[WIP] SH4 Graphics Extender

[Seeadler]

I have developed a DLL which is loaded by SH4 at runtime and given me access to the 3D image data before it is rendered.
This enables me, like the ENB-Series for other games, to use my own external post-process shaders to extend the visuals.

I implement a fake HDR shader first, it worked!

normal:


with HDR shader:


The values are overdosed at the moment just to see the effect for debugging purpose


It also enables me to render my own harcoded stuff on the screen and something more I don't wish to tell at present time because I'm not realy sure if it will work.


With a few minor changes, this could also work for SH3, but it failed so far in some areas in combination with the Sh3HighRex-fix, which uses a similar method to "hook" the ongoing render process.

[AVGWarhawk]

I do not understand what this is accomplishing.

[CWorth]

Well if that is doing what I think it is,a version of this has been around for a long time already.

It looks like it is basically adding an HDR Bloom effect to the game.

This has been around since Lock On Modern Air Combat which it was made for originally and can be used in any DirectX based game.

I use it for IL2,Lock On,Steel Beasts ProPE etc..

http://www.mediafire.com/?lmhyt2jtffd

So you may be able to save yourself some work since there is already one available.And as you said it does have problems with SH3 using the Hires mod also.

[Navarre]

Originally Posted by CWorth

I use it for IL2,Lock On,Steel Beasts ProPE etc..
http://www.mediafire.com/?lmhyt2jtffd

That is ENB Series for DirectX 8, and none of this series work for Silent Hunter because it uses DirectX 9. Also at least I could not find any version of the DirectX 9 ENB Series which work with Silent Hunter all I tried crashed at start.

[CWorth]

Originally Posted by Navarre

That is ENB Series for DirectX 8, and none of this series work for Silent Hunter because it uses DirectX 9. Also at least I could not find any version of the DirectX 9 ENB Series which work with Silent Hunter all I tried crashed at start.

I have to look as I did have a DX9 based one I used just have to find the right link

My post was just stating that there is already something like this out already so he may be able to save himself some work.

Edit:Found it..this is the DX9 version
http://www.dejawolf.com/steelbeasts/.../bloom-mod.rar

Of course the .ini file would need tweaked according to taste.Not sur eif it works but it may be tweakable to get it going.

[Navarre]

Originally Posted by CWorth

I have to look as I did have a DX9 based one I used just have to find the right link

It would be great if I could get one for DX9 which works with the SH4.exe because all I tried produce me a CtD. I have one which enables missing shadows in other games and I would try that with SH4.

[CWorth]

Originally Posted by Navarre

It would be great if I could get one for DX9 which works with the SH4.exe because all I tried produce me a CtD. I have one which enables missing shadows in other games and I would try that with SH4.

Not sure if the one I linked above will work.

Could simply be the way the code for the game is written and Seeadler will have to pretty much go from scratch as he is doing.

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by Navarre

It would be great if I could get one for DX9 which works with the SH4.exe because all I tried produce me a CtD.

Yes that was also my first intention to do a similar work.

The ENB-series dll's are for a particular game, one for GTA, one for NfS and so on. They may work for other games also, but as you, I can't find one which work with SH4.
Based on opensource projects of such dll's I investigated how such a dll must be loaded from SH4 and which entry points the SH4.exe used.

During the implementation of this proof-of-concept for SH4, I found a way do a similar thing also with the *.act files in SH4. That gave me an insight on what's going on in EffectManagers.act or SHControllers.act for example or how the hardcoded periscope reticles and bearing markings are rendered

prospects for the future:
Now when SH5 is released and it includes a special shader file which modders want to convert to SH4 but it fails because particular hardcoded values are provided by the SH5 engine to this shader file, my concept may help to provide these values externaly via the extender dll's

[Galanti]

This is great stuff, please keep us posted on your progress!

[tomoose]

......what this is doing/bringing to the game. Can someone clarify please?

[sergbuto]

Seeadler,

Would it be possible to make things such as f.e. bringing back a possibility to switch the external camera view not only between the ships but between planes and land objects (as it was in SH3)? My guess this is hidden in .act files somewhere.

[skwasjer]

Pretty cool

I've been messing around with this about a year ago as well, based on older code I had (although this was vqm/ogl stuff). I did something similar for Q3 (where I made a capture-to-avi hook for movie capture, including DoF/MB filters). Q3 could only save each frame to a separate TGA and did not support those filters. I captured the z-buffers and frame buffer (and merged/averaged frames for motion blur), and stored them in lossless-compressed AVI. Was very useful for HQ movie making, and saved alot of disk space too.
I never got anything decent working for SH4 though (mind you, it would not be movie related)

You can do quite a lot of fancy stuff now. Cool stuff