Effects (Bloom, SSAO, SSDO) and VR/TrackIR Installers

[blue_max]

A lot of people have pointed out that my content (VR mod, head tracking hooks, effects like Bloom, SSAO, SSDO, hyperspace, etc) is scattered over the forums; so I'm going to start a new thread to post my stuff. Also, DTM and Jeremy have been helping me create some really nice installers (thanks guys!) that can also be used to configure the various effects. So, let's begin with the previous release (1.1.1); but using an installer/config tool:

EDIT: link remuved. Version 1.1.2 is aviable in the download section

Going forward, we'll be removing the individual Dynamic Cockpit files from the installer. These files will now be installed separately with the individual ships they belong to.

Admins: could you please make this thread sticky, if it's not too much trouble?

Release 1.1.2 is coming very soon, we're testing the installer and making sure things work properly!

[Vince T]

Great work you guys!

This topic is now a rather sticky situation

[keiranhalcyon7]

Stuck tighter than a mynock on a tramp freighter.
Stuck tighter than a restraining bolt on a glitchy astromech.
Stuck tighter than Nute Gunray's lips on Palpatine's boney, decrepit ass.

Sorry, couldn't resist

[St@rkiller]

Epic! Thank you very much! Also thanks to DTM and Jeremy.

[Vince T]

@keiranhalcyon7 Dude WTF?!?

Cute little puppies! Cute little puppies! Cute little puppies! Cute little puppies! Cute little puppies! Cute little puppies!

Gah make it stop!!!!!

[Vince T]

BTW this thread deserves some more attention Mimd me I have put up a little news post on my website.

[Blazingfirestorm]

this is really good, It makes the game look so much better, I am having a little problem with some of the cockpits the y-wing especially when you select a target it doesn't show in the HUD and other things like the shield icon doesn't change when it's depleted. the a-wing's cockpit problems you can't see all the information without looking down and someone who doesn't have vr it makes playing the game a little bit difficult

[blue_max]

@GT: Sure, go ahead. Thanks!

@Blazingfirestorm: Sounds like you're either missing some .DC files, or your Y-Wing cockpit is an older version. We're aware that there might be some issues with the installer, so maybe the right files were not properly installed. Please bear with us while we sort these problems out. In the meantime, you can also download the ZIP package from this location:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3dz5egxfboeg4 ... 1.zip?dl=0

Just unzip the contents of the DynamicCockpit from the ZIP file into the same directory in your install directory. That ZIP file also has the updated Y-Wing cockpit that is compatible with DC under FlightModels.

Regarding your second comment: yes, we know not all instruments are fully visible in the default forward view. We're doing our best to fit everything; but there's only so much space available. At this point, the recommendation is that you open the AWingCockpit.dc file and find the following two lines:

erase_region = LEFT_TEXT_BOX_REGION
erase_region = RIGHT_TEXT_BOX_REGION

That will enable these boxes in the HUD again.

[Blazingfirestorm]

thanks for that, I just try the cockpit for the y-wing and it works now. I still don't know how you get that cool updated x-wing cockpit though

[jmarso]

Really love the new look and fx. I have experienced some significant frame rate drops at times (stuttering to the point of even freezing up for a bit). I've been experimenting with different settings; just curious what others are experiencing and how they are optimizing their settings. I know it depends on the individual rig and its specs, but which areas are the biggest resource hogs? Bloom? Shaders?

That new hyperspace effect is DA BOMB!

[Jaeven]

I've waited to review this until I've properly tested all the features (Except for Track IR/VR as I don't have that), so let's get started.

Dynamic cockpits are gorgeous and incredibly immersive. I'm really impressed just how that feature turned out, and all my worries about needing to have track IR or something like that to have complete functionality, were completely unfounded. My only problem with the feature is that my X-wing targeting computer is kinda small, making it difficult to read the status of whatever ship I'm targeting. Oddly enough, I only have that issue with the X-wing. For all the others, the targeting HUD is fine. Is there perhaps a way to locally increase the size on my end?

