Recreating PS2 atmosphere - I've found logic, coders needed

[El Dorado]

If anyone is interested, here's the PC timecyc (NOT TIMECYCP) with corrected values for rainy countryside 8 pm (Fixed Red Sky)

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hri5hj

 

The correct plugin for the PC timecyc is this one http://aap.papnet.eu/gta/lovely2-mod.asi

Edited October 10, 2014 by format c:

[danilo_ol]

is it possible to edit the seabed.ipl to stay with the ps2 sun effects, and the pc draw distance? would be perfect

[lolya]

is it possible to edit the seabed.ipl to stay with the ps2 sun effects, and the pc draw distance? would be perfect

I thought sun sizes are depended on draw distances? I mean, the more longer distance makes sun to look small. I'm not sure about this since I don't know how seabed.ipl works. But I saw this with increased draw distance.

[Snoops27]

 

turn down your resolution to 640x480 and turn off AA

Black borders with widescreen monitors

Edited October 11, 2014 by snoops26

[_CP_]

I made a small infographic with timecycle areas, which are in PS2 seabed.ipl:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2014 by _CP_

[El Dorado]

Get rid of timecycle and increase sun sizes on timecyc?

Edited October 11, 2014 by format c:

[_CP_]

In IPL tcyc, draw distance is related to sun size (smaller DD - bigger sun etc.), I don't know it could be done separately, maybe timecycle.dat values could help here, I don't know.

[Snoops27]

Removed clouds. Clouds seemed like they acted as a lining between the top and bottom colours. Don't like it at all. And not to mention the lag.. but I'm wondering if it will destroy the effect of the game hmmm...

 

image post

imgur

PS2

image url upload

 

EDIT: Removed cloud1 only. The random cloud line.

 

Here if anybody would like it.

 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/lohlgb

Edited October 11, 2014 by snoops26

[The Hero]

I wonder if someone could remove the clouds through an exe-hook rather than by removing the texture.

Edited October 11, 2014 by THE HERO

[inadequate]

Stream ini extender also can remove the clouds.

Edited October 11, 2014 by inadequate

[Snoops27]

I found it interesting cloud1 is in the PS2 particle but not used. Also PS2 particle is about 100kb and the PC version is 600kb because they got ported into BMP. PS2 have JPG. but TXD workshop can't import JPG

[VERSA]

PS2 has bottom clouds too, it's just more rarely to see but they are there.

[Snoops27]

Oh that's very strange.

Edited October 11, 2014 by snoops26

[El Dorado]

I'm still wondering about the sun in San Fierro, is really intended to be this way? Anyone a have a PS2 screenshot for comparison?

 

 

[Snoops27]

host images

Edited October 11, 2014 by snoops26

[VERSA]

Anyone a have a PS2 screenshot for comparison?

From emulator. And yes PS2 has the same sun in SF in this particular time period.

 

And about bottom clouds. Here they are in PS2:

Edited October 11, 2014 by VERSA

[inadequate]

PS2 has bottom clouds too, it's just more rarely to see but they are there.

 

Exactly.

Edited October 11, 2014 by inadequate

[Snoops27]

Oh lol. Strange how that works compared to PC version then hmmm

[inadequate]

Oh lol. Strange how that works compared to PC version then hmmm

 

And sad how the PS2 version kicks out the PC version.

 

EDIT:

Versa, I see you runs PCSX2 on sofware mode, well on my PC when I switch to software mode I get this ghosting effect:

 

 

 

 

 

You know any fix or something?

Which is your version of PCSX2?

Edited October 11, 2014 by inadequate

[KawakSallas]

Now I wonder why rockstar cut this effect for PC. To the modders who recreated it: Anything game-breaking that needed to be fixed?

[VERSA]

Versa, I see you runs PCSX2 on sofware mode, well on my PC when I switch to software mode I get this ghosting effect:

You know any fix or something?

It seems that there's no fix for it right now. I have this bug too. I was just lucky to not catch it on my screens.

[Neddo]

Did you find any configs with google for PCSX2? I found some very useful advice for GT4

[Link2012]

All those finds on this thread is amazing, great work you guys are doing over there!
Here's my little piece of contribution

TCYC Section Documentation

So, I found it very interesting that a completly ignored section for all this time was so important and used on PS2, I ended up having to take a under the hood look at it.
Notice nothing here has been tested, it's all conclusions taken from reading the game code, sorry if anything is not exactly right.

