019 is available to buy on Blu-Ray or Stream on Amazon Prime Video now.
Direct Purchase Blu-Ray (Cheapest, via Paypal) - www.cyberpunkstudios.co.uk/store
Amazon Blu-Ray Link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Cargo-Sa ... 07ZZLH3CB/
Amazon Prime Video: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Human-Cargo-Sa ... 085W42Z54/
It's not a necessity, but any help towards my goals would be appreciated. Very much looking forward to getting into film now I've been made redundant.

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »



A very early test sample of 11 seconds. This is Dominik Diamond's intro to the Final Episode. It's been through Rimini which has done a mostly excellent job resampling his face. Because I have done this as a frame-by-frame restoration (and Rimini only accepts one image at a time, and there are 25 a second!) I've not had a chance to finish this (I've been at it for over 6 hours already!) nor do the compositing work I'll do to recover glitches and errors made by Rimini.

Errors include;
- Dom's glasses disappear in several frames (Rimini just considers them part of Dom's face and erases them)
- The finer details sometimes move a bit unnaturally from frame to frame.
- Other than the face, the remainder of the frame needs restoration via another process.

These aren't impossible errors. Again, I have all of these frames as high resolution 6K photographs. What this means is that some clever use of Photoshop, compositing in a video editor between Rimini's render and alternate renders etc can fix the minor errors Rimini has introduced.
RIMINI-S7 Dom Restoration.jpg
RIMINI-S7 Dom Restoration.jpg (68.46 KiB) Viewed 4149 times
Here's a close up example of what Rimini is actually doing and how much it's stabilising and enhancing the frame. Even this headshot has errors, but again these will all be fixed for the final render. I'm mixing multiple different restoration techniques together to ensure this show looks as close to native 4K/HD as I possible can. Artificial errors won't be permitted :D

BTW, it is best to look at these stills and videos on a PC (preferably one with a monitor above 1080p) and not a mobile phone. The majority of mobile phones are 768p only, and as such you really won't see the major enhancements this restoration is doing on such a small display. I have a very good phone, and I struggle to see the enhancements on it.

Any feedback welcome guys, hope this progress excites you :)

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by azel »

Awesome work! The only thing better than this would be getting hold of the master tapes if they still exist in the vaults at Channel 4/Hewland.

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Roareye
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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »

The Master Tapes would be awesome. I doubt they'd give much benefit to the Final Episode (The DVD is likely the maximum quality when transferred from those tapes back in the early 2000s), but when it comes to the rest of the series it would definitely help in giving us preservation quality transfers. And we'd finally get that damn missing episode haha :D

EDIT:
I'm absolutely bowled over by how extreme this process can work and achieve unbelievable results. I expected it to tighten a few elements of shots, but for some shots it makes them better than I could have ever imagined.
This shot of the Island Girls from the intro has blown my mind. This composite is an approximately 10K (9444 x 6912p) resolution image, downscaled here to 4K. The 10K variant is upscaled from the DVD as all previous work. The girl's faces are absolutely impeccable. It's not just restored some details - it's made their faces genuine 10K! Lips, hair, skin details... incredible. Here's a sample of the image at 10K resolution;
IslandBabes10KSample.jpg
IslandBabes10KSample.jpg (591.86 KiB) Viewed 4147 times
To try and help show it off on smaller screens I've also made a comparison of the left woman's face. On the left is the original frame upscaled to 4K, and on the right is the 4K composite (downscaled from 10K).
IslandBabesCloseUpComparison.jpg
IslandBabesCloseUpComparison.jpg (1.47 MiB) Viewed 4147 times
Will I restore at this res? Unlikely. Not every shot in the episode lends itself as well to the process as this clip, and the larger the images, the larger the amount of work to do Photoshop frame-by-frame error corrections. I can only render out at 4K at the moment anyway, but I'm up for future-proofing the series. However 10K to future-proof a standard def series might be pushing it. However the potential is there to do so. Here's the full frame at 4K resolution. This is still an incomplete frame. The ladies' faces are fine but the background is overly soft and DNR'd, losing precious detail. I have a way of restoring it, but that will require an independent background render and some Photoshop work.
IslandBabes4KComposite001.jpg
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I know that upscaling is often the law of diminishing returns, and to some degree that is true of these tapes. But some shots, such as the above? I don't think there's any reason to leave them in the past when they can actually be revived for not only current generations, but at least two generations forward. Did this blow your mind? Even as the guy who believed this would be an improvement, I can't stop looking at them. It looks like I found an old 75mm film negative of the series, and yet we all know this only exists in VHS quality.

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SeeNoEvil
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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by SeeNoEvil »

They certainly do look cracking! Even the master tapes would only be in standard definition.

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »

Thanks SeeNoEvil! I'm gonna have to head for bed now. Been at this since about 8am, and I am le tired.



However here's a video with the girls on loop for a bit and the already linked Dominik Diamond footage. Because I'm restoring this frame by frame and doing multiple passes for several of the shots, an entire 14 hour day has led to only slightly more progress than this. However over the coming weeks I should start getting the show closer to completion. I've only been doing this a day, so it takes time to hit a stride.

Something I did test with zero success is the wireframe intros for Season 1 and 2. The AI Upscalers I used each hit unique and different issues with them - they obviously didn't understand what the image was supposed to be. One made the lines over-sharp so they halo'd no matter the settings I used, and the other made them sharper without haloing but instead bent and warped the lines so they were no longer straight. These CGI elements would be awesome to get a hold of and re-render in a higher resolution - or at least a cleaner video file - in order to better restore them. Someone once tried to put me in contact with someone who had the CGI files but it was all cost I didn't have, he wanted money to hire the equipment to reach the tapes or something (It was a few years ago now and I barely remember the circumstances).

Anyone who wants a slightly fancier slider system to compare shots, go to www.cyberpunkstudios.co.uk/gamesmaster

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Re: GamesMaster HD: 4K Restoration

Post by Roareye »

I'm starting to hit a bit of a stride with this. Conversions for the initial stage will still take at least a week or more, but now I'm in stride it should go a little quicker.

Here are some stills of a few shots from later in the episode, restored to 10K and then downsampled here to 4K resolution.
I've decided I may as well make the restoration a 4K restoration, since I have the heft to work in 10K anyway but even 8K is a good distance away in terms of the vast majority of people being able to utilise it. My biggest monitor is only 4K anyway, so working at higher than that effectively has me working a little blind if I view the full frame in one go. As I'll be keeping the original frames anyway, I can always remaster at a higher resolution at a later date if it becomes necessary.
S4DomAnnounceRobocop.jpg
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Dominik Diamond announces Robocop
DAVEPERRY-DomDiamondPodium.jpg
DAVEPERRY-DomDiamondPodium.jpg (6.89 MiB) Viewed 4123 times
Dominik Diamond tells David Perry that his "Time begins now" on that infamous Super Mario 64 challenge.

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