Nearest Neighbor Optimization Overhaul (2N2O) Beta

[68743849dfd11bombum]

2N2O is a vanilla-esque texture pack specifically optimized for unfiltered textures.

Unfiltered textures are not smoothed, and have visible pixels. They can be activated in SS2 through configuration file editing. This step is mandatory to get the graphics to look like in the demonstration screenshots. Learn more here (scroll down to Optimal Unfiltered Vanilla Graphics Guide).

Disclaimer:
Not all textures I want to edit have been done, but the most egregious ones have been finished, and so I felt I should release my work under a "beta" label. Please report any texture this mod changes that looks weird.

Origin/Design Philosophy
Prior to starting work on 2N2O, I started playing SS2 without any graphics mods, with unfiltered texture. I felt it was beautiful and had a more consistent aesthetic (despite the high quality of the other, hi-res graphics mods available, they are not all-encompassing and I feel unfortunately clash with each other). However, many textures looked too compressed to me, too unsmooth, with artifacts and barely legible text.

It was then that I decided to begin work on this project. Not being able to change resolutions everywhere, I at times had to slightly re-envision textures (the keyboards, for instance, now have symbols inspired by Alien's Semiotic Standard). I avoided adding legible small print text like SHTUP and 400 do, to maintain the vanilla's illegible scribbles' sense of abstraction that lets you fill in the blanks with your imagination, rather than noticing how many textures are repeated across the game.

Demonstration Screenshots
Green inventory, English subtitles, and Minimal HUD are not included in this mod. They are merely what I use

The pixel font most widely used in the textures is 7 Pixels of Perfect, though I had to imitate it drawing the letters myself a lot to fit the small resolutions.

Because of the very straightforward nature of the mod, all included textures are PNGs that require no special software to view. Feel free to edit or delete any textures that don't look good to you, the process should be very easy.

[68743849dff16ZylonBane]

I am entirely confused about what this mod is trying to do.

[68743849e004fDan]

Very cool! I like the aesthetics.
Thank you for sharing this :-)

[68743849e01d4Pacmikey]

Wow, this mod is amazing. Fantastic work, I've always preferred playing games with unfiltered textures and this project gives the all the textures a nice, CRISP look to them, that unfiltered SS2 couldn't do (it was made around filtering after all) Call me a psycho but I even play games like Half Life 2 with unfiltered textures. I will be using this in every future playthrough I do, thank you for the amazing effort!

[68743849e030cJDoran]

Can someone post up some comparison screenshots, please?

[68743849e0428Toaste]

Wow, this is great.

[68743849e0576icemann]

I'd like to see some comparison screenshots as well.

[68743849e06e7Chandlermaki]

There are screenshots in the OP, just click the link.

This definitely isn't for me!

[68743849e084avoodoo47]

this fondly reminds me of enabling scanlines for retro games - "I want to see less on my screen and need it to be dim".

[68743849e0c94RoSoDude]

Scanlines created definition and visual depth for retro games designed for CRT displays that is destroyed when viewing the raw pixels on a modern LCD/LED display. Ironically enough, scanlines (and the composite blending of colors that often went along with them) are the hardware equivalent of texture filtering in outputting a blended final image, so this texture pack is really the opposite.

Some examples that make this point for me:
https://twitter.com/CRTpixels/status/1408451743214616587?
https://twitter.com/CRTpixels/status/1410656702672814086?
https://twitter.com/CRTpixels/status/1431711425798496263

Just slapping black bars on a sharp pixel render isn't going to help, but more advanced CRT filters on emulators exist for a reason, namely to preserve the artistic intent of games designed for CRTs.

[68743849e0fd2Pacmikey]

RoSoDudethis inevitably comes to mind

[68743849e10ceicemann]

Ah, pixel fonts like SS1 used. Got it.

[68743849e11e3ZylonBane]

But even SS1's fonts looked better than this.

[68743849e141aPacmikey]

ZylonBaneIt's niche but some of us love that crisp unfiltered retro look for textures. It's not worse, it's just different (I know that sounds woke AF IDC)

[68743849e1556ZylonBane]

No, it's literally worse. It looks like someone scrawled out those letters in MS Paint. It's not even trying to match the original font style.

Frankly, I'm of the opinion that this entire thread is an elaborate troll.

[68743849e17b4icemann]

It's not worse, it's just different (I know that sounds woke AF IDC)

How is that "woke"?

[68743849e198aVegoraptor]

Everybody is special, and should be treated as such. Also, <mental health issue> really compliments their character.

The pixelated #nofilter look I can at least see some merit in. We have plenty of texture upgrades, might as well add a downgrade for variety. That font is just plain hideous, though.

[68743849e1be1bombum]

ZylonBane
Yes, I dropped the idea of having a similar font pretty quickly when I saw I couldn't increase the resolutions for Fam-type files without SHTUP/400 kind of fuckery, which I didn't want to get into. Consistency was important to me.

FYI it's paint.net, though that can already be seen since I left behind some files.

[68743849e1e32bombum]

Vegoraptor
It is a texture upgrade. If anything fits the word better, shtup/400 recreated everything from scratch, while I edited the originals.

[68743849e1f2cbombum]

idk how this works, I'm just seeing it will expire in 2 days so I'm posting the file again
[2N2O beta.zip expired]

[68743849e2017voodoo47]

you ask a mod to extend the expiration. done.

[68743849e2431sarge945]

idk how this works, I'm just seeing it will expire in 2 days so I'm posting the file again

Just tag a moderator (@voodoo47) and they can set it to never expire. So you can keep your download count and you don't need to update anymore.

Also, consider moving this to the mods subforum, it seems like it's been stable for a while (I wouldn't know, I don't use it)