Shaders and stuff oh my

[phrashee]

I am a unlucky owner of a system (laptop) with a Intel 965 chipset, I noticed that some user had got full shaders working with this chipset. Wanting this, i went a downloaded the nightly build and also a couple of other builds (shows as oolite-trunk and oolite (olite.org) on my start menus (or whatever u call that thing, i'm using linux) no absoulety no effect. Confused, eventually i went other the release notes and discovered that around 1.74, the shaders had been restricted and stuck at a max of simple for my *family* of chipsets. Do you think you could release a *expertimental* build for those of us willing to take the plunge and see what we can do. I love the graphics i see in those Youtube videos. It fills me with envy and makes me wanna kill Thargoids!

Cheers

Baz

[another_commander]

Hi and welcome to the game. To enable full shaders for your family of cards, open with a text editor the file gpu-settings.plist, found inside the folder Resources/Config and change line 78 from

Code: Select all

maximum_shader_level = "SHADERS_SIMPLE";

to

Code: Select all

maximum_shader_level = "SHADERS_FULL";

Save the file, restart Oolite with Shift held down and you should now be able to choose Full Shaders from the game options menu.

[ulaidian]

And what will this do? I am in the same boat (more ort less, but running Linux on a Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU 530 @ 1.73GHz). Would I be able to put it on full for mine as well?

That said, I am running a fair few OXPs, and wouldn't want to crash and burn

[another_commander]

And what will this do? I am in the same boat (more ort less, but running Linux on a Intel(R) Celeron(R) M CPU 530 @ 1.73GHz). Would I be able to put it on full for mine as well?

That said, I am running a fair few OXPs, and wouldn't want to crash and burn

Assuming that your drivers and gfx card combination support shaders, you should be able to witness Oolite in its full graphics glory. However, note that there is a reason we have set shader levels to simple as maximum for certain cards and this reason is performance. It will probably not make for a very attractive gameplay if you can see glorious graphics at 7fps or similar.

The change proposed above is for the Intel family of graphics cards only. You can refer to the contents of the file and see which other gfx cards are custom set for certain behaviours.

[Thargoid]

Also don't forget to ensure that your drivers are up to date - that can make the difference between shaders being supported and not in some cases.

[ulaidian]

I think I will err on the side of caution, and be happy with what I have here... and I am very happy.



Especially as I now think I have justification in aquiring a 'game specific' computer.

[phrashee]

Right, after some digging, I figured that out for myself.

The results are not very interesting.

The side by side comparisons done by changing the shader options in the options screen and dumping the screen to a file with the * key, show no visble difference, however the frame rate does drop by about 6 frames a second......

I have had occasional freezes also (but am running the trunk-build), Am currently testing using the build that you download from the oolite site.

I see what happens in terms of it freezing.....

Barry

[phrashee]

I forgot to mention that if it helps i am running Linux mint (debian edition) 11 with all updates.

cheers

[Capt. Murphy]

How much visual impact full shaders has depends a lot on what OXP's you have installed. The core ships and some of the retextures hardly use them at all. All of Griff's work benefits hugely from full shaders (although they are good in simple mode to, not really with no shader support at all). What effects you get extra with full shaders pretty much depends on who made the models.

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Griff_Industries

The wiki gallery doesn't do them justice to be honest...you get variable engine glows in flight, lasers glow red when they are hot, freshly blown up asteroids spawn white hot boulders that fade to red hot and then normal, and most of the ships have a random paint job in full shaders.

Griff Cobra in full shaders.

Griff Cobra in simple shaders.

[Cody]

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Griff_Industries
The wiki gallery doesn't do them justice to be honest...you get variable engine glows in flight, lasers glow red when they are hot, freshly blown up asteroids spawn white hot boulders that fade to red hot and then normal, and most of the ships have a random paint job in full shaders.

Not to mention the flowing, changing colours on the Griff Moray!

[Capt. Murphy]

I downloaded the Griff Krait with it's molten texturing for the first time earlier... I love Griff's Thargoid variants too.

[maik]

I downloaded the Griff Krait with it's molten texturing for the first time earlier... I love Griff's Thargoid variants too.

Oh, beautiful actually. I haven't seen them up close yet, they always go to pieces in the distance.

[phrashee]

Ugh, Ok i have no idea what is going on here.

I downloaded the Starter Park for the Griff Industries OXP, and the ships (at least on the title screen) look the same as they do without it.




However, The expansion pack is there because in game the station looks like this.



Something, Tells me I not getting the Full Shaders Deal I was promised Linux Debian Mint Spaceship Sales Man Be Damned! Heres a shot of a Cobra Mk III, though from the External view Mine looks normal?????????




Maybe I should take the Arch Linux Plunge, The chances of me dealing with windows to run any software for more than 5 mins has about the same odds as something generated by the Infinite Improbability Drive during a jump.

Now theres a silly OXP for ya.

The last time i read something about either X or Mesa (I can remember which), The bugs for the i965 chipset were still be fixed so it would be no surprise that the updates haven't hit the Debian Testing Repository and therefore Linux Mint (debian edition)

It would be nice if OOlite just had its own linux distro, I would build it but after almost 30 years in front of these boxes, my determination and patience is not what it used to be. If it wasn't for linux i would'nt be doing the computer hobby thing anymore. Maybe one of this days I just get so frustated I might just start my own distro, but I cant do a decent one by myself and finding other users who come off as by technically inclined without either being full of it or having huge ego's is not a easy thing in my experience.

So if anyone can confirm that something is amiss (with my shady opps shaders experience)It would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers

[maik]

If I recall correctly, Griff's all-in-one OXP does not replace the original versions but adds his versions on top. So you see the standard Cobra Mk3 as in your first pic in the "show room" in the beginning, but if you wait long enough you will also see Griff's.

[Cody]

From the Coriolis and Cobra pics, it look like only simple shaders are enabled, phrashee.