VOGONS


Fog issue in FFXI

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First post, by Atomic Skull

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lowenz wrote on 2019-11-18, 18:46:
Dege wrote:

Thanks! I've just fixed it. I remember somebody reported very similar fogging bug in FFXI. I hope it'll fix that as well.

Just how can you be so talented? 😁 You're incredible, man!

The FFXI fog bug still exists as of v2.75. I check back periodically to see if it was fixed. Shame because other than that it works amazingly well with FFXI.

Screencap of FFXI in Sancuary of Zi'Tah with dgvoodoo2 v2.75 attached. Everything fogs correctly except the landscape. The large tree trunks are apparently part of the landscape while the branches as well as some of the smaller trees are not. FFXI uses some weird methods to render the screen, not surprising as the port was done by a group of programmers who really didn't "do" PC games and had most of their experience with making PS2 games. It seems like they use a common code base for both versions (though the PS2 version was discontinued a few years ago) with some wrapper code to get it working on the PC. Both versions had to be concurrent because both versions used the same game servers and had to be updated with new content at the same time.

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Reply 1 of 38, by Dege

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Yes, I remeber this issue being reported earlier. I'd check it out but

- my free account expired ages ago
- I don't have a clue how to get to the level/position where the problem occurs (I don't know the game(play) itself).

Is there an easy way that we could manage this?

Reply 2 of 38, by Atomic Skull

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It's not just that area it happens anywhere there is fog, it's just that zone always has fog so you don't have to wait around for fog weather which is relatively rare in the starting zones. Maybe is someone could do some sort of debug log you could see what's going on but other than that idk.

Reply 4 of 38, by djc5166

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Dege wrote on 2021-07-14, 15:14:
Yes, I remeber this issue being reported earlier. I'd check it out but […]
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Yes, I remeber this issue being reported earlier. I'd check it out but

- my free account expired ages ago
- I don't have a clue how to get to the level/position where the problem occurs (I don't know the game(play) itself).

Is there an easy way that we could manage this?

If you're still willing to look at the fog, I'm sure we can set you up with either a retail or private server account logged out in an affected area.

Reply 7 of 38, by mleko

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Atomic Skull wrote on 2021-07-13, 00:15:
lowenz wrote on 2019-11-18, 18:46:
Dege wrote:

Thanks! I've just fixed it. I remember somebody reported very similar fogging bug in FFXI. I hope it'll fix that as well.

Just how can you be so talented? 😁 You're incredible, man!

The FFXI fog bug still exists as of v2.75. I check back periodically to see if it was fixed. Shame because other than that it works amazingly well with FFXI.

Screencap of FFXI in Sancuary of Zi'Tah with dgvoodoo2 v2.75 attached. Everything fogs correctly except the landscape. The large tree trunks are apparently part of the landscape while the branches as well as some of the smaller trees are not. FFXI uses some weird methods to render the screen, not surprising as the port was done by a group of programmers who really didn't "do" PC games and had most of their experience with making PS2 games. It seems like they use a common code base for both versions (though the PS2 version was discontinued a few years ago) with some wrapper code to get it working on the PC. Both versions had to be concurrent because both versions used the same game servers and had to be updated with new content at the same time.

I couldn't find the exact spot, but this is how it should look like without dgVoodoo on with fog working.

I'm now using 2.78 and fog still doesn't work.

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Reply 9 of 38, by mleko

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Dege wrote on 2022-01-19, 14:58:

Ok, then if it can be reproduced on a private server at a given location, then I could look at it.

Hi Dege,
Thank you so much for looking into this.

How can we communicate privately so I can give you details for the private server?

EDIT: Please forgive my ignore. The problem wasn't dgVoodoo. It was because the game's ClippingPlane was set too high and bump mapping was ON, that's why the fog dissapeared.

BTW, thank you very very much for developing dgVoodoo. You gave a new life to this old game!

Reply 11 of 38, by djc5166

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Dege wrote on 2022-01-23, 18:55:

Thanks for the feedback!
But, bump mapping has to be disabled for a good fog? Is it sg coming with dgVoodoo only?

I think you have to disable bump mapping for some of the ambient lighting to work correctly, so maybe not a huge shocker.

I haven't played this game in ages, but I keep planning to get back to it, so I've never checked the fog for myself.

