[DOWNLOAD] Bloom for Neocron :)

[BoH_Havoc]

Hey guys,
Just started playing Neocron again and noticed how outdated the graphics are by now.
So i tried to "port" the ENBSeries DLL by Boris Vorontsov to Neocron 2. So far only Bloom is working, but hey, it already adds a big bunch of eye candy to nc :)

Short:
Download the file below, extract it to your neocron folder and enjoy. Enable/Disable the effect with [Shift] + [F12].

Long (Some Technical mumbo jumbo for those who are interisted):
So far only bloom seems to work. I tried different DLLs from the autoher's homepage with different config files, but none worked correctly. There are some versions where Depth of Field kinda works, but it's heavy bugged (It basically just switches between the bsp level and actors. Either all actors are sharp and the level is blurred, or the level is sharp and all actors are blurred). I also tried to implement my own Depth of Field and Screen Space Ambience Occlusion Shaders (already have them finished for a game engine i'm working with, see here (http://shadec.project-havoc.com/) ), but it didn't work out as i can't access the Depthmap in Neocron 2 (works fine in other games).


Get it here (70kb):
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/neocronENB.rar

Link to author's homepage:
http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/index_en.html

forgot to mention: If you have a gfx card capable of PixelShader 3.0, open up enbseries.ini and change this line
EnableShaders_3_0=0
to
EnableShaders_3_0=1
to get a nicer bloom effect


Some screenies (before/after):

http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/4_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/4_2.jpg

http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/1_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/1_2.jpg


http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/2_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/2_2.jpg


http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/3_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/3_2.jpg

http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/5_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/5_2.jpg


http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/6_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/6_2.jpg


http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/7_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/7_2.jpg

http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/10_1.jpg
http://project-havoc.com/upload/neocronENB/10_2.jpg



It's killer in hacknet! You should try it yourself :)

enjoy!




Sidenote:
I was thinking of porting a level of neocron (maybe club veronique) to the gameengine i'm using and adding my shaderpack to it (realtime softshadows, HDR, Depth of Field, Volumetric Particles, etc.) to:
a) promote my shaderpack
b) get some attention to neocron to maybe attract some new customers/players
I would of course have to get permission from KK first, but so far i'm more interisted if you guys think this could work out as some kind of advertisement for nc. Or if it's a waste of time.

cheers

[Powerpunsh]

Nice m8. This looks really cool. HDR effects in Neocron. :p

Hope you can activate the other effect soon. :)

*Thumps up*

[L0KI]

That's excellent.

Thanks for that :)

[naimex]

sorry if this sounds condescending, I really do think it's great so many people are working on making things better.


but ...



I can't see the differences from the screenies you posted, to how i remember the game looking.


And I am very very puzzled about a few things.

First, do you have permission from KK to add / edit dll libraries to your client?

Second, how did you do it, without having to re-compile the exe file, which I am fairly sure is absolutely no tampering permitted.




As said, it might sound very negative, but I really do think it's a great thing to look at and pay attention to and hopefully make better, but I just can't stop thinking about the things mentioned above.



EDIT: Nevermind, just looked at your screenies again, and re-read your post.

didn't notice where you wrote "before/after" and I figured that it was just screenshots taken shortly after eachother.

Sad to say, that I never paid quite as much attention to the background or the illumination level of objects, since I always move with a certain goal in mind or concentrate on chatter.


I'm sure there are some people who pay much more attention to those things when they play, and am equally sure that they will enjoy this, far more than I.

But still, it's really great that there are people like you, dedicating yourself to making things better, even if people like me, don't notice what exactly it is you're trying to change :)

[Powerpunsh]

there was no file replace in my nc folder.
And there is a big difference. You would see it if u log in. :p

[naimex]

there was no file replace in my nc folder.
And there is a big difference. You would see it if u log in. :p

That was kinda my point power :)

If there isn't a file replaced, how does the exe know that it needs to load it?


EDIT:

Just tried it ingame, and yes there actually is a big difference.


I have 1 complaint about it though, but I doubt it's something that can be helped..

inventory items become sort of... too illuminated by it, cant really make it out what it is.

[BoH_Havoc]

First of:
I didn't create that dll. Boris Vorontsov did (as already stated above). I just tried to get it to work with neocron 2 (which was easy, i just copied the right version of the dll (in this case the one for guilty gear) to the nc directory and made some adjustments to the enbseries.ini ).

It's basically a modified d3d9.dll (comes with DirectX 9) with integrated shaders. The idea is, that every game or application that's based on directx 9 will search for this file an then use it. Normally it is stored somewhere in your windows folder. But if you copy it over to the game's/app's directory, the copied dll will be used instead.

