PimPom(SFG) wrote on 2025-04-24, 19:40:

Took a few comparison shots and I'm extremely happy. Right from the very start the difference is clearly visible. Never ever I knew in my playthroughs how much of a detail was missing in the PC version. No wonder why guards detected me, because the shadows were small and I thought how I'm visible. Definitely AI was tailored to match the xbox shadows and lighting. The stage saves aren't compatible but good thing is levels are unlocked from my saves so testing is easier. One more thing I noticed that in graphics options shadow detail is visible which isn't in my original version. Wonder why. All in all absolutely phenomenal work. This is definitely a must have patch. I'll do more testing in the meantime. Thanks again for everything.

Full Comparison Screenshots
https://imgur.com/a/m5HuGoh

Yeah it's much better, not sure why they downgraded the PC version in many cases. I had a small bug with the burst fire on the SC-20K, so I just released a hotfix for that if you noticed when transitioning between levels.

Also, another issue with LOD being bad in this game, 1440p seems to be about the max resolution before LOD starts to completely break, though I'm not sure of the exact limit.

This isn’t an issue with dgVoodoo, it happens with native DirectX8 as well. But I’m wondering if Dege could do something to fix it, at least for dgVoodoo. Ideally, we can also find a way to show the max LOD at all distances too.

2560x1440

3840x2160 (broken, SC-20K scope always shows lowest LOD model)

Joshhhuaaa wrote on 2025-04-24, 21:55:

Yeah it's much better, not sure why they downgraded the PC version in many cases. I had a small bug with the burst fire on the SC-20K, so I just released a hotfix for that if you noticed when transitioning between levels.

Hey man, thanks!
Why the 60 FPS cap? Is it strictly necessary to avoid glitches?

lowenz wrote on 2025-04-25, 09:25:

Joshhhuaaa wrote on 2025-04-24, 21:55:

Yeah it's much better, not sure why they downgraded the PC version in many cases. I had a small bug with the burst fire on the SC-20K, so I just released a hotfix for that if you noticed when transitioning between levels.

Hey man, thanks!
Why the 60 FPS cap? Is it strictly necessary to avoid glitches?

You can remove it if you want, but it does ruin the AI pathing when the frame rate goes above 30 FPS. I chose 60 FPS because things mostly work fine at that point, but at 200 FPS the issues become noticeable.

Thanks!

THANKS MAN .... this is a huge fix
Is it possible to increase shadow reslusion ?

hishamerrish wrote on 2025-04-26, 19:29:

THANKS MAN .... this is a huge fix
Is it possible to increase shadow reslusion ?

I'm sure it's possible but I wouldn't know how to, this patch was mostly done with UnrealScript. Someone would probably have to patch something in D3DDrv.dll or the executable to raise the shadow resolution.

THANK YOU any way you did a great update

@Joshhhuaaa Thanks. Best update i've seen in years. 😀

@Joshhhuaaa

Congrat man, it seems very promising!! Great work!
Btw, do you mind if I move the posts about your update into a separate thread?

Dege wrote on 2025-04-29, 19:56:

@Joshhhuaaa

Congrat man, it seems very promising!! Great work!
Btw, do you mind if I move the posts about your update into a separate thread?

Yeah, no problem, sorry for going offtopic here

When setting the resolution to anything above 3840x2160, all bloom effects emitted by light sources disappear. I tested this both with and without DgVoodoo2, and it only occurs with DgVoodoo2.

3840x2160:download/file.php?mode=view&id=221943
7680×4320:download/file.php?mode=view&id=221944
3840x2160:download/file.php?mode=view&id=221945
7680×4320:download/file.php?mode=view&id=221946

Hey Dege,

I was wondering if you could take a quick look at this issue when you get the chance (it's not specifically related to dgVoodoo 2). I don’t expect you to fix it, but I’m curious if you could offer any insight since you know the hardware so well. There's a quirk with the Splinter Cell engine in the PC version where they added a "Zbias" setting to prevent aliasing artifacts on shadows. However, on the original Xbox, there were no aliasing issues and no need for a "Zbias." Is this a hardware limitation of the GeForce 4 or the way shadow buffers work on PC that Ubisoft had to work around? Was the Xbox unique in some way, or was it just a case of them getting lazy with the PC port?