Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Announcements and discussion regarding any projects related to Cyan Worlds' Plasma Engine including (but not limited to) CyanWorlds.com Engine, Drizzle, OfflineKI, PyPRP, and libHSPlasma.

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Sirius » Sat May 13, 2017 2:37 am

I was using the other method before for getting widescreen with this other app "http://www.wsgf.org/article/universal-widescreen-uniws-patcher" before I found Drizzle 32 version online here :)

Wow, nice finding ! I didn't even know about the universal WS patcher. I'll give it a try. I think it might actually be better than the Drizzle version, because Drizzle modifies a lot of files without any way to revert them, which is not very good. This program sounds safer.
I wanted a while ago to improve the Drizzle patch to work on Shards and not require modifying core game files, but it's hard and I had no time for it... I might do it in the future, if my hacking skills are good enough.
Anyway, it's impressive to see you can launch the game in such high resolution :) The highest I've been able to try is my own monitor's resolution (a standard 1920x1080 - this is already very comfortable, combined with high MSAA).

As for high-res textures: no, there has been no high-res texture pack made for the game (because it's quite hard to load them in the game). However, I found out a few high-res textures are left in the game but unused, as seen here. Drizzle has an option to modify the files to load these better textures, in Advanced->Command Line. You will need to enter the command "-usehigherrestextures" (without the quotes), and in the two fields below it enter the path to your Uru DAT folder, and the name of the Age you want to modify (for instance, "Kadish", or "Garrison" - you have to look up these names in the DAT folder). Keep in mind that this is a tricky process, and Drizzle will likely print errors if you entered the command wrong.

About missing effects in Uru: most of these are too hard to reimplement in the older version of the engine, unfortunately. However, I don't remember any sky or clouds animation missing - do you have some comparison screenshots ?
Oh, and about the snow in Eder Delin: it's intended, the Age has two versions: summer and winter (they even have different sound effects). You can toggle between the two using an Offline-KI command (I don't remember which, but I think you can find it if you type /help in the OKI).

About the "--iinit To_Dni": yes, it's required because most of the time Uru will override the resolution settings stored in the file dev_mode.dat. But if you don't want the --init To_Dni hack, you can also mark dev_mode.dat as readonly (which means no program will be able to modify it).

Now, on the "more effects" topic...
Keep in mind that Uru's renderer dates back to the 2000 era, and runs on DirectX 8 (which is incredibly old). Porting the offline game to DX12 would be too hard, but maybe it could be done with the online game (it's beyond my skills, though). And we probably won't have HDR and Ansel before the game is ported to DX12 and OpenGL, so...
As for Razer Chroma, while it's possible to add it to the game, it's not on the top of the to-do list, since not many people have such keyboards... (I myself prefer unlit keyboard :P) Priority will likely be given to bugfixes and graphical improvements, or even virtual reality - which might take a few years...


about that feature in drizzle is their any non-fan ages that can use or need visual quality improvements? I know that a few of the non-fan ages if you try this feature on them , they break the ages, but some don't break the ages too, is their any uru offline age, that can be improved by using baking sunlight or with baking

No, the Ages already in the base game don't need these improvements. They already use much better light simulation, so applying this tool on them will be very detrimental. It's only useful for Fan-Ages which have no light simulation at all.


I'll have a look at those error messages someday, but school is taking a lot of my free time right now... I can't promise it will be anytime soon :(
User avatar
Sirius
 
Posts: 1506
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:46 am
Location: France

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby maximalprime2 » Sat May 13, 2017 10:59 pm

Thank you for reply back about my questions

as for the You will need to enter the command "-usehigherrestextures" command in drizzle I am not sure yet where you put that into drizzle I have to look into that feature, since I am not sure what tab you use to do that to the ages texture file in dat folder with that command you wrote about I have to look into that,

as the animation in the clouds in the Cleft.age not sure if they ever moved in either the uru online or uru offline game, I think at one time in an uru online game maybe it was animation but I am not sure, since they don't seem to move in the current cleft.age in both versions, their is some different in the sun in the uru online game it looks not the same as the offline uru game, the sun does not have an round light effect, but the uru online game it does have an sun that looks different , seems to use different versions of the sun in cleft moul age compared to cleft path of shell game which may be an effect in the online version that uru offline is missing, also again not sure if those clouds ever moved in either versions , some online version of moul age in one of the other shards may of had it moving the clouds in the effects but I am not sure, again I know that some ages in uru do have moving sky clouds but the cleft.age for some reason they never made the clouds move in the sky, no animation to the sky clouds in Cleft.age file that is what I was talking about with that since I am sure other ages in uru offline have moving sky effects.

