I've made a door which has windows as part of the texture, but I'm getting an annoying rendering problem - particle effects cannot be seen through the glass. If I set 'Renderer > Transparency' to 1, I can see the particles but then the object faces are rendered in the wrong order.
I've been using a png/dds texture with an alpha channel. I prefer having all things controlled from the texture becuase of some additional texture mapping and baking that I'm doing with this object.
The old way with gif textures, like the French Door or Office Door, was to have 3 layers. The two outer layers have bars with index 0 used to make the gaps fully transparent. In the middle is a glass texture (fully opaque), with the object using material transparency. The additional layer and texturs makes it less convenient to make this sort of object.
I've attached a demo mission showing doors with different textures. Each one has a gas arrow behind it, but you can only see it for one texture format.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/9inbw...Alpha.zip/file
Screenshots:
.gif, SFX can be seen through the left pane:
.dds: looks like there's nothing behind this one:
.dds: opening the door revelas more sfx!
Note that ordinary objects are visible through all textures.
I would very much appreciate it if someone could take a look and see if there are any object or ".mtl" settings that would alllow proper rendering (esp. for the .dds format). I did experiment with using png/dds and making the windows a separate model which was then linked with DetailAttachment. It looks fine until the door is highlighted for frobbing, at which point the comparitve darkness of the glass looks very jarring.
I'm not getting out-of-order rendering when I set the transparency to 1 on the doors. Then the door handle looks like it's rendering out-of-order, but I only see that in Dromed, not in-game.
Alternatively, you can make a .mtl (say dds_win.mtl) whose only line is "force_alpha_key 1". That makes the windows transparent without setting any object properties, but they'll look opaque in Dromed. Solves the door handle problem, though.
Thanks for your reply, but still no success. It's interesting that you seem to be getting different results to me.
When I try that mtl setting, the door becomes fully opaque in game mode.
If I then add Transparency: 1, the alpha is displayed in Dromed (door handles rendered incorrectly), but it's still opaque in game mode. I'm fairly sure the alpha key show transparency on fully transparent pixels, with everything esle being opaque.
For my actual FM I've used gif textures for now.
Would you mind sharing your cam_ext.cfg file so I can see if you have different settings that are relevant?
Here's mine:
Code:; extended config (currently loaded prior to cam.cfg) ; ; contains defaults to enable enhancements and other settings to run nicely on modern systems ; (remove/rename file to go old school) ; ------------ ; display mode ; ------------ ; enable Direct3D 9 based display system (instead of the legacy DirectX 6 one) use_d3d_display ; use a single resolution for both menu system and in-game, with normal double buffering (in fullscreen) single_display_mode 2 ; same as above but with triple buffering ;single_display_mode 3 ; alternative buffering mode that uses blitting instead of buffer flipping in fullscreen, the same method ; as windowed mode uses (vsync may sporadically miss frame starts on some systems) ;single_display_mode ; scale menu system to fit screen (in "single_display_mode") using 3D HW for best quality ; (if you're having trouble like a black screen when starting the game try mode 0 or 1) ; when "use_d3d_display" is enabled, 3D HW is always used, this only sets the scale mode to fit screen ui_scale_mode 2 ; display refresh synchronization mode (in "single_display_mode"), default is 3 which means enabled ; in-game and in menu screens. To disable synch, set mode 0. ; NOTE: certain graphics driver settings may override synch behavior of the game ; NOTE2: synch support in windowed mode with "use_d3d_display", may depend on Windows version and settings ;vsync_mode 0 ; for displays with really high refresh rates (like 120 Hz) the game might be running too fast, ; try following mode to make the game update every second display refresh (if supported by the card/driver) ;vsync_mode 7 ; software based framerate limiter (in "single_display_mode") framerate_cap 100.0 ; use 32-bit rendering for everything (also filters out 16-bit video modes) ; (this is automatically enabled with "use_d3d_display", which doesn't support 16-bit modes) force_32bit ; force game to run in windowed mode ;force_windowed ; for graphics cards that support it, limit buffering of GPU commands to 1 frame in menu screens, to keep ; input lag to a minimum (for older cards where this has no effect, it should also work to reduce lag by ; setting "SlowFrameUI" to a value that corresponds to the refresh rate or slightly below) d3d_disp_limit_gpu_frames 1 ; enabling limiting in-game can have a positive effect by reducing framerate unevenness, stuttering and/or ; mouse lag, at potentially some framerate loss, which may not be an issue if the framerate is high anyway ; (should probably be avoided for CrossFire/SLI type of setups) ;d3d_disp_limit_gpu_frames 1 1 ; enable scaling of in-game 2D overlay (HUD), makes the things like current item/weapon text, or SS2 ; HUD/panels, larger at resolutions of 1280x960 or higher with pixel perfect scaling (requires "use_d3d_display") ; NOTE: Enabling scaling may actually improve performance, especially at high resolutions. ;d3d_disp_scaled_2d_overlay 64 ; alternatively a fixed 2D resolution can be defined, which is aspect ratio corrected and scaled up ; to the current resolution, without enforcing pixel perfectness (ie. filtering makes it a bit less crisp) ;d3d_disp_scaled_2d_overlay 640 480 ; force scaled menu and 2D overlay graphics to always use bilinear filtering, even when scaled an even multiple ; (smoothness/fuzziness vs pixel perfectness) ;d3d_disp_force_filter_scale2d ; lock horizontal FOV to be the same in widescreen modes as in 4:3 (compensates vertical FOV instead) ;widescreen_lock_hfov ; FOV, specified for reference 4:3 aspect ratio, widescreen automatically adjusts this value ; (default is 90) fov 80 ; up to 8 user defined display modes, if you want some resolution that isn't supported by default ; format: <width> <height> [ <bitsPerPixel> [ <aspectX> <aspectY> ] ] ; NOTE: resolutions exceeding 2048 only work with "use_d3d_display" (because DirectX 6 doesn't support larger) ; ; 1600x768 32bpp 25:12 (skipping "32 25 12" would also work because default is 32-bit and aspect would be auto) ;user_mode1 1600 768 32 25 12 ; 2880x900 32bpp 16:5 ;user_mode2 2880 900 32 16 5 ; 6144x1536 32bpp - three 4:3 monitors at 2048x1536 each, gives an aspect ratio of 4*3:3 ;user_mode3 6144 1536 32 12 3 ; 3840x1024 32bpp - three 4:3 monitors at 1280x1024 each gives an aspect ratio of 4*3:3 ;user_mode4 3840 1536 32 12 3 ; 3200×2048 32bpp 25:16 (WQSXGA) ;user_mode5 3200 2048 32 25 16 ; enabling this option allows the UI (menus, map/objectives, readables) screens to have its own gamma setting ; useful if you get blinded everytime you open the map or read a book ;gamma_ui 0.7 ; -------------- ; movie playback ; -------------- ; display movie within the UI area instead of maximizing (only meaningful when "ui_scale_mode 1" is specified) ;scale_movie_to_ui ; crop movies to fill out widescreen displays better (does NOT work in combination with "scale_movie_to_ui") ; the original shock cutscenes are letterboxed so this works well there, for thief it's a judgement call to ; lose some of the bottom and top parts of the image in favor of covering more of the monitor (the default ; crop rect, when not supplying a custom one, is optimized for SS2 and is 0 70 640 340) ;crop_movies ; alternatively a custom crop rect (left, top, width, height) can be specified with the "crop_movies" var ; in virtual 640x480 space, meaning regardless of what resolution the movie is the crop rect is still ; specified as if the movie were 640x480 ;crop_movies 0 70 640 340 ; filter quality used during internal processing of movie, default is 4, if you have performance issues ; you can try lowering the quality ;movie_sw_scale_quality 2 ; (thief) list of movies to exclude from cropping (only used if "crop_movies" is enabled) movie_crop_exclude credits.avi+success.avi+death.avi ; (shock) list of movies to exclude from cropping (only used if "crop_movies" is enabled) ;movie_crop_exclude intro.avi+credits.avi ; gamma setting for movie playback (default is 1.0) ;gamma_movie 0.7 ; keep ffmpeg dll loaded to reduce technical issues no_unload_ffmpeg ; --------------- ; texture quality ; --------------- ; load/create all textures as 32-bit and enable other 32-bit rendering path for some other subsystems force_32bit_textures ; enable hardware mipmaps (mode 1 may be faster but may or may not be at lower quality, depends on driver/HW) ; NOTE: on less powerful machines this may cause temporary framerate drops as textures are cached in to gfx mem, ; try disabling mipmaps by removing the option or setting it to 0. mipmap_mode 2 ; mipmap generation mode for lightmaps (only used when hardware mipmaps are enabled), disabled in an attempt ; to reduce occasional light bleeding artifacts (YMMV) ; 0 disabled, 1 fastest, 2 use same method as mipmap_mode (default when no mode is explicitly set) lm_mipmap_mode 0 ; clear lightmap texture surfaces (reduces occurrences of light bleeding artifacts) lm_init_texmem 2 ; 1 pixel spacing between cached lightmaps to reduce light bleeding artifacts (requires "lm_init_texmem 2") lm_filter_margin 1 ; enable 16 sample anisotropic texture filtering (modes: 0 none, 1 linear, 2/4/8/16 anisotropic) tex_filter_mode 16 ; enable trilinear texture filtering tex_filter_trilinear ; adjust the distance factor at which lower mip maps are selected by HW (a value between -16.0 and 16.0) ;mipmap_bias -1.0 ; use linear filtering for lightmaps (not using anisotropic combined with other lm_ settings may help reduce ; light bleeding artifacts) lm_filter_mode 1 ; enable edge padding of alpha textures (that are no larger than 256) to get rid of purple outlines (this ; will add some extra processing while loading texture) tex_edge_padding 2 ; edge padding size can be adjusted to increase quality of lower mipmaps (larger pad size) or to reduce the ; amount of processing during load (smaller pad size) ;tex_max_edge_padding 8 ; -------------- ; render options ; -------------- ; render objects with 1-bit alpha (/chroma key) as opaque objects (alpha test support must not be disabled) ; this is not enabled by default as it may have some side effects like z-fighting on overlapping decal