NEW Project: Sacred 2 Purist Fixpack

[idbeholdME 434]

14 hours ago, Neovita said:

The floating text on the map (see picture, the red arrow pointing at it) is not a Vanilla "feature", or let's call that kid by its name and name it the curse, blocking the view on the map ;-)

That is correct. I already brought this up all the way back in February. But the original explanation stands. This is a change in either the .exe file or one of the .dll files. And as it currently stands, there is probably only one modder (dimitrius154), who is capable of making changes to those files. And there are so many other actual fixes bundled into them, that it's not really feasible to recompile them just to remove one thing.

While almost all the files were custom changed and made "vanilla compliant" by Flix, the .exe and .dll files for the PFP were mostly taken from the CM Patch as they were.

And actually, the Monolith text in your screenshot used to be the biggest offender and the reason I originally posted it. Because of that, one change in PFP 1.3 was changing the original map text "Activated Resurrection Monolith" to just "Monolith", to reduce the map obstruction.

 

There are a couple more things which have been changed in these files that are different from vanilla, which are still present in the PFP. The ones I know of:

1) As you mentioned, the object map names.

2) The possibility to teleport to any ports or hot air baloons, as if they were normal teleporters .

3) Mounts auto-summoning after game load and the possibility to summon mounts into caves and underground.

4) Animation blending speed greatly increased. It makes transition animations, like when you press SHIFT to assume a defensive posture, nearly instant  You can revert this by using the vanilla s2render.dll (I'm playing like that), but you lose a couple graphical restorations along with it.

 

The chances of these things being changed are very low though. But none of the above is that bad and the worst one (4) can be restored at a small price.

As for other differences, there is also the physics particles change. In the vanilla, they were probably bugged and spawned with 10x higher density than intended. PFP changed it, but it's still a difference. If you want the original (where leaves, pebbles and sparks fly everywhere), just replace the physX file in the pak folder with the vanilla one.

Edited August 13, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Neovita 10]

3 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

And actually, the Monolith text in your screenshot used to be the biggest offender and the reason I originally posted it. Because of that, one change in PFP 1.3 was changing the original map text "Activated Resurrection Monolith" to just "Monolith", to reduce the map obstruction.

Yeah, the "Activated Resurrection Monolith" from CM was a real pain. Compared to that the PFP Version of the Text became something, one can live with

In the End it turns to be just another uncommented Change from so many of its kind in the CM. Thanks for the Clarification on that!

Is the Source Code for the Librarys (dll's) available for the wide Public by any Chance? I could take a look at it, when I get some free time in the coming Weeks.

Thanks in Advance

[idbeholdME 434]

2 hours ago, Neovita said:

Is the Source Code for the Librarys (dll's) available for the wide Public by any Chance? I could take a look at it, when I get some free time in the coming Weeks.

Thanks in Advance

You'd probably have to ask @dimitrius154 about the details on how to go about editing these files. All I know is that he posted some info about this in a different thread:

 

[Neovita 10]

1 hour ago, idbeholdME said:

... All I know is that he posted some info about this in a different thread:

Ah, the old good OllyDBG and the Assembly Level. Now I see the whole picture and the reason, why such a change is not that easy Thanks for all the help, I know where to starta anew now. If I make any progress, gonna share the won knowledge here of course!

[dimitrius154 614]

2 hours ago, Neovita said:

Ah, the old good OllyDBG and the Assembly Level.

Thing is, the original team had supposedly lost the source code somewhere in 2009, during the turmoil. Only reverse-engineering remains.

[Neovita 10]

53 minutes ago, dimitrius154 said:

Thing is, the original team had supposedly lost the source code somewhere in 2009, during the turmoil. Only reverse-engineering remains.

Gonna try to compare the disassembled code with the vanilla files one. Will be a lot of work, since I got a bit rusty in assebly since my last course during my study, but maybe it is going to provide some positive results and will be for sure some nice practice for me

Are there any leftovers of the pseudocode remaining by a chance?

[dimitrius154 614]

9 minutes ago, Neovita said:

Are there any leftovers of the pseudocode remaining by a chance?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LqOuHBsv-8bMT60M6Z8-EliBA3kJ5WvH/view?usp=sharing It should be most useful as a reference material, although not a complete one.

[Neovita 10]

4 minutes ago, dimitrius154 said:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LqOuHBsv-8bMT60M6Z8-EliBA3kJ5WvH/view?usp=sharing It should be most useful as a reference material, although not a complete one.

Yummie, that might help a lot! Thanks

[Neovita 10]

In a couple of tests I managed to make first progress today:

The floating Text is getting added within the sacred2.exe file itself. It does not matter which *.ddl Files are getting used with the exe File. Once the Executable is replaced, the change is kicking in. Comparing all the changes right now, but it is getting a bit to hot today at my living place, thermal shutdown of the brain.exe is imminent

[Vishanka 240]

On 8/13/2022 at 1:17 PM, idbeholdME said:

Animation blending speed greatly increased. It makes transition animations, like when you press SHIFT to assume a defensive posture, nearly instant  You can revert this by using the vanilla s2render.dll (I'm playing like that), but you lose a couple graphical restorations along with it.

