Beta Testers Needed (Shader Mod w/ auto Installer)

[GSalden 4,696]

*******,After disabling UTX I have moving black square waves....I did not use the UTX Fs9 wave feature, so my FSX waves should normally be working fine.Any ideas ?Thanks,

[bojote 21]

*******,After disabling UTX I have moving black square waves....I did not use the UTX Fs9 wave feature, so my FSX waves should normally be working fine.Any ideas ?Thanks,

If you disable the Shader Mod, you get them back right? interesting... this is the exact same version I uploaded 4 months ago. So, whatever it is, is 'disabling' this wave animations/effects. Could it be that when using Shader 3 animations are lost? have you experimented with UTX wave effects to see what happens?Another 'trick' to try is this (and I'll share this with you because I know you like to experiment):Check the propdefs directory inside your FSXROOT propdefs stands for: Property Definitions. It is the directory that holds all the XML schemas properties to be used inside FSX. Now, look inside the file called propwater.xml you'll see that the 'default' properties that can be used inside WaterConstants.Xml for Shader 2 & 3 are:

        <property name = "fWaveBumpTimeScale"/>        <property name = "fWaveBumpScale"/>        <property name = "fWaveBumpUVScale"/>        <property name = "fWaveBumpDistScale"/>        <property name = "fWaveBumpLightScale"/>        <property name = "fWaveFresnelFactorMin"/>        <property name = "fWaveFresnelFactorMax"/>        <property name = "fSpecularPower"/>        <property name = "fSpecularBoost"/>        <property name = "fSpecularBlend"/>        <property name = "fWaterBumpRotation"/>        <property name = "fTimeX1"/>        <property name = "fTimeY1"/>        <property name = "fTimeX2"/>        <property name = "fTimeY2"/>        <property name = "fTimeScale2"/>

Check the XML and see what their 'default' values are and how I modified them. Experiment changing values in the WaterConstants.Xml (don't forget to flush the cache using the newly provided shortcut to do so in the Shader 3 Mod I just released) dimply don't touch the propwater.xml file, use it just for reference.

I did analyze the ENB mod. It will actually take three modifications and a hijack of an ENB ini setting, but the D3D calls that are made can be 'highmemfixed'. Unfortunately there is more... using the flag also disables something else (named parameters) in D3D and if the ENB mod is using this it will stop working completely. I have mailed the details to *******...Daniel

Daniel, you are a godsend ;) appreciate your efforts, i'm so glad to have someone with your skills among our community members! I'll take a look at the info during the weekend. Hopefully ENBSeries will be fixed :)

[brucek 38]

............The 'ideal' beta tester should be someone who does NOT have the Shader Mod or had problems installing it. Also XP 32/64 bit users are ideal Beta testers because I have no access to an XP box.

I have never tried the shader mod so would happy to give it a go. My e-mail is bruce-knight@comcast.netOne question- if the installer already finds lines in FSX.CFG (such as HIGHMEM, etc.), I assume that they are ignored since they are alraedy there?Thanks, Bruce.

[GSalden 4,696]

Jo be sure I reverted back to Shader 2 and also then I have those moving black square waves....So now black square waves with both Shadr 2 and 3.Because UTX adds their own coastlines they work with Fs9 style waves.I did not use them.First I will ask Fligth1 about this.I remember with SH1.3 ( in the past ) I had animated waves , also at the coastline.

[bojote 21]

I have never tried the shader mod so would happy to give it a go. My e-mail is bruce-knight@comcast.netOne question- if the installer already finds lines in FSX.CFG (such as HIGHMEM, etc.), I assume that they are ignored since they are alraedy there?Thanks, Bruce.

Bruce, the new version of the installer does not add any tweaks. It willll just add the line ALLOW_SHADER_30=1 so you can use the shaders. Tweaks are now optional and are located in the program folder. Also, it will NOT duplicate any entries you already have ;)You can download from: http://www.venetubo.com/sha3mod.zip (is not BETA anymore) its the official release.

Jo be sure I reverted back to Shader 2 and also then I have those moving black square waves....So now black square waves with both Shadr 2 and 3.Because UTX adds their own coastlines they work with Fs9 style waves.I did not use them.First I will ask Fligth1 about this.I remember with SH1.3 ( in the past ) I had animated waves , also at the coastline.

