New Wide Screen mod: the next definitive SH3 step!

[Flopper]

I had hour after long and lonely hour of CTDs. I'm on nvidia 8600 gts and acer 22 inch on xp sp2. But after trying EVERYTHING that was posted on the internets I'm finally able to get it to run. What I'm still calling a CTD is actually the message "Can not initialize 3d engine" ever since applying the Microsoft Compatibility Administrator.

My native res is 1920 x 1080, and a launch with d3d9.dll WILL ctd with that monitor resolution, even if i hang my monitor off the power pole and balance it on an bar magnet while the natives do a hula dance.

The best I can do is to change the resolution to 1600 x 900 and set the ini to the same. Then BAM... the 3d views are amazing. Sweeeeet! The aspect ratio on the 2d views are great, too, but of course I'm geeked because the height is wrong, as you'd expect. Unfortunately, I also CTD at every setting with a height of 768 unless the width is 1024.

It appears my only choice is 1600 x 900.

I went in and scaled periscope.tga to the "proper" size, but I was puzzled that the periscope view was still the same size, although the buttons had all become larger, and were now all scrunched up together and overlapping.

I still don't know diddly squat, but I'm happy to have some progress. I guess this'll give me something to do for a while.

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by Flopper

What I'm still calling a CTD is actually the message "Can not initialize 3d engine" ever since applying the Microsoft Compatibility Administrator.

Go to nVidia Control Panel and set "NVIDIA scaling"

[Flopper]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

Go to nVidia Control Panel and set "NVIDIA scaling"

I have to set the resolution to lower than native in order to get to that screen in the control panel, and indeed it was already set to that.

Still, I set my res back to native 1920 x 1080, and likewise in the ini file, and YES, IT DOES WORK! Very happy, thank you so much!

Edit: I have created a custom resolution of 1365 x 768 through the nvidia control panel, and now I'm able to replicate the experience of Rubini's videos. I can run my desktop at native, the scaling is correct in SH3, and alt + tab between the game and desktop, even though they are at different resolutions.

Thank you very much, Seeadler, and all involved... this is great!

[R3D]

how in heck can i get this to work on an ATI card? every normal resolution even the 4:3 ones cause the game to ctd before loading even the title screen?

is there some setting in Catalyst that needs to be checked?

[karamazovnew]

This is simply amazing.... It's quite surprising that 5 years on, someone still comes with a breakthrough regarding SH3. Well, a word about what to do now.

As you all know, all SH games have their interface limited to a 1024*768 space. SH4 and SH5 allow to scale up items in different modes. This thread explains how they do it: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163118

SH3 however, with this mod, will always scale the interface in a constantAspectRatioVertical style. The left side of the screen, a box in 4:3 format will always look ok, but you'll get "empty usable" space to the right of the screen. The amount of usable space depends on the aspect ratio of the monitor. In other words, 16:10 (1920x1200) resolutions will have less space than 16:9 resolutions (1920x1080).

UI modders will now have the following spaces to work with:

- 4:3 resolutions 1024*768 box, just as before (1024=768*4/3)
- 16:10 resolutions 1228*768 (1228=768*16/10)
- 16:9 resolutions 1365*768 (1365=768*16/9)

Making one interface for all aspect types is IMPOSSIBLE. However, it's easy to convert a 16:9 interface to a 16:10 because the difference is small.

How to do a quick and fast centering on the screen? First of all, all vertical positions are the same as before, nothing has changed.
Here's one example of a page:

[G01 I1]
Name=Page shell
Type=1027;Menu page
ItemID=0x1000000
ParentID=0x0
Pos=0,0,0,0
LoadingMode=2

It starts from the left side of the screen and we want to move it in the center. The "old" center had X=512 (or 1024/2). The new center depends on the aspect ratio, for 16:10 resolutions, X=614 (or 1228/2). This means that you only need to move each page 102 pixels to the right:

[G01 I1]
Name=Page shell
Type=1027;Menu page
ItemID=0x1000000
ParentID=0x0
Pos=102,0,0,0
LoadingMode=2

Of course, you'll now end up with empty bands on both sides of the screen.
Thus, we need to think ahead, leave all pages as they currently are. What we DO need is this:
Divide all items into 3 categories:
- glued to the left of the screen (X position will not change)
- glued to the right of the screen (X position should change by 204 pixels for 16:10 res)
- glued to the center (X position should change by 102 pixels for 16:10 res)

So...
1. We must create MASTER (left, center, right) groups inside each page and place each item inside. Luckily the entire interface has already been carved up in big groups so most of the interface will only require you to reparent just a few groups.
2. We can now make multiple interfaces for all aspect ratios just by moving the left and right master groups.
3. "SOME" items will require multiple TGA versions. I'm talking of course about all backgrounds. These are actually glued to the Left of the screen.

Sounds easy actually. But we DO have 4-5 major interfaces for sh3.. so which one should we start with first? I opt for ACM

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by karamazovnew

3. "SOME" items will require multiple TGA versions. I'm talking of course about all backgrounds. These are actually glued to the Left of the screen.

The trick is to determine when a particular texture ID is transformed via a D3D matrix. If you have that info, then you can do anything with the vertex quad for the texture, scaling, translating, rotating, etc. before it is rendered onto the screen. SH4 does basically the same with the zone parameters from the menu_ini

I did it as a test with the two loading backgrounds

[nemo7]

Originally Posted by karamazovnew
Sounds easy actually. But we DO have 4-5 major interfaces for sh3.. so which one should we start with first? I opt for ACM

Yeah!!! ACM-GUI in WS!

