XWA Upgrade

This is probably still too early, but the B-Wing's self cast shadow in attack position is misaligned. Body is detached from the cockpit.

blue_max wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 20, 2023 10:19 pm

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 20, 2023 6:08 pm

For me it seems, that not all missions have shadow-casting. Although there is a light source in the scene, there are no shadows. I experienced this in the mission where i have to rescue Emon with the Otana.
The area where i have to pick up the bomb-container is just flat dark. And the next area is missing all the beautiful shadows. Is there something wrong with my installation? (I reinstalled XWA + Upgrade just yesterday).

I don't think there's anything wrong with your installation. Some areas have low lighting conditions, so the shadows are barely visible. For instance, in B1M3, region 4, there's almost no shadows. I checked B1M3 and the sun in this region was configured to have low illumination. In other words, that's a decision made by the mission designers. I can override that and force brighter suns, but I know there's some missions that are intentionally dark. I doubt the developers from 20 years ago noticed this, though.

Can you send me a film of this region, please? I can take a look to see if maybe there's a bug that needs to be fixed.

I see. So it's a setting in the mission file itself. To correct this one has to identify and edit every single mission/area with that issue? That would be a huge ammount of work.
I think we could set a sun-brightness limit. If the sun-brightness falls below that limit, we just can set this to a level, where shadows are visible again. I would do that, but i don't know how and where.

Here is a short video of said mission and lighting conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCRoF-4Xvc0

Thank you blue_max !!! You are Absolutely Awesome !
RT works just fine and smooth - visuals are so amazing now !
RESPECT !!!!

MamiyaOtaru wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 21, 2023 1:39 am

expected that my own ship doesn't really cast a shadow unless I am in external view?

With ray traced cockpit shadows on I do cast a bit of a shadow but I suspect it is of the cockpit model itself and not my ship! Nothing when I am using shadowmapping in the cockpit but raytracing otherwise.

Yup, this is all correct. Most cockpits don't have a full mesh, because under regular circumstances no one can see the tail of the ship they are piloting, so why render it? Shadow mapping overrides cockpit shadows, so that's why nothing is projected outside.

Muahaha wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 21, 2023 7:58 am

This is probably still too early, but the B-Wing's self cast shadow in attack position is misaligned. Body is detached from the cockpit.

I'll take a look, thanks for reporting this issue.

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:35 pm

I see. So it's a setting in the mission file itself. To correct this one has to identify and edit every single mission/area with that issue? That would be a huge ammount of work.
I think we could set a sun-brightness limit. If the sun-brightness falls below that limit, we just can set this to a level, where shadows are visible again. I would do that, but i don't know how and where.

Here is a short video of said mission and lighting conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCRoF-4Xvc0

Sorry, I meant an in-game film, so that I can play it back on my system, pause it, and check what's going on.

I can add an optional setting to force the suns to never be below a certain limit. That would be a quick fix that would apply to all missions.

blue_max wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 22, 2023 6:53 pm

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 21, 2023 12:35 pm

I see. So it's a setting in the mission file itself. To correct this one has to identify and edit every single mission/area with that issue? That would be a huge ammount of work.
I think we could set a sun-brightness limit. If the sun-brightness falls below that limit, we just can set this to a level, where shadows are visible again. I would do that, but i don't know how and where.

Here is a short video of said mission and lighting conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCRoF-4Xvc0

Sorry, I meant an in-game film, so that I can play it back on my system, pause it, and check what's going on.

I can add an optional setting to force the suns to never be below a certain limit. That would be a quick fix that would apply to all missions.

Here is a recording of a flight in both systems. Thank you for investigating the issue!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ozqgwa9cbs7s ... X.flm?dl=0



Such a setting would be a perfect option to set the sun-lighting to a perfect value. Maybe as a setting in a config file? So everyone can adjust it to a prefered value?

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:55 pm

Here is a recording of a flight in both systems. Thank you for investigating the issue!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ozqgwa9cbs7s ... X.flm?dl=0

Hello,

Thanks for posting this file. I _think_ maybe I fixed the problem. Please try this version:


EDIT: Link Removed. Download the latest Beta (Jan 25, 2023) instead.

blue_max wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 10:13 am

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 22, 2023 9:55 pm

Here is a recording of a flight in both systems. Thank you for investigating the issue!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ozqgwa9cbs7s ... X.flm?dl=0

Hello,

Thanks for posting this file. I _think_ maybe I fixed the problem. Please try this version:


ddraw-RT-Jan-24-2023.zip

Hey,

thank you for your fast response and the new file. Unfortunatly the issue still persists. I can't see any difference.