Then the problem could be some setting in the WaterConstants.Xml file... you have the original one?

[GSalden 4,696]

Then the problem could be some setting in the WaterConstants.Xml file... you have the original one?Yes, I tried with the default XML , but no luck either.I just put a Topic at Flight1's UTX forum about it.Update :Suddenly I got the feeling that there ws something wrong with the wave texture.It wasn't even there in th eeffects textures folder.Luckily I have copies of all my folders so I copied all effexts file over and now my coastline waves are back to normal :biggrin:Only the moving water ( waves ) are static with shader 3.

[Bakern 31]

I did analyze the ENB mod. It will actually take three modifications and a hijack of an ENB ini setting, but the D3D calls that are made can be 'highmemfixed'. Unfortunately there is more... using the flag also disables something else (named parameters) in D3D and if the ENB mod is using this it will stop working completely. I have mailed the details to *******...Daniel

Thank you. I hope we will get ENB back with HIGHMEMFIX :(

[brucek 38]

Bruce, the new version of the installer does not add any tweaks. It willll just add the line ALLOW_SHADER_30=1 so you can use the shaders. Tweaks are now optional and are located in the program folder. Also, it will NOT duplicate any entries you already have ;)You can download from: http://www.venetubo.com/sha3mod.zip (is not BETA anymore) its the official release...........

Thanks, I will try it tonight. Thanks for all you are doing for us! If there was an award for freeware help and support you would win hands down! :)Bruce.

[bojote 21]

requires to change a 4 with a 5 ;) the problem is to find the exact address to do this. I already asked for help to a very skilled D3D programmer in our forums ;) 'Daniel42' lets see...

Good news :) Daniel provided me with the address and I changed the flag.. I had to REMOVE another flag in order to add the LARGEADDRESSAWARE to the The D3DXCreateEffect & D3DXCreateEffectFromFile functions. According to the MS documents, the flag I 'removed' prevents the shader effects from keeping a copy in memory. This could mean more memory usage in the 'HIGHMEFIXED ENB Mod', so before releasing I want to test first.For the curious/inquiring minds: ENBSeries suffers from the same problem FSX does when using more than 2GB memory (and which HIGHMEMFIX solves). The D3DX (Direct 3D Effects) require a FLAG to be EXPLICITLY passed in order to use the address space above 2GB when the application itself has the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag. ENB Series suffers from this bug.. well, not anymore ;)Anyway, it requires some testing, so don't expect a release soon. I'll probably include them as part of the Shader 3 Mod... now, THATs cool ;)

[Bakern 31]

Good news :) Daniel provided me with the address and I changed the flag.. I had to REMOVE another flag in order to add the LARGEADDRESSAWARE to the The D3DXCreateEffect & D3DXCreateEffectFromFile functions. According to the MS documents, the flag I 'removed' prevents the shader effects from keeping a copy in memory. This could mean more memory usage in the 'HIGHMEFIXED ENB Mod', so before releasing I want to test first.For the curious/inquiring minds: ENBSeries suffers from the same problem FSX does when using more than 2GB memory (and which HIGHMEMFIX solves). The D3DX (Direct 3D Effects) require a FLAG to be EXPLICITLY passed in order to use the address space above 2GB when the application itself has the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag. ENB Series suffers from this bug.. well, not anymore ;)Anyway, it requires some testing, so don't expect a release soon. I'll probably include them as part of the Shader 3 Mod... now, THATs cool ;)

Hi. Sound's good in my ear's. :(

[GSalden 4,696]

Good news :) Daniel provided me with the address and I changed the flag.. I had to REMOVE another flag in order to add the LARGEADDRESSAWARE to the The D3DXCreateEffect & D3DXCreateEffectFromFile functions. According to the MS documents, the flag I 'removed' prevents the shader effects from keeping a copy in memory. This could mean more memory usage in the 'HIGHMEFIXED ENB Mod', so before releasing I want to test first.For the curious/inquiring minds: ENBSeries suffers from the same problem FSX does when using more than 2GB memory (and which HIGHMEMFIX solves). The D3DX (Direct 3D Effects) require a FLAG to be EXPLICITLY passed in order to use the address space above 2GB when the application itself has the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag. ENB Series suffers from this bug.. well, not anymore ;)Anyway, it requires some testing, so don't expect a release soon. I'll probably include them as part of the Shader 3 Mod... now, THATs cool ;)

