Page 1 of 1

1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 2:35 pm
by X33STORM
So i wanted to re-play this classic and need the 1.497 fixes, but with it installed the entire landscape/water/etc looks very bad, included picture.
After browsing around some on this forum for fixes, i found it relates to the landscape bump mapping. And if i turn it "off" in the unpatched version, it turns to the same mush as 1.497.

Tried turning every option on/off, tried deleting the dx7/8 dll's respectively, changing T&L to others on DX7 and the hook/graphical patches.

I feel like there's a common fix out there, but i've been unable to dig it up, can someone help out, and i will edit this post to help others in search of answers.

I am on the GoG version 1.4, using an RTX 2070 on W7 x64.

Thanks!

EDIT:
Best current fix is to delete landscape.pso from the folder, after 1.497 is installed.
Works for both GoG & Original versions.
Image

Re: 1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 8:55 am
by Tig
First and foremost, 1.497 is mandatory to be able to connect to the servers and play multiplayer! Join our discord server for more: https://discord.gg/Avj4azU

None of the other patches, such as Giants Enhanced, Giants Hook, or the old Gforce patch (none of which can be download here currently) Are compatible with 1.497, or eachother.

Here's a snip from our techsupport section, you might be able to get it to work with this

DGVooDoo

Here you can find a download for a set of dll's that can be utilized by Giants to fix certain graphical issues.

What causes these problems?
For some reason, Win10 does not allow Programs with DX 8 or lower to run on the dedicated (NVIDIA) GPU if there is an integrated GPU. That means there seems to be no other solution than to use a wrapper that pipes DX 1 - 8 to DX 9 - 12 so Windows thinks it's e.g. a DX11 game.

What does it do for my game?
This allows you to run the game at higher graphical specs than your machine allows you to. Bumpmapping is re-enabled, the floating impact craters and Kabuto footprints will be fixed.
It can also improve overall visual quality of the game like the water textures and fog/fade.
However, as it forces your machine to run the game in a certain way, it can cause performance issues on lower end CPU's and small laptops.

Download
<http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2.html>
Just copy the 3 dll files in the "MS" folder into the Giants program folder and it should work.

Indepth Guide
<http://dege.fw.hu/dgVoodoo2/QuickGuide.html>
In this Guide you can find more info about the app itself. It also gives more detail about different usage. Using the app itself and dropping that into the game folder too, you can turn off the watermark/logo.

Known issues are:
- Drops in FPS when the games specs are set higher than your machine usually allows you to. (i.e turn on bumpmapping for cards without this feature).
- Tabbing out & in to the game takes about 3 times as long as without the files present.
- Not being able to use the PrintScreen button anymore for screenshots. Fraps can still be used.
- Not being able to use the Windows built in recording software. Again, Fraps works.
- Livestreaming can cause issues.

Running the game windowed sometimes fixes these issues

Re: 1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 9:19 pm
by X33STORM
Thanks for the reply, but i already tried that workaround to no avail.

As far as i can figure the problem lies with the GoG edition, using different directx dll's than the original release which 1.497 is built around.
Trying to get my hands on the other release, to test this theory and possibly exchange files to correct the issue with the GoG version.

EDIT:

Tried an original version. The glossy-ness is present both in original version and updated. Cross-exchanged a few files between installations, incl dx dll's and landscape pso/vso, no difference.

As far as i can tell, GoG version works fine as 1.4, but it uses some other means of effects than the external VSO/PSO present in the original version, and the 1.497 patch. When you introduce these, the problem occurs. Assumingly because the GoG version uses them if they're present, but can't so defaults to non-bumpmap.

Re: 1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 9:38 pm
by Tig
The same problem persists with all distributions of the game (steam, disks, gog) unfortunatly.

As the 1.497 patch is forever in BETA form, the problem probably resides in unfinished grahical changes. As the patch currently does add in higher resolution options and small grahical updates to the rendering overall, as it contains numerous fixes from the other patches such as the old Gforce patch. The single person working on the patch has gone dormant a decade ago however.

Re: 1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 9:51 pm
by X33STORM
Oh, well i've tracked down the cause to a single file, "landscape.pso".

Remove that, the glossy look is gone.

Other files contain stuff like shadows and transparent water, which work ok.
Even other PSO files work, so problem must be with that one.
As far as i can tell it's a file for something called "The Print Shop Deluxe 6.0", an old graphic app.

Could get that, have a look (if it's not a compiled file) and see if it's fixable or at least remove that one thing from it. Assuming the file actually does do anything, other than apply an incompatible effect.
.. Not 64 bit compatible, need a vbox or another machine for that.
Might've been wrong about the filetype association tho, it's more likely a "Microsoft DirectX D3D Compiled Pixel Shader". Meaning i can't decompile it.

Re: 1.497 - Bump Mapping - Glitched Landscape - Fix?

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 10:37 pm
by Tig
Interesting.

I have a "fresh" install that has only been upgraded to 1.497. I removed the landscape.pso file, and to my surprise bumpmapping etc now works fine without the hassle of dll's etc.

This is one of the most surprising fixes to a persistent problem i've seen recently. It could very well be the 1.497 patch causing trouble with the the landscape.pso file, but it has just never been adressed.

EDIT: It does cause extreme framedrops when i load a map from kabuto's campaign, and glitches out on maps that don't have bumpmapped textures to begin with.