I don't have to say anything more about the hyperspace effect. I think jmarso said it all. It's just completely outstanding, you've really outdone yourself on that one, blue_max. 11/10.

Likewise, the effects are out of this world. And while I have some reduced FPS with the effects active, it's not too bad in most cases and absolutely playable in most missions. But there are some missions I've tested, which involve some of the newer, high res opts where FPS drops considerably. DTM's MC85 causes my usual 30 FPS to drop to around 19, which isn't too bad. The biggest offender is probably warb_null's/Driftwood's/DTM's Resurgent Star Destroyer. The mere appearance of it causes my FPS to dip around 16, and once it unleashes its weapons (or if there's multiple Resurgents), as gorgeous as it looks, drops performance to unplayable levels. I would imagine ships like GT's new Victory Star Destroyer would experience similar issues.

I don't know if there's anything that can be done to improve performance in those situations without reducing the quality of the effects, or even if the FPS drop is just on my end. But I thought I'd report it anyways. Figure I may as well mention that the installer was easy to use and didn't cause any issues.

Overall though, thank you for all your work blue_max. The minor issues aside, this project is a work of art. Great job

[blue_max]

Thanks for your comments guys. Regarding performance, please remember that this is still a 20-year-old engine. As such, it's still single-threaded and computes 3D in the CPU. That means that if you've got 32 cores in your CPU, it will only use one and all the parallelism and power on the GPU is mostly ignored by the game. So, you can expect some stuttering even if you disable all the effects. Here's one simple thing you can try to check this: use Jeremy's golden standard DLL and check the framerate without targeting anything. Then target an ISD or a similarly big ship and see how the framerate goes down a bit (about 15% in my experience).

Having said that, there's a few things you can do to improve performance. The fastest shader is the "Deferred" shader. Next comes the SSAO shader and finally the SSDO is the slowest. You can improve the performance of SSAO and SSDO by setting "ssao_buffer_scale_divisor = 2.0" (this setting does not affect the Deferred shader mode). You can also disable the new shading model by setting "ssao_enabled = 0" and still use XWA's lighting system + bloom. All these settings live in SSAO.cfg, BTW.

I think the bloom shader is fast. You should be able to leave that on without a significant impact in performance. DC is also quite fast.

You can also reduce the resolution of your desktop to improve performance. In the next release I've also added support for Jeremy's D3D hook which also improves performance; but we're still finding and fixing bugs in it, so it'll be a few more days.

Regarding the X-Wing cockpit: this cockpit is not an XWAU-official release. It's actually my first experiment to see if the Dynamic Cockpit would work. Some instruments are barely readable; but DTM has updated Darksaber's cockpit to fix this. We haven't released this updated cockpit yet as we're still testing a few things, though. The rest of the DC-enabled cockpits (Y-Wing & A-Wing) were updated by DTM and I think he did a superb job.

[Jaeven]

Thanks for your comments guys. Regarding performance, please remember that this is still a 20-year-old engine. As such, it's still single-threaded and computes 3D in the CPU. That means that if you've got 32 cores in your CPU, it will only use one and all the parallelism and power on the GPU is mostly ignored by the game. So, you can expect some stuttering even if you disable all the effects. Here's one simple thing you can try to check this: use Jeremy's golden standard DLL and check the framerate without targeting anything. Then target an ISD or a similarly big ship and see how the framerate goes down a bit (about 15% in my experience).

Having said that, there's a few things you can do to improve performance. The fastest shader is the "Deferred" shader. Next comes the SSAO shader and finally the SSDO is the slowest. You can improve the performance of SSAO and SSDO by setting "ssao_buffer_scale_divisor = 2.0" (this setting does not affect the Deferred shader mode). You can also disable the new shading model by setting "ssao_enabled = 0" and still use XWA's lighting system + bloom. All these settings live in SSAO.cfg, BTW.

That helped a lot. Thanks!

[jmarso]

Good info on how the shaders effect performance- that's the sort of info I was after. Thanks, and fantastic work!

[Trevor]

Regarding New Very-High Detail Models, if this hasn't been done already, include LLOD versions too so that weaker CPU's can decrease the distance at which these models draw.

