2D Shader Editors : IV

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:16 am

Hello knowledgeable people,

I'm tired of doing trial and error editor shading by merely guessing what a shader might possibly look like based on an hlsl configuration.

I've been trying to find a good shader editor, specifically for handling 2D images, and I'm not having any luck.

I've been googling and testing for several hours now.

Any suggestions?

thanks

saebel

» Thu Mar 10, 2016 10:38 pm

MGE XE for Morrowind has such editor.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:25 am

Even tho I have absolutely no knowledge of shader coding or coding in general...i tend to keep bookmarks of websites I find interesting.

I don't know if this will be of any use to you...but there's a Oblivion Shader Editor hosted at http://timeslip.chorrol.com/

From its readme:

Spoiler

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

*** About ***

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

This is a utility for editing shaders in oblivion's .sdp shader packages. You cannot create completely new sdp's with it, or add/remove shaders from existing ones. As well as editing the assembly of a shader, you can replace it with an imported HLSL shader, or import/export it as a binary object

Requires .NET 2.0 and the DX9.0c October 05 update (The same DX version as oblivion)

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

*** Known bugs ***

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

Comments are stripped from shaders when you recompile them. This is very difficult to fix, because as far as I can tell there's no way to insert parameter information unless you're compiling from HLSL, and HLSL versions of oblivions shaders are not available.

http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Effect_Shaders:_definitive_guide

http://www.worldofelderscrolls.de/?go=4editorshader

EDIT: Almost forgot...try contacting Vtastek - http://www.gamesas.com/user/467509-vtastek/ ; https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/user/1225558-vtastek/. He is the author of GODRAYS shader for OBGE v3 and one of the shader developers for OBGE v4 aka OR. I'm sure he'll have some knowledge to share with you. He is active in community and a very kind person!

Good luck

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 7:56 am

The best editor should be Oblivion and Morrowind themselves. New versions of MGE/OBGE let you change shaders on the fly. Try something like notepad++ and hack into your OBGE shaders.

With a little bit guesswork, you can identify how it loads 2D textures.(Follow the "sampler" names)

float4 my2dtexture = tex2D(samplername, tex);
return my2dtexture;

This is the simplest template. You can do rotation, scale math on tex and image compositing math on my2dtexture variables.

PS. BGS forumers are very kind and helpful people, I merely try to fit in.

» Thu Mar 10, 2016 8:30 pm

When I first started, I remember this tool helping me a lot.

https://sites.google.com/site/studioposteffect/download

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 9:34 am

I already tried Timeslips Shader Editor, and it didn't work on my system for some reason.

I will check out the links thought.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 1:12 am

I've been working with the 2D shaders for awhile, so I have some idea of what they are capable, and there are lots of templates and guides for working with hlsl. My main problem is just finding a more efficient way of determining what the shader will actually look like, rather than having to go through the process of converting the .hlsl into a .pso and then copy files over and then launch Oblivion, load a game, and finally see the results for just one test.

If I can actually make changes on the fly during live game play, that's definitely something to look at.

I will check these out.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:11 am

Note that, realtime editing is only for OR effects(godrays, SSAO, DoF etc. Same for Morrowind.)

PS. If you downgrade to OBGE v3, you can edit all Oblivion shaders realtime with its Shader Development Window.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 10:54 am

This is specifically for determining night-eye and blindness post effects for use with Scantis's night eye shader switcher plugin.

I tried the Studio Post Effect (video of it looked like it was what I needed), but it crashes instantly. Most of the programs I tried have done that, and I'm guessing it's due to Windows 10 (stupid windows 10) and compatibility mode doesn't seem to make a difference for any of the one's I've tried.

I've had Win 10 for well over six months, and it's just now starting to show these little annoying hiccups. I was totally satisfied until recently.

I'll give OBGE v3 a shot.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 3:46 am

The website for OBGE v3 documentation appears to be off-line. Is there an alternate location that you know of? All the google results I found lead nowhere or back to the same links.
http://obge.paradice-insight.us/wiki/Main_Page

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:07 am

Woohoo! It turns out I still have Shazzam installed on my machine. I totally forgot that I had that. It does the trick quite nicely.

» Fri Mar 11, 2016 5:59 am

The x64 file is just a patch, try the one before with full package. I am not on Win10 but when in doubt, run as administrator.

http://web.archive.org/web/20141020231131/http://obge.paradice-insight.us/wiki/Main_Page

PS. Checking Shazzam, it is great. Some really nice tutorials in it. Too bad the website is down.