This works for a lot of games and applications. It's not based on Neocron libs. Nothing was changed on the neocron client side. There was no reverse engineering. As far as i can tell it's totally legal and everyone with some programming skills and the direct x sdk could do this (well....ok it's not quite THAT easy).


Hope this clears things up :)




I can't see the differences from the screenies you posted, to how i remember the game looking.

As Powerpunsh already said: There IS a difference. Just try it :) Press shift+f12 ingame to enable disable the effect and see the difference.




[edit]


Sad to say, that I never paid quite as much attention to the background or the illumination level of objects, since I always move with a certain goal in mind or concentrate on chatter.

I'm sure there are some people who pay much more attention to those things when they play, and am equally sure that they will enjoy this, far more than I.

But still, it's really great that there are people like you, dedicating yourself to making things better, even if people like me, don't notice what exactly it is you're trying to change

Good to know there still are some people left enjoying the actual game itself instead of judging a game only by it's looks! :) (May Crysis burn in hell)

[rob444]

Great DLL for this game but I would not want to run this on Half-Life 1/2. VAC is pretty sensitive when it comes to suddenly appearing opengl32.dll/d3dX.dll files :p

[Powerpunsh]

Hmm, daylight rapes my fps. :p

[specranator]

none of your links or screens are working for me

edit: just saw powers screen. looks pretty cool but also looks like the max distance you can see is cut alot. are you able to make adjustments to it, or can you only toggle it on and off?

[Powerpunsh]

theres an ini file. there u can change every effect. Tried something and put it on 1. looks really crazy. :D
Looks like u run in a dream, everywhere it is illuminated. :angel:

edit: heres a pic, just activated some points.

[Setlec]

has kk gave their approval for this?

[SilentEye]

I'm under the impression that if this is something not under approval of KK, Niddy woud've been here by now ;)

[Marc Hoover]

Very impressive, but I believe KK will detect this as an "manipulation" (Proxy-DLL'ing).

Maybe you can hook the dx device on an other way.

uneX discontinued a similar development of a "graphic enhancement", because KK is checking this ;/

You should contact KK, maybe they will authorize your "modification". (I hope so! Thats really cool stuff!)

[Powerpunsh]

But why an approval? The game search's by itself for the missing file in the nc folder. There is no file replace or any other acceptance needed.
Beside this, there are no advantages. It has more an disadvantage, because of the frameirruptions at some places. E. g. Devourer, my frames go down to 1-2.

edit: A statement of KK would make this clear. :rolleyes:

[Marc Hoover]

Okay, your will put a file called "d3d9.dll" in your Neocron folder. This file is originally located in your system32 folder. The system32 folder is declared as an "global search path" in the enviroment variable "%PATH%".

When you start NC, NC will use the new file instead of the original file in your system32.

Neocron will need the "d3d9.dll" to create a "Direct3DDevice" to render some graphics. The new file in your NC folder will "simulate" this D3DDevice, adds some custom effects like shaders etc... and sends the rest to the original "d3d9.dll" in your system32 ... thats called proxy-dll'ing

KK will detect this as an "cheat" since the first "Wallhack" cheats, which are using the same method.

The "cheaters" are using 1 simple renderstate property to create a wallhack.

You can change so many things... water effects... lightning... shadows... bumpmapping...

~10 Lines of code for a cool specular on PAs :p



There's another way to get the D3DDevice, but... KK impelements a bunch of methods that detect some cases of manipulation.

That's the reason why we stopping the development ;/

[rob444]

I agree with Marc on this one and I think it's called a "wrapper" ;)

[Marc Hoover]

I agree with Marc on this one and I think it's called a "wrapper" ;)

Okay, there are many definitions. But in this case, a DirectX-Proxy-DLL (R) (C) (TM) :p

[GAME] -> [PROXY DLL] -> [ORIGINAL DLL]

Wrappers:

[Glide / OpenGL / OpenSI] -> [WRAPPER] -> [DirectX]

I found this:

http://www.codeguru.com/cpp/g-m/directx/directx8/article.php/c11453

[Setlec]

the GFX enhancements are pretty cool but i don't wanna get a ban for this... If kk gives the approval i'd be glad to use this software.

Cheers

[Powerpunsh]

the GFX enhancements are pretty cool but i don't wanna get a ban for this... If kk gives the approval i'd be glad to use this software.

Cheers
same.
*deletes the file*

[BoH_Havoc]

Alright, i removed the file from my server until we get official word from KK.

