HDR and bloom effect for IL2 in DirectX

[Avala]

It is not heck or crack; it is plug-in and works in normal legal version of IL2FB-PF. I am sure of it; I have read all on developer's site and tried it. And it is really working, but unfortunately only in DirectX.

I am not a programmer but maybe it is not so difficult for someone skilful to make it for OpenGL. IL2 still remains unmatched in OpenGL effects.

Here is it here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?lmhyt2jtffd

And this is developer's site:

http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/

Also some screenshots:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/enbs2.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/enbs5.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/enbs3.jpg
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/499/hdr6bv5.jpg

[Feuerfalke]

Looks cool! :cool:

[proton45]

Did you make the screen shots? Is that a AAA B-24 mod?

How does water look? I like my perfect water...

[MOH_Hirth]

Good sugestion Avala! Nice B-24!

[Kira]

Did you make the screen shots? Is that a AAA B-24 mod?

How does water look? I like my perfect water...

As it only works in DirectX it's no perfect water I guess. Something which I don't want to lose, so let's hope a version for openGL gets created.

And why does the download say 'Lock On HDR'?

[Huxley_S]

Can the developers please include this effect in the core dlls that are being developed. The difference it makes to lighting is amazing, but Perfect mode is not supported using DirectX in IL2 so what you gain in lighting you lose in other areas. For players using Excellent settings you should try this plug-in. It looks fantastic.

Please, please, please IL2 developers... let's have this in the next dlls!

[proton45]

How many people here have actually tried this?


Is it stable?


Is it real?

[Feathered_IV]

I have tried it. It works and it is real. It is good. Not a hack either.

The creator of it developed it for lock on (which is why the download says, 'Lock On HDR'), but it does indeed work with no discernble performance hit in Il-2. It really needs converting to OpenGL though so we can use it with shaders=1 and Perfect settings. Hauntingly beautiful. The look of it gets imprinted on your retina.

The fellow who made it has not worked in GL for years. He says a conversion would be possible, but he is not an Il-2 player and will not be taking the job on. :(

Someone who has FSX should give it a go too!

[proton45]

Thanks, I might have to give it a try. :)

[jermin]

It was not developed for lockon. It was actually developed for DX8 game GTA Vice City and can be used for many other DX8 games like Lockon and IL2 in DX8 mode. About the best config settings you can refer to this post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=29752.

[Feuerfalke]

It was not developed for lockon. It was actually developed for DX8 game GTA Vice City and can be used for many other DX8 games like Lockon and IL2 in DX8 mode. About the best config settings you can refer to this post: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=29752.

It looks pretty nice for IL2 and there are a lot of options to test and set them to your own preference. I slightly reduced the effect from the standard-bloom and it really looks quite nice and works very stable.

[Avala]

It is not AAA B24, it looks like that with this plug-in. It is stable, unfortunately only excellent mode, because of DirectX, this actually works only on sky and as I can see a shadows a little, but in cooperation with perfect terrain in OpenGL it could be like wonder.

Here is my settings if someone wants to try, I have also toned down bloom a little and increase contrast. I have also tried to make reflections works (it is said in the readme that it works for GTA) but no use of that in IL2.

http://files.filefront.com/enbseriesini/;10030477;/fileinfo.html

[Feuerfalke]

It is not AAA B24, it looks like that with this plug-in. It is stable, unfortunately only excellent mode, because of DirectX, this actually works only on sky and as I can see a shadows a little, but in cooperation with perfect terrain in OpenGL it could be like wonder.

Here is my settings if someone wants to try, I have also toned down bloom a little and increase contrast. I have also tried to make reflections works (it is said in the readme that it works for GTA) but no use of that in IL2.

http://files.filefront.com/enbseriesini/;10030477;/fileinfo.html


According to the readme the brightness-setting is very important for the glow. I also switched on the motion-blur and other settings and it really looks quite nice. The textures also look even nicer(smoother, more balanced) than they already do with DirectX.

[Avala]

I can’t enable motion blur, but I assume it is driver dependent (well, that is said in the readme) Here is some more screenshots with my settings. Imagine water=3 or 4 on that pictures.

