When Square Enix brought Final Fantasy VI to PC last week, they brought with it a graphical overhaul that most fans can’t stand, complete with washed-out sprites and inconsistent tiling. It’s a bummer, to say the least.
Fortunately, modding exists. Since the PC version of the best Final Fantasy game came out, intrepid fans have been looking into different ways to make the visuals more palatable. And they’ve already made some progress; last night modder Jed Lang figured out how to remove the bilinear filter, a graphical tool that had been used to smooth sprites and make them appear softer and blurrier. (You can download his patch here.)
I hacked up a little image to show you the difference in sprite quality without this filter:
Removing that bilinear filter is just step one, of course, and modders are still hoping to do much more to get Final Fantasy VI on PC looking decent. I’m stoked to see what else they can accomplish.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.