Seems like this would be called a hack after all then :\


Marc Hoover: Are there any Screens of your project? Would love to see the pa with some simple specular lighting applied or even better some normalmapping :)

[L0KI]

So I'm technically hacking by using this?

shocking...

Maybe KK should implement it as a MANDATORY file in this patch that may or may not be close to completion.

Although it's only bloom, it's a huge graphical update. Massively improved visuals with such a tiny modification.

I rated your thread 5 stars to say thanks for finding/altering it, and to hopefully bring some official attention to the thread.

:D

[Nidhogg]

I'll escalate this and see if we can get an official yay or nay.

N

[Marc Hoover]

Alright, i removed the file from my server until we get official word from KK.

Seems like this would be called a hack after all then :\


Marc Hoover: Are there any Screens of your project? Would love to see the pa with some simple specular lighting applied or even better some normalmapping :)

Sorry, we stopped this project ~1,5 years ago. not easy to find any screens about this modification project.

I remember on a heavy problem to find the right vertexes (of the PA armors) to set the right material with specular.

[Mighty Max]

Well i have a screeny for a prog (nc1) that used a similliar tech to create it's effect. And yes, it's a bit difficult to decide where to draw the line then.

I would love to have bloom, and there are iirc some global working filters that should be approved as they are part of the gfx driver (ATI did such at some point, and there should be a thread about it in the forums archive)

Anyways, wanted to give a (harmless) screen but you should be able to imagine what it could be used to too.
http://itemgfx.mightymax.org/browsertest2.PNG

[Marc Hoover]

or this:

Works fine with ATi, but NVidia cards will raise an exception... ;/

http://ultimate-gaming.eu/misc/nctest.jpg

[Terror_Nonne]

works a flashfile(swf) inside? :) this is a good thing for next nc generation.. citytermservice with webbrowser :lol: like in eve. or for the current...

[Seezur001]

With the disadvantages of this specific mod, with knowing about D3D and Proxying DLLs, you could potentially write other D3D Mods that do give you an advantage.

IMO these types of modifications shouldn't be allowed.

[Marc Hoover]

works a flashfile(swf) inside? :) this is a good thing for next nc generation.. citytermservice with webbrowser :lol: like in eve. or for the current...


The Ingame-Browser displays all things you can browse with your standard IE :)

[Brammers]

From the screenshots, I do like the little extra touch that's possible. To really get the NC2 engine upto the standards of say Fallout 3 or any moderm DX9c game would take a major rewrite, and a lot of new texture work. This little project cuts out a lot of that work.

It would be good for the game if this sort of small project gets a yay from KK, or maybe BoH_Havoc could work with the Unex coders (I'm thinking Marc and Mighty Max here!) to make this sort of project possible.

[Neallys]

This is just awesome.

May sound stupid but Bloom in Neocron is a good thing, because it makes more sense to the "futur" ambiance, also would bloom newbies eyes from the *old* neocron engine :angel:

[Terror_Nonne]

i prefer the old darkstyle. :)

[Archtemplar]

This is quite interesting. I do enjoy a good bloom.

[-FN-]

Any word? I'd like to try this out on my rig...

[SilentEye]

Yep, me too!

[L0KI]

-FN- posts in blue man...

live with it ;)

[NAPPER]

The Link doesnt work can someone give me a new one ?????

[Archtemplar]

The Link doesnt work can someone give me a new one ?????

He took it down until it gets the thumbs up from KK

[L0KI]

Has this been completely ignored?

[naimex]

Has this been completely ignored?

you want the feel good, or the real approach to that question, lol :p

[nobby]

I don't understand how KK never thought of this themselves.

Maybe if they did, 9 out of 10 of the people I introduced to neocron wouldn't go "UGHHH THE GRAPHICS ARE SHIT!" then leave.

[Mighty Max]

I don't understand how KK never thought of this themselves

- Keeping the requirements as they were printed on the box.
- Personal preferences (It's just a filter, it doesn't improve actual quality, just like the blur in lovemovies)
- other priorities ;) :angel:

However i am sure that Nid got to someones attention, as he said he wanted to. Allways kept that promise iirc.

[Archtemplar]

It's the holidays, give it some time.

[-FN-]

Has this been completely ignored?
Still waiting as well...

[SilentEye]

:o :(

[Nidhogg]

I haven't forgotten you. Please hang on until after the holidays.

N

[$ir Mafia]

rubben wir shmutzen auf seine assneck :P

hope that bloom-thingy will allowed

[SnowCrash]

This one (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=143295) might be of interest for you.