objects, ; but it probably fixes more than it breaks so it's enabled here alpha_test_as_opaque ; render square particles as disks square_parts_as_disks ; render pixel particles as (small) disks pixel_parts_as_disks ; render (new sky) stars with a resolution independent size (default always renders stars as 3x3 pixel polygons) ;fixed_star_size 0.5 ; increased max view distance (default is 256) so z-buffering works correctly on missions with large areas ; (individual missions may set an even larger view distance if the mission requires it) z_far 512 ; enable z-compare during level geometry rendering, this allows somewhat more optimal level geometry rendering ; (missions that weren't built with new sky support in mind, may have visual glitches in locations that have ; "impossible geometry" when this option is enabled) wr_render_zcomp ; ------------------- ; D3D9 render options ; ------------------- ; NOTE: these options can only have any effect when "use_d3d_display" is enabled ; by default it will try to use an enhanced 32-bit precision display mode, if the driver supports it, but ; there may be instances (like with integrated intel GPUs) where the driver does support it but it may not ; work correctly (such as gamma not working), this option will disable the use of enhanced precision ; (due to enhanced precision often causing trouble on Windows 10, the default here will now be to disable it) d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf ; multisampling (anti-aliasing) level ; IMPORTANT: some integrated graphics HW may not work correctly with multisampling and you will be left with a ; black screen, if that happens disable this option again ;multisampletype 8 ; enable 16-bit floating point render buffer (for improved rendering and postprocessing quality, at the ; expense of video memory and performance, note that it doesn't enable actual HDR rendering) ;d3d_disp_enable_hdr ; enable 32-bit floating point render buffer (if you don't know what else to do with your memory and GPU time) ; NOTE: some driver version(s) may have a bug where running 32-bit FP also requires multisampling to be enabled ; or things can break (like a black screen) ;d3d_disp_enable_hdr 32 ; enable software (ie. shader) based gamma and color processing (improves quality at the expense of performance, ; and also enables in-game gamma to be applied in windowed mode) ;d3d_disp_sw_cc ; optional saturation setting when "d3d_disp_sw_cc" is enabled, 0 is black and white, 1 is normal color ; (does not affect menu screens) ;d3d_disp_sw_cc_sat 0.25 ; optional color filter when "d3d_disp_sw_cc", RGB values are between 0 and 1, default is "1 1 1" (white) ; (does not affect menu screens) ;d3d_disp_sw_cc_rgbfilter 1 0.7 0.3 ; enable postprocessing (bloom) ;postprocess 1 ; bloom intensity factor, default is 5 ;bloomscale 5 ; bloom/"glow" radius defined as percentage of the screen's diagonal, default is 2 (the larger values ; require more GPU processing) ;bloom_range 2 ; bloom saturation, 0 completely desaturated, 1 is fully colored, default is 0.7 ;bloom_saturation 0.7 ; min value required (for R, G and B) in order for a pixel to be included in bloom processing, default is 0.6 ; (with a low value a lot of surfaces will glow, with a high value only the really bright surfaces will glow) ; for SS2 you might want to consider increasing this slightly, as the game is generally brighter ;bloom_threshold 0.7 ; enable screen distortion effects, like chipped glass or heat distortion from fire arrows d3d_disp_enable_distortionfx ; enable alpha-to-coverage functionality, for smoother edges and less aliasing on alpha tested surfaces, ; if the graphics card supports it (requires multisampling to be enabled) ;d3d_disp_enable_atoc 1 ; for nVidia cards that support SSAA this can be enabled instead (slightly better quality at the expense of ; performance) ;d3d_disp_enable_atoc 2 ; if "d3d_disp_enable_atoc" is enabled and the graphics card supports it you may also want to enable this to ; make the edges even smoother (WARNING: if atoc isn't supported or "tex_edge_padding" isn't enabled, enabling ; this will make things look worse) ;default_alphatest_ref 1 ; alpha for 2D overlay (HUD text, bitmaps), default is 1 (opaque) ;d3d_disp_2d_overlay_alpha 0.7 ; -------------- ; update timings ; -------------- ; use high resolution timers (preferable but disabled by default for best compatibility, as it may not work ; correctly on older OS versions, such as some XP systems where hi-res timer implementation uses RDTSC, which can ; result in movement speeds going crazy and more) ;use_hi_res_timer ; lock physics updates to a fixed frequency, this ensures that player movement speed is constant and framerate ; independent. not necessary if vsync is enabled, however for high refresh rates player movement would still be ; faster than originally intended, uncomment this in that case ; (vsync method is preferable) ;phys_freq 60 ; framerate cap for menu system (specified as minimum frame time in ms), reduces GPU and CPU load in menus SlowFrameUI 10 ; set minimum frame time value to 1ms to avoid speedups at high framerates, this does NOT cap the framerate ; it only sets the lower frame time limit so that if a frame is shorter than this, the engine will pretend ; that it was this long min_frame_time 1 ; cap engine update frequency to 250 Hz (specified as min updated time in ms), for a software