[karamazovnew]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

The trick is to determine when a particular texture ID is transformed via a D3D matrix. If you have that info, then you can do anything with the vertex quad for the texture, scaling, translating, rotating, etc. before it is rendered onto the screen. SH4 does basically the same with the zone parameters from the menu_ini

I did it as a test with the two loading backgrounds

Wow!, how did you do that?!

[Rubini]

Originally Posted by karamazovnew

This is simply amazing.... It's quite surprising that 5 years on, someone still comes with a breakthrough regarding SH3. Well, a word about what to do now.

As you all know, all SH games have their interface limited to a 1024*768 space. SH4 and SH5 allow to scale up items in different modes. This thread explains how they do it: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163118

SH3 however, with this mod, will always scale the interface in a constantAspectRatioVertical style. The left side of the screen, a box in 4:3 format will always look ok, but you'll get "empty usable" space to the right of the screen. The amount of usable space depends on the aspect ratio of the monitor. In other words, 16:10 (1920x1200) resolutions will have less space than 16:9 resolutions (1920x1080).

UI modders will now have the following spaces to work with:

- 4:3 resolutions 1024*768 box, just as before (1024=768*4/3)
- 16:10 resolutions 1228*768 (1228=768*16/10)
- 16:9 resolutions 1365*768 (1365=768*16/9)

Making one interface for all aspect types is IMPOSSIBLE. However, it's easy to convert a 16:9 interface to a 16:10 because the difference is small.

How to do a quick and fast centering on the screen? First of all, all vertical positions are the same as before, nothing has changed.
Here's one example of a page:

[G01 I1]
Name=Page shell
Type=1027;Menu page
ItemID=0x1000000
ParentID=0x0
Pos=0,0,0,0
LoadingMode=2

It starts from the left side of the screen and we want to move it in the center. The "old" center had X=512 (or 1024/2). The new center depends on the aspect ratio, for 16:10 resolutions, X=614 (or 1228/2). This means that you only need to move each page 102 pixels to the right:

[G01 I1]
Name=Page shell
Type=1027;Menu page
ItemID=0x1000000
ParentID=0x0
Pos=102,0,0,0
LoadingMode=2

Of course, you'll now end up with empty bands on both sides of the screen.
Thus, we need to think ahead, leave all pages as they currently are. What we DO need is this:
Divide all items into 3 categories:
- glued to the left of the screen (X position will not change)
- glued to the right of the screen (X position should change by 204 pixels for 16:10 res)
- glued to the center (X position should change by 102 pixels for 16:10 res)

So...
1. We must create MASTER (left, center, right) groups inside each page and place each item inside. Luckily the entire interface has already been carved up in big groups so most of the interface will only require you to reparent just a few groups.
2. We can now make multiple interfaces for all aspect ratios just by moving the left and right master groups.
3. "SOME" items will require multiple TGA versions. I'm talking of course about all backgrounds. These are actually glued to the Left of the screen.

Sounds easy actually. But we DO have 4-5 major interfaces for sh3.. so which one should we start with first? I opt for ACM

Hi mate,

Well, after some days working on this new mod I can say that things are a bit more complicated - unless we just work with a 1360x768 for example. Any resolution above this one (768 is the magic number here) will need to also adjust all things on the menu_1024 (and also some tgas) in it´s vertical too. And we also have that "hardcoded" pages as exposed in the post above.

The first formed group (well ,yet in formation - it´s openned for any one that have some knowledge on menu_1024) that is already working on this mod have a basic goal to make a quick release of a basic WS adapted interface - probably stock GWX3.0 - to be presented to the community, also with a "make it your self" guide, this way anyone will be able to adapt it to his own menu_1024/cameras.dat (these two files are just basic ones to adjust this mod correctly and obviously we have infinite versions here in this community). The resolutions shall be probably 1360x768, just because it´s the major one that uses that magic "768" making things a lot easier and quick. All monitors can just rescale it automatically then. The idea is that we will provide our basic finds/tricks on the work, to make things easier for anyone after that to adapt it to any GUI, etc (or even for new resolutions).

What do you think?

[Flopper]

Originally Posted by Rubini

Hi mate,

Well, after some days working on this new mod I can say that things are a bit more complicated - unless we just work with a 1360x768 for example. Any resolution above this one (768 is the magic number here) will need to also adjust all things on the menu_1024 (and also some tgas) in it´s vertical too. And we also have that "hardcoded" pages as exposed in the post above.

The first formed group (well ,yet in formation - it´s openned for any one that have some knowledge on menu_1024) that is already working on this mod have a basic goal to make a quick release of a basic WS adapted interface - probably stock GWX3.0 - to be presented to the community, also with a "make it your self" guide, this way anyone will be able to adapt it to his own menu_1024/cameras.dat (these two files are just basic ones to adjust this mod correctly and obviously we have infinite versions here in this community). The resolutions shall be probably 1360x768, just because it´s the major one that uses that magic "768" making things a lot easier and quick. All monitors can just rescale it automatically then. The idea is that we will provide our basic finds/tricks on the work, to make things easier for anyone after that to adapt it to any GUI, etc (or even for new resolutions).

What do you think?

I think it sounds great. I wish I knew more. By the time I locate my fanny, you guys will be done already.

But 1365 x 768, right?