SkyGfx: PS2, Xbox and Mobile graphics for PC

[LaDiDa]

Doesn't gta 3 support mipmaps by default? Thought only VC required a mod for mipmap support.

[Maks_Grain4]

1 hour ago, LaDiDa said:

Doesn't gta 3 support mipmaps by default? Thought only VC required a mod for mipmap support.

Thanks for the info.

[Puremin0rez]

I love the way this perfectly emulates the look of the PS2 version on PC. It's so accurate!

 

I'm using it perfectly fine without any issues with both GTA III and San Andreas, but for some reason I'm having an issue with Vice City.

 

It works perfectly - but there is a constant flicker across the screen most of the time. It disappears sometimes, and then returns. It's always in full flickering mode when starting a new file for the first time. The first indoors cut scene has no flicker, but the lawyer car driving scene has a ton of lighting flicker.

 

I've made a video to demonstrate what I'm seeing: https://streamable.com/5nhx5y

If you can't see it, make sure to fullscreen and look towards the darker areas. (walls, roads, windows) There's a strobing / flicker effect going on. I thought it was my monitor at first, but I noticed it showed up in recordings and I could see it on other devices.

 

The flicker never occurs while indoors, it's only while outdoors.

 

I am running quite a few mods, but I uninstalled and did a clean install of the game with only SilentPatch + SkyGfx and still had the same issue. GTA III and SA don't have this issue for me. (which is weird, because III is using the exact same files)

 

Removing SkyGfx causes the flicker to disappear.

 

System Info:

I7 4790K

GTX 1080 TI

32GB RAM

Windows 10 1809 x64

NVIDIA Driver 446.14

 

Vice City Info:

v1.0 using Ultimate ASI Loader

Running at 2560x1440 on a 144hz monitor

Frame Limiter is ON (tried off, makes no difference besides game being broken physics wise)

[Ash_735]

21 minutes ago, Puremin0rez said:

but for some reason I'm having an issue with Vice City.

This ISN'T a bug, you're using the Sharp Trails, in Vice City Rockstar kinda overdid all the effects relating to trails, that strobing effect is one of them and the reason it's noticeable now is because it's not hidden by the heavy blur. It's just apart of the post effects and colour correction, Sharp Trails just gets rid of the blur pass, so you're still seeing everything else done with trails.

[jahmshut]

Guys, it seems to me that in new versions of skygfx (starting from version 4.0) GSF tags are displayed very incorrectly ... for comparison, I used one of the old versions of skygfx with the old version of silentpatch, take a look at this image

https://imgur.com/5tkXKOk

is there any way to fix this?

[The Hero]

that's how they look on PS2. a bit extreme maybe but that's how it is. I really can't win...if something isn't as on PS2 people want me to port it, and if I do it other people say it was better before. I think changing the building pipeline to xbox makes them look a bit different.

[LaDiDa]

The tags are fine as they are now, I for one, prefer the PS2 way of handling them, get a higher resolution remake of the tags & they look as good as they possibly can.

[jahmshut]

I understood
thanks for answers

[uncaged]

Hello! There is a problem with black intro movies, existing for ages. Kinda minor thing, but annoys some perfectionists for sure XD And all solutions are some temp trial-and-error messing around.

If some one interested I have found 2 ways to deal with it pretty effectively. They work for me for all 3 games perfectly.

 

a. Rename the game folder. Yup, add a letter or so. Somehow intros will be fixed. BUT it feels like a temp solution since after some time they will be black again. Looks like Windows tend to assign something to them that breaks them. If happens again, well, rename to something else again. 

OR

b. 1. Select any compatibility option in properties and click OK.
    2. Open regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers.
    3. Edit the line that says "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\grand theft auto san andreas\gta-sa.exe" (or whereever it is installed) and replace the contents with "DXMaximizedWindowedMode"

 

The second ^ solution works for me always with all 3 games. But may be inappropriate for someone who need specific compatibility settings.

 

P.S. Anyone?

On 5/19/2020 at 10:32 PM, uncaged said:

Hello!

Is this a common transparency behavior? Seems to be the same across all ini configs.

 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by uncaged

[The Hero]

No z-write, probably due to ps2 alpha test emulation (aka dual pass). maybe try to increase the threshold value? then the outside stuff should disappear.

[Ash_735]

2 hours ago, uncaged said:

Hello! There is a problem with black intro movies

Movies break for various reasons and different fixes won't work for everyone, the code is garbage and the movies are worse quality than the PS2 ones anyway, the only guarantee way is to gut the code and put in a new player.

