How to fix/disable shaders in games(DLL,guide and fixes).
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[quote="mana84"]I'm looking at bioshock lately and I noticed it has a huge number of shaders needs to be fixed... I've modified my tool to automatically fix a lot of them... then I manually edited/added some others. The game looks a lot better now (water, fog, smoke, hud and some dynamic lights/shadows) but its still WIP, here what I've done: [url]https://s3.amazonaws.com/Mana84/bioshock_wip.zip[/url] Dynamic shadows on some objects still needs to be fixed. If someone could test my fix and eventually just dump some bad shaders I'll give them a look...[/quote] THANK YOU! Bioshock is my fave game, thanks!!
mana84 said:I'm looking at bioshock lately and I noticed it has a huge number of shaders needs to be fixed... I've modified my tool to automatically fix a lot of them... then I manually edited/added some others. The game looks a lot better now (water, fog, smoke, hud and some dynamic lights/shadows) but its still WIP,
here what I've done: https://s3.amazonaws.com/Mana84/bioshock_wip.zip
Dynamic shadows on some objects still needs to be fixed. If someone could test my fix and eventually just dump some bad shaders I'll give them a look...


THANK YOU! Bioshock is my fave game, thanks!!

Posted 02/14/2013 12:20 AM   
hey up mana84, thanks a lot for your hard work! When you feel that the bioshock 3D is as fixed as your going or want to be able to get it (if those particle ghosts can be removed, then i may jump for joy) I am going to write a simple how to guide on the bioshock forum, to gain a little good will over there and hopefully encourage some guys to try something new. Anyway, thanks a lot for your great work, it's always appreciated.
hey up mana84, thanks a lot for your hard work!

When you feel that the bioshock 3D is as fixed as your going or want to be able to get it (if those particle ghosts can be removed, then i may jump for joy) I am going to write a simple how to guide on the bioshock forum, to gain a little good will over there and hopefully encourage some guys to try something new.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your great work, it's always appreciated.

OS: Win 8 CPU: I7 4770k 3.5GZ GPU: GTX 780ti

Posted 02/14/2013 08:50 AM   
thanks you all for encouragement! About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.
thanks you all for encouragement!
About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.

my cfg: i5 2500k, 8gb ram, GTX 570, Asus VG278H, Windows 8 Pro x64

Helix mod 3d vision game fixes

Posted 02/14/2013 10:33 AM   
[quote="lefuneste"]Hello, another stupid question: what is the unit of the output position register ? Are they in pixel or in screen percentage ? eg: If have a screen resolution of 1000x500 and the position of the current pixel is 500,500 will the o0.x be 500 or 0.5 ? I used a 2 screen configuration for DCS, and I want to try to override the shader only for the first screen => pixel pos < (1920, 1080). And is there no way to have a 64b version of Helix d3d9.dll ?[/quote] Nope, the is no way for now. I can't just recompile it, because I haven't planned x64 when start writing it and now i need to fix some structures alignments and pointers types. And only few games use x64, so for now it's not worth the time which I can spent on changing it. Maybe in future. Clip space is [-1.0, 1.0] Texture coordinate space is [0.0, 1.0] So for texture lookup "x" will be 0.5 and for clip space it will be 0.
lefuneste said:Hello, another stupid question: what is the unit of the output position register ?
Are they in pixel or in screen percentage ?
eg: If have a screen resolution of 1000x500 and the position of the current pixel is 500,500 will the o0.x be 500 or 0.5 ?
I used a 2 screen configuration for DCS, and I want to try to override the shader only for the first screen => pixel pos < (1920, 1080).
And is there no way to have a 64b version of Helix d3d9.dll ?

Nope, the is no way for now. I can't just recompile it, because I haven't planned x64 when start writing it and now i need to fix some structures alignments and pointers types. And only few games use x64, so for now it's not worth the time which I can spent on changing it. Maybe in future.

Clip space is [-1.0, 1.0]
Texture coordinate space is [0.0, 1.0]
So for texture lookup "x" will be 0.5 and for clip space it will be 0.

