I had been looking for a way to bypass the vids, but didn't think it was possible. I was afraid renaming the vids would cause a crash as the engine would look for them but not find them.

I'll try it for sure.

I can confirm DrBeasts report, as the couple of times I did get the game running with GPU in the background, my frame rates got hammered.

it's nice that we did indeed find a fix, but if it causes too many other hassles, I might just do without the sun glare for now.

it's a real shame that between UBI and ATI, this couldn't get sorted out in the several patches and add-on we've had, not to mention several ATI driver versions since SH4s release.

Every set of ATI driver release notes, I always look for "resolved SH4 sunglare issue", but it's never there.

I finally got this to work. Thanks Kriller! It was your last step by step process that did the trick. However I have good news and bad news.

First the good news. My x1950 has never rendered this before! :rock:

http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/1574/shiv7852kn1.jpg


Now the bad news. The cost of this beauty is a HUGE frame rate hit and the pretty wakes now look like oil slicks.

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/705/shiv7846kh2.jpg

Now I did a little research and here is what I found. That Force Z Test Enable setting identifies z-order performance issues. Z-order or the layering of objects in the distance is a very sloppy area in the SHIV 3D engine. When you damage a ship in the distance you most often see the damage textures flickering in an annoying way. The same must be happening with the sun rendering. The halo layer is not being rendered around the sun for some reason.

Now the question is why Nvidia chipsets seem to be able to compensate for this and render the effect? And what is it with the x1950 chip set that can handle it? I single that chipset out since the latest ATI chipsets seem to render the sun halo just find.

Unfortunatly I fear that our niche passion for sub sims is too small to be noticed by both ATI and Ubisoft. We are too small a group for them to notice and a fix for this one issue in an other wise "servicable" 3D engine.

Oh well, this is a great find Kriller. I will surely use it when taking screenshots. However it is a bit impracticle for daily use.

It is nice to finally see the work of so many in its full glory. Thanks for that!!! :up:
.

Torps,
Any luck on this issue w your machine? i systematically changed all my nvidia settings and wasnt able to get the shining sun back. Did you have any luck?
The rest of the pack is running so nicely im just accepting the red circle but i see these shining sun pictures of what once was and it makes me think ;) :hmm:

Not really
 

Hey,
No luck, I been messing around with the latest work and old ROW, I get the sunset but I do not get the red cloud effects but since I do not have the tools I do not know how and what the new files are affecting. I talked to K2(Kriller2) and he said he was going to work on it. I feel like an a** though I had a long day and I was kinda of rude about it when I brought it to his attention. :damn: :damn: Everyone has there moments. Sorry Christian.

My Geforce 7600GT continues to render this game and ROW beautifully. For a mid range card, I'm really impressed with it. I continue to see fps higher than 40 on the eye candy shots. ROW is really awesome. :D

I have a ATI X850XT AGP...and allthough I have a nicer looking sun-glare in SH3, this ROW-SH4 one is quite nice as well, imo.
Here's a typical sunset, off the coast of Borneo, Jan '42...last shot is sunrise next morning, with a little fog in the distance:

http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMVKWKRS.jpg http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMVKWKRS.jpg

http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMRIAPAY.jpg http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMXXVLTO.jpg

http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMDKOTYD.jpg http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMBKQVYP.jpg

http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMFSOEVD.jpg http://www.61shap.com/pilots/Paajtor...T/BMFHGJVQ.jpg

What do you think?

[Quote] im just accepting the red circle but i see these shining sun pictures of what once was and it makes me think ;) :hmm:



Welcome to my ATI world!:cry:

touche` fish....touche`, the irony of it all. ;)

Feel the pain!:damn: By the way ATR, where abouts down the shore are you? I used to go to Seaside and Ortley Beach alot. Presently, I do alot of Tuna fishing out of Brielle. I just love it down there:yep:

Great work on this Kriller2!:up:

Just a heads up, (you probably already know) running 1.4 rsrd with the PE1: I know that we can't click characters but I also can't click the hatch above the helmsman that takes you to the conning tower, I get the same blank screen.

EDIT: Well sometimes this works as I have discovered this morning. Anyway, it's not a big deal, everything looks great.

Hi Torp.

It's okay mate, I got a little upset because it sounds like my work went badder and badder than Dave's. it's quite a challenge to improve on something that was fantastic to begin with..

Anyway I have something for you tomorrow, now the sun wont be so dark red, but you better confirm this.

Thanks for the apology in this thread, it takes character to do that.

Kriller2

@Nvidia card owners who aren't getting sunglare:

What driver settings are you using? Is your FSAA above x8? Just curious. Also, are you not getting glare only during sunsets or all throughout the game?

Hey letterboy,
It actually is not about the sunglare, it is the color of the sun when the sun gets close to the horizon. No worries though, Kriller is on it:up: .

I wonder...all you guys who have noticed a performance hit when GPU was running, what's your machine's specs? Mine is a grumpy 5-year old bastard :p

P4 Northwood 2.4 GHz running at 2.6GHz
1280MB DDR RAM
ATi X1650Pro 256MB DDR3 running on Omega 7.12 drivers

ETA to Torps: Uhm...I'm still waiting for a PM from you, mate ;)

Don't be so picky Torps :lol:


RDP