framerate cap when ; using "single_display_mode" it's probably better to use "framerate_cap", this is just a last resort cap SlowFrame 4 ; ------------- ; sound options ; ------------- ; if EAX is enabled and sounds sound too direct when under water (the same or almost the same as above) ; then try enabling one of these (or experiment with custom values) ;submerged_sound_occlusion 0.1 0.5 0.88 ;submerged_sound_occlusion 0.3 0.1 ; force the use of UnderWater reverb/EAX environment when the player is under water ;force_underwater_reverb ; when using the OpenAL sound driver the default AL device may sometimes cause problems, in particular for ; on-board sound controllers. In those instances you can try an alternative AL device. Which other AL devices ; are available can be seen in the log file (when AL is enabled). It seems that usually the "Generic Software" ; device is available, which is a good one to try as an alternative. ;snd_oal_device Generic Software ; set a non-default speaker configuration (not all devices support this, especially with OpenAL only the ; "OpenAL Soft" (soft_oal) device driver currently supports it. ; (0 = default, 2 = stereo, 4 = quadraphonic, 5 = surround, 6 = '5.1', 7 = '6.1', 8 = '7.1', 9 = '5.1' side, ; 10 = '7.1' center l+r) ;snd_speaker_config 6 ; ------------ ; misc options ; ------------ ; enable more elaborate tracing for rain/snow impacts so it also hits more things than just terrain ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience an ; unusual slowdown with rain/snow you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_precip_trace ; enable more elaborate visibility tracing for coronas so that objects/characters also obstruct line of sight ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience an ; unusual slowdown with coronas you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_corona_trace ; enable more elaborate tracing for AI footstep sounds so it hits objects and not just terrain ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience performance ; problems you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_aifootstep_trace ; enable more elaborate tracing for AI body and suspicious obj detection so it hits objects and not just terrain, ; this will for example prevent AIs from seeing bodies through closed doors ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience performance ; problems, in missions with a larger amount of bodies, you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_aidetect_trace ; enable sun light to be affected by objects that have runtime object shadowing, in the same way that they affect ; regular light sources sun_runtime_obj_shadows ; screenshot format (default is BMP), other options are PNG or PCX (note that PNG shots will take longer ; due to the compression process) screenshot_format png ; use a date/time based numeric suffix, instead of sequential numbering, for screenshot filenames ;screenshot_timestamp ; skip CD check skip_starting_checks ddf_tex_override ; enable extended keyboard language detection to allow the game to more accurately detect supported layouts, ; it also adds support for detection of UK and French Canadian keyboards. NOTE: if the game previously failed ; to detect the layout, so it used the default English-US, the key bindings may have to be redone ;ext_kb_country_check ; ------------- ; game specific ; ------------- ; enable new mantling code new_mantle ; render particle effects attached to weapons (i.e. fire arrows before being fired) render_weapon_particles ; disable "force matching unrefs" when loading old SS2/T1 particle data so "render_weapon_particles" can handle ; rendering instead (to avoid issues like particles randomly disappearing) legacy_force_match_unrefs 0 ; enable z-buffer use when rendering the player arm/weapon, to get rid of the sword and blackjack being drawn ; on top of the hand dark_zcomp_arm ; scale bitmap based inventory icons/objects at higher screen resolutions (like body carry icon) ;scaled_inv_bitmaps ; open last viewed map page if no automap location is found for current player location dark_map_remember_last ; alternative shading of visited/current map areas ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.5 -0.2 -0.2 0.2 ; original look ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 -0.3 -0.3 1.1 1.3 1.3 0.2 ; original look with swapped colors for visited and current ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 1.3 1.3 0.2 -0.3 -0.3 1.1 ; left align map notes dark_map_lalign_notes ; use a single bind file in shock (user2.bnd is ignored) shock_single_bind_set ; use a regular save slot for quicksaves, instead of the original behaviour of simply saving to the default ; autosave/current slot. Specify 0-14 to use a regular save slot, or -1 for the default behaviour of using ; the default autosave/current slot shock_quicksave_slot 14 ; similar to above 'shock_quicksave_slot' except for autosaves (which are saved during level transfer) ;shock_autosave_slot 13 ; head bob scale factor (a value between 0 and 1), useful if the head bobbing is causing motion sickness ;bob_factor 0.3 ; weapon bob scale factor in shock (a value between 0 and 1), also useful against motion sickness ;shock_gun_bob_factor 0.2
I'm pretty sure there's one major difference. I have:
d3d_disp_enable_atoc 1
If I turn that off, I get your rendering errors. That's... hmm. Damn.
