Winter Bulge

[sandman2575]

9 minutes ago, WallysWorld said:

I only have the demo right and I see no performance difference between the vanilla graphics, Aris' beta terrain mod or Worghern's mod with my i7-920 overclocked to 4 Ghz with a GTX 970.

What i find is the best solution to keep steady frame rates at 30 fps is exactly what sandman2575 wrote: Set your Vertical Sync to "Adaptive - Half Refresh Rate" if you have an nVidia card. Setting this, I get a pretty steady 30 fps on all scenarios for all CMx2 games with shadows and shaders on and mostly at the "Improved" 3D Model Quality setting. Sometimes I can bump it up to "Better" and still keep 30 fps. The only trade off is that I sometimes get that blurred line for the ground textures, but that is tolerable for steady frame rates.

Really? I've long played with Aris's textures (and everything of Aris's I can get my hands on) and never noticed that it taxed my system at all (as mentioned, typically 50-60% GPU usage max) -- but playing with Worghern's, the difference was quite noticeable -- esp. as I was aware of my GPU's fan cranking up and I was getting GPU temps in the high 60 low 70 C range (typicially mid-50C with Aris's textures). Did you play on a medium / large Winter map? That's where the strain was most noticeable for me -- much less so on an autumn non-snow map.

Also, re: 3D Model Quality -- to be honest, I've never been able to see any difference in terms of graphics quality whether this is set to "Best" or "Fastest" -- I have *no* idea why this single setting is so ridiculously taxing on my system. I play with "Balanced" but could quite easily play with "Fastest" for the pure FPS benefit without noticing any deterioration in image quality.

[Worghern]

2 hours ago, Ethercan said:

Yes the requested options are correctly applied and i have a very good machine.

I'm playing at all games in 2560*1440 in Ultra without problems (CM too), but with the new shaders the framerate is very bad.

I'll play with paramaters of my video card and options in the game.

Something I forgot Ethercan. If you are playing at this resolution, you don't need to have AA activated in the Sweetfx_settings.txt file  

 

I push the resolution on some textures but I plan to reduce it in the (near) future

[WallysWorld]

46 minutes ago, sandman2575 said:

Really? I've long played with Aris's textures (and everything of Aris's I can get my hands on) and never noticed that it taxed my system at all (as mentioned, typically 50-60% GPU usage max) -- but playing with Worghern's, the difference was quite noticeable -- esp. as I was aware of my GPU's fan cranking up and I was getting GPU temps in the high 60 low 70 C range (typicially mid-50C with Aris's textures). Did you play on a medium / large Winter map? That's where the strain was most noticeable for me -- much less so on an autumn non-snow map.

I'm playing the "A December Morning" demo scenario so I guess that's about a medium sized map.

I definitely do concede that my GTX 970's usage goes up a bit with Worghern's textures so the graphics card is working harder than with the vanilla textures. But even with the harder working card, I really don't see a performance degradation with Worghern's textures. Maybe a 1-2 fps loss if anything, but nothing I worry about.

Please keep in mind that I do not use SweetFX with CMx2 so that could be a difference.

Edited May 4, 2016 by WallysWorld

[peter thomas]

It's all lovely. Worghern, but I can't use it at the moment because the winter (snow) landscapes all have a fairly hard line between the near and distant ground. That is, there's a big colour difference (from dark to light) where the game sets its draw distance. So the near ground - drawn in detail - is much darker than the 'distant' ground - which is drawn more blurred. It's mostly in the snow landscapes, and it's like that with or without the shaders, of whatever sort. The colour match in the stock game between properly drawn ground and distant ground is much closer, so you don't get a hard jagged line between the two, running across the snow. Any chance of you somehow making the distant ground (beyond the draw distance, I mean) slightly darker, to better match the foreground? This prob also exists in the Autumn landscapes, but is less noticeable. 

Peter

Edited May 4, 2016 by peter thomas

[Bob Willett]

Okay lets talk in laymen's language right now.  I have downloaded all the 8 files including the readme file and the readme instructions say to place all the numeric files into the Z folder but then when I get to the "shader" file I put it into the "root" directory of the game?  Where is that and what file is it under?  Can you be more speciffic for we simpletons that are just used to dropping stuff into the Z folder and off we go to play the game?  And then there is the final file which is called the "patch" file....How do we add this and where to have it patch all the above files placed into the Z file or the "root" directory.  Usually "patch" files come with their own patching programs that when executed they will patch what needs to be patched.  I just need to have more specific instructions for the final two files on where to put them etc and how to use them please.  The results of this mod and what it is supposed to do for the graphics of this game has gotten everyone excited including myself and I want get on the bandwagon to enjoy this mod like everyone else I just need a bit more guidance on how to add it to my game......

