BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch

Rayne said:
As i said, i'm working in the BR2 HD project, and i'm remaking the textures of the game in high resolution. Everything is going fine, but i'm concerned about the performance.

I use a 8800GTX (615/1500/2200) in my rig, and i use this config:

1280x1024 SSAA 2x AF 16x
Click to expand...
It might be useful to turn off SSAA while you are trying to identify the apparent bottlenecks. I don't know what the 2x SSAA pattern is on G80, so I don't know the dimensions of the resulting underlying render targets it's working with.

1) Texture Filtering: Quality -> No changes

2) Texture Filtering: Quality, Tri. Optimization: On -> 90 FPS

3) Texture Filtering: High Quality, Tri. Optimization: Off, AF: 2x -> 90 FPS

I suspect that i'm bounded by the TF units, cause, the trilinear optimization reduces the area in which the mipmaps are filtered trilinearly (reducing the number of texels to read & filter), and reducing the AF level also reduces the number of texels to read & filter.
Click to expand...
I think the performance loss is simply down to bandwidth, as the larger textures will consume proportionally more of it, and cache usage, since the increased number of mipmap levels may be causing some (or increasing) cache thrashing.

I also did this experiment with the default textures:

Memory: 733 MHz (733MHz * 2 (DDR) * 384bit / 8 = 70 GB/s
Shader Clock: 1650 MHz (yes, it was stable).
Core Clock: 615 MHz (650 wasn't stable).

Basically i clocked my card like a 9800 GTX, to discover if the game is bounded by the memory bandwidth or by the shading power, and the frame rate went from 100 FPS to 80 FPS (20% slower).
Click to expand...
The bandwidth cut, down to ~83%, is pretty significant and it seems to be dominant.

Because G92 has extra TAs in its TMUs there's a chance that it will consume texels (and therefore bandwidth) in a different ordering, which might make it more (or less) cache friendly. It would make an interesting comparison. There hasn't been much analysis of the difference in performance of G92 and G80 with older games.

Jawed
 
I'm working in the code of the patch this week.

I want to solve the problems with the videos.

If you had problems with the videos of the game, and you needed to use the 'useOldFSAAmethod=1', please PM me, cause i want to try a new beta version.
 
Update 25/10/2008 (Version 1.5) & BloodRayne 2 HD ACT1

Welcome to the public version 1.5 of the BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch.

New in this version:

- High Definition Textures Support !!! (for the BloodRayne 2 HD project).
- Texture Compression with Built-in Multi-Threaded Memory Manager.
- In-game OSD to change the options of the patch on the fly (F2 key).
- Logitech G15 LCD support.
- 50% faster SSE3 code.
- Faster & more compatible FSAA method.
- Full Screen Size Effects.
- More memory leaks fixed.
- More optimizations.
- A fix for the cut scenes is included.

The in-game OSD, allows you to change all the options of the patch, on the fly:

​

While you are in the game, you can use F3 to toggle between the original textures, and the HD textures.

To enjoy the HD textures, you need to download the 'BloodRayne 2 HD ACT1 BASE' package (2x 200MB) from coopdb.

Nearly all the textures of the ACT1 have been developed by me (a programmer, not an artist), during the last 6 months (plus 3 months that i needed to develop the editing tools). I'll keep working in the HD project, but, it's going to need a lot of time till the next release, without more help (and there are 4+ ACTs in the game).

About the texture sizes, the usual size is 1024x1024, some are 2048x2048, and the Rayne texture is 4096x2048 (atm, just an upsample, but waiting for a professional artist to do it).

Special thanks to the game developers & publishers (Terminal Reality & Majesco) for allowing me to release this patch.

Thank you very much & enjoy playing with Rayne !

The official site: http://www.coopdb.com/modules.php?name=BR2fsaa
 
Welcome to the public version 1.51 of the BloodRayne 2 FSAA Patch.



New in this version:

- A new fix for the cutscenes.




There is a new option called 'LockableBackBuffer', that might help to some users.

If this option does not solve your problems with the videos, follow this procedure:

=======================================================

- Load the Configuration Tool (br2fsaaConfig), and go to the 'Cut Scene' tab.

- Click on "Install The NEW cutscene.dll"

- Select the external video player that you want to use to play the videos (I strongly recommend to use VLC).

- Select the path to your video player. The tool will try to find it. If you see a white text box, you must enter the path manually.

- Enter the params that your fav video players needs to start to play a video in fullscreen, and to exit after the playback.

- Click on "Test Configuration". You should see a video from the game.