Here's the full thing, in case there's more to it:
Code:; extended config (currently loaded prior to cam.cfg) ; ; contains defaults to enable enhancements and other settings to run nicely on modern systems ; (remove/rename file to go old school) ; ------------ ; display mode ; ------------ ; enable Direct3D 9 based display system (instead of the legacy DirectX 6 one) use_d3d_display ; use a single resolution for both menu system and in-game, with normal double buffering (in fullscreen) single_display_mode 2 ; same as above but with triple buffering ;single_display_mode 3 ; alternative buffering mode that uses blitting instead of buffer flipping in fullscreen, the same method ; as windowed mode uses (vsync may sporadically miss frame starts on some systems) ;single_display_mode ; scale menu system to fit screen (in "single_display_mode") using 3D HW for best quality ; (if you're having trouble like a black screen when starting the game try mode 0 or 1) ; when "use_d3d_display" is enabled, 3D HW is always used, this only sets the scale mode to fit screen ui_scale_mode 2 ; display refresh synchronization mode (in "single_display_mode"), default is 3 which means enabled ; in-game and in menu screens. To disable synch, set mode 0. ; NOTE: certain graphics driver settings may override synch behavior of the game ; NOTE2: synch support in windowed mode with "use_d3d_display", may depend on Windows version and settings vsync_mode 0 ; for displays with really high refresh rates (like 120 Hz) the game might be running too fast, ; try following mode to make the game update every second display refresh (if supported by the card/driver) ;vsync_mode 7 ; software based framerate limiter (in "single_display_mode") framerate_cap 100.0 ; use 32-bit rendering for everything (also filters out 16-bit video modes) ; (this is automatically enabled with "use_d3d_display", which doesn't support 16-bit modes) force_32bit ; force game to run in windowed mode ;force_windowed ; for graphics cards that support it, limit buffering of GPU commands to 1 frame in menu screens, to keep ; input lag to a minimum (for older cards where this has no effect, it should also work to reduce lag by ; setting "SlowFrameUI" to a value that corresponds to the refresh rate or slightly below) d3d_disp_limit_gpu_frames 1 ; enabling limiting in-game can have a positive effect by reducing framerate unevenness, stuttering and/or ; mouse lag, at potentially some framerate loss, which may not be an issue if the framerate is high anyway ; (should probably be avoided for CrossFire/SLI type of setups) ;d3d_disp_limit_gpu_frames 1 1 ; enable scaling of in-game 2D overlay (HUD), makes the things like current item/weapon text, or SS2 ; HUD/panels, larger at resolutions of 1280x960 or higher with pixel perfect scaling (requires "use_d3d_display") ; NOTE: Enabling scaling may actually improve performance, especially at high resolutions. ;d3d_disp_scaled_2d_overlay 64 ; alternatively a fixed 2D resolution can be defined, which is aspect ratio corrected and scaled up ; to the current resolution, without enforcing pixel perfectness (ie. filtering makes it a bit less crisp) ;d3d_disp_scaled_2d_overlay 640 480 ; force scaled menu and 2D overlay graphics to always use bilinear filtering, even when scaled an even multiple ; (smoothness/fuzziness vs pixel perfectness) ;d3d_disp_force_filter_scale2d ; lock horizontal FOV to be the same in widescreen modes as in 4:3 (compensates vertical FOV instead) ;widescreen_lock_hfov ; FOV, specified for reference 4:3 aspect ratio, widescreen automatically adjusts this value ; (default is 90) ;fov 90 ; up to 8 user defined display modes, if you want some resolution that isn't supported by default ; format: <width> <height> [ <bitsPerPixel> [ <aspectX> <aspectY> ] ] ; NOTE: resolutions exceeding 2048 only work with "use_d3d_display" (because DirectX 6 doesn't support larger) ; ; 1600x768 32bpp 25:12 (skipping "32 25 12" would also work because default is 32-bit and aspect would be auto) ;user_mode1 1600 768 32 25 12 ; 2880x900 32bpp 16:5 ;user_mode2 2880 900 32 16 5 ; 6144x1536 32bpp - three 4:3 monitors at 2048x1536 each, gives an aspect ratio of 4*3:3 ;user_mode3 6144 1536 32 12 3 ; 3840x1024 32bpp - three 4:3 monitors at 1280x1024 each gives an aspect ratio of 4*3:3 ;user_mode4 3840 1536 32 12 3 ; 3200×2048 32bpp 25:16 (WQSXGA) ;user_mode5 3200 2048 32 25 16 ; enabling this option allows the UI (menus, map/objectives, readables) screens to have its own gamma setting ; useful if you get blinded everytime you open the map or read a book ;gamma_ui 0.7 ; -------------- ; movie playback ; -------------- ; display movie within the UI area instead of maximizing (only meaningful when "ui_scale_mode 1" is specified) ;scale_movie_to_ui ; crop movies to fill out widescreen displays better (does NOT work in