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oktane

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Posts posted by oktane

  1. Posted

    Although the shader hasn't changed, starting with beta 61012, the game CTDs on startup with the noblur mod installed (v2). It appears that when the game finds the bin folder, it tries to compile the shader and errors out (there is a zero-sized shader file left in the bin folder). If I remove the bin folder, all is well.

    Yes I get this rarely also. It even happened when I first made the mod.

    However the mod still works if you clean up those broken files that it makes. I have no idea why it does that, it might be some error condition and it thinks the shaders are gone.

    I am using it with BETA 61032 right now.

  2. Posted · Edited by oktane

    Xeno You will create missions to ACE MOD ArmaII ?:rolleyes:

    Check out release 21, there is already ace2 code in there. :D

    ---------- Post added at 02:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:02 PM ----------

    Dorph;1502556']ver 1.21 out thx alot - not sure whats changed from 1.20 but i def have a problem getting out of adminspec mode. ESC freezes the view cant seem to do anything - respawning doesnt get u out either ? Pls let me know if any knows how to get out of adminspec.

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

    Ok - Go to firstperson view on own player before press ESC will get u out of adminspec properly.

    if you press esc and lose the interface, i thought you could land the butterfly and it would exit. Thats how it used to work.

    Oh it appears its commented out. Even the code to return the view to the player. :D

    Use this at the end instead of or after the commented out stuff at the bottom where it exits. (in specta.sqf):

    onMapSingleClick "";
if (vehicle player != player) then {
(vehicle player) switchCamera "INTERNAL";
(vehicle player) cameraEffect["terminate","FRONT"];
} else {
player switchCamera "INTERNAL";
player cameraEffect["terminate","FRONT"];
};

  3. Posted

    Great little tool.

    Is it possible to also get the latest patch at the top or something?

    So you would have a linkt to 1.04 and all the beta pacthes.

    When they switch to let say, 1.05 it will be on top?

    Just a suggestion and I don't know if it's useful for any other than me. But I think it would be cool.

    What do you mean? Like a link to the regular patch 1.14?

    If you look at other RSS feeds, each item is an 'event' or 'news item' and I try to adhere to that standard too. Since all of this is generated off of this simple page, I would have to add some other page for the main patch, and I think it would complicate it. It is already held together with lots of tape. :D

    Most people know when a new patch comes out because all server admins get the word thru the grapevine and servers start updating.. then you see the red X in the server list, and also it says 'a new patch is available' when you are in the server list I think.

    ---------- Post added at 01:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 PM ----------

    Also, I noticed a problem when using IE to view the feed.. it doesn't like FTP urls. So if you use IE favorite as the feed.. you can't click the links to get the beta which sucks, instead it takes you to www.506th-pir.org. Sorry but MS doesn't like FTP urls like every other reader does. I recommend using firefox, a stand alone feed reader, or the gadgets if you can. If you have XP and can't use the gadgets, there are other ways such as Yahoo widgets or Google gadgets. Either of those would have a generic RSS gadget which you could plug in the RSS url into and read it. And if you use iGoogle as your homepage (handy for keeping up to date on armaholic etc), then you can add in the feed there too.

  4. Posted

    4. When you have returned to the main screen, exit the game as quickly as possible.

    As quickly as possible meaning press alt-f4 which causes the game to shutdown gracefully? (there since OFP, wont corrupt profiles)

    Or via the Exit button?

    I tried this a bunch of times (using the long exit button way) and I couldn't get it to happen. I did once see a gray screen for 500ms but it exited normally.

    If anyone gets this that knows their way around development(has visual studio etc), i think it might help if when you got the 'stuck' gray screen, debug the process and get the call stack while its stuck. Then put that in a CIT ticket for BIS to look at. If you load the debug symbols for that build, that may help to identify more useful info too.

  5. Posted · Edited by oktane

    oktane - will you be updating your mod to support the latest beta (currently build 60718)? It appears that the shader has changed from the last official release (1.04) so I'm thinking that your mod may now possibly be out of date when used with the current beta.