Why was this even changed? I had the feeling that something about def stance looks like crap now.
What am I losing when I replace the s2render.dll with the old one? I just did that but I would not do it at all cost

[idbeholdME 434]

5 hours ago, Vishanka said:

Why was this even changed? I had the feeling that something about def stance looks like crap now.
What am I losing when I replace the s2render.dll with the old one? I just did that but I would not do it at all cost

It's been changed because the .dll files and the .exe files have been taken from the CM Patch. Nearly nobody really has the ability to make custom changes to these files.

You should lose nothing major. I noticed just a couple of the new effects missing, like for example the elemental effect on upgraded Skeletal Fortification arrows (Silver mod).

Can't really tell you more as I never played long without the vanilla s2render.dll file as the sped up animations have been one of the things that have been bugging me the most when I tried the CM patch a long time ago.

As for the specifics, it's been talked about a bit near the start of this thread. Flix said this:

I do not believe you will lose anything too critical. Primarily the fixes relating to FX will be lost (the missing DOT FX, buff FX appearing/disappearing on minions, missing elemental FX on energy weapons and all projectiles, missing impact FX on magic staff projectiles, missing fur FX on elites, some FX performance improvements).

Although if you've played with the changed file for a long time I can imagine you might notice some more differences than me if you go to the vanilla one.

 

Because of this, the s2render.dll file would be probably the hottest adept for looking into changing. If somebody could revert only the animation speed change and keep all the other fixes, it would be awesome  

Edited August 14, 2022 by idbeholdME

[idbeholdME 434]

Found another voice line that does not play when it should:

quest_737_voice_ready (for Light campaign characters).

Should play after you talk to the Liosilath hologram the second time in the temple after defeating Kral. Not sure what quest number the Shadow equivalent for after the conversation with Nimonuil hologram is, but it definitely doesn't play either. Maybe quest_759_voice_ready? Although not a 100% sure, but judging by the Dryad version of this voice line, I'd guess that's the one.

Along with the voice lines I reported earlier, that should be all main quest voice lines the ones that currently do not play when they should.

For convenience, here is the list of non-playing main quest voice lines:

1) quest_747_voice_ready - Should play after you rescue and talk to Dyria in the bandit camp. Light Campaign characters only.

2) quest_737_voice_ready - Should play after talking to the Liosilath hologram in the Kral temple the 2nd time. Light Campaign characters only.

3) quest_759_voice_ready - Should play after talking to the Nimonuil hologram in the Kral temple the 2nd time. Shadow Campaign characters only.

 

Possible additions:

1) Shadow Characters say this line after talking to Nimonuil before fighting him near the end of the game: quest_776_voice_prefight. Light Campaign characters have no equivalent and say nothing when the fight with him starts. One possibility would be to utilize the endmob_08_<character>_good voice line as a replacement for Light Campaign characters after the conversation with him. The endmob08 line never plays in the game as it's an approach voice line for Nimonuil which can never play, because the fight with him is started by a conversation, so the conditions for it to play can never be met as you are already long inside the trigger radius when Nimonuil becomes an enemy. But I feel it could be suitably used here and it fits the situation quite well.

Edited August 14, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Flix 5,156]

2 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

voice line that does not play when it should

My working theory (untested) is that the voices worked in vanilla but broke when CM Patch removed a ton of unused text in global.res. This change carried over into PFP. 

Thing is, as it turns out, such voiced lines actually require the text to be present for the audio to trigger, even though the text isn't actually displayed (the text could be anything so long as a hash entry is present).

Or it could be that the lines are just in the incorrect spot in global.res all along, resulting in the same problem.

The third and most troublesome possibility is that there's some code reason they don't play, but that shouldn't be the case with quest-related audio.

[idbeholdME 434]

54 minutes ago, Flix said:

The third and most troublesome possibility is that there's some code reason they don't play, but that shouldn't be the case with quest-related audio.

Either way, would be great if they could be made to play in the game.

Also, I have made a mistake in the list in the first voice line (corrected now). It was quest_747_voice_ready, not quest_747_voice_start. That makes all the 3 non-playing lines of the type "voice_ready". They are the only 3 lines that have this category out of all of them. All the other categories ("voice_start", "voice_victory" or "voice_prefight") play without issues. So it is specific only to the "ready" type.

[dimitrius154 614]

1 hour ago, Flix said:

when CM Patch removed a ton of unused text in global.res.

. Hmm, I  don't recall that change.

1 hour ago, Flix said:

such voiced lines actually require the text to be present for the audio to trigger

Most voice lines do, the text hash presence is being universally checked. 

[Flix 5,156]

On 8/14/2022 at 7:10 PM, dimitrius154 said:

. Hmm, I  don't recall that change.

It's listed in the 1.50 change log.  I believe many deleted lines were inarticulate shouts and yells.  Run a compare function between vanilla and CM texts and you will see a lot deleted.

