Thief 1/2 & SShock 2: DDFix and Enhanced Resolution Patch - discussion - by bikerdude
inselaffe on 17/3/2008 at 12:52
Quote Posted by Bikerdude
This is F...ing amazing, not only does young Timeslip get thief working as it should but managed the unbelievable feet of getting it to look better than it did on cards of the era when thief 1st hit the streets...
Timeslip I am stunned...
:wot:
Hmm but surely hiatus' pics show that some things about the original look better?
EvaUnit02 on 17/3/2008 at 14:05
Timeslip, please don't forget that the SS2 transparent use mode HUD windows are still an issue.
See this post:-
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
Changing the overlay colour in SS2 has rather... humorous results.
The entire screen is a solid block of that colour, with the exception of the parts that are supopsed to be black (the background of the inventory, ammo counter, etc.), which are transparent and allow the world to be seen through them.
Looks like it's done exactly the opposite of what it was supposed to do! :D
I had the same results when I tried those overlay variables.
Thanks in advance.
Timeslip on 17/3/2008 at 14:28
Quote Posted by Simplex
Does that mean that it can be downloaded from here: (snip) or from somewhere else?
Yes, although direct links will just give a 403 error, so you might want to edit that a bit to avoid confusing people.
Quote Posted by Dan Knott
Hmm but surely hiatus' pics show that some things about the original look better?
You don't generally spend much of the game so close to a 64x64 texture that it ends up occuping 640x640 pixels worth of the screen. :p
Actually, that's still an interesting point. v1.2 doesn't explicitly disable dithering like 1.1 did, so on older graphics cards you could end up with dithering turned on with a 32 bit render target. Not sure what would happen in that case, although I imagine the dithering setting will just be silently ignored.
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Timeslip, please don't forget that the SS2 transparent use mode HUD windows are still an issue.
Try (
http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,804.50.html) this:
Quote Posted by www.strangebedfellows.de
5. NOW IMPORTANT! Edit ddfix.ini and rewrite last three lines to look like this:
TextOverlayColourKey = 1x00000000
TextOverlayColourKeyLow = 1x00000000
TextOverlayColourKeyHigh = 1x00000000
It fixes the bug with transparent inventory or automap introduced by ddfix.
A bit odd, given that 1x00000000 isn't even a valid hex number, (the initial 0x is what specifies that it's in hexidecimal,) and that 1 in 16 bit is still black anyway, but if it worked for them then it's worth a try for you at least.
If that works for some people and not others, I'm going to blame it on drivers again.
EvaUnit02 on 17/3/2008 at 14:55
Quote Posted by Timeslip
Try (
http://www.strangebedfellows.de/index.php/topic,804.50.html) this:
A bit odd, given that 1x00000000 isn't even a valid hex number, (the initial 0x is what specifies that it's in hexidecimal,) and that 1 in 16 bit is still black anyway, but if it worked for them then it's worth a try for you at least.
If that works for some people and not others, I'm going to blame it on drivers again.
Nope, I'm still getting the symptoms described by Nameless Voice. It should be noted that we both have Nvidia 8800GT's. Miracle.freak from strangebedfellows appears to have an ATI card.
Nameless Voice on 17/3/2008 at 14:59
That makes the entire 3D view a single solid colour and the inventory background black. In other words, it fixes the backgrounds but breaks everything else. 8800GT.
Is the transparency really such a great issue, anyway? A lot of games offer menu transparency options, now SS2 does too! Except it's not an option...
Hiatus on 17/3/2008 at 16:00
Quote Posted by Timeslip
I think that's normal. Even if the render target is 32 bit, the textures being drawn to it are still 16 bit, and when you're that close to a texture the individual texels are bigger than the pixels on your screen. That means you're going to end up with batches of pixels all the same colour, which looks more or less like your screenshots.
Timeslip, do you happen to own T1/TG? As I mentioned, close-up textures now look in ddfixed T2 similar to the ones in vanilla T1/TG which didn't use dithering at all I think. Dithering was added to T2 most likely to get rid of that effect (you spend quite a lot of time in-game very close to wall etc textures in Thief series games). So they in effect replaced this "blotchiness" (these sharp color transitions as seen on the screenshots) with dithering blurriness/blend. What looks more ugly is down to personal preference I guess :). Anu way, players got used to dithering in vanilla T2 for 8 years now, that's why it may appear more natural to them. And now, (ddfixed) T2 got that classic/vintage Thief look of close-up textures of that of its predecessor, T1/TG that some were missing I guess, albeit in 32-bit color glory :)...
Q1: is dithering use only limited to 16-bit color? Are dithering and 32-bit (and 8-bit) color mutually exclusive? What would happen if you tried forcing dithering in 32-bit color mode (if that's possible at all)?
Q2: is there any magical function (other than dithering) in D3D6/DDraw6 (or up) to blend colors in these close-up textures in 32-bit mode, somehow. Guess there's not but not hurt to ask I think :). Or at least to a bit mask/cover up this effect...
ps anyone still remember 3dfx vs nVidia debacle re Quake 3 (around release date of T2) image quality (16-bit color vs 32-bit color) where dithering was involved AFAIR? 3dfx claimed that their 16-bit mode was equivalent (in quality) of 22-bit color so they didn't miss anything by not supporting 32-bit color back then (thanks to their high quality dithering?). nVidia of course claimed the opposite (but switching to 32-bit from 16-bit had a big performance hit back then on their chipsets).
Twist on 17/3/2008 at 16:16
The odd hex code works on my system. ATI x1950 here. While it fixes the transparency, it does introduce some minor visual anamolies.
Here's one. Notice the thin line of colors beneath the map.
(
http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ddfixedss2axy3.png)
Inline Image:
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/1254/ddfixedss2axy3.th.pngAnother one I can't capture with a screenshot: Sometimes -- not always -- I get a thin line of randomly varying pixels along the outside of the viewport. Screenshots only capture inside of this shaky line so I can't illustrate it here.
Both of these are very minor. But I prefer playing with the transparent inventory and map screen rather than have these little quirks. Like Nameless Voice, I don't much mind the transparency itself, but I worry that whatever is causing it might manifest itself in another more pressing way somewhere along the line.
Simplex on 17/3/2008 at 18:26
In the first set of screenshots the differences are not very pronounced, but in the second one the color transitions are not smooth in 32bit mode which is probably more pronounce by the lack of dithering. I don't mean to complain, I am simply providing my answer to your question.