Posted 02/14/2013 12:40 PM   
[quote="mana84"]thanks you all for encouragement! About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.[/quote] Again, thanks again for your work so far! If the game becomes really playable, I'd like to gift you a Steam Game of your choosing. (if that's ok with you of course). Another question, is it possible/difficult to become a 3D fixer if your profession is java software engeneer? Any tips?
mana84 said:thanks you all for encouragement!
About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.


Again, thanks again for your work so far! If the game becomes really playable, I'd like to gift you a Steam Game of your choosing. (if that's ok with you of course).

Another question, is it possible/difficult to become a 3D fixer if your profession is java software engeneer? Any tips?

Posted 02/14/2013 09:11 PM   
[quote="mana84"]thanks you all for encouragement! About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.[/quote] Can't wait!
mana84 said:thanks you all for encouragement!
About bioshock, I believe I fixed needed pixel shaders too and now ghostings should be gone for all effects apart from dynamic shadows. I'll give it a look better tonight and I'll post a new wip version... and hopefully a definitive version soon. I'll try to fix problematic shadows as well if I'll be able to, otherwise I'll just disable a part of them just to make it better playable without any ghosting.


Can't wait!

All hail 3d modders DHR, MasterOtaku, Losti, Necropants, Helifax, bo3b, mike_ar69, Flugan, DarkStarSword, 4everAwake, 3d4dd and so many more helping to keep the 3d dream alive, find their 3d fixes at http://helixmod.blogspot.com/ Also check my site for spanish VR and mobile gaming news: www.gamermovil.com

Posted 02/15/2013 08:38 AM   
here is the final wip version: [url]https://s3.amazonaws.com/Mana84/bioshock_wip.zip[/url] All shaders apart from dynamic shadows (issued shadows are disabled in this fix) should be fixed now. Make me know if someone tests it! Shadows are difficult to fix in this game... I'll try what I can. @Schmeltzer: thanks for your offer, I appreciate your generosity, you encourage me in going further and trying to improve my knowledge and to continue my works.. and games like this needs a lot of time (I fixed 933 shaders and developed a tool for this), but sincerely I can't understand if taking something in change is "right" since other peoples are making this for free... making fixes for yourseld and share it with the world is a great thing, probably if helix hadn't done this nothing would be started, but probably, taking requests in change of a reward could be a "solution" for games that wouldn't ever be fixed otherwise. I'm asking for suggestions here becouse its not the first time I receive an offer and I don't know what its "right" to do.. I've never accepted any before. some fixes could be easier than others, it depends from the game and the issue you're going to fix. My studies (computer science/information technology) helped for minor part... I'd suggest starting with an "easy" game (I started with "skydrift"). At first you'd need knowledge of assembly, in particular asm shaders syntax (look here: [url]http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb219840(v=vs.85).aspx[/url]) Then you'd need some basis of camera transformation matrix (my opengl studies helped a little here).. I don't have a link but you could search for a opengl/directx tutorial.. Finally (and most important part) you should learn how to use helix dll, here: [url]http://helixmod.wikispot.org/How_To_Make_Your_Own_Fixes[/url]
here is the final wip version:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/Mana84/bioshock_wip.zip
All shaders apart from dynamic shadows (issued shadows are disabled in this fix) should be fixed now. Make me know if someone tests it!
Shadows are difficult to fix in this game... I'll try what I can.

@Schmeltzer: thanks for your offer, I appreciate your generosity, you encourage me in going further and trying to improve my knowledge and to continue my works.. and games like this needs a lot of time (I fixed 933 shaders and developed a tool for this), but sincerely I can't understand if taking something in change is "right" since other peoples are making this for free... making fixes for yourseld and share it with the world is a great thing, probably if helix hadn't done this nothing would be started, but probably, taking requests in change of a reward could be a "solution" for games that wouldn't ever be fixed otherwise. I'm asking for suggestions here becouse its not the first time I receive an offer and I don't know what its "right" to do.. I've never accepted any before.