I believe I can get to this area in the OP so maybe I can check shortly.

Reply 12 of 38, by Maestrobob

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Hi Dege, I've been following this issue on and off for quite some time checking back occasionally to see if there's been any improvement.

I saw the recent build which fixed vertex fog in PSOBB in 2.79.3 and though it might resolve the fog in FFXI as well, however it is still incorrect.

It's interesting to see that some objects in the scene appear like they are "fogged" properly, while others are completely not at all.

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Reply 14 of 38, by Dege

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Maestrobob wrote on 2022-12-06, 07:18:

Hi Dege, I've been following this issue on and off for quite some time checking back occasionally to see if there's been any improvement.

I saw the recent build which fixed vertex fog in PSOBB in 2.79.3 and though it might resolve the fog in FFXI as well, however it is still incorrect.

It's interesting to see that some objects in the scene appear like they are "fogged" properly, while others are completely not at all.

I'm in to look into this long standing bug, as djc5166 is kindly offering me his account. But I don't have a clue how to get to the problematic location.
Is it easy to get there by some repro-steps?

Reply 15 of 38, by Atomic Skull

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Dege wrote on 2023-01-20, 18:51:
Maestrobob wrote on 2022-12-06, 07:18:

Hi Dege, I've been following this issue on and off for quite some time checking back occasionally to see if there's been any improvement.

I saw the recent build which fixed vertex fog in PSOBB in 2.79.3 and though it might resolve the fog in FFXI as well, however it is still incorrect.

It's interesting to see that some objects in the scene appear like they are "fogged" properly, while others are completely not at all.

I'm in to look into this long standing bug, as djc5166 is kindly offering me his account. But I don't have a clue how to get to the problematic location.
Is it easy to get there by some repro-steps?

It's either easy or hard, depending on if your character has the outpost warp to that zone or not. If someone is lending you their account and they have it then it's not hard. Or they could just go there and log out and when you log in you'll be in that zone where the character logged out.

The fog bug actually appears anywhere there is fog, it's just that foggy weather isn't common in most outside zones (subtle distance fogging is common inside dungeon zones though). Sanctuary of Zi'tah however is *always* foggy 24/7.

FYI the tops of the giant redwood trees are intentionally missing (you can't see it in these screenshots). Normally they are lost in the fog so you don't see them, so they didn't include the geometry for the top half of the giant trees.

Maestrobob wrote on 2022-12-06, 07:18:

It's interesting to see that some objects in the scene appear like they are "fogged" properly, while others are completely not at all.

In FFXI geometry is either part of the landscape or it is an object. Landscape doesn't fog correctly and objects do.

Reply 17 of 38, by Maestrobob

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Hi Dege,

No noticeable change with WIP89.4, sadly.

Would providing a level 1 or 2 API tracing log possibly help in figuring this out?

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Reply 18 of 38, by Dege

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Maestrobob wrote on 2023-02-16, 07:18:

Hi Dege,

No noticeable change with WIP89.4, sadly.

Would providing a level 1 or 2 API tracing log possibly help in figuring this out?

Yes, maybe a level 2 API tracing log would help a bit, thanks!

But I have another idea too: what if I give you a d3d8.dll that is compatible with RenderDoc so you could do a frame capture? Basically all that you'd have to do is run FFXI from RenderDoc, go to the foggy location, press F12 to generate the capture, save the .rdc file and send it to me. If you're into it, we could discuss the details in PM's.

Reply 19 of 38, by Maestrobob

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Dege wrote on 2023-02-16, 19:02:
Maestrobob wrote on 2023-02-16, 07:18:

Hi Dege,

No noticeable change with WIP89.4, sadly.

Would providing a level 1 or 2 API tracing log possibly help in figuring this out?

Yes, maybe a level 2 API tracing log would help a bit, thanks!

But I have another idea too: what if I give you a d3d8.dll that is compatible with RenderDoc so you could do a frame capture? Basically all that you'd have to do is run FFXI from RenderDoc, go to the foggy location, press F12 to generate the capture, save the .rdc file and send it to me. If you're into it, we could discuss the details in PM's.

Totally into it. I went to send you a PM, but apparently I haven't been active enough on these forums to enable that feature.

Regardless, If you want to pass me a .dll, I can get you a capture from RenderDoc.