    Sure, give me a bit to work on it and test it.

    ---------- Post added at 08:19 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:07 PM ----------

    They are still the same mate.

    Use the v3? I updated the first post but I'm not going to re-release it just to update the readme file to say it works with 60141, 60295, 60308, 60309, 60393, 60588, 60718, 60803 etc. :D

    For reference, this is the shader file currently used by the betas:

    File: Shaders_DefPP.shdc

    CRC-32: 59a21425

    MD4: 1fd429be7ead4b404eb9574164fdf807

    MD5: 55d1c5b692e786a403e07a4f5979d59b

    SHA-1: 4f43fbec337e4b04b03ce5a47f2c86b4f75260ef

    You can see if it is updated:

    • Get and install this app: http://code.kliu.org/hashcheck/
    • Get and install the beta.
    • Goto the beta's dta directory and depbo bin.pbo
    • Look at the properties of the Shaders_DefPP.shdc that was inside of bin.pbo
    • Click the checksums tab and compare it with above.
    • If it doesn't match, let me know and I'll make a new mod version.

    Cheers

  8. Posted · Edited by oktane

    Anyone notice this weird keyboard key sticking present in the recent betas? It occurs very often with different clients (my home computer, my work computer(both steam), my friends work computer(german dl)) with the beta patch. I think that it started around 60141 or so.

    You will notice it if your mission uses dialogs and you see the 'current selection' highlight scrolling down uncontrollably. You'll also occasionally get movement keys stuck so you won't be moving correctly, or moving all by itself without you touching any keys.

    The only way to clear it is to press all your movement keys repeatedly until it stops. For me thats shift, arrows, and pgup pgdown, etc. (old OFP defaults)

    Anyone else having this weirdness?

    EDIT: This is a bug that occurs under the following circumstances:

    -Beta Patch

    -A mission using Norrin's Revive script

    -Xeno notes that it may occur when dialogs are on the screen and you die.

  9. Posted · Edited by oktane

    oktane, thanks for making such a wonderful mod!

    I want to point out one thing you may missed in blur mod.

    There are 3 main kinds of blur in the game with PP set to high :

    1. rotate blur ------- you mod it

    2. running blur (the blur of screen edges) -------- you mod it

    3. running blur (real full screen blur, keep on running for 30 seconds or more time, you will notice that the whole screen becomes blury, and when you stop for about 5 seconds the screen becomes clear again) --- this one you have not touched.

    For all 3 blurs, the last one is the most uncomfortable for me and I guess many people share the same feeling. Can you mod this?

    A Big Thank to you for what you have done for us and hope you can keep on improving the mod!

    I didn't miss it, the mod was intended for the full screen blur that occurs all the time and sucks performance. If you wish to remove the other blur, the full instructions are available to you in the technical thread.

    I do agree that it is annoying because now that there isn't a full screen blur all the time, the transition to the "i'm tired" blur is abrupt. I will probably do it eventually but it isn't a priority. As I said you are welcome to modify your own game with the instructions I provided. As it is now with two file options and beta or no beta, the testing is very time consuming and not worth it. The priority for me is to work on a shader file unpacker and packer, not fulfill the desires of every person's blur preference. Once the unpacker is done it will be easy to choose whatever shader you want to disable as well as pave the way for others to create shader modifications.

    Also the reason I am not in a hurry to do it is because that particular blur is an effect that is used for many other things.

  12. Posted

    @oktane: i don't use the beta patch, cause our dedicated linux don't have the beta.

    have you updated your Version 1 Mod sometime? Maybe i got an older version.

    the crashes seem to link directly to the mod. without mod or with mod version 2...no problems. with version 1...frequent crashes.