*******,Could you take a look at the sharpness too ?When using my 3 outside view setup I can see that the image is sharper when turning off the ENB series. Perhaps just a small adjustement in the ini file.And of coarse the moving waves.Shorelines waves are working fine now, but no moving water waves ( water is tsanding still with Sh3 ; with Sh2 it is moving )

[Guest Daniel42]

Good news :) Daniel provided me with the address and I changed the flag..

I'm afraid it has turned to bad news... there was some confusion regarding the flag that was needed as the high level documentation gave the impression that the flag had to be changed from 4 to 5. In fact it has to be changed to 0x20000 (LARGEADDRESSAWARE), which in itself is not a problem. The result being though: Crashes.So I took a further look at the ENB mod. After creating a D3DXEffect that it uses to, ehm, well, do what it does, it will manipulate the effect by changing parameters. A lot. A whole lot. It does so by addressing the parameters by their name. And this is not possible/allowed for effects created with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag.Now if this was done in one or two places, it might have been viable to patch the mod with some heavy wizardry, but there are several dozens locations that would have to be patched. Now if any one manages to obtain the c/c++ source code for the ENB mod, I'm more than willing to HIGHMEMFIX it and I'm sure Bojote can do the same, but without the source code: ...Daniel

[bojote 21]

I'm afraid it has turned to bad news... there was some confusion regarding the flag that was needed as the high level documentation gave the impression that the flag had to be changed from 4 to 5. Daniel

Anyway... we tried :)Daniel, so that change I did.. does nothing right? ENBSeries does NOT crash with that change, and seems to work flawlesly. I just don't know if it is LARGEADDRESSAWARE with that change (I suppose not)

[Guest Daniel42]

Daniel, so that change I did.. does nothing right? ENBSeries does NOT crash with that change, and seems to work flawlesly. I just don't know if it is LARGEADDRESSAWARE with that change (I suppose not)

If I'm correct then you activated the debug output mode of the shader (flag 1) and skipped the effect optimization (flag 4), which or'ed together makes a flag of 5.I want to take another look but ENB uses strings as handles in too many locations to change without source code.Ah well, here is the stuff from FSX:g2d.dll from FSX SP2:

.text:20672071                 push    offset dword_206C4E80.text:20672076                 push    offset aHighmemfix                            ; "HIGHMEMFIX".text:2067207B                 push    offset aGraphics                              ; "GRAPHICS".text:20672086                 call    ds:api_39

This is: read HIGHMEMFIX value from GRAPHICS section of cfg file and store it at address 206C4E80.And then:

.text:2067134D                 cmp     dword_206C4E80, 0.text:20671354                 jz      short loc_2067135C.text:20671356                 or      esi, 20000h.text:2067135C.text:2067135C loc_2067135C:                                                         ; CODE XREF: sub_20671100+254....text:2067136D                 push    esi....text:2067139A                 call    D3DXCreateEffect

Or: if HIGHMEMFIX==1 add 0x20000 to the flags for D3DXCreateEffectAnd at another location:

.text:206712CD loc_206712CD:                                                         ; CODE XREF: sub_20671100+D8.text:206712CD                 cmp     dword_206C4E80, 0.text:206712D4                 mov     eax, esi.text:206712D6                 jz      short loc_206712DD.text:206712D8                 or      eax, 20000h

Same thing: set flag 0x20000 if HIGHMEMFIX==1, this one is used in a call to D3DXCreateEffectCompilerFromFileADaniel

[bojote 21]

Same thing: set flag 0x20000 if HIGHMEMFIX==1, this one is used in a call to D3DXCreateEffectCompilerFromFileADaniel

One final question. The D3DXCreateEffect should pass the Flags parameter, which is a DWORD. you sure I should pass 131072? 20000 doesn't make ENBSeries crash, and 20000 = x00020000 is D3DXCreateEffect expecting a decimal or hex DWORD?