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Thread: DirectX 9 Shaders

  1. #1

    Lightbulb DirectX 9 Shaders

    Hello, everyone!

    It has been a long time since I've posted anything on here, as I've been away from Istaria for a few years now, but I figured that this would be the best way to jump on in and get back into the action. So, what about DirectX 9 shaders?

    Some Technobabble and Introduction Ahead! (Skip this for the interesting stuff)

    Well, let's take a look at prior interactions that I've had with my experimentation over the last two years. I've been involved with a lot of random, silly work to try and implement different sorts of graphical effects in games, mostly due to my absolute fascination of all things 'eyecandy'. I love seeing what one can do when you are able to apply external, open-source hooks into the game and the 3d space therein; however, some games have problems that others don't.

    I'll begin by saying that Istaria's engine, what powers the game and allows you to interact with the world, is natively ran on DirectX 8. This is a very old version of what most games run on these days. Now, consider this:

    What if, in theory, we could get Istaria running on DirectX 9, or some variation of it? What if we could get the game to run on the API that Skyrim uses? That's exactly the fantastic work that the devs did.

    A Little History:

    In the past, a file that the ENBseries dev released allowed users to 'translate' DX8 to DX9. That got me thinking. What if I tried to use that and THEN apply some form of DX9 shaders? I managed to get ENB working and saw a MASSIVE boost to my FPS. I was excited! Something like this would be amazing as a hook to allow access to all of those amazing effects that I've come to adore over the years. Sadly, back then, I was nowhere near capable enough to implement and properly build shaders, nor could I understand how to actively 'hook' these shaders into Istaria through the converter.

    So, after I took a break from Istaria, I moved on to Guild Wars 2 for quite a while. Guild Wars 2 can natively utilize shader hooks that allow for more intense graphical effects that wouldn't otherwise be available. Again, I wanted to see what I could do with an engine that supports it. What I found was varying results. Many said that it couldn't be achieved. This was back before there were workarounds and around the time they broke SweetFX's shaders (can't remember the date exactly).

    I stumbled upon something called 'REshade', something that came along with my research into SweetFX. It was in its infancy stages, but it was a fully functional hook that actually worked with GW2... to an extent. It would suddenly deactivate itself after any activity in GW2. That didn't stop me from spending eight hours experimenting until finally, I got it working. Guild Wars 2 had Depth of Field, HDR, beautiful reflections that smashed the ones available prior. I loved it.

    The Present:

    I came back a few days ago, curious to see what was going on and how the community has been. What I didn't expect to see, was a little option in the launcher that said: 'Use DX9 Shaders'. I did a bit of a double-take and suddenly... there it was! ENB, right there in the directory! Again, I got excited. What if, in theory, I could implement REshade 3.0 into Istaria.

    Well, I now present Istaria with REshade 3.0











    I want to add that these images are work in progress screenshots on my preset. They aren't final and need a TON of outside communication to optimize it. I'm currently running on very high-end hardware, including a Titan X (Pascal), so optimization won't be able to directly come from me (I will do the absolute best I can, of course).

    So, thoughts?
    How do you feel about these effects?
    Are you interested in obtaining the preset I've been working on?
    Are you interested in a tutorial for those that want to make their own presets and utilize the groundwork that the devs have done for all of us?

    Let me know! I'd love to get some feedback
    Last edited by Starstilanxs; February 19th, 2017 at 06:03 PM. Reason: Added a picture of Dralk!

  2. #2

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    I generally like the looks of those. The only ones that look 'off' are the one that right above the new trismus buildings.. ground looks weird, going from dark to bright with no inbetween, and the one of the teleporters might be a bit too "beamy" or bright. But the rest look really nice, and I bet the settings could be tweaked to give a good overall improvement to the looks.

    So how does it work? Like the enb dll that intercepts dx8 calls and translates it to dx9? Or are you creating new dx9 shaders?

    Would love to see what you can do with it.

  3. #3

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Hey, Guaran!

    Thank you for your feedback. Yeah, the lighting in many of the images are really weird due to the way I've been tweaking them over time. It contains a whole slew of edits between each of the images, hah. I've lot a looot more work to do to get the effects to look 'proper'. Some of the shaders don't like one another very much.

    You hit it on the mark for the translation of dx8 to dx9. What that allows for, is use with a 'proxy' library specified by a file within the folder, enabling it to actively utilize the DX9 shaders that were provided by REshade 3.0. All of these shaders are open-source specifically for use with REShade, so they're all editable.

    You can configure and recompile the shaders within Istaria itself using the REShade 3.0 overlay.