  

On 8/4/2022 at 1:36 PM, idbeholdME said:

There are 3 bonuses that appear incorrectly:

Figured out Dual Wield.  It was never correct, it was only spawning for Inquisitor, SW, SE, and TG.  I removed TG and added DR.

Couldn't see any issues with Duration of Potion Effects- Alchemy or any SE or TG usagebits.  They're all correct, which means there's some other reason.  seraphim and TG often share blueprints since they both have energy shield-related "tech" bonuses.  Maybe the usagebits just aren't being respected.

I'm reluctant to restrict any bonuses that might appear on trophies because I think it might cause the missing trophy bonus problem.

[idbeholdME 434]

11 hours ago, Flix said:

I'm reluctant to restrict any bonuses that might appear on trophies because I think it might cause the missing trophy bonus problem.

Well, the Dual Wield was the biggest offender.

The Alchemy-potion duration on TG waists pops up somewhat often, but it's not that bad.

The SE bonus on TG arms is pretty rare though. And I still haven't found another SE arm piece which had a TG bonus on it, so that one seems extremely rare.

 

But the worst offender has been nailed, which is great.

Edited August 16, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Neovita 10]

Hello everyone again. Still working my way trough the floating text issue bit by bit (literally) and facing another issue during my tests:

Is the Dryad's Viperish Disease ("dr_vo_krankheit" in the spells.txt) got reworked in PFP compared to the CM 1.6 changes? Because it seems to not spread the disease at all using my PFP Installation anymore. I mean literally not even once, no matter what mods, heads or groupsize is used. Even in CM it is working from time to time even with smaller groups. I am starting to suspect a broken character already  

I already tried different levels of the skill, all possible mod combination (except Headhunter silver one) and even different stat distribution on my level 25 testing toon. Are there changes done to the skill in a file except of the spells.txt?

Edit: Problem found and solved  Overheated me had a syntax error in the spells.txt file. Sorry everyone for causing confusion

P.S.: What is the BB Code for mentioning a membername in here? Or do we maybe have a full list of commands somewhere? Searching the forums myself brought no usable results on that sadly

Edited August 16, 2022 by Neovita
To hot at my place...

[idbeholdME 434]

1 hour ago, Neovita said:

P.S.: What is the BB Code for mentioning a membername in here? Or do we maybe have a full list of commands somewhere? Searching the forums myself brought no usable results on that sadly

You just @ someone. So type a @ and then the member name. Like this @Neovita

It can be a bit finnicky, so try doing a space after it or backspacing a few times. It should show you a list of member name suggestions depending on the letters you type, narrowing down the options.

Edited August 16, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Dragon Brother 619]

1 hour ago, Neovita said:

P.S.: What is the BB Code for mentioning a membername in here? Or do we maybe have a full list of commands somewhere? Searching the forums myself brought no usable results on that sadly

You should just be able to use @ followed by their username e.g. @Neovita

[Vishanka 240]

Got the bug that Assim is still around and I can't get rid of him. He's really annoying since he's always just one step behind my character...

What can I do?

[Hooyaah 2,945]

1 hour ago, Vishanka said:

Got the bug that Assim is still around and I can't get rid of him. He's really annoying since he's always just one step behind my character...

What can I do?

I've experienced this bug on numerous occasions. I recommend placing all of your legendary, set items, and Unique items in the shared chest. Then, move to a different level. For example, if you are on Platinum, return to Gold and then teleport to Start Island, just to give the game a chance to reset. Afterward, try loading in Platinum again with all your "special items" still in the shared chest. This may allow you to "shake" him. Also, starting a new level usually fixes this issue. It's really sort of creepy having someone shadowing you like that, isn't it?

I hope this helps, ma'am.

 

[idbeholdME 434]

I occasionally have a random NPC following me after loading a game. But it's been happening even before PFP I think. Happens most often with the Runemaster's son from Sloeford (Zhaman I think?). Also have the Grurag Shaman randomly pop up from time to time. But just quitting and loading again solves it for me. I assume it persists for you? When did it start happening?

Edited August 17, 2022 by idbeholdME

[Vishanka 240]

5 hours ago, Hooyaah said:

Also, starting a new level usually fixes this issue.

I change difficulty frequently but that does not make assim disappear on the current difficulty 

 

4 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

I assume it persists for you? When did it start happening?

A week ago I guess, started the game and he was there and I could not get rid of him again

 

[idbeholdME 434]

5 hours ago, Vishanka said:

A week ago I guess, started the game and he was there and I could not get rid of him again

 

So you had already finished the quest a long time ago and one day, he just showed up after loading and didn't go away? Did you do anything specific? Did it happen after updating to PFP 1.3 or was it totally random?

If all else fails, you could just use a brute force method and reset quests for the difficulty. Flix told me about this one.

Introduce a typo in quests.txt. Somewhere near the start of the file, just delete a comma at the end of a line. Then load your character. Quests should be completely wiped. Then quit, fix the typo and load again. Quests should now be in the state as if you just started the difficulty with all quest NPCs gone. Backup your character for safety before doing this.

Edited August 17, 2022 by idbeholdME