- If you watched the video ok, click on "Write Configuration To Cutscene.ini"

- If you cannot make it work, click on "Restore The Original cutscene.dll"

=======================================================

I have rewritten the cutscene.dll again, and i hope that this time, it will work in more systems.

I'm working in the textures of the ACT2. I'm looking for artists to help me with this work. Alone, i'll need 2y to finish the BR2 HD project (maybe more). It's a titanic task.

With some help, i could be working more time in the shaders of the game, to add new effects (or in a SSAA mode for the ATi cards).

Please join & contribute.
=======================================================
Special thanks to the game developers & publishers (Terminal Reality & Majesco) for allowing me to release this patch.



Thank you very much & enjoy playing with Rayne !

http://www.coopdb.com/modules.php?name=BR2fsaa
 
How to try my work without the retail game

1 - Download the BR2 demo:

2 - Download the HD Textures for the ACT1 from:

Click on "Download BloodRayne 2 HD ACT 1", and then download these files:​

BloodRayne 2 HD ACT1 BASE - Part 1/2 - (200 MB)
BloodRayne 2 HD ACT1 BASE - Part 2/2 - (195 MB)
​

Unrar the files to your BR2 demo folder (usually: C:\Program Files\BloodRayne2 demo).
This will extract a file called 'HD0100.zip' to this folder.​

3 - Download the last version of the patch (1.51 or higher):

Open the file with WinRAR. You'll see a folder called 'BR2 FSAA Patch 1.51'.
Enter to it, and select all the files. Extract them to your BR2 demo folder.​

4 - Launch the game !


Optional:

To enjoy the maximum image quality (nVidia cards only):

Import my nHancer profile (BloodRayne2-SSAA.nhprofile), and edit the 'BloodRayne 2' profile.
Add 'C:\Program Files\BloodRayne2 demo\rayne2demo.exe' to the executables names.
You need to check 'Show Experimental Modes' in nHancer to unlock more AA modes.
​
Load the Configuration Tool of the patch (br2fsaaConfig.exe), and remember to check these options:

- Optimize Buffer Clear / Vertex Buffers / Video Memory.
- Enhanced Dynamic Shadows: 1024x1024 with FSAA / Optimize Dynamic Shadows.
- Enhanced Aura Vision: Full Screen Size / AA Fix: 3.
- Enhanced Dynamic Shadows: Full Screen size.
- Wave Pool: Reflection & Refraction & Bump Mapping (with Default Values).
- Water Transparency: Full Screen Size / Refraction & Bump (with Default Values).
- Blood Fields: Full Screen Size / Refraction & FX (with Default Values).
- Blood Pools: Full Screen Size / Refraction & FX (with Defualt Values).
- High Definition Textures: Enabled & 256MB.
- CPU: Number of Threads: (3 for Quad, 1 for Dual Core) / SSE3.​

& Click on 'Save Config' before closing the tool.

By default, the patch only enables 4x AA, and the HD textures.

Enjoy & give me some feedback.
 
A friend did run some benchmarks on a GTX 280 @ 1920x1200 SSAA 2x2:


GTX 280 (2214 MHz memory -> 141 GB/s):

Standard Textures: 100 fps
HD Textures: 70 fps


My ultra overclocked 8800GTX (105 GB/s):

Standard Textures: 66 fps
HD Textures: 50fps


So, 141 / 105 = 34%, and if we multiply 50fps by 1.34, the result is 67 fps -> Very close to the score of the GTX 280.

The result is almost linear with the bandwidth increase.
 
Very important notice for the HD textures

In the classic BloodRayne 2 start menu, you MUST select:

Texture detail: High (slower) (VERY IMPORTANT)



If you do not select this, the patch won't be able to replace the textures of the game on the fly.

About the rest of options, and to avoid problems, remember to set:

Bump mapping: On (slower)
Dynamic shadows: On (slower)
Reflections: On (slower)

Also, if you use a custom resolution from the patch, i recommend to set "in this menu", the resolution to 640 x 480. Do not worry, the patch will force your selected resolution.

Hope this helps !
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The True HD Skin is almost ready (Normal / HD):



The enhanced blood pools are finally finished (Default / Luminance / Luminance & Relief):



It looks really cool, and it runs faster.

I'm working in the CUDA support. In theory, the patch could render higher resolution perlin noise maps with the help of a 2nd GPU.

The HD textures of the ACT2 are at 50% +- (400 out of 800 textures done).

I'm suspending the works due to some other projects that need my full attention.

Sorry.
 
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