  4. #4

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    HOOOOOOO Boy I would LOVE to have this on my game!! This is beautiful, fantastic work! You're offering these shaders?
    "Normality is a paved road. It's comfortable to walk on, but no flowers grow on it." - Vincent Van Gogh

  5. #5
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    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Woah that's... amazing, Stars! I didn't know that was possible, really! I remember you talking about trying to get shaders to work with the game in like 2015 or so over Skype but I didn't believe it was possible.

    I run a GTX 1080 over here so I won't be able to help with optimizing anything, but it looks really cool and kind of reminds me of the videos I edited with After Effects!

    (Also welcome back!!!)

    How do you feel about these effects?
    Are you interested in obtaining the preset I've been working on?
    Are you interested in a tutorial for those that want to make their own presets and utilize the groundwork that the devs have done for all of us?
    1 - They're really neat looking, but in some places, feel overdone or far too dark. (Former: portals. Latter: the night screenshot and Dralk, in a way) Lots of tweaking to be done, I imagine, but progress is progress!

    2 - Sure! I'd love to mess around with it and see how my system handles it, though I'll likely be able to take it well with my rig.

    3 - Yes, definitely, though I imagine I'd have problems understanding it at first... and a lot of people would, too. Would have to make it reaaalll layman terms if you can or else you might only be able to help 2 people unless it's much more simple than I think.

  6. #6

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Here are a few more screenshots for the latest version of my preset!





    And here's one that I loved and couldn't butcher with my hackjob of a comparison:

    I liked it a little too much <3

    So, with that being mostly done, I am going to be writing the tutorial and providing screenshots on how to configure the shaders. This will also include the custom preset that I've made as well. I'll have that up by tomorrow night!

  7. #7

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Chiconis looks great, and Dalimond is really lifelike. Hope to try these out myself

  8. #8

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Wow thats pretty cool. Didn't even know something like that was possible. I'd certainly love to try that out.
    Death points are temporary, Glory is forever!
    Need game info? Try Istaria Reference or Istaria Lexica Wiki

  9. #9

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Ready for the Tutorial? Let's jump right into it!

    STEP 1: Download and Installation

    First, you're going to need to download REShade. Head to this website: https://reshade.me




    Once there, click on the download button. You'll be brought to the bottom of the page and prompted to download the latest version. Do not download anything before 3.0. You can use 2.0 technically, but it is much, much more complicated and will require a much lengthier tutorial. I might write one eventually, if the community would like me to.



    When you finish the download, run the setup! You may get a screen popup like this:


    Go ahead and run it, it's perfectly safe.

    For this one, I will absolutely reiterate that nine-times out of ten, the installation will fail if you haven't run the program as an administrator.



    So, when you're at this screen, go ahead and select the game's .exe file! Nagivate to (C:/Program Files(x86)/Istaria/) OR (C:/Program Files/Istaria) First one is for x64 machines and the second is for x32.

    Once you've selected the game's exe file, you will be promted to select an API:



    Select D3D 8/9. You will then be asked if you want to download the shaders. Select yes. These are the most important thing you can have for REShade. Enable them all. When done, close the prompts!




    STEP 2: Configuring the Launcher

    When you are at the launcher's menu for Istaria, you want to be certain that you have DX9 enabled as shown in the picture:



    If not, continue on to this substep:



    You're good! Now, log in! You'll see REShade appear a the top of the screen, but don't jump into that just yet.


    STEP 3

    When you load into Istaria, take a moment to look at your graphics options. The bottom three sliders are not exactly interesting now, but just remember that they are there and can be changed to suit your graphical needs in parallel with the brightness, gamma, contrast, and saturation options in REShade.

    The absolute MOST important thing to take note of here is going to be view distance. This will tank your FPS. Absolutely do not set it to maximum unless you seriously know what you're trying to do and that your hardware can handle it with the shaders enabled.



    Now, on to REShade!

    Press Shift+F2 to bring up the REShade main menu. It will pop up with a tutorial. Follow and read through everything. It has extremely valuable information.



    Now, let's take a look at the settings page. This page is also very important. First thing you'll want to do is set an enable/disable hotkey. Mine is set to F7. After that, you'll want to take a look at configuration mode, or performance mode. These two modes differ insofar as configuration mode takes a lot more resources. Performance Mode compiles the shaders with the settings you have enabled and no longer allows you to tweak them.



    Finally, preprocessor definitions (Optional):
    MXAO has a very special set of options that you must add to REShade to enable certain features. They are disabled by default for a very good reason. These are powerful and very intensive shaders. MXAO alone does a number on the FPS, but with IL enabled (Image Lighting), it will 'reflect' colors onto the shadows it has placed about the environment. Again, it has to calculate these along side the AO. Lots of FPS loss.



    That's it! You're done! Go wild and have fun with your new shader pack and graphical enhancements.

    Below, you'll find my preset and REShade files. If you don't want to use the files for REShade, just ignore those and add my preset to your main Istaria directory where the .exe is located.