some fixes could be easier than others, it depends from the game and the issue you're going to fix. My studies (computer science/information technology) helped for minor part... I'd suggest starting with an "easy" game (I started with "skydrift").
At first you'd need knowledge of assembly, in particular asm shaders syntax (look here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb219840(v=vs.85).aspx)
Then you'd need some basis of camera transformation matrix (my opengl studies helped a little here).. I don't have a link but you could search for a opengl/directx tutorial..
Finally (and most important part) you should learn how to use helix dll, here: http://helixmod.wikispot.org/How_To_Make_Your_Own_Fixes

my cfg: i5 2500k, 8gb ram, GTX 570, Asus VG278H, Windows 8 Pro x64

Helix mod 3d vision game fixes

Posted 02/15/2013 10:48 AM   
Ok, going to give this a raz now mana84. If I feel it is good enough to showcase newbies I will post a how to guide on the Bioshock forums. I only say that, not as a snub, but because I feel newcomers to 3D should experience as close to perfection as possible, otherwise it can damage the cause! (im looking at you Titanic, Jurassic park, clash of the titans 3D.) From me however, a massive thank you for your efforts regardless of how my re-play through will be, and I will report back with any issues, criticisms or fawning praise in due time 8) P.S. mana84, are you going to load this to helix's site?
Ok, going to give this a raz now mana84. If I feel it is good enough to showcase newbies I will post a how to guide on the Bioshock forums. I only say that, not as a snub, but because I feel newcomers to 3D should experience as close to perfection as possible, otherwise it can damage the cause! (im looking at you Titanic, Jurassic park, clash of the titans 3D.) From me however, a massive thank you for your efforts regardless of how my re-play through will be, and I will report back with any issues, criticisms or fawning praise in due time 8)

P.S. mana84, are you going to load this to helix's site?

OS: Win 8 CPU: I7 4770k 3.5GZ GPU: GTX 780ti

Posted 02/15/2013 11:04 AM   
Ok, booted it up, and thought... mmm, looks bloody terrible, what's gone wrong. Looked on here.. Don't forget to put -dx9 in launch options guys!!! that fixed it. Mana84, so far looks many multiples better! the fire at the beginning looks very stripped down (I guess because you've disabled a lot of shaders) but that is infinitely better then the borked up nature of the 3D in the original. P.S. Please don't be offput by any/all the faults I find, your work looks simply amazing and im currently loving replaying in 3D.. but here goes. -The Skybox is still way to close outside, is that an easy fix? It's more to really wow newcomers to 3D on the initial scene. But this looks great, you've even got rid of the practical ghosting! woop woop. Big thumbs up! - Radio (2D sprite) image displays as double image when new transmission arrives. Goes back to normal after a few seconds. -2D seems to be broken now for picking up objects. The object is outside of the circle, this is not like that on the original 3D settings. It would seem that this and the radio problem are linked.
Ok, booted it up, and thought... mmm, looks bloody terrible, what's gone wrong. Looked on here..

Don't forget to put -dx9 in launch options guys!!! that fixed it.

Mana84, so far looks many multiples better! the fire at the beginning looks very stripped down (I guess because you've disabled a lot of shaders) but that is infinitely better then the borked up nature of the 3D in the original. P.S. Please don't be offput by any/all the faults I find, your work looks simply amazing and im currently loving replaying in 3D.. but here goes.

-The Skybox is still way to close outside, is that an easy fix? It's more to really wow newcomers to 3D on the initial scene. But this looks great, you've even got rid of the practical ghosting! woop woop. Big thumbs up!

- Radio (2D sprite) image displays as double image when new transmission arrives. Goes back to normal after a few seconds.

-2D seems to be broken now for picking up objects. The object is outside of the circle, this is not like that on the original 3D settings. It would seem that this and the radio problem are linked.

OS: Win 8 CPU: I7 4770k 3.5GZ GPU: GTX 780ti

Posted 02/15/2013 11:38 AM   
@foreverseeking: thanks for testing! I'll post the final version of the fix in helix's site (helixmod blog). You must launch the game with -dx9 becouse helix's debugger is dx9 only for now. The only shader I disabled is the "FE34336A", it renders some dynamic lights (fire's light too) with the related casted shadows... I'm unable to fix it at this moment but I'll give it another try. I forgot about skybox... it would need to be pushed further into the screen but I need to find a shader for the background (I can move clouds but can't find a shader for moon). Thanks for reporting this, I'll give it a look this evening/night. didn't noticed radio and 2d issues... thanks for reporting, I believe they share the same texture with crosshair, I'll give them a look too.
@foreverseeking: thanks for testing! I'll post the final version of the fix in helix's site (helixmod blog). You must launch the game with -dx9 becouse helix's debugger is dx9 only for now. The only shader I disabled is the "FE34336A", it renders some dynamic lights (fire's light too) with the related casted shadows... I'm unable to fix it at this moment but I'll give it another try.

