VOGONS


Left 4 Dead 2

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First post, by Kerouha

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  • Using "virtual dgvoodoo adapter" leads to crashes upon level load (or when level rendering starts?) Selecting "Geforce 9800" avoids that.
  • Game appears to run at reduced color depth if point sampling is used (color banding can be seen, picture below), with no actual color settings touched.
  • Game does not fare well with any scaling attempts. Menus break, fonts appear at incorrect size; game viewport turns black, with only glitched glow and teammate names visible.
  • Hammer, the map editor for this game, renders viewports incorrectly. Similar to this issue

Latest Windows 10 and DgVoodoo2 release, Geforce 3060Ti

Even with these issues, still great that the game can be played (online!) with point sampling. Normally this is not possible unless you run "insecure" mode, and even then the game will force mipmaps with disabled texture filtering.

20230208003414_1.jpg
20230208014200_1.jpg

Reply 3 of 7, by Kerouha

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Did y'all even read the post?

It does not help that "Left 4 Dead 2 runs native", if desired settings are not adjustable in ""native"" mode.

Point sampling is not available L4D2, unless you:

  • Run the game without "cheat protection" and use plugin to change hidden console variables. Mip-mapping will be forced, and you can't play with people that way.
  • Or just use dgvoodoo.

Here's your benefit – play online with scuffed PS1 graphics! It doesn't give you any advantage in competitive play either, so it's nonsense to have this option locked.

Resolving rendering (and other) issues in L4D2, may help others run and play DX9 Source Engine titles on hardware that doesn't (or won't in the future) necessarily support DX9.

Reply 4 of 7, by Matchstick

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We read your post, which completely lacks any context or reasoning.
I guess I still don't get it... wtf would you want Point sampling?
Point sampling is inaccurate and gives lots of aliasing and low image quality.
It's worse than Mip-mapping.

I just fired it up on my 6700XT and it runs perfectly fine in ultrawide fully cranked at well over 100FPS, in multi.

WTF would one downgrade and play online with scuffed PS1 graphics?

Honestly just use the -lv launch parameter if you want that. Heck I use the the -vulkan parameter and completely forgo using Direct X.

Reply 5 of 7, by Dege

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Ok, I'm curious about this one:

Matchstick wrote on 2023-02-11, 03:33:

Why in the hell???

Left 4 Dead 2 runs native on Windows 10 & a Geforce 3060Ti, there is no need to use DgVoodoo2, you're adding an unnecessary API translation layer .

Matchstick wrote on 2023-02-11, 03:33:

Honestly just use the -lv launch parameter if you want that. Heck I use the the -vulkan parameter and completely forgo using Direct X.

So, if DX is supported natively and works like charm then adding an API translation layer is unnecessary (which is true in general). But for the sake of Vulkan, an extra API translation layer is welcome, desirable and cool after all?
I don't get it. Is it because of the Vulkan-hype?
TBH, running this game with -vulkan makes no sense, at least no more than playing it through dgvoodoo (bugs or glitches aside, I never tested this game).

Reply 6 of 7, by Kerouha

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Matchstick wrote on 2023-02-11, 03:33:

WTF would one downgrade and play online with scuffed PS1 graphics?

For the same reason that people play with zombies turned into teletubbies/amogus/Shrek? For the hell of it (and also nostalgia I guess).

Using -lv (or lowering other graphics settings) like you recommend leads to missing effects and poor render distance. This actively harms gameplay, and ruins image in inept (distasteful?) manner.

There are already cases of hardware with inadequate DX9 support (Intel Arc/Iris), which may lead to people resort to use DgVoodoo simply to run DX9 applications. As I said above, addressing some of described issues may help eliminate similar problems in related games/sotfware.

On a topic of "why", working scaling would be useful for people with high resolution displays (beyond 1440p), as not all menu/HUD elements scale accordingly.

Reply 7 of 7, by Dege

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Kerouha wrote on 2023-02-09, 09:57:
Latest Windows 10 and DgVoodoo2 release, Geforce 3060Ti […]
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  • Using "virtual dgvoodoo adapter" leads to crashes upon level load (or when level rendering starts?) Selecting "Geforce 9800" avoids that.
  • Game appears to run at reduced color depth if point sampling is used (color banding can be seen, picture below), with no actual color settings touched.
  • Game does not fare well with any scaling attempts. Menus break, fonts appear at incorrect size; game viewport turns black, with only glitched glow and teammate names visible.
  • Hammer, the map editor for this game, renders viewports incorrectly. Similar to this issue

Latest Windows 10 and DgVoodoo2 release, Geforce 3060Ti

Even with these issues, still great that the game can be played (online!) with point sampling. Normally this is not possible unless you run "insecure" mode, and even then the game will force mipmaps with disabled texture filtering.

20230208003414_1.jpg
20230208014200_1.jpg

I've checked it out and I came to the following conclusions:
- GF9800 is needed (or at least recommended) for Source games. This game calls into D3D9 with an invalid shader ptr if the default 'internal card' is selected, that's why it crashes. It seems like the game "overreads" an internal table containing factored shader ptrs and picks up memory garbage. The difference between the internal and GF9800 is about the exposed D3D9 capabilities, the GF9800 exposes less capabilities than the internal one. This causes problems with other games as well (like selectable graphics settings in HL2).

- Reduced color depth occurs with 32 bit textures too, if they are modulated to be dark, so I guess it must be the same with non-point sampling. If not, then the forced sampling mode might affect the intermediate result of some complex rendering technique and that is the cause. TBH, I cannot do anything about that.

- Scaling must also be a game side 'issue', it's unavoidable if the game takes the actual window size for its 2D layout calculations (it happens with unforced resolution and 'strecthed, keep AR' scaling mode too).

- The Hammer editor works as expected with WIP89.4, the fix for UnrealEd also fixed that one.