Dark Souls internal rendering resolution fix (DSfix)

I'll have strength and distance presets for the SSAO in the next release. That should make most people happy, and those that aren't can still tweak the shader as much as they want!
 
I'm using these and the shadows look better now when I'm not wearing armor:
extern float aoStrengthMultiplier = 1.0;
extern float aoClamp = 0.5;

The effect is obviously diminished somewhat but still noticeable.

This seems like a solid middle ground.

Off

data2012-09-0816-12-3uqstf.png


On

data2012-09-0816-12-4aysai.png
 
Bless you Durante for adding SSAO!

I could never get SSAO working by forcing it through Inspector for the life of me, so it's great that it will now be part of an already simple fix.
 
I'll have strength and distance presets for the SSAO in the next release. That should make most people happy, and those that aren't can still tweak the shader as much as they want!

I have a question, is this written too specifically for Dark Souls, or would it be possible to add SSAO to other games in the same way?
 
I have a question, is this written too specifically for Dark Souls, or would it be possible to add SSAO to other games in the same way?
The shader is rather generic, in fact it was originally written for OBGE. The way I integrate it here is specific to Dark Souls -- I re-use a z-Buffer surface the game already produces as part of its rendering pipeline. The biggest issue with adding SSAO to DirectX9 games is probably finding such a Z surface (if there is one at all!), since DirectX9 does not allow you to read from the actual depth buffer directly with any reasonable performance. (NV most likely don't have that problem in the driver)
 
The shader is rather generic, in fact it was originally written for OBGE. The way I integrate it here is specific to Dark Souls -- I re-use a z-Buffer surface the game already produces as part of its rendering pipeline. The biggest issue with adding SSAO to DirectX9 games is probably finding such a Z surface (if there is one at all!), since DirectX9 does not allow you to read from the actual depth buffer directly with any reasonable performance. (NV most likely don't have that problem in the driver)

Ah ok, so it's probably more trouble than it's worth. I think Boris' ENB stuff can add SSAO, but I don't know how specialized that is, either. By the way, thanks for adding it. As a former long-time AMD owner, I'm sure they appreciate it especially.
 
can't believe I am reading you guys not having any slowdown with the new SSAO effect. My 460 2GB GTX chugs to hell if I turn it on.


umm extra features? I have a couple of requests!


1. HUDless video recording! MSI Afterburner is really great but videos with a hud are kinda lame.

2. Disappearing HUD! Without any item switching button input or taking damage/changing status effects, the HUD will fade!

I had to turn off SMAA for it not to chug. Dropped internal res down to 1080p too just in case, not sure if I was chugging with it at 2560x1440 with just SSAO. Either way, I spent a good half hour with SMAA on 4, and toggling on and off without noticing a difference, besides FPS dropping like a rock with SSAO on too. I guess my old eyes don't see finer details like that anymore, or I'm sitting to far away from my tv.

I still get fps drops at bonfires to 15fps, which doesn't matter, and when backstabbing close to walls, or angles close the mob, variable fps here. I suspect particles from boss fights will do the same, as the Asylum Demon did before as well, straight to 15fps.
 
Im trying to expand the radius by altering this one, but nothing happens to the radius of the AO.


extern float aoRadiusMultiplier = 3.0; //Linearly multiplies the radius of the AO Sampling
 
You are probably confused by that parameter. It's not about the fade distance of the effect, it's about the radius of the effect around objects. (More exactly, its about the size of the half-sphere the random samples are taken from when looking for occluders)
 
Donated... AA? AO? What else can we ask?!

Sorry I could not donate more.... but will do next month!

EDIT: Documentation is not clear about AO... is it enabled by default?
 
Donated... AA? AO? What else can we ask?!

Sorry I could not donate more.... but will do next month!

EDIT: Documentation is not clear about AO... is it enabled by default?
It's off by default in 1.0, since it was buggy. It will still be off by default in 1.1 (like almost everything is), but it there will be an ini setting to enable it (in addition to the toggle key binding) and also some strength/depth presets configurable in the ini.
 
I just got into this game, and I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with how few and far between the bloody bonfires are.

Checkpoint saves are bad enough, but when they're this far apart? It's not even particularly challenging, it's just frustrating and tests my patience far, FAR more than my skill to have to replay the same sections over and over and over again just because I have to cover a HUGE tract of land to make it to the next bonfire.

Taking a break now before I feel the urge to start cheating my way through it. Don't even care what people think of that, checkpoint saves are already stupid and doing it like this just highlights how incredibly stupid they really are.
 
I just got into this game, and I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with how few and far between the bloody bonfires are.

Checkpoint saves are bad enough, but when they're this far apart? It's not even particularly challenging, it's just frustrating and tests my patience far, FAR more than my skill to have to replay the same sections over and over and over again just because I have to cover a HUGE tract of land to make it to the next bonfire.