I forgot about skybox... it would need to be pushed further into the screen but I need to find a shader for the background (I can move clouds but can't find a shader for moon). Thanks for reporting this, I'll give it a look this evening/night.

didn't noticed radio and 2d issues... thanks for reporting, I believe they share the same texture with crosshair, I'll give them a look too.

my cfg: i5 2500k, 8gb ram, GTX 570, Asus VG278H, Windows 8 Pro x64

Helix mod 3d vision game fixes

Posted 02/15/2013 01:40 PM   
[quote="mana84"]@foreverseeking: thanks for testing! didn't noticed radio and 2d issues... thanks for reporting, I believe they share the same texture with crosshair, I'll give them a look too.[/quote] No worries mate, thank you even more for the effort in getting it this far! Don't feel any pressure on trying to fix these things, Its wonderful that anyone spends anytime on these fixes at all. With the dx9 thing, I knew it had to be run in dx9, I just thought that running without dx10 textures would run it in dx9... how wrong I was ;-) About the 2d textures and cross hair, that would imply that we can not have a 3D cross hair without borked 2D visuals right? If that's the case, I would put that shader back to normal, and insist people use the nvdia cross hair as it would appear to be the best compromise. P.S. don't know if this is common knowledge (as at first adaptive vsync got slated), but Nvidia cross hair really cains the FPS, and with Vsync on can become noticeable. Enabling Nvidia Adaptive Vsync seems to solve this problem entirely, leaving smooth FPS and no tearing.
mana84 said:@foreverseeking: thanks for testing!
didn't noticed radio and 2d issues... thanks for reporting, I believe they share the same texture with crosshair, I'll give them a look too.


No worries mate, thank you even more for the effort in getting it this far! Don't feel any pressure on trying to fix these things, Its wonderful that anyone spends anytime on these fixes at all. With the dx9 thing, I knew it had to be run in dx9, I just thought that running without dx10 textures would run it in dx9... how wrong I was ;-)

About the 2d textures and cross hair, that would imply that we can not have a 3D cross hair without borked 2D visuals right? If that's the case, I would put that shader back to normal, and insist people use the nvdia cross hair as it would appear to be the best compromise.

P.S. don't know if this is common knowledge (as at first adaptive vsync got slated), but Nvidia cross hair really cains the FPS, and with Vsync on can become noticeable. Enabling Nvidia Adaptive Vsync seems to solve this problem entirely, leaving smooth FPS and no tearing.

OS: Win 8 CPU: I7 4770k 3.5GZ GPU: GTX 780ti

Posted 02/15/2013 02:25 PM   
[quote="mana84"] @Schmeltzer: thanks for your offer, I appreciate your generosity, you encourage me in going further and trying to improve my knowledge and to continue my works.. and games like this needs a lot of time (I fixed 933 shaders and developed a tool for this), but sincerely I can't understand if taking something in change is "right" since other peoples are making this for free... making fixes for yourseld and share it with the world is a great thing, probably if helix hadn't done this nothing would be started, but probably, taking requests in change of a reward could be a "solution" for games that wouldn't ever be fixed otherwise. I'm asking for suggestions here becouse its not the first time I receive an offer and I don't know what its "right" to do.. I've never accepted any before.[/quote] Thanks for the links! Just to clarify: what I meant was: if can play B1 in 3D properly, I'm so happy that I'd like to gift you a game. It was in no way meant as sort of a "contract". It just that people like you, Helix and Eqzitara are doing so much for us 3D gamers, and the only thing I can do in return is say "thank you", or post photo's on 3DVisionLive, or let people know that the Helix fixes exist. Just to give an example: I'm playing on 3 screens. Not all games support playing on 3 screens so there are people fixing those games with certain tools. Every now and then I donate a few bucks through paypal. That works for me, because I appreciate what they are doing for me and I get the change to give something back. And I have no influence whatsoever which games they are fixing (which is absolutaly fine by me), that's really up to them, as it should be.
mana84 said:
@Schmeltzer: thanks for your offer, I appreciate your generosity, you encourage me in going further and trying to improve my knowledge and to continue my works.. and games like this needs a lot of time (I fixed 933 shaders and developed a tool for this), but sincerely I can't understand if taking something in change is "right" since other peoples are making this for free... making fixes for yourseld and share it with the world is a great thing, probably if helix hadn't done this nothing would be started, but probably, taking requests in change of a reward could be a "solution" for games that wouldn't ever be fixed otherwise. I'm asking for suggestions here becouse its not the first time I receive an offer and I don't know what its "right" to do.. I've never accepted any before.