    Can you try this: http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/addons/oktShaderModTestv3.zip

    It is the same as v2, except it has an extra folder of v2 shaders with the running blur disabled (disabled in a different method compared to v1)

    ---------- Post added at 05:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:16 PM ----------

    I'm guessing yes it is still compatible because the size of Shaders_DefPP.shdc in build 60141 and 60295 is the same (33,043 bytes). However, I could be wrong because the file date has changed. Hopefully oktane, or someone else, will do a byte-to-byte comparison to confirm.

    Yep, they are the same. Thanks.

  14. Posted

    @oktane: i don't use the beta patch, cause our dedicated linux don't have the beta.

    have you updated your Version 1 Mod sometime? Maybe i got an older version.

    the crashes seem to link directly to the mod. without mod or with mod version 2...no problems. with version 1...frequent crashes.

    Hi

    Can you tell me the region of your game, if it is download or steam or dvd. Also I'll send you a pm and you can send me your normal bin.pbo so i can compare it to what I based the mod off of..

    Anyone else have crashes? It may be that I am missing something with the radialBlur shader.. but its hard to understand.

    Also note, you can run the beta patch.. it is not required on the dedicated server. All beta patches are compatible with 1.14 so far.

  15. Posted · Edited by oktane

    Use Yoma Addon Sync or HLSL, to see server list.. find server running a coop you like and has the squad members who run the server, currently playing on it. Have fun. If you don't like them, try another. (although there aren't TOO many choices)

    If one doesn't exist, try making one?

    If the server that fits your preferences doesn't exist, I don't know what to suggest except make your own! Make the others 'see the light'... or pick a different game that has a much larger MP community, which would then statistically give you better chances of finding something you like?

    If you guys figure out a map that is ideal for public servers and meets your requirements for forced teamwork, I'll sure give it a try and host it.

    Since there are so few of you all compared to the 'unwashed pubber masses who don't like teamwork', I hope that you make the mission scale well for different player counts.. because servers that run one that doesn't adjust will either be 1) full or 2) empty.. more commonly the latter.

    Are you guys against revive too? I like no-respawn missions too, but I play them privately on lan or closed servers with friends.. Voice comm is totally required.

    Anfiach:

    I wish that the voice comms in A2 weren't half baked.. at the very least it needs a separate volume control. TS is like talking to someone in freaking outer space, the delay is so long.. but at least it is reliable and has whispers for larger groups and CoC. If you have a group that runs a 3rd party app, it is pretty much required to disable VOIP otherwise you have people talking all over each other.

    I think it would be a worthwhile effort to hack up Mumble (low latency, open source) and make it able to handle whispers and such.. try to adopt the whole A2 community to it. OR better yet make enough noise to get BIS to fix voip.. then we wouldn't need it.

    galzohar, your stance on Domi not being able to be edited is horseshit. Any part of that mission can be re-used and reshaped into anything you want, with minimal effort. It is modular, and any part is capable of helping you bridge the gap between this ideal small mission vs non-teamplay yet public optimized mission. You want a disaster, take a look at the old Evolution code. Its a bunch of copied and pasted scripts that use the same variable names. :eek: If the domi x_scripts folder was named 'Advanced Mission Builders - Commonly Used Scripts and Libraries' and was a separate download, I think you'd think differently of it. That is what it really is though.

    Maybe you meant from an outward game design appearance it is unsuitable... but from my perspective (I spend a lot of time in the scripts) it is capable of anything you imagine.

    I was thinking of how I like those small realistic ops, kind of similar to side missions in domination, but more along the lines of a good standalone coop with a story. I think a cool map idea would be a bunch of classic one shot coop w/ revive scenarios, in a single mission. So if one was not suitable for the playercount, it wouldn't be loaded. Players could vote on the next mission they wanted, objectives would be static per the loaded 'scenario', bodies would stay, etc.. except when it was over (or earlier), you could vote for the next scenario and the last would be cleaned up, all in one mission. No starting base, limited classes chosen out of pool on senario start as defined by scenario. An open framework maintained.. new scenario scripts submitted by mission makers for inclusion in next version. This kind of thing might be ideal for public servers imo, but what do I know.

