I will definitely test!

After a few ridiculously complicated bugs (which is what I've taken to calling typos) and a New Year's that I don't fully recollect (hopefully everyone else had good holidays), testing can finally commence!

I have or am sending out the info to everyone who volunteered, as well as posting it here.

To begin with, I redid the website a bit with more info on what Voodoo Shader is and some shots of it in action: https://www.voodooshader.com

Currently supported games include Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2 and Gothic 3. Testing can be done in any of these, but make sure to note which one you were using.

In a joint test of the (already mostly tested) UI/package manager and Voodoo framework, there are three steps to the process. First, verify you have .Net 2.0 and MSVCR10 installed (links provided). Second, download Voodoo itself. Third, run a game. Detailed instructions are provided.

Testing Instructions: https://github.com/peachykeen/VoodooShader/wiki/Voodoo-Test-Instructions

Please follow these as closely as possible. If you have any questions, comments, or really anything, let me know. That can be done by post, PM, email or on IRC (chatspike.net, #voodoo or #elderscrolls, say my name or voodoo to highlight me).

There are a few issues still hanging around, I'm sure. One known bug, which seems to effect only Morrowind and Oblivion, is a crash-on-exit. This is because of the game not shutting down D3D, which causes some confusion when destroying resources. If you run into any others, let me know.

And before anyone asks, the included shader is intended to be obvious for testing purposes; you just can't miss it.

Thanks to everyone who volunteered, or tests. Hope to hear back soon.

Great, will test as soon as I have time!

I'm ridiculously hopeful for this project. It sound amazing what you have already done. I remember being excited just for nwshader when you were working on that. Now your supporting 5 or 6 of my favorite games (x-com support soon? haha). You must be quite the dedicated programmer.

Good to see you again, peachy! Can Jac and I help you test, maybe? We have two different rigs, so it won't be doubled up.

This is the replacement for NWShader, once I get the OpenGL side up and running (reasonably close). Eventually I'll have all the NWShader features, especially materials and non-linear post processing running in all the supported games.

If you have a game you want supported, let me know. I have a decent library, physical and http://steamcommunity.com/id/ltfugi/games?tab=all, so if I have a game I can take a look at it right away. Recent 3D stuff, from Morrowind to now, can probably be supported without many tweaks (in fact, if it looks a lot like MW/Obv, try setting up a hook and testing it with the current adapter). I want to support 2D stuff, but that's going to take some more work and might not always be possible, we'll see.

Sure, anyone young, willing, and able (or in your case, old ). But really, anyone with an interest is more than welcome to test. The directions should answer most questions, if not lemme know. The more results, the better things work; with Voodoo that means more than just Morrowind, I'm already working on a bug reported by a Storm (Skyrim) tester that could help clean up Gem a bit.

Maybe you should have an age restriction (upper limit). I kept having trouble with the git installer, until I realized I wasn't connected to the internet. Doh!

Jac is really into The Witcher series and Mass Effect, but you know I'm completely ignorant as to which games your shader would be best suited to.

I never got this option, everything installed automatically. Is there a way to go back and change it after git is installed?

I actually automated that just before release, but forgot to update the walkthrough. It's fixed now. You shouldn't need to interact with the installation much at all. I'm also putting together an offline archive of the files. Everything will work offline (and can be copied around between systems), you just lose the update functionality.

Please me first

You're both late to this party!

Peachy, um, I did the supported games search, which is cool and everything, but it wouldn't let me cut-n-paste from the results window and the program didn't create any hooks using the information it found, even though I had all the "add" boxes checked. There is no "OK" or "Cancel" button, so all I could do was X out of the search window. It did do a great job in searching all my drives, but the following paths could not be accessed on Windows 7-64 Home Premium (I know this is a Windows issue, but thought it would be good to point this out as *the* reason one shouldn't install games to system directories in Windows):

Access to the path 'C:\Documents and Settings' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Application Data' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Desktop' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Documents' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Favorites' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Start Menu' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\ProgramData\Templates' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\System Volume Information' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Application Data' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Desktop' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Documents' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Favorites' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Start Menu' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\All Users\Templates' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Application Data' is denied.Access to the path 'C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\History' is denied.

EDIT: correction: I could ctrl-C to copy and ctrl-V to paste into a .txt file, but there was no automatic adding of hooks.

Yes, that only checks for a few hard-coded games at the moment. The mechanics for adding hooks based on them aren't complete, hence the wizard button being disabled in the main window. I'm still not sure quite how I want to set things up wrt the wizard, so hooks have to be manually added at the moment.

I installed this without any issues and I *think* I got the hooks right, but when I run Neverwinter Nights, I'm not seeing any changes. Here's a screenshot of the GUI and hook: http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m313/gulfwulf/GUI.jpg

Me too. No side-by-side or picture-in-picture at all. Something's not working. I reset the NVIDIA control panel to defaults and still no joy.

Neverwinter Nights 1 isn't supported yet (OpenGL vs DirectX). Until I finish the OGL adapter, only DX8 and 9 games will work (https://github.com/peachykeen/VoodooShader/wiki/Game-List).