About Directx 12 feature maybe in the future the CWE Builds could be compiled to use it from its source, not sure exactly what that would take thou.

viewtopic.php?f=114&t=6113

I have not played much with that version, I used openuru and Gehn Shard more than the CWE Builds, not sure about getting it to use directx 12 or directx 11 features it may take a lot of free time to do so on the part of the user etc..


I did have another problem some of the drizzle downloader deep island fan ages, were crashing the uru explorer.exe program on me, not sure why but when I was in alabaster age it crashed , also it seemed very slow when linking into it, I may need to reinstall uru from my cd, and redo the whole install at this point since besides using universal WS patcher which worked ok, the drizzle "Uru widescreen" with the universal WS patcher may of caused an problem with the offline build of uru, I guess I should not of tried to use both the other app and the drizzle one from drizzle 32 that may of caused an problem, but I am not sure if its related to alabaster age crashing the uru game on me.

my gigabyte motherboard is an G1Assassin-2-rev-10 model board, with that keyboard below the sleep mode key on it has an problem where as I explain it below it didn't want to repower the keyboard when I took it out of sleep mode, I only just now tried the sleep key on the keyboard today so I just found out it seems to have an problem either with windows 10 or its related to my motherboard in my system I think, the keyboard bug as far as I know is not related to either my PNY GeForce GTX 1050 or gigabyte GTX 680 cards as far as I know.

http://www.gigabyte.us/Motherboard/G1As ... support-dl

and about my bios version if you was wondering, I had it upgraded to the F12w bios, it only added support for windows 8 in fast booting features, they never updated the bios for windows 10, the last release on my bios for my current motherboard was dated 2013/10/30 and they still call it an beta bios, they never finished it I guess, since its been an beta bios since 2013 with windows 8 support in it. that's the last or most current bios for my motherboard in my system.

not related to the keyboards use in uru but for Razer Chroma keyboard I got from bestbuy store here in my home town , the keyboard had an problem where I had to unplug it from my usb port, since the built in sleep mode key on the keyboard caused it to stay off it didn't repower it on repowering my pc back into windows 10, its either windows 10 related problem or its an problem from the keyboard and my gigabyte motherboard, I fix that by unplugging it and replugging it into the port, for some reason when you put windows 10 to sleep with its built in key it caused the keyboard not to power back on , only fix was to remove it from the usb port and replug it in to get it to power back on, the best buy store in my area didn't have too many keyboards their to pick from what I can recall.

another feature I would like to see someday in Uru either online or offline version would be the use of my Xbox 360 gaming controller or the use of my Xbox one gaming controller in Uru game, I sometimes get tired of using the keyboard and mouse to control it, as far as I can remember only Myst 5 supports gaming controllers and that was an feature added to with it with Myst 5 end of ages, the media center patch added the feature of using your gaming pad controller with the software title, I don't remember if Uru ever has worked with them for use instead of just using the keyboard, I don't recall if I ever tried getting either Xbox controllers to work with it before, their may of been some 3rd party app that allowed the keys functions to be resigned to the gaming controller keys, I think I used to use that for uru offline game but it been an long time since I used that app, it was before I had windows 10 installed on my new pc, like one of my old pcs used to use that one app that I don't recall the name of that allowed keys to be assigned to the gamingpads buttons.
maximalprime2
 
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed May 10, 2017 2:19 pm

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby weiskg » Sat Aug 19, 2017 9:46 am

myst v working great, moul is problem, best to use 3.1 version for moul

Show Spoiler
weiskg
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Sep 10, 2013 1:23 pm

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby RicKy » Tue Jan 23, 2018 2:07 pm

Shorah !