We can just correct lighting in which missions are affected.
But would need to know which they all are

Ace Antilles wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:00 pm

We can just correct lighting in which missions are affected.
But would need to know which they all are

I just wanted to test this in that said mission. But i don't know where i can set the light source brightness. So i installied Allied and YOGEME but none of these seems to have an option to edit this. Or i'm just blind.
For backdrops there is a brightness setting available. I set it testwise to 3, but i ditn't do anything?

Can you tell me where i can change the settings for lightsources in the missions? Thank you.

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:22 pm

Ace Antilles wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:00 pm

We can just correct lighting in which missions are affected.
But would need to know which they all are

I just wanted to test this in that said mission. But i don't know where i can set the light source brightness. So i installied Allied and YOGEME but none of these seems to have an option to edit this. Or i'm just blind.
For backdrops there is a brightness setting available. I set it testwise to 3, but i ditn't do anything?

Can you tell me where i can change the settings for lightsources in the missions? Thank you.

The only thing would be to edit the brightness of the planet and sun backdrops I believe.
You can't change an overall setting. It's the suns that cast the most light.
If there isn't one in the mission that maybe why it's darker I suppose

Ace Antilles wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:31 pm

MechDonald wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:22 pm

Ace Antilles wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 24, 2023 2:00 pm

We can just correct lighting in which missions are affected.
But would need to know which they all are

I just wanted to test this in that said mission. But i don't know where i can set the light source brightness. So i installied Allied and YOGEME but none of these seems to have an option to edit this. Or i'm just blind.
For backdrops there is a brightness setting available. I set it testwise to 3, but i ditn't do anything?

Can you tell me where i can change the settings for lightsources in the missions? Thank you.

The only thing would be to edit the brightness of the planet and sun backdrops I believe.
You can't change an overall setting. It's the suns that cast the most light.
If there isn't one in the mission that maybe why it's darker I suppose

Ah okay. In this particular mission there seems to be no sun - in the editor at least. In the 3D-Engine itself there is a blue sun. Maybe i can add a sun for this mission. I'm going to test this out. Thank you.

Okay i tried the following:

1. Found the star. There are 2 stars in the region. One has brightness, the other one don't. They are at the same spot.
2. I moved both to the other side and changed star-type and set brightness to maximum.

The stars appears on the other side in the 3D-Engine, but absolutely no light at all.

3. i copied the star from region 1 (There i have normal light conditions) to region 2.

But also no luck. All objects stay dark. I'm out of ideas now..

This is B5M3... or something like that, right? Let me take a look at that level.

EDIT: I see shadows in the first 3 regions of B5M3: where I pick up the container with the bomb, and in the next region, where I'm supposed to drop it. I'm using XWAU 5.5. Let me know if I should check another mission.

Thank you @blue_max for this information. Yes, i meant B5M3. In the first region there are shadows, but in the other 2 regions not. So it seems that it is my installation. I run XWAU 5.5, but with changes for Planets, Galaxies and the starfield backdrop. Maybe this is the cause. I have to check this.

Can you please check where the light is coming from in region 2 and 3? does it come from the blue star or the galaxy / planet? Thank you!


Edit: I replaced the backdrops and nebula again - but it's still dark. Hmmm. I'm going to reinstall.

Edit2: I reinstalled XWA with XWAU 5.5 and made no changes to the installation. The problem persists. Weird. I try some new graphics drivers.

Okay. Got it to work. It was a patch for the german version that causes the problem. I got to check wich file is causing the trouble.

---------------------

So i found the cause! It's the german text. If you set the game language via Babu Frik's Configurator to any other language, you will have this issue. The secret lies in the XWA.tab file. If i delete this file, the issue is gone and i have correct lighting and shadows.

Edit:

It's the Object Description in this file:

Like:

1B5M3FG_N1 Neutral 1
1B5M3FG_N2 Neutral 2
1B5M3FG_N3 Neutral 3
1B5M3FG_N4 Neutral 4
1B5M3FG_I1 Dunaris Kasino
1B5M3FG_I2 Imperiales Lager
[...]