Taking a break now before I feel the urge to start cheating my way through it. Don't even care what people think of that, checkpoint saves are already stupid and doing it like this just highlights how incredibly stupid they really are.
Chances are that you mist a bonfire or 2. There are a ton of hidden ones.
 
I can only think of a few places where I thought the bonfires are too far apart.

But that's really the point of the game, isn't it? It's not technically difficult but you sure as hell learn to play carefully.
 
I just got into this game, and I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with how few and far between the bloody bonfires are.

Checkpoint saves are bad enough, but when they're this far apart? It's not even particularly challenging, it's just frustrating and tests my patience far, FAR more than my skill to have to replay the same sections over and over and over again just because I have to cover a HUGE tract of land to make it to the next bonfire.

Taking a break now before I feel the urge to start cheating my way through it. Don't even care what people think of that, checkpoint saves are already stupid and doing it like this just highlights how incredibly stupid they really are.

I disagree because it's a fundamental part of the game's design. I'm also currently playing Spec Ops: The Line, which has your typical checkpoint system every few dozen steps, and if that game were stingy with its checkpoints, I'd think it was broken. I think after you accept the fact that you'll be walking back to places after dying a lot, you are able to see this better.
 
So I replaced version .9 and got 1.0 because the crashing when using Alt+Tab. But, now the game starts but I don't see a window or anything. Like its running but I can access it. Any help?
 
So I replaced version .9 and got 1.0 because the crashing when using Alt+Tab. But, now the game starts but I don't see a window or anything. Like its running but I can access it. Any help?

Make sure it not running offscreen somewhere. 2nd display.
 
I just got into this game, and I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with how few and far between the bloody bonfires are.

Checkpoint saves are bad enough, but when they're this far apart? It's not even particularly challenging, it's just frustrating and tests my patience far, FAR more than my skill to have to replay the same sections over and over and over again just because I have to cover a HUGE tract of land to make it to the next bonfire.

Taking a break now before I feel the urge to start cheating my way through it. Don't even care what people think of that, checkpoint saves are already stupid and doing it like this just highlights how incredibly stupid they really are.
But they aren't checkpoint saves. You can save anywhere and when you load the game you'll be at that exact point. They're respawn points.
 
I just got into this game, and I find myself growing increasingly frustrated with how few and far between the bloody bonfires are.

Checkpoint saves are bad enough, but when they're this far apart? It's not even particularly challenging, it's just frustrating and tests my patience far, FAR more than my skill to have to replay the same sections over and over and over again just because I have to cover a HUGE tract of land to make it to the next bonfire.

Taking a break now before I feel the urge to start cheating my way through it. Don't even care what people think of that, checkpoint saves are already stupid and doing it like this just highlights how incredibly stupid they really are.

Bondfires are not saves. The game saves your progress at any point. You can literally turn it off whenever you want and you willmstart in that exact spot.
 
Yeah, whatever. Either way, I'm getting really friggin' sick of it.

If a small handful of consecutive mistakes is enough to reset me back fifteen minutes of gameplay... that's a bit more than I can take.

I also have to lol at the poisonous mobs where the poison is strong enough to kill me twice over and there's no antidote at this point in the game. Punishing, indeed!
 
Yeah, whatever. Either way, I'm getting really friggin' sick of it.

If a small handful of consecutive mistakes is enough to reset me back fifteen minutes of gameplay... that's a bit more than I can take.

I also have to lol at the poisonous mobs where the poison is strong enough to kill me twice over and there's no antidote at this point in the game. Punishing, indeed!

There is antidote you can buy way before you encounter either poison or toxin, you just didnt find the undead merchant.
 
Yeah, whatever. Either way, I'm getting really friggin' sick of it.

If a small handful of consecutive mistakes is enough to reset me back fifteen minutes of gameplay... that's a bit more than I can take.

I also have to lol at the poisonous mobs where the poison is strong enough to kill me twice over and there's no antidote at this point in the game. Punishing, indeed!

Unless you use the Master Key there's no way to encounter Toxin before you have access to moss. Poison is very weak and isn't really intended to kill you.
 
Yeah, whatever. Either way, I'm getting really friggin' sick of it.

If a small handful of consecutive mistakes is enough to reset me back fifteen minutes of gameplay... that's a bit more than I can take.

I also have to lol at the poisonous mobs where the poison is strong enough to kill me twice over and there's no antidote at this point in the game. Punishing, indeed!
It doesn't sound like this game is for you.
 
I don't know if anyone is interested but, with the dsfix 1.0 My frame rate is stable no matter what even in blighttown wich I have drops to 15, is 30 all way now

PD: 470GTX AO on SMAA 4
 
HAH! So I missed the undead merchant because I made the wrong turn when I was exploring this place?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

You know, this really just isn't for me. I'm absolutely certain there are at least a few people here who think it's quite cool that you can miss out on something as basic as a merchant just because you weren't thorough enough in your explorations, but I am absolutely not one of those people.

