A proposal: ENB

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

For those not familiar with the ENB mod series, it uses a series of dlls and an ini file to add recent developments in graphical technology (notably HDR bloom effects) to older games.

Some of the clever-clogs on TWC got it working for Medieval 2: Total War. Sadly, that version doesn't copy directly over, but is it possible that RS could use a different version of ENB for RTW? There are loads of permutations of the thing, depending on the age of the engine. It allows for such comprehensive fiddling, it could be a nice addition to RS.

Just saying. My know-how is somewhat limited to get things like this going.

[apple]

Sounds interesting.

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

Sounds interesting.

I've tried the basic version, which is supposed to work on virtually all dx9 compatible games, and...guess what? Didn't work.

I'm just too much of a n00b at this kind of thing. I'll ask dvk.


EDIT: Dammit too quick for me, RM.

Here we go: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=217784

[Roman_Man#3]

Do you have a link to the M2TW version?

[dvk901]

This would be a beautiful addition if we could get it to work.

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

This would be a beautiful addition if we could get it to work.

I'll see what I can do. I'm not normally a big bloom fan, but in moderation it can add a lot to the realism of the graphics.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I'm not bloom fan either. I don't see how a radioactive-ish glow can be seen as realistic, except for a game like fallout.

edit: Not saying it doesn't look nice, though :p If you can get it working it would be great

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

I'm not bloom fan either. I don't see how a radioactive-ish glow can be seen as realistic, except for a game like fallout.

edit: Not saying it doesn't look nice, though :p If you can get it working it would be great

The Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) is of more immediate use to us. The trouble with Bloom is that most games (cough *Oblivion* cough) dial it up way too high. Used in very small amounts, it can make things look quite pretty.

[lolgast]

The Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) is of more immediate use to us. The trouble with Bloom is that most games (cough *Oblivion* cough) dial it up way too high. Used in very small amounts, it can make things look quite pretty.

Lol I remember you had freaking glowing white ruins

[dvk901]

Indeed. I have had a look at it, but alas, I have no idea why it won't work.

[sithlord447]

meh i liked bloom in oblivion it was a fantasy game afterall

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

OK, I have another proposal:

I can't get it to work. As I said in the AHOD thread, I'm too ill to bugger about trying different versions, etc. The rest of the team are too busy.

Thus, I think it'd be quite nice to get the general fan-public to have a go. Tell them about what can be done, and tell them to try and do it with ENB. If they can get it to work with vanilla or 1.6, it'd be the work of but a second for them to upload what they have and for us to bung it into II. Same basic engine, after all.

Thoughts? Can I go ahead with it? Acts as a solid booster for fan morale, too.

[dvk901]

Great, go for it!

[Rt. Hon. Gentleman]

Great. Thanks, DVK. Even if they can't get it to work (most likely), it helps them get excited, and feel like they might be able to contribute to the epic win or RS2!

[Elendil of Númenor]

Well.....

I've been trying to solve this problem lately - I didn't manage to do that, but I was able to prove myself that this could be possible. I don't really understand - and the stuff that I figured out don't help either - how on earth RTW handles DirectX, but I came to the strange conclusion, that the only thing that did anything with RTW was the ENB mod made for DirectX8 type games. With that version, the green writing appeared in the corner, everything went black and I could only see anything at the edges of the screen. But at least I had somewhere to start out from.

I soon found a .dll file the guy made that is used to convert the DirectX8 based games to DirectX9, so that the Dx9 ENBs can be used with Dx8 games. I used that, and after a few tries I finally saw that it's definitely a leap forward. Putting different versions of ENB in with the converter, I got different results, though none of them was satisfactory. So far, the version made for NBA and Assassin's Creed gave the best results, the effects work, the game doesn't go black, the green writing is shown... And, well, it freezes at the splash screen... But it does prove that one of the versions must work. It just needs to be found.

Thus, the hunt would need to continue, but at least now we are - in my opinion - much closer to our goal here.

I've uploaded the files that gave me those results: the converter files (d3d8.dll, enbconverter.ini) need to remain, I'll only send the other two to show what result I got.

[tone]

Have we tried contacting the guy directly? Send him some screenshots from RS2 to get his interest!

[Elendil of Númenor]

Have we tried contacting the guy directly? Send him some screenshots from RS2 to get his interest!

Wondering if we could actually get further than a hardly configurable bloom effect we've got now, I thought perhaps we could contact the guy and see if he could spare some time to make a mod specifically for RTW-RSII.

No problem with that.. found the site, everything, just...
http://enbdev.com/contact_en.htm

Well, "Technical support of ENBSeries is stopped, i'm still open for commercial offers or for japaneese users."isn't the most encouraging.

Still, perhaps a well phrased, polite letter... as you said, Tone, showing several pictures how awesome RSII is.... Dunno. On one side, it would seem as a rather futile attempt, but on the other... well it couldn't hurt to try, could it?
Any thoughts, guys?

[dvk901]

Yeah, woo! That locked my computer up completely, but it did 'try' to start.

[tone]

Check this: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...16#post6831616

[Elendil of Númenor]

This is crazy. Looks like he got further than any of us.

Anyway, I asked him to try the one I've uploaded here - however, if this will be something that works like a charm on one PC and crashes on another, it isn't really a good idea to try to get it working.

I know why I was getting the black screen. That's what happens with AA turned on. It really is such a relief to see it work - at least in some form - I still have to minimize-maximize to make it work, but at least it doesn't crash or freeze or any other thing that a program usually does when it wants to get on someone's nerves.

Now, the weird thing with bloom, is that it sort of 'over-effects' the UI, HUD, while only adding a very subtle but good-looking glow to the in-game view of the battle map, etc. Still it looks great with minimal_ui. If we can't work the problem out otherwise, we (I - I'm sure you all have enough work on your hands) can just make a darker version of the interface for those who would like to use ENB.

I didn't experience any change in FPS.

Now, I'll try to get the other things working. SSAO, DOF - the later could help hugely if not over-done, as it is in ETW (IMO).


Oh, and here:

The sky makes it feel like Medieval 2. Anyway, I'll make some more pics as I keep working on this.

I keep forgetting how EPIC environment can get in RSII. Here's a reminder. Bloom gives a bit more to fog.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Then the weather changes... and things go from epic - to downright scary. Truly, RS2 can control your emotions as very few games can...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

EDIT: Uhh, sorry for the double post, could someone please merge it with the one above?