    Perhaps more checks for 'is the whole group here?' need to be placed in missions before they can continue?

  16. Posted · Edited by oktane

    I really like Version 1 of your mod...but it frequently crashes my Arma. Version 2 runs fine...no crashes...but i can't stand the blur while running...it hurt my eyes.

    is there a big difference between version 1 and 2, that maybe cause the crashes?

    Are you using the latest beta? I think the crashes are from that mate. :D

    No crashes with the version noted in the post.

    I tried to play a simple coop today with the latest beta.. crashed 4 times in 15 minutes! When in doubt, remove my bin dir... (I didn't, I'm just saying.. Actually I put the 1.04 shader file and ran the final patch version to finish the damn mission. :D)

    If the noblur is causing it, that would be strange.

  17. Posted

    Yes i have.

    But i cant find the connection between the names xvec and the marker name.

    This code, in the file mentioned, makes the markers move.

    X_XMarkerVehicles = {
private ["_i","_mdir"];
for "_i" from 1 to 2 do {
	call compile format ["if (!(isNil ""MRR%1"") && !(isNull MRR%1)) then {if (d_v_marker_dirs) then {""mobilerespawn%1"" setMarkerDirLocal (direction MRR%1)};""mobilerespawn%1"" setMarkerPosLocal (position MRR%1);};",_i];
	sleep 0.03;
};
{
	call compile format["if (!(isNil ""%1"") && !(isNull %1)) then {""%2"" setMarkerPosLocal (position %1);if (d_v_marker_dirs) then {""%2"" setMarkerDirLocal (direction %1)};};",(_x select 0), (_x select 2)];
	sleep 0.03;
} forEach d_choppers;
for "_i" from 1 to 10 do {
	call compile format["if (!(isNil ""TR%1"") && !(isNull TR%1)) then {""truck%1"" setMarkerPosLocal (position TR%1);if (d_v_marker_dirs) then {""truck%1"" setMarkerDirLocal (direction TR%1)};};",_i];
	sleep 0.03;
};
if (!(isNil "MEDVEC") && !(isNull MEDVEC)) then {"medvec" setMarkerPosLocal (position MEDVEC);if (d_v_marker_dirs) then {"medvec" setMarkerDirLocal (direction MEDVEC)};};
sleep 0.03;
};

    So if you add your own vehicles array:

    {
	call compile format["if (!(isNil ""%1"") && !(isNull %1)) then {""%2"" setMarkerPosLocal (position %1);if (d_v_marker_dirs) then {""%2"" setMarkerDirLocal (direction %1)};};",(_x select 0), (_x select 2)];
	sleep 0.03;
} forEach d_frostiesvehicles;

    And add a new array to common.sqf which contains your vehicles:

    d_frostiesvehicles = [["vehiclename1", 0, "markername1"],["vehiclename2", 0, "markername2"]];

    The names must be something# because thats how the code works in other places such as the vehicle respawn. You must also make markers on the map for them first, and they must be named something#... # being a number that matches the vehicle #.

    (_x select 0), (_x select 2)] means extract name from d_frostiesvehicles, 0 element is name of vehicle, 2 element is markername.

  18. Posted

    Is this better than Kegetys noblur addon?

    Um, I would say they are kinda related. He did release one once, but it only worked for older versions. I also don't know any of the technical details of how he did it, I started from complete scratch and documented it for the community. (actually I documented it at first so that people could help because I didn't think I could do it all myself!) Looking back now, I bet I would have saved some time looking at what he did after I understood the shader cache file format. :o

    I don't recall what his looked like, and its not easy for me to get an old version of the game to test his with. Does anyone know if his version left in the 'tired' effects? If so I will look at the disassembly of his modified shader.

    ---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:18 PM ----------

    Better yet, we should try to get this up the ladder to BI to see if they would add an option to disable this type of blur in the advanced video settings (it seems to me that BI were talking about this at one point).