combination with "scale_movie_to_ui") ; the original shock cutscenes are letterboxed so this works well there, for thief it's a judgement call to ; lose some of the bottom and top parts of the image in favor of covering more of the monitor (the default ; crop rect, when not supplying a custom one, is optimized for SS2 and is 0 70 640 340) ;crop_movies ; alternatively a custom crop rect (left, top, width, height) can be specified with the "crop_movies" var ; in virtual 640x480 space, meaning regardless of what resolution the movie is the crop rect is still ; specified as if the movie were 640x480 ;crop_movies 0 70 640 340 ; filter quality used during internal processing of movie, default is 4, if you have performance issues ; you can try lowering the quality ;movie_sw_scale_quality 2 ; (thief) list of movies to exclude from cropping (only used if "crop_movies" is enabled) movie_crop_exclude credits.avi+success.avi+death.avi ; (shock) list of movies to exclude from cropping (only used if "crop_movies" is enabled) ;movie_crop_exclude intro.avi+credits.avi ; gamma setting for movie playback (default is 1.0) ;gamma_movie 0.7 ; keep ffmpeg dll loaded to reduce technical issues no_unload_ffmpeg ; --------------- ; texture quality ; --------------- ; load/create all textures as 32-bit and enable other 32-bit rendering path for some other subsystems force_32bit_textures ; enable hardware mipmaps (mode 1 may be faster but may or may not be at lower quality, depends on driver/HW) ; NOTE: on less powerful machines this may cause temporary framerate drops as textures are cached in to gfx mem, ; try disabling mipmaps by removing the option or setting it to 0. mipmap_mode 2 ; mipmap generation mode for lightmaps (only used when hardware mipmaps are enabled), disabled in an attempt ; to reduce occasional light bleeding artifacts (YMMV) ; 0 disabled, 1 fastest, 2 use same method as mipmap_mode (default when no mode is explicitly set) lm_mipmap_mode 0 ; clear lightmap texture surfaces (reduces occurrences of light bleeding artifacts) lm_init_texmem 2 ; 1 pixel spacing between cached lightmaps to reduce light bleeding artifacts (requires "lm_init_texmem 2") lm_filter_margin 1 ; enable 16 sample anisotropic texture filtering (modes: 0 none, 1 linear, 2/4/8/16 anisotropic) tex_filter_mode 16 ; enable trilinear texture filtering tex_filter_trilinear ; adjust the distance factor at which lower mip maps are selected by HW (a value between -16.0 and 16.0) ;mipmap_bias -1.0 ; use linear filtering for lightmaps (not using anisotropic combined with other lm_ settings may help reduce ; light bleeding artifacts) ;lm_filter_mode 16 ; enable edge padding of alpha textures (that are no larger than 256) to get rid of purple outlines (this ; will add some extra processing while loading texture) tex_edge_padding 2 ; edge padding size can be adjusted to increase quality of lower mipmaps (larger pad size) or to reduce the ; amount of processing during load (smaller pad size) ;tex_max_edge_padding 8 ; -------------- ; render options ; -------------- ; render objects with 1-bit alpha (/chroma key) as opaque objects (alpha test support must not be disabled) ; this is not enabled by default as it may have some side effects like z-fighting on overlapping decal objects, ; but it probably fixes more than it breaks so it's enabled here alpha_test_as_opaque ; render square particles as disks square_parts_as_disks ; render pixel particles as (small) disks ;pixel_parts_as_disks ; render (new sky) stars with a resolution independent size (default always renders stars as 3x3 pixel polygons) fixed_star_size 0.5 ; increased max view distance (default is 256) so z-buffering works correctly on missions with large areas ; (individual missions may set an even larger view distance if the mission requires it) z_far 512 ; enable z-compare during level geometry rendering, this allows somewhat more optimal level geometry rendering ; (missions that weren't built with new sky support in mind, may have visual glitches in locations that have ; "impossible geometry" when this option is enabled) wr_render_zcomp ; ------------------- ; D3D9 render options ; ------------------- ; NOTE: these options can only have any effect when "use_d3d_display" is enabled ; by default it will try to use an enhanced 32-bit precision display mode, if the driver supports it, but ; there may be instances (like with integrated intel GPUs) where the driver does support it but it may not ; work correctly (such as gamma not working), this option will disable the use of enhanced precision ; (due to enhanced precision often causing trouble on Windows 10, the default here will now be to disable it) d3d_disp_no_rgb10_buf ; multisampling (anti-aliasing) level ; IMPORTANT: some integrated graphics HW may not work correctly with multisampling and you will be left with