First of all, sorry for my poor English ! :P

I tried the Drizzle 32 !
I would like to thanks Sirius for his fantastic work. The possibility to play Uru in 16/9, without stretch effect, it's a real pleasure !
Myst V, works very well, but for MOUL I have the same issue than weiskg. The conversion crash.
RicKy
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2010 9:12 am

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Sirius » Fri Feb 09, 2018 4:44 am

Wow, seems I missed the latest posts. Sorry about not answering sooner.
Strange, last time I checked the MOUL conversion was working on my end. I'll check what might be wrong with it. Can't promise it will be fixed anytime soon though :(
In the mean time, yes, you should be able to use the v31 MOUL conversion alongside the v32 MystV one - as far as I remember this shouldn't make a big difference.

Anyway, glad you're enjoying the new features :D
User avatar
Sirius
 
Posts: 1506
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:46 am
Location: France

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Chacal » Tue Mar 06, 2018 11:19 pm

Salut Sirius,
I've been trying Drizzle 32 with your additions to Myst V Ages.
I've also been reading the sources, I can't believe the amount of Python coding you put into this.
The results are amazing, it's like playing Myst V again without the annoyances of Esher, Bahros and stones.

Do I understand correctly that we can now solve all puzzles using the workarounds you coded in the scripts? For example, after opening the Noloben Keep we just need to run inside before the 65-second timer ends. And because we don't have the tablet, you activate the links on the pedestal when clues have been seen.
I'm not sure I got all of them, for example either the Laki windmill isn't working or I didn't find the way to activate it.

I encounter a consistent problem with scopes and reflections. For example the rain fills the cups in Noloben, but then I see a reflexion of random stone texture, not 4 symbols. Same with the mini scopes in Todelmer: looking into the eyepiece I see the scope itself moving around, instead of seeing from the scope's lens. As if the camera was misplaced. This means I cannot see the clues, so the links on my pedestals don't get activated. The big scopes also show nothing significant.

I did not activate your widescreen mode, could this be the cause of the problem?

Am I the only one with these problems? It is likely, since everything else seems to be working fine.
Chacal


"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
User avatar
Chacal
 
Posts: 2508
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:45 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Sirius » Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:50 am

Salut Chacal ! :)

Chacal wrote:Do I understand correctly that we can now solve all puzzles using the workarounds you coded in the scripts? For example, after opening the Noloben Keep we just need to run inside before the 65-second timer ends. And because we don't have the tablet, you activate the links on the pedestal when clues have been seen.
I'm not sure I got all of them, for example either the Laki windmill isn't working or I didn't find the way to activate it.

Correct ! Puzzles have been readjusted for Uru and the lack of slates - you won't need Bahros or Slates.
To activate pedestals, you have to either click their link (you'll see the new symbol appear after you've warped to the Take), or see them from the distance (in the case of Todelmer that means focusing the telescopes on them and zooming to max, without anything occluding the view).
In the case of the Laki'ahn windmill, it obviously won't work unless it's powered up ;) To do that, you have to activate the Slate's environment effect. For those Slate effects, you have to figure out how/where to activate them. Noloben's rain is simply random, but all three other have a special condition to trigger them ("special" objects that might only appear once you get close). None of them are particularly well hidden, you should find them as long as you keep your eyes open and explore a bit.

Chacal wrote:I encounter a consistent problem with scopes and reflections. For example the rain fills the cups in Noloben, but then I see a reflexion of random stone texture, not 4 symbols. Same with the mini scopes in Todelmer: looking into the eyepiece I see the scope itself moving around, instead of seeing from the scope's lens. As if the camera was misplaced. This means I cannot see the clues, so the links on my pedestals don't get activated. The big scopes also show nothing significant

Yeah, that's a limitation of the older engine - dynamic textures are not supported, so I replaced them with reflections (the widescreen fix has no impact on this). However I always added a workaround so puzzles could still be solved (EXCEPT in the case of Noloben's water reflections, this is the only puzzle out of all those Ages that's not solvable. Fixing it was the last step before release and I was too fed up to fix it...).
Todelmer's big scopes should automatically switch the third person camera to the telescope's view when you click the grey/green button. The mini-scopes should work like they do in Myst V (if they don't, then that's a bug - maybe try to switch to third person camera).