    How would that affect multiplayer though? Having it as a mod, means that servers can prevent people using this as an exploit. If its an option in the game menu, then it will mean people have different viewing ability in multiplayer games...
    How about giving it the same limits as view distance or grass render distance have? Mission set parameters would be a priority over Video Options.

    KaBoNG is right, it should be an option.

    BI currently does not enforce video settings except grass density and viewdistance in MP. I don't see why they couldn't enforce it, but that is a feature request and doesn't have anything to do with this thread.

    As it is now, we can agree that post processing forced by server admins is impossible, because its a fact. It doesn't matter if you ban my modification, people can just turn off post processing! Forced synchronization of post processing settings cannot be modded into the game unless someone hacks the main ArmA2 exe, a discussion of which would be silly and also frowned upon by the mods.

    Yes it's possible to make any game do anything you want if you have enough time and resources. And I mean a lot of time. And skill. All exe's are just bytecode that can be changed around. But who cares enough to add a feature like that via those means? BIS could add it in robustly with ~2 man hours, since they have the source code.. and it would be official.

    If you accept that people can currently change their post processing options at will, including turning them off, I don't see why there is a need to ban the noblur anyways. I don't think BIS thought it was worth enforcing PP level over the network, since it is at a low level, a performance setting. That is, if they even thought about it it at all. (doubt it)

    This modification is a stopgap measure until we get control over the blur shader in the options, or BIS fixes the shaders code so that it doesn't make the game unplayable at low FPS. It isn't a multiplayer exploit by any means, it really has absolutely nothing to do with multiplayer. ;)

    Please don't consider this an exploit to a feature (PP sync over MP) that doesn't even exist. That is a source of future FUD.

    ---------- Post added at 07:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:40 PM ----------

    Concerning performance with the modification:

    I had an amusing conversation today with a tech artist who owed me lunch. Here for embarrassments sake.

    oktane says:

    Did you see my message about the ArmA 2 shaders hack we spoke about long ago

    Also wheres my tacos?

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    No and Taco Bell

    oktane says:

    But more important than tacos

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    Those posts make my un-coffee'd head hurt

    oktane says:

    You're supposed to know more about it than me, Mr. winnar-of-3dsmax-master-limited-edition-jacket..

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    If knowing decompiled shader assembly were a requirement for Max Master Jackets I'd be f'ing freezing.

    oktane says:

    So are shader processors separate? Does shader complexity have an effect on fps?

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    Shaders have a direct impact on the time it takes to render a frame.

    While different GPUs have different #s of shader pipelines they must all write out to the final framebuffer. That frame buffer can not be displayed until it is full and finished.

    oktane says:

    Ahh thanks.

    So reducing the num of instr. should reduce the ms taken for final framebuffer output

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    Shader speed is a function of shader code instruction count and the number of pixels on screen it affects in any given frame.

    For instance, on 'Taco Simulator 2: Taco Supreme' the eyeball shader was the most expensive. It had something like 93-95 instructions. But, the number of pixels on screen it affected at any given time was very very low so the impact was not that great.

    For something like a motion blur shader, which affects the entire frame buffer, lower instruction counts will positively affect frame rate, for sure.

    oktane says:

    Ok, I'll quote you under the pseudonym ChevysTacoLover

    ChevysTacoLover says:

    outstanding.

    I'll put the relevant part in the FAQ on the first post. :D

  19. Posted · Edited by oktane

    I absolutely agree that this is a worthwhile mod (and those that like the "head turn blur" can simply move along). Thanks oktane!

    I was hoping someone would do this after kegetys' first version, which went out of date as soon as v1.03 was released because the shader is contained in the bin file. The challenge now will be to keep up with BI's beta and regular patch releases, unless someone can figure out how to write a quick patcher.

    Better yet, we should try to get this up the ladder to BI to see if they would add an option to disable this type of blur in the advanced video settings (it seems to me that BI were talking about this at one point).

