I'm sure SE could've done something if they TRULY had wanted to.

15FPS in battles is just inexcusable.

I like them both.
Though personally, i'd rather the sprites be made at a lot higher resolution if the game will take higher resolution atlases rather than the some what lower resolution of the existing ones.

In a dream world, the sprites would all be directly based on the original Chibi artwork, at a super high resolution.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/f/fa/VI-terra_sd.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120502155650
Since that's what the original sprites are based on.
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/finalfantasy/images/f/fb/Terra_Branford_small.png/revision/latest?cb=20140820192157

PPSSPP's texture scaling filters catch all of the textures before they draw most likely.
Because it's an emulator they can catch all that as it goes in and out easily.
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=306

If GeDoSaTo expanded support to OGL natively and the same texture scaling as PPSSPP was made available for any game. (Since he's the same guy who implemented it in PPSSPP)
You could probably get it easier
http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?p=763

The result would end up being similar to if the textures were all ripped and batch scaled probably. But a lot less messy.

Originally posted by SirNinja:

Hmm. This doesn't seem to work with Final Fantasy III. The game will crash on startup if OpenGl32.dll is in the game's directory at launch. The regular OpenGL.dll file will allow the game to open, but doesn't do anything. Any ideas?

Probably because of the Wrapper. It might need a different one. Google it and see if you can find one that works.

Originally posted by Dangus ))<>(( Taargus:

Originally posted by SirNinja:

Hmm. This doesn't seem to work with Final Fantasy III. The game will crash on startup if OpenGl32.dll is in the game's directory at launch. The regular OpenGL.dll file will allow the game to open, but doesn't do anything. Any ideas?

Yeah I think the above solution is an interesting hack, but not a real fix.

Btw, the earlier post where I mentioned that the game was a DS rom, was only to point to the fact that the game's archives and files are types you'd find in a regular DS rom. So using those tools might work to mod graphics, but again, the issue is seeing if it can handle any changes to begin with.

Also, those black borders around everything are likely due to the textures not properly using an alpha channel or something typical with filtering algorithms.

If it didn't mess up things then sure. That's probably one reason they disallowed Texture filtering to begin with. It's most likely the closest you will get to the results you want short of unpacking and batch scaling all the textures.

(Use at your own discretion, who knows what bugs may lay in wait.

1. Download GLDirect http://sourceforge.net/projects/gldirect/?source=typ_redirect
   In the "bin/release" folder is "OpenGl32.dll" extract this to the FF4 directory with "FF4.exe"
   
2. Download GeDoSaTo http://blog.metaclassofnil.com/?page_id=582
   Follow the instructions to set up a permanent home for it .
   
3. With GeDoSaTo open, hit the "Whitelist" button. And at the bottom add an entry for FF4
   "FF4 || Final Fantasy 4" (IT HAS to be named this)
   Save the Whitelist
   
4. Now open the GeDoSaTo directory and /Config folder. Create a folder called "FF4" (IT HAS to be named this). In this folder copypasta the "GeDoSaTo.ini" from the /config folder.
   
5. If you are just going to play at native resolution you need to replace the contents of the ini file with the following and replace the Rendering and Present resolutions listed below with your resolution
   http://pastebin.com/jSLkCgDf
   
6. If you want Anti Aliasing this is tricky. As forcing AA is impossible without problems with the game wrapped to DX9. Unless you are ok with just SMAA or FXAA. Which you can enable in the GeDoSaTo.ini.
   
7. If you want better AA though you will need the contents of "GeDoSaTo.ini" to be this instead http://pastebin.com/EgGYPPhT
   
   You will need to replace 3 entries , Rendering resolution, Present Resolution and Override resolution.
   
   
   Then, you have to set your desktop resolution to the resolution you are going to downsample with, using DSR or VSR. For it to work, so say you want to use 4k on at 1080p monitor. Replace the 3 entries above with 3840x2160, enable DSR and set your desktop to 2160p. And then launch FFIV's launcher, set that resolution with Full screen enabled
   
   Then the game should launch and you should have downsampling. Huzzah.
   
   
8. Finally if you want correct Vsync and Framepacing you need to set up a profile for FFIV with Nvidia inspector ( I don't know about AMD). And set it as such
   http://u.cubeupload.com/MrBonk/aefaefzfzef.jpg
   
   If you don't know how about Nvidia Inspector, here's a guide
   http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=5183388
   By default with the OGL renderer, all you need is the in game full screen vsync+a 30FPS cap from RTSS to get proper pacing.

I personally find the black outlines distracting, but here's the option for you if you want it

AA comparison.
NoAA Wrapped 16xAF vs 4.5xSSAA 16xAF+driver FXAA
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/157028

OK. I actually figured out a way to make it work and be playable. With the caveat that texture based objects (like the torches above) will have black outlines. Though they can be mitigated through forced AA on Nvidia cards.

Unfortunately, since drivers after 347.88 there is a bug with certain games and forcing AA which causes the games to stutter like mad...FFIV wrapped to DX9 suffers this.

So downsampling is the only available method and that's tricky.

I also might have found out one way.

I figured the game used AF but the textures were just so low res and intentionally blocky.

Turns out, forcing AF at the driver level doesn't work(Which is a first)

But finding the right OGL>D3D9 wrapper and using GeDoSaTo (Which has an option to force AF on all surfaces for certain games.)

Provided this results,
it's not very pretty. But also it's unplayable as there are flashes of black on teh screen constantly, the title screen is blank with just text. And the whole screen goes black after about 2 seconds.

http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/157022

Compared to the AA example above
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/157023

Personally I feel like the latter looks better.
So I think I stand by my prior statement that Texture Scaling Filters would be the better option. It wouldn't be too hard to batch process them once the right algorithm is found.

One easier way that might be more aesthetically pleasing is to run the game at a high resolution (DSR)with forced AA if you have an Nvidia card.

Comparison: 720p no AA vs 4.5x SSAA + 8xSGSSAA
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/157014

Also: I'm pretty sure it's not emulated, it'd be less effort to port the games than emulate them. Especially considering mobile and all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgKKSr765_0