[uncaged]

2 hours ago, The Hero said:

No z-write, probably due to ps2 alpha test emulation (aka dual pass). maybe try to increase the threshold value? then the outside stuff should disappear.

Nope, unfortunately. Tried like 15 values from 0 to 255 included, nothing changes with that window transparency.

Okay, thank you very much for suggestions!

 

1 hour ago, Ash_735 said:

Movies break for various reasons and different fixes won't work for everyone, the code is garbage and the movies are worse quality than the PS2 ones anyway, the only guarantee way is to gut the code and put in a new player.

Yes, agree, but it is always good to have some workaround.

[The Hero]

in that case it may have the no-z-write flag on? IDE flag 64

[uncaged]

49 minutes ago, The Hero said:

in that case it may have the no-z-write flag on? IDE flag 64

Well... sadly here my testing abilities end. I have very limited knowledge about that stuff 😳

[Maks_Grain4]

Author, do you plan to make graphics in Vice City - as on mobile? The same tones, contrast, lighting? Please make a texture overlay of high detail (As in SA, the parameter is detailMaps = 1, Enable mobile detail maps (needs texdb files)). Mobile Vice City - looks amazing! Better than a PC with SkyGFX. 
  

Edited May 29, 2020 by Maks_Grain4

[zanesix]

Yeah sorry I'm gonna need a side-by-side comparison for that one... It just looks like sharptrails with better shadows?

[Marsi4eg]

20 hours ago, uncaged said:

Well... sadly here my testing abilities end. I have very limited knowledge about that stuff 😳

It's that sh*tty flag indeed. Same thing as transparent borders or bugged wooden posts in the desert. Open with notepad \data\maps\country\countrye.ide, find line

13437, CE_wires02, cunte_wires, 250, 2097348

and change to

13437, CE_wires02, cunte_wires, 250, 2097284 (as was in PS2 version) and should be fixed.

 

 

Stupid thing that R* merged those windows in one model with the wires. Also search for any 2097348 value in this file and change every one to 2097284 - you will fix more objects with bugged transparency (most likely - wires).

 

P.S. You may notice that it may still work incorrectly, the fence is invisible through that left window, some cars may disappear at some viewing angles but it's exactly how it works on real PS2:

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Marsi4eg

[uncaged]

2 hours ago, Marsi4eg said:

It's that sh*tty flag indeed...

Oh, wow, you even took your time to check it out on PS2 for me : ) You are too kind, I really appreciate that, mate! It worked like a charm. No wonder I coundnt fix that I barely understand what I changed here. 

Yes it is not perfect but if something bizarre happens here - at least it is the same on PS2, lol.

Thank you so much!

May I ask if you know other similar problems to fix that way in other .ide's? I collected all possible map and model fixes that I could, and there are still so many broken things.

[Marsi4eg]

@uncaged here:

Maybe there are more but I haven't checked all ides. For now I fixed only countn2.ide and (yesterday) countrye.ide.

 

P.S. better to continue speaking about IDEs there, here's kinda incorrect place, offtopic

[The Hero]

i'm not terribly interested in detail maps for VC. maybe it'll come at some point but not now.

[uncaged]

1 hour ago, Marsi4eg said:

@uncaged here:

P.S. better to continue speaking about IDEs there, here's kinda incorrect place, offtopic

You are right. I wasnt going to speak about it here too much. Thanks once again!

[The Lucky Mole]

Is any building pipe objectively better than the others or just a matter of preference?

[The Hero]

Preference pretty much. But they're both better than the vanilla PC pipe.

[Maks_Grain4]

Author tell me please - how to make a color palette similar to the mobile Vice City? without using sharptrails

Edited June 1, 2020 by Maks_Grain4

[zanesix]

Why wouldn't you want to use sharptrails? Doesn't that do exactly what you're asking?

[The Lucky Mole]

Is this how it is supposed to be?

[LaDiDa]

18 minutes ago, The Lucky Mole said:

Is this how it is supposed to be?

Huh, that's an interesting effect.

[The Hero]

kinda looks like ps2 alpha test doing its thing. see what happens if you disable dual pass. also checking how it's rendered on PS2 would be interesting.

[The Lucky Mole]

Indeed, tha's it. If I disable it, it looks like the PC image. Dual pass seems more advanced to me, but in this case that shadow texture has very low resolution, probably creating those dots. I can't find my PS2 disk, can anyone check? I was in the Calton Heights safehouse, in SF.

[The Hero]

Also regarding that mobile colourfilter: i guess i never really got it right. wonder if it has to do with the set of timecycle ambient colours. i'll probably find out one day...