Didn't work on NWN2, Morrowind, or Oblivion either. Sorry, peachy. Maybe we missed something?

I just tried this with NWN2 and I'm not getting a picture-in-picture either, Peachy. Could you post a screenshot of what we're supposed to be seeing? Thanks.

This is what you should be seeing: http://voodooshader.com/screenshots/morrowind-2.jpg
Very obvious pattern.

If you aren't, the first step is to make sure the hook is loading properly. Make sure the filename is set and the main UI screen has a green radar icon in the top-left (rather than a white and blue cross). If the icon is not green, click it and it should switch or give information on missing files. Also, if the game is being run with elevated privileges (Steam or other UAC), the UI needs to be as well.

If the icon is green, check your user folder (C:\Users\[name] on recent Windows) for a VoodooShader.log file and the game directory for a Voodoo_DX9_Log.txt file. If either contains any paths or information you'd rather not post, just replace them, then post the logs to http://gist.github.com or http://pastebin.com and send me the link.

Yeah, we definitely aren't seeing anything like that.

Jac has the green radar and will try changing the privileges tomorrow. I have the blue and white X and get the following errors on startup:

MSVCP100.dll not found on computer

and

unable to hook stub from framework\bin

Of course these are paraphrased, but from the sound of it, you have an idea what the problem is. Do I really need to reinstall the program? BTW, the gitbash icon was placed on my desktop. I'm no programmer, I don't know what to do with this icon, but it sits on my desktop, uninvited, mocking me, and tempting me to click on it.

Voodoo shader log:



I could not find the Voodoo_DX9_Log.txt. Or, at least, Windows 7 couldn't find it. I've tried both Neverwinter Nights 2 and Morrowind and didn't see either show that graphical issue you posted, Peachy. I elevated the permissions of the UI and was able to get the box on the left checked (the one underneath the green radar icon.) I'm using the full game path. Should I be using the *\ instead?

Works fine with morrowind and oblivion.
Did you extract the archive and install to the same directory?

Yes.

Those two errors are related to not having the MSVCR10 runtimes installed (MSVC runtimes provide a lot of standard language features, and every system has some equivalent; I use VS10 so the v10 runtimes are needed). Without them, none of the DLLs will load. It is surprising Windows update never installed them, but they're listed in the testing prep steps. If you install them and receive a message saying you already have a more recent version, that's ok.

Nothing interesting will happen if you do. The git integration is the biggest work-in-progress in the UI; git allows allows users to install a plugin once and then update without hunting down the webpage (git keeps a note of where the files came from, plus it has excellent compression and only downloads changes between your version and the latest), but the installer is awkward. I'm not entirely sure how, or if, I can prevent the icon from being made, but I will look into it.


The log indicates the hook is never being matched, so the path may very well be an issue. If the hook isn't matched, then the other log file will never be created. I'm using a standard Windows function for that, so I'm going to have to check. I have had a few people report the same issue, with the hook never being recognized, so it could very well be path related. I'm going to put together a set of unit tests with various paths and run those to check.

As far as the checkbox on each hook, and the table on the left: the table is a read-only summary of the data on the right. I have gotten a request to allow editing there, so I may change that. Obviously when you select a hook, it shows up in the details pane, and you can save your changes (which causes the table to update). I can see where that's awkward, so it might change. Hooks do need to be checked off to work, it's just an active marker that allows you to turn them off without deleting them entirely.


That shouldn't be an issue; it's always possible it could, but they are designed to work independently for the most part.

All in all, so far I have close to a dozen successful test reports over a variety of games, including Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim and NWN2 (Steam and not). Interesting feedback from a few folks, some already added to the project.

I believe 4 people have reported hooks being entirely ignored, so I'm looking into that problem. My initial suspicion is something to do with the path or how it is stored, but I'll have to run proper tests to know for sure.

Other than that, I am revising some of the shader aspects to be a little faster and hopefully get rid of the potential crash-on-exit in a few games. That should also come with OpenGL support, and then I'll move on to full MGE(XE) feature parity.

As far as the test setup instructions go, I read over them and had already installed what was required in the past for other programs. I don't know why something would have come up not installed. I am on a laptop, so maybe I have a weird OEM version of Windows 7?

Tonight, Jac accidentally left your voodoo shader running when he started a NWN2 game as host. No one in the game could right click on anything, not traps and not each other, until Jac closed NWN2, turned off the shader, and restarted the game. I wouldn't have expected a shader to affect gameplay interface, especially when it wasn't actually working yet. Just thought I'd let you know.

I'm off to start over the test setup and re-install everything.


EDIT: Okay, I messed up. I glossed right over the x86 no matter what the OS is. It worked. Morrowind, Oblivion, and NWN2. I'm using the *\ paths for all of them, so Jac's issue may very well be a path problem.