Now that I know, though, maybe I can finally get past this damn place...
 
I managed to get it working with VIA audio :D. I did a lot of messing around, so I'm not sure exactly how I fixed it, but this is what I think I did:

- In Vdeck I set my output to 6 channels, with side speakers instead of back ones (not sure if this step actually did anything).
- Uninstalled Vdeck and the VIA audio drivers, then restarted PC.
- Then I just followed the steps here http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41642354&postcount=3568. Before it wouldn't work, but after installing and removing the VIA audio drivers it works.

EDIT: Now that default sound drivers are installed, seems to be ok.
 
I only have one screen so other than that not sure I know what you mean.

with this latest build, I am actually having the same problem you have.

edit: I reverted back to the old version I had and now it works fine.

Looks like I am waiting :D lol
 
HAH! So I missed the undead merchant because I made the wrong turn when I was exploring this place?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

You know, this really just isn't for me. I'm absolutely certain there are at least a few people here who think it's quite cool that you can miss out on something as basic as a merchant just because you weren't thorough enough in your explorations, but I am absolutely not one of those people.

Now that I know, though, maybe I can finally get past this damn place...
You also apparently missed the entirety of the darkroot garden since the main enemies there drop moss like candy on Halloween.
 
I can't really remember, but isn't that merchant standing right in front of you before you turn right into the depths? I haven't been to that area in months so I'm not really sure, but I remember her being pretty hard to miss

edit - actually thinking about it, she might just be near where the shortcut is to firelink
 
I have no idea what sort of dark wizardry Durante's performed but I'm getting 30fps everywhere* including at bonfires with SSAO and SMAA. It's wonderful.

*Except in the bottom of Blight Town because ugh.
 
btw Durante, any progress on the "blur on 1080p DoF" front?
I started working on this 2 hours or so before you posted (a similar thing happened with the question about doing SSAO at rendering res earlier in the thread). I should have been done at least 3 hours ago but I was stupid again (and well, the Dark Souls renderer was also a bit stupid, but I should really have expected that).

Now it's 3:30 am, I have a headache and 1.1 will have to wait until tomorrow.

1080p DoF with fast high quality separable gaussian blur:

screenshot_2012-09-093uoym.png


This was the last big graphical enhancement I wanted to make. It's just for total IQ geeks like me, who were really annoyed that you only had the choice between "low-quality, but as intended" and "high quality, but too sharp" when it came to DoF.
 
Anyone experiencing unusual slowdown in the new areas? I'm thinking somethings messed up on my end, probably unrelated to the fix.
Got 2 black screen temp crashes earlier today, since then my performance seems to have taken a sizable hit. :/

EDIT: somethings definitely up.. I now have everything set to default in the ini, yet I'm getting worse performance at 1080p than I was earlier super sampling 2x1080p or even when I was using the forced nvidia AO. D: at fire link shrine too..
GPU is a GTX670dc2t, cpu's a stable OC'd 2500k at 4.5 Ghz. Da funk? >:/
 
I just started this tonight. I am being completely serious when I say I wouldn't have bought this (at least not until a big sale) if not for your work. Well done.
 
This was the last big graphical enhancement I wanted to make. It's just for total IQ geeks like me, who were really annoyed that you only had the choice between "low-quality, but as intended" and "high quality, but too sharp" when it came to DoF.
Yup, that's me! Amazing stuff. :)
 
I started working on this 2 hours or so before you posted (a similar thing happened with the question about doing SSAO at rendering res earlier in the thread). I should have been done at least 3 hours ago but I was stupid again (and well, the Dark Souls renderer was also a bit stupid, but I should really have expected that).

Now it's 3:30 am, I have a headache and 1.1 will have to wait until tomorrow.

1080p DoF with fast high quality separable gaussian blur:



This was the last big graphical enhancement I wanted to make. It's just for total IQ geeks like me, who were really annoyed that you only had the choice between "low-quality, but as intended" and "high quality, but too sharp" when it came to DoF.

I am happy you are an IQ geek like me. Love what you have done. It is glorious
 
I started working on this 2 hours or so before you posted (a similar thing happened with the question about doing SSAO at rendering res earlier in the thread). I should have been done at least 3 hours ago but I was stupid again (and well, the Dark Souls renderer was also a bit stupid, but I should really have expected that).

Now it's 3:30 am, I have a headache and 1.1 will have to wait until tomorrow.

1080p DoF with fast high quality separable gaussian blur:

screenshot_2012-09-093uoym.png


This was the last big graphical enhancement I wanted to make. It's just for total IQ geeks like me, who were really annoyed that you only had the choice between "low-quality, but as intended" and "high quality, but too sharp" when it came to DoF.

Ho


ly




Shit


Now the game is truly perfect.
Also hey, you're in my timezone!
 
Top Bottom