The TCYC section (by R* namings, Time Cycle Modifier section) is used to do interpolations between the time cycle properties that would end up used at the time and extra colours. It also used to override some time cycle properties such as the farclip.

bbox_sup_x, bbox_sup_y, bbox_sup_z, bbox_inf_x, bbox_inf_y, bbox_inf_z, farclip, extra_colours, extra_colours_factor, unused, unknown1, unknown2

Bounding Box (float: bbox_sup_x, bbox_sup_y, bbox_sup_z, bbox_inf_x, bbox_inf_y, bbox_inf_z)
Those are kind of obvious, the bounding box of the area to modify the time cycle.
Notice all of the next properties goes interpolating depending on how distant you are to the bounding box.

Far Clip (integer: farclip)
This basically overrides the farclip from the current cycle
If this value is equal to 0, no overriding takes place.
On internal calculations it gets clamped to the value of the current cycle farclip, so it doesn't get greater than it.

Interpolation Cycle (integer: extra_colours)
This specifies which extra colour cycle the current cycle colors should be interpolated with on this bounding box zone.

The value should be between 0 and 16 (why the f*ck R* used 850?), or -1 for no cycle interpolation.
Values between 0 and 7 relates to EXTRACOLOURS_1 coloring and 8 to 15 relates to EXTRACOLOURS_2
For example:
A value of 0 means it should interpolate with EXTRACOLOURS_1.Midnight
A value of 1 means it should interpolate with EXTRACOLOURS_1.5PM
A value of 8 means it should interpolate with EXTRACOLOURS_2.Midnight
A value of 9 means it should interpolate with EXTRACOLOURS_2.5PM
and so on

The parameter is only interpolated if the same extra colours parameter is different from 255.
For example: The interpolation with EXTRACOLOURS_1.Midnight.SkyTop won't happen because their values are set to 255 (important: only the red value is checked, so if the red is 255 and the rest isn't, it'll get ignored anyway).

Additional Notes:
By fixing the 850 the game uses, it is the same as 10 (EXTRACOLOURS_1.6AM)
I find it weird that the interpolation line doesn't change according to the time, it's always fixed.

Interpolation Factor (float: extra_colours_factor)
This is the interpolation factor for the extra_colours situation, it should be between 0.0 and 100.0

For example:
A factor of 0, will output the same colours as in the current cycle
A factor of 100, will output the same colours as in the extra colours cycle (as specified in extra_colours param)
A factor of 50, will output a 1/2 mix of the current color and the extra colour.

Additional Notes:
The game only used 0 by default, meaning the extra_colours parameter ends up ignored

Unused (float: unused) (optional, default = 100)
Either it's unused or I didn't see any calculation using it.

Unknown (float: unknown1, unknown2) (optional, default = 1)
Not sure what's this, but it interpolates with some internal cycle values when this parameter is not equal to 1.0

Notice if unknown2 gets specified, it gets used instead of unknown1.


Child Bounding Boxes
A bounding box can have one child bounding box. Basically the relationship is:

• The unknown parameter will be taken from the one that is not equal to 1.0
• The farclip parameter will be taken from the one that is not equal to 0.0
• There happens to have a interpolation between the parent and the child farclip

Edited October 11, 2014 by LINK/2012

[Snoops27]

if anybody has the black bars problem when playing at a low res on a widescreen monitor like I did, this fixed it for me (nvidia) probably works the same on amd. Just change aspect ratio to full screen. it's weird 800x600 is not so bad lol and it fits the atmosphere of the game quite well.

 

free photo upload

Edited October 12, 2014 by snoops26

[Claude_Lib]

I dunno, I would prefer playing with black borders on sides but keeping proper aspect ratio. Maybe even using no scaling (1:1 pixel).

Edited October 12, 2014 by Claude Liberty

[Tikhung]

Thank you guys so much. I always thought the PC version of GTA SA missed the atmosphere of the PS2 version.

[KawakSallas]

About PS2 vehicles "reflections", aren't they the same as the PC "sheen", just rendered differently?

 

I mean, on PC it is white, PS2 looks like lustrous

 

There are any documentation about this?

Edited October 12, 2014 by KawakSallas

[inadequate]

^

I hope someone has documentation or information about of the PS2 reflections on PC.

 

 

 

Silent, Ash_735, Wesser, LINK/2012 help!

 

 

[Snoops27]

Lol yeah. We've been fighting for this for a long time now!

Edited October 12, 2014 by snoops26

[VERSA]

I've noticed that ps2 reflections is some kind of taboo in gta modding. No one takes this aspect seriously and almost no one trying to do something (except DexX). But in my opinion there's more reasons to make good and realistic real time reflections than ps2 fake reflection, but no one is taken this job too (again except some people, but they never finish their work).