[Kalonji Faya]

yeah ^^ its allowed !!

kalonji

[Nidhogg]

Great news! Thanks for the reply, Snow, and hope you had a good Christmas break!

N

[Brammers]

Excellent news! :D

/me waits for BoH_Havoc to re-upload the file.

[Tratos]

Now we have the official go ahead, news of this funky modification has made its way to the THN frontpage (http://www.techhaven.org) and can be found here (http://www.techhaven.org/neocron/forum-news/bloom-filter-authorised.html) ;)

As we're ever seeking to add to the THN's pages as well as the Wiki (http://wiki.techhaven.org/Main_Page) feel free to write up a little guide and im sure it can find a home at Neocron #1 Resource site, along with the files required if needs be!

[Drachenpaladin]

Yes yes, please re-upload the filter, the screens look realy cool!

[Dribble Joy]

How do I know if I have the right pixel shader?

I'm guessing my shitty old card doesn't even have one at all, being a 5700VE.

[bombay]

cant download the file can u up the file again?

regards bombay

[flib]

Perhaps someone that has already downloaded the file can upload it somewhere for us. :angel:

[naimex]

Bloom Bloom (http://www.insanitysane.com/downloads/neocron/neocronENB.rar)

[StevenJ]

Thanks Naimex, and your ever-willing hosting sexiness :)

Just got back from work (yes, really, at 4:30am!) and this is stunning, really really makes a HUGE difference charging around in the city (all I've tested so far) - do please please try it :)

Works like a dream BoH_Havoc, permanent fixture as far as I'm concerned!

A screenie here - not too exciting, but I think demonstrates the level of 'glow' lights and bright objects have ingame. It really makes a huge difference, and really helps being the city to life :)

http://exl.nskill.co.uk/viarosso.jpg

- edit - run psat Venture warp in VR... it looks like a shop with bright lights shining out :)

http://exl.nskill.co.uk/venture.jpg

[naimex]

seriously, i have no idea whats going on... every single day at some time, i cant access anything on my own domain...



other link to download bloom (http://98.131.119.156/downloads/neocron/neocronENB.rar)


this link seems to work allt he tiem though.

[$ir Mafia]

This just crashes my Client

edit: maybe this isn´t working with Ati Cards or the 4850

[naimex]

This just crashes my Client

edit: maybe this isn´t working with Ati Cards or the 4850

it works with a club3d radeon hd 2900 xt 1 gb card.

[$ir Mafia]

odd. is your box running x64 or x32 ?

[naimex]

odd. is your box running x64 or x32 ?

Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit

I'm using the latest Catalyst drivers

[$ir Mafia]

same here,this is driving me nuts. was waiting for it and now it wont work -_-

[flib]

Thanks Naimex!

[Brammers]

/me Add's Naimex's copy of the bloom filter to the THN download section...

Another mirror to download the filter from. (http://www.techhaven.org/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,132/task,doc_details/gid,142/)

[Serah Logan]

crashes my client with nVidia 9800GT

[flib]

I suppose I should contribute to diagnosing the crashing problem. :/

Works perfectly for me with a Geforce 9500M GS in Windows XP Home SP3

Serah Logan, it may be helpful if you specify what operating system you're using.
I wonder if this will work well in Wine. I'll check that out when I wake up today.

[Kalonji Faya]

for a feedback : works fine on a 6500gt on xp sp3 and on a 9600gt on vista x64 ... lastest nvidia drivers on both

hope it'll help

kalonji

[naimex]

I'll check that out when I wake up today.



I'm not sure what to say to that sentence lol....

[Drachenpaladin]

uuuuhm..k
I downloaded the .dll and the .ini and unpacked them into neocron2/ directory

..but is doesnt work..
The client is running like usual, no crashes but if Shift+F12 or not,
there is no difference.. :confused:

System:Windows XP Pro 32bit
Card:ATI Radeon HD4850
Driver: Catalyst 8.12 (latest)

:( any advices? plz hlp

[naimex]

uuuuhm..k
I downloaded the .dll and the .ini and unpacked them into neocron2/ directory

..but is doesnt work..
The client is running like usual, no crashes but if Shift+F12 or not,
there is no difference.. :confused:

System:Windows XP Pro 32bit
Card:ATI Radeon HD4850
Driver: Catalyst 8.12 (latest)

:( any advices? plz hlp

if its anything like mine, you have to push it a couple times for it to activate.


first time i pushed it, nothing happened, second time nothing happened, then i did it as fast as i would have done a double click on my mouse.

and then it did work, and then it worked with just one time to turn it on and off after that.