[sandman2575]

@Bob W -- Root directory is the 'primary' directory where your game is, probably something like:

D:\Games\Battlefront\Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

This is where the 4 files in the Shader .zip should go, i.e.: SweetFX folder, opengl32.dll, ReShade.fx, and Sweet.fx

Do NOT put the sweetFx files in the Data\Z directory.

To get W's Environment mod working, take the files from 5 .zips  you downloaded ("Worghern.Final_.Blitzkrieg.Env_.001a" through "Worghern.Final_.Blitzkrieg.Env_.003") and unpack them into a single folder -- call it "Final Blitzkrieg Environment Mod" or something. Then take the Patch zip, and unpack it directly into that "Final Blitzkrieg Environment Mod" folder you just created. It will ask you to merge and then overwrite some existing files. Select "Yes" to all.

Take this folder and put it in your Z directory like all mods.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by sandman2575

[sandman2575]

So, did a little more testing with the SweetFX files tonight, having added the patch and updated SweetFX settings, and I can confirm what Ethercan said -- it seriously cripples performance for some reason. Really baffled by this. I correctly set the in-game settings as Worghern indicated, and also correctly set the settings in my Nvidia Control Panel. When I load up a scenario and hit "Scroll Lock" to enable SweetFX, FPS *plunges* and especially lags when panning the camera. Talking single-digit FPS -- unplayable.  Confused as to why SweetFX should be severely hampering performance in this way -- haven't had that experience when using SweetFX in other games.

I've removed SweetFX for now and am just using W's excellent retextures -- but I've noticed another strange thing. When I enable "Movie Lighting" (Alt-M), it introduces some severe aliasing into the image -- see below.  You can see the 'jaggies' pretty clearly on the panzer's antenna and the telephone pole in the background.  All from just enabling the lighting -- ?  Strange.

[Ithikial_AU]

Looks great but the lack of a snow modtagged option for the new 'stream' ground tiles is a bit jarring on winter (with snow) maps. For a patch pretty please?

[CMFDR]

7 hours ago, sandman2575 said:

@Bob W -- Root directory is the 'primary' directory where your game is, probably something like:

D:\Games\Battlefront\Combat Mission Final Blitzkrieg

This is where the 4 files in the Shader .zip should go, i.e.: SweetFX folder, opengl32.dll, ReShade.fx, and Sweet.fx

Do NOT put the sweetFx files in the Data\Z directory.

To get W's Environment mod working, take the files from 5 .zips  you downloaded ("Worghern.Final_.Blitzkrieg.Env_.001a" through "Worghern.Final_.Blitzkrieg.Env_.003") and unpack them into a single folder -- call it "Final Blitzkrieg Environment Mod" or something. Then take the Patch zip, and unpack it directly into that "Final Blitzkrieg Environment Mod" folder you just created. It will ask you to merge and then overwrite some existing files. Select "Yes" to all.

Take this folder and put it in your Z directory like all mods.

 

 

Sandman, I'm probably being thick here but could you please direct me to that "Shader.zip"? For the life of me, I just can't find it.

[Erwin]

Does one have to take the 3 folders and 2 files out of the "SweetFX" folder and put them in the root folder separately, or just move the "SweetFX" folder into the root as is?

[CMFDR]

Nervermind, somehow I didn't get that Reshade file when I downloaded them all yesterday.

@Erwin these files must be directly in your root folder afaik 

*********************************************

I've updated files on the mirror :

http://superdupontzeserveur.fr/cm/worghern/WorghernFinalBlitzkriegBeta.7z.001 (495 Mb)

http://superdupontzeserveur.fr/cm/worghern/WorghernFinalBlitzkriegBeta.7z.002 (495 Mb)

http://superdupontzeserveur.fr/cm/worghern/WorghernFinalBlitzkriegBeta.7z.003 (65 Mb)

It does include conveniently named folders, with Reshade and patch embedded, and is especially trimmed to fit on CMMods III (your call Bootie)

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by CMFDR

[kensal]

Hi can anyone explain where the Reshade folder should go on a Mac version of CMFB? CMFB has folder containing an App, a data folder, a game files folder and a documents folder? The data folder contains a number of .brz files.

