Savant99: I just wanted to mention that I've gone ahead and uploaded a slightly enhanced version of my cutscene mod. In case you are unfamiliar with it, I made this many years ago to upscale the video clips included in SS2 from the archaic 320x240 cell-phone size that they were originally encoded in. There is another version of mine out there, but this version has slight better cutscenes, since I compressed the older ones a bit more to save on space.

Since the closing credits of SS2 were 640x480, I used that as a common resolution for all of them. The cutscenes that I upscaled were CS1 (opening game movie), CS2 (intro after completing training) and CS3 (final closing scene before credits). While some may think that a simple upscale can't improve the quality, I assure you - it can. The way this game upscales the video isn't nearly as efficient, not to mention I extensively processed and cleaned up the original files.

Anyway, the files are just a tad under 200MEG. Not tiny, but not unreasonable by today's standards. They are simple to install, especially if you have SStools installed. Instructions are inside the archive, compressed with 7Zip.

As an example for quality, here are a few screencaps from CS1. I tried to get them as close as possible(time point) to one another, but I was using fraps since I wanted to capture the cutscene as it was rendered in the program. (playing them outside SS2 is not proper test.) So they may not be perfectly identical, but you can see the differences.

Image 1: Look at the definition in Shodan's face, the nose, the roundness of the eyes, the forehead
Image 2: Look at the definition in the letter 'R', and the spotlight circle smoothness
Image 3: Look at the very bottom, the blue on the left side, and the blue at the top left

Existing cutscene
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

Upscaled cutscene
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

So not earth shattering, but a mild improvement.

Package download:
Uploaded.net
Rapidgator
Hotfile

Do you need these cutscenes to enjoy the game? No, not at all. They only represent a small aspect of the game, and it is something you don't even interact with. However, since so many others have improved SS2 in some way, I wanted to do my small part and add to that.

So if you are someone who wants every possible improvement in SS2, then this mod is for you. :)

voodoo47: yeah, and I'll repeat what has been said before - unless you are a Hollywood level video editor, the results will be either negligible or even negative - in your case, distorting the aspect ratio.

Savant99: My intent was to keep the videos as 'true' to the original as possible. (which is why I retained the aspect ratio)

Boilpoint: Sorry Savant, I wanted it to look better so bad. Unfortunately it didn't for me. Perhaps just my system and worth it for others to see for themselves. I still appreciate the effort you went through and putting it up for us to try.

Savant99: edit: one more thing, it's possible there may be a conflict with another mod if you placed the files in the 'mod' folder. You can try using the second set of install instructions to replace the files directly which will assure you are not just seeing the same old files.

Fenixp: Hey there, could you, please, upload bits of the 'original' and 'upscaled' vids on youtube, for the sake of comparison? Screenshots are cool and all, but not quite sufficient.

voodoo47: placebo effect. they don't really have to be better, all that's needed is that people will believe they are better.