[flib]

I'm not sure what to say to that sentence lol....
Well, I just woke up and it's still the same day here. =O
Also, I'm gonna have to shower before I do anything else, so brb, then I'll try the filter in Ubuntu.

[Drachenpaladin]

ok, it works now, thanks for the advice^^

but the reason was an other.. i changed the NC-Settings to DirectX 7 rendering, cause performance and Alt-Tab problems..

so now, it works without any performance-loss^^ :D

thx for the Effect!

[flib]

It doesn't seem to have any effect when I run Neocron under Wine in Ubuntu.

[Serah Logan]

I'm running Windows XP SP3.

[BoH_Havoc]

Sweet, thanks! :)
I reuploaded the file so the link from my first post will work again.


As we now have the official okay from KK i'll try to get my hands on the sourcecode so we can get some other effects working in nc :) ssao and dof should look kind nice.


As i get lots of mails asking for the sourcecode of the dll i'll tell you guys again:
I didn't create that dll. Boris Vorontsov did. I just played around with it until it started working with nc2. You should visit Boris' site for more information http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/index_en.html .


I'll let you guys know when there's any news about this! :)

[L0KI]

I use his mods for San Andreas. He's a legend :)

[Tantta]

Works great with geforce 9800 gtx vista 32 bit, and pretty good looking "update" aswell.

[L0KI]

Unusual...
This thing blacks out my screen and forces me to ctrl+alt+del...

Geforce 9600 GT DDR3 on XP SP3

[MrTrip]

Vista x64 here, GeForce 7900GS end of frame failed etc client crashes

[MrTrip]

Just upgraded to GTX 260 Black Edition, works fine.

[shamoth]

Correct me if im wrong, becouse i was absent for long time, after all this years we have only "Bloom"?
If i understand using uneX PACK is forbiden... so only way to tweak GFX in N2 is to use GPU driver?
Are there any other way to tweak GFX in N2... editing N2 config files or something like that?

[Marc Hoover]

Correct me if im wrong, becouse i was absent for long time, after all this years we have only "Bloom"?


I don't understand you.



If i understand using uneX PACK is forbiden...


What the hell ...? Maybe you are wrong in this point :)



Are there any other way to tweak GFX in N2... editing N2 config files or something like that?


Sorry, no way.

[Eidolon]

For some reason this is causing my system to hang in full screen mode. It works perfectly in windowed, but when I close that and change the settings to full screen everything slows down.

And when I say slow, I mean going through the log in screen at less than 1 FPS. It literally takes about 3-4 seconds to refresh one frame.

Windows XP SP3
Nvidia XFX 6800XT

[Drevious]

Honestly with those screenshots...it just makes it look like you turned up the brightness.

[FatDogg]

So this bloom thing is great but I am struggling to find the necessary changes to the config file to make it a bit less bright, anybody want to give me a quick run down of some pointers here?

[zii]

I looked at the pictures of bloom, and it looks like it simply adds an overexposure effect. Details are lost.

A shallow DOF (wide aperature type effect) would be interesting to have if the area brought into focus was the image, where the target was when it was targetted in the distance.

[Mr. Kassad]

I really am too busy to go through all pages...
I struggle most with the fact that this is some editing with DDLs.
Did KK approve this or not?

The last thing I want is some edited DLLs that (if not approved) are detected as a cheat. And even if it's not detected. As long as KK does not allow this I stay away from it even though I really want to use this :/

[Powerpunsh]

bloomcookies? (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=143295) :D

[Mr. Kassad]

bloomcookies? (http://forum.neocron.com/showthread.php?t=143295) :D

Imagine a cute little girl with big eyes carefully taking one of your bloomcookies, thankfully smiling at you and finally getting into your car so you.... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh o_O

I meant: Thanks! That's the statement I was looking for. :)

[daughterolilith]

The other screenshots look good but the ones with the sky, I think the ones without bloom actually look better than the ones with, the bright light just ruins all the detail of the clouds etc, blurs it out, I guess if it was developed as part of the game it wouldn't have that problem because it would be able to move with the contours of the clouds etc but yeah, it just looks a bit like someone is shining a torch in your face

this comes to mind :) google.com/search?q=vgcats+bloom&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky (http://google.com/search?q=vgcats+bloom&btnI=I%27m+Feeling+Lucky)

[Rage]

Had to play with the setting but I got the game lookin %'s better :}. I mostly just lowered the bloom setting.. urber bright.