Chacal wrote:I've also been reading the sources, I can't believe the amount of Python coding you put into this.

Python coding wasn't too bad, since I converted the Myst V scripts to the older API. The real work was having Drizzle fix all the conversion errors, and automatically implement workarounds for missing elements.
(Fun fact: when playing online, some puzzles should auto-readjust so that you need someone else to progress. However I've never had the occasion to try, single player was bothersome enough to debug...)


I'm glad you're having fun with it :D
User avatar
Sirius
 
Posts: 1506
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:46 am
Location: France

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Chacal » Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:18 pm

Thanks Sirius, I had forgotten how much 3rd-person camera mode is different from 1st-person. It's almost like two different games.
This solved the scope problem, and also others like in Laki, I was unable to climb into the cage, as if an invisible collider prevented me. By switching to 3rd-person camra I could climb.

So far everything is working, except when previous attempts left the ages in weird states. I have played these ages a lot in free-camera before.
I wonder how to reset them? Trying to reset the Direbo book in the Relto bookshelf is not allowed. Should I convert them again using Drizzle32? Maybe delete the SDLfiles beforehand? But then what about the data in the vault?

Also I followed your instructions for widescreen mode, and wow does it look different in 1920 x 1080. It is like a different game. Thanks for this too!
Chacal


"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
User avatar
Chacal
 
Posts: 2508
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:45 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Sirius » Thu Mar 08, 2018 12:54 am

That's strange, the camera should auto-switch to third person for the scopes. But then third person was always buggy anyway. (I remember finding a camera exploit that allowed exploring the vortex of Ahnonay in first person - pretty funny)

As for resetting the Ages... Maybe try the /%resetage KI command ? I don't know if it's effective in EoA Ages.
Deleting the SDL won't achieve anything unfortunately (except cause even more issues), as progress is stored in the vault. I think Age entries can be removed with VaultTool though. Remember to backup your save file beforehand.

Chacal wrote:Also I followed your instructions for widescreen mode, and wow does it look different in 1920 x 1080. It is like a different game. Thanks for this too!

Nice, huh :) It's just a bit annoying to have to modify all the PRP files for it to work... If I were better at reverse-engineering I'd implement all the changes in the UruExplorer.exe so it's compatible with DI. Ah well.
User avatar
Sirius
 
Posts: 1506
Joined: Mon Jul 26, 2010 4:46 am
Location: France

Re: Drizzle 32 ! (experimental)

Postby Chacal » Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:32 am

/!resetage and /%resetage didn't work for me.

It turns out the simplest solution is to delete the save file for each Age.
For example: \sav\556C75\current\Direbo_0012683EF5440002.sav
The game will make a new file with default values from the SDL files.

Tonight I played the whole set after resetting the Ages, and everything worked as you designed. You really did a great job with these Ages.

I had three small bugs:
- the Laki cage collider was out of synch with the visible cage when rotated, I had to use flymode.
- the Laki elevator was up, and it was not possible to walk around it. Had to use flymode.
EDIT: scratch that, I just read in another discussion that it is possible to walk around it.
- every time I changed anything in Todelmer (push a button, etc) the bubble would vanish. I had to /link to Direbo and back again.

I plan to play the whole set of Myst5 Ages with my kid, I prefer this to playing the actual Myst5 game. He's only 8 and I don't want to annoy / depress / traumatize him with the Myst5 story. Also I want to spare him the awkward finale. I will start in the cleft and drop in the volcano.
Chacal


"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong."
-- Mahatma Gandhi
User avatar
Chacal
 
Posts: 2508
Joined: Tue Nov 06, 2007 2:45 pm
Location: Quebec, Canada

PreviousNext

Return to Plasma Development

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 23 guests

cron