Click on the links:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n12.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n11.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n10.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n9.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n8.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n7.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n5.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n4.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n3.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n2.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n1.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n13.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n14.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n15.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n16.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n17.jpg



http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n12.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n15.jpg
http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg75/AvalaNo1/n6.jpg

[Kira]

It almost looks like a new game in that first pic

[WeedEater]

:cool: wow that looks amazing, but the link isn't working for me.
I'm ok with DirectX though, 'cause Perfect settings cause my water to turn white in the distance

[zaelu]

Avala found this site: http://prideout.net/bloom/index.php

Maybe it could help one of the programmers from Maddox Games (maybe the guy working from time to time on the new core.dlls files) to experiment with the idea. We offer to beta test :) .

[Feathered_IV]

Nice find Zaelu! :grin:

[Eckhart]

Hi yall,

This stuff is for me the greatest news since 1946 came out.

It is just a new game and I can't get enough of flying around with this enhancer.

I had my doubts in the beginning and I didn't want to loose my finetuned OpenGL setting.

Now I can tell you that I don't want to go back.

I use the DirectX 9.0 version posted by Bramski:
http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=29752&page=14

and it works great!

You have to tune down the bloom effect to 7 and to take advantage of my 8800 GT SLI setting I have all the nvidia effects activated ( if someone wants my settings I can post it, my rig is a quadcore with 8800GT SLI and Windows XP...no Vista crap).

You can't believe how great this works out (almost no FPS loss).:-)

One drawback however: no way to use this on the net. Those bad guys can just hide close to the horizon or in the clouds and you will notice them only once you hang in your chute. But on the other hand who cares!

Thanks for this eyecandy which makes it a whole new IL2 game and much more realistic (great immersion effect).

Try it out guys!

Cheers,

Eckhart:-P:-P:-P

[KarlHeinz]

@Eckhart
how have you done this?

There is a ‘d3d9.dll’ in this version. If I leave it in such a way, it is ignored of 1946.

If I rename the file in ‘d3d8’, I get the error message: ‘Direct3DCreate8’ was not found in the DLL ‘d3d8.dll’.

If I put down GL=d3d9.dll in ‘conf.ini’ under [GLPROVIDER], the game does not start any more.

[Eckhart]

Hi Karl-Heinz,

I simply took d3d8.dll out of the 1946 folder and replaced it with the d3d9. It was as simple as that and it works for me in 4.09 and 4.08.

keep me updated if this works for you too.

Cheers,

Eckhart

:-)

[Feuerfalke]

Cool - I will try that, because I now have the problem that Teamspeakviewer and this blooming thing don't work together. :(

[Realplayer]

Hi Eckhart,

there is no d3d8.dll in my 1946 folder ... :confused:

And with the d3d8 mod I have a big problem: It does not work correctly with my 1280*1024 resolution. I get annoying bars on top and bottom of the screen. If I set saveaspect=0 the bars look like not influenced from the mod and offset a bit. If I set saveaspect=1 I get black bars. Does not look good.

The mod works only with 1280*960 but then the game is distorted because of the wrong aspect ratio and this is not the native resolution of my tft.

Can anybody help me pls?

[Feuerfalke]

Hi Eckhart,

there is no d3d8.dll in my 1946 folder ... :confused:

And with the d3d8 mod I have a big problem: It does not work correctly with my 1280*1024 resolution. I get annoying bars on top and bottom of the screen. If I set saveaspect=0 the bars look like not influenced from the mod and offset a bit. If I set saveaspect=1 I get black bars. Does not look good.

The mod works only with 1280*960 but then the game is distorted because of the wrong aspect ratio and this is not the native resolution of my tft.

Can anybody help me pls?

Yeah, I got the same problem. :(

[KarlHeinz]

I simply took d3d8.dll out of the 1946 folder and replaced it with the d3d9.

However, if I took d3d9.dll into the directory, it is ignored by the game. Besides, also no green stroke appears on top on the left.

d3d8.dll:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm271/karlheinzz/1.jpg

d3d9.dll:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm271/karlheinzz/2.jpg

As you see, I have spliced the start display, I don't want to waste so much space. Even if the background points on ‘il2 fogotten battles’, it's 1946 ‘4.09b1m’ with newest dlls (I don't know any more whether this was the standard background, because I've changed a lot of textures/images)

[Avala]

I didn’t try all of the enbseries plug-ins so I am not sure does all of them can run in IL2 or not.

