Shader Mods for MBP

[Trace]

I'm not really ready to release how I did this yet, and it will never be at the point where you're going to want to use this all the time (probably, I don't control the programming), but here's a demonstration of it in motion:



As well as before and after shots:





This currently is adding Depth of Field (things in the distance are blurred), SSAO (edges are darkened, shadows changed), bloom, and the screenshot (not the video) includes a Vignette effect where the overall picture is slightly darkened around the edges like a camera shot, however that's not the full possibility of this system (I don't know HLSL code and whatnot).

The reason why I say you would not want to use this forever is because the text glitches slightly using the different renderer, making text hard to see, as well as the blur effect blurring the ingame GUI as well as the level, it also takes a huge hit on your system compared to the original MBP (load times on my computer are 5x longer with the new render, however I still have 60 fps, results may vary). If I can't make it seem any better, I'll release the steps soon enough.

Also, sorry Mac users, this is Windows only.

[Jeff]

The reason why I say you would not want to use this forever is because the text glitches slightly using the different renderer, making text hard to see, as well as the blur effect blurring the ingame GUI as well as the level, it also takes a huge hit on your system compared to the original MBP

Agreed with ya trace on this.

The problem is folks was that MBG was not designed for shaders in mind, as the baby torque test engine wasn't having fantastic shaders (the really good shaders seemed to develop in Torque Game Engine Advanced, hence it was so called the Torque Shader Engine).

So, this thing seems to use external direct x something if i recall correctly. Although a good idea Trace, the programming was obviously made for something not intended to be used in the TGE, as you obviously know from your trial runs of trying to get this thing to work.

Another thing, people have asked me in the past why can't i make shaders. To clear this up, its because there are no SHADER OBJECTS in the marble blast engine, as the console will not define an object with such a type. Even the "shadows" option in windows options menu is not an object, so it must be engine defined.

All in all, good for trial tests and runs, but I'd never use it in a mod, and I agree with Trace with not using it forever.

[Matthew]

I like it though. Very good!

[Trace]

Aug 30, 2012 1:32:55 GMT Jeff said:

The reason why I say you would not want to use this forever is because the text glitches slightly using the different renderer, making text hard to see, as well as the blur effect blurring the ingame GUI as well as the level, it also takes a huge hit on your system compared to the original MBP

Agreed with ya trace on this.

The problem is folks was that MBG was not designed for shaders in mind, as the baby torque test engine wasn't having fantastic shaders (the really good shaders seemed to develop in Torque Game Engine Advanced, hence it was so called the Torque Shader Engine).

So, this thing seems to use external direct x something if i recall correctly. Although a good idea Trace, the programming was obviously made for something not intended to be used in the TGE, as you obviously know from your trial runs of trying to get this thing to work.

Another thing, people have asked me in the past why can't i make shaders. To clear this up, its because there are no SHADER OBJECTS in the marble blast engine, as the console will not define an object with such a type. Even the "shadows" option in windows options menu is not an object, so it must be engine defined.

All in all, good for trial tests and runs, but I'd never use it in a mod, and I agree with Trace with not using it forever.

Yes it's not practical for full time usage, but it my experience with it so far it really does make the game look a lot better. However it is easy to turn off and on the effects (so if you modded your game with this it isn't permanent). That said, minus the really idiotic way they created the rendering with this early build of TGE, the game isn't really the problem in implementing shaders.

[Pablo]

Looks interesting.

[[DWARF] RDs.empire]

My eyes hurted in first 30 seconds of video. ow!
Great work so far even tho it looks more like Minecraft shaders rather than MBU shaders.