Nvidia Fog Problem Solution

[Meensai 4]

Hello,

as some of you are probably aware since quite some time nvidia refuses to let us use Fog Table Emulation anymore and since Rivatuner supports only up to 9xxx models we had to believe in the developers of D3D apps (games) to allow us disabling fog via configs/options.

 

Here's a solution to this problem for Sacred 2 if using high quality graphic settings

(If your system is bound to use any lower this might not be in your interest anyway):

 

In ...\Sacred 2 (Gold/Fallen Angel....)\pak\graphics01.zip\hq\fx\ is a fog.dds (volume map, no mipmaps),

either edit it for a pure transparent texture or simply reduce the intensity if you want a moderate fog instead of none at all.

 

Same again for

...\Sacred 2 Gold\pak\graphics01.zip\hq\env\lighting\

fogDensity01.dds ... fogDensity26.dds

 

and there you go, ingame you'll have either no fog until renderdistance or moderate depending on how you edited the files.

 

Doing so is easy enough with either Photoshop or GIMP using a dds plugin, all your choice!

 

Thanks goes to my buddy "Neovita" that lead me to the idea for this, for the story about it go to post #6

 

Best wishes,

Meensai

 

P.S. Call me an asshat but no, I won't answer "How to.." or anything of this sort, it's easy enough

Edited January 20, 2015 by Meensai

[Flix 5,196]

This is for the fog that obscures vision after a certain distance in all directions? If so I've got to try this right away.

[Meensai 4]

Yes it is, but be aware, if you make the textures completely transparent you get no fog at all and grey-ish space instead after the renderdistance (which isn't that far behind the fog), altough I gotta say, it adds some retro-feeling from old 3D-RPGs

[Flix 5,196]

Really really excellent information here. I can see a big difference, though I will have to fine-tune to get a good balance. Removing it altogether is as you say, very strange. It's like I'm playing Soulbringer or Darkstone. I brought the opacity down to about 20% and had good results, though I might need to bring back a little of the fog so there's not so much pop-in.

 

Quick tests show it looking promising:

 

 

This probably deserves to be released as a mod or part of a larger mod. Huge thanks to you for contributing this knowledge.

[Yoshio 91]

This really looks great! Many thanks Meensai for posting this find!

[Meensai 4]

Actually, thanks goes to a buddy of mine, "Neovita", he first made me aware quite some time ago of this problem that nvidia has and at first they offered the "Fog Table Emulation" setting in their driver, later they removed that option from the control panel and it was a hidden setting possible to activate via RivaTuner up until 9xxx cards.

 

With later cards the setting was simply removed completely from the driver, since then we are as said in the start topic, depending on application/game developers to let us deactivate such fog features.

 

After a lot of google and getting more desperate with my 780 Ti I was idling and braindead in TS, then he made a comment "Maybe you'd find the fog texture"... First thought "Games use post-processing to render fog from a variable since long, probably no success... - *Open graphics01.zip and yells* YAY, FOUND IT!" - That's the story...

TL;DR:

Enjoy the find, thank "Neovita"

 

P.S.

This probably deserves to be released as a mod or part of a larger mod.

Well, I'm not aware of the actual situation regarding the EULA and the not-anymore-existing Ascaron Entertainment so I decided to post instructions only without a modified graphics01.zip since it's modifying original files.

Edited January 20, 2015 by Meensai

[gogoblender 3,338]

Hello,

as some of you are probably aware since quite some time nvidia refuses to let us use Fog Table Emulation anymore and since Rivatuner supports only up to 9xxx models we had to believe in the developers of D3D apps (games) to allow us disabling fog via configs/options.

 

Here's a solution to this problem for Sacred 2 if using high quality graphic settings

(If your system is bound to use any lower this might not be in your interest anyway):

 

In ...\Sacred 2 (Gold/Fallen Angel....)\pak\graphics01.zip\hq\fx\ is a fog.dds (volume map, no mipmaps),

either edit it for a pure transparent texture or simply reduce the intensity if you want a moderate fog instead of none at all.

 

Same again for

...\Sacred 2 Gold\pak\graphics01.zip\hq\env\lighting\

fogDensity01.dds ... fogDensity26.dds

 

and there you go, ingame you'll have either no fog until renderdistance or moderate depending on how you edited the files.

 

Doing so is easy enough with either Photoshop or GIMP using a dds plugin, all your choice!

 

Thanks goes to my buddy "Neovita" that lead me to the idea for this, for the story about it go to post #6

 

Best wishes,

Meensai

 

P.S. Call me an asshat but no, I won't answer "How to.." or anything of this sort, it's easy enough

No fog... !

This must really change the game, at least it's feel from what we can see...I like how Flix positions it, that it now takes on veins of other games.

Thanks for bringing this over to us Meensai, and welcome to DarkMatters!

 

 

gogo

[Zallk 24]

I really love being able to play without the close fog now, the reduced fog mod has made the game even better graphically for me. Anyone know if it's at all possible to add some sort of skybox to the game? Maybe just a blue sky with clouds type background above all the land...although then I suppose we'd have the likely impossible to solve problem of the skybox never changing to suit storms/nighttime (unless some sort of time of day script functionality is possible).

 

Also, now that I think about it, I guess the fog textures would have to be completely removed, and we probably can't replace whatever strange grey space it leaves. It's all completely beyond anything I could ever figure out, and I doubt anyone wants to dedicate the massive amount of time and effort it would certainly require to pull something like that off. So I'm just very grateful for all the work that went into reducing the fog, it made the game look much nicer imo.

[Flix 5,196]

If you remove the fog completely (by erasing the fog textures) then the sky is actually pitch black. It's like old 3D games from 15 years ago.

 

I meant to take pictures and video because of how surreal it is, but I never got around to it. I tried to erase just enough to get the "sweet spot" with the mod but there's still pop-in of many resources.

[Zallk 24]

Yeah, but I don't mind the pop-in and far as I'm concerned seeing farther into the awesome landscapes far out weighs any resource pop-in. It still feels the way they intended it, only with improved distance view.

 

It does sound very old school with no sky or fog background at all, lol.