I have found this:

http://www.smetz.fr/?page_id=83

http://www.smetz.fr/wp-content/uploads/devel/HDR_OpenGL.zip

Be free to download and try that little demonstration, it’s safe. Proofs that hdr lighting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_rendering

and bloom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_(shader_effect)

can be done in OpenGL 2.0 (which we use apparently in IL2), there is also very good explanation in pdf about that.

I will play angry customer and ask "why we don’t have it then" :)

On one Russian forum, one member which is programmer as I have understand, explains that it is possible for IL2 in OpenGL, but with work with game engine, (He even explains what is needed to be done) all except that is just cosmetics, or as he have put it photoshop-like (I wouldn’t mind to have it like that either)

[Skarphol]

Is it as simple as downloading the files and putting them into the Ubisoft/IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 - folder? No install? No swapping files?
It seems too simple..

Skarphol

[Solrac]

Salutes all!
That is all, that simple, it really is.
DX to maximum settings.
Copy the d3d8.dll, enbseries.ini and d3d9.dll to your game folder, start the game and that is all. I think I got d3d9.dll from Half Life 2 mod.

Still a much exaggerated effect. I suppose it can be settled down a bit...

Nice to make movies, pics and so on ... if you want to fly this way do not forget your sun glasses and still you will get a very nice tan.
But remember you will loose your quality water settings with DX at least I did.

It is fun to play around with these things and Keep always a copy of the good confi.ini file.

Solrac

[Kaptein_Damli]

Have you guys tried it in Lock On FC? Lock On uses DirectX 8 so no problems with water etc there!


Screens:

http://www.retusjering.com/ScreenShot_006.bmp
http://www.retusjering.com/ScreenShot_007.bmp

[Skarphol]

Salutes all!
That is all, that simple, it really is.
DX to maximum settings.
Copy the d3d8.dll, enbseries.ini and d3d9.dll to your game folder, start the game and that is all. I think I got d3d9.dll from Half Life 2 mod.



Hi!

Do you know where I can find the d3d9.dll-file? It is not in the download on the first page of this thread, only d3d8.dll and enbseries.ini.

Skarphol

[Solrac]

http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/download_en.htm

You have plenty of options where to choose from...
I got the ones from hl2.
http://boris-vorontsov.narod.ru/enbseries_hl2_v0069.zip

Regards, Solrac

[II./JG1_Krupinski]

My findings:

It works, but only d3d8 - It would appear that IL-2 does not use d3d9. This would be supported by the file IL-2 creates when switching to dx, dx8Wrap.dll. Don't want to start a flame war, just my findings.

Can't use wide screen when using d3d8.dll - there is a misalignment of the left and right - wide screen panels created by IL-2.

The bloom is entirely over emphasized and I see no reason to think HDR is present in any fashion - especially when using bloom.

Copying two different files (d3d8, d3d9) to your IL-2 folder makes no difference. IL-2 uses d3d8 and will load that exclusively.

If anyone can post there version of enbseries version, screen shots, machine specs, enbseries ini file and skins used in screen shot (please use defaults as that will be common and a basis for comparison) I would like to experiment a bit further. But frankly what I have done hasn't changed a thing from the totally blown out sky and reflections.

-Raven

[Avala]

You have all of that on the previous pages, but we already have elaborated that is pointless to use this in directx. Detail level and other things are way poorer then in OpenGL.

Something like this, but on OpenGL would be the right hit.

In the meanwhile I found this little add-on for OpenGL games, but it doesn’t work in IL2, at least for me.

And I forgot the link for that thing I said about :p

http://forum.rscnet.org/showthread.php?p=3761004

[Tigershark]

This seems to do the same effect that you were mentioned for that racer game, but in HL... give it a shot, like you did with the racer one and post back with your results... (I am on holiday, no IL2 install to test on)

http://files.filefront.com/Bloomrar/;8379807;/fileinfo.html

TS

[Avala]

That's the same one :)

[Skarphol]

Hi!

I'm having a litle graphics-problem nowadays, and I would like to have things back the way it was before I tried this litle thing. And stupid as I was, I didn't take back-ups of the files in question before I tried it as I figured I usually only fly in OpenGL anyway.
Does anyone know where I can find the original "d3d8.dll" and "enbseries.ini"-files?

Skarphol