That seems very unlikely, especially if it was preventing multiplayer clients from clicking. I will keep a note of it, in case it comes up again, but there isn't even any input code in VSF yet, much less over-the-wire input. I haven't fully tracked down the paths deal, but there are a few reports of odd behavior with path matching; a lot of them are people who don't understand how it should work, so I'm not sure if there's actually a problem.

Now for this week's news, mostly good:

The previously-untested deferred rendering system turns out to work just fine. Where most graphics extenders only draw to a single preset texture, Voodoo Shader allows effects to create textures and specify which they want to draw to. This allows for a lot of effects that were previously impossible and improvements to some simple effects, such as bloom and the rest of the blur family. For those partial to diagrams and charts:

http://i.imgur.com/fc5Zw.png
http://i.imgur.com/ARVdB.jpg

With multiple passes, techniques, and effects all accounted for and NLPP done, we're quickly coming up on the point where this stops being an experiment and turns into a usable project.

At the request of a few folks, I will be doing what I can to make Voodoo Shader compatible with Wine and Crossover, and if possible will use the framework to help patch graphics and make games run better on those platforms. That's going to take a bit of setup work, but initial checks suggest things aren't entirely broken on Wine as is.

I declared yesterday muffin and benchmarking day. The muffins were delicious and the benchmarks promising. Running a small scattering of games with some reasonably high settings intended to make Voodoo Shader choke up turned out to make it look pretty good.

Frames per second: avg (% difference), min-max. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/oimg?key=0AtluffkFk8FedEFHeF9FR2RUa24za2kyYUdVUnJzM1E&oid=5&zx=vmhdjbz344pa, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtluffkFk8FedEFHeF9FR2RUa24za2kyYUdVUnJzM1E

• Skyrim, none: 48.48, 38-61
  
• Skyrim, VS copy: 47.42 (-2.2%), 37-60
  
• Skyrim, VS bloom: 45.55 (-2.37%), 37-61
  
• Oblivion, none: 90.77, 82-95
  
• Oblivion, VS copy: 88.10 (-2.94%), 80-93
  
• Oblivion, VS bloom: 88.62 (-2.37%), 86-90
  
• Morrowind, none: 70.12, 48-109
  
• Morrowind, VS copy: 98.37 (40.29%), 69-144
  
• Morrowind, VS bloom: 95.68 (36.46%), 76-133
  
• Fallout 3, none: 59.55, 55-61
  
• Fallout 3, VS copy: 59.37 (-0.31%), 57-61
  
• Fallout 3, VS bloom: 58.95 (-1.01%), 57-60
  
• NWN2, none: 40.08, 40-41
  
• NWN2, VS copy: 38.10 (-4.95%), 38-39
  
• NWN2, VS bloom: 35.80 (-10.69%), 35-36

Results are about what you'd expect, more works is less speed. NWN2 by far takes the biggest hit, with Fallout 3 hardly flinching. The Morrowind results are by far the most interesting. I ran them twice, using a 120-second interval the second go, to verify the numbers and they checked out. I suspect the upgrade from D3D8 to 9 is involved in part, but I did not expect the findings. Whether this is good science or I screwed up somewhere, I'm not sure.

In all cases the games were running the highest default settings but no AA or AF (no INI tweaks, ultra or ultra high in the launcher, or maximum from the options menu); all but Morrowind ran in 1920x1080 fullscreen, Morrowind was 1280x768 windowed. Each benchmark ran for 60 seconds, recording FPS for each second using Fraps, and the resulting samples were run through some statistical anolysis in Excel. For Skyrim, the 60 seconds started when the word "presents" appeared in the intro of a new game, and no user input was given. Oblivion was recorded outside of the sewer exit. Fallout 3 was recorded looking out over the wasteland outside of the vault. NWN2 was recorded in the town of Ember, with the camera zoomed as far out as possible and at a low angle. Morrowind was recorded standing on the wall of Balmora, across the river from the silt strider and looking into the city. Each benchmark was run once without Voodoo Shader, once with a basic copy effect (using a shader to show the screen, no special effects), and once with a bloom effect using 6 passes (1 filter, 4 blur, 1 combine). I'll be adding MGE/OBGE and ENB benchmarks when I have time.

Unfortunately, after not a little time and code put into it, I've had to remove Cg from Voodoo Shader. Testing brought to light the sad fact that when it doesn't like something, it crashes, and this behavior is intentional. In this case, that means the whole game crashes, which is simply unacceptable. The final nail in the coffin was when Cg prevented me from even starting OpenGL games with Voodoo Shader, the exact thing it was supposed to make easier. About half of this past week has been me stripping it out, and that effort is now complete and the framework is working again and has a few more features. It would have been nice to use Cg, but I'm not going to even consider something designed to crash your computers.

In place, I'm using DirectX's own compiler and the current plan is to use MojoShader for OpenGL support. This has the side benefit of allowing MGE (XE) and OBGE shaders to be used with almost no modifications at all. For end users, there will be little or no difference.


There will be a new version with some added features within the next few days, probably, so check for updates if you feel like playing with things, and that's about all for now.