    Normally I would suggest drawing Placebo's attention to this thread but I haven't seen him posting in the forums for quite a long time (Does anyone know what has happened to him?). Otherwise, I suppose we could try to pm Suma, Jennik or Marek. Probably best if oktane does this since it's his mod.

    There is a thread about the issue, as well as a feature request on the CIT. I encourage people to vote on the CIT for it, BIS is more likely to take notice on there.

    I will make a bug for the blur performance issues tomorrow concerning the FPS and its affect on the blur, however I am confident an admin will close it and mark it as trivial because you can turn PP off. (I disagree with that logic of course!) Or it might be closed because it may be considered redundant. I don't know.

    They must be aware of it at this point.

  20. Posted · Edited by oktane

    :D

    Okay guys, uploaded a new version that keeps the running blur. (radialBlur) Updated the first post.

    I think its important not too loose sense of what this really is:

    A major achievement by oktane in discovering how the shaders are applied and identifying that they can be modified.

    Personally, I love the blur. But that doesn't remove the fact that this is an excellent achievement by oktane and a really intriguing discovery... who knows WHAT this may enable us to do in future!

    Good job!

    Thanks, I appreciate that!

    I owe my initiative to kegetys, the pioneer in Poseidon/Real Virtuality engine hacking.. wish he was around these days.. looking forward to Arma2Lib.. BIS for continuing work on a game they obviously still love with all their soul (hard for a game developer) and the community for all their missions, modifications and addons that have kept this game series alive.

    I hope that ACE can make use of the shader work for realism purposes now that this stuff is out.

    UrPo9jmnkDw

    ---------- Post added at 09:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 PM ----------

  21. Posted · Edited by oktane

    I dont like removing the only things bringing some "feeling" into the game. ArmA1 had no effects at all when playing. Some slight blur in the edges while running - fine (simulates getting worse peripheral vision when running). Blur after you have run too much - fine (again, is there to simulate you cant focus well as your really out of breath).

    Only thing i would have is to remove the blur when turning head left to right. Dont notice that much IRL. Remove that and keep the rest would be super. Love the blur when getting shot, suppressed, scope blurs, peripheral blur when running and fatigue blur. But hey - thats just me. :)

    Good addon for those who want to remove those 2.

    I like all that stuff too!

    I didn't really mean to disable the running blur. It was a process I took, it was the first one I successfully modified. (At that time I didn't know which shader did what) The real goal was that smear when you turn.

    If I disabled anything else like running fatigue, that wasn't my intention.

    I'll reenable the running one when I get home.. I'm sure it looks fine without the full screen smear now.

    With this, are any other things missing? I know that DOF may be broke now.

  22. Posted

    Originally Posted by Thr0tt

    Cool, we just need a mod now to play the game like it was meant to be played, wireframe, that way there is no distraction from these 'features' or graphics that can be so off putting in a milsim.

    So why dont you just disable it in your options menu. What is this "mod" about? you can already disable blur in ArmAII via postFX.

    Wow, you guys are a riot.

    I did run with PP off since ArmA2 came out.

    Along with 100's of other people, I could not run with PP on because the blur cause my brain great discomfort.

    So I did something about it.

    Now I can run with PP on, and it looks nice. I like all the other effects. Honestly the only reason the radialBlur is disabled is because that's what I started working on first. I really don't mind the running blur.

    What is your problem?

    Can't make everyone happy I guess. I don't even know why you would comment on it if you didn't think the blur was a problem.

    ---------- Post added at 09:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:32 AM ----------

    Hi Oktane

    Your modification definitely removes the annoying blur, but I notice it also kills the depth of field effect (which I like).

    Sorry, they must use the same shader. Without someone that can read and understand the code fully in assembly, the shader can only be left alone or disabled completely.

  24. Posted · Edited by oktane
    Update post for v4

    OUTDATED - NOT SUPPORTED

    Go here for the signed addon version: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=97853

    shader_wonderful_noblur.jpg

    Caption: Rotating the player very quickly, before and after.