When i delete all these entries. I have correct lighting again. But i couldn't exactly get the logic behind this. I would think that entries like

1B5M3FG_F11_1 1.0 1.0 1.0
1B5M3FG_F11_3 .9
1B5M3FG_F11_4 1
1B5M3FG_F12_1 0.5 0.5 0.5
1B5M3FG_F12_3 .9
1B5M3FG_F12_4 1
1B5M3FG_F13_1 0.6 0.7 0.7
1B5M3FG_F13_3 .7
1B5M3FG_F13_4 1
1B5M3FG_F14_4 1.5
1B5M3FG_F15_1 1.0 0.8 0.9
1B5M3FG_F15_3 .9
1B5M3FG_F15_4 1
1B5M3FG_F16_4 1
1B5M3FG_F17_1 1.0 1.0 1.0
1B5M3FG_F17_3 .9
1B5M3FG_F17_4 1

could cause the trouble, because it seems to affect the backdrop objects. But they don't do anything. For region 2 it was these two entries:

1B5M3FG_F21_1 Alpha
1B5M3FG_F22_1 Alpha

TIE-Fighter? Why would these affect lighting? Deleting don't affect region 3. So i went on and deleted

1B5M3FG_F50_1 Beta
1B5M3FG_F51_1 Beta
1B5M3FG_F52_1 Beta
1B5M3FG_F53_1 Beta

for region 3 also. But without any effect. It's difficult.

Edit #2:

My solution to this is: I deleted all objectname entries and left the rest as it is. This is a very good compromise. Now i have the game in german language, just without the object-indications. These are still in english. But that's not that bad. The main thing is: I have beautiful shadows now in every mission.

If there is interest for an update for Babu Frik's optional game language settings, i can upload the new XWA.Tab file and can correct all the other languages as well. Just let me know.

@JeremyaFr you understand the tab file I think.
Any ideas?

Hello all...@blue_max also I installed the ddraw-RT-Jan-24-2023.zip checked it out in the concourse.... i was AWESOME!!! The lights and shadows were incredible!!! But I noticed one thing, all opts were ok except The Deep Space Manufacturing Facility. The game will crash to desktop. So I restarted the game, and went in the concourse again .. and started in reverse, All other opts worked except the one above. I checked out a few missions looks incedible but I would not go in a missions the had the DSMF.opt. But I had to reinslall the game ...couldn't just switch out the ddraw.ll.

Sincerely, Rogue518

Thanks for reporting this, Rogue518. I'll check the DSMF: there's a chance it's exposing a bug in my code!

Raytracing (Real-Time Screen-Space Raytraced Shadows) is now part of the official beta releases. Please download the latest beta (Jan 25, 2023) to get this feature. Again, to enable Raytracing, add the following at the end of SSAO.cfg:

raytracing_enabled = 1
raytracing_enabled_in_tech_room = 1
raytracing_enabled_in_cockpit = 1

You should also select the Deferred shading mode either in Babu Frik, or in SSAO.cfg, by setting:

ssao_type = Deferred

Raytracing will only work in this shading mode. This feature is not yet polished and there's a lot of room for optimizations. Expect occasional crashes -- and it may not work in larger battles. It will also incur a significant impact in performance at this time. I suggest that raytracing be disabled for cockpit shadows for now. We will keep improving this feature in the near future.

To improve the performance for now, you can also disable Raytracing for specific OPTs or ship classes. For example to disable specific OPTs you can add the following at the end of SSAO.cfg:

raytracing_exclude_opt = XwingExterior
raytracing_exclude_opt = YwingExterior
...

To disable raytracing for ship classes, add the following:

raytracing_exclude_class = <Ship-Class>

Available ship classes are:

Starships
Stations
Starfighters
Freighters
Transports
Mines
Satellites

Again, we're still working on improving both the stability and performance of this feature. Enjoy!

Is it possible to work with * ?

So if I wanted to exclude all Death Star elements, I'd go raytracing_exclude_opt = DS*

Or are you hardcoding that for the mission?

Just want to say how awesome the game looks now! Look at these gorgeous shadows!

In Babu Frik, the shading options are None, Deferred, SSAO, SSDO. Are you saying that Deferred, not SSAO, needs selecting here?

Thank you Blue_Max.
I'm still testing new ddraw and my jaw drops . The new possibilities are truly impressive.
I'm waiting for the moment when it will be possible to recreate the X-Wing93 Death Star trench run mission. We need a function to activate the animation counting the distance from the "core" when we enter the trench. This would also be useful for missions in XWA when attacking the DS2 core. I suspect you have already thought about it .

Vince T wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 26, 2023 5:44 pm

Is it possible to work with * ?

Maybe...

So if I wanted to exclude all Death Star elements, I'd go raytracing_exclude_opt = DS*

Or are you hardcoding that for the mission?

... this is already hard-coded. DS2 elements can't project shadows, but I believe they should receive shadows from the ships zipping through the tunnels.

Talaris wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 26, 2023 9:14 pm

In Babu Frik, the shading options are None, Deferred, SSAO, SSDO. Are you saying that Deferred, not SSAO, needs selecting here?

Yes, select Deferred please. Neither SSAO nor SSDO work with RT at the moment.