Thanks for the links!

Just to clarify: what I meant was: if can play B1 in 3D properly, I'm so happy that I'd like to gift you a game. It was in no way meant as sort of a "contract". It just that people like you, Helix and Eqzitara are doing so much for us 3D gamers, and the only thing I can do in return is say "thank you", or post photo's on 3DVisionLive, or let people know that the Helix fixes exist.

Just to give an example: I'm playing on 3 screens. Not all games support playing on 3 screens so there are people fixing those games with certain tools. Every now and then I donate a few bucks through paypal. That works for me, because I appreciate what they are doing for me and I get the change to give something back. And I have no influence whatsoever which games they are fixing (which is absolutaly fine by me), that's really up to them, as it should be.

Posted 02/15/2013 08:38 PM   
@mana84 I agree with Schmeltzer. If you fix Bioshock 1 I would gladly gift you a game on steam!
@mana84

I agree with Schmeltzer. If you fix Bioshock 1 I would gladly gift you a game on steam!

Posted 02/15/2013 09:05 PM   
its a gift thats being offered willingly, take it. i understand helix wont accept donations etc, which i understand, but if someone works, for free, i think a gift of a bottle of wine, bunch of flowers, steam game etc to say thank you is more then acceptable. I don't think anyone will frown on that :-)
its a gift thats being offered willingly, take it.

i understand helix wont accept donations etc, which i understand, but if someone works, for free, i think a gift of a bottle of wine, bunch of flowers, steam game etc to say thank you is more then acceptable. I don't think anyone will frown on that :-)

OS: Win 8 CPU: I7 4770k 3.5GZ GPU: GTX 780ti

Posted 02/15/2013 09:11 PM   
@foreverseeking: I believe crosshair could still be fixed (probably searching for points). I'll update the files soon. @Schmeltzer: I decided to make a bioshock fix just becouse I like to be of help for 3d vision comunity and becouse I saw here that the game is rather requested. Then I wanted to try to develop an automatic tool and I needed some games to try with (hl2 and bioshock). I'm not searching for any reward (money/games) from you in particular, I'm just happy to feel useful somehow. I meant that probably we coders would need something like a "request section", in where people could request games that normally wouldn't be fixed by no one, but its just an idea, I was searching for opinions about it... for example I believe no one would bought a game he doesn't have (and he isn't interested to get it) and spend a lot of time fixing it for free just to satisfy a user request.
@foreverseeking: I believe crosshair could still be fixed (probably searching for points). I'll update the files soon.

@Schmeltzer: I decided to make a bioshock fix just becouse I like to be of help for 3d vision comunity and becouse I saw here that the game is rather requested. Then I wanted to try to develop an automatic tool and I needed some games to try with (hl2 and bioshock). I'm not searching for any reward (money/games) from you in particular, I'm just happy to feel useful somehow. I meant that probably we coders would need something like a "request section", in where people could request games that normally wouldn't be fixed by no one, but its just an idea, I was searching for opinions about it... for example I believe no one would bought a game he doesn't have (and he isn't interested to get it) and spend a lot of time fixing it for free just to satisfy a user request.

my cfg: i5 2500k, 8gb ram, GTX 570, Asus VG278H, Windows 8 Pro x64

Helix mod 3d vision game fixes

Posted 02/15/2013 09:18 PM   
  109 / 167    
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