Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Discuss Drakan: Order of the Flame with fellow players and post any technical problems here where an 'unofficial' support team will try and help you. Gameplay help questions can go here too.
UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

It's not pixel-perfect either way, just your legacy Direct3D (no dgVoodoo way) drivers make it worse for some reason. I haven't been able to determine what caused the upper pixels to not update that one time here. I don't remember flames ever affecting anything, must be something specific on your end.

Another interesting quirk I noticed with dgVoodoo, when toggling Text Adjustment in graphics options (aka. Fix Texture Coordinates in Riot Engine Options Dialog), Shifted option, apart from clearing up the text due to anti-aliasing, also makes the entire menu to move up by a small amount, which doesn't happen otherwise.

It was also necessary to skip the vertex shifting code when the map is opened, otherwise a vertical line goes through part of it. If I remember correctly, this also happened with AMD's Alternate pixel centers option, forced anti-aliasing and game's default texel shifting code.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

UCyborg wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 12:02 pm I don't remember flames ever affecting anything, must be something specific on your end.
Ah, but I have just now checked that on my old computer, which runs XP and has an nVidia card (9600GT). I have copied my entire OOTF folder over there, just to be certain that it's the same exact version.

With forced 4xAA + 8x anisotropic through the nVidia control panel, the exact same thing happens on the 9600GT!
Both the health bar leaves dead pixels in its wake, as well as the flame effects (if I open the menu while... well, you know the drill).

Different OS, vastly different hardware, Intel instead of AMD.
Haven't tested this with dgVoodoo enabled, but at this point it doesn't seem very relevant.

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

Ok, I see it now, same results as you report. Out of curiosity, do lens flare effects work on that system?
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

Just a quick double update. In AiO Patch, I only changed the minimum value of the Controller Sensitivity (Options->Controls) to 0.3 for consistency. There is code somewhere else that resets the actual setting at startup to 1.0 if it's lower than 0.3, a behavior I didn't notice the first time I decreased it from initial 0.6 to 0.1 (I use 0.4 setting).

Then I made some changes in the Gold Repack.

Added missing singleplayer levels: Azenera level series has also been updated, the version that was included was older and included only 3 levels instead of 4.

Changed level names to their real titles (evident from their Readme files):
(Both filenames and the title appearing in New Game menu):
  • Level One -> Paradise
  • DRAKAN C -> Trouble in Town
(Only the title in New Game menu):
  • Start -> War of Dark Age
  • Start (Ground) -> Wisdom of Slaves (Ground)
So now there's only one "Start" level in the list instead of 3.

Corrected level path in triggers for level transitions from Map Junction to the following levels:
  • Emerald Cove
  • Giblet Center
  • Super Paintball Arena
  • Tigers of the Rainforest
So the attempt to transition to these levels from Map Junction level no longer aborts the multiplayer session with an error.

Best to delete old Drakan folder and extract the new version to ensure no redundant files stay around, leaving redundant entries in game's level list.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

UCyborg wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 2:34 pm Out of curiosity, do lens flare effects work on that system?
Sadly, I've already packed that system away for transport in the meantime, and I don't know when I will be done with the move. Might possibly be a few weeks, even.
I'll attach a note to it now, so that I'll remember to test that after moving it to its new location.
PS: that one has XP x86. My new machine has XP x64 + Win7 x64.

UCyborg wrote: Wed May 02, 2018 2:34 pm Ok, I see it now, same results as you report.
BTW, any ideas for a possible solution?

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

BTW, any ideas for a possible solution?

No. Does your card offer FXAA? Another type of anti-aliasing, it's a bit blurry, but no oddities at the sides of the screen.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

No, only FSAA, MSAA and adaptive MSAA.
Also, there's a separate option for "morphological filtering" - whatever that is. Of course the folks at AMD didn't bother including even the most laconic of descriptions...

So it looks like it's probably best to just cover up the offending pixels with an overlay, and be done with it...

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

Saw Arokh's Lair server on the server list today and noticed a funny glitch, it was colored like servers on LAN (cyan instead of white), and it said "Available servers: 2". Number should be 1. Turned out the bug was an erroneous variable declaration.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

Mechanist wrote: So it looks like it's probably best to just cover up the offending pixels with an overlay, and be done with it...
Tested that, and it works fine.
With ReLive, the overlay isn't actually visible while playing, but it does show up in the finished recording all right.

UCyborg wrote: Saw Arokh's Lair server on the server list today and noticed a funny glitch
There's another odd visual glitch with the multiplayer:
When joining a game in developer mode, Arokh has a very strange appearance in the skin selection screen. He's totally blue instead of red, and looks a bit like Dr. Manhattan. Kinda cool, actually 8)
But after actually joining a server, he then has his normal red appearance again.