Thanks for any assistance

 

[CMFDR]

Kensal, I'm almost sure that Resahde can't work on Mac, as it uses dll files. Sorry mate.

[kensal]

Thanks CMFDR, that's helpful, but a shame. 

[sandman2575]

So, now that it looks like some people have been trying out the SweetFX package, I'm curious to hear if anyone else is experiencing the kinds of difficulties myself and Ethercan described -- serious lag and FPS drops when enabling it.

Really puzzled by this because SweetFX (like ENB) should not have a *major* impact on performance. But that's definitely what I'm seeing. Even with all the settings in game and in nvidia CP set correctly.

Edited May 5, 2016 by sandman2575

[ht-57]

sandman,

I've been using swtfx w/o performance problem but I do get a more or less wonky menu depending on whose preset I use.

I'm using the latest swtfx ver 2.0,  

I would be remiss if I did not say TYVM to Woghern!!!!   gr8 job man!

[FroBodine]

I guess I didn't read the Readme well enough.  I put the Sweetfx folder and the .dll files in my CMFB root directory. 

Don't we have to actually launch Sweetfx so it is already running, before we activate it with the Scroll Lock key?

Does just launching CMFB and having the SweetFX folder in the root directory automatically launch SweetFX? 

I just put everything in the proper folders, and launched the game last night.  It looked beautiful, but I did not activate SweetFX, or at least I don't think I did. 

[CMFDR]

@FroBodine simply check if there's a "OPENGL32.log" file in your root folder, it's created whenever SweeFx is activated.

Also, some text may be displayed on your main menu : 

Edited May 5, 2016 by CMFDR

[peter thomas]

Put all the sweetfx stuff in the FB root directory, the dll too and ths shader files (there are 3 files plus the SweetFX folder), then it runs automatically and you can switch on or off with scroll lock. 

[CMFDR]

6 minutes ago, Erwin said:

I am seeing some improvement to the graphics but am not sure it's totally working.  I don't think something is loading correctly as I get warning text messages that stay onscreen even after a scenario has loaded. Also, while I don't see any sound files in Worghern's mod, my music sound mod isn't working and I get CMFB default intro screen and scenario loading music (rather odd).

Just to confirm:  The SweetFX Reshade folder goes into the root folder as is.  One does NOT take out the subfolders ("Docs" and "Shaders") or the two files "Global_Settings.txt" or "SweetFX_settings.txt". 

The files "opengl32.dll", "sweet.fx", and ReShade.fx go into the root folder as is.  Did I do that correctly?

 

Yes you did @Erwin. As illustrated above.

As for your sound issue, I'm puzzled.

Edited May 5, 2016 by CMFDR

[Erwin]

What I see when I start the game and a mission are warnings like:

"Compiling effect... Failed"  C:\sims\CMFB\sWEET.FX(236, 35): error X3004 undeclared identifier "Reshade start enabled"  and another line similar to that + "Syntax error".  Any idea what that is about?

The strange thing is that I think I am seeing some of the desired graphics effects - but it's partial... or maybe am seeing graphics from Koh's mod.

[CMFDR]

You might be missing some files as per that thread on Reshade's forum : http://reshade.me/forum/troubleshooting/748-solved-reshade-sweetfx-2-errors

Here's what it looks like in my root folder :

And SweetFX folder :

[ht-57]

EZ way to do it-

go here     https://sfx.thelazy.net/downloads/

dl the first file- unpack it. then just hit "reshade set up" 

follow prompts, if it stops and ask  to manually select ,choose "open gl" and ur done.

@ that point you can drop in worgs "sweetfx_settings.txt" into the sweetfx folder that now lives in your cmfb root folder.

the website also has many other presets for dl you can preview them on the site and see what they do, pretty cool!

[sandman2575]

38 minutes ago, ht-57 said:

EZ way to do it-

go here     https://sfx.thelazy.net/downloads/

dl the first file- unpack it. then just hit "reshade set up" 

follow prompts, if it stops and ask  to manually select ,choose "open gl" and ur done.

@ that point you can drop in worgs "sweetfx_settings.txt" into the sweetfx folder that now lives in your cmfb root folder.

the website also has many other presets for dl you can preview them on the site and see what they do, pretty cool!

 

OK now I'm confused -- why is any of that necessary? I thought all we had to do was unpack W's "Reshader" .zip into our root game directory -- the 4 files that CMFDR highlights in his post above. I didn't see anywhere that there was some extra initial set up that had to be done.

??

[FroBodine]

Yeah, where did this new stuff come from that ht-57 is talking about?