    This bin folder, when placed in your arma2 directory, will override one shader file in the game and remove one type of blur which has performance issues:

    • rotBlur: The fullscreen 'Vaseline' blur that makes the game like you've had to much to drink, most noticeable when the fps is low or you are turning around fast.

    (and in version 1, optional in v3) radialBlur: this is the blur when running, a circular blur on the sides of the screen. Not that big of a deal.

    Until BIS adds in a menu option that disables this non-fps-scaled 'rotBlur' shader, this will have to do.

    Installation:

    In this example, my ArmA2 directory is D:\Arma2\

    1 Extract the bin directory from this archive into the arma2 folder.

    2 There should now be a 'bin' folder in D:\Arma2\

    3 Inside of that you will find 2 subfolders. Find the directory that is applicable to your version

    4 Copy the correct shader file up one directory to the D:\Arma2\bin directory.

    This is not a normal 'mod'. Do not load it as a modfolder with the -mod= line. It gets loaded by the game automatically because the directory is called 'bin'.

    If you want to disable the modified shaders, rename the bin directory to something else like bin_modified.

    This was tested and developed on the US steam version. Verify your version number in the lower right when ArmA2 is running.. this test version supports:

    • 1.04.59026 retail patch (all)
    • 1.04 beta builds (all afaik): 60141, 60295, 60308, 60309, 60393, 60588, 60718, 60803, 60902, 61012, 61032, 61062 etc
    • 1.05 retail patch

    This is a test version - It is not tested with signature checks.

    IT IS NOT AN ADDON - IT OVERRIDES (but does not overwrite) A CORE GAME FILE WHEN THE GAME LOADS

    It cannot be signed unless repackaged into a new bin.pbo file including the core game config.bin. Bin.pbo files are unique to different versions of the game so they cannot be released as a 'one-for-all' solution. Do not release your own signed version of the bin.pbo, it will cause a mess and config errors will occur with people who have different versions than you.

    If you like this addon, please register and vote on this issue. This is important! Here is a BUG you should also vote up. Thanks!

    NoBlur Modification Beta v3 (Thanks to Big and kheiro at Armaholic)

    Download v3 (has both options, up to the user, uses alternate method of disabling running blur)

    Download v2 (disabled only the full blur)

    Download v1 (disabled the full blur and the blur while running)

    Changelog:

    -v2: Put running blur back in (radialBlur), since it isn't bad and my only real intention was to disable the fullscreen blur. (rotBlur) Unfortunately, the rotBlur shader also does the full screen out-of-breath blur. I would leave this in but it's not that simple, someone would have to rewrite the shader by hand in assembly. Since I know just the basics about assembly as a necessity of hacking/modding stuff, I don't think I'm capable of doing this... The rotBlur shader is very complicated and filled with floating point math.

    -v3: Identical to v2, except contains extra folder of shaders that disabled the running blur as in version 1. I changed the way that running blur (radialBlur) was disabled, hopefully it won't cause crashes anymore, if it indeed was.

    -v4: Just updated the readme and directories for 1.05 patch.

    Useful FAQ:

    Q: Does this modify my game files? Can I still patch the game?

    A: No it does not modify anything except the run time configuration of ArmA2, only when it is present. To uninstall it, delete the bin directory. Yes you can still patch the game fine while it is installed. However, if you patch the game, and the patch contains updated shaders, you will not have the updated shaders loaded/enabled unless you delete my 'bin' directory. The effect of running my shader patch with an unsupported newer version, well this depends on how BIS updated the shaders.. the game could crash, or be very bright or very dark, etc. Best to delete the bin directory if you have doubts or problems. See this post on how to check if I need to make a new version.

    Q: This is unfair in competitive games.

    A: Not true. This doesn't hurt you in a match up against a person that uses it.. it does not provide an advantage. Multiplayer servers cannot force post processing modes, they only force grass and view distance. If a player couldn't stand the blur before, he likely had Post Processing OFF, which gives more of an advantage than with this modification. This modification is similar to if BIS added a 'very low' option for Post Processing or a full screen Blur Enabled/Disabled option.