    FORWARNING

    My preset has been developed on a Titan X. It is an extraordinarily powerful video card. I do not, by any means, know how this preset will run on anyone else's computer. I will continue optimizing it over the course of the next few days through feedback and communication

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/ws8a3b2uoz...reset.rar?dl=1

    Thank you for all of your time in looking at this abomination of a tutorial, and I hope to see many amazing presets and screenshots in the near future <3

  10. #10

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    This looks really nice. I`d like to try it. You think my 2048MB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 Windforce 3x OC
    Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail) will handle it? Is there also a way to turn that off? Some things really look a bit overdone but i would like to test it.

    "If being of fire means blind arrogance and the elevation of violence above reason, then let me be of water!"

  11. #11

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Quote Originally Posted by Pryzm View Post
    This looks really nice. I`d like to try it. You think my 2048MB Gigabyte GeForce GTX 770 Windforce 3x OC
    Aktiv PCIe 3.0 x16 (Retail) will handle it? Is there also a way to turn that off? Some things really look a bit overdone but i would like to test it.
    I would think you'd run into very little issues, this is the graphics card I'm running it on and only the most intensive of shaders are giving me issues (motion blur and the like):
    https://puu.sh/uccn9/ef16b8fea3.png
    Oooooh, what does this button do?

  12. #12

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Absolutely, Pryzm! When you first install, there will be no REShade profiles enabled. When you make a profile, it starts out completely barebones and allows you to tweak everything to fit any sort of style you like Be it cartoony, realistic, an enhancement to colors, or simply just better anti-aliasing.

  13. #13

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Well, I see the default install doesn't change any appearance nor affect my fps. But when I copy add you Starstipreset.ini as a preset wow, I instantly drop from 56 to 2 fps. But I can at least see it, can't move. I guess it involves alot of playing around with it, based on your computer.

    Just want to make some notes for others that I've observed thus far.

    REShade is not a program, it just installs some extra files to the Istaria folders. What actually calls those files and hooks them in is it installs d3d9.dll and d3d9.ini -- You can open the .ini with notepad and view/change some things.

    It works pretty much like the ENB dx8 to dx9 thing. The checkbox on the launcher to enable/disable Use DX9 Shader really does nothing more than delete or add a file called d3d8.dll ot Istaria folder

    If you're wanting to revert back or temp disable REShade, all you have to do is simply delete/rename (copy/backup/move) a file called d3d9.dll from the main istaria folder. This is created by REShade, its not on a vanilla Istaria install.

    Without the d3d9.dll in your Istaria folder, no part of REShade is actually engaged. Istaria automatically loads in .dll and thus looks at the d3d9.ini file to see what other files it needs to hook into.

    I believe to actually make this program start doing anything (after initial install) you need to create a preset (Shift +F2 while Istaria is running) and start checking boxes, changing things there. This is my initial observation in first 30 mins.

    Just sharing this in case anyone is nervous to try or have installed it and now wondering how to disable it.
    Death points are temporary, Glory is forever!
    Need game info? Try Istaria Reference or Istaria Lexica Wiki

  14. #14

    Default Re: DirectX 9 Shaders

    Quote Originally Posted by Cegaiel View Post
    Well, I see the default install doesn't change any appearance nor affect my fps. But when I copy add you Starstipreset.ini as a preset wow, I instantly drop from 56 to 2 fps. But I can at least see it, can't move. I guess it involves alot of playing around with it, based on your computer.

    Just want to make some notes for others that I've observed thus far.

    REShade is not a program, it just installs some extra files to the Istaria folders. What actually calls those files and hooks them in is it installs d3d9.dll and d3d9.ini -- You can open the .ini with notepad and view/change some things.

    It works pretty much like the ENB dx8 to dx9 thing. The checkbox on the launcher to enable/disable Use DX9 Shader really does nothing more than delete or add a file called d3d8.dll ot Istaria folder

    If you're wanting to revert back or temp disable REShade, all you have to do is simply delete/rename (copy/backup/move) a file called d3d9.dll from the main istaria folder. This is created by REShade, its not on a vanilla Istaria install.

    Without the d3d9.dll in your Istaria folder, no part of REShade is actually engaged. Istaria automatically loads in .dll and thus looks at the d3d9.ini file to see what other files it needs to hook into.

    I believe to actually make this program start doing anything (after initial install) you need to create a preset (Shift +F2 while Istaria is running) and start checking boxes, changing things there. This is my initial observation in first 30 mins.

    Just sharing this in case anyone is nervous to try or have installed it and now wondering how to disable it.
    You hit it on the mark, Cegaiel.

    The only reason I didn't go into that much detail was because I usually keep detail away from discussions outside of those whom I know will understand. But you provided a good, in-depth explanation for anyone that might be curious. Thank you!

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