a ; black screen, if that happens disable this option again multisampletype 16 ; enable 16-bit floating point render buffer (for improved rendering and postprocessing quality, at the ; expense of video memory and performance, note that it doesn't enable actual HDR rendering) ;d3d_disp_enable_hdr ; enable 32-bit floating point render buffer (if you don't know what else to do with your memory and GPU time) ; NOTE: some driver version(s) may have a bug where running 32-bit FP also requires multisampling to be enabled ; or things can break (like a black screen) d3d_disp_enable_hdr 32 ; enable software (ie. shader) based gamma and color processing (improves quality at the expense of performance, ; and also enables in-game gamma to be applied in windowed mode) d3d_disp_sw_cc 2 ; optional saturation setting when "d3d_disp_sw_cc" is enabled, 0 is black and white, 1 is normal color ; (does not affect menu screens) ;d3d_disp_sw_cc_sat 0.25 ; optional color filter when "d3d_disp_sw_cc", RGB values are between 0 and 1, default is "1 1 1" (white) ; (does not affect menu screens) ;d3d_disp_sw_cc_rgbfilter 1 0.7 0.3 ; enable postprocessing (bloom) ;postprocess 1 ; bloom intensity factor, default is 5 bloomscale 5 ; bloom/"glow" radius defined as percentage of the screen's diagonal, default is 2 (the larger values ; require more GPU processing) bloom_range 100 ; bloom saturation, 0 completely desaturated, 1 is fully colored, default is 0.7 bloom_saturation 0.7 ; min value required (for R, G and B) in order for a pixel to be included in bloom processing, default is 0.6 ; (with a low value a lot of surfaces will glow, with a high value only the really bright surfaces will glow) ; for SS2 you might want to consider increasing this slightly, as the game is generally brighter bloom_threshold 0.7 ; enable screen distortion effects, like chipped glass or heat distortion from fire arrows d3d_disp_enable_distortionfx ; enable alpha-to-coverage functionality, for smoother edges and less aliasing on alpha tested surfaces, ; if the graphics card supports it (requires multisampling to be enabled) d3d_disp_enable_atoc 1 ; for nVidia cards that support SSAA this can be enabled instead (slightly better quality at the expense of ; performance) ;d3d_disp_enable_atoc 2 ; if "d3d_disp_enable_atoc" is enabled and the graphics card supports it you may also want to enable this to ; make the edges even smoother (WARNING: if atoc isn't supported or "tex_edge_padding" isn't enabled, enabling ; this will make things look worse) default_alphatest_ref 1 ; alpha for 2D overlay (HUD text, bitmaps), default is 1 (opaque) ;d3d_disp_2d_overlay_alpha 0.7 ; -------------- ; update timings ; -------------- ; use high resolution timers (preferable but disabled by default for best compatibility, as it may not work ; correctly on older OS versions, such as some XP systems where hi-res timer implementation uses RDTSC, which can ; result in movement speeds going crazy and more) ;use_hi_res_timer ; lock physics updates to a fixed frequency, this ensures that player movement speed is constant and framerate ; independent. not necessary if vsync is enabled, however for high refresh rates player movement would still be ; faster than originally intended, uncomment this in that case ; (vsync method is preferable) ;phys_freq 60 ; framerate cap for menu system (specified as minimum frame time in ms), reduces GPU and CPU load in menus SlowFrameUI 10 ; set minimum frame time value to 1ms to avoid speedups at high framerates, this does NOT cap the framerate ; it only sets the lower frame time limit so that if a frame is shorter than this, the engine will pretend ; that it was this long min_frame_time 1 ; cap engine update frequency to 250 Hz (specified as min updated time in ms), for a software framerate cap when ; using "single_display_mode" it's probably better to use "framerate_cap", this is just a last resort cap SlowFrame 4 ; ------------- ; sound options ; ------------- ; if EAX is enabled and sounds sound too direct when under water (the same or almost the same as above) ; then try enabling one of these (or experiment with custom values) ;submerged_sound_occlusion 0.1 0.5 0.88 ;submerged_sound_occlusion 0.3 0.1 ; force the use of UnderWater reverb/EAX environment when the player is under water ;force_underwater_reverb ; when using the OpenAL sound driver the default AL device may sometimes cause problems, in particular for ; on-board sound controllers. In those instances you can try an alternative AL device. Which other AL devices ; are available can be seen in the log file (when AL is enabled). It seems that usually the "Generic Software" ; device is available, which is a good one to try as an alternative. ;snd_oal_device Generic Software ; set a non-default speaker configuration (not all devices support this, especially with