    Q: What could BIS do to fix this so this isn't needed?

    A: The full screen 'rotBlur' shader should scale down blur amount based on FPS. If the FPS is low, the blur amount should be toned down since the blur and FPS are coupled. Right now: More FPS = Less Blur. Low FPS = Too Much Blur. In my opinion, this is a performance BUG, not a feature request.

    Q: Something happened and now the mod doesn't work anymore.. there is a zero byte shader file in my bin directory now

    A: This happens sometimes.. I still do not know why. When it occurs, simply delete the extra zero byte file that is causing the error and recopy the modded shader file if you think it has become corrupt.

    Semi-Sarcastic FAQ:

    Q: What is the point of this? You can already turn off Post Processing in the menu.

    A: Some of us like the really great shaders that BIS has made (explosion bloom/NVG Noise, glare, lens simulation) but can't turn them on because the shader 'rotBlur' makes it a blurry mess when the FPS is low. This makes people feel sick, get headaches etc.

    Q: My game looks fine with post processing on, the blur is realistic, this is useless.

    A: If you don't like it, you don't have to use it.

    -----

    Tech Stuff

    I need a person that can write a binary packer/unpacker for the shdc files, so that users can patch their bin's easily without having to redistribute BIS proprietary data. (I don't know if they frown on that) We could also supply sig files for all regions of the game, however it would be an effort collecting all of the required bin.pbo's from the different regions. We need a solution so we can get this signed and good to go for multiplayer servers. Please contribute to the technical thread if you can help out with any of this. Thanks.

    The technical thread is here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?p=1491210

    This modification substantially reduces the number of instructions in the rotBlur pixel shader, essentially making it do nothing, just short of removing it. (which we can't do since that would require editing the EXE) It may increase performance installed compared to identical video settings with it not installed. This is due to the rotBlur shader being huge and having tons of instructions, vs my patched version having only one instruction. I do not know if shaders are processed directly on the GPU core or if they have a floating point 'shader' processor to themselves. If the latter is true, the number of instructions is probably irrelevant.

    Nov 18 Edit:

    Performance details..

    "Shaders have a direct impact on the time it takes to render a frame. While different GPUs have different #s of shader pipelines they must all write out to the final framebuffer. That frame buffer can not be displayed until it is full and finished. Shader speed is a function of shader code instruction count and the number of pixels on screen it affects in any given frame. For instance, on some other game the eyeball shader was the most expensive. It had something like 93-95 instructions. But, the number of pixels on screen it affected at any given time was very very low so the impact was not that great. For something like a motion blur shader, which affects the entire frame buffer, lower instruction counts will positively affect frame rate, for sure."

    -----

    This modification is free to the Arma2 community and may not be sold. It is offered without warranty and you choose to use it at your own risk. It can be modified and redistributed without contacting the author, with credit. This file contains intellectual property (shaders) owned by Bohemia Interactive, but is not useful without owning the ArmA2 game. Do not distribute ArmA2 core bin.pbo files with this shader or derivatives of this work in them as they are not compatible with all versions/regions of the game.

    -----

    dedicated to kegetys (we await arma2lib!) and mikero :D

  25. Posted · Edited by oktane

    One more thing:

    shader_wonderful_noblur.jpg

    :bounce3::bounce3::bounce3:

    This is the PsPpRotBlur patched. In both pictures, the gun was spinning at high speed. The difference is well, obvious. :D

    ---------- Post added at 09:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:33 PM ----------

    Found the length bytes..

    Picture

    In the picture, you can see the length bytes highlighted with the thin green border, they are always after 11 22 22 11 pattern. In this picture, the length bytes = 788. You can see I have added a bookmark to them called RadialBlurLength in the bookmarks window that looks at those 4 bytes. The black area (neon green and blue included) that I have selected is the rest of the shader and it is 788 bytes as seen on the status bar lower right.

    The length is a signed or unsigned int16.

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