Not sure if XWA has any possible concept of MLOD to help in transition from Normal to LLOD (MLOD not necessarily being a separate model but just nulling greeble components before the final LLOD version is swapped in)

Trev

[haui]

Hi
i installed this mod (EffectsByBlueMaxv1.1.1) and it look really great.
But when i enable the dynamic cockpit the target HUD is not shown. So i can lock the target but have no information of it.
You have an idea what i was doing wrong??

Ahh i think i found it. is it possible that Dynamic Cockpit is only working for X-Wing and A-Wing at the Moment??
And when i have another Ship then i have no functional HUD ?

[DTM]

At this moment, only A-Wing and Y-Wing have official Dynamic Cockpit. The official X-Wing cockpit will be released together with the 1.1.2 version in few days.
We are working to update all XWAU cockpits...

[haui]

hi thank you for the info.

[haui]

Another question. Is it possible that the game "recognices" if there is are dynamic Cockpitfiles available for a ship. When yes the dynamic files are uses if not the nomal files are used?
So it is easy for the player. He can enable dynamic Cockpit and the games does the rest

[Driftwood]

Yes, if a ship isn't configured for DC nothing will change and the default HUD interface will remain; unless there's a bug we don't know about.

[haui]

ok when i enable the dynamic cockpit i see it in awing xwing. when i play a mission with another ship i have no hud

[Vince T]

The other ships haven't been set up yet.

[blue_max]

I think I probably lost track of where I should be posting updates to the new shaders, so I'm going to try and stay consistent and post updates on this thread.

Release 1.1.3 was just released and people have reported performance problems and "flat" shading. I'm trying to address those problems; but in the meantime, I've added settings on DDraw.cfg to toggle the new Text/Radar renderers (look for Text2DRendererEnabled, Text2DAntiAlias, Radar2DRendererEnabled, Geometry2DAntiAlias), and I'm including my SSAO.cfg file to help provide a reference point for the shading issues. Here's a micro update (install 1.1.3 and then unzip the files in this package on top of it):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9u7074o4ydd5n ... 0.zip?dl=0

This is what the shading looks like for me (random skirmish, no special setup, I'm using the SSAO.cfg included in the package):

ciaroscuro-113.jpg

[szoreny]

Thanks for the hotfixes Max, - I'm among those getting pretty severe fps drops when going from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3 with similar settings - thought maybe it was the new suns so I skipped those on my latest 1.1.3 reinstall, still getting fps drops and instability so I'll try tinkering with the new HUD anti aliasing options you just added.

For reference I'm using Rebel Rendezvous for testing. Just flying toward Brint-Wo colony with nothing targeted will whipsaw my fps from 59 to the low 20's and back with no real pattern. Facing open space is always solid 59 though - going to the Hospital will drop fps as low as 12 at times. in 1.1.2 it generally stays above 40 in that section.

This is using 8 sample SSDO and no AA - using deferred shading instead doesn't make much difference on either version.

Win10 6700k 16gig 2080ti system btw.

[Kampher]

Thanks for the hotfixes Max, - I'm among those getting pretty severe fps drops when going from 1.1.2 to 1.1.3 with similar settings - thought maybe it was the new suns so I skipped those on my latest 1.1.3 reinstall, still getting fps drops and instability so I'll try tinkering with the new HUD anti aliasing options you just added.

For reference I'm using Rebel Rendezvous for testing. Just flying toward Brint-Wo colony with nothing targeted will whipsaw my fps from 59 to the low 20's and back with no real pattern. Facing open space is always solid 59 though - going to the Hospital will drop fps as low as 12 at times. in 1.1.2 it generally stays above 40 in that section.

This is using 8 sample SSDO and no AA - using deferred shading instead doesn't make much difference on either version.

Win10 6700k 16gig 2080ti system btw.

Just for the sake of testing, I'm also in the same camp. I'm having much the same experience as szoreny.
My system:
Win 10
i5 2550k @ 4.0 ghz
16gb ddr3
256 SSD
EVGA GTX 1070