OpenAL only the ; "OpenAL Soft" (soft_oal) device driver currently supports it. ; (0 = default, 2 = stereo, 4 = quadraphonic, 5 = surround, 6 = '5.1', 7 = '6.1', 8 = '7.1', 9 = '5.1' side, ; 10 = '7.1' center l+r) ;snd_speaker_config 6 ; ------------ ; misc options ; ------------ ; enable more elaborate tracing for rain/snow impacts so it also hits more things than just terrain ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience an ; unusual slowdown with rain/snow you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_precip_trace ; enable more elaborate visibility tracing for coronas so that objects/characters also obstruct line of sight ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience an ; unusual slowdown with coronas you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_corona_trace ; enable more elaborate tracing for AI footstep sounds so it hits objects and not just terrain ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience performance ; problems you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_aifootstep_trace ; enable more elaborate tracing for AI body and suspicious obj detection so it hits objects and not just terrain, ; this will for example prevent AIs from seeing bodies through closed doors ; (the calculations are a bit more expensive, if you're running on a slow machine and experience performance ; problems, in missions with a larger amount of bodies, you could try to disable this and see if it helps) enhanced_aidetect_trace ; enable sun light to be affected by objects that have runtime object shadowing, in the same way that they affect ; regular light sources sun_runtime_obj_shadows ; screenshot format (default is BMP), other options are PNG or PCX (note that PNG shots will take longer ; due to the compression process) screenshot_format png ; use a date/time based numeric suffix, instead of sequential numbering, for screenshot filenames ;screenshot_timestamp ; skip CD check skip_starting_checks ddf_tex_override ; enable extended keyboard language detection to allow the game to more accurately detect supported layouts, ; it also adds support for detection of UK and French Canadian keyboards. NOTE: if the game previously failed ; to detect the layout, so it used the default English-US, the key bindings may have to be redone ;ext_kb_country_check ; ------------- ; game specific ; ------------- ; enable new mantling code new_mantle ; render particle effects attached to weapons (i.e. fire arrows before being fired) render_weapon_particles ; disable "force matching unrefs" when loading old SS2/T1 particle data so "render_weapon_particles" can handle ; rendering instead (to avoid issues like particles randomly disappearing) legacy_force_match_unrefs 0 ; enable z-buffer use when rendering the player arm/weapon, to get rid of the sword and blackjack being drawn ; on top of the hand dark_zcomp_arm ; scale bitmap based inventory icons/objects at higher screen resolutions (like body carry icon) ;scaled_inv_bitmaps ; open last viewed map page if no automap location is found for current player location dark_map_remember_last ; alternative shading of visited/current map areas ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 -0.2 -0.3 -0.5 -0.2 -0.2 0.2 ; original look ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 -0.3 -0.3 1.1 1.3 1.3 0.2 ; original look with swapped colors for visited and current ;dark_map_decal_scheme 1 1.3 1.3 0.2 -0.3 -0.3 1.1 ; left align map notes ;dark_map_lalign_notes ; use a single bind file in shock (user2.bnd is ignored) shock_single_bind_set ; use a regular save slot for quicksaves, instead of the original behaviour of simply saving to the default ; autosave/current slot. Specify 0-14 to use a regular save slot, or -1 for the default behaviour of using ; the default autosave/current slot shock_quicksave_slot 14 ; similar to above 'shock_quicksave_slot' except for autosaves (which are saved during level transfer) ;shock_autosave_slot 13 ; head bob scale factor (a value between 0 and 1), useful if the head bobbing is causing motion sickness ;bob_factor 0.3 ; weapon bob scale factor in shock (a value between 0 and 1), also useful against motion sickness ;shock_gun_bob_factor 0.2 d3d_disp_sw_cc wr_render_zcomp small_portal_repel use_raw_mouse_input
Confirmed that these worked for me too:
mtl file:
force_alpha_key 1
cam_ext:
d3d_disp_enable_atoc 1
(also requires multisampletype 8, or multisampletype 16 etc)
In addition to requiring the user to have certain graphics settings, and the fact that it slightly lowers the quality of the windows' alpha (not a major surprise), I will stick to using the gif textures for this scenario (unless it turns out that there is a way to fix the rendering without these two issues).
Thanks again for your advice.
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