VOGONS


First post, by icup321

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The PC port of Pac-Man World 2 is very flawed. It suffers from many technical issues such as being incompatible with modern operating systems due to the atrocious StarForce + SFFS DRM, which thankfully have been cracked. The PC version has downgraded sound quality in terms of both music and sound effects, which can both be fixed by installing a mod I created that can be found here: https://gamebanana.com/sounds/57415

The PC version also suffers from many, MANY graphical rendering issues, which brings me to my main point of why I'm posting this here: dgVoodoo actually fixes a bunch of them.
Here are a few examples:

YouTube video showing many of the PC port's issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nmIPRT6Gcs

Without dgvoodoo:

before dgvoodoo.jpg
Filename
before dgvoodoo.jpg
File size
315.72 KiB
Views
1338 views
File license
Public domain

With dgvoodoo:

after dgvoodoo.jpg
Filename
after dgvoodoo.jpg
File size
348.02 KiB
Views
1338 views
File license
Public domain

The PC version also uses improper texture filtering compared to the console versions, which causes black seams around certain textures. However, if you set Texture Filtering to "force point sampled" it actually fixes them, but disables texture filtering entirely which is not how the textures are supposed to be rendered in the console versions.

Texture filtering set to "App Driven":

texture filtering enabled.jpg
Filename
texture filtering enabled.jpg
File size
320.01 KiB
Views
1338 views
File license
Public domain

Texture filtering set to "Force point sampled":

texture filtering disabled.jpg
Filename
texture filtering disabled.jpg
File size
371.1 KiB
Views
1338 views
File license
Public domain

So what I want to know is how dgVoodoo manages to fix these graphical issues, and if it's possible for someone to look into this game to see how it's rendering system works and possibly find out how to fix the rest of the graphical issues.

I have a theory that since this game was ported from the Xbox version (which uses D3D8 for rendering), the PC version instead was upgraded to D3D9 for rendering, but due to the DirectX 9 upgrade introduced these graphical issues that weren't taken into account by the PC port's developers (Hip Games).

It's also possible that Dead to Rights (another game that uses the same engine as Pac-Man World 2, which also had its PC port developed by Hip Games) may also have similar issues, but I have never played Dead to Rights, so I can't confirm.

Reply 1 of 4, by Myloch

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You want a costructive reply and your topic not being banned?

***HINT***
Don't use the magic word cr@ck in this forum 😉

"Gamer & collector for passion, I firmly believe in the preservation and the diffusion of old/rare software, against all personal egoisms"

Reply 2 of 4, by ZellSF

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Myloch wrote on 2022-03-18, 13:26:

You want a costructive reply and your topic not being banned?

***HINT***
Don't use the magic word cr@ck in this forum 😉

Mentioning cracks is perfectly fine, it's just linking to them, saying you're pirating games, or being unable to use a clean copy when requested isn't.

If mentioning that some games require cracks would be against the rules, then might as well shut the forum down, wouldn't be fit for purpose. You're not playing old games on newer operating systems without cracks.

Reply 3 of 4, by icup321

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ZellSF wrote on 2022-03-18, 17:25:
Myloch wrote on 2022-03-18, 13:26:

You want a costructive reply and your topic not being banned?

***HINT***
Don't use the magic word cr@ck in this forum 😉

Mentioning cracks is perfectly fine, it's just linking to them, saying you're pirating games, or being unable to use a clean copy when requested isn't.

If mentioning that some games require cracks would be against the rules, then might as well shut the forum down, wouldn't be fit for purpose. You're not playing old games on newer operating systems without cracks.

Exactly, I obviously didn't put any links to cracks, I just thought it was important to mention that the game is literally unplayable (and unmoddable due to the game using StarForce FileSystem encryption) on modern operating systems without one. The purpose of this thread is just to spread awareness about how dgVoodoo fixes several graphical issues in this game, and to try to garner interest in investigating any other potential graphical fixes that could be added to dgVoodoo.

Reply 4 of 4, by Dege

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I'm not familiar with this game at all but the idea of fixing it looks interesting. Unfortunately I have very few time these days for such things, I'm already working on another game and it's progressing very slowly.
But, I'll have a look t it. Maybe texture filtering and such is easy to fix.