PS: Hey, thanks for making the multiplayer work properly in the end :mrgreen:

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

A little progress has been made towards getting lens flare effects to work properly with Dege's help, so now they should render under most circumstances. They also don't cause lag spikes anymore when game is ran under dgVoodoo2 if the user enables Fast video memory access in dgVoodoo Control Panel app under DirectX tab. Unfortunately there is still some weird bug lurking in there that causes the engine to try to access the depth buffer outside its boundaries, more or less occasionally crashing everything when lens flare effects are on the screen. Links updated as usually.

When joining a game in developer mode, Arokh has a very strange appearance in the skin selection screen.

The key is actually not loading any level (intro cinematic is a special level) before opening multiplayer menu. Something related to bump mapping only gets setup during level loading. You can get the game to load the intro in developer mode at startup using -level "Mountain World\Intro Level\Intro.lvl" command line parameter in the game shortcut's Target field. Useful for singleplayer because the menu doesn't respond to quick load key.

There's also very weird bug with dragon skin resetting. Start in developer mode, open multiplayer menu, select skin, then load any level (single or multiplayer mode, doesn't matter), return to multiplayer menu and bam. The skin setting is some numerical value in Drakan.cfg and identical skins get different numbers under different conditions. Some messed up indexing system I suppose.

PS: Hey, thanks for making the multiplayer work properly in the end :mrgreen:

It sort of works. It was the most rushed part of the game, Psygnosis only let Surreal finish it later with the patch.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

Just FYI, Arokh's Twin has reported the following issue with the newest version:
Arokh's Twin wrote:As a matter of interest after updating to the latest AIO Windows 10 blocked it as 'untrusted, potentially unsafe application' I had to tell it to ignore. Might freak out some players.
Yeah, that's not a good sign. We know that it's safe, but others have no way to be certain.

UCyborg wrote:It sort of works.
Quite well now, in fact - especially given its problematic earlier history.

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

Ok, so I said there probably won't be any update any time soon. Well guess what, I managed to fix the crashing problem with lens flares thanks to Dege's brilliant hint I got on VOGONS forum.

All dragons were killed by those Grimstone towers while chasing me with god mode enabled, the game hasn't crashed once. Even worked well on a laptop with Intel HD 4000 where I couldn't even fly over the entire Islands level before.

Yeah, that's not a good sign. We know that it's safe, but others have no way to be certain.

Windows 10's Windows Defender or Smartscreen Filter I presume? Yeah, it's false positive. False positives are quite a big problem with security software. The software uses some heuristics, supposedly to be able to catch zero day badware. Some odd anti-viruses have picked on binaries of AiO Patch before, though that Windows would find it suspicious is new to me.

I don't use either Windows 10 nor any anti-virus/anti-malware thing. I think the benefits of running such software are overblown. Haven't run one since 2011; all they did was slowing me and my computer down. Same with security patches that are supposed to prevent damage AFTER something bad was already executed by the user. Computers are best protected from without, not from within.

Either way, nothing I can do about it. If Microsoft has anything to report false positives, it should be reported there.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

User avatar
Mechanist
Dragon
Posts: 303
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 7:27 pm
Location: Poland

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by Mechanist »

Here, I have something for you.
Mage150 has released a previously-unreleased multiplayer map; you might want to put it in your Gold Pack :D

Oh, and here's a screenshot of a crazy bump mapping glitch in "Fountain of Life 2".
It only happens in certain spots when looking at specific angles :?
ScreenShot0000.jpg
(215.71 KiB) Not downloaded yet
Attachments
Revival.zip
(10.07 KiB) Downloaded 280 times

UCyborg
Dragon
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 7:24 pm
Location: Slovenia

Re: Widescreen hack and some other fixes aka AiO Patch

Post by UCyborg »

Oh, and here's a screenshot of a crazy bump mapping glitch in "Fountain of Life 2".
It only happens in certain spots when looking at specific angles :?

Another old and quite odd bug. Maybe this is the kind of bug that could be fixed in the editor somehow since it doesn't occur everywhere. Same thing happens at the last part of Wartok Canyons.

At least known crashes related to eye candy have been fixed (bump mapping, lens flares). Though that pixel problem with MSAA and texel alignment at the upper and left of side of screen gets more pronounced and annoying when there are lens flares on the screen.

Mage150 has released a previously-unreleased multiplayer map; you might want to put it in your Gold Pack :D

Awesome! It's uploading.
"When a human being takes his life in depression, this is a natural death of spiritual causes. The modern barbarity of 'saving' the suicidal is based on a hair-raising misapprehension of the nature of existence." - Peter Wessel Zapffe

Post Reply